The Green Lung's Echo!

On the last Sunday, I got up early than usual on the day and went to Lalbagh for the protest march organized under the name “Walk in Lalbagh, Walk for Lalbagh”. While I had seen the debate on the tunnel road and amendments to the law about parkland, the experience itself turned out to be much more powerful than mere information. There were people all around us.

Families, students, walkers, environment activists, Bengaluru residents – everyone had come here for the same reason: they cared about Lalbagh. The first thing I did was to write a letter to our Chief Minister D. K. Shivakumarji. And I also signed the board that other people were signing. It may seem insignificant – to sign your name or write your views on a piece of paper – but there is something powerful in it. It’s as if you add your voice to something bigger.

And we started walking from the West Gate to Lalbagh Kempegodwa Tower, the slogans around grew louder and I joined them. Walking along with hundreds and hundreds of people who repeated the same slogan and defended the same place turned out to be quite a powerful feeling.

I would never claim to suddenly turn into an environmental activist in that very moment, but I did begin to understand that sometimes people take certain things for granted until they really appreciate those things.

Lalbagh is just there. It has always been there and will continue to be there for all of us who have spent time walking around it, taking pictures, complaining about Bengaluru traffic and then going on with our daily lives. But the fact of seeing so many people willing to get up so early on a Sunday morning, just to walk around it and fight for it made me understand that we sometimes only understand the value of things when we are afraid of losing a piece of it.

The demonstration was a noisy, energetic, somewhat overwhelming experience. However, under all the slogans and posters lied something very simple: people needed to be heard. I cannot predict what decisions will be made concerning the development of Bengaluru in the future. At the same time, I know that development and environmental protection is a complex dialogue, and there are no answers.

But that morning, amidst Lalbagh, with slogans echoing around me, I realized something. It reminded me of the fact that even children are capable of attending, speaking out, and caring for the very places that mold our cities into what they are. And for their very own future they should be part of the movement which loudly says - "Hasire Husiru"; "Kodala Kodala Parkgallanu Kodalla"; and "Hemme Hemme Lalgabh Bande Namma Hemme"