Giraj's Blogs

Rains, Pakoras, Street Art & Snarls!

September 1, 2016

Delhi and Dilliwalahs have had this intense relationship with the monsoons. From dreaming of the beloved (invariably it is the one who moved on!) to stomach-growling craving for pakoras accompanied by that itch for chai, Dilliwalahs have for long romanticized rains. All that is changing now. The romance is getting replaced by a fear psychosis. Fear of getting stuck for long hours on the water-clogged roads of Delhi with the phone’s battery dying out on you. Leaving you hopelessly lonely, late, frustrated and famished (forget those pakoras Dude!).
The sad part is that you can’t blame Mr Kejriwal for the state of Delhi. We deprived him of 3 MLAs (he just has 67 of 70) so he feels weakened and can’t take on the municipalities who are BJP-ruled. Reciprocally, the municipalities can’t be blamed as they can’t do much because Dilliwalahs voted for Mr Kejriwal’s party for the State Assembly. And the Congress is anyways inconsequential now with Ms Dikshit having being packed off to UP. To expect anything from the 7 Members of Parliament from Delhi is akin to demeaning them as they are busy answering a higher calling.

Why crib Dilliwalhas for all the politicians and the Babus are suggesting is to calibrate your romantic and other urges every monsoon. Be creative. Take a lesson from the US Secretary of State, Mr Kerry. He too faced traffic snarls all through his visit to the capital but true to the American spirit – he thought of innovations such as use of boats to commute. Now that’s a ‘start-up’ idea! Come on Delhi, Start-up! Mr Modi wants you to. And may be so does Helion Ventures, Blume, Indian Angel Network among others.
One good thing the rains surely did was to wash the dirt off the walls of Delhi buildings. And that includes the ones where the ST+ART artists had toiled. Post rain-wash they present a fantastic sight.
Take a trip around Lodhi Road and treat your eyes (and artistic sensibilities if they didn’t drown in overflowing drains…err… roads) to some superb stuff that’s ‘Art for Everyone’. And if you are up to it then good quality pakoras await you about 5 kms away at Nauroji Nagar.