Showing posts with label Delhi. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Delhi. Show all posts

Saturday, October 23, 2010

Delhi as I saw

There is a very peculiar thing about criticism. It tends to strike our mind pretty fast and sometimes can even have a prolonged effect which can erode our sense of rational judgment. While writing this I kept one simple thing in my mind, I won’t subject my writing to any kind of bias. I would simply narrate things as I saw and would give my honest perspective of the events in the past few weeks. The run up to the Commonwealth Games was very disturbing to the common man. The common man, who honestly pays his taxes, listens to news channels and castes his vote to select a privileged few to run our country was deeply in pain as one after the other frauds unfolded and a serious question mark stayed on whether we would even be able to conduct the games. Adding to this was the media, who constantly focused on what went wrong and why and how. Not that I am blaming they were wrong. They easily justified their role by saying that media as the fourth estate has a big responsibility to protect the interest of the common man by exposing government and bureaucratic failures and scandals. Deadlines lingered on and on. Collapses occurred, budgets increased and many more things I came to know because of the 24*7 news. The government was also baffled and in a bid to save its already tarnished image, it went into emergency mode. Leaving all that aside, there was another picture which I saw with my friends. Thanks to my college giving me a few days off, I got an opportunity to explore what lied beyond Noida sector 37. So I with couple of my friends decided to explore what is really going on in Delhi. Normally one would have preferred to see the grand sports extravaganza, but I decided to take a different course. I landed up in Connaught place, one of the busiest places in Delhi and surely the digging up of which must have hurt the Delhiites most. But to good surprise everything was fixed. Another surprise awaited us at the Baba Kharak Singh Marg. The Incredible India festival was going on. Food stalls from all the country were there. There were handicrafts, paintings and many other pieces of art all together at one place, right in the heart of Delhi. The place was so full of energy with cheerful and laughing people around and there was really a sense of celebration in the air. And how can I forget to mention that free coke, yup chilled cold drink was also being distributed, although it would have certainly cropped up in the comments section. The roads were not so crowded for a change, the pollution was also not there and walking on the sideways was an exercise one could enjoy without having to cough or cover one’s mouth. From there on we headed to be a spectator to Jashn-e-Dilli or more known as Delhi celebrates. From riveting dance performances like mohiniyattam to spectacular music performances, it surely is one of the most beautiful memories I have captured over a period of time. We enjoyed a lot the Commonwealth games, although we saw none of the games. One of my friends even said, it doesn’t feel like Delhi, so much big was the transition. But how can one insulate oneself from media. Although the resounding success of the Indian athletes notching up second highest number of gold medals did bring the smile back on our faces, the games truly belonged to the common man, who volunteered to make it a grand success, who paid taxes to construct the village. It is the common man because of whom metro is possible. Undoubtedly the hero of the Commonwealth games has been the common man, who cheered for each and every athlete irrespectively of which state he or she came from. The medals also proved that sports, which was once restricted to the elite few is now in the hands of the strong Indian middle class from small towns. But India’s success has given fuel to a very disturbing discussion. Is the success of an Indian Athlete an individual’s success or is it really the success of the sports bodies and the government. Leaving that debate aside which in future might be the basis of another one of my writings, I was lucky enough to have enough free time to witness the opening and the closing ceremonies and just watching those two would have silenced any critic who ever doubted India’s ability to accomplish any feat. But all said and done, India finishing second, the games gone without any terrorist attack, the black spot of the corruption and irresponsible handling would never be gone. A friend of mine told me, we are experts at getting things done in the 11th hour, I think this mindset seriously need to change if anything long lasting and concrete has to be achieved. We are getting another chance by getting to host the cricket world cup. Although nothing as compared to the CWG, it is still a good opportunity to show that we have changed and not merely moved on from the CWG debacle.

Tuesday, August 24, 2010

Still we ask why?

Last weekend i went to Delhi. I was on my way to Deer park to be a part of drum circle. Drum circle is one of the best things that has happened to me in the past two months as part of my life@IWSB. But this article is not about drum circle nor it is about my life at IWSB. Its about Delhi and the commonwealth games. You might say not again, another article to bash our government. But here i want to push it a bit further. I went to Cannaught Place and all i could witness was digged up road, mud and puzzled people. All the glam and beauty of CP was nowhere to be find, or perhaps it was overshadowed by the so called preparations for the Commonwealth Games. I find it really hard to believe that we a nation of more than one billion people can't prepare one city to host an international event. But then where does the problem lies? Oh i know politics, bureaucracy, corruption, greed etc etc. But does that mean we should leave hopes that one day our country will be ahead of the likes of US, UK or China. One day our cities will compete with the likes of New york, Tokyo or Beijing. Should we stop saying we will be a super power. I ask, was it necessary to beautify Delhi on the pretext of games, when all they managed to do is uglify Delhi. It would have been a lot better if we just would have just considered making the stadiums and necessary arrangements for the games. Was it so necessary to dig up CP and all those other places? What effect will this have on the morale of Indian athletes who are participating in the games. Now whatever we do, the world has seen what India is and what is going on. Its a sham what these people are doing in the name of development. They are just accumulating wealth for themselves. Its high time we stand up and say its enough. We as common people do so much of hard work which gets reflected when people say INDIA SHINNING and these people just undo all that. We as a nation had a big opportunity to tell the world who we are and what we are capable of. But now as more and more time passes, i feel it would have been a lot better if that opportunity could have been avoided so that the world doesn't come to know what we really are. I did not write this just to criticise. I think enough criticism has been done. I wrote this so that some people really feel that the need of the hour is not criticism but to rise up to the occasion and take the control of our nation. Its our job to make it a super power, nobody else will do it. No neta or affsar will do it unless we do it or make them do it.
Sometime ago we have a small chat in our class regarding why even small countries are beating my India when it comes to medals in international competitions. I guess the answer lies infront of us and STILL WE ASK WHY?