we are like this only

I don't know whether apathy or pathetic-ness is a better way to describe the attitude of the government to the gruesome event last week in Mumbai. This is a government that has raised inaction and incapability to a new high. From the time that the attacks till almost a full day later, no official spokesperson from the government appeared on national television to inform India's citizens of what was going on, what was being done and what the citizens should be doing, how they could help. And what we got after the day's wait was a low-voiced mumble reading out a speech which made the words "We are not prepared to countenance a situation in which the safety and security of our citizens can be violated with impunity by terrorists" sound less threatening than my daughter's threat of 'Chandamama tumhare sar be broke doonga' ( I'll break the moon over your head. Nobody from the powers-that-think-they-be thought that there was a need to control and direct ...

I'm getting more than a little tired of the media witch-hunt and feeding frenzy on the BRT. Delhi is probably the only one of India's cities where the government is even trying to improve the infrastructure, between all the new roads, flyovers, new airport and the BRT. But since the day the corridor opened, we haven't heard a single bouquet, only brickbats. Yes, there are problems and they do need to be sorted out, but let's not negate the good stuff entirely. And for all the virulent headlines in the media and the snarky comments by the citizens, I'd like an answer to a simple question : What do you do to make things a little better? Do you, as pedestrians, use the zebra crossings and wait for the signal or do you act like Moses and hope the Red Sea will part wherever you happen to want to saunter across the road? Do you as motorists driving any kind of vehicle follow the rules of land and sane driving? Do you stick to the lanes in which you are supposed to drive o...

We had to get a new RC (registration certificate) for our car, having lost the old one under circs which I shall indignantly blog about soon. In order to do that, you have to get a certificate from the Transport Department that there are no unpaid challans or tickets against your car. Yesterday, I and A being crazy-busy, my husband despatched our driver to get the certificate. The driver had a good time. First he went to an office of the transport department near Teen Murti. From there he was asked to go somewhere in old Delhi. From there he was further shunted on to an office near the Hyatt ( which is the other end of town). Having left at 10 am, he finally got a piece of paper at 4:30 p.m. When he at long last came back with it triumphantly to my husband, the paper read, "This car has not been reported to be stolen"! Why in a so-called IT superpower, are these documents and records not maintained online, so that any transport department can access them and print them out? W...