The other day I was leafing through a few books which had wonderful sketches and photographs depicting a vibrant life inside organically grown cities. Narrow lanes, busy retail activity at the street level, claustrophobic residential quarters. On top - birds sitting on clotheslines. And more drawings of grand buildings, temples, mosques, churches. A variety of silhouettes making a city out of them.

Immediately my mind went on to the national holiday ceremonies, every building worthy of note would be lit with lights, as part of the celebratory routine. Ordinary citizens would walk through or drive past lighted monuments, feeling they are in a different atmosphere, feeling happier as this feeling lingers on...

Cities have an effect on citizens. They wrap their walls around them highlighted with modern illuminations. They thrust their monuments into the air proclaiming their superiority.

Getting into the actual matrix of a city, starting from the wide streets bearing buildings of a monumental scale, we are lost from the glamour of the show. One of my fondest memory as a child is playing "seven tiles " in the streets. Two teams of equal number would take turns in breaking a pile of stones and other would try to restore them before they are hit by the other team. Other indigenous games included hide and seek, hopscotch, chain-chain, etc.

PLAYMATES, TIME and SPACE were plenty

Alas! None is true today; we are in a congested environment. Where lanes are free only to meander through concrete lumps.

BUT WHY? Why aren't children going out to play? To begin with, where do they have place to play? The question needs a thought. Open spaces are now encroached, people start coming in slowly or the spaces are littered and turned into garbage dumps. Or unlawful activities are carried out in full swing, to which the public turn a blind eye. Open spaces are also piled up with tin sheets creating a slum. A very bad symptom of a depleting city.

Where do we stand in the process which takes the place of our living into destruction, devastation and pollution? Will we finally erase ourselves from the face of the earth? Are we doing something for the betterment of the living? Are we building a breathable atmosphere for our kids? We need to react faster than we can think.

Maybe the cities now need to construct a tower in which citizens can meet to sharpen their visual perceptions of where they live and where they want to go - architects and planners alone cannot shape habitats. It must involve the ordinary people. The first step would be to look outside ourselves and create a more integrated image of the environment in which we live in.