Hop-on Hop-off Trip

I have lived in Delhi for most part of my life and have seen Delhi grow over the years from an open city with mostly single storey development, wide roads, low traffic density, plenty of open spaces and parks to a city with a huge population, high traffic density, pollution, less and less open spaces and poor state of cleanliness. But whatever it is I love Delhi as this is the city I have been born and brought up in.

Delhi is also a historic city and has seen many rulers in the pre Mughal, Mughal and British regimes. Over my growing years I had many an opportunity to visit the various monuments and historical sites in the city. I realised that my children have not been so fortunate. They haven’t seen the real Delhi, its monuments, its history inspite of having been born here.

One day while returning from my work place one HOHO- hop on hop off bus caught my eye. The bus was pretty empty and looked like it would give a comfortable journey. This excited me to explore more of the service and I figured that all the important monuments were being covered by HOHO. I embarked on one such trip with my younger son.

We took the bus from the starting point. Including us there were 4 to 5 passengers in the bus. And I may add that it remained that way throughout the trip which made me wonder how much money the government must be spending to make this service run without any returns. The ticket was valid for two days, which was a recent development I figured. Since all the spots enroute could not be covered in a day with ease so the ticket validity had been increased to two days. Brilliant idea, must say. But alas even this had had no dent on the user base. People who come from outside Delhi, say neighbouring towns and cities, already came in tourist buses which took them around these historic places. People who are visitors from far off places also did not prefer to use HOHO as they felt more at ease at hiring a car or a taxi for the day and going around at their own pace. My thoughts were revolving around the fact that it is the whole culture of using such a service which has to catch on.  However,the reality soon hit me.

Once on the trip, our first stop was the national museum. I must say it was a big let down. The display of artefacts was more archaic then the artefacts themselves. The lighting, the cupboards, the display panels and boards, the descriptions with the artefacts all needed attention. To top it all it was smelling of urine which made it difficult for us to spend quality time inside. We just wanted to get out. We wanted to use the toilet but refrained due to the stench.

Should our national museum be in such a bad state. I am sure the government is spending enough to keep it going, but is it enough. Why can’t the national museum be given to private parties for maintenance and upkeep. There were hardly any visitors, the few that were there were foreigners. I often wonder what impression such things will leave on their mind especially given our incredible India campaigns.

We went to Jantar Mantar, Humayun’s tomb, Qutab minar and some other monuments. In the bus we sat on the elevated seats to be able to take a better view of the city. And I must say what a view it was. I could see everything that I could not see from the window of my car. I could see the city strewn with filth, overflowing dustbins and drains, collected and uncollected waste lying everywhere, jhuggi clusters, zig-zag of overhead electric wires and much more. I was ashamed to see that this is the city I am in love with, this is the city I was born in and this is what I call my city. And here I was showing it to my son who said little but observed the unbelieving look on my face.

I see the HOHO buses everyday while going and coming back from work invariably plying with a handful of passengers and rightfully so. Let us first improve the cleanliness and facilities at our monuments and museums and make our city clean before we can expect people to hop on and hop off.