Pillar 67: An Open Letter to Sheila Dikshit

6 people died and 15 were injured when pillar 67 of the Delhi metro collapsed at the Zamroodpur metro station construction site in Delhi.

All of us, heart of heart know, Its not the first time and its certainly not going to be the last. In an ambitious country like ours, even if you have the best of intentions, operationally shit happens. We are sure enough petitions will be filed to get the contractors booked, enough ridiculous PILs will also distract us from the agenda of development and enough idiots in the opposition will try to leverage this as issue that will broadcast live on Doordarshan (btw, its a channel we want our money back for, even though its free). In any case, we dont think ordinary only internet savvy people can influence the consequences of a tragedy like this.

The politics of a pillar collapsing and killing some in the process, will have a shelf life of 72 hours (at best) in the media and our memories. Life is like that!

So what can we do about it. Really?

We cant make heads roll (we heard they already did voluntarily!). And honestly, Mr. Sreedharan is a guy who was trying to a do a job in a hurry thanks to the mad ass Common Wealth Deadline. On another note, it doesnt matter. We are a nation in a hurry; some innocent people paid the price for it. And now that it has happened, we cant do anything about it anyway. We cant reverse it.

So here we are, petitioning: For all those of us who have patiently suffered bad ass traffic because of the metro under construction, just because it is one of the things that makes us Delhi-ites proud of our development, the least we can do is acknowledge the fact that some people lost their lives unknowingly to the cause of building the city of the future. The Delhi Metro in its full glory is going to kick ass, we all know that, apart from those aspiring somethings from Jharkhand, Bihar, Orissa, UP or wherever who didnt have a clue about the cause they ended up dying for. It was for a Better Delhi. The Capital of India, we want to be proud off (eventually).

While the Rs. 5 lac in compensation may be apt, we have a simple request to the state government and the Chief Minister Mrs. Sheila Dikshit:

As a token of respect to the usually inconsequential people (we are really calling a spade a spade) who were trying to help us execute the vision for the city of the future, we want to name some of the stations of Delhi metro by their first names. Let this be our tribute to those who sacrificed their lives (again Unknowingly!) to a cause that was for our Delhis future.

Its obvious that 10 years from now, most of us all will be zipping from Gurgaon to Zamroodpur, in say less than 20 minutes. And this episode will be all forgotten. The only way to ensure that this never happens is by calling a station, Anshuman (the fine engineer who happens to be one of the deceased). So that, the generations to come remember, that they are the people who we remember behind the reinvention of this city.

We are sure the commonwealth games will be executed next year in Delhi and make the country proud, the acknowledgement of the real dudes behind them, like those who died in the pillar 67 incident will only be fair.

Our very best regards!