Duds Inhabit The LBZ

After the book launch last evening, I had the occasion to spend some time with two of my students.

I took them on a guided tour of Lutyens' Bungalow Zone (LBZ) – the VVIP area of New Delhi, where pyaray Manmohan and all his ministers live.

As we drove around the roundabouts, I instructed my students to note the fact – fact! – that the whole of LBZ is laid out on a road system based on “hubs-and-spokes.”

We noted that the house where Nehru lived, Teen Murti House, was built right upon a “hub.” We then took a “spoke” from this hub and landed up at another hub, which is the Race Course Road roundabout, where pyaray Manmohan now lives.

I instructed my students on why hubs-and-spokes are basic to all transport economics.

We appreciated the fact that if such a pattern of roads was built in India, treating each major city and town as a hub and building spokes from it to connect to all the outlying second and third tier towns, urban India would blossom.

We also appreciated the fact – fact! – that pyaray Manmohan and his ministers are blind.

They live in a hub-and-spoke system but see it not.

Actually, even Old Delhi was built on a hub-and-spoke roads system: the Ajmeri Gate takes you on the road to Ajmer; the Lahori Gate takes you on the road to Lahore; the Kasmiri Gate takes you on the road to Kashmir… and so on… just as “all roads lead to Rome.”

And, of course, these bozos want to teach History!

They should be history.