Don’t Mind, We Are Delhiites!

I came to Delhi around eleven yrs back and I cannot believe this is the same city, with the kind of changes Delhi has under gone. What has not changed is the basic etiquettes and mannerism of Delhiites.

Oh! That spitting and peeing around. All those pan and guthka stained walls, the choking stenches of the untidy urinals, the heaps of garbage, traffic quarrels are as identical to Delhi as the newly built flyovers, Metro Rail and the mushrooming shopping malls. The situation is so bad that in a survey conducted by Delhi University, it was found that Delhi has the worst civic sense in this country. Now this is really embarrassing, given the fact that MCD is the largest civic body in the world. Delhi’s culture is a conglomeration of various cultures. Being the capital, it represents the average lifestyle of an Indian.

Being chosen as the venue for the Commonwealth Games 2010,Delhi is under the spotlight (…as if it is ever away from it!) and therefore it is going through a makeover. Seriously, being a citizen I am glad to see these beautifications but the question is for how long will all this survive? The authorities are doing everything they can do, as sportsmen from all over the world would be here and so would be the media. Are people of Delhi ready for it too?

Delhiites have a strange habit of putting their stamp on every public place. For instance, when a subway is newly built, it is so neat and clean and well lit. It’s really a boon to the peddlers. I remember, using one when it was new and reusing after some weeks. Its walls were all stained, it was dark and very few people used it. This makes it one of the places to respond to nature’s call. Even the metro stations are not that well maintained as they used to be. Now the question is to what extent the authorities can help. People just want to use them recklessly. We are so lazy that we don’t want to move even ten yards to put the chip’s empty packets in the bin and without any guilt we throw it on the spot. The sweepers do their job by cleaning with brooms and we do our by littering. We will change perhaps once they run after us with the brooms.

Sometime back I read in a journal that government has asked all the auto rickshaw and taxi drivers to learn little bit of English so that they can communicate with the tourists during the Commonwealth Games. It is really a good idea but first they should be asked to behave politely. They always ask for high fare and if you retaliate then they behave so rudely as if we have some debts on them and they are charging us for that.

The general traffic sense of an average Delhiite is as good as my command on Swahili (do I know a word of it?). People take a right turn while their vehicles’ indicators show left. Those quarrels during the long traffic jams make up for good time pass with nerve-racking horns as the background music. On a multi lane road, a vehicle will meander in all the lanes without looking at the rear mirror.



This meandering reminds me of Yamuna. I feel embarrassed to add river before it, as it looks more like a big stinking drain. I cross Yamuna daily via ITO Bridge and I see at least one person with his hands joined, his face towards Yamuna, chanting some mantra and then he throws some dry rotten flowers that were offered to God as we don’t throw sacred things in the bin but are not hesitant in making a sacred river into a moving bin. This picture evokes ambivalent feelings.

We got the slums uprooted from the Yamuna Pushta region and from several other areas. Perhaps they were embarrassing for Delhiites, the host for thousands of tourists in 2010. I personally had no qualms against the slums, as this is what real India looks like. On the contrary, yamuna makes me feel sick and I get baffled by its very appearance. Infact, I came across a very interesting fact that since the slums have been uprooted, areas nearby have been facing the problems of part-time maids and rickshaw pullers.

Well, the list is endless. Delhiites are generally warm people, but are they good enough to be hosts for the world? Its time we improve our image and become responsible citizens of this city and this country or else we should become used to of giving this silly excuse to our guests, “Please! Don’t mind we’re Delhiites!”.