Delhi underground

Avataar in power
As the movie continues to run to packed houses in the city,it seems the Avataar bug has bitten some in the babudom too. The government’s Mahatma Gandhi Institute for Combating Climate Change recently organised a seminar on climate change for government officials and other members of the institute with a presentation based on the Avataar theme and story. According to officials at the institute,while addressing climate change is the need of the hour,Avataar,which is clearly the flavour of the season,neatly ties up the story of human greed as well as the relationship that the natives of Planet Pandora share with their environment.

Taking it easy
The Delhi bureaucracy,it seems,has rarely had it so good. While the year began with an extended weekend,the past weekend was also a long one,with most offices closed for sanitising and preparations for Republic Day. The three weekdays in between hardly seemed to count as bureaucrats were mostly absent. “We’re busy exchanging Republic Day pleasantries,” was the common refrain. And will the pleasantries spill over to the next week? Perhaps not,with the buzz being that the first week of February should have everyone back in the office.

Funny lines
With traffic cordons and the more than usual VIP movement on Republic Day and Martyr’s Day,it has been a long,troublesome week for commuters as most roads were blocked for several hours with snarls on the diversions. Ring Road proved to be the worst with construction activity for the Commonwealth Games along the stretch near Rajghat creating a kilometre-long jam. With the ITO Chungi open to traffic now,some new signage and road rules have been put in place which could have been of help only if they were not so comical. Near the Chungi,a particular prominent sign says,“Only for Geeta”,with a second line sheepishly adding “Colony Bridge”.

Low phase
Finance Minister A K Walia,it seems,is not in a very good mood these days. The projects that he had once opposed vehemently,like the Rs 600-crore Signature Bridge,have recently managed to get a nod from the Urban Development Ministry directly.

Over the last week,Walia has been missing his meetings with the chief minister,including a key meeting to provide monthly rations with the help of NAFED. Even at the chief minister’s annual lunch,Walia was the last minister to come and he walked in straight to the far end avoiding conversation with her.

Family reunion
This nursery admissions story is not about parents versus schools or schools versus the Directorate of Education but about a “reunion”. The couple had been living separately for some time. The “pressure” of getting their only child admitted to school became too much to handle individually and the couple has now decided to get back together,said Sumit Vohra of admissionsnursery.com. Vohra said the mother required the documents of the child’s father to prove their educational qualifications to ‘gain points’,so she went up to her husband and “discussed issues for the better future of the child” and both patched up.