Delhi’s mean and tough, a city which tests your will and patience to the fullest (Rude City, May 1). Survival here means thinking on your feet constantly to meander in and out of everyday situations. Expecting sympathy? Forget it. But prove your mettle, show you have nerves of steel, and the city accepts you and you become a Delhiite, a word the Mumbaikars, Kolkata comrades and the Chennai brethren hate. In their suffering, everyone’s equal in Delhi, be it the auto driver or his sawari. This comes from the fatigue Dilliwallahs have in seeing so many self-important people trudge in one after the other that they get beyond caring. Delhi also does not eulogise anything like Mumbai’s spirit (so much in evidence post the deluge), the Calcuttan’s immense capability for intellectual masturbation, the Chennai Tamil’s reverse snobbery or the Bangalore Kannadiga’s new-found cultural patriotism. Delhi is just Delhi, with its hot summers and cold winters, its tree-lined avenues, its noble mien. Ask me, an eternal Delhiite, currently getting suffocated by the Mumbai spirit.
Sivakumar Iyer, Mumbai
You could have been reading my mind. Last week, I was in Delhi, my first visit to the national capital. Though there for just one-and-a-half days, it was enough for me to head home. Anarchy, not law, rules the city. Nothing depicts the Delhi cosmos better than a ride on Delhi’s buses, where the driver and conductor keep smoking beedis, the "No Smoking" signs an imploring, vain plea. I travelled by bus twice. In the first, the cleaner beat up a middle-aged man till his face was soaked with blood. His crime? He sat in a seat he wanted to. The second time around, the conductor hit three kids, all below 15. Their offence? They were in a bus that didn’t go to their destination. Both times the others sat there, uncaring. Touts float around everywhere, leaving no stone unturned to fleece newcomers to the bone. Autowallahs and cabbies charge what they want. Civic sense and cleanliness seem a mirage here.
M. Duggineni, Hyderabad
It was my maiden trip to New Delhi. At the railway station, I had no idea where Paharganj was (in fact a stone’s throw away). So, I hailed an auto who asked for Rs 50. Suspecting it to be a hefty charge, I went to a nearby hotel. There the manager helped me out by telling his worker to drop me at Paharganj. Thus, Delhiites are not all that bad as you project.
Vishal Chaudhury, Shillong
Having stayed in Hyderabad, Bangalore and Mumbai, and a regular visitor to Chennai, I can confidently say that Delhiites, though they appear sophisticated, are anything but. The only redeeming thing about Delhi is that a guy with a sense of humour can have lots of fun at the expense of its residents.
Vishwanath Rao, Bangalore
I’m a young girl who ventures out on the mean streets of Delhi every day and like so many other women try not to get raped. Yet, I can’t possibly imagine supporting your story. I’ve been with autowallahs who’ve taken me towards a safer route if they noticed a car follow me. A family of strangers has escorted me home to ensure I’d reach safe. Young men on the road have beaten up an eve-teaser for me. If Delhi has problems, it’s because of the immigrants who have wrecked its cultural ethos. And I find no reason why a city like Mumbai, which attracts millions of people everyday to its gates only to leave them to sleep on its pavements, should be upheld as having a soul. If it’s bereft of political power, it more than makes up for it in financial might. And do women not get raped there? The concept of dance bars itself is a product of the institutional maladjustments in that region. Why are North Indians constantly blamed for their ignorance of others, when other parts of India themselves are so judgemental of the mentality of the ‘north’? Wish Outlook had delved into the ways this city teaches you... and how to survive it each day. And by the way, I was in a movie hall in Bangalore where people laughed at the gay scenes in Brokeback Mountain.
Aprajita, New Delhi
I came to Delhi from Orissa 15 years back. But to date I cannot consider myself a Delhiite. I feel more at ease in cities like Hyderabad, Mumbai, Bangalore or Calcutta. The very first words I learnt after I came to Delhi were faida (gain) and nuksan (loss). It isn’t fit to be a capital city. This city belongs to Punjabis, Jats and Gujjars.
Sandeep Das, New Delhi
Instead of setting an example for all other cities, capital city Delhi is spiralling down drastically in terms of class and character. We South Indians feel like aliens out there. We’d probably feel more at home in Denmark than in Delhi.
K.C. Kumar, Bangalore
Madras, Hyderabad and Bangalore are much more friendly to outsiders than Delhi. In fact, the South Indian cities are much more progressive, prosperous and developed. Delhi lacks politeness to outsiders. All it can boast of is a hectic life, aggression and lawlessness.
V. Lalengmawia, Mizoram
Delhi, cosmopolitan city, nah. A dark-skinned Indian not knowing Punjabi is an alien. He’ll perhaps get a better deal in apartheid South Africa.
M.A. Rajpet, Secunderabad
People from the South generally have a deep-rooted hatred for North Indians. We Northies at least open our arms to everyone. Nor do we get clannish outside of the North unlike those from Bengal, Tamil Nadu or Kerala who tend to mix only with their own kind. North Indians are also looked upon as thugs when they go for renting a house in Bangalore or Mumbai; Delhi is not so discriminatory. We have stopped thinking of ourselves as one country; every region now wants its own development, its own reservations, its own water.
Varun Bansal, Delhi
I schooled in Delhi till the 10th and couldn’t wait to get out of there fast enough. It’s a city of facades. Mumbai may stink, Cal may be living on past glory, Chennai may have no water but they are all a damn sight more civilised than our savage, rustic capital city.
S. Mala, Mumbai
The cultural cringe that surrounds Delhi is not unique. It can be found, to a greater or lesser extent, in every Indian metro. Bombay has communal riots, the Shiv Sena, Shobhaa De and the underworld. Madras has people who drop down on their bellies at the sight of a politician. Bangaloreans riot when an actor dies. Calcutta has men who harass women on the street and walk past heart-attack victims without stopping to help them. Uncouth people? Look at Ahmedabad, where it’s illegal to have a drink but okay to burn Muslims alive. The mindless herd of consumers who believe that malls are "cool" and behave as if the poor don’t exist can be found in every big metro, not just in Gurgaon or GK-I. Likewise, the insufferable babu who gets high on his dubious authority lurks in every corner of the country. Delhi merely epitomises the displaced phenomenon we don’t want to acknowledge in our more "local" cities.
Satadru Sen, St Louis, US
Jessica Lall, Nitish Katara, Phoolan Devi, Safdar Hashmi, Priyadarshini Mattoo—need we attest more to Delhi being India’s crime capital?
Rakesh Agrawal, New Delhi
Delhi is not unique in its lawlessness. In every IT capital, be it Delhi, Bangalore, Hyderabad or Mumbai, crimes are on the rise. Bangalore showed its unruly side when its icon Rajkumar died. Vehicles were burned and damaged; even public property was not spared. Jumping lights, overspeeding and hit-and-run cases are usual here as are theft and robbery. Hyderabad is no better: it is a pedestrian’s nightmare, thanks to overspeeding vehicles, scanty traffic personnel and poor traffic management.
Manu Nair, Bangalore
Delhi’s the only city in the world where people are enthusiastic to show you the wrong way, that too on purpose.
Byomkesh, Dhanbad
At least in Delhi people scratch their balls and show the wrong way but down south, no one wants to understand what an outsider says. Dilli is for the Dilwallahs, not for the narrow-minded gentry.
D. Dutta, Calcutta
On Judgement Day, were I to choose between living in Delhi or going to hell, I’d opt for hell in a nano-second!
R. Raghavan, Chennai
Bravo! Your cover story on Delhi couldn’t have spelt out my own feelings about this city I have lived here for over four years now. From the auto driver who fleeces hapless customers to the maze of politics that has pervaded every inch of this city, Delhi is the most uncouth city I’ve ever lived in. Anyway, I am running away to Mumbai to start my new job and with not a shred of regret. Bye-bye Delhi! For good!
A. Ramakrishnan, New Delhi
My jaw dropped when I read Shobhaa De’s contribution to Why Delhi Sucks on uncouth Delhiites throwing their weight around at check-in counters. While checking in for a Mumbai-bound flight at Goa airport sometime last year, I was told that owing to a technical snag, both business and economy passengers would be checked in at the same counter. I had a light load, and I was the only one in the queue. Behind me, I saw the famous Mrs and Mr De arrive, clear their baggage through X-ray and queue up behind me. The sluggish computer was taking its time but within a couple of minutes, Mr De had had enough. He did the classic ‘uncouth’ number upper-class travellers often do: leaned over the counter, his cart jabbing my ankles, thrust their tickets ahead of mine, even though I was yet to receive my boarding pass and demanded that if there was a problem holding up my ticket, they should be cleared first as they were—you got it—‘business class passengers’.
Padma Rao-Sundarji, New Delhi
Mrs De and Mr Gerson Da Cunha, I’d just like to tell you that 90 per cent of Delhiites are victims, not the perpetrators of the ‘free pass culture’, the power play, politics and hierarchy. We are the ones who can’t get into a cricket stadium, are lathicharged despite having valid tickets because Sonia and parivar and Arun Jaitley’s friends need to get in first and for free! And these politicians who wield their power and break rules so blatantly are elected not just by Delhiites but by the entire country.
Nitasha Jain, New Delhi
I’m surprised at Jogen Choudhury’s sweeping generalisations about people from Haryana, Delhi and Western UP. He declaims these regions of India "are not really known for their high cultural, social or academic standards". Choudhury might want to reflect on the fact that it is precisely this kind of Bengali parochialism—exemplified in the community’s tendency to ghettoise in Chitto Park and its superiority complex vis-a-vis other Indian communities—that has crippled the emergence of a genuine cosmopolitanism in Delhi.
Rohit Chopra, Atlanta, US
Tragic irony that a government which swears to uplift the underprivileged scurries for excuses when it comes to facing the reality (Everyone Disagrees, May 1). While planning to raise the height of the Narmada dam, it should have sought ways to rehabilitate the farmers instead of passing the buck to the Supreme Court. Equally sad the media sought to dub Medha Patkar’s stir as coercive tactics.
H.R. Bapu Satyanarayana, Mysore
I have not been more appalled than by the way Aamir Khan has been snubbed—for raising his voice against the oppression of farmers (Aati Kya Plachimada?, May 1). Let’s not forget that Aamir, like many of us, could have sat cosy, made all the money he can. So, don’t scare him away, instead place some faith in him.
Shreya Sridharan, on e-mail
Aamir is seriously misled if he thinks the nba is fighting only for the rehabilitation of Narmada farmers and not against the dam per se. Could someone tell him that the nba is using the rehab slogan to just impede building the dam?
Srini Jasti, San Jose, US
Hi, Aamir! Don’t you have more films to do? Why waste time on useless matters? You are, in any case, earning crores from your Coke ads, and now have suddenly become aware of human rights issues? Whatever, you are a good actor.
George James, Mumbai
Aamir’s activism reminds me of the famous book, Everybody Loves A Good Drought.
A.S. Mishra, Bhubaneshwar
It’s strange that compensation is relatively prompt for victims of natural disasters, accidents—like fire—or terrorism, while it eludes those smarting under erroneous government policies (Widowed Sector, May 1). Given the epidemic levels of suicide among our farmers, the authorities should ensure that the banks don’t resort to cut-and-dried policies on loan sanction and repayment. There should also be better measures for dissemination of information in our agriculture sector considering that a majority of farmers are uneducated.
S.R. Vikas, New York
Bewildering that agriculture minister Sharad Pawar doesn’t have the time to read "huge" reports like that of the National Commission on Farmers. Oh, how can he when he also helms a more important enterprise—as head of the bcci! No wonder our farmers lead such a miserable existence.
K.V. Sivadasan, Bharuch
Much of the blame for the poor conditions of farmers goes to globalisation (Slash And Burn). India’s policymakers are focusing predominantly on the middle class and urban economy.
Kunal Mangal, Denver, US
I regret to remind a reputed columnist like Prem Shankar Jha that foreign policies should not be decided peering through the narrow, communal prism of second-rate politicians (Three Cheers To Chishti, May 1). If the Chishtis of our country are to decide our national interest, tomorrow it might as well be the Dawoods who decide the foreign policy.
Vinny Mathews Easo, Kuwait
Come on, it’s not just Muslims, several other communities in India are also dead against the US plans of attacking Iran. I mean, we are all unfortunate witnesses to the Iraq situation. A people with no history, culture and roots—how can they ever talk about democracy and civilian rights?
Vandana Dewan, Mumbai
Read with interest Vinod Mehta’s take on the use of Latin phrases ad absurdum by our scribes (Delhi Diary, May 1). I wonder if it is a case of cacoethes scribendi. Or perhaps these writers think that as our law/constitution is ex occidente lux they have to use Latin phrases. What they don’t realise is that cessante ratione legis cessal ipsa lex. However, we have to concede that there is a certain delecatio morasa in such usage. What one can say—as that great Gaulish warrior Obelix said—isti Romani.
R. Sriramachandran, Pune
I agree with Mehta’s call to avoid Latinisms, but reading the piece, I felt one shouldn’t go for uncommon English words either. Why not say ‘pompous jargon’ instead of ‘gobbledygook’? And ‘inflexible’ for ‘Byzantine’, ‘mysterious’ for ‘arcane’? It would have surely saved me the effort of looking for their meanings in the dictionary.
Brig Lakshman Singh, on e-mail
Kanak Mani Dixit sounded clairvoyant in his column (Nepal, The Rising, May 1). King Gyanendra is now a prisoner in his own palace. Like many 20th-century dictators, let him too seek asylum elsewhere.
Vernon Ram, Hong Kong
