"Operation Desert Safari" continues...

The enthusiasm and the motivation of Rajbir's men were seen to be believed. Wearing bulletproof jackets, armed to the teeth with AKs and semi-automatics, they presented a picture of determination and supreme confidence. They also carried powerful torches and a long ladder. The body language of the boys was electric and inspiring. Meanwhile, Rajbir had carried out preliminary fieldwork in the vicinity of F-73, Begumpur and zeroed in on a second floor flat as a likely place where Thekkat was kept hostage.

Begumpur is one of the many urbanized villages of Delhi. It is on the erstwhile agricultural land of such villages that posh residential colonies in India’s capital city have come up. Most high-end colonies in the city, therefore, are invariably juxtaposed with such villages which themselves have grown in a most unplanned and haphazard manner. Houses are both pucca and semi-pucca, with poor municipal amenities of sewerage and roads. The village residents have retained their old lifestyle. It it is fascinating to see old men sitting on cots outside their homes, wearing traditional clothes with ‘saafaas’ (head-wrappings), smoking ‘hookahs’
(smoke pipes) while women-folk, veiled in their ‘dupattas’ (stoles) pass by. Cows and buffaloes
vie for space with automobiles and two-wheelers on narrow lanes. Every village has a ‘head’, usually called a Pradhan, whose writ runs large in the village. The residents retain their earthy
ways, struggling to keep urban modernity at arm’s length. Such rural settings are usually less
than fifty meters away from tony colonies where BMWs and Mercedes with super rich gentry flit
in and out.

Begumpur, one such village, sits between Sarvodaya Enclave and Sarvapriya Vihar,
both posh residential colonies inhabited by the noveau riche. A few beautiful historical
monuments, largely lying uncared for and decaying by the day, dot the area, seemingly amused with the changing times.

Begumpur is one of the many urbanized villages of Delhi. It is on the erstwhile agricultural land of such villages that posh residential colonies in India’s capital city have come up.

To be continued...