Lokhandwala public spaces

Lokhandwala playground and google map of area.
The brown part is the main playground

Play ground today morning 

First my apologies for missing Friday evening weekly deadline. Work takes precedence over everything else these days. So here we are on a fine Saturday morning with a hint of rain coming in any time to solve the humidity problem.

As some of you know I live in not so famous part of Lokhandwala complex in Kandivali East in Mumbai. While the Andheri one hogs the lime light for it eclectic inhabitants from art world our version has a mix of bankers, IT folks and large community of business folks (mostly from Rajasthan). Compared to other version ours is a staid upper middle-class version with a very strong traditional conservative ethos all around (Lokhand as we fondly call the complex does not have single Bar). Having lived here for last 20 years I can say this is a village with some characteristics of modern township. 

As is usually the case in suburban Mumbai, our township is also surrounded by slums and all main arterial roads to highway are through them. Each of these slums have a personality of their own emanating from concentration of ethnicity, districts, professions and tenure of stay in Mumbai. Best thing about Lokhand is that we abut the National park and this helps the area to be cooler than other part of Mumbai suburbs (some claim a difference of up to 1 degree).

I chose to write today about our complex as I wanted to share couple of treasure, we have access to as denizen of this place. Yes, most of the Mumbai suburban folks would get it right, we have large open public spaces not encroached by anyone but maintained as a garden or play ground by our often-abused BMC. The best thing about these places is that it is used equally by people living in apartment as well as in the slums. And till today no one has got into fight for access or monopolizing it. May be the abundance is the reason for it: 1 large playground, 1 large park, 4-5 small parks.

On a busy day one can see multiple Sachin clones smashing the tennis balls to boundary, some of these young players are very conscious of their copying and some so busy with joy of hitting the ball that a knicker sliding down post shot has no attention. Serious teams wearing Blue India color (never a green one here) of varying design strategize to keep the other team down and loss the game. On a weekend a tournament can make life interesting for all with live commentary over a loud speaker. Yoga clubs, talking soirees of ladies from slums & apartments, young couples walking with some display of PDA (yes quite tolerated here) and some serious marathoners pushing their way in crowd, All in all free entertainment of very good quality is always available in the playground. One can sit on a bench and observe the celebration of life.

How did Lokhand get it right with these spaces while other areas failed? Multiple reason can be attributed to the success

1.      BMC policies: By the time Lokhand was handed over to the municipality by the builder the policy regarding public spaces had taken an abrupt turn for better. The municipality abandoned the policy of inviting proposals from clubs and other institutions to maintain the open space and went back to old ways where they themselves took care of development and maintenance of the space. This ensured that every one got access to public place with no club etc.. moderating or controlling it.

2.      Local councilor, MLA and MP: We have been lucky to have very proactive elected representatives who have taken interest in developing these spaces and ensuring that budgets to maintain them are available. While they compete with each other (multiple inauguration boards exist in these places) to claim credit the alignment exists to get work done   

3.      People: Surprisingly the adherence to the rules is near cent percent with few creating problems of some severity. Adhering to norms the space becomes safe for people and this intern makes more people come to these places. Barring contracted BMC agents and a night time enforcer of sorts the place is largely left to its own. BMC staff ensures regular open and closure time which are accepted by people without much fuss.

4.      Area and activities: clear identification of activities that can be done in the marked area help keeping a sense of control, and any breaking of rules is easily countered by people as whole. The Mix of people keep trouble makers wary of doing anything stupid.

Added to all these points is a hidden hand of some genius (may be not one, but a team or a series of people) who went and planted native trees in all these places. These trees, plants are in sync with the place and shower them with beauty which is worth observing in summer months. The developer of Lokhand (the name sake builder firm) planted Gulmohur (not an India native)  along side the road, and these tree start flowering at start of summer creating a ring of fire effect by their red flowers all around the play area contours.

So if you live in Lokhand please be assured of safe open spaces. I am one of those lucky people of Mumbai who does not face another building in front of window but a huge play ground which has possibilities to becoming better with each passing year. Yes dust is problem with all kids playing 16 hours at times, but then one does not get everything in Mumbai.

Here are some photographs for your persual.