India, Sept. 6 -- The collapse of a building housing a boys' paying-guest facility in Delhi's Satya Niketan was a familiar script playing out. Negligence accepted till disaster hits. And then Delhi's residents pick up the pieces and get back to living dangerously. All sorts of threats to life and limb and property materialising frequently has inured the Capital into accepting continued negligence by one party or the other, government or private.

The exact number of casualties is yet to become clear, but preliminary police enquiries put the number of people inside the building at 40 to 50. That most were students adds another layer to the tragedy - the lives snuffed out also represent lost future human potential. Locals spoke about ongoin...