Its half past 12 in the midnight and I'm suddenly getting nostalgic about Delhi, as I will be leaving the city after few months of my stay here. Why am I feeling this sense of nostalgia on a place which I hated? Why is that I'm making an attempt to write about it on my blog, though I've been to many other places and cherished better moments across the country? What is so peculiar or astounding and unique about this place, that it makes me ponder over so much about it? Well! May be I found the answer and this is just the result of my candor about this most influencing city in India. What is the first thing which people tell when asked about Delhi? The capital of the country, the biggest metropolitan city, the city of historical structures, city of tombs or graveyards, India Gate, city of politics, the Parliament, city of best coaching institutes for civil services (for few), one of 'the must' tourist spot in the country and what not! Even I had one of these on my mind when thought about Delhi, until I landed in the city 3 years ago. The first thing which popped up on my mind about this place was 'head weight', whatever that meant. The reason for this impression was because of the arrogant, reckless and cavalier behavior of the people in the city. May not be all, but at least most of them. I bet a person going abroad to do M.S would feel better with our people around on an alien land, rather than getting this hostile feeling in a place which is a part of your own land.
The first day when we reached our house, an old woman welcomed us with a glee on her face asking ''Madrasi?!'' I instantly chuckled saying ''Nahin, Hyderabadi!'' with a sense of pride. She immediately took us to our portion and made sure we were comfortable enough to ask them if we needed any help. Our things were yet to come to the city. So we had absolutely nothing with us. The month of June is hell with mercury rising to over 51 degrees. Unable to bear the heat and the burning sensation in our stomachs due to hunger made us knock the old woman's door to ask if she could tell us any place where we could get something to eat. Once again she welcomed us as if we were her guests for more than a decade. We were amazed by the way she treated us as we no longer felt hostile. We tried removing our footwear to get inside her house, but she objected and made us come in with our footwear on and said ''In our culture one shouldn't come inside removing chappal''. She immediately ran into the kitchen and got two large glass tumblers of tea. We looked at each other seeing the size of the tumblers. Having us astonished, she asked, " aap chai nahin peethey ho kya?" Ofcourse we do, but never had in such huge quantity. She also brought in some savories along with the tea which had few sweets and namkeen. People here dont take tea without namkeen. She asked about our where abouts. Since we have been to many othr places, we were well known with hindi, which is not hyderabadi hindi with a pinch of urdu. The woman appreciated our attempt to speak hindi in delhi style saying, ''arey wah! Aap tho badiyan hindi bolthe ho!" Once again our faces lit with a sense of pride. She later asked if our mother tongue was tamil. I immediately interrupted yelling, ''we are from Hyderabad, thats in Andhra Pradesh, so we are telugu people''. The old woman looked helpless and replied, ''Haan..wahi tho..South Indians ko hum Madrasi ya Kerala vallon hi samajthe hain.'' How pathetic! I earlier thought may be she is an old woman without much knowledge about the country of atleast who comes from where, but later realised that there is a section of North Indians who dont even know that there are two more states of Karnataka and Andhra Pradesh which fall under South India. Many facts like these startled me. But the way, the old woman treated us, I bet none of our near and dear ones would've. Hats off to her and people's hospitality here! The culture of people here is far more better than that down the country. People are the most trendiest and at the same tym traditional in their own way. My mother and I started our expedition of exploring the city once my dad left for work. We went to a nearby 'mandi' meaning market as suggested by aunty ji. She is no longer an old woman after all that she did for us. We went on searching for any eateries as she said there are a plenty of them in the mandi. But to our ill fate none of them were open as it was Wednesday and the stalls at mandi remain close on wednesdays. Every day a portion of the city remains closed. Even though the eateries were open, we couldn't have eaten as the place doesn't look like the one where we can have edible things without letting flies inside our mouths. We went on moving to the other part of the area, and found a Chinese restaurant. The happiness of winning a lottery would have been nothing compared to our happiness of reaching our destination which would fill our tummies. It was like a car without fuel having found a petrol bunk. We ordered for some fried rice and chicken biryani. The waiter looked askance as we ordered everything rice, which is unlikely for some one from Delhi. The waiter must have made up his mind that we were 'Madrasi'. The fried rice was good enough as it was a Chinese restuarant, the biryani was bland with mild spices unlike our very own Hyderabadi biryani. We left the place after filling in our tanks and took a ride to our area in a metro. The most exciting and enjoyable moment for us so far was this ride. The best thing in Delhi is also the metro according to me. The magnificent city is connected well enough through metro rail, without which would have been a trouble to travel across the city for common man. After this wonderful jolly metro ride, we took a rikshaw from the metro station to our block B1 of Janakpuri. This ride was also as enjoyable as the metro. There are a number of blocks with numerals, as Janakpuri is the biggest residential colony in Asia! Whoa! Thats something worth noting for me. Another fact which I felt interesting was that evrery house almost had the same structure. You enter the colony, and there is a queue of houses likes match boxes stacked one over the other. Each floor had a different owner which was rather wierd as I've never seen such a practice. Not even a single house had car parking space inside the house inspite of each portion of them having a minimum of two sedans! They park their cars on the streets outside their houses and discover their cars being stolen after a week. These are regular in the city.
One matra to live in Delhi is 'Never trust anyone and take chances being casual'. The more you dwell into the city to understand it, the more you get lost in its complexity. Days went on, we got accustomed a bit, but not with the horrifying weather. There were power cuts for more than 6 hours a day. People here had inverters which is a mandatory equipment in every house of a Delhi-ite. Water comes hardly for two hours and those two hours are very precious. No one would expect this kind of water and power cuts in the city being a capital. But the fact is yes. The city has a shortage of water and electricity. People here are obsessed with idli-sambar. They'd love every drop of sambar they gulp down. They are highly inquisitive of how South Indians eat so much rice, while we wonder how these North Indians gobble down 10-12 rotis a meal, with lots of ghee applied and paneer in almost every dish. This differentiation in every aspect into so called 'North and South Indians' makes me realize the fact that India is rich in culture and heritage with numerous states and languages and people from every state find the culture and habits of people from every other state weird or unique. People here are insanely good looking and one would love to be called 'Indians' for good looks. They wear clothes bought along the road side, yet they appear as though they are clad in branded or designer outfits.Women are really pretty with most of them being buxom babes thus being a visual treat for men from down south.
Delhi being the third richest city in the country followed by Chandigarh and Goa, people spend lavishly as 'Shop, Eat, Celebrate' is the 'central' motto of most of them. Big fat weddings or other occasions are celebrated with aplomb with lots of food, band baaja even during the midnight without having even a slightest concern of causing disturbance to the neighborhood. They enjoy life with whatever they have unlike many of us who slog in the south. Delhi-ites have a fetish for mobile phones and cars and one can get a glimpse of even a rickshaw-wala handling one of those fancy smart phones. The beauty of Delhi is the contrast it has in every aspect. The Old and New Delhi, the extreme weather conditions with scorching heat and the biting cold, the metro rail and the rickshaw, the historical architecture and the modernized buildings, the chole-bhatoore along the road side is equally relished as an Italian platter in a five star hotel. The best of cultural events, food festivals, trade fairs, huge malls, theater and art events, youth festivals, the Connaught place form the enticing elements of Delhi. Though I hated the place for quite a few reasons, I enjoyed every moment of mine in this amalgamate of antiquated culture and contemporary lifestyle. I stand amid one of those noisy streets and wonder what draws me so much into this city, and then I feel my inner conscience humming, "Yeh Dilli hain mere yaar!" :)
