In Dhaka city in the past, a small number of teenagers would use roofs of their residences to fly kites. Falling from the roofs without railings due to absentmindedness was a common, but not frequent, incident. The kite fliers were limited to a tiny few. The families too mindful of their children's associates did not normally allow them to go out in the fields to engage in the exciting sport.
Nowadays, thanks to the fast squeezing of open spaces due to the frenzied construction spree, a large percentage of school or college-going boys and youths do pass the kite flying season on the building roofs. As a result, the accidental fall from roofs leading to fatalities has increased exponentially. It's a common spectacle in the older segments of Dhaka.
The kite flying apart, many roofs in the city were also used to witnessing the game of badminton, participated especially by teenage girls and women. It is a normal scene in Dhaka also these days. With house-front gardens disappearing due to spaces being gobbled up by building extensions, the girls and women had to climb up to the roofs of their buildings. With the number of low-height buildings continuing to reduce in the city, many badminton fans find themselves driven up to the top of multi-storey apartments. Residences of Dhaka these days are quite used to rooftop women's badminton or the smaller games like sub-continental 'ekka-dokka'.
However, few could have ever thought that roofs can be used as an ideal venue for small-distance bicycle rides. Exactly this is what has lately become a vogue in the upscale parts of the capital. In order to keep their teenage girls, and also boys, free of dust pollution, many parents allow their children to pass their afternoons in the sport of roof-cycling. As demanded by the fun's nature, riding bicycles requires a broad and smooth space and long stretches. The roofs of the upper and upper-middle classes can cater to the cyclists' needs quite well. The relatively smaller and humble roofs quite often turn out to be hazardous. But these obstructions can hardly prevent the high-spirit youths from sticking to roof-cycling. It's because they need fun-filled breaks from their long hours of study at school and homework. Parents would not allow them to go to even nearby parks or grounds. The rooftop spaces, even in the densely populated neighbourhoods, turn out to be their only source of recreation.
Dhaka has long been a frenetically growing city. With over 20,284,000 people living here permanently, its population has reached a critical stage. Construction of multi-storey apartments, commercial and government and private office buildings continues unabated. In a situation like this, the builders' ever widening swoop on vacant lots should be viewed as expected consequences. What's most troubling is that the developers mostly are indiscriminate in earmarking their plots. Ranging from water bodies and lakeside promenades to parks and playgrounds, they spare little in their rush for building structures.
It may sound incredible to many that the city of Dhaka was once filled with big and small play fields. There were few areas which didn't have at least one such ground. These venues would be used for cricket and football matches between local sporting clubs as well as match preparations. Besides, neighbourhood schools without playgrounds used to arrange their annual athletics events at these fields. During gaps between sports events, fairs and recreational shows like concerts would be seen being arranged at these spaces by local youths. In posh areas, lawn tennis courts were a common scenario.
All this vibrancy centring playgrounds is almost gone. Watching high-rises in place of their favourite sporting venues, sports-loving youths and teenagers find few escape routes before them. Most of them idle their afternoons away, sometimes in deviant ways.
