Protect public spaces
Photo: Shawkat Jamil
We wait with bated breath to discover whether the 'Wonderland' on Gulshan Avenue will turn into the 'wonderland' that we all need - a truly public field with all land-grabbing private enterprises firmly removed. For some years in Lalmatia Block C, I saw what a public field could be. I lived one side of it and my school was the other so what with exercising myself and the street dog, I could observe with pleasure how young and old, rich and poor, enjoyed it for social and sporting activities. Numerous games of cricket could be watched and floodlighting meant that local youth could play football in the evening. We had our school sports day there. Older people, under instructions from heart doctors, exercised there vigorously early and late - much nicer than on their roofs! Then all the gates were closed and locked and the degeneration of the field began. Protests resulted in the opening of one pedestrian gate. A local cricket club were said to have taken it over. A builder dumped some stuff there. The grass grew long and was not cut and had mice in it. After I had 'shifted' north, subsequent visits revealed that parts of the field were continuously flooded and almost no one was using it. It was shameful and depressing. The efforts to re-establish land for public use are laudable but we will withhold our 'wonder' until good and honest people are appointed for the protection, care and maintenance of such a heritage on behalf of the whole population. Isn't that what public space is for?
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