The Hindu : New Delhi News : Inside Delhi

Online edition of India's National Newspaper
Tuesday, Jun 22, 2004

New Delhi

New Delhi

Inside Delhi

The positive news

Taxi drivers in the Capital are often in the news for all the wrong reasons, but they never make news if they do a good deed. This is what Arvind Kaujalgi of Old Rajinder Nagar, who had a very pleasant experience with a taxi driver in the Capital, realised. Not only was his hand-baggage that he left in the taxi returned to him safe, but also he was given an assurance that even cash running into several lakhs of rupees is returned to the passengers - cases of good samaritanship which generally do not get highlighted in the media.

It all happened like this. Mr. Kaujalgi landed at Indira Gandhi International Airport on the morning of May 24 from London via Moscow by flight SU-535. With two suitcases and one handbag containing a handicam costing Rs. 35,000 and a Minolta camera costing Rs. 15,000, he hired a pre-paid taxi and reached his home. At the destination, he requested the driver to take the suitcases to his flat on the first floor but then forgot his hand baggage in the taxi. Only in the evening did Mr. Kaujalgi realise his mistake. "With much reluctance, I left for the IGI Airport to try if I could locate my lost baggage. I could get the correct taxi number and also the driver's name, Devinder. I was guided to the taxi stand where I met Suresh Pandit who keeps track of all the taxis that come in and go out. He managed to contact Devinder and got instant confirmation that the articles left in the vehicle were in his possession and that he would reach the stand shortly with the articles."

And promptly after an hour, Mr. Kaujalgi got his articles back in good condition. Interestingly, the taxi driver had promptly left a message at the pre-paid booth regarding the baggage left in the vehicle but this was never passed on to him because by the time Mr. Kaujalgi reached the pre-paid booth, the shift duties had changed and someone else was managing the affairs. Well, this experience has made Mr. Kaujalgi pen down his suggestions which include making it mandatory to mention the contact phone number of the passenger in the pre-paid slip and even equipping each taxi driver with a mobile phone. And as for the media, Mr. Kaujalgi reiterates what the President, A. P. J. Abdul Kalam, often says: "The positive can also be news''.

Perilous greens

Despite all its shortcomings, Delhi does a fairly good job of keeping its 15 million residents reasonably happy. And a major source of this feeling of well-being lies in its greenery, the mere sight of which soothes the mind and relaxes the body. But at times, excess of trees and shrubs can also become a problem, especially if adequate care is not taken and one aspect of this is clearly visible on the section of the Noida Bund Road between Samachar Apartments and Noida border.

While the growth of trees and shrubs along this entire road has been appreciable and the greenery makes driving a pleasure on this section, of late the civic agencies do not appear to be trimming these plants well as a result of which many of the shrubs planted on the central verge protrude on to the roads and make driving perilous.

At some points, the shrubs have thickened at the base and as a consequence block off about a feet or two of the road space on either side. And at other places the branches hang loosely on the roads and hit the vehicles passing by. As such many a times, motorists going down the fast lane are seen swerving away from the side of these shrubs. This panic reaction endangers other motorists driving in the slow-moving lanes.

Though these shrubs and trees play a very positive role in traffic management and regulation as they cut off the high beam of vehicles from blinding the motorists coming in the opposite direction and also prevent crossing of the medians by pedestrians and stray animals from every place, there appears an immediate need for proper trimming so as to retain all their positive features while also ensuring that they do not pose any kind of threat whatsoever to the vehicles passing by.

Selling `cool' concepts

Necessity, they say, is the mother of all inventions. And you sure do get enough of these every day inventions and innovations in the Capital. The blazing summer months may be giving people a reason for not stepping out of their homes, but it also gives many of its poor citizens the chance to earn another meal by selling "cool'' concepts to an otherwise hot city.

The Capital's bustling Inter-State Bus Terminus is no different. A meeting point for people travelling from and to different parts of North India, time management is of utmost importance here. And with the mercury soaring in the city over the last couple of weeks, people are willing to try out anything and everything that can cool down the temperature a bit. Cool cucumbers and water melons were always available in plenty in this part of the city, but what is now in vogue are small water sachets to quenching the thirst and ice creams that travel all the way to your seat in the bus.

Their quality may remain untested, but for those with a parched throat, these small plastic pouches of water - similar to the one available in trains - often come as a godsend.

Waiting for a crowded bus to stop, the vendors take out the ice creams from the cover while getting into the bus and shouting about their product to attract attention. It's a job that takes just about 15 seconds or so, with the man and the ice cream vanishing off just as quickly as they appeared, making a comeback only in case someone placed a order with him.

By K. Kannan, Gaurav Vivek Bhatnagar and Lakshmi B. Ghosh

Printer friendly page
Send this article to Friends by E-Mail

New Delhi