yet another day

The picture on the right is of a teenager that people in Nepal think is a reincarnation of the Buddha. The boy has been sitting in meditation without food for more than a month now.... seeking enlightenment... now on to more mundane matters

Yesterday, a bomb scare in the Delhi Metro, handled quietly and efficiently by the Metro chaps and hardly a whiff of it in the press… or maybe I missed something. Wednesday evening. 6:40 pm. I’m rushing to Connaught Place (now called Rajeev Chowk) in a frazzle.

Earlier in the day, I had forgotten two boxes of Wenger’s cookies someplace, and only realised that the bag was missing when I was almost back to my shack almost thirty kilometres away.

Boarded the tube at Delhi university.. a smooth 14 minute ride to one of the Capital’s popular shopping areas. As we emerge, oblivious of anything I rush towards the subway that takes one up to Rodeo’s the favourite watering hole for many, where our one and only recognised Country Star Bobby … cash?? What’s happening to me, temporary amnesia… anyway Bobby used to sing there before he made it big in Oz…

Back to story, I sort of notice the automatic ticketing machines changing from green to red, but I’m at the last one which is green and it accepts my token, so I’m through. Suddenly I notice that except for me and a companion, there’s nobody in the passageway… (the rest of the passengers had been shepherded to other exits by the metro staff)… we walk in to a sanitised corridor with police chaps toting guns and talking in to their black walkie-talkies… The exit gates are closed, in fact, I see one actually being opened a fraction and the crowd of passengers outside being told that the section was temporarily closed… I tell an officer chap I want out, he signals to another cop to take us up on the elevator… I ask the cop, did a Minister or some bigwig visit here? (Delhi goes crazy when a big knob deigns to visit any place) – ‘No, he tells me casually, just a bomb scare, the checks are being carried out, looks like a hoax’ – we’re on the surface, escorted out through the quizzical crowds by the cops and deposited on the pavement—neat.

An hour later, the metro is back to normal, but trying to cope with the extra rush of passengers, some of them quite annoyed that they were delayed by half an hour… and yes, I managed to recover the cookies…