Delhi is a polluted and congested city

Everyone knows things are not getting any better in our capital city. With increasing road congestion comes higher amount of air pollution. With the higherst per capita income city in the country attracting migrants by the thousands every week, it is bound to get more heavily populated. With increasing population comes the stretch on resources and comes the water pollution, sanitation, higher level of sewage, just about everything!

Delhi could begin with learning simple things from within the country. For instance, as regards water, it could simply borrow from what Jayalalitha did in Chennai. Make it compulsory by law for all high rises to have water harvesting including rain water harvesting within a stipulated time frame, say by December 2009. Just need to share notes with Chennai on how this has changed the drinking water supply situation there.
Then, simple things like building concrete walls on both sides of the Yamuna right from where it enters New Delhi to the point where it exits. The dirty nullah water can then go along these walls through canals and get collected at the end of Delhi state in a large sewage treatment plant. A private company could develop this and also make money by selling the fertilizers / biofuel that come up from this sewage treatment plant. Some of this could even be used to light up the Yamuna in the evenings.
Instead of giving licenses to all and sundry for operating transport buses within the city, the government should insist on 4-5 big companies with credible business experience to operate these buses across Delhi. They could be insisted upon to give the existing drivers a first right of refusal to join the new bus fleets, subject to driving tests.
At the same time these companies should be insisted upon to use eco friendly, modern buses with driver operated doors so that there is no option for anyone to hang on to the door handles of a moving bus.
It would be far easier to manage a few companies than so many independent operators. Instead of thinking of buses as a menace, the Delhi government ought to give them special treatment and ensure that bus routes are prioritised across Delhi. Once the bus services are regularized, there should be special dedicated paths for the buses and they should get priority over all other vehicles.
Thereafter, the car parking fee should be increased manifold in the main office districts and on all parking spaces near any heavy traffic route. This would incentivize commuters to start car pools or avoid using cars altogether on a daily basis. The parking charges for 4 wheelers should be calculated basis some kind of a benchmark with the rentals for office / residential space in that area. Surely if a person works in an office area that probably costs the company Rs. 10,000 per sq.ft., he should not be expected to park his car for Rs. 10 per 4 hours or some such ridiculous amount.
As a further incentive for car pool, the government must introduce congestion fee in the main areas. Those who really have the money can always pay. And Delhi having the highest per capita income has a load of money anyways. So this could probably increase the government revenues significantly.
To ensure a market dependent rate, the government could offer parking spaces to established companies that work with handicapped people and that agree to automate the parking spaces. With these two conditions, whichever company agrees to pay the highest revenues back to the government should be granted licenses co terminus with the government.
With a decreasing number of cars and a priority to buses across all areas of Delhi, the government should then designate quite a few areas as pedestrian only areas, for instance, CP, Chandni Chowk, Sarojini Nagar, to take a few examples.
With the increased revenues coming through these, the government then should look at developing dedicated cycle paths across the state of Delhi and definitely so in areas that are now under development. Ideally, the cycle paths should be in place through large swathes of Delhi well before the Commonwealth Games in 2010.
Will the government even start thinking on these lines? Well...now, thats a question!

Life begins in office

Well, well.
My first day in office! Having been shortlisted to work for a PR firm in India, i was quite excited since while passing through the MBA phase i had always wanted to get into advertising / PR and here i was working for a highly rated PR firm in India!
Here i come and the first thing i am told is to get into newspapers and magazines. I am thrilled. Imagine being paid to go through magazines and newspapers the whole day! Before 11 a.m., however, i realize that it is not about reading the stuff...its simply about noting down any and everything relating to any and every client of the firm. So the whole day spent reading, or rather, going through 24 newspapers and 11 maagzines! At the end of it, if you were to ask me, what was the news, probably i wouldnt remember a thing since the only thing i was tracking was aerated beverages, shoes, liquor, telecom, heavy machinery, television, computers, u name it!
Before, i realized, the day was over and my boss, a lady, no less, asked me to cut all those articles that mentioned anything remotely related to any of the above and many more. Once the articles were all cut, they were to be pasted on white sheets of paper, photocopied in sets of three and one copy faxed to the respective clients. I came to the office at 9a.m. and left at 9p.m. on my very first day at work! And all that i got was gummed fingers!

Indian National Congress

The problem with the Congress is very well explained. The issue is how to go about doing this? TO begin with, why doesnt the Congress hold genuine organizational elections for each of the party posts. What is this nonsense about High Command deciding vital positions?
Why cant the High Command demolish itself for the betterment of the party? Because there are just far too many vested interests. Why does the party that brought India freedom have to pander to religious and casteist emotions when it is this same organization that gave us Nehru, Patel, Azad and Gandhi.
Why is it scared of anything at all? It needs to revamp the organization and thats about it. Yet again, who will do it and who has the time?
Can Rahul really bear the heat and dust of India? Can he really travel across India like Gandhi did when he vitalized and made the Congress relevant to the masses? How does anyone feel that a Rahul so out of touch with ground realities can really do it, sitting in Delhi? Its a long road ahead but if someone can withstand the heat and dust, then India is there, waiting to welcome with open arms.

Whats with the politicians

The theatre that is Indian politics gets stranger by the day.
Imagine, secular CPM trying to eject Taslima whilst the non-secular, err, communal BJP trying to have her in Gujarat!
When will the politicians ever come out of their weird world or rather when will the Indian citizens show them where they belong, truly!

Smaller States

i think that very dispassionately the Indian and the US government, along with the rest of the powers that be, should also start promoting the idea of Pakistan being broken up into smaller countries.
I mean come on, what is the problem with that? And in any case it would be better to manage smaller countries than one big country which is anyway not manageable! No one seems to be presiding over anything in that country since the last 60 years. So what better than to have smaller countries where at least there would be some countries which could be better governed. The ones that are not, probably, NWFP or Baluchistan would have their own ethnic chiefs presiding over and it would be better to control them rather than someone sitting in Islamabad and trying to exert control where none can be.

The issues at hand

Live well
Sleep well
Talk well
Walk well
Well...well...!!!

Why reservations for OBCs?

What is wrong with the Indian politicians? Have they lost it completely?
Rahul Gandhi, Varun Gandhi, Priyanka Gandhi, i think you are the guys who can take us out of this mess.
India has always been ruled by so called foreigners. Lets get them back again coz Indian politicians will only give us misery as what they have given in the last so many years.
Imagine, not one of them has the courage to get up and say that the reservations are a total mess! Not one of them!
How much can they fall and to what level? When will this end? After everything has been reserved, who will give those additional voted to who? And who would lose at the end of it all? Only India and the Indians?!
This is as frustrating as it can get. No hope for the country that is supposed to be soon becoming a world power. Jeez!
They are all getting together to gang up against the Supreme Court, the one institution that is left with some semblance of deceny in public life. Just imagine what would happen when these idiots kill the Supreme Court as well.
Who will come to this country's rescue? I think the best way out of this mess is to get some one else from some other country to rule this nation as otherwise we are simply not capable any more since even the President and the Generals are helpless!