The illusion of Delhi

  When I had first imagined Delhi, its poverty was not something I had given much thought to. However over the year I have been in Delhi and North India, I feel it is the the most neglected subject by those like me who are better off. Whether in casual conversations or in formal meetings, it is either considered as a taboo or as a joke. But in the very end the fact remains that a chain is only as strong as it's weakest link.

 But when you peel away the glitz and glamor of Delhi's malls and clubs, or the stately prowess of its land marks, all you get is the sordid reality of its poor people living in urban squalor. I can only imagine the misery they endure day in and day out when I watch them from afar as they try to scratch out a living. The one's who pay most dearly are the children who have been denied everything you & I got as a child. The lucky ones have some parents to speak of while the unlucky ones have no one but themselves as they beg and work in the street just for survival. I fear we have much to answer for before God, for these little girls and boys.

 Unfortunately even my feelings for them have now gone numb after the many months I have seen this injustice play out before me and my realization that there is nothing I can do for them. Now I only hope to leave this city at the first opportunity with a promise that I do what I can to stop this urban abomination from taking root in my state and my city.

  However from a practical point of view, I cannot help but point out certain factors which I think contributed to create this appalling level of poverty and which will continue to be the cause of Delhi's demise. The city is built nearly in the middle of the great northern plains and shares boundary with states. Administratively & politically it seems a wise decision, except that most cities don't sustain themselves efficiently on that. They grow & sustain because of having access to geographical features facilitating trade & commerce, natural resources like water or a  year round pleasant climate that in turn fosters capital generating economic activity. Think of all other Indian metros which are on the coasts or other great cities around the world. 

   What features or resources does Delhi have other than becoming a dust bowl in summer and cold snapped in winter. It neither has a port or a navigable body of water (discounting the garbage canal that river Yamuna has become) nor even a source of drinking water. It doesn't even have any strategic military advantages. In short my opinion is that Delhi is an artificially propped up city that tries in vain to ape the other cities which generate capital using its considerable political power. In doing that it has failed to recognize the human tragedy unfolding within its walls. I can only hope the administrators and citizens of Delhi will come out of their illusion of greatness and do an introspection before Delhi suffers the fate of other vain cities that have come and disappeared in history.