For today’s #GreenSpacesDictionary and @mumbaismagic I am stuck in a Q.

For Q, should I use quarantine, quick or simply queue? And how do I connect it to green spaces?

I have a photograph of a place in Dongri where animals and birds brought from other countries are quarantined before they can be taken home. But I couldn’t find it on my hard drive. So I am stuck with ‘queue’. Let me stretch it, a bit.

Luckily, Mumbaikars are natural-born queue makers. It is an essential social habit for places with high population density and stressed public services. Like the Tokyokars.

People queue to enter the metro in Ghatkopar, outside and inside railways stations for tickets, buses and share autos, our ration shops have long queues, the government/municipal hospitals have the longest queues and the rich queue in traffic jams and complain the most.

What has it got to do with green spaces and the environment? 

It's because the solution for queues has a green impact. Making more public services available instead of individual services can reduce our city’s collective carbon footprint. More buses, better public systems, fewer cars and more parks that they displace in the long run and more.

Maybe the connection is slow and long but then I am stuck at Q.

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