Parking Solutions.

          I read a few days ago, in a local newspaper, that an old non-private hospital near in Panaji might get converted into a parking-lot. Awesome, original idea I thought. My namaskar to the person who thought of it.

Also to the person who thought of building the multi-storey parking lot opposite the river Mandovi, when you turn to enter Panaji. It’s four or five storeys high. When ready, each driver will get a fantastic view of the ferries and barges, the marina and the gurudwara at Betim --and the cluster of buildings that have replaced the forest trees on the hill behind them. Let me guess, besides the six-odd hundred or more drivers who will pay by-the-hour for the facility, tourists could be charged a fee to get a ‘dekho’ from the open spaces between the floors. In future, locals could take their children and grandparents there for outings. Hawkers will sense business opportunity and set up ‘dukaans’ by spreading plastic sheets on the ground, and sell plastic toys, ‘desi’ fruits, and made-in-India bottled-water. Puncture repairers and hand-held-fan manufacturers will get employment. We need more parking lots.

          A couple of months ago I read in the same newspaper (I buy only one, that’s why) that someone requested Parrikar to release some land occupied by Defence (now that he’s in it as minister), in Bambolim, also for parking. I’m game. It’ll solve all our parking problems; I don’t see how by parking there I’ll get to 18 June Road, but I’ll figure that out once I get a slot there for my vehicle.

Parking in Panaji (it could be Mapusa which is worse, or Margao where I don’t dare venture except by public transport) is a voyage of discovery. I meditate on the health of my clutch-plate and brake-lining whilst I go around the single-car breadth lanes in first/second gear, noticing garbage-bins, cashew-selling shops, artefacts-selling shops, handicraft-selling shops, artificial-jewellery-selling shops, honeymooners and bikes.   

In Goa, everything on two wheels is a bike, usually driven like a Mig-29 on steroids, and when not in use, is precariously balanced on a stand at unusual angles to pavements/ other vehicles/ Mother Earth. Today, bikes are parked entwined, handle to rear-view-mirror, footrest to seat. Organized parking-lots will allow drivers to manoeuvre through in-between spaces, post-parking, instead of ‘adjusting’ their way out like prowling alley-cats. I do it sometimes: on my toes, stomach in, twist to one side to get by a scooter, hold purse high in air, and do the reverse to pass across another, and yet another, till I get from road to footpath or vice-versa.   

I’ve witnessed scenes like this one multiple times: a car vacates a slot; since it’s impossible to reverse in bumper-to-fender traffic, the driver who has seen it tells the wife to stand guard whilst he circles around several one-ways to come back and park there. (For gender-equation-propriety, let me hasten to add that sometimes the wife is the driver and husband the guard). Along comes an irate taxi-driver who has been going round and round trying to park somewhere, unsuccessfully. He spies the slot and wife-guard sees him simultaneously.

He: “You can’t do reservation, this your father’s place or what?” All Goans speak in English, never mind the grammar. We understand each other, that’s important.

She: “I came first.”

He: “First-shirst nothing. You can’t park this place. Where I go?” She puts hands on hips, or clasps palms together near face, looking fervently in the direction from which her car will come.

He accelerates in first gear, taxi growls threateningly.

She: silent. He: abusive. Both helpless in the face of the Parking Problem.

          I’m pleased to note that someone’s addressing the issue. I mean, there’s a limit to how uncomfortable you can make buses, how expensive you can make taxis. There has to come a time when every Goan will need to own a vehicle. The most practical thing to do, then, is to have more parking lots. Where will the place come from, you ask? Old institutions that occupy unnecessary space: hospitals, schools, training-grounds, children’s parks... why should they be near valuable commercial areas? They can and should be relocated. Schools can be housed in unused garages and hospitals in unprofitable hotels. Practical, pragmatic, that’s what I am.

          I’m surprised no one’s yet thought of having parking on the beach. No one parks vehicles very close to each other anyway, so in the shade of the cars, people can have picnics. Cheaper than renting wooden benches under faded umbrellas. And no worry about disposing any garbage generated. The tides will take care of it.

          Of course, every time a car comes out of a parking lot or enters it, it will take twenty-odd seconds. That will cause the traffic on the road to pause and many such pauses will lead to jams. Those are but side-effects. Perfection is asking for too much.

          Suppose every construction over seventy-five years is razed and the space used to raise an apartment-block, office complex or mall? With its own parking-lot. Free for owners, paid for visitors. If that happens, I’m going to invest in a slot. 

Feedback: sheelajaywant@yahoo.co.in