Flying BMWs to gun battles at a five-star: Why Delhi is the coolest city in India
What’s a big deal about it?
A few years ago when I shifted to Delhi, everyone I knew asked me one question: Why Delhi?
I could have given many reasons. But I didn’t as I didn’t have this video then.
पागलों का शहर दिल्ली। जहां पैसा , शोहरत और अमीरी एक लाइलाज बीमारी। pic.twitter.com/2aFzb28wxQ
— Sanket Upadhyay (@sanket) October 16, 2018
The video has gone viral and the man brandishing a gun has almost attained a pseudo-celebrityhood as a pink-pant guy. The video is not any CCTV footage, as it has been recorded from inside a car, which later the pink pant man will drive, proudly announcing his Lucknow origin, inserted in between a volley of expletives.
As the video goes, the pink-pant man gets into an altercation with a couple in front of the Hyatt Regency Hotel in New Delhi’s RK Puram. A gun is carelessly parked at his right hand; with the same amount of ease with which we hold our mobile phone(s), or purse, may be. And there is absolutely no shock in the scene.
A guy, who is presumably sitting inside the car from where the video is being recorded, utters ‘Oh my god’ in a rather sarcastic and dramatic way.
That’s it, nobody else is shocked. Not even the couple with whom this pink-pant guy is fighting.
A few people, apparently the security personnel of the five-star hotel, come forward in their nonchalant gait. Another guy comes running and shows some emergency. But we can’t tell for sure whether he is shocked or afraid. It seems more like a duty for him to pacify gun-toting Delhi (sorry, UP) goon.
So, a person, later identified as Ashish Pandey, son of a former BSP MP Rakesh Pandey, wielded a gun in front of a five-star hotel in the capital.
What’s a big deal about it?
Have you noticed the colour of the pant he was wearing?
Have you listened to the accent of the other people speaking in the video?
Why will a man with a gun wear a pink pant? Is this a toxic masculinity-meets-confused sexuality moment?
Is the man in the pink pants with a handgun comfortable with his sexuality or is he an example of toxic masculinity or both? So confused. pic.twitter.com/CELwFI6Ea1
— Pranesh Prakash (@pranesh) October 16, 2018
Delhi in 75 seconds. Flashy. Fake Accents. Over The Top. Gun. https://t.co/KbIFWWO3ni
— C. (@vanillawallah) October 16, 2018
Other cities: "Dilli se hun bc"In Delhi: "Lucknow se hun bc" https://t.co/NcQiw8SQgx
— Aaqib Raza Khan (@aaqibrk) October 16, 2018
'Lucknow Ka hoon' seems to be the latest calling card to threaten people https://t.co/v4Zbx5Ne0a
— Saif Ullah Khan (@saifizm) October 16, 2018
Oh yeah! These are exactly the raging issues waiting on the table to be debated, if you are not already laughing out loud listening to those highly accented expletives, which are so common in Delhi — when people are not covering their face against smog.
While we are all very busy breaking down this pink-pant syndrome, the Delhi Police is not sitting idle, as you would have expected them.
They have confirmed that the incident is real and took place during the weekend. They have even registered a case under the Arms Act. Also, there are CCTV footages which have apparently given them a clue: The car the pink-pant guy drives after the ‘gun-fun’ is a BMW.
Here thickens the plot.
BMW is an old offender of the city, we all know. We are not blaming BMWs and any other luxury cars, but most of the Delhi accidents involve these cars.
Or, maybe, most of the Delhi residents use these cars. And then these cars just hit another car, which in turn end up hitting multiple cars.
And thus we get an everyday Delhi story.
Amusingly, in this case, the character doesn't even have to fake it while saying chacha vidhayak hain humare (My uncle is an MLA) because his father was an MP!
See, we don’t want to believe in stereotypes. We actually want to believe in another Delhi where a man won’t be stabbed by a DJ on his birthday for requesting some songs.
But what to do when a story chooses its characters and fits into all these stereotypes?
Here, we have a five-star hotel, a gun, a BMW and a ‘bad boy’, who, by the way, is not from Delhi.
But then, hasn’t our Delhi been the melting pot of all cultures?
And hasn't all this made Delhi the coolest city in the country?