Deki's Home Coming...

"Ladies and Gentlemen the plane has landed in Delhi", announced a feminine voice laced with a thick Russian accent. Before she could complete, people sprang to their feet and jammed the aisle, "mummi I am home", nearly screamed a guy jubilantly on his phone, the voice meanwhile continued, "please do not switch on your cellphones and kindly remain seated"...

As I walked past the visibly bored health inspectors, wearing flimsy masks, a tired voice asked me for my H1N1 form (a novelty in air travel to India these days), a young girl seemingly sleep deprived and with no interest in what so ever she was doing, randomly placed a stamp impression on my form, and nearly threw it back at me, before I could understand what was going on, shouted, ‘next’…

As I dragged myself out of the terminal with my extra home leave luggage, a sudden realization dawned upon me, and very distinctively I felt that I was back! A huge mass of people swarming the reception area, some standing and waiting, others shouting in excitement and waving excitedly, still others just lying on the pavement and having a quick sleep, but most jumping over each other and stretching and bending their necks at impossible angles…

My dad was a bit late in reaching the airport to receive me, so I got to see more of the chaos and pandemonium playing around. Amongst the first things I noticed was the filth and garbage, literally littered all around me, it was more omnipresent and I could have sworn, than God-Almighty himself/herself! At a distant corner were two security guards, in their not so smart uniforms and even less impressive postures. One had a big paunch and was blissfully smoking a bidi, the other one had his 303-rifle carelessly slinging from his shoulder, as he more intently scratched the extremes of his upper thighs.

“Madam one minute, your prepaid taxi here, one minute, one minute…”, assured a small greasy looking man in a torn t-shirt and dirty beyond description trousers, to a Russian woman with a child. “Ustadji…”, another shout from the short guy and rumbled an old and badly dented ambassador car, the woman looked quite shocked and was quite clearly left completely speechless; but after a few intense minutes of concerted assurances by the greasy little guy and his ustadji, she nervously decided to board. But then, the car would not move! So after a short spell of loud shouts a few more equally suspicious looking guys emerged out of nowhere and pushed the car to ignition. And I suddenly remembered reading inside the terminal, under the Incredible India advert, a rather welcoming message, ‘For your own safety hire only prepaid taxis’.

So as I waited for my dad, a sweeper showed up, shabbily dressed in dirty orange overalls and lazily going around doing his job. As he swept a few cigarette butts in his carry bucket, ignoring quite a few others, he spat on the side wall, further staining the already dirty wall with a stochastic coat of red… And at that moment the realization was complete, yes I had arrived, well and truly arrived in India...

So now im in Delhi, and somehow Delhi is not looking like the city I had known... She seems to be dying a slow death caused by rampant corruption; lack of civic sense, love, care and belongingness in its people towards her; a relentless march of immigrants; inept leadership; etc. etc. the list as all of us know, is long.

What I see saddens me, the more I learn about the way this country is being run the more distressed I feel.... Hope we shall in our capacities are able to contribute whatever little we can in building a country that India truly deserves to be...

With no malice towards anyone, just towards our collective inefficiencies...