gauravjain

Just been on a trip to the capital, New Delhi. A city that is seven cities within its walls and has a 1000 years of history behind it. The images it conjures up are of the Red Fort, Jama Masjid, you look around and you can see it all. In reality the history stays by the wayside, its a new world out there and its a pity its gun toting, prime minister knowing, machismo oozing, whiskey drinking, rapist citizens don’t deserve any of it.

The local government has actually addressed issues like traffic, transportation, congestion and infrastructure. They have the new metro, everyone i met insisted i should go down just to have a look (it really is something if the best feature of your city is 20 feet underground)

Its, shiny, its new and there were no paan stains anywhere, so i was pretty impressed, even more so since it took only about seven years to go from concept to completion.

There is a nice highway going around the city you get on it and get anywhere you need to. Traffic of course exists, its also quite dense but in theory i could drive from my house (Cumballa Hill) to the airport in Santa Cruz in 70 mins in peak hour traffic, the same distance in Delhi in peak hour traffic is about 40 mins.

We had lunch at Connaught Place which is a huge crescent shaped area, full of shops and restaurants, attracts a huge number of people, we got there around 2pm and parked literally outside the restaurant. You can pick any part of the crescent, there is an arrangement for parking there.

Major chunks of development are happening in places like NOIDA and Gurgaon both on opposite ends to each other. One has a bulk of the IT & Services businesses the other the bulk of the malls and call centers. Overall the burgeoning pressure is taken off the city and into these spaces where a great number of people enter and exit.

Other than that Delhi is also a great place to shop. It is a city of malls, everyone seems to have constructed one, you cant take a right turn without ending up inside one whether you like it or not. I don’t think i have ever been to a city which has two huge malls opposite from each other (nodia) let alone the 4 in a row in Gurgaon. Someone should have discussed planning issues with them but hey who cares, they probably got a discount on bricks.

The shops are great, the stock is great, everything they have is a lot of times not available in Bombay, some shops don’t even have a Bombay presence, probably due to realty being prohibitive and mall space being limited (some of the ventures coming up at Lower Parel might change that)

What i want to know is

where the f**k is my shiny new metro?

why does it take me almost twice as long to travel distances in peak traffic hours

why is all the friggin development only in city limits.

why do i have to worry about parking before i go out ?

why don’t get the coolest shit in shops ?

why in gods green earth am i paying 5 rupees a liter more than a Delhizen and still getting nothing in return?

Is anyone in the mantralaya listening? or are all the monkeys out looking for treats?

Delhi does have its own problems, namely crime, its fricking unsafe as hell. Women especially need to be careful ALL THE TIME. There is power and water issues (but they are actually being addressed)

Fortunately, all the meals i had there were substandard, it seems all they can do well is Dal Makhani and Paneer. The rest is Latin to em. Good, eating out will be my revenge.