Delhi Transport System...

If one doesn't have his own car and one has no metro access to the place one wants to go, here is how a common man struggles in Delhi. Following are the three memes depicting the sentiments of three 'bhaiya-drivers' and their customers:

DELHI AUTO-RICKSHAW RIDE:

Yes that is how they react!

DELHI BUS RIDE:

DELHI RICKSHAW RIDE:

They know their worth...

P.S. If an Auto-Rickshaw driver denies to go by meter, you may dial 1095 which is a Delhi traffic police number to file a complaint right there and then. It works. (Tried  and tested).

P.P.S. The first doodle is inspired by the real conversation between my  brother and his friend.

GREEN DELHI- A Photo Story

PART I

IT DOES NOT END

The story is an old one; it plays repeatedly on self-loop, only thing that changes is the people and the environments that are affected. Despite numerous laws around the protection of trees, the rampage never ceases. The cause is as old as ages, and there is zero will to implement these laws by the law enforcers.

It all started last year when MCD was constructing cemented roads in our society in Pitampura, Delhi. These people forgetting their duties and feeling omnipotent with their machines of destruction started destroying everything that came in the way, setting a model, an example before the other phases of construction. Despite our repeated pleas and reminders of the laws governing tree felling, MCD upon insistence of one of our neighbours –Prem Lal Khanna and his family felled numerous trees, and when we said we would file complaint, they hid the trees, and then quickly towed them away:

Step 1: When you are MCD, you savagely destroy anything in your way

(Contract in the hands of some Mr. Khan)

 Step2:  Hide in the park until tow truck comes

Step 3: Load it up, hide under dry branches and tow away

We made repeated calls to forest department, to the chief conservation officer, two representatives from this department came and said that at least the trees in front of our house would be protected, and we were pacified with this assurance and forest department itself took no action against these people.

PART II

IT DOES END

A year passed, our neighbours forever unsettled, were waiting for any excuse to fell the trees in front of our own house, their youngest son even declared that “I’m not my father’s son if I don’t get this tree cut off”.  Few weeks before today, some branches of one of our tree, started drying up, these were towards the side of this neighbour’s house, so anyone can guess what might have happened. Under pretext of some renovations, one day in the quite of a hot and humid afternoon, these people cut down two of  the trees that forest department so assuredly vouched for only a year before and created a shameless scene, embellished with all the name calling and vulgar obscenities as is the character of such people. 

 Fell in a moment what took years to grow

 On lodging complaint, the police has forwarded the case to horticulture department as this case is their prerogative. Quoting chief conservation officer, forest department Mr. A. K. Shukla, “Since the trees were not on your property, I can do nothing about it”. We had high hopes in these guardians of trees, reading glorified reports in the newspapers, but today, I’m disappointed, slowly turning impassive regarding any good change, I agree with forest officer, we really can do nothing about it. Delhi is definitely going green and greener.

  

 About Author:

Rochana Chaturvedi is a Professor of Computer Science in Delhi University since past three years. In her free time, she enjoys arts, nature, traveling and reading amongst many other. Besides being a good singer, she enjoys writing poetry though seldom publishes them on her blog. However, she can be caught blogging sometimes at http://rochanachaturvedi.blogspot.in.

Delhi Elections, BJP or AAP- Who is Next?

Elections are over. Results are out and with that, a hazy picture of political orientation of Delhites has become clear. While a good majority of people in Delhi opted for BJP (Bhartiya Janta Party- winning 32 seats), AAP (Aam Aadmi Party) is leading on second position winning 28 seats and Congress with only 8 seats came third in the race; others won only 2 seats in the Vidhan Sabha elections held on 4^th December.

Arvind Kejriwal emerged as a Giant Killer by defeating Sheila Dikshit (former chief minister of Delhi) from her constituency. Indian politics took an interesting turn in last two years. Constant news of corruptions by the ruling party followed by Anna Hazare’s Anshan (fast) – a non-violent movement of 'India Against Corruption' gathered people of Delhi out on streets. People from all over India supported the movement through social networking websites. Congress turning deaf to people's voices made the wrath much stronger. Cruel jokes by Congress leaders about mehengai i.e. a decent survival possible on Rs. 32/- a day for a person;  Shifting of blame by Sheila Dikshit during Nirbhaya’s Rape case on Delhi Police coming under union government and not under her elevated the rage in masses. The faulty policies of central government, 2G spectrum scam, Coal blocks allocation scam, and many other things ruined impression of the party further. These twists and turns took interests of many people who chose to keep their interests away from politics until now!

A vast majority of IT professionals, engineers, businessmen worked tirelessly as volunteers of AAP. Majority of people belonging to lower class and middle class marred by corruption and inflation started looking towards Kejriwal as their Messiah. Talk to your housemails, Autowalahs, Rikshawmen, and many others, everyone was canvassing for AAP. Even after all this surprisingly congress managed to win 8 seats in the state. This was for the first time in Indian politics that another party (AAP) emerged strongly before Congress and BJP.
Delhi has registered its highest voter turnout of 65.86%. NOTA (None of the above) option fetched 400 something votes. Not sure why people opted for that when they had three different parties (including the new one with a new agenda and ideology) to opt from. Probably they followed to the polling booths for the sake of it.

Since out of 70 seats a party needs 36 (half of 70 + one) to come in majority and select their candidate as next chief minister; none has reached the count. Hence AAP or BJP (the two leading parties) will have to seek for support from other parties. Both of them not ready for the same (as per their statements). Kejriwal if chooses to seek support from congress, it will breach trust of many voters favoring him. This is his only chance to stand firm as a unique identity and rise high. BJP will not take support from its old rival either. If situation remains like this, which will, elections will be re-held after 6 months and president will be the governing body till then. Things have become interesting as a game of chess.

Right now some RJ is playing a song on FM dedicating it to Dr. Harsh Vardhan, BJP's CM Candidate- ‘Ye dooriyaan’, from the movie ‘Love Ajkal’…
P.S. Any guesses on who is going to take C.M. post in Delhi?

Image credits: Google

Ye Dilli Hai Mere Yaar!

Celebrating the Arrival Of patients
(Metro Hospital-Noida)

Intimacy
(DTC and Blue Line proving "opposites Attract")

Holy-Locked!

Parked and Locked Under Mangol Puri- Police Station Board

Storming in- Delhi Metro, blue line, Kashmiri Gate

Navjyoti India Foundation

Its been quite some time since i was wanting to write this post. Got time today, and i feel i should not let the time go wasted. Being a part of Navjyoti India foundation for some time at Karala, inspired this post to come up.
Karala is a village in north Delhi, near Rohini. Its an urbanized rural area and possesses the characteristics of fringe i.e. it has the characteristics of rural area as well urban area.. The occupation of people include agriculture, production and services. There are various factories in that region.
I happened to work with Navjyoti organization for sometime and got to understand the works of social organization and community work and development. The experience was good.
During my stay there I enjoyed different types of tasks and works. Being a graphic designer, my skills were utilized as well. Again the my social skills helped me in linking people and organization to each other. Learning under the supervision of Ms. Chandni Bedi helped me a great deal. She surely is a good teacher and motivator.
Visiting slums and Majri village in Karala, helped me in developing an understanding of people there and their lives. For some time i took beginner level computer classes for children of 11th, 12th and graduation. Just a few weeks ago i got a mail from a fellow colleague that my students were missing me also a few days before that, my supervisor, during one of our interactions on phone said the same thing. I want to tell them that I miss them too. Being their teacher i tried to teach them in the most interesting way i could. I feel worth, when my success pays and hear they still think about me.
Meeting Dr. Kiran Bedi and watching her closely during her interaction with staff and audience was a great experience. I also happened to work at Family counseling center there,
During my stay there i experienced:
1. people were not gender-biased and were keen to educate their daughters with the same zeal with which they wanted to educate their sons.
2. The most common attire among the students there were western outfits as well that shows the village doesn't have sticky mind and girls enjoy freedom and their personal choice.
3. Some of the people came up with inhibitions and fear at NCC and talked in a very rigid and rude manner initially, but soon after practicing some patience before them and further talk a trust was formed.
I understood that people in villages have a great fear inside them that they will lose their identity by the third party intervention and hence show a rigid and rude body language to hide their fear.
4. The married girls also had supportive husbands who encouraged them to learn computers etc.
5. Majority of youth coming there were of girls.
6. The problems at Family counseling center were of very different nature.
7. Being an urbanized rural, the place had pakka Makan and the homes of residents were big.
8. The roads were not built properly but neither were they in too bad condition.
9. I learned when you work in a village and work with a community, they judge you on attire you wear, hence to avoid any misunderstanding and pre-judgemental attitude, one should be in proper dress.
10. Working with people and for people gives a great sense of satisfaction. understanding their problem and socio-psychological issues with them provides a further understanding of life.

A 'Green' Expedition

We planned this Sunday for cycling... And on our way to Bonta it started raining heavily. Because we didn’t want our plan to fail, we decided to go for the fun ride in the rains. Contrary to our fears en-route, it felt even more worth it. We loitered around the whole North Campus Area, cycling around Bonta with our bikes rolling up and down the hilly pathways. The Rain Drops seemed heavier with the increased pace of cycling. We met monkeys, snails and very long earthworms during our expedition. From Bonta we went to St. Xavier's School and enjoyed our tour there. The Luck Was on our side and due to heavy rains and Sunday the traffic was very less. And we took advantage of the opportunity, and seized the roads. Since we were biking for last 3 hours, experiencing growls in our stomach out of hunger, we decided to hop into a famous eating place in Kamla Nagar i.e. Bille di Hatti and enjoyed Poori and Aloo chole ki sabzi with a glass full of Malai wali Lassi. The hot and fresh breakfast was no less than a royalty after getting drained in the rains. We decided to go back to the Delhi University Metro Station to return those lovely cycles, singing songs on our way back. The place is full of green vegetation and clean air and nice roads. We will soon plan our next biking trip again.

Place: North Delhi

Where to get Bikes From: Delhi University Metro Station.

How to reach: Metro, two wheelers, four wheelers. There is Parking space at all the metro stations.

Eating joints Nearby: Chacha Ke Chole Bature (closed on Sundays), Vaishnav Chat Bhandar and Bille di Hatti. There are many restaurants there too like Mc Donalds, bercos, CCD, Barista, Gyani’s and other small eating joints.

Don’t forget to take your I-cards to rent the cycles. The rent is Rs. 10/- per four hours per cycle.

Also Check the Breaks and presence of air in the tyres before starting the Venture! (as informed by Shine.)

Happy Biking :-)