Freedom146;s capital

Recently, as we anticipated the arrival of a German visitor, I began to brace myself on requisite heritage information by delving into volum...

Recently, as we anticipated the arrival of a German visitor, I began to brace myself on requisite heritage information by delving into voluminous guides. So there was I planning a schedule for the perspective visitor, who was to follow the oft-beaten tourism track 8212; Delhi, Agra, Jaipur and Varanasi.

D-Day arrived and the visitor came around with the European version of guide books, which essentially caution foreigners about the touts, how they should bargain to avoid being cheated, to eat cautiously to avoid the Delhi belly and to beware of pickpockets. So we set out together to unravel the layers of Delhi history, as I chose to don the garb of a self-appointed guide. We went to the Qutab Minar, the Purana Qila, the Red Fort and Rashtrapati Bhavan.

My visitor paid the newly-hiked entrance fee quite happily, while I was embarrassed to pay what was startling meagre in contrast. While driving around, he would often duck while confronting the chaotic traffic but after a rigorous tour of the city he did not seem satiated. He said he still had not seen one thing.

As I was wondered which monument I had overlooked, he said he had not seen any cows. He had come quite prepared to see them all over the place. This exhibit would be without a ticket, he laughed. Proud of my country as I am, it was with something of a twinge that I drove towards the Defence Colony flyover, confident that we would soon encounter the required bovines. Sure enough, there were two huge cows sprawled on the main road. My visitor was as pleased as Punch.

What a shame that this is the image of the capital of the world8217;s largest democracy. What a shame that cows are as ubiquitous here as the monuments it is so proud of, because neither the administration, nor the owners wish to do anything about them!

My German visitor has another interesting observation to make. Having seen that almost everywhere there were drains dug up for the laying of water pipes or telephone wires, he wanted to know whether New Delhi was undergoing a major facelift.

What was I to tell him? That if the telephone people dig up the road and after months actually re-do it, the water people come along and lay their pipes, after which the electricity are on the scene digging again? That no department here works in unison with any other?

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Now my German friend will carry back memories of Delhi being a city where there is a perpetual overhauling of roads, where garbage sites literally spill over, and where cows lackadaisically sprawl on the roads.

But then these, I console myself, are just other facets of our democratic freedom. Germany, certainly, will not be able to boast of such a high degree of freedom 8212; not just for human beings, but every living being!