MCD

To me, the letters MCD have never brought happy thoughts. But yesterday that changed. Yesterday the MCD came and opened the gym door so we could move our things out. MCD stands for the Municipal Corporation of Delhi. What I see them doing is removing store items that have been placed on the sidewalk (displays or signs) and removing cows from the streets of Delhi. The last couple years they have been enforcing the property laws regarding businesses in residential areas. They have closed thousands of businesses in the last few years. Mine was closed by them in May.

This wasn't my first run-in with the MCD. About three years ago they came in our neighborhood to remove signs and merchandise from sidewalks. I had a sign out in front of the gym that was a sandwhich board type sign. While I was away at lunch the big truck came and they loaded my sign in the back along with all other items they had confiscated. I was truly naive to the situation and felt it was unfair that my sign would be "stolen". I came back from lunch and my employee/friend told me what had just happened. She went with me to track down the truck. We walked through the market and found the truck with my sign in the back. Thankfully it was near the rear of the truck. I handed Micah over to my friend and climbed up on the truck to get my sign. There were probably 50 men standing around watching all that was happening and two men in the truck. I stood on the edge and while I grabbed my sign I told the guy in the back of the truck (like a garbage truck) how wrong it was and how bad it was of him to take my sign. The crowd of on-lookers cheered me on, some telling me to run. The man in the truck told me that I couldn't take it, but I did anyway. He didn't try to stop me, probably because of my skin color and being a woman (not a lady at that point). I walked home with my sign and my friend holding Micah still. We walked fast. As it hit us of what I had just done we started laughing. It was really a funny thing I had just done.

A few months after this incident the MCD returned to our neighborhood and took my sign again. This time we didn't know until it was too late. They got my sign.

Then came the "sealing" campaign. That is what they call it when a business is closed. The MCD show up and put a seal on your door that you aren't suppose to break. We knew we weren't in a proper commercial building but the landlord insisted we were fine. He said he had connections. So we continued to operate there. We are in a basement of an apartment building just across the street from the market. Gyms were not allowed in residential areas nor in basements (both stupid rules I think). So we were looking for a new location.

One day we got word that MCD was coming to our neighborhood. We decided to hide the gym. We painted over our sign on the wall and closed for the day. Apparently the MCD guys came and had chai at the restaurant directly across from the gym. We went unnoticed.

After that day I decided I wasn't going to hide anymore. If they came then I would deal with it. So on another day MCD came to the neighborhood. I saw the guys outside so I went out to talk to them. I pointed out the gym, told them it was in a basement, and asked what should I do. They said it was no problem and that I was fine there. I felt a little better. But Indians have a reputation of saying what you want to hear, not necessarily the facts. They didn't do anything that day.

It was over a year later when they came and sealed the gym. Business was the best it had ever been. There was going to be a good-bye tea in the gym that day for one of the employees. But the MCD came while we were away and locked it up. No warning at all. They put the seal on the door and cut the wires for the electricity. Everything has been sitting in a dark, damp basement for four months now. That is, until yesterday. But that story will have to be told at another time. I need to go visit a friend and drink some diet coke with her.