Delhi has many five star hotels and more are coming up in anticipation of the Commonwealth Games. For instance, the Hilton Piccadily Hotel will soon open in Janakpuri and the Marina in Connaught Place outer circle is getting a face-lift to reopen as the Raddison Marina. Read more

Two days of rain in a span of about a month have thoroughly exposed the lack of infra structure in the capital as also raised serious doubts on whether Delhi was prepared to hold Commonwealth Games next year.

The showers demonstrated that the city had a non-functional drainage system, an erratic traffic controlling mechanism and there was no attempt by the authorities to fix responsibility and take action so that things could move smoothly thereafter. Read more

For someone like me who was born and grew up in Delhi, this year’s Lok Sabha elections appear to be extremely lack luster. The capital has always had one or two heavy weights contesting from here but it is for the first time that none of the established leaders of long standing is not there in the fray from either of the two main political parties—the Congress and the BJP. Read more

It was during lunch last week when I once again met Raj Kumar Kohli, at present the Vice President of the Delhi Pradesh Congress Committee, a lawyer by profession and more importantly, a Dipsite i.e an alumini of the Delhi Public School, Mathura Road. Many years my senior, Kohli got talking about the early years of DPS and said that it had originally started as the Church School from the premises of the Church next to the Viceroy’s house (now Rashtrapati Bhawan). Read more

Delhi has been described as mini India by a large number of our leaders. The results here are also an accurate barometer of how the Congress, India’s grand old party has fared after Parliamentary elections in the country. For example, the number of seats won by the party in Delhi often indicates its fortunes in the rest of the country. Read more

It was last week, February 16 to be precise when I was invited to the at home function organized by the Delhi Police Commissioner Yudhbir Singh Dadwal to mark the police raising day. I have been to similar functions many times in the past too but what was unique about this day was that the at home was arranged at the Delhi Police Gazetted Officers mess, once the official residence of Police Chiefs and now a heritage building located on Alipur Road (now Sham Nath Marg). Read more

Anyone who was born in Delhi or has grown up here in the last 45 to 50 years or more is familiar with one name—Moti Mahal—when it comes to North Indian cuisine. Most Delhiites know the name Moti Mahal since there are so many franchises all over the capital but for me and many others like me, there was just one–the Moti Mahal, which functioned from Darya Ganj (not the one which functions from there now). Read more

Sheila Dikshit has taken over as the Delhi Chief Minister for the third consecutive term. She has a big challenge ahead of her given that people have reposed their faith in the Congress party hoping for a better quality of life in the national capital. Read more