It’s Unfortunate

25-01-10

The phrase “It’s Unfortunate” is thrown at our faces by the high ranking govt. officials on a day-to-day basis. It’s easy to learn and eliminates cross-questioning, probably the most efficient and high profile replacement to “I take the responsibility and will work on the shortcomings”

4 poor children just died of cold on Delhi streets; New Delhi, to be precise.

The govt. officials comment “It’s Unfortunate”. They claim they did everything possible to save the poor from the smoggish chill. They gave the necessary shelter, a mattress and a blanket; Rava blanket, to be precise.

We say It’s Unfortunate that there is a New in New Delhi.

They say It’s Unfortunate that Dal has become unaffordable to the poor, It’s Unfortunate that India is still vulnerable to terror attacks, It’s Unfortunate that Hockey India has hit a new low.

We say It’s Unfortunate that a farmer sells Dal at Rs 35/kg and people get it at Rs 100/kg, It’s Unfortunate that 26/11 happened a few weeks after an Intelligence warning, It’s Unfortunate that Hockey is our national sport.

For govt. officials, “It’s Unfortunate” should be dubbed as “I’m Unfortunate”.

For us, the Aam Aadmi bandwagon, it should be dubbed as “I can’t bring any fortune”

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Indian Train Journey

One train journey in India gives you a 360 degree experience of life. Apart from reaching your destination, you chat, criticize, empathize and play.

The people: There are 4 categories: The Sleeper, AC & General class travelers and the by passers.

By-passers are the most fun. “Original” is their favorite word. Everything they sell is a value for money, they say. You really can’t argue on value when in 10 Rs. he offers a packet with: 1 Scissor + 1 Scale + 1 Pen + 1 Key chain + 1 Eraser + 1 Diary. None of it is Made in China. Can you argue now? You can only ask why give an eraser with a pen? Their “original” products range from sweets, fruits, snacks, tea (always “special”), lighters, newspapers, books to torches. One stand out product is the multi-feature balm - looks like grease and can cure cold, cough, arthritis, backache, headache and impotency!

The other form of by-passers includes regular beggars who tap emotional pockets, smart beggars who clean your clean floor to tap “intelligent” pockets and the Eunuchs who touch you intelligently at emotional places.

The sleeper class people are over-friendly. They love to bargain with the by-passers, who curse them for this habit. They always demand a couple of extra Bananas on a dozen. They will then break the ice with you by offering you those extra Bananas. You say NO and they insist. Then you gain freakish insights on Indian politics, culture, cricket & economy while gulping those cursed Bananas. At the end of journey you will get to hear “If you ever come to XYZ city, do give me a call, I can help you with anything”.

Most of the AC travellers have switched to AC from the Sleeper class only. As a transformative result, they pretend to be over-aloof. They will speak loudly on the phone to let you know how rich/smart/educated they are. Breaking the ice is an ego issue here. You will probably end up in a debate after the ice is broken. The topics are still the same: Politics, culture, cricket & economy. The General class is well explained by Mr. Shashi Tharoor, so I won’t dig in to it.

The service: Other than Rajdhani, their food is a delicate garbage platter. The mutter-paneer has 1 paneer and 2 mutter. The name of the dish has both singular words, you should be happy you get an extra mutter. Dal has 6 -7 visible units of lentil (for protein) and 1 coriander leaf (for Iron), with lots of water (to prevent dehydration). The Roti is Sun-dried to give you less fat. The Rice is thick with a hint of light orangish carrot. Tea is made by dipping a heater rod (I have seen the pictures) in the water-milk mixture (80-20).

The test: Just when you start relaxing, enters the TC - Ticket Collector (Vital statistics: 36-48-36). I wonder how most of them have moustaches. Apart from the moustache, they carry a huge list of names and a metallic pen. With head down, spectacles about to drop from the nose, he looks up to you. He makes a claw, raises eye-brows and points the metallic pen towards you. This subtle gesture implies you need to show your ticket to him and that he is well educated man with dignity, not a beggar. He makes you feel dubious - “Man, what if I have lost my ticket?”

The sports: I am very fond of the part that connects 2 bogies. It’s like a free ride. Put one foot each on the two overlapping plates and you will either enjoy or get scared, kinda like rides. The one thing I don’t like about this place is the stench – toilets on either side. The toilets are Gaming Zones, only the Desi ones though. You have to manage between the train acceleration & lateral movements and your position & pressure. The only life-line to help you is a questionable handle with a thousand splendid fingerprints!!!

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Hinglish - from rags to riches

Hinglish is where most of the Indians start their journey of being a dude or a dudette. They are not the culprits. The culprits are those who use it to show-off or desperately try to match someone or something.

Hinglish is the result of a Ramchandar trying to enter a suave city mall; a stranger trying to strike a conversation with you in a 3A train compartment; an over-age uncle of yours trying to convince you to go for higher education; a small town Linkin Park and Shakira fan; a Parkaas scrapping the Brazilian hotties on Orkut; a rich and dumb trying to hoodwink the police .. and so on ...

There is one particular innocent incident which left me in splits recently. I hope you guys know about the 'Pepsi first ball ka captain' contest held in the recent World cup Cricket T-20. The Pepsi guys only managed to get some of the hardcore Desi winners at England. The first winner was Ravinder. Here's what happened:

The smooching Parrot Gautam Bhimani (ESPN-Star fame) stands at Lord's, at the center of the stadium. He has Jonty Rhodes with him. Our Ravinder was the Pepsi first ball ka captain. He was supposed to bowl to Rhodes before the match.

Gautam, sensing the Hinglish loaded Ravinder, started talking in Hindi suddenly. He spoke 4-5 lines in Hindi about Ravinder to make him feel comfortable. But then with his L-guard on, he dared to ask Ravinder to speak a few words about himself. Our Desi tycoon started with "I am Dilli from Ravinder". Right on the money!! .. Gautam's balls must have jumped inside, proving the L-guard useless.

Ravinder was unaware of his stomach churning blunder. He went on to speak more but Gautam pulled the mic back. Unfortunately, Gautam had to ask one more question about his bowling style against Rhodes. With a deep breath, he asked "bataiye Ravinder". There was still some gas left in the tank. Ravinder had prepared the answers, all in English. He said "Not the spin. Medium, I will medium, medium, medium" .. and the mic was pulled back before the fifth medium. "Thank you", said parrot. I am sure he meant 'Thank you lord'.

But why to blame Ravinder? Many Asian cricket captains and players haven't been that good with English either. Munaf Patel is barred from public speaking. Inzamam always praised his 'ladke'. Urdish, is it? Younis Khan confuses miles per hour with kilometers per hour. The list goes on and on here too.

But i believe that Cricketers should be given the license to be who they are. After all, English is not what you expect from them; neither from Ravinder, Ramchandar and Parkaas.

"Ek Jamfal". In Hindi it means 'One Guava'. In English it means nothing. In Hinglish it means 'Example'. Now this was said by the steel king Laxmi Mittal in an interview with Vir Sanghvi. He also used "who" instead of "which" to address about his company. Now that's where you have a problem !! .. come on billionaire, take some accent and grammar classes ..

The Indian Marriage Procession

I attended a marriage procession recently.

Here's the scene: 9pm, random street. Black groom on equally black horse, let's call him 'The Dark Knight' ! .. he was choked up with the black smoke coming out of the generator. He was already invisible and the smoke sure made a deadly combo. The silver turban and his ghostly teeth were the only 2 visible co-ordinates available to locate him.

The Dark Knight was behind the 'Navbharat Band', a name which is replicated across cities and states in India. Let's take a look at who all participated in the circus:

a) 20 poor men and women, carrying on their head the burden of 20 tube-lights with color papers wrapped on them. They were 10 on each side of the procession. The generator was on their team, taking revenge of their misery from the groom. After all, half of that smoke on his face was because of the tube-lights' load !!

b) The contemporary lead singer, with his music crew. They were playing Daler Mehndi's "Hayo-rabba" as usual. His keyboard skills were as bad as the weather prediction skills of the Indian Meteorological Department; never on the right note. But, I couldn't figure out a screeching noise coming repeatedly in between the song. When i heard a "Bow-Bow", i realized that his skills were better than that of the Meteorological Department, he was being innovative at least. He used his "Panasonyca" keyboard, adding animal and bird sounds to groove-it-up. That screech must have been that of a sparrow.

c) The family members were dancing(kicking) and throwing money everywhere. The music crew kept fighting to get hold of the haphazard spread of money. A few well dressed outsiders also sneaked away with some cash. Guys did the Naagin dance. The elderly made sure that the young girls dance to their limits; protecting them from the poisonous snakes.

They were dancing on "Hayo- rabba, hayo-rabba, hayo-rabba. Gadde te na chad di gadire te na chad di, gaddi teh-teh na di-di-di, cha-cha un poo-poo duh-duh go-go da-da-di, bolo ta-ra-ra-ra" . this is how he sang it ! .. only the start and the end wordings of the song were correct. Well, who cares for the lyrics anyways !

The song ended, followed by a short hault. All of them hooted for their favorite songs to be played next. Locating the co-ordinates and pointing towards The Dark Knight, the lead singer shouted, "Ready, One, Twooo" and sang "Tennu dulha kinhe banaya, Bhootni ke .." .. poor chap !

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Drink, Drive and Bribe | Mumbai traffic police & bribes

What does it take to drive a bike? You buy a bike. You have to have driving license, bike papers, insurance and PUC. You have to follow the rules of the road. All these are good ol' norms; now, you can't be drunk.

You will get the papers and insurance done easily as the private bike shop owner helps. You will get the PUC done easily for a bare minimum; again at a private shop.

What about the driving license? The time taking Sarkari procedure makes you want to kill yourself. The Indian Sarkari Babu is always "high" on his low self-esteem. He puts a finger in his ear to mutely let you know that he is not bothered. He ignores you and treats you like a dog.
But, you have to get things done, You bribe.

What about following the rules of the road? The Thullas will catch you one fine day. Then, they take your bike keys, ignore you and move away. You follow them like a dog and ask what have you done wrong. You say 'i have papers and driving license' shit. He says one of these ..

1) its one-way
2) no u-turn
3) you are speeding
4) your rear view mirror?
5) it's diwali

.. and you are done. Sadly, you find out that many of them are drunk, enjoying a mid-day high. You call them "Sir".......... but still, to get away with things, You bribe.

Wondering about the 5th point? They normally don't steal from you for such an absurd reason. But, it's Diwali. It's one of the days when even Thullas have to bribe. They have to buy silver coins, to bribe god. How can then, they leave you without a bribe, reason or no reason?

*
We treat God with nicest sweets, silver coins, coconuts and what not. We call it religion and worship. The truth is that we have developed bribing as a habit of getting things done or getting away with things. We bribe god for our prosperity, health and happiness.

Bribing god at home is a joy. We happily offer all the pricey stuff to them because it's the only form of bribe which actually remains with us. It's like we give them the smell of food & feel of money and then take everything back. A dream bribe !

Do we ever pray or worship in good times? If yes, do we bribe or is it just a fold of hands? It's got to be just a fold of hands. If its a bribe, we do it at home. We won't bribe God at a temple, unless we are in deep shit or want something badly. Courtesy: Indian Govt.
*

Anyways, coming back to the point. You don't have a problem giving bribes to Babus and Thullas. It's actually one of the best things about India. You do what you want and get away with 50 Rs. Pretty cool, ain't it? It's like the government has struck a deal with its citizens .. "we will get high, on alcohol or on low self-esteem; we will ignore you, your carelessness and flaws. You just have to pay for the cheap "high". Win-win situation"

All fine till now, but ..
6) you smell !

A flash sign board in Mumbai says "2000 people sent to jail for drunk driving in last 2 months". Why? What happened to the deal Govt.? Is this "rule" so strict that one of you may lose job for taking bribe or for arresting less no. of people? Do you have to show less accident figures to somebody? Will you get more funds after showing these figures? If you can drive a huge country on a high, why can't the citizens also drink and drive .. a tiny vehicle?

... you show teeth, we grind teeth, it's perfect. Let's not bring law and order in place .. please ! .. let the "rule" be there, just accept the bribes, Sir ! ...

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The Great Indian Media

Switch channels on TV and you will find a spectrum of analysis and updates related to politics. All news channels have devised a unique way of portraying this year's election. The bottom line is however that they are all nasty, funny or annoying. Far from reality

The nasty ones: Times NOW, NDTV 24x7 etc

They have all the smart chaps. They will make faces and blabber in non-stop english, making most of the politicians feel subdued. You will find all the hot-shots like Sheila Dixit and Arun Jaitely lining up for interviews/debates. I wonder if they get paid for all this. However, it seems that people like Rajnath Singh are not even considered for an invitation.

What you get out of these channels is an interesting and hot debate with more or less no result. Its filled with smartly framed and spontaneously moulded questions. Many of the participants keep quiet, failing to understand the depth and shrewdness of the question. Kapil Sibbal and genre are the likely winners who end up making
a mockery of opposition party or its leaders.

What cuts me out is the judgmental nature of these channels. Instead of sharing views and reaching conclusions, they prefer labeling people and parties. They project that they are sophisticated but i would rather call them smart. What's the outcome ? TRP ? .. i don't think so !


The funny ones: India TV, Live India, News 24 etc.


Talking about TRP brings in the most celebrated channel, India TV. Given the political environment, all you expect is a palm or a lotus. But here is the stand-out channel. A small extract of what i understood of what they want to say:

"Pakistan mein Taliban, Hindustan mein Taliban, Pakistan ke raaste Afghanistan se Hindustan aya Taliban, Rajasthan ke registan mein seena taan ke Taliban" .. and i think i heard Vietnam somewhere too !

One more .. "Baitullah ka phone aya, Baitullah ka phone kaise aya, Baitullah ka phone kyu aya, Baitullah ka phone kaha se aya, Baitullah ne kaha baki baat baad mein bataunga" .. what the f ?

When they get back to politics, they give different scores to parties based on god-knows-what parameters. But they do say that the 3 stooges sitting in the studio are experts. On the other hand, 'Live India' has an IPL going on, 'Indian Political League'. The lady "news" reader carries a bat with her 24x7. The funny thing is that she keeps playing with it. Once, during the Indian cricket tour of New Zealand, she was pretending as if she was reporting directly from the cricket ground at New Zealand. Poor video mixing made it look hilarious.

But, what's the harm. Who takes these channels seriously. I mean i hope nobody takes them seriously. You watch them to relax. They act as something on which you can laugh, comment, abuse or take your frustration out. I think they are doing social work. Good job. Period.



The annoying ones: Aaj Tak, Zee News, Star News, Headlines today etc.


What is wrong with them ? They carry the highest TRPs and still they are so boring. Forget about being of any use. Headlines today once invited Raghu (Fame Roadies) to represent Indian Youth !. Beat that. The other big channels in this category are somewhere between making sense and India TV. They need to either rise up above the nasty ones or join hands with the Taliban specialists.

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We need new news channels !! .. although i don't have a firm opinion about CNN-IBN .. anybody ?

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Humara Kashmir | Kashmir, India and Indians

I was traveling from Mumbai to Kota last winters. It was around 11 pm and i got to the top berth to snore. At around 11:15, I heard some shouting. It was coming from the compartment right behind me. I looked back. A Punjabi lady, deadly looking and obviously armed, said "Lambi saans le beta, rab sab theek kar dega". She was standing on the floor with eyes closed and hands folded. Soon there were dozens of people around her.

I jumped down to find out what was going on. A guy was sick. He was having an attack, may be fits. He was dressed in white kurta-pajama and a white woven cap. He was a Muslim. I was very glad to see the supportive behavior, everyone was so sympathetic. People brought water, gave him feet massages and what not. He was fine in 10 minutes and thanking people for their kind gesture.

I went back snoring. But moments later the train stopped. It was between Surat and Baroda, somewhere in the jungle. Somebody had pulled chain. It seemed that the good will of dozens of people can't stop the mental hideousness of a few. I am pretty sure it was the fat fellow who kept staring at the luggage of the sick guy. The bag carried his name and 2 printed lines saying "Haj-Mumbai" and "Humara Kashmir". The bag had a very tightly packed cuboid box in it.

There had been a number of bomb attacks in the country recently. The fat fellow was murmuring something kashmiry and had built up a team of 4 guys, all filled with suspicion.

The Railway Jawan came and asked everyone to be quiet and go back to sleep. He spoke to the "detective" team and went away. Train started again but only to stop at Baroda. 5 Army soldiers rushed in. They asked the sick guy to come down and show them his bag. They mercilessly used a knife to tear his luggage apart. Not to anybody's surprise, it was a box of sweets.

Flaunting fake pride, the soldiers rushed out. The Byomkesh and company vanished magically in seconds. People helped him organize his luggage back. Filled with dubious feelings, he said "I bought this bag from Kashmir" and pointing towards the second printed line, he kept quiet ..

"Humara" Kashmir .. is it ? .. At least that's how we portray, read:

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Taken from: http://www.newscrux.com/2008/09/23/kashmir-humor/


An ingenious example of speech and politics occurred in the United Nations Assembly that made the world community smile.

A representative from India began: ‘Before beginning my talk I want to tell you something about Rishi Kashyap of Kashmir, after whom Kashmir is named.

When he struck a rock and it brought forth water, he thought, ‘What a good opportunity to have a bath.’

He removed his clothes, put them aside on the rock and entered the water.

When he got out and wanted to dress, his clothes had vanished. A Pakistani had stolen them.’

The Pakistani representative jumped up furiously and shouted, ‘What are you talking about? The Pakistanis weren’t there then.’

The Indian representative smiled and said, ‘And now that we have made that clear, I will begin my speech.’

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Dilli-420 | New Delhi Old Heart

No offense to Delhi lovers, but what's written below accounts for my dislike towards the city. I was stuck in Delhi with a friend in Summer 2007 and here's a brief summary ..

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P(read"F")art -1 The Station Master

It was around 12 noon and Delhi was boiling at over 44 degrees. We were at railway station to catch a train to Mumbai. We were surprised when the train didn't come 10 minutes prior to the scheduled departure as it was supposed to start from Delhi. As usual, we figured that there was a wrong display of platform no. at the station entry. So, the next 10 minutes went in to running here and there. The huge Delhi station added miles in to the heated run. End Result: Missed the train.

Now enters the first hero of my story; The Station Master !

I went and asked him why was there no announcement of the shift in platform no. He said there was. It came out that there was something wrong with the speakers at that platform. I argued, but only to discover the "Kaala bandar" hitting back with no solid defense, but with agony.

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Fart 2 - The Fasttrack guy


Imagine yourself stranded outside the station looking for black tickets with overhead sun. And then imagine this irritating character pouncing on you and trying to sell(force) an "original" Fasttrack goggle at 200 Rs. The guy kept scratching the goggle to make us believe that the shine and the silver color won't go. To his surprise and a rare laugh for us, the color was all gone. As they say, sometimes you are the pigeon and sometimes, the statue !
Well this one ended in a not-so-bad way.

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Fart 3 - The ugly Agent

"Sir, you look like you are 28, and your friend looks like 30; here are two tickets to Mumbai (Swaraj Express), 2500 per ticket", said the ugly stranger. As if it was written on our faces that we missed our train, and that too, for Mumbai !!
I ignored him, but only to attract more beautiful agents. All of them somehow had tickets for Mumbai and strangely for the same age group (28-30).
I decided not to take any risk and chose to go by flight.

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Fart 4 - The Laid back Dude !!

Next to Delhi station are many small offices for ticket booking. We entered one. Scene: The laid back dude (5 ft - 2", max) with his legs on the table, table fan a feet away, wearing 3-4 fake golden chains and chewing paan, sPRays "Aaiye Sir".
I asked if he can immediately book two tickets to Mumbai. I had a budget of 4k in mind. He phoned somebody and said it will cost 3300 per ticket. I was more than happy with the price. But still I inquired why was it so cheap. He explained that international flights to Mumbai (Delhi bound) have cheaper tickets. I smelled a rat.

I said, we only have 6000 Rs, and he immediately said "Ok" !! Without getting too much in to details i agreed to pay to get over with the head ache.

But, it's THE bad day, how can anything go right ? Apparently there was some terror threat at the airport and nobody was allowed to travel without an i-card. I had, but to add up to this sad story, my friend didn't. And then comes the famous melodramatic friendship dialogue "Dost, tu mujhe is tarah akela chod kar to nahi jaega na".

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Fart 5 - The real story

We came out of the shop and started walking, looking for a roadways agent as I had decided to go to Kota (my hometown) by bus and asked my friend to come with me for a few days. We ran in to a genuine flight booking agency which was around 20 meters away. I felt like checking once again for tickets without i-card, thinking may be the dude was wrong. We entered the shop and asked the well dressed guy for 2 tickets to Mumbai. We also said that we don't have i-cards.

"Are you Vinay?", he asked. For a moment, I thought the heat was doing its job... how is it possible ? .. you step out of the station and people know you missed the train to mumbai, you meet an agent and he tells you your name !!

We nodded in total paranoia. Actually, the dude had called him for tickets and given him the details. He had told the dude about i-card problem. For a moment, i praised the dude for his shrewdness, 20 meters away, but he won't tell you. Out of curiosity i asked for the price and it was 2800 Rs per ticket ..

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Fart 6 - The Gujjars

The famous political revolt by this over-pampered section had just started in Rajasthan. They burned the buses, damaged the railway tracks and what not. The "what not" was also a lot of things but the two i just mentioned added to my sorrow. I can not choose to go by bus to home and i can not choose to go by train to Mumbai as the Delhi-Mumbai train route has a considerable part in Rajasthan. So i and my friend stayed at his uncle's home in Delhi for the night

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Fart 7 - The babu

Next morning, I was checking out the headlines on TV. It said that the gujjar protests were over. I was delighted and rushed to station to take the first train to Kota. Train was scheduled at 1:30 pm. I reached there by 11:30 to make sure i get the tickets.
"Come at 12:30", said the Babu. I argued that one can book tickets for current reservation 2 hours before the train time. He made a frustrated face and uttered something which i am pretty sure was abuse.

Well, what could i have done, he was the guy with tickets. I asked him if there will be a rush at 12:30, he said no. I went for lunch.
At least 20 people were in the line and then the only aim was to somehow get tickets before 1:25 pm.

Thank god my number came at 1:10, but here comes the Babu twist. I gave him a 500 Rs note and he said i gave him 100. We argued for 2 minutes, only to upset others in the queue. People started shouting from behind. After much brawl, he decided to count all the money and tally it with his screen data. Now, that means counting all 1000, 500, 100, 50, 20, 10, 5, 2, 1 Rs notes and coins which he was collecting from morning. Those were the longest 10 minutes of my life. I just thank god that some people were supporting me as they saw me giving him a 500 Rs note. Finally he accepted and gave me my money back. With 5 minutes to spare, i just ran through to catch my train .. finally thinking .. home, sweet home.

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Fart 8 - Nadeem and the Gujjars reloaded


The train is named Janshatabdi, an all seating train from Delhi-Kota and back. The Gujjar protests were over and the train had just arrived at Delhi from Kota. It waits for around 30 minutes and then goes back. Happily, i boarded and also met a friendly guy, Nadeem, who later said that he was behind in the queue and just managed to catch the train.

Mathura had just crossed and train stopped. It was raining heat and we were stranded for 30 minutes. And, it was the Gujjars again, they allowed the train to come to Delhi so I can board and then started the protests again for God knows what reasons !!

We came to know that the "SUPERFAST" Junta express was coming to the rescue for Janshatabdi passangers. I just hated that train so i and nadeem decided to go back to Delhi via road. We got down, and went to the nearby village to find out if there was some bus service. But, the village was so remote that there wasn't even an STD there. Of course, there was no signal in out mobiles also.

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Fart 9 - The Neta


Drenched in sweat we came back, waiting for Junta express. And more, Junta was supposed to drop us at Mathura and not Delhi. All the passengers got really angry after reaching Mathura.

Whenever there is a group of people, in confusion and misery, there is a Neta to the rescue. "Janshatabdi Kota passengers, nahi hatenge nahi hatenge", shouted a bunch of guys with the Neta at the center. They had blocked the Station Master's office and demanded reimbursement.

We decided to go back to Delhi as the ticket was anyways cheap. I will not get in to the details of how we managed to get the bus. To simply put it in short, it was as bad as the Mumbai Local train.

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Fart 10 - Night-out at Airport


I was in the bus. My phone rang and it was my dear friend who had asked me to stay in Delhi as he didn't have an i-card. He was calling from Mumbai !!! In morning he had said that he will try to reach Mumbai somehow and had asked me to go home. Apparently, his uncle arranged for air tickets. I was feeling dead jealous.

Anyways, it was 12 in the night when i reached Delhi. Nadeem had a friend in Delhi and he left for his home. I planned to take a ticket in some international Delhi bound flight to Mumbai. They were cheap and many late night flights usually have empty seats.

I arrived at the airport and found out the counter to get such tickets. After having gone through so much, i was in a shock proof mind-set. What can possibly go wrong now?

Great timing !! .. i reached the counter and the guy was pasting a notice on his window, "All tickets to Mumbai are sold". *SLAP ON THE FACE*

Next flight was at 10 in the morning. I felt like Tom Hanks from "The Terminal", only outside the airport. I had no option, but a night-out ! ... I finally came back to Mumbai the next day. Horror ! .. wasn't it ?

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There are many other heroes who didn't get a break in this Beta version of Delhi-420. The auto-wala, bus conductor, taxi-wala etc.

Update (August 24): Don't miss this: http://www.openthemagazine.com/article/nation/it-s-a-city-of-undeserved-privilege

PS: Dilli-6 was the reason i wrote all this. The torture at the climax of the movie was reminiscent of my Delhi horror