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Tuesday, May 20, 2008
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New Delhi

New Delhi

Inside delhi

Who’s who?

Apart from introducing the country to the hitherto alien concept of TV-dinners, the much talked about Indian Premier League has put the avid cricket fan in a fix over which team to root for.

Does the average Delhiite wish for a prompt end to Dhoni’s batting callisthenics just because he is pitted against Delhi Daredevils or do the soppy fans at the Eden Gardens yearn for a speedy curtailment of Sehwag’s rampaging ways just so their team gets a look-in for a coveted spot in the last four!

As things reach combustion point in the concluding fortnight of the league, most viewers are, despite the ardent efforts of the media houses and merchandising enterprises, yet to display staunch loyalties of the kind that are on display when national colours are at play in the middle.

Matching wits with the King’s Eleven at the Ferozeshah Kotla this past weekend, the Delhi Daredevils knew they were on the verge of a must-win situation.

The spectators too were aware that victory in all the remaining matches was the only way of ensuring a place for their team in the semis.

The match, therefore, started with loud cheers and jeers for the local lads and the visitors respectively.

The partisanship, however, was soon kicked out like an unwanted urchin from a swank nightclub when the King’s helmsman Yuvraj Singh took guard and proceeded to bully the parsimonious Glen McGrath into submission.

Driving and pulling with characteristic power and panache, the burly Chandigarh lad was instrumental in plonking his team over the confounding Duckworth-Lewis equation even as the crowd, giving up all semblances of geographic loyalty, rooted for him unabashedly.

Departing from the venue after a “kingly” pasting, most of the spectators were partly satisfied that they had at least got to watch the big hits.

That their team’s future in the competition had been dealt a severe blow was almost relegated to the background.

Kunal Diwan

Value of honey

To disseminate information about the nutritional and medicinal value of honey, Abhivyakti Trust in collaboration with the Khadi and Village Industries Commission organised a weeklong programme across the Capital recently.

“Honey Consumption Week” was aimed at highlighting the advantages of consuming honey.

As it happens, very little amount of honey finds a place on the dining table in these parts and a majority of it is utilised by the pharmaceutical and confectionary industry.

This despite the fact that India is the second largest producer of honey in the world, next only to China.

According to Meenakshi Parimoo of Abhivyakti Trust, another aim of the weeklong event was to enhance the income of agriculturists and rural people engaged in honey production across the country.

Covering all the five civic zones of Delhi, the innovative event covered schools, colleges, old-age homes, orphanages, parks, children’s homes, working women’s hostels and shopping malls.

Madhur Tankha

Monumental follies

Despite being the Capital, Delhi remains a city where faulty planning and poor implementation of plans can be seen at just about any place.

So while the city has had two flyovers built at Rajouri Garden and Karkardooma Crossing that have made the Delhi Metro railway spend tens of crores more to climb the extra height over them, the city has also had new toilet blocks on Sikandra Road and subways at Rail Bhavan pulled down within months of being constructed for facilitating construction of this urban transport project.

The traffic police also have to their credit numerous plans that failed in their infancy.

Be it the rubber flaps put on roads near bus queue shelters or the pelican lights or the area traffic control system with weight sensors that were to provide a better flow of traffic across New Delhi, all such measures have fallen by the wayside in the past few years.

The Delhi Government has also had a fair bit to add to this colossal waste of public money.

Be it on the cleaning of the Yamuna or putting up iron grills or planters on the central verge of roads, crores of rupees have been wasted without any benefit accruing to the public.

But all these ills have not prevented the government agencies from making more follies.

The good old NDMC has now done something traffic experts would scoff at.

It has painted a zebra crossing at the intersection of Parliament Street and Connaught Place Outer Circle, making a mockery of the subway that passes under this intersection.

Earlier, too, when some people used to jump railings and run across this busy crossing instead of taking the subway, the Council instead of installing high railings to curb the practice had actually installed low railings with gaps within that went to “facilitate” the wrongdoers.

Anyway by painting the zebra crossing it has in effect accorded sanctity to the illegal actions of pedestrians that deserve a challan from the traffic police.

Gaurav Vivek Bhatnagar

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