Delhi in foreign media

By Glenn Kessler,July 20

Bukhara is widely regarded as the finest restaurant in India,if not one of the best in Asia. It also happens to be a Clinton hangout.

After President Clinton ate at Bukhara in 2000,the restaurant created a special Bill Clinton “presidential” platter in honour of his visit. US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton is also a Bukhara fan and she made sure she had dinner there on Sunday night with seven of her staff members.

The chef prepared a special selection of eight dishes,plus naan and kulfi for dessert. Sure enough,the restaurant announced that the meal prepared for the Secretary would henceforth be on the menu as the “Hillary Platter”.

The guardain

Teaching games

July 23

At 10 in the morning it is already 40 degrees Celsius. Only those compelled by duty or circumstance dare step out in Delhi’s sweltering summer. But Kiran Thakur is driven by compassion. After an exhausting ride in a packed bus from home,she is wading through the baked dingy alleys of Chandni Chowk,desperate to find a place that offers enough shade for her class of 15. Kiran is an outreach teacher of Bhartiya Parivardhan Sanstha,an NGO,which runs the Integrated Programme for Street Children,funded by the Indian government’s Department of Women and Child Welfare. The organisation relies on its small army of dedicated teachers. For paltry monthly wages of Rs 2,000,the teachers work on a mission to change lives. Classes are held when children are around — at drop-in centres,open parks or bus stops.

The Newyork Times

Collapse of subway track kills 5

By Hari Kumar,July 12

A partially constructed subway track collapsed early on Sunday morning,killing at least 6 people and injuring 13 others.

It was the second deadly accident in the past nine months on New Delhi’s subway system,known as the Metro.

The system has been expanding at breakneck pace in an effort to finish crucial commuting lines before Delhi hosts the Commonwealth Games next year.

The Metro,a rare example of efficiency,punctuality and world-class engineering in a country better- known for crumbling infrastructure and perpetual gridlock on its roads and in its politics,is a point of pride for New Delhi residents.

STRAITS TIMES

Hit-and-run jail term reduced

July 20

A court reduced the jail term of the well-connected son of an arms dealer,who killed six people in a 1999 hit-and-run case,seen as a test of judicial impartiality in India,on Monday. Sanjeev Nanda,grandson of former navy chief S M Nanda,saw his original five-year sentence reduced to two years on appeal by the Delhi High Court,the Press Trust of India has reported. Nanda drunkenly mowed down six men in his BMW as he returned home with friends from a late-night party in New Delhi. Three of the victims were homeless people sleeping on the pavement,while the others were policemen manning a checkpoint. The case had attracted huge media attention because of Nanda’s influential background,allegations of witness intimidation and a TV clip showing defence and prosecution lawyers striking a deal to bail the accused out.