The villagers, three-fourth of our population, are to some effect better off in that they have to walk some distance to work, school, bazaar or the bus stop, go about in their agricultural livelihood, collect water from the river or pond, take a dip in the water for cleansing, and do much of their housework (no urban servant); thereby getting some form of passive physical exercise.

Most of his city counterpart rides to work or school, sits in the office or classroom, changes channels with a remote, turns a knob to get water, sounds a buzzer to call someone, gives a missed to call to a colleague in the next room to convey a message; thereby denying him of any work out of the heart.

I dug to find out that, weighing less than one-third of a kilogram, the heart pumps about 7200 litres of blood each day enough to fill a large motor car. Over a lifetime of say 75 years, that adds up to 200,000 tonnes of blood, which is roughly the weight of three large aircraft carriers. And we don't have to take care of the machine which does so much work?

They say for true cardiovascular exercise you need to get your heart rate up over 120 beats for about 30 minutes. Get sweaty at least thrice a week. Expert advice is nowadays ruling out jogging for seniors because of the high impact loads on the limb joints. But walking is recommended.

Did they say 30 minutes? Do we afford to have even five minutes in our 'busy' 24-hour city life for such forgotten necessities to keep well and alive? Time management is of the essence here. You must make time to give your body the physical exercise it needs by any form of sport or movement.

If one needs further encouragement to get up and do it, it may help to remember that according to statistics, more than the half of the heart attacks happens when people are just sitting at rest or while asleep. So should we not be walking about, jumping in the park, swimming in the pool, kicking the ball, climbing the tree, laughing out loud?

In our cities, while we were busy building multi-storied buildings, expanding our businesses, pursuing higher studies and actually 'having a good time' besides curtailing pumping blood we invited obesity. While for a fact only about 20 percent of the population in the West are within five percent of their ideal body weight (data on Bangladesh not found), it should not be a matter of solace. It may help you to live longer if you remember that fat people run a higher risk of heart disease, diabetes, gallbladder disease, gout (severe pain in the joints) and osteoarthritis (inflammation of the joints between bones). So why not leave that chair and welcome a longer vigorous life?

Dr. Anupam Hossain in his write-up today promotes the case of making Bangladesh more 'active' to make it healthier, safer and enjoyable. His findings from the schools tournament are intriguing, as are the proposals for involving the youth in extensive sport and physical activity.

Our city schools should have playing fields, universities too. Our offices should have gyms, even if it be in a small room. The city should have public swimming pools. Urban parks should be retrieved from encroachers, protected from unscrupulous developers and maintained for our citizens, particularly the children. Till such time, take a walk everyday in this very very busy city it's fascinating!

The author is Professor, Department of Architecture, BUET and Consultant to the Editor on Urban Issues