Footpath

Footpaths are possibly one of the most democratic spaces in an urban set-up. Rich or poor, fair or dark or anything in between or otherwise, all walk the same piece of land paid for by the general public. In fact, some times even the Gods have to share the same space and experience what some of the mortals do.

For anyone who likes to walk, footpaths are an integral part of the whole experience. Having been born and brought up in Calcutta, I have always seen and known footpaths as not just a space for walking but also a space where you make a living (often as a permanent set up with makeshift materials), sleep at night, take a bath every morning, wash your clothes, get a hair cut, have your morning, afternoon and evening teas, have your breakfast, lunch and dinner, buy new clothes and jewellery and so much more.

In Calcutta, even though there are several hawkers on the footpaths at several places, a lot of people still use it as much as possible, probably because footpaths have always been there even on the narrowest of lanes and streets. But when I came to Delhi, for the first time, I actually felt the lack of footpaths. Walking in Delhi, especially during the few days of monsoon, has always been an uncomfortable experience. There has been times when I have been splashed by a speeding car while walking on the side of the road and had to navigate potholed and waterlogged lanes and streets.

Specifically in Delhi, footpaths are at most places, non existent with cars parked on at least one side of the road, If not both. There are a lot of instances where one can find automobiles, even trucks, getting on to the footpaths whenever there is a traffic jam.

Sketches from Delhi

In Calcutta, most of the footpaths with hawkers still have some space for people to walk whereas in Delhi, more often than not if there is a footpath and there is a hawker on it then there is no more space left between the kerb and the other end.

Growing up in Calcutta, I have always loved eating out on the streets. Most of the times it would be delicious and always very easy on your wallet. Anywhere you go in Calcutta you will always find something to eat just round the corner. Street food or a roadside eateries have always been a very important part of people’s lives there possibly because of the incomes being comparatively low and also the culture of adda (hanging out with friends and family in the evening after work or school/college). Here in Delhi I often miss that ease of finding reasonably priced decent food at a walking distance. Calcutta has been a melting pot of cultures and ethnicities since long before a lot of other big Indian cities. Thus, it has always had a huge migrant population sweating it out through the day having their meals and snacks on the road.

These roadside shops/stalls are made of all kinds of materials: steel, wood, tin, bamboo, plastic, brick, mud and so on. With time a lot of these stalls seem to be replacing their wood and tin structures with pre-fabricated structures in steel. This is obviously more visible in Delhi than in Kolkata. I do not know if some of these people consciously choose the colours for their shops or whatever is cheaply and easily available. In Hyderabad I saw one chat vendor whose stall was painted in colours, I felt, were very similar to colours seen in South Indian temples.

In a country like India with large scale poverty and lack of education it is important that people have the scope and ease to set up their own thing especially on the footpaths. A lot of these people surely can’t afford to pay rent. I just hope the governments regulate these activities better so that there is some semblance of balance in the public spaces occupied by these hawkers and the space required for the other activities that these spaces are meant for.

Sketches from Kolkata

This is an ongoing project and I will be refining my textual as well as my visual documentation. Currently, I have only been able to draw some shops from Delhi and Kolkata but I will be drawing some from Mumbai and Hyderabad as well soon. With time I hope to draw many more from as many cities and towns as possible.

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