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2010 – Year of Delhi

Arun 1 Comment

2010 will be an interesting year for Delhi.
There is a beeline of different infrastructure related projects completing next year before Commonwealth Games in Oct 2010 – that includes Delhi metro, Upgraded Airport, New set of Flyovers, New set of hotels etc.
And then hopefully the year will end with graceful hosting of commonwealth games. (although I am still concerned about our preparedness and security concerns – with so much threats coming from various militant groups) … But I am more than hopeful that we will be able to pull it through with elegance and by the end of 2010 we will have an event which the world will remember and will have a Delhi which will be much different from what we have now.
Although I am sitting miles away from all this, but I feel as excited about them and am particularly excited about the Delhi Metro project.
One reason for this could be that I have been following the progress of Delhi Metro half of my life 🙂 – if I may say so. 🙂
The construction work of Delhi Metro was started 10 years back (around 1999), and has been planned in various phases. Currently we are in phase II of IV. Details can be read here.
But I have been following the progress of Delhi Metro even before the construction was started. I can still somewhat remember the news articles around 1995 in daily newspapers (TOI / HT) where it used to mention the project plans of Delhi Metro – with detailed maps of how it will be – and we all used to be all so dreamy still skeptical about all that.
At that time, the project was in very nascent / planning phase and I guess was getting clearance from the red tapes at various level of Government.
Flash Forward to Today – it was heartening to see the opening of Noida Line Today Morning.
Scripting yet another chapter in its history, the Delhi Metro today crossed the capital for the first time as a brand new train chugged into Noida.
The Metro’s move into the satellite township of Delhi is expected to bring a paradigm shift in the travelling habits of people in the National Capital Region.
The 13.1 km Yamuna Bank-Noida line was inaugurated by Union urban development minister S Jaipal Reddy in the presence of Delhi chief minister Sheila Dikshit and DMRC managing director E Sreedharan at the newly-built Akshardham station.
It brought back all those memories –
Those news articles in 1995 about project plan and the related skepticism and dreams.
Those thousand of articles we have read during last 10 years about the progress of Delhi Metro.
Last but not the least – the recent most “real” memories I have is from last year when I was in India and me and my wife used to drive from home to office watching the construction work in Noida in progress … the line which opened today.
And then, equally exciting is to read lineup for scheduled opening next year.

The opening of the Noida line marks the beginning of Phase II of Metro getting operational. Now, a new Metro line will open almost every month till the Commonwealth Games.

Aaaaaaah! … those lines are music to my ears.
So it is very obvious that I will definitely keep following all this progress – this is truly history in making and I dont want to miss anything. I dont even want to blink from now till end of 2010.
Lastly, it is probably human nature for me to wait for the line nearest to my place to get completed – that is the “Violet Line” connecting to my neighborhood in south delhi – Badarpur 😀

In June 2010, the 4.91km stretch on the Badarpur line from Sarita Vihar to Badarpur will be commissioned. The rest of the Badarpur line (15.25 km) connecting Sarita Vihar to Central Secretariat will open in September 2010.

So, once again … Congratulations to all my fellow delhites … and best wishes for 2010.

PS – the image source of Delhi Metro with Giant Statue of Hanuman is HINDU’s website

This image of the Delhi Metro running against the backdrop of a tall idol of Hanuman has come to be identified as Delhi’s defining picture in the recent years. It is often cited as the point of confluence of Tradition and Development in the Urban Area. Photo: V. V. Krishnan

Total waste of Time – I

Arun Leave a comment
This post is a total waste of time, so dont read! 🙂
Hmm, you are still reading!? … anyways, dont complain as you were warned 🙂
So I was watching Das Ka Dum on TV and this show ended with a famous Bollywood Song Tama Tama Loge (from 1990 movie Thanedar).
This song, as many of you know, was one of the most famous song of 1990. I am sure many of you must be in school like me and used to dance in your bedroom/bathroom on this song. 🙂
So, anyways, the point is that it brought back lots of memories from my childhood 🙂 – so my obvious reaction (which is very obvious to my closest friends/family) is to search out this song on youtube to listen to the song and watch the video… in fact I am listening to this song – on repeat – while I am composing this blog post. 😐
Above video is so 80ish 🙂 … the disco dance routine, which was a characteristic of 80’s “item numbers”. I wonder how’ll we look back at todays films/songs … say 20 years from now. I will probably have today’s post as reference, 20 years from now 🙂
It also reminded me of another song – Jumma Chumma De De (literary meaning Jumma Kiss Me) – which was a copy of this Tama Tam Song – or vice versa… we dont know which one ripped off which one.
In fact, there was huge controversy during that time on these songs of copying each other.
I think I also remember “some news” of these songs ripping off a “foreign song”. But I never heard about that song till now. So, I googled it out now (naturally, as you know me) and found that song is “Tama Tama Loge” by someone called Mory Kante – whom again I never heard of till now.
So, after listening to this song, I was thinking –
A) It is height of hypocrisy for those music directors to blame each other for ripping off their song … when the reality is they ripped off it from third person’s song.
B) I dont mind it them stealing, because both of these songs are my fav … I would have never known about Mory Kante unless these songs were there.
C) Thanks to internet, it is so easy to find useless facts like this … within minutes 🙂
Any thoughts?
PS – I found one song of Mory Kante that I have heard of before … It’s YEKE YEKE.
Updated later –
This is becoming more and more interesting, I just noticed the “making of Tama Tama Loge” video on youtube … HA! … I never thought someone have making of Tama Tama Loge and someday I will be seeing it.
It’s such a lame video! … LOL 🙂 … I have no words to describe.