Delhi parking

Most urban cities have parking issues. This is stating the obvious - like Subho will not lose the 12 kg's he's aiming to this year.

Delhi though seems to be in a league of it's own. It's one of those things you'll never read about in Lonely Planet. Parking spots are guarded zealously and if you talk to any Dilli-wallah you'll always hear "he got away easy, people get killed for parking".

Parking near my place, like every other place in Delhi, is tight. Very few people have garages and will park their cars on the street in front of their house (so far, nothing objectionable about that). This, people believe, is their right. The street in front of the house is treated as a reserved parking spot for them and no one else dare encroach upon this right. I haven't crossed this hidden line and always park near the market down the street if my roommate has his car in our garage.

Last Saturday we had a party at my place and had a ton of people over. A friend must have parked in an "objectionable" spot near my place. One of my neighbors (don't know who) deflated the tires of this car. At midnight, not only is this annoying but glaringly counter productive if your goal is to move said car. Why would someone do this? You guessed right.

Another friend showed up late at my party. Why, because he was over at his sisters house and when they got out someone had thrown a rock at his windshield, cracking it and there was a massive dent at the side of his car. Nothing stolen, and his best guess is that he too had parked in an "objectionable" spot. He called the cops and what do you think the cops did. Asked him why he left his car on the street? Umm - where else is he supposed to park a car, in the trees? Even the cops know of this unspoken law and are ready to defend it. They refused to file a report about the incident (in India, by law, all cops are required to file a report regardless of the situation). How completely exasperating? That too on a Saturday night!

And when I discussed it with people at work on Monday. "He got away easy, people get killed for parking."