V.I.P. visits and movements

If you have lived in Delhi and especially if you have worked in or near Connaught Place, life would have at one point of time revolved around V.I.P. movement. Remember being held up for over half an hour, a mere 5 minutes away from office because a minister is going to pass through that route. So for a few kilometers on either side, traffic has been stopped and made to wait till the honorable M'ster passes through.

If unfortunately the personage happened to be more than just a mere M'ster and more like a visiting foreign dignitary, and if GOD forbid if it was the US President then it would have been advisable to stay put at home.

I remember when I was still young, On Sundays, Rajiv Gandhi would go to his farmhouse and the route for that included the street in front of my place. There was no movement allowed, not even pedestrian traffic for atleast an hour. So you learnt to structure your travel plans accordingly. So for most dilliwallas it was a part of life...

But when I moved to Mumbai, I was told that no such thing happened here. And i thought, well that's good.. Because on top of the regular chaotic jams and delays due to increasing traffic, didn't think most people would be able to handle these additional delays as well..

Well post that I witnessed the restriction on movement which was put in place for Sonia Gandhi's recent visit to this city. Since she was making an address at BKC, she had to use the road right in front of my apartments. And deciding that Saturdays need to be fruitfully utilised, I had stepped out to go to the bank. And then I waited, a part of the crowd for madam to arrive..

I have to admit that for once I did not think about how this was screwing up my busy schedule and just stood and watched.

It was pretty impressive, lines of cars.. all looking the same, all white.. One thing which struck me was that our national car the Amby has definitely been thrown out of it's esteemed position. Even Maruti has lost it's monopoly over government vehicles. There were a few Esteems and obviously some Gypsys.. But the others were mostly Honda Civics and a few other FOREN cars.. Well if the first lady of the country is an Italian, then why should our official vehicles not be from foreign shores.

But apart from referring to Sonia Gandhi as our First lady, it still rankled that despite the fact she did not hold any official post in our system, was not our Prime Minister or our President, but then why were a multitude of Indians being inconvenienced due to her?