The first working day of the year saw commuters making quite an effort to follow the plan — which speaks for volumes about the city's resident's willingness to lessen pollution levels — but the day didn't quite pan out without offenders (around 500 offenders were booked till around 7pm, according to Delhi transport minister Gopal Rai) and no chaos. As is the case in 2015, people look out at Twitter for most real-time updates, and the micro-blogging site did not disappoint. Tweets flew across the World Wide Web from Delhiites — from initial tweets thanking the plan for empty roads to a slew of picture tweets of overcrowded Metro stations, primarily the biggest convergence point, the Rajiv Chowk Metro Station. ???? ??? ???? ???! ???? #OddEvenMovement pic.twitter.com/YfwGIzRcAt — Bhakt's GOD™ (@BhaktsGOD) January 4, 2016 The point to note here, though, is that some of the images doing the rounds on social media turned out to be old, or even fake. There was one image in particular that was shared widely, but then that turned out to be an archive picture from 2014. This picture was taken on October 22, 2014. It has no connection to the #OddEven scheme — Hindustan Times (@htTweets) January 4, 2016 According to Rai, some elements were trying to "misguide people" and sabotage the scheme by circulating old and false pictures of an overcrowded Rajiv Chowk Metro station in social media and creating panic. "There were attempts to spread misinformation and misguide people by circulating old and false pictures of overcrowded Rajiv Chowk Metro station in social media. I spoke to Metro officials and took a feedback of 50 stations, and we were informed that the crowd today was less than the peak crowd recorded in December in the past and the picture which was posted was of October 22," he said. #OddEvenBhaiBhai Odd Journalist, Even public pic.twitter.com/OVmMWsPZbz — Nimbupaani (@Nimbupaani) January 4, 2016 Condition fo #RajivChowk #Metro station because of Odd even rule #OddEven_??_????? #OddEven #OddEvenBhaiBhai pic.twitter.com/vWO3KELRIU — Gaurav Gupta (@90Guptagaurav) January 4, 2016 Delhi's oddeven plan is a Big Fail.Mismanagement of Delhi govt led to big chaos at metro stns.?? #OddEvenBhaiBhai pic.twitter.com/7IXg5ivu5h — Parul Tyagi (@parultyagi22) January 4, 2016 Delhi metro is so crowded its like watching IRCTC in real time. #DelhiOddEven #DelhiMetro #OddEven #OddEvenBhaiBhai #OddEvenPlan — RaajaBeta (@raajabeta) January 4, 2016 Of course, there were those who called it out as it was. 80 percent of the crowd in Rajiv chowk is made of people who went to take pictures of the crowd — Priyanka Lahiri (@lahirip) January 4, 2016 Since morning, Twitter trends had a list of hashtags and catch-words around the odd-even formula, but the those that seemed to have caught on were #OddEvenBhaiBhai and #OddEvenMovement. But then, the former's plea for brotherhood (and carpooling, as it was floated by cab company Meru) took on a life of its own, with tweeple not quite agreeing with the "BhaiBhai" sentiment, under pressures of dealing with the crowd and traffic. Of course, there were those that saw the lighter side of things. #OddEven_??_????? Funny Side of #OddEven Plan #OddEvenBhaiBhai Must Check Out >> pic.twitter.com/vxfCVI1gvz — Ankita Taori (@AnkitaTaori) January 4, 2016 Because of #OddEvenBhaiBhai rule there is no place inside the coach. @DonMufflerMan @VyangyaPuraan @RoflGandhi_ pic.twitter.com/3ITgmUS6tH — PK (@NaamNahiHai1) January 4, 2016 When there's a will there's a way #OddEvenBhaiBhai @RoflGandhi_ pic.twitter.com/IZPFUf0f1j — Wisdom Tooth (@Semitangled) January 4, 2016 And when emotions are high, an angry tweet or two usually find their way to the idea originator. Before#OddEvenFormulla @ArvindKejriwalshould have improved#publictransporthe has createdmessinDelhi #OddEvenBhaiBhai pic.twitter.com/FSrrymW5mS — IRFAN NAQIB (@naqib_irfan) January 4, 2016
