At a Creative Dialogue a few weeks back, I coined a new
vision for myself, “A City our Children
can Trust”. As I began thinking about it an inspiring imagery overtook my
senses and I began to articulate my vision. What is a city? It is a community
defined by a geographical boundary. It is made up of elements of governance,
private and common spaces but more importantly it is made up a people who can
feel a sense of ownership, pride, responsibility and accountability for this
space. In my vision, the city can also be a country and can also be the world
we all live in and make together.
Is it really possible for individuals to look beyond me,
myself, home, family, work and everything else that we define as my space in
our life? I realized it had become possible for me to think of such a vision.
If we define this space in the context of the children who become a part of
this space in the future, it makes up for a powerful vision of the future.
Who and what do we Trust? Why do we Trust? What comes to our
mind when we hear the word Trust? For me, Trust is like a parent’s love – firm,
rock solid, unconditional and ever-present. It immediately makes me feel loved
and cared for. It is like familiarity. It is something I can come home too. It
is a friend’s warm hug and it is a family’s sweet banter. It is where I feel I
can go to anytime and all the time. It is assurance and reassurance. It is a
space for freedom and expression.
A city our children can trust. What does that mean?
For me, it’s a space. A space where a child can walk and be
fearless. A space where a child can walk the streets and still feel secure and
protected. It is boundary-less. It is safety – physical, mental and emotional.
In every aspect of the city, a child feels love and care. The roads are clean and pollution free. There
are green spaces that live in an awesome interconnectedness with development.
There are spaces to play, to jump, to dance, to scream and to sing. A place for
freedom!
For me, its people, who are looking after the city as
something that they are care-takers of, for their children.
They are working to
make the city work for the children. They don’t own it but they take full
accountability for it. It is people for whom the city is as much important as
their own homes and they protect and care for it like their own home. There is
mutual respect and support for each other. It is people who through values of
care, support, empathy, tolerance and humility are true role models of the
innate humaneness that is us.
It is a space that engages children as equal stakeholders
and treats them as human beings who have a voice and an understanding of what
they wish to make of this city. It is space that provides for all children
without prejudice – water, food, education, healthcare. It enables children to
discover their own dreams and passion and supports them to achieve it. A city
that protects children from violence and abuse and upholds all their rights. It
is a city that understands and respects the interconnectedness and
interdependence of all universe. All creatures living in harmony.
It is a co-created space with leadership from the community
and leadership understood as a responsibility, to be treated with honour and to
be delivered with service.
A city our children can trust will be a space where we take
challenges head-on and solve them as communities where each individual is
equally important.
We know, in the current reality, we will be leaving our
children a city, a world filled with challenges. Lack of resources like water
and food. Spaces that are polluted and spaces that have eaten into the very
fabric of human empathy. It is a reality we cannot escape. We have been
irresponsible. We will be responsible for pushing our children to fight for
survival. We are sowing the seeds of resentment, deceit and violence into our
future. It looks bleak.
However, in this city our children can trust, it will not be
the maxim of “survival of the fittest” but a maxim of let’s work together to
find our solutions. Find solutions that bring us together, that create a
supportive caring community. It is a space where survival is not based on
wealth but on a shared ethos of love and care.
When a city like Bangalore runs out of water in 5 years, are
we going to have our children fight with each other and kill each other to
survive or would we like our children to respect every human being and work
together to find common innovative solutions for everyone. Can we build a sense
of resilience in our children that they will find hope in hopelessness and even
in the toughest of times, find a way to keep their innate humaneness alive.
I am reminded of this moral dilemma in Batman when the joker
has planted a bomb on two ships. One ship that has all the hardened criminals
and other that has the richest elite
from Gotham city. He gives them the ultimate challenge of human empathy. He
gives the bomb remotes to each ship for the other ship. The ship that would use
the bomb first would stay alive while killing the other. The joker’s belief was
that people will kill to survive and stay alive. A sadistic moral dilemma. The
people in both ships had their own moral arguments. The rich said, anyway the
other ship has hardened criminals, the filth of our city, killing them would
only mean we are cleansing the city. No one wants them anyway. The criminals
thought this is their opportunity to take revenge of all their hardships. This
is their time to take over. Yet, when the clock struck the people in both ships
chose not to press the trigger. They chose to appeal to their innate goodness
and decided to sacrifice their lives because their humaneness did not allow them
to kill the other.
Don’t we see that we, the humans of the present, have become
the Joker for our children. We are forcing our children to make such inhumane
choices in their future. In the name of economic resources, growth,
development, greed, justice we are already making these calls and with each
such action, forgetting our very soul of being human.
Will our children press the remote button or reach deep
inside their souls to protect, care and support each other. The survival of our
city would depend on these complex moral dilemmas. In the city our children can
trust, the foundation of dealing with such dilemmas would be the values we
impart today – not just as parents and teachers but as communities that make up
our city.
Do we have the courage to look beyond ourselves, let go of
our need to hoard and control and find our deep sense of love, care and support
to build a City that our children can truly Trust! It is in our hands today. It
will require us to unlearn everything we have known. Can we? Do we want to?
I believe we can!
