Demolitions in Delhi

When u bribed to do something illegal,,,,the law will catch on sooner or later...I don't have any sympathy for people doing illegal land use...The roads gets clogged up because of shops and offices made on roads...There is office in bldg adjacent to my place and its a nuisance,,I cant sleep in the afternoons because of office people chatting loudly in corridor or talking loudly on mobiles.......

An extra floor means extra people,,,so more parking place,,more water and electricity usage for that area,,all this makes the facilities in the area crumble...

I think when u bribe to do something illegal knowingly,,then the law will catch on to u sooner or later, In the end the government officer in pressure from senior officers and law will just take the course of the law,,he wont give up his job coz he had taken the bribe earlier .. ( are we expecting some morals????) . If you feel the law is not correct, fight the law, there are ways to do that in a democratic and elite society...

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Note--those all putting in comments to the contrary to the post, ur comments are valued but please also leave some contact details....anonymous comments dont carry much meaning..
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Update 2 on 10 january 2005.

Please lets focus on the demolitions in delhi and not on the great skyscrapers and facilities in Manhattan/New York. Why we cant make new delhi like New york,,that can be another interesting topic to discuss about,,but its a topic on which i am not very competent to write about,,,,,,anybody willing to write on this topic,,i willl publish it here ,,or link to the post,,,
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Update 3 on 20 Jan 2005

Any indecent language (Abuses) in the comments wont be tolerated. Dont blame me for deleting such comments.
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IXth Delhi Blogger's Meet , 18th December, Humayun Tomb, New Delhi

“Silence is Golden,
Beauty is Joy,
Laughter is Medicine and
Novelty, Life”

Here I sit to write about "how did the IXth Delhi Blogger's Meet go". Now the idea is to write in a way like we had the times of our lives and those who missed it missed an experience of a life time... Read on....

I reached the venue at 11.15 am and was preceded by Rajesh (silence). Since a small significant detail about the meeting point was missed out by the coordinators we had no choice but to stand in such a visible point and posture that any and everybody could identify us as none else but the Bloggers. However I couldn’t think of any such point and posture and Rajesh wasn’t a part of this thought process so we just moved around here and there for some 40 min before Asheeth (Novelty) and Pallav (laughter) arrived. As we all begin our chahal pahal a gentleman carrying a Nikon D 70 tried to intervene into the chahel pahel with an innocent question “err..the Delhi Bloggers?” Ah Guruji, aka Sanjay ‘Sanzen’ (Beauty) was here already to give us the photography Gyaan. we walked around some more time talking bout each other’s time and life, about this and that, blogging and photography etc. NOTE: the term WE doesn’t include Rajesh and all the while we were only hoping his silence would break at something…read on….

The meet actually kicked off with the arrival of Her Highness Twilight Fairy (beauty). With Sanjay being the guest of honor (well no matter what you've got to say Sanjay we'd call you the guest of honor) we were looking forward to an informal yet serious photography workshop. Though we can’t call it a proper workshop due to lack of participation but Sanjay did share a lot of trivia with us. The ABC s of Photography, the various types of film role, the lenses, if it’s a film wala camera, what should be the criteria to choose the speed of the film roll. What should be the settings on your digi cam when you are taking a moving picture and a lots more. We moved around the Monument taking pics and as we did so Sanjay kept giving us those little yet significant tips to get a better frame or lighting etc.

After the gyaan part, we all posed for Sanjay to have our shaadi.com photos which were taken by all sorts of latest technique (well the techniques are exclusively for those who attend the meet :D) and will have to wait and watch what happens thereafter on Shaadi.com...

Ajay (laughter) who is no more a married single (he is just married now) joined the meet at halfway through only on condition that we all raise slowgun (err slogan) for him “we want A j a y” and so it was raised and then he padharofied. A lot followed him...like, never told true account of how Humayun’s wife killed one of his mistress and buried her at a such a place from where….and how humayun was not a metrosexual guy so there is no question of there being any hidden treasure, and further how the tomb is the latest addendum to the DDA list.

Keeping in tune with Art and Architecture the meet then moved to India Habitat Center. Lunch at Eatopia was followed by Photo Exhibitions ongoing in IHC.

The Grand Finale of the meet happened in a roadside chai and paan bidi ki dukaan. You know for some people (only some not all) some things are not complete until you have that cigarette and that special chai. We actually drove around Lodi looking for a chai shop which also had our choice of cigs.

All these while one person continued to bring about a revolution with his silence and we never reached that point where he could break his silence. Except for once when Rajesh spoke few things about the latest model and cost of the Laptops.

So there we had the time of our life...well honestly, without everybody's support and company none of us can have the time of our life. Am sure not all of those who prefered to stay at home had the best sundays of their life...

We sure missed all of you who weren't there...particularly those who are the otherwise regulars, those who wanted to join but couldn't do so only cause you are out of town...you know who you are...Nevermind, there is always a next time...we have a long way to go with many such eventful meets...hope to see you all in the Xth DBM Meet.

Delhi Metro

Delhi metro is one thing that came very late to Delhi, it should have been there about 20 years earlier. This realization came to me more when I visited the Manhattan. The Manhattan must have a higher density that any place in Delhi, with all the high rise apartments and offices, but there are very few vehicles. The people use the underground railway. It is fast and cheap and connects almost all of Manhattan from one end to another. Rest there are Taxi's and parking is very expensive. Delhi should have learned from New York long time back. The traffic mess we c in Delhi now could have been avoided.

The way metro has been executed with tight deadlines, minimalistic disruption in traffic is something very praiseworthy. In old Delhi they acquired properties and bug underground to create the marvelous system. I am just waiting for the day when they come to south Delhi and then I can go and visit my relatives in old Delhi.

This is my first post to this venture that we hope will be a step towards the direction of curing or at least diagnosing Delhi’s many ills.
But people living in the "V.I.P" areas of Delhi probably haven’t seen to many of those problems.
areas like lutyens Delhi....where already smooth roads are paved over every year while the rest of Delhi wonder what killed their cars suspension and their back.
where "Distinguished" members of parliament reside in mammoth bungalows with massive gardens misused more than used. These "V.I.P's" disrupt traffic whenever they hit the roads, the police meant to protect us is instead used to protect these walking talking models of corrupt society. The sheer amount of facilities provided to them is mind boggling to say the least.We do not need to look far to find he problems that plague Delhi…they are right here eating our money robbing us of facilities and rubbing the humiliation in, the ill treatment of disabled children for the home minister is just one shocking example out of the many incident all of us have had to face every once in a while. WE need to improve delhi. WE know the problems. WE are the solution. WE must stand up to these politicians, Babu’s, and tell them how its done.

IITF ends in delhi

IITF Ended in Delhi yesterday. I did not visit the IITF this year also even though I have very fond memories of it. When I was a kid, I used to visit it every year and go through the stalls of all states and some international ones as well. In those times, the crowd was decent at least on the working days and infact you could find few of the state stalls almost deserted.

The reasons for not going in the past few yr have been-

1. Lack of parking place around pragati Maidan- This was tackled by providing park and ride facility this year.( good effort)
2. Too much of crowd.

I believe the IITF duration should be increased so that the crowds ease out. Another way to partition the crowds is to have a higher ticket on some days so that only people who are serious about shopping go there. The current classification is only the business Hours and the normal hours and the ticket rates have a spiraling difference. Something in the middle needs to be thought out. When IITF turns out to become a picnic spot then it looses its focus and strength.

I think IITF is trying to innovate itself and grow; it is also getting a larger noticeability in the APAC region.

This blog has been dormant for quite some time now. Ankur has been doing most of the activity here with me being too lazy. Meanwhile Amit had to leave the team for personal reasons. I am thinking lets have a fresh start. Inviting all the dilwalaas of Delhi to join this community blog and contribute. Let's make this blog a real happening one. I bet the idea is unique and to make it succesfully work out we need a lot of blogger's support.

Ankur is never short of ideas. He also started this other blog which is kind of a database for the various bribe rates in delhi. I just have put a post on that blog regarding the corrupt way Drving License is given in Delhi. Click here to reach there.

And Please give us your suggestion and Ideas. In case anyone has any information regarding bribery with any public official let us know...we'd put up here. It won't cost anything.

Run Delhi run

Saturday, 30^th October 2005, 6.15 pm, I was on my PC writing a post for my blog and also doing some internet research for my work, when suddenly my sister came all panicky telling me do you something there is bomb blast going around, I looked at her and calmly asked, “you mean?” She got irritated by the cold attitude I had towards her panic. “what do you mean, ‘you mean’? I mean bomb blast, terrorist attacks.” She replied rather repulsively. “Ok.” I said and looked back at my PC and resumed my work where I left. She got furious now, almost started yelling, “how can you be so cold blooded, there are people dying, don’t you have any sympathy for them. How can you just go on blogging and surfing after you hear a news like that.

She has a point. I am ruthlessly cold to the latest bomb blast in Delhi. I don’t know why. I haven’t yet called up my friends to find out about them. I didn’t rush to the TV and start following everything that every biggies in town had to say about the incident.

When terror attacks we run for our lives. If a bomb happens to blast on my head I would run for my life no one else would run on my behalf. And so long as its not my life I don’t care. I know those who are running for their lives right now wouldn’t have cared either, had it not been their lives. Diwali, Eid…Tst Tst such a celebration time and such a tragedy. Well those who were about to celebrate didn’t bother for the ones who don’t even have blankets to protect them from the forthcoming cold when they live under the sky as their roof after they have lost their. Did they have a silent Dandiya in memory of the Qauke victims, a colorless Holi in memory of the Tsunami victims. The day Government of India Announces “ A day’s salary shall compulsorily go to the quake victims” one should see the long face I would make, you would make, these people who lost out all the fun of diwali due to the blast, would have made, had they been not busy running for their lives. Every year the Government appeals “Please have a pollution free diwali, who gives a damn. “Say no to crackers, child labour goes in it.” Not my child. Crores of money is senselessly burned on the occasion of Diwali. Some thousands of people die to do drunk driving. Women get raped on the occasion of Holi every year. Celebrations. What an Irony. What good is my concern gonna do to change the Irony? I stay in Dwarka. Do I or my sister who is being all-sympathetic, have the guts to rush to Sarojini Nagar and join hands with the rescue workers to pull out the bodies? We are not even gonna move out of the safety of our home as long as the terror knocks on our door.

Has anyone ever wondered what’s celebration anyway. Is it enough that a day of the calendar is being designed for celebration or do we need a good reason to celebrate.

I don’t celebrate any festival. When I am with my friends I eat, drink, sing and dance and have a time hell better than any celebrations. When I am alone any festival is just another day for me.

Run Delhi run.
Not for Hutch, but for your lives.
I too would run when it’s my turn.

Legalizing sex trade

Cut out the sleaze

Finally something that might help in reducing the child prostitution and exploitation of sex workers. Additionally we may also get More tourism like Bangkok and Amsterdam.

Another implementation failure

Right to Information Act stumbles in Mumbai

The right to information has been created with the best of intentions, but this again seeems to be going to become an implementation failure. This is also an example why the implementation is much more important than just creating the rules/rights. Once the initial euphoria dies down, this will again be a good law that did not work..

This reminds me of the rule that autorickshaw drivers should run on meters...but we know how many of them actually run by meters in delhi. Many just plainly refuse to take you. The few complaints that were made on the issue, even fewer led to challans as the initial owners had sold their autos to another third party since then.

Passport office troubles

Applied for a passport about 4-5 months back, promptly the police office came for police verification after that, took his money and sent a positive report back. The passport office tells the status online and on phone and SMS etc. Normal time for delivery of passport is 5 weeks. Nobody picks the phone and the SMS to check the status does not gets delivered. The online status for months shows that there is delay because of unavoidable circumstances and the passport will be dispatched in a week. That week never comes. On approaching the passport office personally there is a huge line on the general enquiry and after the long wait, the same answer, we will deliver it in one month...NO EXPLANATION FOR THE DELAY. incase that’s not fine, go and talk to the public relations officer (PRO). The PRO has a line of 50-60 other people..

If the passport office is short of people why don’t they hire more??? Why for basic things like a passport a person has to be troubled so much. There is a colossal waste of man hours standing in queues. If they need to charge more for a passport then rates should be hiked, but atleast a decent service should be provided. Just try going to any public office that deals with the common man and there are same issues. One has to wait for hours to get small peice of info. They are more than happy to put objections than to find ways to do the things. The email id's of the officers on the website never get a response..

its so frustrating sometimes.....arghhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh

Commandments for politicians

Sonia Gandhi's 18 commandments to party bosses

This news came as a complete surprise for me. A shocker infact. Makes me rethink about Sonia and her role in Indian politics. Without a doubt, she has the power to change the face of India and Indian politics. She can promote good people and sideline the selfish and shady ones. Is she trying to so this slowly? Is this the first step?

I also could not find a reason what motivated her to come out with these guidelines. As always, the toughest and most ignored part will be implementation.

Let's Get Dirty...

Okay!
Ever since this community blog started, my name has been their on the column on right hand side of this webpage as a contributor. However today is going to be the first time when I am really going to contribute to this blog. There have been miscellaneous reasons why I could not post here earlier, but I’m not going to talk about them here.

This blog is for a different purpose.

A personal blogger like me who has always written about how my weekends passed or any incident in my life, or sometimes I have even gone ahead with posting my terrible poems on my blog. But even a so called *non-intellectual* blogger like me does think about the issues that our society, our locality, our city, our nation and our world faces. And this is an attempt to voice what i feel.

We all have so many expectations from everyone around us. How we want our city to be clean? How we want our society to be open minded and peace loving? And how we crib about the dirtiness all around us.. Be in people's thinking, be in their actions, and be in politics.

We crib, we discuss about this dirtiness, staying away from it and staying clean. We have been doing that for all our lives, and we have not seen anything improving because of our cribbing. The reason is that things won’t improve just by cribbing and complaining. We need to do something to make changes happen. We can’t expect someone else to take note of our complaints and give us a cleaner world to live in.

This blog is an attempt to make a difference. Only time will tell how successful this attempt becomes. But I am glad we are at least making an attempt.

In order to clean the dirt, we'll have to get down from our high clean platforms and get dirty ourselves. So come "Let’s Get Dirty" and clean this world off its evils, off its problems, off its prejudices.

All of you who want to be a part of this are welcome to join. Your posts, your comments are most welcome.

School Admission

Whenever i hear stories from my friends of their struggle to get their kids into a good school, i just find myself dumbfounded. Why is it so tough? Why are there so less schools? In Delhi we have so many educated people wanting to work as teachers but not finding a place. We have parents who are willing to dish out money. We have government which offers subsidized Land for schools.

The interview of parents sound like saying that if parents are not smart enough, the children does not have the right to a good school; he may or may not be bright. I may agree to the parents interview, but what about the interview of the small children.. They get so much tensed. I read a story in TOI about kids who run low fever and stop talking because of all these pressures. I see parents trying to Cramp the ABCD and 1,2,3,4 in the heads of a 2 yr old, so that by the time he/she is 3, he clears the interview in some school.

Why should getting the children to a good school be a Herculean task???

Beggars

When i drive i am forced to close my car windows else the beggars at the red light wont let you talk and would almost intrude inside your car. Long time back saw the traffic commissioner of police saying that we all public is responsible for the beggar menace. We give money that is the reason they are there. Sadly he was right, people give a few rupees to the beggars and feel great about it. Feel like they have done a great deal.

Today morning a small child 6-8 yr old started to beg at my car window. Generally i ignore, but today i just rolled down and asked,,"Where is ur dad?" "Why don't u go to school? Do u plan to beg all ur life at this red light?" He did not have answer to any of it, i don't think he understood, or the questions mattered to him.

Two things should be done to reduce this menace-

1. people giving money to beggars should be fined 500 Rs and that money should be given to a reputable NGO.
2. The parents who make there children beg at road junctions should be jailed and children should be sent to school, through juvenile homes.

Children are the future of India, and it is being ruined. These children today will become the criminals and thief of tomorrow.

Rains and traffic mayhem

It rained non-stop on the entire Friday i.e. 16 Sept 2005 in Delhi and NCR. There were heavy winds and shower. The traffic situation turned chaotic in Delhi because of bad roads and traffic lights that just did not work. The problems get compounded by low visibility and drivers who cant wait for a moment at a crossing, but are OK with a Jam.

This is the condition after every rains. The roads get potholes and lights go out. The capital gets crippled after every rains. Cant we make cemented roads so that they last better during the rains. At least the main arterial roads which have heavy traffic should have better quality roads. Cant the lights have a small inverter, so that in case of power failure they continue to work?

But then if the roads tenders for maintenance are not given out every year then how will the government and MCD/NDMC officials get their cut???

Electricity Problem

Madan lal khurana makes me remember of one of his interviews on TV when he was CM, saying "DESU (DVB) mein to corruption hai hee,,,,he he he he" He, like his usual self; ended with the dumb laugh. I was thinking that when your leaders/ CM in power has accepted the defeat and fatality of the situation, then can it change??? People wanted the electricity to be privatized but he did not allow it.

Electricity situation has improved after privatization, but not as much as we had hoped. The reasons behind it are again politics, according to me, The illegal connections to slum clusters, cant be disconnected because the votes these clusters generate. During my electrical engineering we were taught that the transformers just cant burn out/get damaged just like that. They have life of many yrs, Even then in Delhi we see so many Transformer failures. The transformers have 2-3 alarms or flags that indicate the impending disaster and reflect on its health. But is their any periodic checking of the transformers done??? is any maintenance activity done? Electricity they say should be like any other commodity that's man made. You use more you pay less. But the situation is exactly opposite. To top it up the willing and dutifully paying public also does not get the electricity 24*7.

Private parties are ready to setup generation units, but the state electricity boards cant assure them the money for the electricity they use. The whole electricity problem is easily solvable, just needs concerted effort for a few years and less political interference. The engineers and the private companies can bring a revolution, only if the government let them do it.

The Plight of Ganesha

These days I, with mom and dad are looking out, in and around of Delhi, for a piece of land with or without a structure on it, which we can call our own, which is where my retired dad hopes to spend the remaining of his life. Before our search commenced we were warned by our friends and well wishers that its getting more and more difficult to get any space in Dwarka, which happens to be our preference (don’t ask me why). Seems like DDA’s Dwarka is hotter than Krishna's Dwarka. The prices are rising at the same rate at which delhi’s mosquito breed.

So, anyway while our search was on and we were passing by one of those well-maintained service lanes in Sector III pocket 16 in dwarka I saw something…something, which washed away all my sorrows that had cropped out of non availability of a space which we could afford.

I saw plight of Ganesha…
if this could happen to him…we are but mortals…

And that's him, sitting, watching, waiting, thinking..."me and my this plight"

Rising Oil Prices

The oil prices have been raised in India by Rs 3 on petrol and By Rs 2 on diesel. The world prices are falling down after the initial hike.

I don’t understand that when the petrol price is America is 3$ a gallon (4 liters), why the petrol is so expensive in India? The American price comes out to be around 30 Rs per liter. First the government can’t provide decent public transportation, roads and parking and then it charges a high tax on the petrol.

Petrol prices can’t rise very high, as in the American elections the price of gas (petrol) is an important issue. Government can loose the power if the prices go high. Also if the petrol prices rise very high the development for Hybrid cars and alternative fuels will become even faster, this might bring an end to the era of dependency on petrol (oil) for transportation.

Auto LPG is a fuel that is good for the engine and also cheaper than petrol/diesel. It seems only some supreme court decision will make the government think about it.

Another thing is why don’t we add more busses to the routes that run on full capacity almost all day? And why can’t we improve the quality of the buses that run. For e.g. running an AC in the bus won’t raise the cost of transportation by more than 20%. So why not Raise the ticket cost by more 20% and introduce better buses??? Better buses will make those people shift to buses that go in their cars.

More courts in india

It has been always said that justice late is justice denied. India has a large number of pending cases at all levels in the courts. People dont want to approach the courts for fear of the cases going on for years together. Why cant we have more courts to settle out the cases. I dont think there is any dearth of talented and experienced lawyers in india.

Indian progress focussed only in metros

Deepan saw the Prime ministers address to the US congress joint session and writes his analyses and thoughts on it.

Quote: Hello Uncle Sam

One important thing that has been raised is that much development is focused in the metros and has not spread to the entire country. I see the metros as the Nodes from where the development will spread to the entire country. But the metros are not growing fast and healthy; they are instead growing like weeds. The slums are increasing; the transportation, parking, transportation etc become a bigger problem with every passing day. Why the metros lack the vision for 50-100 yrs is sad.

Deepan also raised the issues about media sensationalizing and distorting facts. I also find that media to be more entertainment that anything else. Increasingly the fight is to increase the TRP and to get more advertisements. Media allows politicians to say different things at different times and get away with that.

Media is increasingly exposing corrupt politicians and officials but the things are seldom taken to conclusion. No retrospection is done after 6-12 months. Media and judiciary has a big role to play in the indian growth.

Mansi has done some NDTV bashing and written about credibility of media.

Samajvaad not found

This space was born out of discussion on yahoo grp of delhi bloggers that what impact does blogging have on politics? can it have an impact?

The discussion started when Ankur posted to the group about the supposed blog of Samaajvaadi leader Amar Singh. This blog has now been pulled down. We also thought that whether it was the man himself or some imposter. This blog was written in hindi and to me it appeared genuine.

Also came across the UP govenment website and their IT Policy. We have our office in Noida (U.P) and getting electricity in the office has been a pain. Office has to run literaly on generators only. I wonder how the IT will progress without electricity!!!!.

Local transportation is also a big problem here in Noida with a limited number of buses. What Noida has are good roads. I just wonder how much development is possible when there is a struggle for even the basics i.e. Water, Electricity and transportation.

More later.....