Growing up in Shivajinagar, we never had a quiet moment near our house. The streets were always full of people and vehicles. One of our pastimes, therefore, was to cycle on Commercial Street on Sunday mornings. In the early 90s, most stores on Commercial Street stayed shut on Sundays. So in the mornings, the street was always silent and empty, allowing us children to cycle in peace. While that is my earliest memory of Commercial Street, in the recent past, I have visited Commercial Street mostly to go to Commercial Street police station. The road means police to me.
Different experiences
All of us experience cities differently, based not just on our class-caste-gender location, but also on what we do. For me, my experience of Bengaluru is largely through its streets. For the past 13 years, I have been engaged in various issues related to the streets. My fascination with streets started in 2009. I started volunteering with Hasiru Usiru, a network that was fighting the illogical road-widening plan of BBMP. That work slowly started getting me to learn about streets as commons – as a resource to be equitably shared by all.
