Monuments in Delhi

Gen-X?

/ Rajesh Advani / 1 Comment

My recent experience with one young girl, probably sixteen she must be, looked like she hailed from a very rich family or was a spoiled kid of some NRI.

Lodhi Gardens - New Delhi

She belonged to a group of some four girls and a boy, all of them of similar age, almost, and all of them to me looked like friends who had come to visit Lodhi Gardens on Sunday, March 6 2011.

I noticed that this young girl had a piece of stone in her hand and was scribbling on the walls of “Bada Gumbad”, a monument inside Lodhi Gardens.

I was loud, firm and straight when I tried to stop her from doing that, “Excuse me, you are not suppose to scribble on the walls here.”

She didn’t expect this coming, neither the boy who stood besides her with a packet of chips in his hand while she was scribbling. She tried hiding the piece of stone behind her and the boy for a moment stopped munching chips. They both gave me a surprised look.

“Why?” She asked hesitantly. Pretending (may be) that she wasn’t aware of such a thing.

“This is a protected and historical monument, a government property, and scribbling on walls is bad manners.”

“But everybody does it, look at that.” She defended herself by showing me an example right there. By this time other members of the group joined her, who were standing outside.

“What would you do if I scribble on walls? It’s not your property.” She continued with more arrogance and rudeness. With her friends joining in she was now more confident.  Her attitude of course hurt my ego and this talk turned into an argument and soon a dirty exchange of words, between generation-x and generation-y.

I wished if I could say “I can slap you right here.” But, I was new in Delhi and it was a girl to whom I was talking, so I did not take that chance.

“I will call guard, who can impose a fine upon you and also forfeit your camera.” I said. This had more become an ego fight than anything else.

Now, her friends started dragging her outside and asked her to leave it at that. The boy continued to stare at me, as if something was stopping him to punch me in my face.  I could see an ‘angry young man’ in him. Considering his physique and age, the best he could do was only give me a bad look, which he did to over come the dominance of girls.

We, me my wife and both daughters, too went outside and waited there for some time. I realised that this group was waiting for us to leave from there, so that the girl could continue where she left.

I had a very bad feeling and it had spoiled the holiday mood with which we had come to Lodhi Gardens.

I wanted to wait there for some time and watch. But I realised, I am spoiling my family’s mood also, who have been patient with me during entire episode. I decided to leave that place immediately.

father and daughter

father and daughter: Image by Kirti Advani, edited by Rajesh Advani

But my mind was still there, I wanted to slap her, right there. I couldn’t do this and this was disturbing me. I could not tolerate her arrogance and rudeness, which was disturbing me. I was with my family physically, but not mentally, until my wife interrupted, “Leave it. Let us go there.” Pointing at another monument within the campus. And, within a fraction of second, I was back, with my family without that additional baggage on my mind. We spent some one hour in Lodhi Gardens and on the way back the same group again crossed us. They did pass some comments and giggled, I decided to ignore it and let it go, thinking that I have already done my bit.

But, I am still thinking about what must have gone wrong. Could the entire situation of ego clashes be avoided. Yes, it may have been possible. May be my approach was not correct or I was arrogant which led to ego fight.