Vehicle-free road brims with positivity

The Equal Streets Movement brings out the best in people, and has quickly become a place where positive energy and inspiration collide. “It is very evident that everyone is enjoying themselves, and being with happy people makes me happy also,” said Tony J Stephen (26), who has gravitated here for 10 Sundays to capture the many smiling faces while honing his photography skills.
Over 16 weeks, thousands have descended onto the 6.5km stretch for more than personal gain, determined to spread good cheer.
This Sunday saw plenty of that with a handful of 13-year-old girls from Apostolic Carmel High School handing out free apple cider in exchange for smiles. “This was inspired by our school project on French food and we wanted to do something different, make people smile. We’ve gone through a 100 cups and are ready with another 100,” said Masira Sheth whose peers commanded attention on Linking Road bearing colourful posters that said, “Thank you for being who you are,” and “Turn that frown upside down.” In a similar vein, the youth wing of Sadhu Vaswani Mission, known as Bridge Builders, encouraged thankfulness among passersby by asking them to pose against a placard covered with the words “thank you” in different languages. Those in the pictures were then asked to post them on Facebook, tagging the person or organization they were grateful for. “This is part of our global thanksgiving week that is celebrated between February 18-24. Our spiritual guru believes in saying thank you to everyone and everything around us,” said Karishma Vadhwani.
As part of the movement, brought to Mumbai by NGOs, think tanks, citizens associations and cycling groups, a 6.5km loop from Bandra to Santacruz is closed to motorized traffic from 7am to 11am every Sunday. The Mumbai Police, BMC and the NGO EMBARQ are partners and the initiative—that will go on till May 31 this year—is supported by the Times of India.
The streets bore uplifting messages as well, with truisms written in chalk including, “never hesitate to do what you love,” “stop complaining, start living,” and “let the bad go, let the good be”. Alongside these were also educational messages penned by people of all ages. 10-year-old Tiana Chawla felt strongly about promoting the ills of smoking, covering a part of Linking Road with warnings like, “Kill the cigarette before it kills you”. Add to that entertaining street plays on the importance of traffic rules and the erosion of childhood by technology. “We’re trying to catch people’s attention in a fun manner using filmy anecdotes and characters like Gabbar Singh, and Chulbul Pandey,” said Rohit Tewari, the director of the play on traffic.
A newlywed couple spent the morning cycling and watching a street play, finally proclaiming their love on the streets with the words “Happily Married.” “We saw people drawing so we also got started,” said 26-year-old Charmee Ambavat. Adding, “This is our first time here but we already love this movement, as it help create an awareness of nature and as well as many other social issues.”