PASSAGE 6 |8 Mark
In Indian homes, the floor of the house is always the best maintained element, cleaned twice a day and wiped down to a sparkling state. In front of the threshold of the home the floor often is decorated with Rangoli and diagrams. other ritua This is true in rural as well as in many urban homes in metropolitan cities. When building people spend a new home,
this pride and
as
obsession
much money
for
per square foot for a beautiful floor as they would spend on the entire structure. Yet, a clean floor suddenly vanish as we step out into the street: the floor of the city. In Delhi, where 80 percent of the people are pedestrians in some stage of their commuting, least attention is paid pedestrian to paths. elhi's sidewalks are too narrow, very poorly maintained and full of boxes potholes, poles, junction and dangerous electrical installations, not to speak of the garbage dumps that stink and stare at the Ashram Chowk pedestrian. is a good case in point where thousands of pedestrians change direction from the Mathura Road radial to the Ring Road. A flyover facilitates the automobiles while the pedestrian is orphaned by the investment-hungry authorities. One corner of Ashram Chowk has a ridiculous imitation wood sculpture with an apology ot a fountain, and across the same chowk, you have the open mouthed, massive garbage dump right on the pedestrian path, in full exhibition for the benefit of the public. These symbols of poor taste and abject apathy are then connected by narrow, dangerous and often waterlogged footpaths for the hapless pedestrians to negotiate. In the night, street lighting in the central median lights up the carriageway for cars and leaves the pedestrian areas in darkness.
Delhi's citizens leave home and want to get to their destination as fast as they can. No one wants to linger on the road; no leisure walks; no one looks a stranger in the eye. It is on the pedestrian path that the citizen encounters head-on the poor public management and the excuse called 'multiplicity of authorities. One agency makes the road, another digs it up to lay cables, a third one comes after months to clear up the mess and the cycle of unaccountability goes on. Meanwhile crores are spent in repairing the carriageway for vehicles and in construction of flyovers without a care for the pedestrians below. The solution offered is to make an expensive underpass or an ugly foot over bridge, ostensibly for facilitating the pedestrian, while in reality it only facilitates the cars to move faster at the expense of the pedestrians. Take Kashmiri Gate, ITO, Ashram Chowk, AIIMS or Dhaula Kuan. At all these important pedestrian cross-over points the story is the same: they have pulled the sidewalk from under the pedestrians' feet.
In modern cities across the world, the pedestrian is king. The floor of the city is designed and maintained as an inclusive environment, helping the physically challenged, the old and the infirm, children and the ordinary citizen to move joyfully across the city. Delhi aspires to be a 'world class city. Hopefully the authorities would look once
again at the floor of Delhi. The pleasure of strolling on the sidewalks is deeply connected to our sense of citizenship and sense of belonging. Pride in the city grows only on a well designed floor of the city.
QUESTIONS
2On the basis of your reading of the above passage make notes on it using headings and sub-headings.
Use recognisable abbreviations wherever necessary. Supply an appropriate title to it.
(4)
(4)
wite a summary of the above passage in 80-100 words.
Answers
Answer:
In Indian homes, the floor of the house is always the best maintained element, cleaned twice a day and wiped down to a sparkling state. In front of the threshold of the home the floor often is decorated with Rangoli and diagrams. other ritua This is true in rural as well as in many urban homes in metropolitan cities. When building people spend a new home,
this pride and
as
obsession
much money
for
per square foot for a beautiful floor as they would spend on the entire structure. Yet, a clean floor suddenly vanish as we step out into the street: the floor of the city. In Delhi, where 80 percent of the people are pedestrians in some stage of their commuting, least attention is paid pedestrian to paths. elhi's sidewalks are too narrow, very poorly maintained and full of boxes potholes, poles, junction and dangerous electrical installations, not to speak of the garbage dumps that stink and stare at the Ashram Chowk pedestrian. is a good case in point where thousands of pedestrians change direction from the Mathura Road radial to the Ring Road. A flyover facilitates the automobiles while the pedestrian is orphaned by the investment-hungry authorities. One corner of Ashram Chowk has a ridiculous imitation wood sculpture with an apology ot a fountain, and across the same chowk, you have the open mouthed, massive garbage dump right on the pedestrian path, in full exhibition for the benefit of the public. These symbols of poor taste and abject apathy are then connected by narrow, dangerous and often waterlogged footpaths for the hapless pedestrians to negotiate. In the night, street lighting in the central median lights up the carriageway for cars and leaves the pedestrian areas in darkness.