Early Sunday morning in smoggy conditions, an 18-year-old youth was running alongside trucks and buses on the busy Yamuna Kinara road. When stopped for a brief chat, he expressed his frustration, "When there are no free playgrounds or open spaces, where should we practice running and stamina building for competitions?

One question that keeps coming up is still waiting for an answer. Can't the fundamentalist beliefs of a particular religion keep pace with the democratic lifestyle and open society values?

​UP's infamous showpieces, the Yamuna Expressway and the Lucknow-Agra Expressway have become corridors of Yamlok. These routes, which were initially celebrated for enhancing connectivity, now serve as grim reminders of lives lost to reckless driving and systemic negligence.

More than a quarter century has passed after the 1994 intervention of the Supreme Court to make Agra safe for the Taj Mahal and other heritage assets, but the results are not showing. The Taj Trepezium Zone authority constituted by an Act of the parliament, has dismally failed to control pollution and improve quality of life.

The citizens of Agra have forsaken their heritage, and the wonderful Mughal monuments are victims of collective apathy.

In the bustling city of Agra, amidst its rich cultural heritage and iconic Taj Mahal, a silent but urgent battle rages on the streets – a battle for dignity, for basic human rights in the form of clean and safe public toilets.