I lived full time in Delhi till mid 1994 n was a fully employed hack with a Mumbai-based daily(since 1984).
My problems then were bad MTNL connections for fax n telex n phone,virtually no water (even in Lutyens Delhi where both home n office were located),no good pre-schools(Mrs Gauba’s located in my backyard n which my husband n his brother had attended was defunct or nearly by then so Revu went to Roots in Defence Colony, quite a distance away),no creches or day-care centres,crappy hospitals(apart from AIIMS which too was Filthy then!),connectivity to satellite townships was zilch so work was tedious,security n policing then too was a concern (dowry deaths nearly became part of the vulture-culture) n even Lutyens Delhi took on a sinister avatar with freaks pervs n thieves who crawled out from the colonaded structures even at dusk,so night-life was Delhi Gym(11pm! Lol),Press Club(Ahem!)Bali Hi atop Maurya Sheraton if rich or otherwise obliged n Neemrana for weekend getaways!Electricity was constantly supplemented by genset “genie” n admission to “good schools” meant either you were babu/fauji/rich/hack with a Delhi paper ,DD,or UNI /PTI!So you voted according to these needs. Yamuna became a sluggish sewage nullah in high summer,the bastis or slums n JJ colonies(jhuggi-jhompri/slums) were unbelievable in filth n squalor but the vastness of Delhi n its tree-lined avenues n Wide Wide roads made-up for a lot,even screaming security entourages which were so common-place by then that they became “just traffic hazards”!But… there was an Appalling lack of good n life-sustaining jobs!So I wonder what will be the voting pattern this time ??! Definitely a lot of the above!
