Parks or Parking Areas??

 -by Malvi

The other day coming back from office in the evening I saw few kids playing in between the cars parked in the common space in front of our apartment in the DDA Society in which I live these days.

I called out to one of kids, my neighbour’s daughter, and asked her “why are you guys playing in the parking?? go to park you will have more space there..”

Her answer really sent me thinking. She said,” there is no park nearby, we play in this space between the cars or ride bicycles on the roads we don’t need much space.”

But is this right?? In my childhood I used to play my heart out in the big garden we had in our house or the huge open common playground of the society. I used to love the feel of the wind in my hair as I ran on the green grass and the leisurely after-dinner walks with my mom and dad.

But now, I realise that ‘shrinking parks and expanding parking areas’ have become a usual site to see in residential colonies of Delhi. With a four wheeler becoming a necessity for every middleclass household in Metro cities (may be even in tier I & Tier II cities) in the country the vehicular traffic seems to be rising faster than the human population.

 I live in a DDA residential society in Delhi which was built in the 80s and the architects in those times could not have envisaged the surge in four wheeler population in the next two decades. Thus, the garages provided with each apartment are for scooters and motorcycles only. With at least one car in each house today, the small parks and covered drains on roadsides are now being used as parking spaces. 

The small parks between every unit of apartments had been provided for children's recreation, walking and relaxing for adults. But now these small green patches (parks) are vanishing day by day to give way for parking of the four wheelers.

Even with visible crunch of parking space, car-crazy Indians don't stop at one vehicle per house. Look at me for example…buying a car was a top priority on my list and I feel like king once am behind the steering wheel of a four wheeler.

But this not a laughing matter!

Do I want my child to grow up playing between cars and running in the midst of a concrete jungle with no contact with the nature??

Stacker parking
Courtesy: carpakinglifts.in

While surfing on the net I came across a nice idea to save the fast diminishing free spaces in our colonies, that of a car stacker. It’s like double decker stacker with a hydraulic lift and two cars can be parked one on top of the other… so two cars in space of one.

This is my solution to this problem can you suggest some more solutions??