Festive Season & Lajpat

The festival season approaches and in Lajpat Nagar there’s a lot to celebrate. Thanks to manoeuvres in high places, a whole year’s worth of stress and worry has been lifted from the business community. For the last 12 months or more Delhi has been in a planning crisis. Well – it’s had a planning crisis for a long time but recently matters came to a head.

I always say shopping is cheaper than a psychiatrist.

I'm sure looters don't call it looting. They probably think of it as extreme shopping.

In the smart districts residents naturally object to such goings on but in our noisy Lajpat Nagar the residents are the ones who own the businesses. Last year, the Supreme Court came out with orders banning commercial activity in residential areas. Premises were sealed in official raids; a terrible fate, especially if your stock was inside, as you never knew when it might be released.

There is something about the outside of a horse that is good for the inside of a man.

A good book on your shelf is a friend that turns its back on you and remains a friend.

In any part of Delhi, except the poshest, basements and ground floors hum with activity. Garments are made, embroidery is done and goods of all sorts are stored and or sold.

The only way to keep your health is to eat what you don't want, drink what you don't like, and do what you'd rather not.

If you haven't seen your wife smile at a traffic cop, you haven't seen her smile her prettiest.

But now there’s a stay of execution. “Sealing-wealing”, as it’s known in local rhyming slang, has been stopped for 14 months while Government finds a solution. Last year Lajpat Nagar’s shops boycotted Diwali in protest, a massive gesture. This year they can celebrate as usual.