My days in Delhi- A Memoir !!
ItтАЩs been a year and a half that we all have heard about the heinous crime that took place in the national capital of India, the Nirbhaya rape case. I still remember that day when I was on my way to New Delhi with my friend Chandan. Rajdhani express was about to reach New Delhi station and I was going through the headlines in the newspaper at around 9:30 in the morning.
I was born in Delhi, appropriately in Ayanagar, the place which is now known as Arjangarh and is now the 4th last station in the yellow line of metro towards Huda City Center. My parents have been here for 8 long years. As I grew up, my mother used to tell me different stories about their stay in Delhi. ┬аShe would tell me about the Palika bazaar in Connaught Place, the Sarojini Market near INA and how on every weekend both of them used to go for shopping. They would visit Karolbagh at their auntтАЩs place and at times they would go for a picnic at India Gate. They would tell me how Gurgaon used to be a farming village, a land of rocks and bushes, and how over 2 decades it was converted into a grassland and eventually an industrial hub of the country. My dad would tell me about the night of Indira Gandhi Assassination, when he had a deadly and aghast experience while returning to the Air Force station in Arjangarh from Karolbagh. A night of curfew when he saw a lot of Sikhs brutally killed and burnt alive on the streets of Delhi and he had to somehow run for his life without a single mode of transport.
All these stories, always fascinated me, and somehow I aspired to be here someday. As I joined Ericsson, I got this opportunity. And as I told, I landed here on that fateful day of 17th December 2012. An atmosphere of fear and hatred consumed me. A series of uprisings, rebellions and protests took place at different places, and I was strictly ordered not to step out of my home after the sunset.
With each passing day, I started accepting the bitter truth of this city, the safety of girls and women. And as the days passed by, I got habituated with these kind of news everyday being aired or in the lost columns of the newspapers.
While I was adapting myself with the new office, new colleagues and an entirely new corporate life, I met a lot of wonderful people. One of them was my roommate Lipika. She was working with Samsung, a Korean language translator by profession. She was the one with whom I excavated most of Delhi. The first place we visited was the BanglaSahib Gurudwara at Connaught place. It was during the winters, 2013. I still remember we walked through the clean and green roads of Delhi and enjoying the chilly aroma of the winters. Although I have never been to such an extreme weather, but somehow, I started liking it. And days were followed by a number of random visits to ┬аennumerous places here. We visited all the Airforce stations, specifically Subroto Park, and Janpat market in Connaught Place and JNU campus. Those were the most frequently visited destinations. I simply loved it. We visited the Chandni Chowk market in old Delhi, and had the special parathas andjalebis, which it was known for.
I made friends from office as well, we became a group and ┬аwould love to hang out together. Always. We had been to Hauz Khas, Lotus Temple, India Gate, the Red Fort, Ambience Mall, Pragati Maidan and so onтАж
Being at Delhi, gave me ample opportunities to visit most of the nearby states and Union Territories. ┬аI had been to Amritsar, Chandigarh, Jaipur, Haridwar and Rishikesh. The trip to Rishikesh is the most memorable one, and perhaps I should write another travel blog on it (aspiring to write one ).
Delhi, has always been close to my heart, not because I was born here or I have been staying here, but because it has its own charm, be it people, landscape or food. I love stalking those ┬аhandsome Punjabi and Jatt ┬аguys in my office, and I love watching girls in their most fashionable forms. тАЬDelhi ki ladkiyanтАЭ are way much smarter, stylish and beautiful than anywhere else. Believe me. And the signature music played here is by Yo! Yo! Honey Singh, without which the parties at the pubs and even the тАЬSangeetтАЭ in the weddings are incomplete.
Weddings at Delhi, Oh! I forgot to mention it. I attended three weddings here, one of which was NehaтАЩs. She got married last month in the Chattarpur farms. It was not a big fat Indian wedding, but yes, I loved the ambience, the music, and the photography by the candid photographers, Karan and Arjun. And of course the dance parties, which are the indispensable parts of the weddings at Delhi.
I witnessed here the rise and the fall of the AAP government, a ┬а ┬аgovernment by a man of morals, Arvind Kejriwal, who was solely criticized for the associations with Congress, and how his Lokpal Bill was rejected which lead to his resignation. People here love to criticize, from politics to police. But they are the ones who stand up against all the discriminations. ┬аBe it sexual assault on girls or racism against the North-Easterns, the place is always in news.
Every place has its own pros and cons, and so has Delhi. But I found it to be the most happening place. It has aesthetically taught me the most naked truths of life. I learnt to be strong, I learnt to stand for myself, and not to take shit from others. I started believing in feminism, and most importantly on humanism. And perhaps these values have always been close to my heart.. And as I will be ending my journey from here very soon, it reminds me of those metaphoric lines from A.R RehmanтАЩs song in Dilli 6тАж
тАЬRehna tu.. hai jaisa tuтАжthoda sa dard to thoda sukunтАж..тАЭ