Alone -Delhi- 05


Masakali Masakali playing at my back I landed Delhi, my first drive on one yellow-black cab with an extremely arrogant driver who hardly spoke was my first Delhi experience. I opened the window, felt the wind pass by and danced a lil to the Masakali music, my driver gave me looks and I couldn’t do anything but smile. I saw Delhi, the historic city I familiarised myself with my late night internet browsing, St Stephens’ dreams, Kannappy’s city tour and M Mukundan’s novels.I’m a stranger to the land, a total stranger and I love it. Making the unfamiliar Delhi familiar was threatening, I grew into another alienated creature in the land who had a bun tied on top of her head like one Gandahra Buddha, who spoke fragmented Hindi and gave a naïve face when they responded in their classic Urdu, who tasted the Mughal khana from Old Delhi, sitting opposite Jama Masjid and lost herself in the taste that she almost forgot she’s being watched by people.

Sitting in one old cycle riksha, watching Chawdi Bazaar pass by, I went back to the aged and faded India, those 7th standard text books where you first read of Akbar and his trading policies and I got the feeling, yes, this is my country, loud, messy and full of colours. Delhi is still so strange to me, people find it so easy to crack a conversation here, they can talk to you anything from their age old grandma’s childhood favourite dog to Chandini Chowk’s glass bangles. Hot and tasty Jalebi next lane was one hell of an experience, I stuffed myself with a whole lot of different stuff from malasal chai to dilli special chaats. Metro ride every morning, stuffed with the rest of Delhi, some pinning their ears to those old Hindi songs, some with their nose buried right into some newspaper, some staring at you and smiling and some absorbed in their chicken soup novel and some lost in another world of their own. I can recognize faces now, a gentle smile of my usual characters on my ride and the exact places they occupy on the metro is something familiar now. Getting back from my institute and making Friday evening plans with my roomie has become my favourite part of the weekend. I walked through the lanes people hardly walked, I made friends, collected postcards and jewellery, I ate the street food with the rest of Delhi and smiled at myself that I’m actually getting a different taste of Delhi. And all my long time wishes I guess are getting fulfilled, from a dull silver chain to the hippie lulu with a shell at its bum, aah I’m falling in love with my remarkable city.I went Khan Market to find a perfectly stitched suit myself, I went in search of Bandhini dupatta from Chadini Chowk to Sarojini market, I ate Old Delhi yummy dates that they sold on the road, I took a 181 bus to Humayun’s tomb and saw the blue tiled tomb, I went Karol Bagh Monday market and bargained some good stuff and got my Caravan,I roamed around CP and collected post cards and send some to my hooligans. But when I leave Delhi,I want to go back home with a hand full of golden daffodils like I told Beena : )


Delhi is all about Nizaamuddin Dargah’s Qwaali music that Rahman made me so curious to explore to the meaninglessness I stumbled upon like my Billy Biswas. I don’t know why I still complicate my thoughts, I wander along the narrow lanes, the claustrophobic crowd and stare through my window that opens right into the city and temple bells at the distance and the chain of metro lights like a garland to the night at the distance makes me think. Sometimes wonder why I am sitting in the midst of some peculiar people who doesn’t even talk my language and connect to what I think. Maybe I’m lil infuriated with life but I guess I’m liking it here, like this, alone! Delhi, I’m assembling a lot of memories, beading myself into a different person, stranger with my thoughts and independent with my decisions. Now I know on top of earth there are different places I connect to and would like to call a second home and Delhi is indeed getting into one of those addresses of mine. 

PS: Thanks a lot Preet for never saying no to all my madness :)