Morning walks offer more than just health and calm—they offer clarity. Streets that are chaotic by day reveal their truths in the quiet of early hours.
Walking through my Delhi neighbourhood, I notice things. Some delightful, some frustrating.
In the last few months, I’ve been seeing cars fitted with spike strips—meant to keep dogs and cats from climbing or resting on them.
Let that sink in. Cars parked on public roads, occupying most of the pavements, shaded space under trees - now come armed to keep animals away! And this isn’t new. We’ve seen spikes under flyovers, on benches, at bus stops—meant to prevent people, especially the homeless, from sitting or sleeping. So this then is just an adaptation - innovation for the worse.
It says a lot about who we are becoming—and a lot about our cities too. Places where exclusion is designed, and empathy is pushed out. Our cities, streets need to change. Not for accomodating parked steel boxes guzzling fossil fuels but for trees to give shade, people to sit, for children to walk to school, for dogs to rest and so on.
We need cities—and streets—that are kind.
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