various rambling thoughts: Young green shoot up

I had just come back from Mumbai and had various reasons to like and dislike the city.

However when I came back, while on the road in Delhi, I saw something that struck me as the symbolic basic difference between the two cities.

I saw new saplings having been planted on the divider (see picture), protected by a wire net. I realized what I had missed so much in Mumbai – trees and greenery. The only time I saw greenery was in Powai, the natural mangroves. But then, that too is fast disappearing under the weight of the ‘development agenda’. I did not see green on the streets or in the sprawling colonies – just miles of concrete and walls of jostling people. Delhi, on the other hand, has made an effort to make the city green. Almost every road has trees either in the divider or on the side.Colonies have trees planted on their perimeters.

I don't know why this is. Mumbaikars have an easy explanation – the pressure of living with millions of migrants coming in ; where is the space for poor trees? I don't have the figures but I don't think Delhi is far behind on the migrants radar. Yet, the city and the government has made an effort to green the city.

Probably the reason is the government. Delhi has a stable government which has been focussing on development for a long time and has been rewarded electorally for the same. Mumbai, on the other hand, is torn between ostentatiously corrupt and callous politicians and an ugly chauvinistic fascist ideology. That's why trees don't figure…

When I look at the green shoots, Delhi, for all its faults, gives me hope and for me tips the scales for choice of living here.