thoughtfully thoughtless……

 

The serene environs of the Jantar Mantar, the astronomical  wonder  located at  New Delhi are no longer serene.   The peace is shattered by periodic shrill whistles, reminding one of old Hindi movies, where the villains try to escape their ‘alleged’ crimes, by running  through narrow gullies, pursued by over-zealous, pot-bellied policemen.

Even the doves who rule the roost in the structures and are the only ‘permanent’ residents here, were sent aflutter every few minutes…

But then, this is no movie, or even a shooting of one….. this was the reality that greeted a few dedicated photographers who were at Jantar Mantar trying to capture its lines and shapes for digital posterity. Considering that this was happening at 7:30 in the morning, when there were about 10 odd people in the entire area, the entire situation  was even more preposterous and Orwellian.

A search for the offender brought us to a semi-officious, semi-literate, uniform-clad moron, who gruffly informed us that he has strict orders to make sure that no-one stays at one spot for  more than 5 minutes or sit anywhere. In confirmation with his ‘orders’ our friend in uniform, blew his shrill whistle at random intervals'.

After a while, realising that we were not going to listen to his dictates, especially after we pointedly asked him for his name and other particulars, he dumped his bright yellow plastic bag containing  God knows what, into one of the niches, and promptly sits down on the steps ( the selfsame place where he was supposed to roust people from) and dozes off. The scene was too attractive to resist and so here are the photos, that portray another attempt to add a nail in the coffin of India’s freedom.

 

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