Keep Left

I believe in each country there are basic rules on traffic, in India one has to 'Keep Left' while in public places viz., Roads, Streets, Pavements, Footpaths, Staircases, Railway Platforms, Foot-Over-Bridges etc. it does not matter if you are on foot, on unicycle, on bicycle, on horse, on camel, on motorbike, on auto rickshaw, on car, on bus.

I learnt this very early at school, got reinforcements at home from parents, got practical demonstration by acquaintances who like to take me out to cities. I have been practicing this in villages and small towns where I grew up. Considering that every one has learnt this during childhood, I wonder why it is not followed. Do we not believe in it? Or is it not necessary to follow what we learnt? Or we forgot? Or is the assumption wrong that all Indians are aware of this? Or we do not care at all.

I think it is about the challenges which the citizens face to adhere to ‘Keep Left’ policy, I am sharing a few challenges which I have experienced.

Hawker Infestation: It is difficult to walk on the hawker infested pavements as they walk along with you till you make it clear that you are not interested in their wares. While doing this we end up creating confusion on the pavement as we change our pace of walking and also we change the track from left to right and pedestrians walking on opposite direction are forced to change their track as well adjust to the change in pace, this opens up to a chain of events on the pavement adding hardship to senior citizens and physically challenged citizens walking on the pavement.

Abuse of Footpaths: It is a miracle to maintain a static width footpath from beginning till end. The width of footpath is dynamic as a result of the frequent digging up by utility companies for maintenance and conveniently ignoring to restore the footpath to its original size and shape. The other two factors are shop keepers encroachment; and garbage dumped on the footpath.

There are a lot of other minor factors which add up to hardships of walking normally on footpaths, I kindly request you all to leave your comments, observations and ideas to make walking on footpaths a safe and pleasant experience.