The Hindu : New Delhi News : Inside Delhi

Online edition of India's National Newspaper
Tuesday, Mar 07, 2006

New Delhi

New Delhi

Inside Delhi

Monkey business

To extend a warm welcome to U.S. President George W. Bush in the Capital this past week, the New Delhi Municipal Council put up huge iron gates on roads that the visiting dignitary was to use.

One such gate complete with flower decorations at Sardar Patel Marg's main red light was almost immediately taken over by a group of monkeys from the nearby green areas. The busy road became a nightmare for motorists with monkeys swinging across the gate using the hung flower decorations.

The circus by monkeys of all shapes and sizes had road-users at their wits' end with an accident just waiting to happen. Also, with the visiting dignitary remaining in the city for nearly three days, the population of monkeys increased with even very young ones joining in and swinging really low over the road.

"There were many heart-stopping moments on this road. Usually the monkeys are busy feeding by the roadside and rarely interact with road users. But after the gate was put up, the monkeys using the garlands were swinging across the road with the young ones ready to fall any minute. The fact that they are expert climbers saved the day though," said a regular road user.

-- Bindu Shajan Perappadan

A reason behind madness

No matter how weird the actions of some Delhi Police personnel might seem to others, there is always a reason behind the madness. The Ghazipur flyover on National Highway 24, which has a police picket, is a case in point which illustrates that even the seemingly irrational acts of the police personnel have good reasons behind them.

At this picket, the police personnel are in a habit of waving down cars bearing the registration number plates of other States only. While few notice this trend, the police personnel here have their eyes set only on vehicles bearing the UP, UA, HR, PB and other such number plates.

So what is it that makes the Delhi police hunt for these vehicles? The answer lies in the fact that in most of these States the adherence to norms pertaining to possession of a valid driver's licence, pollution-under-control certificate and registration papers is not up to the mark. And so the chances of finding violations are large. But more than that when people of other States are about to leave Delhi, they have no time to indulge in long discussions and neither do they afford to leave their documents with the police personnel and fight the matter later in court.

As such most of these people end up bribing the police personnel. Hardly ever do these cops actually hold back the offenders for having them punished. So in the end their uniform only provides them an opportunity to extort money.

Remarkably, no senior police officer has thus far questioned the logic of screening outgoing vehicles and not those coming into the Capital.

-- Gaurav Vivek Bhatnagar

Fact or fiction?

Talking on mobile phones inside cinema halls might be something of a habit most Delhiites find difficult to break, but some seem to be taking this addiction to a whole new level as one avid movie-watcher found out the other day.

Seated next to two young women constantly talking about their personal lives, a friend was unable to concentrate on the movie. Having realised that glaring at them didn't help, she decided to ask the girls politely if they might want to watch another movie. At which she was told by one of the girls that a friend had died in an accident. Puzzled why they were still watching the film and didn't leave if it was an emergency, she posed the question to them and was told that they were finding out where he was.

A little ashamed at her "hard-heartedness", the movie-watcher offered to call a friend who worked as a journalist in a newspaper to find out where the accident had taken place, only to be told rather rudely: "I work in a television channel myself."

Continuing to talk to each other quite calmly, the two managed to control their anxiety till the interval and then left without even acknowledging the gesture or apologising for the inconvenience. While the movie-watcher finally got a chance to see her film, she couldn't help but wondering whether only the reel drama was fiction.

-- Mandira Nayar

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