The Hindu : New Delhi News : Inside Delhi

Online edition of India's National Newspaper
Tuesday, Jul 18, 2006

New Delhi

New Delhi

Inside Delhi

Campus buzz

The Delhi University campus is buzzing with life once again. With students dressed in bright colours flocking to the colleges on Monday, the empty look of the holiday season is finally a thing of the past.

Walking around with their mobile phones stuck to their ears, newcomers are always the easiest to spot as they make their way through the maze of rickshaws looking slightly lost. The seasoned DU student has a more confident swagger and looks a little disdainfully at the excitement of the "freshers". Calling up their friends in other colleges, the newcomers are still getting used to finding their feet around a new place without the comfort of their usual crowd.

And first day at college is not all about students. Beamed to thousands of homes on television, the beginning of an academic session is a struggle for most news people.

Looking for ragging sessions is not always easy. While the University might frown on it, scribes looking for a spicy report have to go to huge lengths to get that something extra.

Walking around the colleges to get a feel of the New Year's Day scene on Monday, a scribe realised that sometimes safety in numbers is not a bad thing. Standing in a college looking at youngsters being asked to dance for a better picture, she was asked authoritatively whether she was a fresher.

Slightly confused and even more amazed that someone thought she looked like a teenager, she asked hesitantly whether she was going to be ragged. Mistaking her reluctance for the nervousness of a fresher, she was asked to sing.

Determined to set the record straight and also probably not waste a picture of a scribe posing rather badly as fresher, the camerapersons came to her aid. "She's a journalist,'' said the cameraperson.

Carried away in the moment, the young college student refused to believe that she could have made a mistake and insisted that the scribe sing. While the matter was finally settled, the scribe might have not got the scoop that she was looking for, but probably made her first day of college at least six years after she had graduated worth remembering.

Mandira Nayar

Parking woes

Finding parking space in the Capital is never easy. While the average Delhiite has got used to it, what is alarming is the emergence of a new and more aggressive breed of parking lots attendants.

Parking lots attendants are now demanding that users pay as soon as they park rather than when they are ready to leave. The logic given for this "new self-made rule" by them is that most people leave without paying, hence the need to take the money as soon as they come in to park. The problem is more pronounced at INA Market and Dilli Haat. While most Delhiites refuse to pay when asked to as soon as they come in for parking, others succumb to the bullying.

Here is what a friend had to say about her parking woes in the Capital: "There is little that you can do when you are surrounded by rough-looking men who stop your car and shout at you for money. Even threats of calling the cops don't seem to act as a deterrent. When I tried to call the cops after refusing to pay as soon as I came in while trying to park at Dilli Haat, the parking in-charge said that I wouldn't find cops anywhere near as they were paid to stay away. And so it turned out when I went to the nearby police booth: I found the room locked and there was no cop in sight.''

Bindu Shajan Perappadan

Poor MTNL coverage

Various tariff schemes launched by Mahanagar Telephone Nigam Limited for its pre-paid and post-paid mobile services for the Delhi telecom circle might be very attractive, but poor network coverage, particularly in the neighbouring satellite townships, has left a large number of its subscribers unhappy.

Apart from the Capital, neighbouring townships of Noida, Gurgaon, Faridabad and Ghaziabad also come under the Delhi telecom circle. But over the years MTNL has failed to improve the coverage of the satellite townships, though it has enhanced the quality of network in Delhi.

Subscribers using MTNL mobiles in these satellite townships or residents of these areas who have preferred the Government telecom company to private players due to its attractive tariff packages often face problems of poor connectivity.

The problem is more pronounced in areas bordering Delhi, though the situation might be slightly better in the heart of these neighbouring townships. For instance, take the case of the densely populated townships of Kaushambi, Vaishali, Vasundhara and Indirapuram in Ghaziabad. MTNL subscribers here are not happy with the service.

"People calling me often complain that my mobile phone remains outside the coverage area, and this generally happens when I am at home. And when I receive a call, I have to rush out to my balcony because the signals are weak," rues an MTNL subscriber living in Kaushambi.

Sandeep Joshi

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