It's The Final Countdown

On my way to the doctors last Friday I was unceremoniously dumped out of my auto at the bottom of Sansad Marg. I didn’t know this at the time but a demonstration was taking place and the road was blocked. I looked up and I was outside the office of the organising committee of the Commonwealth Games. A big notice board stated there were 156 days left until The Games start.

It’s a hot topic in the news as Delhi seems to be mostly under construction. I see the extension works of the Metro by Kailash Colony on my way to work every day. Not sure it will actually be complete by October. As I went over the flyover last week I could see the reconstruction of the Jawaharlal Nehru stadium. They are just putting up the little tent-like roof sections on the outside (see pics from Treehugger). Who knows what the progress is on the internal sections? It’s a controversial building too. Recently in an imported UK copy of Grazia just a few pages away from the Haute Couture 'Travellers pants' selling for £650 there was an article on child labour at the Commonwealth Games sites in Delhi. Oh the irony. The working conditions are terrible but actually the children aren’t employed, they come with their parents' from afar to work and live on the building sites. There is no child care and the pictures show them helping their parents. The journo (if you could call her that) had completely missed the wider issues of poverty, labour violations and the problems faced by migrant workers who travel far for employment.

There were two announcements in the Times of India on Saturday concerning completion times of works. Firstly the Municipal Corporation of Delhi (MCD) who are responsible for the maintenance of parks and roads have stated they will complete all works by the end of the this month. Secondly, Chief Minister of Delhi, Sheila Dikshit (an unfortunate sounding name where I come from), has stated that all works must be completed by June in case the monsoons come early.

153 days left now. I can’t wait to see what Delhi will look like come October. With 100,000 visitors due to arrive it will be hopefully a lot less messy than now. Now does anyone know how I can get my ticket to see Usain Bolt?