Gangtok, my hometown in the Himalayan foothills, was a walker’s city when we were growing up. We went everywhere on foot. Uphill from home to school. Downhill from school to home. Downhill from home to Paljor Stadium. Knee-obliterating uphill from Paljor Stadium to town. Uphill for Mr CSP Singh’s Physics tuition classes at the crack of dawn. Up-down, up-down. Covering four to five kilometers a day on foot was normal. That was life in a tiny town perched on a hilltop.Between then and now, if anything, Gangtok has become an even better city for walkers. In 2009, we pedestrianised our main square, the MG Marg, one of the few stretches of straight road in town. It was here that everyone convened to shop, eat out and stroll. Prashant Pradhan — one of the architects instrumental in sowing the seeds of an automobile-free square and also responsible for designing some of the footpaths around town — tells me there were murmurs of discontent when the proposal to make MG Marg car-free was floated. Shop owners complained that the lack of vehicular traffic would destroy business. I remember residents wondering how they would ferry their sick grandmas to and from the hospital. The MG Marg soon became our pride and joy. It came “alive with people walking, meeting, and engaging with the city rather than simply driving through it,” Prashant says. Everyone — without exception — is thrilled with the change now.