from the city of shining lights. The book I intended to read, lies in
my bag, which I had earlier decided to carry as hand baggage, but
which now lies along with the other checked in baggage. My oh-so-dear
headphones are not with me, as they have gone for repair. When I reach
college, I'll probably have to resort to my ipod for music, which is
sad, only cuz my ipod headphones are somewhat damaged, and as of now,
I'm usin very basic phillips ones, which just don't cut it. Plus the
music on the pod is a lil old. But anyway, I'm basically looking at a
5 hour long journey, with no music, no book, no window seat, and
pretty much nothin else.
My train reached at bout 11 pm. We took our luggage, hired a
coolie and reached our respective cars. Dad took me on a drive
through Delhi.
I've always loved late night drives in Delhi. Maybe a lil because the
dark hides the dirt. Long stretched roads under glittering yellow
lights -which form interestin patterns on the wind shield as you move
past- zooming cars, concrete buildings- this entire metropolitan feel,
everything, just calls out to me. And like ever, it did that night
too. Probably even more.
For the unaware (which I think will be very few) Delhi was the host to
the 19th Common Wealth Games. The Common Wealth countries are
basically a group of countries that were colonies of the United
Kingdom in the past. Ironically, the UK itself is a part of the Common
Wealth group.
Because of the games, a large part of Delhi had been under
construction, the last time I had visited. This time, all the major
construction work had been completed.
The whole of Cannaught Place had been white washed, and beautified.
Shera - the CWG mascot smiled from every corner. Delhi looked ready.
I watched 3 events live in the common weath, the swimming, diving, and
gymnastics. My personal experience was nice. Although, for an
international event, the co-ordination amongst the volunteers was a
little school like, and there were events(swimming- which was supposed
to last 2 hours ) which finished an hour before time, leaving us
wondering if our Rs 700 tickets were worth it at all (we were an hour
late - add that up and you'll gain information which i'd be to
embarrassed to admit openly). And I also read somewhere that it was to
an extent the mismanagement that was responsible for the empty stands,
as enough tickets hadn't been printed. So even when the games were
sold out, the stadiums weren't full.
I'm not saying we were perfect. (Although we came really close during
the opening and closing ceremonies - at moments) But you know what
really hurt the nation's interests? That at a time when we needed good
publicity to draw in the crowds - so that the nation could gain as a
whole, and for inflow of cash from beyond the borders - all we got was
bad publicity, from our own press. And it was not just limited to the
revelation of the ugly truths, but their exaggeration, and the
projection that these ugly truths was where it all stopped, and almost
the suppression of the better side. Bout a hundred crore worth of
business in souvenirs was wasted.
The irony is that the same writers, will print articles bout how the
media did wrong, next to articles that'll point out other flaws, and
they will all draw their strength from the fact that the media doesn't
have a face - no accountability. They don't pay for their faults.
Comments
loved it! :)
Thanks.