India, May 24 -- As part of my daily routine, I set out for my evening walk in the neighbourhood park, barely five minutes from my home. My journey to the park is more of an obstacle walk that keeps me mentally agile as I navigate the constant flow of traffic and encroachments on the way. The park has a well-maintained circular track, but sadly, there is no pavement in the residential area to reach it. The moment I step out of my gate, I am thrust into a busy lane where a vehicle brushes past every few seconds. There is no footpath to retreat to. The public space that once belonged to pedestrians has been swallowed by an undeclared, chaotic car park. In the good old days, there were fewer cars, not more than one car per family, all safely parked inside the house gate. Most of us moved our gates a few feet outward onto public land to accommodate four-wheelers inside. Over the years, the number of automobiles has multiplied. Today, not only do the gates sit many feet beyond the original boundary walls, but cars are also simply left on the street, creating congestion. The congestion becomes more acute as the lanes become narrower where public land has been "reclaimed" as private lawns-some manicured, others unkempt, but all illegal. Fences and boundary walls stand defiantly beyond the approved building lines, leaving no room for pedestrians to walk. I recall our own lapse three decades ago. Before moving in, we planted four eucalyptus trees in front of our house at the very edge of the road. Thankfully, good sense prevailed, and we removed them before they became part of the problem. Missing and broken pavements are a reality not confined just to residential areas; they are a civic epidemic. From local lanes to bustling markets, the pedestrian path is being gobbled up. Footpaths disappear as shopkeepers use the verandah as an extended display window and hawkers occupy pavements as their shop floor. We are all bearing the brunt of this illegal occupation. Our lanes look chaotic and our traffic flow is disrupted, yet nobody will budge. The status quo remains because of a stubborn collective psychology: "If my neighbour does it, why can't I?" In this deep-seated culture of entitlement, no one is likely to take the initiative voluntarily. Change will only come when the administration takes firm, uniform action. We have seen resistance to the ongoing anti-encroachment drive in Mohali following a high court directive, but that pushback is the price of progress. Restoring our public spaces is not an act of aggression-it is an act of restoration. It is about making our lanes wider and less chaotic, our traffic smoother, and our cities walkable again. After all, the street belongs to the citizen, not the sedan....