Mumbai is considered the most coveted destination in the country.It is the financial capital of India besides being the film city. It is the city of fashion, glamour and fast moving hi-fi financial executives. It is the city of opportunities where the wildest dreams can come true; where the zeros turn into heroes over night. It is often flaunted an ideal and secure city for women who can move freely anywhere at odd hours. Its traffic is lauded because of its smooth flow. Its traveling public boards the buses in queues. We never see the passengers scrambling to enter the buses or hanging precariously wherever they can find toeholds. Its auto and taxi drivers do not bully and overcharge the hapless and sometime ignorant commuters.
These blemishes are cited as glaring examples of the failure of administrative system in the Delhi, the capital of India, more especially because it is the seat of the central government and constantly remains under the ever watchful eyes of the media.
But Delhi is still better than Mumbai and Kolkatta, Ahemdabad, Lucknow, Hydrabad and Bengalore. Delhi’s communal peace and harmony, educational institutions, greenery, tree lined broadways, historic heritage sites, new architectural wonders like Akshar Dham temple or Bahais Lotus temple and now its metro rail are not the only assets that distinguish it from other cities in India.
There is still another reason why Delhi is the best city in India. Even some Delhiites themselves are not fully aware of its enviable feature.
Delhi is only city which allows its citizens personal liberty which every self respecting individual loves and values most but does not get anywhere in India. It is the right to privacy, the privilege to live, love and work that people yearn for but is denied everywhere. This kind of life is the hallmark of the liberal Western societies.
Bombay does not allow its woman folks the freedom to work as they like. They are, for example, not allowed to work as bartenders.
Young unmarried people or singles are not allowed to live peacefully under one roof anywhere in India except in Delhi. Both the Delhi police and the moral police brigades of political and social parties do not hound out the single men and women who want to live together. Some single women workers and students specially choose to work in Delhi because they can live a secure life with men folk as otherwise they may be exposed to risks that usually confront single women. Young men and women can walk hand-in-hand, eat and drink together anywhere in Delhi without attracting the watchful eyes of its ubiquitous baton wielding police force.
Paying guest houses and other land lords, who rent out their houses, take an understanding and charitable view of mixed living. This liberty is not allowed anywhere in India except in Delhi. It is available only in free societies of the western world.