Many names were suggested as deserving of the highest honour India can confer on its citizens: Atal Bihari Vajpayee, Jyoti Basu, Kanshi Ram, Charan Singh, Karunanidhi and a few others. All men of great stature and all politicians.

The love of titles is inborn in people round the world. It is also in the Indian psyche. If one isn’t a Maharajah or Nawab, he can be a Tikku, Kanwar or Nawabzada. The British who have a well-established hierarchy of titles created another set for Indians: Rai Sahib, Rai Bahadur, Sir, even Lord, parallel titles were invented for Muslims and Sikhs. No one dared to assume one until it had been formally conferred on him by the Governor or the viceroy. Once a Nihang was pulled up entitling himself Sardar Bahadur, Sher Jang Singh. He replied, “My guru made me a Sardar; I made myself brave (bahadur). What wrong did I commit?”

Whatever self-esteem a person has, he or she would like others to recognise it as well: hence the hankering for titles bestowed by the powers that be. So far our governments have been pretty choosy in honouring people: Prime Ministers, politicians, scientists, social workers, literary figures, musicians, artists, journalists. What criteria people who do these selections every year have in mind is not very clear. I think uppermost in their minds should not be just leadership, but service to the common people, which makes them leaders.

“New” Delhi

Every end of January when I watch the Republic Day Parade down Rajpath and Beating of Retreat on Vijay Chowk on TV, I marvel at the vision of Edwin Lutyens, architect of New Delhi who foresaw Indians’ penchant for taking out processions and peagantry and provided them space to do so.

It takes many people to lay out a new city. First the ruler who must provide land and select an architect. The architect must draw the rulers’ vision on paper. Then contractors who collect building material and muster up masons and labourers to put on the ground what was on paper. Engineers who oversee that the architects ideas are properly executed.

All this went into building of New Delhi. It became one of the world’s best laid out capitals with wide roads and lots of greenery; it became a pleasant city to live in. I have spent most of the 94 years of my life here and describe myself nai Dilli Wala.

I no longer recognise my city as it has grown out of all proportions extending from Ghaziabad and Noida across the Yamuna in Uttar Pradesh to Gurgaon in Haryana, from Alipur to Faridabad. Lutyens had planned a city for a few thousand civil servant and staff; now it has a population of nearly nine million; he had planned roads for a few cars, tongas and bicycles; now almost every family has a car or two and roads are jammed from sunrise to sunset and after. It is a city in which more than twice the number of women get molested and raped than in Mumbai.

The story of the genesis of New Delhi and its decline from a city of grace to a claustrophobic nightmare of congestion is beautifully told in a well-researched book Delhi Metropolitan: the Making of an Unlikely City by Ranjana Sengupta (Penguins). Besides outlining visions of its founders, she tells you of the growth of innumerable colonies and their inhabitants, of the growth of Gurgaon into a magnificent, modern sub-city.

Ode to Modi

Uplifting the tails of his own BJP
Modi has won a mighty solo victory
A picture of sweetness and humility,
He was totally “misunderstood”, he says
And with folded hands and tearful eyes
All doubts at rest he lays:
He is alien to arrogance and aggression
He has never aroused communal passion,
As he has gone through a truly nationalist grind
A more secular mind you cannot find;
A messiah of “peace”, “progress” and “prosperity”
An apostle of love, equality, fraternity
After making Gujarat “fear-and-violence free”
He is now ready to serve the country,
Replacing both Congress and BJP in utter humility.
(Contributed by Kuldip Salil, Delhi.)

Ambassador

Question: Who is the most suitable person to be named as Brand Ambassador for candle manufacturers of India and Pakistan?

Answer: Kuldip Nayar
(Courtesy: K J S Ahluwalia, Amritsar).