Blogging about Delhi hasn’t been as difficult as there was always something to write about or someone to lampoon. Our man AK and his troupe gave one enough and more. And yes, sometimes even folks in the A-team of that honourable man residing at Lok Kalyan Marg provided good fodder. Trouble is, too many simultaneous things have started happening in Delhi. Every time this blogger gets a draft ready – it looked pale just when one was about to press the ‘publish’ key as something even more ridiculous had taken place! There was simply too much happening in Delhi. The only solution, therefore, is to put out the blog immediately after writing it. So here I am doing exactly that. If you find grammatical errors (that my friend AA is so apt in discovering) – pardon me for I do not have a Malviya to turn the narrative upside down and pass on even factual errors as truth.
The last few weeks have been sad too. Some Dilliwalahs felt so low that even Old Monk did little to lift their spirits. The reason for this dip in enthusiasm was because a leader, who the nation looked up to, felt weak and victimized. Imagine that low feeling that compels one to seek sympathy from public at large for having being abused not once or twice but 92 times. That he had to delegate someone in his office to count the number of times he is abused perhaps reflects the deep scars of being victimized. The only positive here is that someone out there can count till 92. Ramanujan’s soul can rest in peace as folks in high places have their numerical competence intact.
Then there was this incident of some nursing students flouting the instructions of listening into our leader’s 100th discourse on radio. How terrible is that? Here is a supreme leader taking out time to share his wisdom and these students have the gall to simply ignore the broadcast. Obviously the leader would feel victimized as this is a second such case of showing dissent in quick succession (remember that ‘illegal’ screening of a BBC documentary in some campuses). These incidents would have caused massive pain to our leader and would have accentuated that ‘victim-feeling’. On our part, we surely need to behave better as a nation and stop feeling cheated about petty things. The pain of demonetizing or the inconvenience of exchanging your legitimately earned 2000 Rupee notes is nothing compared to the hurt we have caused to the supreme leader.
Delhi has been witnessing protests right from the time when sepoys from Meerut and elsewhere came over to revolt against the British. In the recent past we have had a Shaheen Bagh and then that year long farmers’ protest. Delhi Police has handled these with some restraint. However, the handling of the protest by the wrestlers is a new low in the chequered history of capital’s police force. The visuals of cops coming down on wrestlers who got us medals at the Olympics left Dilliwalahs aghast. And it didn’t end there. The wrestlers, it is believed, have been denied permission to protest at Jantar Mantar or at India Gate. Seems the lieutenants of the Lieutenant Governor are exemplifying that Delhi spirit – ‘Yeh sadak mere baap ki hai’!
StateOfDelhi Suggests: In sync with the times we live in – Delhi Tourism has started guided walks around haunted places. The first such walk was led by Dushyant Singh about a month ago when he took folks to the haunted Malcha Mahal located deep inside the Delhi Ridge. It was eerie and spooky indeed. The tourism department has plans to introduce similar walks to other ghostly destinations such as Feroze Shah Kotla and Tuglakabad Fort. No, the old Parliament House is not on that list and please stop drawing conclusions – there is no symbolism here. We will put up information on our StateOfDelhi twitter account of the next such walk whenever that happens. In the meantime you may indulge in spirits of a different kind, Dilliwalahs.
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