Anagha Speaks

Ganesh utsav is just over and streets are in the process of regaining the sanity (?) that they had prior to the festival in Pune. Last week, everyone (that is, every middle class person who drives a car), was talking about the inconvenience of the streets - the large pandals, the distracting banners and generally an atmosphere where groups of people were together on the streets. The result was obviously, traffic jams, delayed travel times and generally high level of frustration! Despite tha above, I cctually feel that the ability of Indian cities to 'multi' use its streets is amazing. The conversion of streetscapes from plain to festive, overnight, is something that amazes most people abroad. The informality of the use of our streets, or their 'adaptability', is something most cities in the West try and fail, while we have it here in our Indian cities. Of course, you will argue that conversion of streets is fun, but what about the traffic jams! But I will counter arg...

About two weeks back, a collaborative workshop was conducted between the students of M.Arch Environmental Architecture, Dr B N College of Architecture and post graduate students of Dept of Architecture, Royal University of Fine Arts, Sweden. The idea was to brainstorm on Sustainability Planning measures that can be undertaken for a pilot study area in Pune. The area selected was the J M Road and Narayan Peth stretch on either side of the river Mutha, capturing the commercial newer face of Pune at J M Road and the old, heritage laden character of Pune at Narayan Peth. The experience was amazing! The exchange of ideas between students of the two countries was great to observe. While Indian students tended to be more realistic and grounded while thinking of proposals, Swedish students opened up a whole basket of options and opportunities for the area. The mix of the two was the outcome, thereby bringing many new and exciting dimensions to Sustainability planning for the pilot area in Pune...