The city’s walls are not canvasses for disrespect

This picture has been used for representational purpose.

This paper featured a report about the uptick we have seen during pandemic times in wall art for the city. There are definitely more walls across Mumbai, painted over, either with socially meaningful messages or simply aesthetically, to give them a facelift and hopefully make them more appealing to the public. The Cooperage Stadium wall has been painted in black 'n' white to revive the good ol' days in what was then Bombay.

We must reflect on how walls are used shoddily and with total disrespect. City walls are used as open-air toilets with men peeing against them with abandon. A number of signs ordering people to desist from this unhygienic, and criminal practice go unheeded. Then, there is the general disrepair and dilapidation that is taken for granted. How many times have we read reports of a tragedy, because of a wall collapse? Very often, is the answer, pointing to the fact that they are built out of low-grade material or, those responsible have failed to repair and strengthen them.

One talks about encroachment on footpaths, or open spaces, but we must highlight wall encroachment too. Little shops are built into public walls, using the wall as the back of the shop, with people peddling their wares from there. Hawkers take over portions of a wall too, setting up their stall against it so that it becomes inaccessible to the public.

We see hammocks tied to walls on the road with vagrants taking over that space. Finally, we have walls plastered all over with illegal banners, some of those of politicians in different self-congratulatory poses. Paan stains are another kind of wall paint we can do without. Walls are public spaces and amenities too; keep them clean, strong and accessible to all citizens.