It rained in New Delhi, the capital of socialist India, and, as this news report says, there was "chaos on the roads." The precise word used in the opening sentence is "traumatic." The second para of the report reads as follows:
The skies opened up around 8 am and, within an hour, many roads were water logged, creating problems for commuters on the first day of the week.
Of course, roads disintegrated - and pot holes emerged everywhere.
Actually, it NEVER rains in Delhi. Delhi can be very hot and very cold - but never is she wet. The Mughals had a saying about the city - "Allah holds a chhatri over Delhi." Chhatri means "umbrella." Thus, the occasional shower in the hot season has always been most welcome throughout Delhi's long history - except now, under socialist rule. There are cities where it rains almost every day - and everything continues to work pretty fine. But not in Delhi.
There is an interesting tale about the white hot Delhi summer in the Babur Nama - the diaries of the first Mughal Emperor, Babur. After his small army defeated the might of the Lodis at Panipat in 1526, and marched victoriously into the city, the summer heat made everyone quite faint. Some of Babur's top generals actually requested their leader for permission to quit and return to cooler climes. Babur allowed them to depart and even composed a sarcastic poem on their inability to stand the heat.
The British moved their capital to Delhi only in the early 20th century, because of that great aristocratic idiot, Lord Curzon. They built an entirely new city - New Delhi - and it was unmatched in imperial grandeur. Curzon was the ultimate imperialist, after all. While in Calcutta, Curzon had divided Bengal along communal lines - and the political upheaval that ensued still remains with us today. It is rarely noted that the Indian Muslim League was founded in Dacca in 1906 - just a year after Curzon's partition of Bengal. Just as Aurangzeb sowed the seeds of Mughal decline, it was Curzon who sowed the seeds of the end of the British Raj.
Thus, in 1947, these bozos of the CONgress came to occupy Curzon's grand buildings. Yet, there is much more to running a vast empire than architectural splendour; and, in any case, the architecture is entirely British. Sir Edwin Lutyens built the grand buildings atop Raisina Hill. Nehru's preferred architect was Le Corbusier, the "brutalist." Chandigarh is a classic example of this brutalism - as are the DDA flats for the middle classes in Delhi.
Yet, the bozos of the CONgress themselves never occupied any buildings of brutalist design. Nehru preferred to take over the residence of the Commander-in-Chief - and Teen Murti House is a grand, palatial residence; quite beautiful. Sonia Gandhi occupies 10, Janpath; Manmohan Singh lives in a Lutyens' bungalow on Race Course Road. This British-built VVIP enclave in New Delhi never floods up during the (occasional) rains; nor are there any power cuts here; and the roads never ever have pot-holes. But the splendour is not theirs; it is entirely borrowed. And, if you step outside this privileged zone - then, not just the rest of New Delhi, but the whole of urban India is "chaos." And life is "traumatic."
But those who have lived long enough in Delhi to get a feel of its long history - like me - know that this is a capital city that has seen many mighty rulers bite the dust. In and around Delhi, there are the ruins of at least seven such kings - there is Tughlaquabad, from where the monetary madman Muhammed bin Tughlaq ruled; there is Qutab; there are tombs of the Lodis; there is Siri; there is the Purana Quila; there is the Lal Quila; and there are many more. It is in Delhi that you are warned of the fact that mighty empires can collapse - and often have.
Today, Delhi is the capital of the socialist Emperor Bozo. He sees nothing. He knows nothing. And his greatest desire is to teach!
Ban these Bozos!
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