The water-carriers, aka Kawarias, are becoming a menace. For the last 5 days, traffic along the 'Highway' from Delhi to Hardwar has been all but blocked.
This has meant, for example that the many factories in Ghaziabad - a major industrial suburb of Delhi - have had to shut down depsatches; storing 5 days worth of inventory in the factory is not very conducive to managing your finances, leave alone your retail sales.
Now the blighters are chugging along the section of the Outer Ring Road, outside my home, with Bollywood 'religious' song blaring from speakers.
The lumpenisation of religion would not have gotten so far without the connivance of the politcal establishment - the freedom to pursue your beliefs must not be at the expense of the freedom of movement of those who pay taxes to use roads, drive cars, live in homes, or run factories along arterial roads.
You know, a few years ago Anvita and I were returning home from a dinner late one evening. It was around the same time of the year as this post, i.e. Kawaria season.
ReplyDeleteThe stretch from SIri Fort to Shahpurjat on Khel Gaon Marg had been cordoned off, and there were Kawaria's dancing to Bollywood music, sleeping on the road and in general making a convoluted show of 'strength'.
There were 6'4" muscle-bound men directing traffic onto the other (and wrong) side of the road.
There was absolutely nothing religious, spiritual or uplifting about their demeanor. It was clearly a bunch of hoods making a political statement.