As someone who has been building parks in Kathmandu for the past few years, Milan Rai is not happy with the ones he is working on.
“These parks aren’t my creation,” he says.
But, why would he say that? He has been spending most of his days in these parks trying to build them for the community and the coming generation. Anyone would be happy to take credit for them. But Rai is different.
He says these parks are not his creations as they have been designed by the people hired by city governments and that he is merely trying to make them better. Now, Rai hopes he can explain to people within the local government what a park actually needs and hopes policies are made in order to make parks for the future and not just the present.
“These parks will come in handy for the future generation so we need to be creative and build them thinking about what they will need. Currently, we’ve been building parks just for the sake of it.”
It has not been long since Milan Rai started to realise the importance of open spaces and parks. It all started when his white butterfly project took him closer to trees. Following that, he started spending a lot of time around them sticking his white butterflies on many. trees One such tree was cut down and Rai then started to vocally campaign for greenery and open spaces in Kathmandu.
“Trees became my escape. It became my solace and I started to spend a lot of time under them.”
He had started to understand their importance and that solidified when he went to countries like England, Scotland, Hong Kong and Singapore with his butterfly project.
“I was in awe when I found well-planned public spaces in these places. I instantly felt that we needed these places in Kathmandu as well.”