Tag: delhi (last 300)
Dragon boats
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Get a room
(Gettyimages Pic) Indian Border Security Force short of troop carriers this year ;) Moto stunt at Republic Day.
Those wonderful Punbajis
India Gate shaukeen
Just fill in all A’s on the Scantron
Faulty pitch
(ToI) India-Sri Lanka cricket match cancelled in the middle over bad pitch conditions. Venue could be banned in future.
Noida metro
Delhiite Cowboy
(Indep Jun) Delhi cowboys rope and chip stray cows, load them onto hydraulic trucks and drive them to a sanctuary outside the city, unless their owners bribe them for return.
Noida metro opening
(ToI) The Delhi metro will run to Noida as of next week with new stations at Akshardham, Mayur Vihar and several Noida sectors.
Water as currency
(Twitter) At the height of Delhi summer, our taps ran dry — someone had been stealing water from us. More on India’s water shortage: [via]
‘Apples’ music
(Vid) Delhi 2 Dublin’s kaleidoscopic debut vid, ‘Apples,’ forms the Indian flag’s chakra out of fiddlers and dancers.
Pushy Bagh
(Time) Punjabis in Delhi became pushy because they lost all in Partition. They’re the butt of jokes like ‘the national bird of Punjab is tandoori chicken.’ (via @kalhan)
A void-delivery service
(Open) Delhi is an onion, a void-delivery device.... Its women take great care of themselves, to no avail... Future JNU sellouts love Hugo Chavez, which is despicable.
Delhi Sultanate
(Vid) Delhi Sultanate name-checks L.K. Advani in dancehall-jungle style. More: [via]
Gurgaon metro contract announced
Cutting power theft
(WSJ) N. Delhi Power has drastically cut power theft via insulated wires, informants and wireless meter reading, which eliminates bribes.
Go go Granta
(Granta Audio) Rana Dasgupta and Ruchir Joshi discuss Delhi’s super rich and the energy of new money. Joshi wrote ‘The Last Jet-Engine Laugh.’
Contractor corruption on Delhi metro
Sanjeev Nanda To Be Freed Soon
(NDTV) Sanjeev Nanda to be freed in a couple months. Sentenced to 5 years Sept 2008, he may well be free Sept 2009. HC ruled his 6 homicides ‘not culpable’ because not deliberate. Sentence reduced to 2yrs, time off for ‘good behavior’ and time served. !!?
Where they’re efficient II
(ToL) Courts in the back of vans will speed up convictions for begging in Delhi, which wants to clean up the streets before the Commonwealth Games and lock up beggars for up to a year. (ht: SB)
‘Everyone has a jet’
(Granta) Rana Dasgupta on Delhi’s thuggish ultrarich. DLF property empire from wooing farmers. One developer exporting Punjabi farmers to 700K acres in Ethiopia, imperialist. PM can’t get midnight Lamborghini drag racing to pipe down.
Himanshu Verma in the WSJ
(WSJ) Mitra: My 2 yr old’s favorite Delhi visitor was a cross-dressing male curator, Himanshu Verma, whom she dubbed Himanshu Auntie. They wore matching saris to an art opening.
Delhi metro hit by another accident
(AP) Three cranes buckled while trying to clear the Delhi metro bridge accident site... Sreedharan’s resignation not accepted.
Commonwealth Games driving metro rush
(Guardian) Authorities are rushing to complete several extensions taking the Delhi metro’s coverage to 60 miles before the Commonwealth Games in October 2010.
Metro construction rushed
Charges filed vs. Delhi metro contractor
Delhi metro chief resigns
(ToI) Delhi metro chief Sreedharan resigns after 2nd bridge collapse in 6 months. Thsi one near Lajpat Nagar.
Delhi metro bridge collapse
(ToI) A portion of a Delhi metro bridge under construction collapsed near GK, killing 6 workers. Cracks in pillar blamed. [via]
Bus Rapid Transit is poor man’s subway
(NYT) Bus Rapid Transit foundered because Delhi couldn’t keep traffic out of dedicated bus lanes. Bogota’s system moves more passengers per mile every hour than almost any of the world’s subways at 1/10th the cost.
‘Granta’ release party
(Granta) In latest ‘Granta’: Rana Dasgupta on Delhi’s super-rich. Party pics with British writer Anita Sethi.
We’re engineers, please step aside
(WaPo) Delhi electricity theft dates back to when getting a legal connection could take a lifetime. Hundreds have been sent to jail.
Camp Delhi
377-8509
(WSJ Pics) Gay activists in Delhi celebrate the overturning of Sec. 377 within the confines of Delhi.
It’s harrowing being black in Delhi
(Outlook) Black Ph.D. student in Delhi: Bank associates have denied me chai, while falling over to please my white friend. “An African has come," a guard announced over the intercom. [via]
Coffee co-op closing
(BBC Pic) Indira Gandhi used to stop by Indian Coffee House in Delhi, which is due to close. It’s a sister to the famous Indian Coffee House in Calcutta. (ht: Sapna)
Love among the ruins
(HT) Amid the Hauz Khas ruins I met two smokers from Karol Bagh, a giggling couple from Jamia Millia Islamia U and a love-struck pair from a Ghaziabad engineering college. (ht: AM)
Guha, Dasgupta and bhangra
Mall of India falls silent
(NYT) Now Delhi real estate sites lie fallow. The once-booming art market has slowed to a crawl. The Mall of India is still a fallow pit.
Indian teachers don’t spare the rod
(Time) Last month, an 11 yr old Delhi schoolgirl’s teacher forced her to stand in the sun for 2 hours until she fainted, slipped into a coma and died.
Delhi’s difficult driver test
(NYT) At one Delhi driver licensing office, the test consisted of turning on the ignition and driving in a wide circle for a minute.
Sari snags
(BBC) At 101 g/km of emissions, the Nano isn’t much greener than the Renault Clio (117g/km), which has a larger engine... The Delhi metro’s escalators have devices to prevent snagging of saris.
Dilly-dallying in Delhi
(WSJ) Adorable interactive tour of Delhi with photos of Khan and Sundar Nagar markets, Safdarjung and Humayun’s tombs, Lodi Gardens. With accompanying story.
Delhi2SF
Museum of ‘Masakalli’
(Gettyimages) Photos from ‘Delhi 6’ premiere at MoMA NY: Sonam Kapoor, Abhishek Bachchan, director Rakeysh Mehra, Mira Nair.
Saris banned at Delhi nightclubs
(Telegraph) Nightclubs in New Delhi have banned women from wearing traditional saris and curly-toe jooti shoes. [Already true at British-era country clubs, where you often can’t enter in sari or shorts.] (ht: Jef)
One word: plastics
(NYT) If the Delhi ban on plastic holds, how will manufacturers avoid getting their goods dusty? [And what will ancient desi couples cover their TV remotes and couches with? :) Actually, it’s a ban on plastic bags.]
IIT-JEE easier than Delhi Nursery Schools
(HT) This year, 1 of 46 applicants got into Springdales Nursery. It was easier at the IIT Entrance Examination: 1 of 45 candidates got in. Parents blame the Points System: for neighborhood, sibling, alumni, government servant and girl child.
Where ‘Delhi 6’ is
(Scribd) Upcoming film ‘Delhi 6’ takes as its title the PIN code for old Delhi: Chandni Chowk, Jama Masjid.
Garbage gaon
(WaPo) Law enforcement is so weak that Gurgaon was nicknamed the gun capital of greater Delhi. ‘Rubbish is thrown anywhere and everywhere. The garbage is permeating groundwater.’
Republic Day photos
(Gettyimages) Delhi’s Soviet-style Republic Day parade. The Gurkhas’ hats are sharp, and the motorcycle stunts are always fun.
Freakonomics’ take on Mumbai and Delhi auto-rickshaws
That’s not my bag, baby
(Guardian) Delhi will outlaw plastic bags because they clog drains and breed malaria and dengue fever. Rwanda, Bhutan and Bangladesh all enforce bans. (ht: Sapna)
Balti, cookin’
(WaPo) Art installed along metro route has Delhiites scratching their heads. ‘I do not see anything special in a bucket. But this is indeed a very, very big bucket.’
India basing fighter jets near Delhi
(Telegraph) To defend against terrorism, India is again basing fighter jets at Hindon air base near Delhi. It was closed in ’96 after accidents caused by birds from a nearby slaughterhouse.
Airport cops get AKs
(Express) Indira Gandhi Int’l cops get AKs, which the story calls ‘sophisticated’ [they’re an aging design].
The Delhi open
(Daily Show) Jon Stewart opens with a hat tip to viewers in Delhi. At 5:45, Aasif Mandvi explains why Hillary Clinton as Secretary of State is a bad idea.
Jantar Mantar’s time has come
(WaPo) Delhi’s Jantar Mantar observatory is being recalibrated and restored with students’ help. Restoration with cement made the markings inaccurate, so lime mortar will be used.
Mundyan de dil nachde
The Delhi Skirt Game
(Wiki) The Delhi Skirt Game of Delhi Township, Ohio is a Chicago-style softball game; the players consist of men dressed up like women.
The rickshaw goes solar
(AFP) The solar rickshaw is a motorised cycle rickshaw that can be pedalled normally or run off solar-powered battery for 30-40 miles. It’s being tested in Chandni Chowk, Delhi.
Boy killed in Delhi blast
(NYT) Two men on a black motorcycle left a package stuffed with explosives in a narrow lanein New Delhi. A 9-year-old boy was killed as he grabbed the package and ran after the men.
Bomb kills child in Delhi
(IBN) The boy picked up the bomb concealed in a lunch box and wrapped in a black polythene bag and tried handing it back to the motorcycle riders. It started smoking and blew his head off.
Delhi 2 Dublin’s predecessor
(Sandeepsood) When I lived in Cal’s I-House, I got drunk with two Indian guys and an Irish kid from New Zealand one night. It was fun to mix bassy, 3-beat cycles from the tabla with traditional Irish melodies. [Listen here:] [via]
Punjab Paddy
(TO Star) Vancouver-based celtic-bhangra fusion band, a mutt in ethnicity, comprises tabla, dhol and fiddle players and an electric guitarist with bhangra vocals. [Listen here:] [via]
India’s Home Minister a Foppish Dandy
(IBN) Shivraj Patil found time to change suits three times the evening Delhi blasts were occurring. Sonia Gandhi meets party bigwigs without him; there is talk that he might be fired from the Cabinet, where he shouldn’t have been in the first place.
Open WiFi used in blast threat
(WaPo) In Delhi blasts, email again sent via unsecured WiFi. Email contained 13 page list of Muslim grievances, threats.
Delhi bombings targeted businesses
(BusWeek) Delhi blast perps targeted biz, not national symbols. Two bombs exploded near entrance to Delhi Metro.
Rag pickers get reward
(ToI) Two Delhi rag-pickers who informed police about bombs lying in dustbins will be given a reward of Rs 50,000.
Delhi blast photos
Evacuation announcement saved lives in Delhi
(HT) Blast threat IP from Chembur, Bombay. Email sent via Yahoo on acc’t created same day. Witness claimed two bearded men in black kurta-pajama planted bombs. GK1 evacuation announcement after first bomb saved many lives. Metro kept running.
3 unexploded bombs in Delhi
(ToI) 3 unexploded bombs found in Delhi: near India Gate inside a dustbin, on the road at Regal Cinema, inside a Connaught Place Central Park dustbin.
Post-Diwali blast cameras broken
(WaPo) Many security cameras put in after the Diwali bombings do not work, ‘People keep losing lives and shedding tears. And the government keeps issuing statements.’
Delhi blasts: unexploded bomb found
(NYT) Threat sent via email. An unexploded bomb was found near India Gate. One bomb went off by a subway station entrance on a major road.
Delhi blast details
Blasts in Delhi
(ToI) 18 killed in 5 serial blasts today in busy markets across Delhi: Ghaffar market of Karol Bagh; Connaught Place’s Central Park area; M-block market in GK1. Sarojini Nagar evac’d. [via]
Sanjeev Nanda Gets 5 Years for Killing 6 People
(HT) Pedestrians, cops among those 6 he killed 9 years ago. Age 19, driving drunk in a BMW. Fled the scene, destroyed evidence, his lawyers colluded with the prosecution, bribed witnesses and victims. Long trial; victory for justice, vigilant media.
Yamuna could be next river to flood
(ToI) Two decades ago, the Yamuna inundated Delhi, leaving only the top of the enormous Hanuman statue near Kashmere Gate visible above the waters.
Every metro logo
(Static) Spot the Delhi metro logo in this compendium of all subway systems. Hint: seems to be in alpha order. [via]
The gas menagerie
(Atimes) Monitor lizards, antelopes, jackals, raptors, monkeys, peacocks and blue bulls are often sighted on runways at New Delhi’s Indira Gandhi International.
Delhi bus lane has major flaw
(WSJ) The bus stops for Delhi’s new Bus Rapid Transit system were put on the highway median, three lanes of fast, chaotic traffic from the sidewalk on each side. Accidents abound.
Delhi fends off Tibetan protesters
(WaPo) ‘Our men are standing everywhere like a fort. The prestigious torch will go through our Indian streets. The nation’s honor is at stake.’ Said by an Indian policeman, not one of the Chinese security men accompanying the flame.
30,000 support Tibet in Bangalore
(WaPo) Running in the parallel torch rally was an MP from Arunachal Pradesh. Part of his constituency is claimed by China... Chinese security were permitted to accompany the torch in Delhi after all. 30K Tibet supporters protested in Bangalore.
Send gas mask for Pinky
(Reuters) One Delhi school near the Chinese embassy warned parents of tear gas wafting into classrooms. In the Buddhist region of Ladakh, thousands marched for Tibetans. In Bangalore, 300 protesters carried an unlit torch through the city.
Tibetans storm Delhi Chinese embassy
(NYT) Tibetan protesters stormed through barricades at the Chinese embassy in Delhi. Others are planning to run a ‘peace run’ at Jantar Mantar ahead of the torch relay. Security measures like those used during Republic Day are in use at Rajpath.
Delhi torch relay is asking for trouble
(Economist) The torch comes to Delhi Apr. 17, but India is home to 100,000 Tibetans. The only stop on the relay sure to be trouble-free is N. Korea. It hard to imagine a more insensitive gesture than routing the torch through Tibet.
Discovering Tughluqabad
(WSJ) Tughluqabad is huge castle an hour outside Delhi, grand as Fatehpur Sikri but almost unknown. In any other country it would be major, not a neglected roadside attraction... The tout’s ‘state archaeologist’ badge had a different name :)
Tibetans protest in Delhi
(NYT) Tibet protesters carried 154 mock bodies in Delhi... Supercop Kiran Bedi refused to carry the torch. ‘I cannot run in a caged manner. It is no more a freedom torch now.’
No Chinese security for torch in Delhi
(IBN) India has turned down China’s request for its Red Guard commandos to accompany the Olympic torch on its short, 3 km jaunt through Delhi.
Everybody tai chi tonight
Tibetan exiles fret in Delhi
(WaPo) Delhi cops beat dozens chanting slogans outside the Chinese Embassy. A Tibetan exile in Delhi got a call from a Lhasa friend: ‘He was crying and said: Even if we die, it is okay. We are waiting for you, please don’t stop your activities.’
Bhagidari bhagaos monkeys
(WaPo) A popular Delhi program called Bhagidari (partnership) lets citizen groups walk into any gov’t office, kick ass and take names. In a recent meeting, people griped about the monkey menace.
Mind your language, copper
(HT) An alleged Delhi thief with an MA in Poli Sci corrected cops’ grammar and spelling and made them go through the formalities cited in the Indian Constitution before they arrested him. This man could be a minister soon. [via]
Delhi shaken by school shootings
(WaPo) Two fatal shootings and a stabbing in Indian schools have rattled Delhi parents. You can buy AK-47s in street markets, and Indians are second only to the U.S. in number of firearms owned, though far down the list per capita.
Delhi metro map looks like Boston’s
(Wikimedia) Delhi metro map looks like the Boston T. There’s even a red line which goes up and to the left. The Boston map: [via]