Delhi means...........

Had read somewhere that last year the authorities had decided to teach good behaviour to the Rude Delhi, in light of the CommonWealth Games, due soon. that reminded me of one of my articles published in the Tabloid "METRO NOW" on 14th May, 2008. i wonder how much of our Delhi has really improved!

Cultural Capital Lacks “Culture”
Manisha Gupta

Living in Delhi, the so called “Cultural Capital” of India, can be a nightmare to some people’s cultural sensitivities. There seems to be a total lack of culture in this city. Here politeness is taken to be a sign of weakness and nice behavior a sign of lack of power or control. There is so much aggression in society at all levels and that too on the side of the wrong doer.

For example the milkman who’ll deliver the milk somewhere at 12 noon instead of 6 or 7 in the morning and still misbehave, or the “Autowallah” or “Taxiwallah” who’ll charge you any exorbitant amount and be rude on top of that, or the shopkeeper who’ll make the customer feel so inferior and dependent with his rudeness and aggression. What these people forget is it is the customer category which gives them their business.

Even otherwise, there’s no respect for anything or anybody left in the city and anyone can get away with any behavior. Everybody seems to be just waiting for the slightest opportunity to insult or misbehave with somebody. That kind of gives them a high.

Where is this trend in society going to lead us? There are certain societal norms especially in the context of Indian cultural traditions. The way people are going, throwing away all ‘cultural sensitivity & traditional norms’ in the name of modernization, our society is already in quite a sea of ‘cultural trouble’. In fact the west is imbibing our good cultural norms in many cases while we live in a ‘cultural confusion’.