“On Sundays”, Minu Sharma, the attendant at the Palika Bazaar pre-paid autorickshaw stand, said, “100 to 120 passengers hire autos from this stand”. But this Sunday, 24 hours after the serial blasts in Delhi, not a single passenger had booked a vehicle from this stand till the evening.
“I have been working here for the last two years. I haven’t seen such a Sunday in my life. I have been on duty since 11 am, but I have hardly seen any people,” says Sharma.
This is Connaught Place or ‘CP’, the heart of New Delhi . The auto-stand is barely 200 metres away from the spot where a bomb was defused last evening inside the Central Park. The Park remained close today. As the security personnel continued their investigations, with a few inquisitive onlookers along with broadcast vans and TV cameras hanging around.
Last evening, soon after the twin blasts in this area, the shops were quickly shut down. Although the shops reopened this morning, with all the major brands of India present in the shining showcases and glittering outlets, there were hardly any customers today.
On a usual Sunday evening, renowned restaurants in CP have an average 10-15 minutes waiting time for customers. Today, places like the United Coffee House had more vacant chairs inside than those occupied by food lovers.
Proline Fitness, located in the inner circle of CP, had just 3-4 people coming in since morning. “The sales were just enough to offset the electricity bill of the day,” said Sanjeev Sareen, fearing that the blasts might have an impact on the forthcoming Diwali sales.
Ravi Tiwari runs the cigarette shop in front of the United Coffee House, one of the best restaurants of CP. “Throughout the day, sales didn’t even reach Rs 100. Hope it will be normal soon,” he said.
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Overall, life is limping back to normalcy in the NCR region. Enhanced security was visible in the shopping malls and other public places, but in other areas, markets remained open and were crowded as usual.
People coming from Uttar Pradesh (Ghaziabad or Noida) and Haryana (Gurgaon) didn’t notice any additional checking at the borders, but on the roads leading to CP or Greater Kailash markets, men in khaki with road barricades were in sight.