Aap itna gaali kyun dete hain?

Delhi Belly had restarted a debate on abuse and boy am I glad. I was fast becoming one of the last few souls who still abuse. Most of my friends were turning away from using the F,B,C,M,G and L words.

My first gaali lesson was from my little brother. He came back from school one day and blurted it out. It sounded something like screwing a buffalo. It did not seem to make sense although his friends were using it in school and having fun. Many years later I realized it was actually about screwing someone else.

I remember an assistant of mine was shocked when he heard me abuse on shoot. He thought it was an exception and let it pass. But pretty soon he realized that was not the case. I was at it everyday. And I did not seem to bother if there were women around. So one day at lunch break he sat down and looked deep into my eyes and asked – Aap itna gaali kyun dete hain?

I started by explaining how gaalis encapsulate the frustration one feels in certain situations. How gaalis help us take out that anger. How there should be a law in support for giving gaalis. How gaalis help reduce violence. And how the study of gaalis should be regular subject at school where children should be awarded marks for creating new flowery gaalis.

He never spoke to me on that subject again.

My experience is that Delhi is streets ahead on this. When working briefly in Bombay, I remember people accepted any kind of behaviour in colleagues and friends. Stuff that could be considered immoral elsewhere. Two timers, three timers. You name it. But you could not abuse. They had actually invented words like “fish” and “fuch” so that they did not have to say the real thing in public.

In the gaali universe, there are two kinds of people in this world. Actually three. One who give gaalis. I am talking about Hindi stuff. Then there those who do not give gaalis. But given time they can be converted. And then there are those abuse in English only.

The last set of people are the silliest. The F word is no match for the C,G or B word. You get the drift. English abuses are mostly short. They do not let you stretch your emotion. Whereas gaalis let you take out the entire anger you are feeling at that point.

There should be credible research hidden somewhere in Europe that abusing in your mother tongue is actually better for your health. Just make sure the person you are addressing it to is five feet away. And shorter than you. Better still you should be in a car.

Dispatches from Aya Nagar 1 - Fearless Investigators

All of last month A's handle on GMail has been - Getting a new house has been like a getting a new life.

And so it goes. After the floods made the journey to the new home an Expedition to the Animal Kingdom, now the broken roads test the car shockers. Of course the neighbours - both helpful and more than curious. The strange sounds at night and early morning. The new friends you make - monkeys, peacocks you name it. These we were ready for.

So imagine our pleasant surprise when we got this with our morning newspaper. Now Karol Bagh has its share of funny promotionals (LAST SALE OF PRE WEDDING SEASON, INTERNATIONAL BRANDS AT YOUR BACK DOOR) but nothing prepared us for FEARLESS INVESTIGATORS.

The ad started off with - Are you worried about the future of your children and your family status?

I thought this must be a tuition or a private college but then why would they call themselves FEARLESS INVESTIGATORS?

Then - If YES, then Fearless Investigators will help you to relieve from the pain. Pain?
OK, this must be a hospital or a test lab for diseases.

Then it confused me further - If your children have fallen in love trap with the wrong person?
Who are these guys? Marriage Counselors? Or just regular shrinks? And more importantly, there are places in this world who can top K B in funny product flyers?

Further down it was revealed - India's first company that has been built to protect you, your family status and your children from few wrong persons...

Yes. Please click on the image to enjoy the full Monty.

The first official ad for a private Khap panchayat meets private investigators. And maybe they have a sister concern that assists in honour killings.

Welcome to Aya Nagar. The honour of my children will be safe here.

PS - I have left their numbers if any of you need them. Just in case.

We've got mail

The best test of whether you have settled into a new locality is when you get snail mail. Its only when your postman recognizes your address you have truly arrived. Courier walahs are very enterprising in tracing a new address. The postman is more conservative. If he does not recognize the address back goes your letter to the sender.

So yesterday we got our first letter. It came in an innocent brown envelope. I have always been wanting a small uncomplicated address. None of those convoluted Khasra No 118878/19899. Shifting to an urban village one had thought that one would have to now live with those numbers handed down from the 19^th century land records.

Many cities in India still have two number for houses. Hyderabad used to follow this till some time back. One number was the older one that most people remembered. But the civic authorities had renamed the houses. So your address would carry both numbers :)

But our neighbours had already thought out this problem. They devised a simple address and each new house took on a new number and now there are four buildings that use this description.

And now the postman knows that new people have moved into the neighbourhood.

Where do you get good coffee in the city ?

With coffee bars coming up we have left the days when we had to line up at Nescafe stalls and drink strange concoctions they called coffee.

Of course we still have a long way to go compared to Paris or New York, but I thought since I spend so much time at such places let me think which are the one that I like.

South Indian filter coffee is best at Sarvana Bhavan at Janpath. Earlier (about 20 years back) I would go to Coffee Home but those were desperate days. If you like cona coffee, United Coffee House in the Inner Circle is a surprise. They serve the coffee in a round bottomed beaker (!).

When it comes to the new coffee bars I am looking for places where you can get good coffee consistently. This is normally not the case in any of the Cafe Coffee Day outlets. Either it is the coffee they use or their people are not trained properly. They do not understand "no sugar coffee" orders and are late with bringing the coffee to the table.

Barista does better with the IIT Barista having the best ambience. The staff is better trained and start recognizing you on your third or fourth visit.

The Green Park Costa Coffee is the best best for a random test. Almost anytime I have gone there the coffee has been good. Of course you still have to figure out the right size of cup to order since the prices are way above other coffee bars. Indians used to having small cups of coffee, the medium and large Costa Coffe is way too much !

Some time too much of a good thing is wasted :)

Which are your favourite joints for coffee ?

Work in Progress

Since A has been traveling to exotic places, I have been subject to a lot of noises from the house downstairs. You see a new set of people have moved in and they are making alterations to their home.

In Delhi, this might take almost a month. Walls are broken down to merge rooms or cavities created for cupboards and ACs. The balcony might be covered to create an additional bedroom (who needs such a large space to sit out ?). The noise starts around 8 in the morning and continues till about 10 in the night.

Sometimes I look at my colony as a microcosm of the city – A Work In Progress. Always somewhere some large construction is happening – a new flyover, a building or a metro line. Where we stay in Karol Bagh, old houses are being torn down to make way for garish hotels. Shops replaced by mini supermarkets (if there is such a phrase).

Of course we too have made our contribution to this. Last year when our house caught fire we spent over a month in repairs. Then it was the neighbours on the first floor who were putting POP in their entire house. Of course our staircases were filled with POP dust for two months. And water related work (new tanks, seepage repair) continues throughout the year.

The roads inside our colony are always being dug up by different sarkari and private agencies who refuse clean up when they leave. New ingenious ways to park cars need to be found each time the roads are left in this state.

There is a police station nearby which went through a flurry of refurbishments two years ago. All the old furniture and building material waste was left at a gate facing our colony. This remained the dumping ground for a long time. Confiscated rickshaws and cars also found their way. Then suddenly one day they were removed. The people living near the police station did not know how to react to this new available space. But before it could be used for parking more cars we bought, the garbage reappeared with a vengeance. We were told that some parts of the housing complex within the station are being reconstructed.

From the air, Delhi must resemble an ant colony, workers scurrying around. Can you remember the last time the city was free of construction projects and traffic could flow? Before the 1982 Asian Games? But then there were hardly any cars to compare.

Cities in other countries too go through such a process, but only in Delhi can you find a living exhibition of a City on the Make. Everything is out there. You can stop and see what we are doing because we are going to take twice the amount of time anyways.

Just be careful while watching the show. You might fall into a ditch left over from a cable-laying project.

The culture of protest

Reports coming in from Kolkata tell us that people in the city have taken to the streets in protest of inadequate relief and the collapse of civic facilities.

None of this is news for people in Delhi. Here we protest against everything - water supply, electricity breakdown, demolition drive, CNG and of course Sanskrit. And I am not even including the hundreds of political parties, trade unions or other groups who come to protest in the city every year.

In contrast, when I was in Mumbai during the 2005 floods I was surprised by the lack of anger in the city as electricity and water was not restored even after four days. A friend and I went down to the market to get drinking water. The local neighbourhood shop was selling bottled water at four times the price. When I pointed out that in any other city the shop owner would have been beaten up for doing that, my friend smiled. Further discussion provoked a response that violence is not a solution in a crisis situation and only complicates matter.

Mumbai has always had a culture of protest. Right from the Royal Naval Mutiny, to the taxi unions strike in support of the Railway strike of 1974 and the mill workers strike in 1982. The 2005 floods saw a breakdown of civic infrastructure on a huge scale and the bureaucrats and politicians kept passing the buck for the entire month after.

There was not one protest. No one was bothered. It seemed like people had become indifferent. As long as their immediate problems were solved and they could go about their work they were not interested. To protest means to bring things to a standstill and drawing attention to your self and your problems. It seems like people in Mumbai do not want to do that any more. But we easily tend to forget it was the culture of protest that helped us win our freedom a few decades back.

When did it become unfashionable to protest for what we think is right?

PS Google disagrees with me. A search for "Kolkata" and "protest" yields much less results compared to "Mumbai" and "protest". But most of the "protest" results for Mumbai are the ones after the terror attacks which were not really protests. Where were the bricks and lathis man?

the best season in Delhi ?

Just returned from a film shoot where I was treated to the best that Indian summer has to offer - Hyderabad (40 degrees C), Kota (44 degrees C) and Kolkata (42 degrees and humid !). When I returned they told me it had rained for a couple of days in Delhi and temperatures were down. For me it looked like I had just stepped out into a furnace. A windy furnace but a furnace neverthless. OK, trees with yellow flowers. But a furnace still.

A few days later we were driving to Priya, suddenly the weather changed and it became cloudy. We had a few drops of rain. Then a dust storm. Returning home, the storm had picked up. A tree that had provided us shade from the heat this summer was uprooted. Looking at the damage the next morning torn between feeling sad for the tree and myself I started thinking - what is the best time for Delhi - weather wise?

Don't get me wrong. I like the dry heat. Dry heat is always manageable. (Ask me I have ended up on a shoot in Rajasthan every summer !). Just drink lots of water and wear a hat. But what is the best time to spend in this city?

Every city is associated with a certain weather. Something that its people swear by. Mumbai has its monsoon. Kolkata its afternoon rain. Bangalore/Pune are pleasant through out the year. Here we have a summer followed by a short monsoon, then winter and two months of spring.

According to this study Delhi is only comfortable to live 1/4 th of the year. That means that:

more than two-third of the year is either too hot,too cold or too humid.

Only 9 percent of summers were "comfortable". Winters were good. Monsoon are the worst.

WOW !

Is it really that bad ? Outsiders have always complained about the weather of the country, especially the heat. Babur wrote about the heat and always longed for Kabul. But what we do not remember here is that he never left India. The tourist who travels to India, always wants to come back for more !

And what is definition of comfortable? The same study points out that most people are "comfortable" when the temperature is between 15 degrees C and 25 deg C. Well I would disagree. Who would want to be in that temperature range throughout the year? How boring would that be !

If "comfortable" was important one can forget about enjoying many parts of the world. Would you complain about the freezing cold at Rohtang Pass? The heat in the Atacama desert? Or the strong winds on the road to Hemis? Of course one would like to live in a less hotter and pleasanter climes but not boring weather. Who would want to not have the dust storms once in a while?

Ideal temperatures for me be 30 on the higher side and 10 on the lower. But only for six months in a year. The rest of the time I would like the heat and the cold and heavy monsoon - ideally two months of each. The ideal day should have a light shower in the afternoon so that the evenings are cool.

And now that we are in fantasy land - what is your ideal weather?

How to be a 100% dilliwalah (Suggestion No. 9)

Never have change.

When the shopkeeper or autowalah or the petrol pump attendant asks you for that one rupee just shake your head. You can pretend to look in your pocket or inside the car and then shake your head again. Then he might ask you for two rupees. Shake your head again. By this time he will give up. However if he is die hard dilliwalah, here is your challenge. Who will blink first? Fish out the change? Or will you give it up and walk away?

When the entire country is using coins of all kinds - 50p, one ruppee etc - this is the only city where everyone claims he has no change. In any other place you will be returned the change. But not here. Where does all the loose change disappear in this city? Is there some guy stacking it all up in a basement in Tilak Nagar and becoming a millionaire every year? Or is it being gobbled by the black hole of Dilli?

First they will look for it and when they cannot find it they will tell you that they will adjust it in the next sale. Or they will ask you to forget it. If you get angry they will empty their pockets or their purse or their cash box. Be it morning, afternoon or even closing time no one has change.

I understand that due to inflation most of the small change is worthless to you and me. But in many countries in Europe in the US this change is given as tip or to charity. That way it remains in circulation. But not according to Dilli. Good change is change that remains with you and does not roam freely in the city.

In case you are desperate there are two places to go for change. The panwalah and the Mother Dairy booth. But they will insist that you buy something. Unless you do that they will pretend they have no change either. So what will it be? A cigarette or some flavoured milk?

This can only happen in Dilli 5

After much we agreed (A & I) that spring cleaning would be the ideal time for us to throw away old clothes and stuff we had collected over the years. Of course we had made this decision many times in the past but this time it actually happened. Now we had a pile of clothes and the big question - WHAT DO WE DO WITH THEM?

Normally old clothes are given away to house helps, the car cleaner, garbage woman and the kabadi wala (in that order) but that is when we have a couple of clothes. Also when our house caught fire we had given off a lot of stuff to them. What do we do with this pile ? We went over the options :

1. Go to a NGO/orphanage. (No we were too lazy to do that)

2. Distribute the clothes between the above mentioned people. (too long a process and will take a few days)

3. Drive to the Pusa Road crossing and give it away to kids and families living there . (Radical but will clear up the mess)

So we packed up and were about to leave when we encountered a bartanwali - she belonged to a group of women who travel around parts of Delhi collecting old clothes in exchange for new utensils. The system is similar to a barter but you are never sure how much clothes do you need to buy something particular. But I rememeber when I was younger it was excellent system to recycle old clothes. The women would wash the clothes and sell them in the second hand market. This was good. We get to recycle the clothes and buy something too.

We finalized a metal dabba.

But there was a problem. Our clothes were not enough to buy that. The woman asked us whether we had men's clothes. She started staring at the jeans I was wearing. We shook our heads. Old shoes? No. Watches? Yes we remembered one. But she was not happy with that. She needed a pair of trousers. Since I do not wear one we looked around for an alternative. Finally we found a pair of shoes. Not good enough. She kept shaking her head.

After much haggling she agreed to give the metal dabba but only after extracting a promise. Another pair of shoes next week when she returns. She stared at my shoes this time.

We are planning another spring cleaning. We hope to find something to please her.

How to be a 100% dilliwalah (Suggestion No. 8)

Use the Metro. Once.

Now you can pretend to be an ultracoolenvironmentfriendly type who cares about climate change and all that crap. The next time you meet your friends at Barista you must keep talking about the METRO RIDE.

First of all you must mention the walk to the station. Since it was Sunday (who in their right minds would take the Metro on any other day) there was no traffic and birds were singing in the air etc etc. Then the spic and span station. Very few people, no traffic jams.

Now you move to the platform. Everyone (all the five commuters on a Sunday morning) waited politely. There was no pushing. Also add a bit about how there was so much space in the train. Your ride can be for any purpose - shopping or going to a historical monument. The grander the idea the better. It could be to spend time with nature - therefore you went to central park in CP. Or it could be that you wanted to taste authentic Mughlai khana and decided to go to Karim’s.

Every time you look up from your car at the Metro line above, another story about the ride you never had should pop up in your mind. If you change your destination this story can be recycled (environment friendly) anywhere - college, parties or while standing in the line for milk at Mother Dairy. One real ride will suffice for a lifetime of stories since the rest of the gang will be hiding the fact that they rarely use the Metro.

This story could also be recounted at a business meeting. There was a time when you could mention Delhi’s history or food and pass off as a superior city. Not anymore. Now you have to mention the Metro. There is nothing like people from Mumbai, Bangalore or Gurgaon squirming in their seats when you tell them how Delhi is a step ahead. (Forget a step ahead - Mumbai can't even get to decide how they are going to build it - the soil keeps collapsing on them).

But with this group you need have your facts. Visit this blog on the Delhi Metro for regular updates. How the metro helps save commuting time. How many people use it everyday. Look at the projections for 2010. Never mind that by 2010 you will have a Pajero and will never ride the Metro.

You may not have a successful meeting. But for some vague reason you will walk out feeling superior.

How to be a 100% dilliwalah (Suggestion No. 7)

Collect your garbage and throw it out.

Not on the main street. But inside your colony. The location needs to be chosen carefully. It has to inconvenience a lot of people. A couple parking spaces must be lost. For best results either keep the garbage for a week or get some work done on your house. The second option helps you collect a lot of solid material that will not disappear soon.

When asked about the garbage pretend that you have no clue. Agree with the neighbours that the person responsible should be punished. Of course everyone knows that since they all have done a similar thing in the past no action would be taken.

Choose the time appropriately. Early morning on Sundays are the best since no one is awake at that time. If the safai karamchaari sees you tip him but DO NOT let him clear the mess. After all its your mess and you have a right to display it.

Many days later it would have blended into the background. Then you can be proud that you too have contributed to colony landscape.

Who walks in that park?

Being a dilliwalah you should walk - I had written earlier and the New York Times agreed.

Each of the localities have their own parks where people come out in the mornings. Most of them know each other and the parks are often a place to catch up on colony gossip. But in some cases the parks are huge like the lake park near my house which attracts an interesting mix of people whose profile keeps changing throughout the day.

6-7am
This is mostly men, old RSS types and some of the older folk who are fit enough to venture out early. The men of course do not do any house work therefore can venture out any time. Their wives follow an hour later when the children have gone off to school. The RSS types are the funniest - with their inflated shorts saluting a strange flag and doing exercises. It almost looks like NCC cadets Senior Citizens section.

7-8am
The busiest time. Almost all of the older folk and women land up now. The children have been dispatched to the prison houses (schools) and houses are generally empty. This group has a sense of purpose as they go about walking vigorously discussing problems of their lives and sharing gossip. The activity is often combines with buying groceries from stalls out side the park. You identify the stuff before the walk and the boys deliver to your house an hour later.

By this time many of the young Jat boys come out to exercise in the open air gym in the park. With a rudimentary set of equipment they pretend to be seriously working on their bodies while checking out the handful of girls who are walking at the same time. The older folk sit around the lake, talking. They seem to enjoy the location since they have time on their hands.

8-9am
Most of the crowd has now gone back home. In fact in summer no self respecting Punjabi would be seen walking in the heat. A group of school kids play cricket in one corner of the park while college girls and their dates sit on isolated benches whispering. While this park is not a famous one like Lodi garden or Nehru Park since it is so huge and convenient in terms of location (near Pusa Road and now on the Metro Line) it is often used during the day by people from other parts of the city. The office crowd can be seen resting in or crossing the park to go towards Rajendra Place or the Metro station throughout the day. Hawkers in that area use the park to rest during the day.

However one group that I have never seen this side of town are the kids of the former landowners of the area. In many parts of South Delhi, the land for colonies like Green Park or GK1 was acquired from farmers or landowners 30 or 40 years ago. But the owners continue to stay on in villages like Humayunpur or Chiraag Dilli. They had become rich due to the sale and their children pass time playing cricket or playing cards since they do not have a need for work. Maybe the owners of lands in Patel Nagar and Karol Bagh have shifted a long time ago since these areas are almost 30 to 50 years older than South Delhi colonies.

Have you noticed who uses the parks near your house ?

How to become a 100% dilliwalah (Suggestion No 1)

Of course a lot of people ask me - what makes a dilliwalah? Or better still - how do you become a dilliwalah? So here goes...

The first thing you need to become a dilliwalah is to GET A CAR. And not one of those small 800s. You need a big mean one (SUVs preferred). Once you've got the top of the line version - power windows, child lock - (used by the kids to lock their grandparents at the back), back window wiper - drive down to the nearest car accessory market. For the upmarket guys this is Khan Market. For the rest it is Karol Bagh.

Then you proceed to transform the car. First come the leather seats. So that it is impossible for anyone to sit in your car for more than 10 minutes without his back becoming a river of sweat. Then the extra large speakers that can rock the shit out of the security guys at the PMO every time you ride past that place.

Now come the stickers. A cricket ball crashing into a window, a child looking from the back window or a knife stuck into the side of the car dripping in blood - you know what i am talking about. Of course then its the wheels. If you buy a new set make sure it is as expensive as the car itself.

Finally, don't forget the fake American number plate with NORTH CAROLINA or LONE STAR printed on it. When the police pull you over, you can always pretend (remember the accent) that you just came back to Delhi and haven't had the time to change the plates.

More thoughts on being an Outsider

Wikipedia enlightens us that an Outsider

often refers to one identified as on the periphery of social norms, one living or working apart from mainstream society, or one observing a group from the outside.

In this sense I have always felt like an outsider in Delhi. Growing up, children around me used to find my surname funny. (Even today many give up half way while writing it down like the travel agent I met today.) They would often question me about where I really came from and how my family got this name etc. In social situations this would consume a lot of time.

Next was my first name. Apparently, you can only be a woman or a Maharashtrian if you are named sudhesh. Thankfully the first notion died a gentle death when I started sprouting small facial hair in my teens.

Then in my teens I felt like an outsider when I wore specs for the first time. Other kids would look at me with curiousity and then pity. Initially they would keep me out of serious sports till they realized that I was too bull headed. (It is a different matter that I would end up with many broken specs each year.)

Later it was during the Mandal commission. I seriously had no idea what caste I belonged to. Most guys in my college refused to believe that. They assumed that if I was from south, I must be from upper caste (therefore he is on our side). Some who knew that my parents were from Kerala assumed I was a Christian(so therefore not part of the Mandal equation).

Added to that since my community was matriarchal that discussion would really get confusing. As people tried to grasp the real meaning of this their eyes would keep widening.

"So if the eldest daughter gets the property, what do the sons get?"
"Nothing."
"How is that possible?"
"Well that is how it is - when we talk about our village we are normally talking about our mother's village"
"What do you mean? What about of your father's family?"
"They are not that important"
"What ????????????"

And so on...

When I moved to south delhi - the same questions - where are you from? Also if you are a south Indian you will make a good tenant since a south Indians do not fight.

And all this time I was an Outsider to "south Indians" too. I wasn't a south Indian at all. At least my cousins never thought so when they met me during the summer holidays. I have lived in Delhi all my life. I talk in three languages but mostly think in English. I do not have any doubt that I belong to Delhi, but even within the city there are several groups, some into which you fit, but actually you never fit in all the way.

But then is it such a bad thing? The Outsider is always defined not by the outsider but the Insider - someone who is already there - who feels insecure, irritated that you are not like him or worse you do not fit into any of the compartments of his mind. He is not able to resolve this and therefore the definition - Outsider.

I think I will irritate and tease the Insiders for some more time....

Fast Times in Karol Bagh

Going to the market, I noticed a group of young boys trying out stunts on their cycles. Since most of the roads this part of town have heavy traffic, this was a curious sight. They stood in a group on one side of the road on bikes cutting off the traffic clearing the road while their friends showed off.



Some time ago, on my travels, i had written about kids trying to learn skateboard tricks at the Bastille. As soon i came nearer and started observing them, they doubled their efforts. A few snaps later, I felt maybe they were getting carried away by my camera. The traffic continued stopping, honking and shouting at them but they could not be bothered.



As each one took off, others waited their turn crouching like little cats ready for their play. When they had their run, they would slide to a halt and go back to blocking the road. They would look at each other's bikes like cowboys in a B grade Western and admire a new accessory their friend had put on the bike.



One of the boys told me they did this every Sunday at India Gate. On second Saturdays most schools are off, so they try out their tricks nearer home. Given the traffic it seemed a more dangerous idea in this part of town, I said. But the advantage was that there were no police people to stop them, he smiled.

As they turned around for one last snap they seemed to tell me - Get a bike next time, OK ?

Ireland VS Plastic bags

And Ireland seems to be winning...

There are several places in India where there is a ban on plastic bags(Uttarakhand for example) but in most cases they are not completely successful since people claim there are no alternatives. How come we forget that only about a decade ago we used to still carry cloth bags to the market?

It is only when people are forced to pay for such things (fines or surcharges) that they stop doing it and find alternative. In Ireland they have to pay a 33 percent surcharge on their bill if they want a plastic bag. The usage has dropped 94 percent !!!!

Will this work in India? While some shops do charge a small amount for a plastic bag, mostly the norm in Delhi is that it come free with whatever you buy. Bread, veggies, books - you name it. And when you tell them you do not need it or you have your own bag they look at you with surprise. Even if we charge 10 bucks for a bag see how people will react to the idea.

I would like to see the figures for smoking now that its been two months since the ban was imposed. Has it really worked? Maybe there is no alternative to that cigarette in your hand !

Also: Go here for more stuff on plastic bags...

Cities of Outsiders

Raj Thackeray has kicked off the age old debate on who is an outsider in a city. The argument goes something like this - Our city used to be so good, now it is overcrowded and there is no space. It is these outsiders who have brought it to this state. They need to leave our city.

In this case the ire was directed at the Chatt Puja that is celebrated by Biharis. Raj Thackeray has called the puja a drama drawing a response from political leaders from Bihar. Yesterday, supporters of Raj Thackeray went on a rampage attacking among other things a cinema hall showing a Bhojpuri film.

Who is an outsider? And who is the original resident of any place? Delhi's population doubled overnight after the Partition after most of the refugees decided to settle in this town that was never fully developed by the British. In fact the construction of the New Capital finished only in 1931.

My parents came to the city in 1970 while most of my friends have migrated from places elsewhere in the 80's or 90's. So who among all these is the original dilliwalah? Is it the families who owned large tracts of land that were converted into colonies in the 60s and 70s? But they recognise only the village they live in - Chirag Dilli,for example - and do not talk about Delhi.

Ranjana Sengupta has argued in her book about Delhi that colonies that originally housed different communities Kalkaji & Rajinder Nagar (Refugees from Pakistan, mostly Punjabis), Chittaranjan Park (Bengalis) and Karol Bagh (Tamilians and Malayalees) have become more homogenised over the years. This may have happened more as a process of buying their own house (therefore moving to a new locality) or moving closer to work.

In that sense has Delhi become cosmopolitan? I do not think for once that cultural or religious aspect have become homogenized. There are larger and larger Mata ka Jagarans and Durga Puja Pandals but it may also be true that people from other communities might be joining them. But there is still a tendency to fall back to our regional cultural symbols whenever we feel insecure. Or attack something in another person's culture that we do not understand.

Having grown up with hardly any Malayalee friends, I rarely feel the need to go back to my "roots" since Karol Bagh will be large part of my roots. Kerala is where my parents come from and I love the place but I am not sure whether it is my "home town". And what about my language? Malayalam, English or Hindi? I am confused.

A city can only be cosmopolitan when it confidently absorbs other cultures and its residents do not identify completely with any one of them. Somewhat like children whose parents had a traveling job and ended up absorbing many cultures. I guess to become cosmopolitan one has to travel well. That is the contradiction. Most of us in the cities do not travel much and even when we do, it is in a touristy kind of a way. When we are forced to live with other cultures that is when we appreciate them.

My folks did that that four decades ago and I am continuing that tradition. Enjoying kababs and chole bhature in winter !

Also: Gautam attacks the root of the problem...

the days are lovely...

...dark and deep

it is a gloomy wintery february
no sun in sight
a rare thing nowadays
with global warming and all that crap
usually in february the sun comes back
dancing across the sky

these days remind of monsoon
only there is very little rain
and lots of bitter cold

this is the time to walk
out to the a coffee joint
drink many cups
write or dream

this is when i start to fall in love with this city again...

I love Mumbai

Just came into Mumbai for a couple of days and realised how much I love coming here once in a while. Some of the reasons :

• This is probably the only place in the world that can make me look like a country cousin. Everyone is wearing the latest fashion and looks super busy staring off into the distance while walking on the streets.
• The only place where they make me feel my English is Old World. Just fixed up a meeting with someone who actually said " When you come into town give me a shout and we will hook up." I thought only 16 year olds used words like that. Silly me !
• People are on time or call up when they are late. (rare in Delhi)
• People here call a 20 ft by 20ft patch of grass a park. (ha ! ha!)
• I get to re learn the stations on the Western Line.
• They think people from Delhi wear printed kurtas, jeans and have unshaven beards. (That's in Kolkata, folks !)
• I get to ask my friends silly questions like - Why are you staying here? Why not in Chembur?
• I get to read another paper during the day. (Although even Delhi has its edition of Midday now)
• Think that travelling to town area on Sunday (no traffic you see) as a major expedition to another planet.

Will keep you updated on my feelings and new discoveries about Mumbai.

Delhi and its cities

According to this

Delhi is made up of twelve cities

and I thought it was seven ....