I'm starting a campaign to bring South Bangalore's parks to their glory and I need your support. For the uninitiated, until a month ago all BBMP parks were officially* supposed to be open from 5 am to 10 pm. Then, the newly formed Bengaluru South City Corporation changed the timings for parks under its jurisdiction to 5 am to 11 am and 4 pm to 8 pm. This is a disaster. Literally one step forward and two steps backwards. I am sick and tired of living in this city without having any say in how it functions. We cannot constantly be taken for granted. Why should you care even if you don't live in South Bangalore? If people don't speak out against this, it is only a matter of time that all corporations make moves to limit the timings again. This is what I'm going to do - Begin a letter campaign. Write a letter to two people: the GBA commissioner (@GBAChiefComm) and, the Bengaluru South commissioner. Let them know that there is demand. Until now, it is only the uncles who are a noisy minority and get the rules changed to their whims. But not anymore. We need people to speak up. 100s of letters to them is bound to get attention. I am sharing the letter that I'm sending below, along with guidance at the bottom of how you can join this letter campaign. -- To, SRI MAHESHWAR RAO, CHIEF COMMISSIONER - GBA Shri Ramesh K.N, IAS, Bengaluru South City Corporation Commissioner Subject - Park timings in South Bengaluru and the rest of the city Dear commissioners, Last month in December, the newly formed Bengaluru South Corporation reverted something that most residents loved. Public parks being open during the day until late evening. The timings, which were 5 am to 10 pm, were revised to 5 am to 11 am in the morning and 4 pm to 8 pm in the evenings. I have some questions for you, and some requests. In each of these situations, please tell me what must a citizen do. - Software engineer, works from 9 am to 6 pm. Gets back home at 7 pm. Gets done with housework at 8 pm. Needs a quiet stroll in the park. - Couple with young kids. Want to enjoy the amazing Bengaluru weather on a weekend with kids. It’s 11 am on a Sunday morning. Parks are closed. - Househelp. Works a morning shift till 11 am and afternoon shift from 2 pm. Stays 10 km away from work. Needs to wait 2 hours somewhere. Empty park opposite the apartments she works at is closed. - Office employee. Likes a post-lunch walk to help with thinking. 2 pm on a Wednesday, empty park opp. office. Can’t visit because it's closed. - Uber driver. Works an 8 am to 8 pm shift. Takes 30 minutes off during the afternoon. Wants some quiet time after lunch. Parks his car opposite a beautiful park and sits in the car. Can’t sit in the park. It’s closed. - College students. Going on a first date. Don’t have money. Beautiful park 100m from where they stay. But it’s 8 pm and they will have to meet at a cafe and spend ₹500 at a cafe instead. The examples above are real examples of real tax-paying citizens who face the brunt of not having open access to their open spaces, everyday. With the new park timings, the parks in South Bengaluru are open for a mere 6 hours during the morning and 4 hours in the evening. These are timings suited to just one section of society — uncles who like their morning walk at 6 am, and evening walks before 8 pm (which is their bed time). However, I want to bring to your notice that Bengaluru does not just comprise this bland set of people. Bengaluru comprises colourful people who have different aspirations, different work timings, different preferences, different things they want to do at the park. Some want to walk, others want to sit and talk. Some want to use the open gyms, others want their children to play on the slides. ALL of these are valid reasons to go to the park, and it is the city corporations’ duty to support each of these in public parks. With this in mind, here are my (our) requests to both GBA and the Bengaluru South Corporation. They’re quite simple. Go back to the previous park timings of 5 am to 10 pm. Change the timings on the boards of the parks, otherwise guards are enforcing incorrect timings. Make sure these timings apply to all GBA parks, including lake parks. (IMAGINE shutting access to a pathway at a lake at 10 am. Who is making these rules?) Please remember, that public spaces have to be public. Otherwise they are mere showpieces. In closing, I want to share perspectives that people have shared online. These reflect the pain of the public not being allowed into their own spaces. Thank you, -- What can you do to help? 1. This is the doc link to the letter above, you can use print and use the same docs.google.com/document/d/1… 2. Send two letters by Speed Post (will cost max ₹100-150 Addresses: SRI MAHESHWAR RAO, CHIEF COMMISSIONER - GBA Hudson Circle, N.R.Square, Bengaluru, Karnataka-560002, Shri Ramesh K.N, IAS, Bengaluru South City Corporation Commissioner SOUTH CITY CORPORATION 9th Main Road, 9th Cross Road, 2nd Stage, Jayanagar, Bengaluru – 560011 3. Ask your friends to do this, RT, spread the word. I'm also creating a WA group where we can post pics of the letters and ensure we have enough strength. Link in the reply. * implementation was lax, and until people complained the guards did not comply. But that's a different problem.