The Hindu : New Delhi News : Inside delhi

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Tuesday, Aug 26, 2008
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New Delhi

New Delhi

Inside delhi

Books for friends

To inculcate the habit of reading among children with special needs, Oxford Bookstore, Delhi, in association with Society for Haemophilia Care organised a story-telling session in the Capital this past week.

With a life surrounded with emergency wards, injections, doctors and worried adult visages, children with haemophilia — a severe bleeding disorder rendering the affected person disabled and dependent throughout his life —miss out on regular childhood pleasures.

Speaking on the occasion, Vijay Kaul of SHC said: “We wish to inculcate the simple pleasure of reading through story-telling and activities to bring joy and a silent friend in the form of books into the lives of these children. This activity is a part of our sponsorship programme for education of children with haemophilia. After all, knowledge is a lifelong gift.”

Expressing her thoughts, educationist Nupur Awasthi said more such events need to be organised to make the underprivileged children feel that they are not any different than other normal kids their age. “Let us make a conscious effort to ensure that these lovable kids do not miss out on regular childhood stuff.”

The belief that led to this alliance to organise enjoyable programme for special children was that the greatest companion a man has in health or illness is the company of books.

Madhur Tankha

Parking woes

Parking in the congested inner circle of Connaught Place has never been a pleasure, but now it has also become very expensive. Not, for a change, for those availing of the parking facility, but for the parking lot contractors.

Several parking lot contractors operating in the inner circle were a harassed lot over the weekend while dealing with the latest drive by the Delhi police to keep the area clear of illegal parking. Parked cars with valid parking tickets were towed away because they were parked outside the yellow parking line on the road.

“The parking lot attendants are inviting motorists despite the parking lots being full. A lot of cars were parked outside the designated area and hence had to be towed away,” said a police officer overseeing the exercise in E Block of CP.

The parking attendants had a hard time trying to get the towed away cars back to the parking lots. “We are paying Rs.300 for getting back each car. The police should know that the public inflow into this area is higher over the weekends and should not carry out such drives during this time,” rued a parking attendant.

Bindu Shajan Perappadan

Taken for a ride

Though the Delhi Transport Corporation had announced a free ride in the Capital for all women passengers till 5 p.m., on Raksha Bandhan day many people had to opt for auto-rickshaws as the buses remained crowded till late at night.

A friend looking for an auto-rickshaw at the Dhaula Kuan bus terminus in the afternoon had an unpleasant experience. Many women, including little children, were waiting there trying to flag down auto-rickshaws coming from the opposite direction. Such was the rush that every time an auto-rickshaw was flagged down, half a dozen people pounced on it. Fully aware that they were in great demand, the auto-rickshaw drivers decided to go for the kill. One by one, they began inquiring from the passengers about their destination and handpicked the ones who suited them the most.

Some of them even categorically told the waiting passengers that they would not go by the meter installed in the vehicles. Several women accompanied by their children had no option but to give in to their demands. With no one to rein them in, the auto drivers had a field day.

Parul Sharma

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