"Life is not all beer and skittles now!"
Luxurious lifestyle in private jets, flying for business and pleasure or even just for a meal if their mood desired for something specific. Late nights, so obviously late morning strong cups of coffee or for the health freaks, lukewarm lime water.
Dozens of trained helps to wait on them---such is the lifestyle of most of the VIPs and industrialists who are now huddled together at the Tihar Jail in tiny ten by eight cemented rooms.
Expensive and extensive wardrobes which are mostly dry cleaned only at 5-star hotels are now lying neatly stacked in their cupboards at home. Wining and dining at the most expensive restaurants the world over every now and then was the done thing for the high-profile guests at Tihar.
These highfliers no longer travel in luxurious cars, but travel with the police escort sharing seats with the ordinary criminals. The highflying jailbirds are now getting used to sleeping without the softest linen in the world, but only a plain blanket with a basic washroom. These are the guys who are used to air conditioners even in their toilets and now have to do with only an old rattling fan to cool themselves.
A basic meal of bread, butter, dal and chapattis is their daily diet. They get Rs 2,000 per week to buy some goodies from the prison bakery. Most of them have become vegetarian in Tihar. Some of them develop new hobbies like reading or they start playing sports with common inmates. Of course, they are all old friends and business associates. Most of the time, they spend going through the CBI chargesheet rather than reading books and magazines. They do miss the luxury of 5-star hotels and lifestyle of the rich and famous.
Well, eating light meals on time, no late-night parties and for a change not hopping from one city to another, this may turn them into trimmer, healthier and wiser people. While the public is left wondering who's going next, the inmates are waiting for Suresh Kalmadi to join them.
The drawing room class high society is not very impressed with the 'Anna Hazare' protest against corruption and understandably so. But the younger generation and the middle class are heaving a sigh of relief, feeling that the corrupt may at last be punished.
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"Poor citizens get the third degree"
Have not heard of anything Rape, kidnapping and violent crimes are all growing and are frightening aspect of life in the Capital. As citizens get wary and weary of the statistics, the chilling anxiety is that it is getting increasingly closer each day to everybody. And the natural reaction is for the public to blame the police for the collapse of the law and order.
Yet Delhi is unique. The police force here is not controlled by the state government. Despite efforts by the government to involve citizens in watching over the crime in their neighborhoods, the fact is that in a city that is bursting at the seams, neighbours hardly know each other. So, it's back to the 'blame police' again.
But with growing numbers, growing statistics and increasing variety of crimes, the question is being asked whether the police is equipped to handle all this? In terms of equipment and training, resources are an obvious constraint. Just imagine the task of trying to verify the domestic helps in this city.
Though everybody knows it's needed, in practical terms the long delays mean the verification is given the go-by. So, the citizen's demand for better policing constantly grows, but answers are slow to come by. Politicians get away by blaming the police and the police gets away by blaming resources. So, slowly but surely the noose of crime tightness around the poor citizens' neck.
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