Dilli Ki Sardi...

Dilli Ki Sardi…

Dilli Ki Sardi   is world famous in India. People celebrate Delhi winter in their own fashion. Winter season in Dilli  is, perhaps, more psychological than atmospheric. Many enjoy the weather with warm and hot subjects.

 We dust off woolens by the end of October, predicting that the sun would shy away from November onwards. But, whatever is the reason this year, the Sun is staying relatively warmer for the month of December... with similar intensity….may be to enjoy the Dilli Ki Sardi.

 Many who are born and brought up in the northern parts of the country, feel the chill early than the Himalayan winds reach actually to their ears. They wear, eat and drink garam to generate the heat and to beat the chill.

 But, some madrasis … eating rice …and dosa, wearing dhoti allowing the wind to reach all parts of the body….and roaming in Lutyens' Dilli….cause Kolaveri Di to the locals. Mind it!!

 ‘Saala madrasi! Tum Log Khate  Kya Ho? Sardi nahin Lagti Kya?!  This is a definite question we are asked by Delhites, before we succumb to the pressure to wear the woolens.

 A couple of seasons back, I have also started wearing blazers to work to match the office atmosphere. It’s different kind of experience, as I hail from south India.

 Excepting for the last couple of days, the morning and evening winds are chilly here. Still I have not opted blazer or woolens yet. Metro ride and office temperatures are cozy. But, my senior colleague insists me to wear something protective.

 But, he does not know that I get shivers when I see my blazers! I want to share this ‘chilling experience’ with all my friends. It’s a precautionary measure which you  guys must also take…

 This was during the last winter season…

 That was the time…my office was at peak of facing complaints of corruption…of 2G, CWG…and all.

 As I was alone in my unit at that time…usually got late in office, I used to  take a brisk  walk down to the Metro at Central Sectt. and catch the train.

Usually, that time it was rush hour. With extra clothings used by people enjoying Dilli Ki Sardi, Metro Coaches used to be jam-packed.

 As I boarded the coach… an elderly man, I guess a diabetic, travelling ,with his granddaughter who was in her late teens, asked me whether the doors open on left side or right side at Rajiv Chowk?!

 I replied to him politely ...’Right side only..Sir’, and suggested him to stay near the doors, which would be easier for him to de-board. In the meantime, we reached Patel Chowk, a station before the Rajiv Chowk,  some more commuters boarded the coach pushing us further in.

 The old man was being pushed towards me by the new passengers. There was no space between me and him. His granddaughter was standing uncomfortably in the rush on one side.

 After a moment, I put my hand in lower pocket of the blazer to pick up my mobile, which I slid before boarding.

 To my astonishment, I found two chocolates in my pocket. For a moment, I thanked my son Tanmay for his surprise gift…but still my fingers were searching for the mobile in my pocket.

 I could feel the mobile in the pocket with my fingers, but wondered …why I am unable to hold it? Search became intense…but failed..

 With an effort, I pushed the person behind me to make a bit of space to look into my pocket for mobile.

 Then, I got the real shocker!

 My hand was searching in the old man’s pocket !!

 Very surprisingly for a city like Delhi...he took it sportively and smiled at me and said, “Koi Baat Nahin Beta”. It was a huge relief for me.

 Had he pressed the panic button and handed over me to the police…or moral police…

 Just imagine, before I explain anything, the bheed in the metro definitely would have given 'their judgment' then and there. And my Identity card would have definitely added fuel to the anger of public.;)

Since then, I am really scared of wearing a blazer. Shivers of fear in the spine, caused by that incident…belittle the chill of winds of the winter.

Now, I am mustering the courage to wear a blazer again…and practicing…keep my hands in my own pocket…

Bull Rac(g)e on Rajpath

The media has started the countdown for, may be the biggest and the costliest sporting event, the Formula 1 Race in India.

To generate the euphoria, the media,  as usual raising the curtains to the biggest event with stories about speed of the cars… their Makes … F1 Racers and their bred…their Indian connections, if any, ...endurance capabilities of gear and the helmets they use… what not…for coming three weeks we see all this interesting stuff!!

To give a feel of how an F1 car roars…smell of its burnt fuel and rubber…beauty of its foot prints at every turn it takes… to season your cervical muscles to pan with the matching speed of zipping F1 cars… and …to practice zooming the eyeballs on to keep track of your favorite F1 racer… last Saturday, on the Rajpath, where the country’s most proud and spectacular carnival walks along on 26^th of January every year, one of the sponsors of a F1 Racing team demoed, their F1 Cars live to Delhites.

On that 2-Km stretch the racer touched 250 km speed on F1 Race cars. Along with, there was display of synchronized car maneuvers and bike stunts.
But, as far as the Delhites are concerned, may be the F1 cars are new…but not the speed, and definitely not the car maneuvers or bike stunts. We see them quite often on the busy Tilak Nagar, Bangla Sahib and Rajpath roads, by some rogue bikers.

And as we all know, the Delhi speed makes headlines every other day. Just the next day to the F1 Car demo on Rajpath Roads…on the very spot four Air Force staffers lost their lives. A speeding Skoda shoved them away at the intersection. Here, the culprit driver jumped the Red Signal. The general perception is that, the Red causes the Rage with the beasts.

If we see brands wise…BMWs, Honda’s, Maruti-s, Hyundai’s….all of them have ‘accident-al credits’ to their names. Some of them are ‘historic’…and their  ‘racers’ are ‘famous’.

As a nation, we take sports easy and change the rules at our convenience.  We bring them to our gullies. As we all know, a big ground oriented sport like cricket could fit in to our narrow 'galis' and bylanes. By playing it we made them famous too! But, gully cricket is dangerous only to the windowpanes.

Earlier this month, a bike accident killed former cricketer Mohammad Azharuddin's son Mohammed Ayazuddin, 19, and his cousin in Hyderabad.  It was this week only, in a tragic incident in Delhi  a boy while playing police-thief  shot his friend, with a country-made pistol from his father's room, who suffered two bullet injuries on his head and died on the spot.

Now, you just imagine, if somebody take the racing sport to our roads...how fatal it could be to the self and public in general !!

We are still to learn a lot about how to treat machines and their power... how to use them safely or for safety.

We all are free to take the spirit of the game/sport …if at all you want to show it to all …find a ground for it and play within the set rules. 

Tailpiece: After two rounds of F1 Car demo we were expecting a third one… then came the THIRD… but, with a relatively familiar roar…a mini truck …to collect any fallen things of the event. F1 is rare and a sport…and what followed that was a reality. Let's Play Safe. ;)

Dr. Bhasmasura...!!

Dr. Bhasmasura

 Old habits Die Hard !!

 Even after the Supreme Court’s directives many of the medical practitioners still lacks the clarity while writing the names of the diseases and medicines. The hand-writing after - ℞ -are seldom legible and only thing you would understand from the prescription would be the amount that you have to pay to the clinic.

 Just two weeks back…

As it is mandatory,  I had applied for permission from my office, to consult a specialist doctor for my son’s skin allergy. Along with my application I had enclosed the necessary recommendation from the authrised medical attendant (AMA) for specialist’s advice.

However, being a typeical government office, the Babus while processing the case to grant permission, asked for the details of  the health problem. As the AMA was not available on phone for explanation…I tried to make it out  from the prescription.

I could not get any clue from the prescription excepting first three or four letters remaining looking alien. I  then googled for any further clues but my efforts yielded no result. It gave me a bit of scare whether this is so new a health problem that is not listed even in Google?!

I was in an impasse' and thought of the wisdom of Supreme Court judgement.  You know, Doctor’s own ‘prescription’ could kill them if they don’t take enough precautions!!

 I was the witness to a near killing of a doctor for his own prescription. It reminded me of Bhasmasura  - the mythological character that died of power of his own hand (hand writing in case of some Doctors).

It was a summer afternoon, some years back.

 I was working as Journalist in Vishakhapatnam, the coastal city in AP. On a sultry afternoon, after having a fall from my scooter, I got some bruises   and went to a nearby clinic on the highway.

The Doctor was in the Operation Theater attending a case. I was given first aid and asked to wait till the doctor comes out from the OT.

After a short while,  a hasseled-looking Doctor came out and called out for the maid working there…scribbled something on the prescription pad and asked her to keep it ready in five minutes.

She went rushing and brought two bottles of medical Spirit and kept it in the Doctor’s air conditioned room.

It was after 5-10 minutes ….the Doctor and his colleague….came running out of his room …with burning eyes…and coughing their life out..!!

 Then we who were waiting outside his room felt pungent smell of Spirit.  Being a young enthusiastic journalist,  I was curious to know what made the Doctors running for  their lives.. just peeped in his room to find opened bottles of spirit poured in two glasses.

 Then heard the exhausted and gasping doctor shouting at the maid… “why did you do this?

 “Sir…you only asked me to keep it ready” …the maid said in fear filled mild voice.

  “Did I ask you to bring this? You!! B*****! Now go …and clear the bottles and glasses immediately and ventilate the room well", he yelled!

 “I don’t know what you wrote ...…I brought it from medical store and did as you have asked me to do..!!”

 The poor illiterate maid just did what she could do at the best.

As it was the afternoon of a hot summer day, the thirsty doctor wanted to cool himself with a chilling soft – drink…..

 He scribbled it on his prescription pad..could have written Sp**** in his usual habit.

 The chemist shop guy  read half from the prescription..and full from the maid. (she must have told him the Doctor sahib is doing an operation..wanted this urgently …).

 Shop guy gave the maid 2 bottles of..SPIRIT.

 What the Dr. asked for was 2 bottles of chilled  SPRITE !!

 ***

Crossing the Borders

You must have the basic knowledge of the principles of Time, Speed –and Distance, Usain Bolts’ agility and Arnold Schwarzenegger’s muscular power to cross the borders and accomplish your mission for the each day.

Don’t think you need these qualities to cross over to some unfriendly neighbouring country. You need to have these commando-like qualities in abudance  if you are shuttling just – between Delhi and Uttar Pradesh. It is a daily nightmarish experience for the pedestrians.

Though lakhs of people travel daily, between these two states, there is no seamless system of public transport. Metro coming upto Vaishali in a few weeks time, is also not going to make any significant difference for the pedestrians.

There does not seem to be even an iota of coordination between the authorities of both Delhi and Uttar Pradesh when you witness utter chaos at various points along the borders these two States share.

The busiest Inter State Bus Terminal at Anand Vihar, which is situated on the UP-Delhi border, now has became a travel hub with newly built State of Art Railway Station and the Metro, the passenger are left with all miseries.  

Passengers from all walks of life, young children and elderly people, women carrying heavy bags and frail girls looking bewildred,  live on the edge till they cross the border here (at Anand Vihar). The borders are virtually sealed for you if you don’t have above mentioned qualities. One has to make a quick dash between speeding vehicles in spite of a traffic signal presumably meant to help the pedestrians.

Now it is test for your balancing act - You have to stand on a Two feet high divider along with the hundreds of hapless pedestrians like you before you venture to cross over to Uttar Pradesh from Delhi or vice versa.

Once you enter into UP, here the tests are different. This land examines your muscle and money power.

If you like to charter an auto rickshaw, you should be ready to shed Rs. 70-80 for just 4-5 km’s travel. Obviously, you have no bargaining power and it is a unilateral deal over which you have no control.

Or else, get prepared for the worse ... ( ..my economics prefer this.. :( )

Here we go – an auto on sharing basis - accommodating at least 13 passenger. (It is a wonder how the Guinness Book of World Records has missed it, yet..!? ). Even chickens (or cows for that matter) transported from the farm have some rights, while being transported but here the human beings do not have such privileges.

If his entire passengers are breathing at ease, the auto driver would certainly push one more person into the auto.

Have any objections? Then be ready to show muscle power if your vocal chords could not settle the issue.

Over the years, there have been dozens of occasions when one has read the news reports about to the effect that both the states have come to an agreement to run buses/auto/taxis between these untapped areas. However, it’s a mirage yet.

You must be wondering how come media could not see this misery of pedestrians and did not make an issue of it in the local pages of their dailies? This is all the more surprising when one learns that a large number of journalists live across the border in areas like Kaushambi, Vaishali and Indirapuram etc. However, they are not personally affected by this as most of them own their personal vehicles and do not have to suffer the ignominy of a pedestrian. And UP Police on their part have advertised a Help Line number but they seem to be even more helpless.

Tailpiece: Women, by nature, are said to be more sensitive towards the need of the vulnerable but despite Shiela Dixit and Mayawati ruling the roost in these two States, the women, children and old are suffering (and perhaps cursing too) at their borders!

If you are travelling regularly on the roads of National Capital, Delhi – just observe the traffic police constables at various traffic signals. You will notice that they very warmly shake hands with private bus drivers. Occasionally, you may find them explaining dress etiquette to them.

Don’t mistake this for the effect of hospitality training imparted to these traffice personnels  before the corruption smitten Common Wealth Games!

These shake hands at every Traffic Signal on the route of these chartered buses, are not for free!    The drivers have to give at least  100 bucks or more per month at every signal to get entry in to the national capital,. During a friendly chat, I learnt from the horse’s mouth  (the constable himself)  that the ‘warmth’ of the hand shake travels to the top.

Even the Buses/RTVs etc which have all the necessary documents like pollution check, insurance, valid driving license, etc, the traffic police then finds fault with the number of passenger.

“How can you carry more than the permitted number of passengers”, they yell at the drivers.  And this argument, puts the drivers on defensive and then to ‘settle the matter in an amicable way’, they readily pay ‘cut’ for the extra heads!  If not the head count, driver’s dress can become another violation of law and the protectors of law won’t allow you to go scot free unless you pay them their ‘due’! Even if there is nothing wrong, then also, no one would like to antagonize them as they have the power of challan a vehicle under numerous traffic laws.

At the traffic signals you don’t make police officer RED or else you will have to shed some good number of GREENs (that is what they call currency notes in this part of the world) This  rule is known to every seasoned driver!

Road Transport Safety Rules are meant  to ensure the safety of the passengers. But, for the famous Delhi traffic Police, these are ‘golden’ words, for their convenience.

Do we, have an efficient  public transport systems in place for 18 million strong  population of Delhi alone? If we take into account the people residing in NCR area, then the situation is really pathetic in this respect? This kind of situation is welcomed by these hungry police.

It is worst for the people living in the NCR region and commute to the Capital for work. Inspite of Metro services but lack of feeder services forced people especially from Ghaziabad and Gurgaon to go for other modes of transport which start from their colonies. They pay more to reach their work place… ‘more’ because the transporter have to share a cut in that with the cops.

In another words, we pay ‘bribe’ to reach the office in time and work!!

As long as ‘sweat’ equity is enjoyed by the all in rank and file  - no body will be ‘caught’.

Tailpiece : It was when the entire nation was rallying behind Anna Hazare against corruption – just few yards away… in front of his camp -  naïve in understanding cops ‘ishaara’, given on previous two days to stop the vehicle for due payments - our new driver Bablu had to pay extra. Our regular driver, Rajesh plays Tom and Jerry with them.