Cars are not my happy place. Yet, for over two years, I wrote a road column for The Hindu.
A road is more than an enabler of motor transport. It is public space. It is a place of pathos, of beauty. It is also the venue of a dozen contestations of power – who gets to stand where, talk how loudly and to how many people, and who is frightened off the road.
On Holi this year, I had a strange experience. Actually, a commonplace experience but it felt strange because I had forgotten what it's like to be followed, , in Mumbai and in broad daylight, and to struggle against unwanted male attention.
I stepped out in the evening after Holi celebrations were over, to buy groceries. A sleek, expensive-looking black car slowed down.
Read the whole column here: https://www.thehindu.com/life-and-style/motoring/the-road-is-more-than-an-enabler-of-motor-transport-it-is-also-a-place-of-pathos-and-of-beauty/article26990977.ece
My view was that of a citizen who uses the road, sometimes as motorist, sometimes as pedestrian and sometimes as a person dependent on public transport. This was the last column of the series:
A road is more than an enabler of motor transport. It is public space. It is a place of pathos, of beauty. It is also the venue of a dozen contestations of power – who gets to stand where, talk how loudly and to how many people, and who is frightened off the road.
On Holi this year, I had a strange experience. Actually, a commonplace experience but it felt strange because I had forgotten what it's like to be followed, , in Mumbai and in broad daylight, and to struggle against unwanted male attention.
I stepped out in the evening after Holi celebrations were over, to buy groceries. A sleek, expensive-looking black car slowed down.
Read the whole column here: https://www.thehindu.com/life-and-style/motoring/the-road-is-more-than-an-enabler-of-motor-transport-it-is-also-a-place-of-pathos-and-of-beauty/article26990977.ece
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