With less than three weeks to go, preparations are in overdrive for the Commonwealth games. If the huge government billboards are to be believed ‘Shera is on track’ but what about the Delhites, the majority of whom are crack?
Everyone is talking about the infrastructural development like the metro, stadias, roads and so on. But no one is emphasizing on the most important aspect, that is, the hosts.
The general attitude of Delhites, is very incourteous, to say the least. ‘Atithi Devo Bhava’ is just a colourful poster, adorning the various tourist information centres in the host city.
The harsh reality is that we do not really believe in it. We are all doing a great job of pretending that we are all set for the games. Reality check, like it or not, we are all faking it.
People of Delhi are rude in there behaviour, foul in there language and a bunch of hooligans who are ready to fight or even shoot someone, over a trivial issue like parking space.
If you have a car, it gives you the right to hurl abuses at auto drivers and rickshaw pullers Mind you; the same does not apply to the ‘BIG’ cars belonging to the influential strata of the society.
Living in the age of road rage, you never know which one of his bodyguards might shoot you, if you cut him on the road. Interestingly, the size of a car is directly proportional to the arrogance of the one driving it. So, do not dare to hurt their fragile egos.
Let alone intelligence, we do not even have common sense. We have painted the town red with spats of our beloved benarasi paan.
We believe that passing lewd comments and ogling girls is our birth right and heavens save those poor souls if it’s late night!
When we don’t know how to behave with each other, what the visitors will go through is anybody’s guess. Moreover, they are soft targets for many; hence they are duped and looted.
Auto/taxi drivers, guides, shopkeepers etc. are the masters in the art of fleecing foreigners. On a lighter note, maybe, they have taken upon themselves to get back some of the wealth, the west took from us.
The situation is so grave that females are forced to remain indoors after darkness falls.
They are harassed and molested on streets, public transportation, in markets and almost everywhere else. If a poor girl wears a ’revealing’ dress, there is a strong chance that she’ll even be raped!
The government isn’t able to protect its own citizens, god save the visitors.
Furthermore, we have a disturbing mindset that foreigners are the most sexually active species (which is completely wrong as proven by India’s population) and are always ready for sex. We ogle at foreigners (girls) as if we’ll hypnotize them into having sex with us!
Moving on, at times we become violent unnecessarily. We merrily pelt stone and burn down buses, autos, taxis, dogs, cats etc. to show to the world that we are angry.
Few years back a Haryana roadways bus hit and injured a person gravely. As his friends and family couldn’t get hold of the same bus, they burnt down a DTC bus!
What is the relation between the two? Why are we so dimwitted? We just vent our ire on anything we can lay our hands upon.
Now, just imagine what will happen if a bus carrying the athletes gets trapped in such a situation?
Look at some of our residential colonies. We simply don’t know how to keep our surroundings clean. We have a habit of throwing our garbage out of our windows and balconies.
The government has planned bed and breakfast scheme for the visitors. Just imagine a tourist walking down the street and a bag of garbage lands on his head! ATITHI DEVO BHAVA indeed!
Once a friend asked me, which is the world’s longest toilet? After scratching my head for a few minutes, I gave up.
The tracks of the Indian railways, he answered. I was amused but at the same time was a bit upset. It is a sad reality.
Likewise, the roadsides of Delhi are a big urinal. Residents are forced to paste pictures of gods on their walls, so that passersby don’t urinate there (what a disgusting idea!)
Now imagine athletes coming out of a stadium and someone urinating against the stadium wall. What a relaxing sight for them after a tiring day, right?
But don’t you dare declare the government a failure. To tackle all the above issues, the government was getting special teams to teach ‘manners and etiquettes’ to Delhiites.
But just like many other projects this one also suffered a premature death due to time constraints.
But if it were to be done what a farce it would have been? Was the government expecting crores of people to change their lifestyle in a matter of months?
You can teach a rickshaw puller English, but how will you teach him to take a bath daily? Moreover, did we need an event to teach us the basic manners and courteousness? Should not they be a part of our self-conscience?
Commonwealth games were a bad idea to begin with. In a country where people are dying of hunger, there was no need to spend crores of rupees on an event that is not going to do anything for anyone, except for the organisers.
And the ‘dynamic democracy’ that India is, our politicians are going to make many such offers in order to fill their coffers. If the government was so willing to host the games, much better planning was required.
The government is not leaving any stone unturned in projecting a fake image of Delhi and its people and nobody cares, if we make a fool of ourselves. What if an athlete is humiliated, duped or worse raped? The government is happy patting its back.
The one line that would suffice the government’s attitude would be- ‘Shera is on track’…to hell with all the flak.
Finally, five events where Delhites can surely win a gold:
Boxing (due to road rage)
Javelin throws (a piece of garbage to replace the javelin)
Shooting (in a bar after a brawl)
Wrestling (for parking space)
Long jump (over open manholes and piles of garbage)
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