I remember reading somewhere (possibly in RD) that heaven was living in Indonesia at American rates of pay, with an Indian wife and eating Chinese food. Hell, on the other hand, was living in China at Indian rates of pay, with an American wife and eating Indonesian food!
At the Diwan-e-khaas (the Hall of Special Occasions) at the Red Fort in Delhi, there is an inscription that reads...
Agar firdaus bur-rooe zameen ast, Hameen ast, hameen ast O hameen ast!
If there is a heaven on the face of the Earth, it is here, it is here, it is here!
Delhi, with its varied populace of bucolic Jats, urbane "Mughals" of the old city, partition time migrant Punjabis and Bengali & "Madrasi" government servants, has the potential to define a heaven on earth .... if it had the true vox populi, vox dei culture of the Jats (who created the Panchayat system), the genteel manners and tehzeeb of the old city Mughals, the enterprise and never-say-die attitude of the uprooted Punjabis and the cultural refinement of its Bengalis and Southies.
Unfortunately, the Delhi of today has the rigid, unforgiving social and economic apartheid of the Mughals, the boorish manners (sic!) of the migrant Punjabis, the deep rooted pessimism and risk aversion of its clerical Bengalis and Southies and all the (agri)cultural discrimination of its native Jats!
Sic transit gloria mundi... RIP, my beloved Delhi.
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