COVID-19 has affected outdoor sports activities enormously. This covers all major local and international events and even more so the family festivities and gatherings at public parks.

I’m a staunch advocate of the fact that a healthy body leads to a healthy mind and subsequently results in better productivity at work. We need to make sure that once the lockdown situation eases, we spend more time at parks instead of online engagements. At the same time, it’s the prime responsibility of the state to maintain parks and provide basic necessities over there for the visitors and if they can add the number of these parks, all the better.

Spending an hour or so in the park should be a regular feature of our daily routine. Having lived in America, I can say with conviction that nations like the US have produced some good intellectuals, the reason being that right from the childhood they are engaged in healthy activities which nourish their minds and help them being brilliant at work.

Their governments have equally invested in their youth by providing them with standard parks and game zones where they can challenge their minds and be great learners.

Resultantly, they produce great athletes who have all the backing of their authorities and the sponsors take great pride in facilitating them. We need to take a leaf out of their book and replicate the same practice here.

Kaleem Ahmed
Islamabad

Published in Dawn, August 9th, 2020