Beauty at ground level

Manit Rastogi, managing director, Morphogenesis wants nullahs in Delhi to become scenic walkways.

There are many things one can do with one’s free time: sleep, drink (and lovingly nurse a hangover), party, collect stamps, navel gaze, stare at the ceiling and so on. Most of us usually are happy to do the first three in that list and see that as an entitlement, a reward for working hard. Then, there are a handful of people like Manit Rastogi, managing director of Morphogenesis, a leading architecture firm, who not only parties and works hard but is equally committed to bringing change to our cities. Rastogi recently set up delhinullah.org, a working group to revitalise the nullahs of Delhi. Says Rastogi, “Today, my time is divided equally between Morphogenesis, Sushant School of Architecture and on revitalising the nullahs.”

Nullahs in Delhi caught Rastogi’s attention not just because he is a trained architect but when he realised that it was becoming impossible to walk anywhere in Delhi any longer. Says Rastogi, “Delhi has become a city of only roads for motorists and of boundary walls. How does one engage with a city if one doesn’t walk around? The only pavements that are now there are in the NDMC area. I find it ludicrous that I have to take my car if I want to go for a walk in a park.” This frustration, of the capital choking with traffic and thereby becoming unlivable, was channelised by Rastogi to start a movement to clean up the nullahs of Delhi.

Why nullahs? “In my endeavour to make the city a better place, I could have adopted a park, but that would not have solved the basic problem of what is wrong with the city. By reviving the nullahs, which run through the length and breadth of the city, it will solve several of this city’s problems. It will increase walkability, which makes a city much more democratic”, says Rastogi. He adds, “Nullahs are also free from the land mafia. Basically, this was a space that nobody wanted for commercial exploitation.”

Rastogi, using a core team at Morphogenesis, did a detailed study, looked at examples in other parts of the world which validates the benefits of reviving nullahs, and finally was ready with a workable plan to present to the authorities. Which is when Rastogi faced the first real roadblock. He says with a wry smile, “The way the administration of the city of Delhi is structured, it took us six months to even identify as to who one should approach with the plan.” He shows a chart, part of his presentation, which tries to make sense of who actually is in charge of Delhi.

Once Rastogi painstakingly unravelled the complex web of governance, he has spent his time lobbying with every arm of the government. He says of the effort, “I have often wondered that if a common man wants to raise his voice against anything, where does he go? We have so far spent, not taking into account the cost of my time, almost Rs 18 lakh on this. An ordinary person will not have access to this kind of resources just to raise his voice.” Rastogi has, therefore, decided that the entire process of making the project possible will be documented and then put out in the public domain.

Rastogi says that his maximum time has been spent in advocacy. He says, “Intelligent advocacy has been a key part of this campaign, which is good. Advocacy has been missing from the city.”

As an extremely successful professional, why did Rastogi decide to engage in the frustrating process of making an uninterested government listen and do something worthwhile for the citizens of this country? His answer is simple: “The best brains in India work for the top 1 per cent of this country. Personally, I don’t want to just sit on the sidelines anymore.” Rastogi continues, “As for work, we at Morphogenesis don’t want to build bigger business but better business. We don’t want to do all the business, but we want to set benchmarks.”

Will this dream of turning nullahs into beautiful walkways turn into reality? Rastogi is optimistic and says, “The answer to that would be yes. Had we tried to do this five years ago, we couldn’t have made it work. And five years later, it would be too late. Now is the perfect time.” Rastogi says that whoever he has met in the government so far has been enthusiastic about the idea. The roadblock is the system. He says, “If a city is planning to do something, it should be put up in a town hall kind of process which doesn’t happen here. The lack of transparency stops people from engaging. And our councillors/MLAs/MPs are too inaccessible and unaccountable.”

Not that any of this is fazing Rastogi in the least bit. He already has plans to take this idea to other cities. He says, “All our cities suffer from exactly the same problems. If we can make Delhi more friendly for pedestrians, we can do it in other cities as well.” With that Rastogi is off to yet another appointment that he must keep, to make our representatives listen. With Rastogi’s passion and strong people skills, it’s difficult not to listen to what he has to say.