DIVIDE AND RULE.

Raj was very angry and whenever he was angry the whole neighbourhood of Saket would reverberate with his swear words and cussing. Raj had gone for an interview the previous day to an office in Malviya Nagar and though he had done exceptionally well during the interview, the job had ultimately gone to another candidate whose only qualification for the job was that he belonged to Malviya Nagar and his proximity to the office had tilted the balance in his favour.

Raj was in such a bad mood that he caught the postman who was a resident of Malviya Nagar but delivered mail in Saket since he was attached to the Saket post office and thrashed him. The poor postman ran for his life, retrieved his bicycle and pedaled to safety. Uddhav who had been watching this incident expressed his solidarity to Raj.

Uddhav had been in love with a pretty girl from Malviya Nagar but had been spurned by the girl who had married a rich businessman from Hauz Khas. Therefore Uddhav hated all guys from Malviya Nagar and Hauz Khas.

The poor postman who was a resident Of Malviya Nagar had told all his friends of the incident that had occurred and how a guy from Saket had thrashed him. All his friends were therefore angry and they caught anybody whom they suspected of belonging to Saket and thrashed him.

Prem was a resident of Hauz Khas who had fallen for a girl living in J - Block in Saket. Therefore Prem used to frequent J - Block of Saket everyday to catch a glimpse of his beloved. This caught the attention of Uddhav and simply because of the fact that Prem lived in Hauz Khas he caught hold of Prem and thrashed him.

Ajit Singh was a victim of the thrashing he had received from the friends of the postman who lived in Malviya Nagar and though he belonged to Pitampura he had been mistaken for a resident of Saket and got a fair share of the blows that were rained down upon the people who had been suspected of living in Saket by the friends of the Maviya Nagar postman.

Thus did this war between the different areas of Delhi begin to spread and very soon the whole of Delhi was in a state of chaotic disorder. Residents of Chandini Chowk refused to let residents of Pharganj pass through their area as well as other residents from Azadpur and far flung Shahdhara.

The local politicians of these areas were not to be left behind and jumped into the fray. They started raising their voices against the deprivation of the rights of the residents of their respective neighbourhoods.

Very soon barricades were set up between the different parts of Delhi and people passing from one area to another were expected to have their visas and proof of identity in order to travel to the other areas in order or else be sent back at the barricades. Maybe, the Lieutenant Governor of Delhi who had wanted all citizens of this city of cities, which is nothing but an overgrown village, to carry identity cards at all times had the last laugh.

Very soon the regulatory mechanism of traveling from one area to another or one city to another extended to the whole of India. Many instances of the friction between the various areas, cities and states that had a snow balling effect were observed on Fritolo a social media platform with Fritolites from the far flung corners of India trying to describe all these incidents only leading to overload the Fritolo server and thus crashing it.

The media also did its bit to hype up the issue and soon community newspapers, which served the local neighbourhood and its interests commenced their fight for the rights of the residents of their respective neighbourhoods. Headlines like the examples shown below became very common.

“Gandhi statute attacked in Pondicherry because Gandhi belonged to Gujarat”.

“Nehru statue vandalised in Kathipara, Chennai because Nehru originally belonged to Uttar Pradesh”.

We Indians are so ingenious that we have gone one up on the British imperialists and their policy of “Divide and rule”.