Category: Reflections

 

“Woh jail ki hawa kha raha hai.Maine use jhute dowry kes mei andar karwaya hai.”I was aghast to hear this coming from the mouth of a young woman whom I was meeting for the first time. She, just a casual acquaintance, had no qualms in telling me that her husband was cooling his heels in a jail. Rather she was boasting of getting him implicated in a false dowry case to teach him a lesson. What a blatant misuse of the dowry act, I mused. Continue reading “Women Empowerment sans Victimisation of Men”

 

Cycle tracks are being laid all across the length and breadth of Chandigarh. Passages in identifiable, trade mark red are being carved out at the crossings and roundabouts so that the cyclists get a thorough passage without mingling into major traffic. As I see brisk reconstruction activity on the roads to make the city bicycle friendly, I cannot help recalling my maiden visit to Amsterdam, the cycling capital of the world. The capital of Netherlands, dotted with cycle tracks, has the best cycling infrastructure in the world.

Continue reading “For better cycling culture, pedal Amsterdam way  “

It was my first visit to Gurgaon, nay Gurugram, “The Millennium City” by bus. I travelled from Chandigarh by a ‘supposedly’ luxury coach ‘Volvo’ of Haryana Roadways. There is nothing luxurious about the bus any longer except for the air conditioning and the reclining seats. The fleet of Volvo buses introduced more than a decade ago is crying for maintenance.  The curtains have disappeared from its windows. The interiors of the bus look shabby. Oh! I am digressing. The focus of the piece is not the upkeep of the luxury buses used by a few but the condition of the bus stand meant for everyone. Continue reading “Travelling through the Stone-Age bus stand of Millennium City”

‘Toddler mauled by a pack of stray dogs,’ read the headline in Chandigarh newpapers.  Not the wolves in the periphery but the stray dogs in the heart of the city attacked and killed an eighteen month old baby boy. Shocking! Horrifying it is, but certainly not an isolated case of canine assault. Continue reading “Who let the stray animals out?”