The Joggers' Park of Nagpur
Dr. Tejinder Singh Rawal
tsrawal@gmail.com
Everyone who takes a walk down the Walkers' Street would agree with me that the place is very addictive. I am a regular evening walker, and ever since I started strolling at Walkers' Street, I have tried not to miss a single day. There is something about the place that brings the people back. I have met people there who have been walking every morning, or every evening, or some enthusiastic ones, every morning and evening, and they are willing to swear that they will continue to do so as long as they can.
For the uninitiated, Walkers Street ( of simply, Walkers' if you belong to Gen X) is about one km road with Chief Minister's Residence Ramgiri on one end, and Police Gymkhana on the other. Officers' Club and Air Command House are some of the landmarks in the middle of the road. Nobody knows who christened it the Walkers' Street and when did it acquire this fancy name. It is the most preferred choice of walkers in Nagpur, and is our own version of Joggers' Park and Walkers' Paradise. The Walkers' even has an Orkut group dedicated to it, with a formidable strength of 908 members!
While most people do a to and fro walking between Ramgiri and Police Gymkhana, there are many who would not stop at the Police Gymkhana end, and would go on till Ladies' Club, before returning to the Walkers' Street again. Some people like to just make their attendance recorded with the fellow walkers at the Road, and having completed a single lap move out to other parts of Civil Lines, but most of those who do that, usually come back to the Walkers' again, to end their walk, as if to record their exit, the way they recorded their entry!
For the people who walk regularly, it has become kind of a meeting venue, kind of a club, with zero membership fee. Go there at any time of the day, and you are bound to find people rambling there. I have noticed people enjoying their stroll at all hours of the day, the road gets the first band of visitors before sunrise, and the hustle and bustle goes on till late in the night. One old man shared with me how eagerly he waits for the sun to rise, so that he could be on his walk again. There is a friend who has been walking there in the afternoon, at 4 PM, and he would do so in all seasons, including Nagpur's well known summers too!
Age is no bar at Walkers' Road. The youngest 'walker' these days is a month old child who is carried with so much love in a pram by its parents. There are people in their seventies and eighties having a fun time at their evening walk. It is fun to watch an old loving couple carrying a dog that looks as old as the masters, and plays a constant hide and seek with the masters. Then there are teenagers, for many of them, Walkers' is a great dating place. Some of them would even try to find a dark corner of the road as a hideout, but these days , with policewallahs patrolling every nook and corner of the road, they are likely to be disappointed. The policewallahs keep a watchful eyes on young people of opposite sex seeking privacy in the darker parts of the walkers', they would not mind if the crowd is of the people of the same sex. Apparently, Section 377 has not yet been invoked at the walkers'!.
It is a fun to watch people walk. For some people it is a leisurely walk, as if they are walking down the Company garden. Some would stride while some would stroll. Some would ramble, while some would march. A few would walk with a kind of a saunter as if they hadn't a care in the world. A gentleman walks as it he is a part of the Republic Day parade, while a lady seems to be perambulating her chosen path. A couple of men would walk backwards; perhaps this helps them develop their hindsight. An elderly gentleman is seen schlepping along with his daughter. A few teenagers jog like synchronised swimmers, their footfalls creates the sound of galloping of horses. One stroller walks, as if his wife has made it compulsory for him, much to his displeasure, and he would spend an hour at the Walkers' without any meaningful walk and go back home. Then there are walkers, who would make idiotic gestures while walking, and you would think that they are talking to themselves, until you realise that it is the cell phone in their pocket with an ear phone that needs to be blamed for their crazy behaviour. And there are college students who would pay regular attendance to the Walkers' , not on foot but on their bikes and in their cars, perhaps plying music at the top volume is what keeps them fit, and they would steal their way to the road in spite of the police barriers at both ends of the roads.
Walkers' is great fun. It is interesting how a road slowly evolved itself to become the walkers' paradise. American author Hal Borland was perhaps thinking of a walking area much like Nagpur's Walker's Street when he wrote, " All walking is discovery. On foot we take the time to see things whole."
