New edition of "Drains At A Glance" out!

Delhi, 31st March.

The first of what is hoped will be a yearly edition of the guide, “Drains At A Glance” will be released to distribution outlets here tomorrow. Long awaited, the guide gives the location and routing of most of the 350,000 km of drains in the Indian capital.

“We have been working on this guide for seven years now,” Harish Pathak of the Sanitation Department told this reporter. “While we have been flayed from some quarters for providing what some see as the wrong image of Delhi, we hope the final work will be justified.”

“Drains At A Glance” runs to 180 pages and includes a unique “Scratch ‘n’ Sniff” popout. Harish Pathak said this will prove an invaluable aid to new Drain Spotters, who may confuse - for example — the sweet and fruity odours of the Chanakyapuri drains with the more bitter tangs that arise from narrower feeds in Hauz Khas. Sixteen small patches, printed on special paper, release the smell of a particular drain type when scratched with a fingernail. “It’s brought the business of identifying drains right into the twenty—first Century, even if the drains themselves are still a bit behind,” quipped Pathak.

It is hoped the guide will make a big splash with both foreign and domestic tourists. It has been estimated that the value of Drain Tourism in the country exceeds 350 Crore per annum. The publishers of “Drains At A Glance” have started with Delhi, as it has some of the most historic and pungent drains in the country. Some of the drains included in the guide had been neglected since the British Colonial era before keen hunters at the Sanitation Department dug them out. Harish Pathak told this reporter that he expected that within five years other Regional Sanitation Departments will pool their knowledge, assisted by the valuable information held by many NGOs. “We already have a joint cooperation action plan in place with the Maharashtra State Government. We simply want DRAINS to get bigger and better," he said.

Reporter: Dagmar Hussain, The Hindusthan Times Of India

Drains At A Glance - 180pp. plus five colour plates and Scratch ‘n’ Sniff popout.
Published 1-4-2003. Rs 50, local taxis extra.

great stuff M_T


now we can have the smell's of india in our own living rooms, or perhaps in our favourite restaurant.


M_T, are you going to get started on a new thread called 'drains not in drains at a glance'

You do realize that I am going to get hundreds of emails asking if I have copies of this for sale.

Hello, I am a big-ass cockroach travelling from Pahar Ganj to
Suboli on Saturday. I need to know if there's a direct route, or am I going to have to change in Geeta Colony? Can someone please hook me up with a copy of Drains at a Glance? Thank you.

if you send indiamike an e-mail, he should have some coppies for sale

Look at it this way, Mike: it's a business potentially worth 350 Crores, so you have the chance to get into Drains now, or just watch the opportunity (and a few other things) float by you.

I'm also available in the autumn for an indiamike.com-sponsored Drains research trip. I hear the ones in Kullu and Goa are particularly poorly documented...

Sewage systems are a good measure of civilization. Look at the Minoans..

Someone please tell me this is a April-fools joke?!?

Otherwise I am going to have to ask for a copy as well, please!!

thats the first thing i checked for, but it was posted march 31st.

unless M_T put his clocks forward a day

I know! But still says it is published 1-4-2003!!??!!

In any case - it is hilarious!! Gave me a huge laugh - I did not even know Delhi had any drains. By the smell in that town from time to time one starts to wonder!

Best laugh I've had for ages M_T.

I agree with edwardseco's comment about sewage systems being an important measure of civilisation. In Britain we had better sewage systems in Roman colonial times than we had a thousand years later!

With the phenomenal growth of India's cities the drain problem is going to have to be tackled at some point. As the poor can't pay for it the city authorities are going to have to raise taxes on the better off - always an unpopular move. Recent Supreme Court rulings mean that the Yamuna River, which is now an open sewer, will have to be returned to something resembling a river.

Bump!

Can we know when this will be available from the IndiaMike shop?

I suppose there is not a more recent edition? Or one for Chennai?

How's about a video game version?

One-of-a-kind post

Is it still around, hanging about like a bad smell???