The dread of driving in Delhi

Delhi is making daredevils out of all its driving residents. You don't believe me? Have you ever driven a car in Delhi? More so, in the recent weeks? If you have, you would know what I am talking about.

Someone please tell Madam CM that if she doesn't venture out much in her 'convoy' then she is much mistaken to believe that by decreasing the subsidy on LPG, Diesel, etc., she will be able to meet the commonwealth deadline. For to meet the deadline, you need to complete the tasks at hand along with arranging funds.

The whole of Delhi is dug up. And if not dug up purposefully for the preparations of 'Commonwealth Games 2010', dug up of wear-and-tear and neglect. There is hardly any space left on most roads for more potholes to spring up.

I drive everyday from North Delhi to Gurgaon up-down. To start with, the North Campus Roads are either deep excavations or muddy hills. And whatever little of the road is left there, is so uneven that any rocking chair will lose a rocking competition with a car driving down its lanes. Next, the whole of Swami Narayan Marg from Chowki No. 2 to Vivekanand Chowk in Gulabi Bagh is a mess. My new car has started making strange noises within a month of driving through this road. I feel like shouting out to the Gulabi Bagh DDA Flats Residents and asking them how they have been surviving since last many months.

Same fate awaits anyone driving through Guru Ravidas Marg in Karol Bagh. Passing that small stretch between 'St. Michael's School' and 'Aggarwal Sweet Corner' in the evening hours is a curse. Then again Vandematram Marg has also only recently got better (please note that I use the word 'better' and not repaired, for there's still much scope left there).

And God help you if you have to make your way through Kapashera Estates. The road there is only on papers. What appears to be a road is actually a small by-lane full of ruptures, dents and potholes.

The best part about Delhi is that we are made to believe that work is going on for 'Commonwealth Games' and that the things will be all hunky-dori come October, when the Games actually start. So, we keep the patience and tell ourselves that it's all in the process of getting better. But, when we should actually be seeing workers working diligently to mend all this, we only see huge boulders or a barricade left on some of the potholes without denoting any danger signs (e.g. notice the one on the T-point of the Camp Cinema Road and the Old Rohtak Road; or the one on Roop Nagar Golchakkar; or the one on the crossing of Daulat Ram College and Ramjas College with a huge round wheel-like wooden structure stationed next to the deep pothole). They are actually worse. What if a negligent or innocent driver rams into it in the dark? After all, the street lights don't work either. Even the new fancy ones put up by the Delhi Govt. after causing its residents such inconvenience are not switched on. Every resident should sue PWD for damages inflicted on their peace and their cars for the rapid depreciation, way more than the normal depreciation in the usual discourse of car usage. But who cares? Who has time? Do I? I only wish.

Then again, the streetlights remind me: There's one pole fallen down on the Mahipalpur turn on Jaipur Road towards RTR Flyover. It's been lying just so since days causing even more chaos in the already chaotic, scrawling, office-going traffic in the peak-hours of the morning. Delhi-Gurgaon Expressway during the office-going and home-going hours in the morning and evening, respectively, is a live example of humongous goof-up which the planners of this highway did in their expectations of the statistical increase in traffic situation by the time the Expressway actually came up. You tell a kid the dictionary meaning of an Expressway and he would face the problem of a huge disconnect between theory and practical life had he driven through here at such hours.

To sum up, I can only pray to God to give us Delhi-ites strength to put up with this, patience to take it for many more days, weeks and months to come, hope to actually assume that this torture will soon get over and more money to spend on servicing and repairing our cars or (God forbid) on medical expenses resulting from accidents.