Vignettes of a Still Unruly, but Fast Changing West Delhi
A Shridi Sai Baba Parade in the middle of the afternoon in Shiv Nagar
By Jawahar Malhotra
NEW DELHI: This Metropolis has many personalities, depending on which part of the city you are in. Several decades ago, the border of Punjab was right at Delhi’s doorstep (until Harayna Pradesh was formed in 1961) and Punjabis streamed into the city, especially the west and northern parts, ushering along with them their language and culture. As a result, Punjabi is a major language in Delhi, with many road signs in English, Hindi and Punjabi and most people either speak it or at least understand it. It is akin to the influence and spread of Gujarati in Mumbai.
In that sense, West Delhi actually spreads in a wide cone from Connaught Place in the center to Vasant Vihar and the Gurgaon borders in the southwest and Shalimar Bagh and Rohini in the northwest. The greatest concentration of Punjabis are in a narrower band going due west from Connaught Place and past the Birla Mandir, Rajender Nagar, Patel Nagar, Kirti Nagar, Rajouri Garden, Tagore Garden, Tilak Nagar, Janakpuri and Vikaspuri to the Najafgarh Drain. This part of the city still has the roughness of an urban area in the making – a diamond in the rough – with the gusto that is typical of Punjabis.
And this is where you still find those amazing moments and sights that captivate you as you travel through the Nagars, Gardens and Enclaves. A few of the vignettes let you get a better feeling of the personality of this part of the city.
The traffic intersection in Dabri More
Dabri More Traffic
There are more people are in the middle of a busy intersection waiting for the traffic light to change than there are cars and men on foot pushing along a small but heavy concrete mixer on a roller rack. For Delhites, the roads and streets belong to the people and traffic rules are really an inconvenient nuisance!
It’s an early Happy Hour in Rajouri Garden
Happy Hour All Day!
We used to have our house in Rajouri Garden since that area was first marked out in 1960. Since that time, it has been a deeply congested residential and commercial hub. In the last 12 years, all the shops in the area on both sides of the main Najafgarh Road near the Metro station have turned to malls or higher end restaurants, some with lavish designer motifs like Pind Balluchi where a sign for happy hour advertised it starting at noon. Evidently, west Delhites stay happy for a loooong time: from noon to 7pm!
Most Uber and Ola drivers use a smartphone and GPS to get around
Never Get Lost with your GPS
Every year for the past 15 years there have been marked improvements in lifestyles that make it easier to exist in India and many are related to the electronics age. Most landlines are gone and – just like everywhere else in the developing world – people are plugged into their mobile phones – at home, in the Metro, on planes, in cars – which is a necessity more than a status symbol. The old days of rushing to the bazaar to get to a STD phone are gone!!
Six years ago GPS on smartphones was just becoming available. In the past two years, it has become more ubiquitous and with the ride-share apps, it has drifted down into the masses. Ola and Uber drivers and even rickshaw drivers are using it to navigate, never mind that the directions are in American-accented English! People are slowly developing a sense of direction and map reading. “Google kar loh” have become part of the vernacular!! Ola even offers free wifi in its cabs and the drivers get an OTP – One Time Password – which they enter before they start the ride.
Religious Parade Anytime, Anywhere
In West Delhi, you will get a religious experience even if you aren’t looking for it. A group was getting ready for the procession for Shridi Sat Sai Baba just in front of the IDBI bank, never mind how they blocked the traffic or the loud noise they created with huge mobile loud speakers on a Thursday afternoon! And the poor vendors for garlands and other paraphernalia got ready as well on a portable charpai and stalls.
The Pacific Mall in Subhahsh Nagar is an oasis of modern shopping.
Enter the First World in a Mall
In front of the Pacific Mall at Subhash Nagar there is always such a din of horns and commotion at the traffic light, like angry bees wanting to get through. It is amazing that the traffic actually stops in a line at one direction to let the others go.
But that’s only because Delhi Police issues fines (and collects them on the spot on portable debit card machines) for crossing a red light (Rs 2,000 or $31 and suspension of license for 3 months); no seat belts and speaking on the cell phone. Each traffic light intersection has cameras and you revceive a ticket on your cellphone that you can’t dispute!
The Pacific Mall is the nicest one in West Delhi and people comes from Moti Nagar to Rajouri Garden to Punjabi Bagh, Tilak Nagar, Janakpuri and all the way to Najafgarh way out west. It’s pretty much like any mall in Asia, with all sorts of high end stores and a food court. You can shop at all the highpriced name brand stores or at department stores like Pantaloon or Westside and even shop in a supermarket in the basement which was once owned by the French chain Auchan but is now a Spar.
There’s even a virtual tour app available for the mall!