JOIN USThe national flag of hoisted at Central Park, completed its one year of fluttering in the skies above the posh Connaught Place on March 7.
Standing at a height of 207 feet, it is one of the largest Indian flag set up together by the Flag Foundation of India and the New Delhi Municipal Council.
The Central Park which was more or less used by visitors to have lunch and relax under the shadow of the trees was transformed into a tourist destination, with the flag being its centre of attraction. And for those who visit CP or the Central Park, taking pictures of the flag or taking selfies with it has become a trend.
“I feel proud whenever I look at the flag,” said a passerby named Anshul. He deboards the Metro at the Rajiv Chowk station every morning to go to his office near Barakhamba Road. “I never get tired looking at it. The site is glorious,” Anshul added. He also confessed that he has dozens of photographs and selfies of himself posing with the flag.
Avneet, a resident of Rajouri Garden, mostly comes to CP either to meet her college friends or to shop. She too voiced similar thoughts about the flag. “I doubt that any person in Delhi does not have a photograph of the flag in his or her mobile,” Avneet said.
The difference of opinion between those who maintain the park and those who take pride in it is quite an interesting one. Right beneath the narrow shadow that the flag post creates are men working on the same patch of land as gardeners, who have not even clicked a single picture of the flag let alone a selfie. Two set of people staring at the flag can have different feelings and Yogesh Kumar, a gardener, at the Central Park, is quite an example of the same.
He says more than 1,500 people visit the site on daily basis and almost all of them click selfies. “Some of them step on the flowers carelessly to get a better view. I don’t see the point. One photograph is enough. Why do they click so many, only making our job difficult,” Kumar said.
Kumar’s colleague, Kesh (in his fifties), also seemed to be bewildered. “Some sit in the trees while others walk wildly without looking at what lies on the ground,” he said.
Ask him if he has clicked a selfie or a even a picture and he responds, “No, not really. I have worked here for a year and my focus is the ground and its flowers. That’s what feeds me and my children,” Kesh added.