Another attack at the Taj

Dilip Cherian India's 'Image Guru' and a diehard observer of the capital on what's keeping Delhi and Mumbai's chatterati busy these days

Dilip Cherian India's 'Image Guru' and a diehard observer of the capital on what's keeping Delhi and Mumbai's chatterati busy these days

Alittle bird tells us that a certain poetry session at the Mumbai Taj has set the dove cotes aflutter. The spread effect of the kerfuffle has reached Delhi too, where a Cabinet Minister is being queried on his loyalties. This, at an awkward time when elections make everybody jumpy including some Mumbai ministers.

Sadly the aforesaid event was poorly attended, lamented one of those involved in hosting it. Apparently the Sensitive Sorts could not stomach poetry in those precincts, quite yet, said the regretees!

But though the perpetrator of the new attacks at the Taj, may have had Dilli's mighty in his sights, it was all flights of fancy, say some. Either way, the red-faced Mantri must be ruing the day his ruminations were hijacked by his pugnacious buddy, seeking ways to get Mumbai chatterati excited and verse.

Poor them! Anti-begging operations are threatening slum millionaires in the making File Pic

Begging a solution

Slums are in focus, for reasons beyond Slumdog. After displacing slum-dwellers Dilli's authorities now wish to prettify the capital by getting rid of its beggar population. In response to a Delhi High Court directive, government is planning to replace the 50-year-old Bombay Prevention of Begging Act it had borrowed.

The court maintained cleverly that the government should aim at eliminating poverty and not just hide it from the public eye. There is now a plan to launch an awareness drive against begging. The government has invited tenders for hiring 13 vehicles for anti-begging operations in Delhi.

Clearly, hiding the signs of poverty is the time-honoured sarkari way of making Dilli a "world class" city and only slum millionaires may make it, till the Commonwealth Games at least.

Parks to park

Could this be the end of our parking woes? After months of confabulation, the authorities in Dilli have decided to build a three-level parking site under a park in Hauz Khas. Sixteen other such sites have been identified across the capital, which should go some way in decongesting some residential enclaves. Of course, the Dilli government has already sanctioned automated multi-level parking lots a la Mumbai.

Given that 900 and 400 cars are added to Delhi and Mumbai roads every day, any relief to the harried commuter will be welcome.