Archives - Question of Cities

People show the media what words and languages to use

The local impacts, descriptions, and knowledge of climate change rarely make it to the national or global climate discussions. Question of Cities talks to multi-lingual journalists to understand how to decode it all. Doing away with technical words and understanding…

Mumbai’s BEST is being killed, political will to revive it is absent

Should the city have robust, reliable and affordable public bus transport or not is the question facing the Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation and the Maharashtra government. The approximately 3.3 million commuters of BEST buses would vote a resounding yes, if they…

The BEST Museum as Mumbai’s memoir – and more

A well-curated transport museum is a significant historical documentation and the story of a city. How ironic then that the BEST Museum which narrates the story of one of the most enduring and moving icons of Mumbai has been tucked…

Shab-Parak: Night fliers of Delhi bus that’s a community

As India’s national capital sleeps, night buses keep the city connected and their commuters find the true meaning of accessible and affordable public transport. Shab-Parak, a short film which won the silver at the Nagari 2024 awards, captures the story…

‘BEST is a municipal responsibility, it’s stupid to
think of profit-loss’

The cash-strapped Brihanmumbai Electric Supply and Transport (BEST), still the most reliable mode of transport, is going through a rough patch with reduced fleet, struggling employees, part-privatisation and more. It is not a lost cause, though. Academic researcher and activist…

Guwahati’s buses a lifeline but unequal, tedious, sometimes unsafe

Despite a good ridership, Guwahati’s bus system puts commuters through inconveniences such as unscheduled stops, delays by drivers and conductors, overcrowding and coarse language that women dread. It is facing a crisis of capacity and reliability as the modal share…

When childhood is scarred by shelling and play is perilous

When sirens blare, homes are blacked out, drones and war planes hover in the skies above, and shelling punctures the peace of the night, as it happened with the India-Pakistan war this May, among other fallout is the setback to…

How children co-created 250 metres of happiness around schools

What started out as a project in one Delhi school to make the area safer for children and meaningful for the community, with children co-designing and reimagining it, has spread to ten schools, touching thousands of young ones. Making children…

Want to invent leisure from leftovers? Laggere shows the way

Pushed into congested homes in the city’s margins, the children of the resettlement colony in Bengaluru’s Laggere have evolved their own ways to play. Narrow streets are play spaces, play is crafted from waste, and toys bought with borrowed coins…

‘In India, play is a luxury…parents and teachers should understand its importance’

As cities expand, the number of open spaces and in-between spaces for play are shrinking. Playgrounds and gardens are an afterthought. Mumbai has seen creative ways to resist the erasure of spontaneous play emerge despite the incessant construction, congestion, and…