The young and the aware

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What are the challenges that Mumbai faces in its quest for development? Can a balance be made without affecting our environment?" This loaded question effortlessly rolled out by a 12-year-old student when I had visited his school for an interactive session on heritage awareness, centred on my book, H for Heritage: Mumbai. It was an 8.30 am school assembly, and despite the odd yawn and the almost amusing zoned-out moments from a few that I had spotted, this young group of middle-schoolers, had all the right questions to ask.

I wasn't entirely unprepared for this age group"s focused thinking and so, was pretty aware that it wouldn't be a rainbows-and-butterflies kind of Q&A session, especially because with pre-teens and teens they speak their minds and barely hold back. I have by now had a fair bit of experience to expect missile-type questions from these sharp, aware 12- and 13-year-olds, more so, if the subject matter happens to be their home city.

I tried my best to offer an honest reply, and so, shared my views about how the city continues to pay the price for failing to get the basic facilities and needs in order, while focusing on improved infrastructure and other projects meant to improve the city. Better sanitation, empathy for middle-class issues, more jobs, safety of citizens, and affordable healthcare must come first, I added. The obvious challenges include our huge, and growing population, and the inability to offer adequate, necessary facilities to them despite being hailed as India's city of dreams. Our fragile environment, being a coastal city, bears the brunt, which is the big worry in this race towards development. The student seemed convinced but I could be wrong. Time wasn't on my side, and hence the concise answer, but soon after my Q&A session, it warmed my heart that many from the group approached me to ask about other issues-from when the many Metro Lines would become fully operational, to what steps need to be taken to keep the green cover in their neighbourhoods in check. Impressive, and also worrisome, for the powers-that-be. By the time these students become old enough to vote, our mantris and babus will have a lot to account for.

The question session took me back to a few years ago, where a senior author from the city posed a query during an event about the city's health, if writers like us should offer full disclosure to this age group while talking about the woes and ills that plague the city and its health. Both of us agreed that today's students-middle-schoolers and high-schoolers, in particular-should be told the truth, as it is. Already, and by the looks of it, many among those who make it their business to keep the city's issues close at heart, are asking pointed, probing questions.

I recall Bittu Sahgal's sage advice to a young audience at an environment conclave in Mumbai, where he encouraged them to use technology and their digitally suave mindset to Mumbai's advantage, and become custodians and caretakers of its green spaces and make local representatives accountable especially when they come seeking their votes during election time. "Remember, you have the best tools in your hands, at the click of your keypad; don't take it for granted, or misuse it. Consider yourselves very lucky compared to my generation, when we didn't have such gadgets to become alert and conscious citizens. We had resilience, of course, and I hope you have the same in this fight [to save Mumbai's under-threat environment]" he shared at the time. Going by the long round of applause and that he was bombarded by their queries at the end of that interaction, I dearly hoped that his message would have resonated and made at least some of them use it as a wake-up call to become informed, conscientious citizens of the city.

That day at the school assembly, the young student's straightforward query was a reminder of their genuine concerns of having to grow up in a tough, challenging city. Post their education, while some might move overseas, a sizeable number would probably stay on in Mumbai, and have to negotiate and navigate their way in a burgeoning metropolis that is getting increasingly unlivable, unless one belongs to a certain privileged bracket. The heartening aftermath of that interaction is that they are aware of the roadblocks ahead, or at least, are making an attempt to get to know what awaits them as soon as they have to step out into the big, bad world.

The kids are all right, clearly. Mumbai can breathe easy on that one count.

mid-day's Features Editor Fiona Fernandez relishes the city's sights, sounds, smells and stones...wherever the ink and the inclination takes her.
She tweets @bombayana
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