Yellow truncated domes
Someone helped carry grocery bags so I had time to look at my steps.
Dear friends,
If I close my eyes and follow tenji blocks paved on Minh Khai Street’s sidewalks, I will soon bump against a tree or fall into an open manhole.
When I first moved to the neighborhood in early 2018, the street had only four lanes and was always choked with vehicles.
Coming back after two years of living away surprised me with a whole new vision of once Hanoi’s traffic bottleneck – 8 lanes, 1 car-only bypass connecting to a large bridge spanning over 3.5 kilometers.
Sidewalks are upgraded, too, which are now big enough for pedestrians to commute relatively comfortably. However, those having impairments are still excluded. They are rarely seen on the capital’s streets.
Tenji blocks are treated the same way as their concrete fellows – simply tiled to cover cemented grounds beneath, instead of paving the way for our co-existors.
One morning, on my way to my favorite bakery inside Times City – a high-end walled residential area lying along Minh Khai Street, an old man driving an invalid carriage, winding through a tree tunnel, came to my attention.
It was hard to imagine how he would navigate through hustle bustle traffic hassle and matrix-like tiny lanes just 100 meters outside of the residency area.
Without accessibility genuinely embedded in mind, people with disabilities are kept behind doors shut, the same way our social stigma and legal system have succeeded in keeping the number of reported child sexual abuse cases absurdly low.
Several years ago, on a Hanoi’s crispy morning, a friend told me “we will one day grow old and end up being people with disabilities”. She has lived with mobile impairments since birth.
I was thinking of myself and the fact that I had kept falling down the stairs.
With twisted, swollen ankles, I had lost count of the days I had stayed within.
Till next time,
T.
P/S: I’m so sorry for the delay. Hanoi was nice the past few days; friends were around and I was pretty much occupied by my works. Do write me some words. We all need comfort in this life.
These two weeks’ top picks
The kite building at the Vietnam Museum of Ethnology – very accessible, great exhibits.
Relevant not so relevant
Hanoi Adhoc Exhibition til Nov 26
Book club, perhaps?
And bon voyage chú Nguyễn Quí Đức!