Children of a housing complex in Haltu have a place to play, thanks to a six-year-old boy who convinced the promoter to build a park.
The park was inaugurated on the boy’s birthday and named after him.
When Abhinav Das Thakur, 6, aka Gadai, shifted to his new home with his parents and sister Anouska last year, all he wanted was a park to play in. But the housing complex had none.
“We lived in Jadavpur earlier and I had to walk quite a bit to reach the nearest park. I could not go there every day. That is why I wanted a park in my complex. Isn’t a play area our right?” asked Gadai.
The boy requested the promoter to build one and kept pestering him, even setting a deadline, till he did.
Sukumar Das, a businessman who developed the four towers comprising 36 flats on Rajani Kanta Das Road in Haltu, finally agreed to devote 300sq ft from the common area to build a park.
The park was not part of the complex’s original plan in 2018. “I had not promised flat owners a park. In fact, I could have turned the common into a landscaped garden or left it as it is. But Gadai was insistent right from our first meeting. He said he dreamt of a park for himself and his friends in his new home,” said promoter Sukumar Das, who lives in the same housing complex.
“Not every day do you meet a child who makes a property developer change his plans,” Das admitted. “But there was no getting away from the boy. I live in the tower opposite his and so I would bump into him almost every day. Gadai would chase me with the line: “Jethu kobe park kore debe? Jobe amra boro hoye jabo? (Uncle when will you build us the park? When we kids grow up?).”
Das not only built a park complete with a bench, swings and a see-saw, he also engaged a team of artists under Somnath Mukherjee to create a wall art. “Around seven or eight artists painted the wall over a week,” Das said.
Gadai Park, named after the little crusader, was inaugurated on July 15, his birthday.
The patch of green is now the favourite spot the 10-odd children of the housing complex.
“We meet at the park by 5pm and play for two hours,” Gadai said.
The South Point student and his friends are now planning to plant trees in the park. “I think we will go for bushes. It’s our duty to keep the park clean and green,” said Gadai’s friend Sridatri Das, a Class III student of Ashok Hall.
Coming soon is a slip. “It will be fun sliding down together. I missed this kind of fun before,” said Abhinav Verma of DPS Ruby Park, a resident of the complex.
The park is open to older residents as well and some of them enjoyed a hearty adda there during Puja.