DONKEY CARTS, CARS, BULLOCKS, AND TRUCKS

The hee-haws of donkeys braying colliding with the bellows of the bulls, the clinking of bicycles, honking of trucks, cars and rickshaws, the churning engines and brawls of angry drivers amounting to painfully, unmelodious noise pollution. The pedestrians and hawkers, warring with the vehicular traffic, dangerously close to ramming into an unsurprising accident. That’s what I refer to as a traffic jam!

The bottlenecked traffic is not just an unpleasant concoction of vehicles, animals, and pedestrians, but a never-ending battle amidst the narrow alleyways, sprawling gracelessly under live electrical wires, hoardings, and awnings!

IMAGINE AUTO-TOPIA

The ancient Walled City of Lahore dates back to when automobiles did not exist. A city designed for horse carriages and pedestrians is now a hotbed for heavy vehicular traffic. I often wonder what an auto-topia, designed in the Walled City of Lahore, looks like.

Smart-parking systems, automatic and underground robotic parking solutions, flyovers that slice the horizon like a hot knife in butter, and motorbikes seated on Ferris wheels. The donkeys and bulls now rendered unemployed while flying vehicles replace the chirping pigeons. Is this the auto-topia of the Walled City?

THE MOVING CITY

Or is an auto-topia for the Walled City unnecessary to imagine? It is not too late in the future when cities begin to move, mounted tall over slithering octopus-like appendages, creeping across the ground, and floating about the skies.

FLOATING AND TRANSPORTING

I, however, imagine an experience strolling amidst the streets of the Walled City, under a sky lined with fairy lights and sparkling stars emerging victorious from the air pollution. The only audible sounds are of women bargaining over a piece of embroidered fabric in the night market, men tattling the latest scandal, azan (call of prayer) from the mosque, and the musical chirping of birds.

I imagine a magical world within, where the visual and audio clutter of vehicular traffic didn’t dim the ardor of Old Lahore.

Car and carts alike are parked around the invisible periphery of the Walled City, while a floating system of public transport carries the people, commodities and goods alike.