Delhi, Gandhi, and Me

Few months ago I had been to Delhi, on a one-day visit to apply for my Visa to Finland. It was summer in Delhi at that time, and when I landed there at around 8 PM, the sun was still not gone. I don't know Hindi much. And my little broken Hindi didn't work with those fast-speaking almost-Punjabi people of Delhi.

The next morning I reached Chanakyapuri (the area in Delhi where all countries have their embassies in India) so early that I was the first person in queue at the Finland embassy! I got a chance to roam around the Chanakyapuri area for about an hour while waiting for the embassy to open. Not-so-surprisingly, I saw a lot of people in front of the US embassy, but to my surprise every 2nd or 3rd person was a Singh! The crowd was getting bigger and bigger there. All other embassies were nearly empty. For some strange reasons, Afghanistan's embassy looked as frightening as Afghan itself! Perhaps it was that armed cop in military outfit standing behind sacks of mud-packs that gave the effect.

My Visa formalities completed within 15 minutes. I had the rest of the day to roam around New and Old Delhis. As I had been managing from the previous night with my broken Hindi and lots of unnecessary 'nahi hai's and 'ji haan's, I had gained enough confidence that I hired a taxi by myself explaining that I had whole day in Delhi and wanted to see a few places. Since I agreed to pay 1000 bucks for the whole trip, the owner of the taxi stand himself offered to show me around the city. To my shock, he happened to be a 70+ year old Singh ji, who spoke 98% Punjabi and only 2% Hindi, and, was almost deaf! :-( It was like watching 'Jodha Akbar' - I thought i was watching a Hindi movie, but I hardly recognized any word they spoke on screen.
So, there began my exploration of my capital city.

My intentions were clear. I wanted to see only the historical sights. Not shopping malls. Not markets. And definitely not temples.
My first stop was at Qutb minar. Next was Humayun Tomb, and then Teen moorthy bhavan. I hardly saw any people in those places except, of course, some lovers, like in any other historical/archeological site in India. Perhaps they were 'planning' to 'create' their 'history' in the places which are history now.

Then came India gate, and then the very important - Rashtrapathy Bhavan. It wasn't as exciting as i had imagined it to be. Reason could be because it is 'Rashtrapathni bhavan' now. May be if Abdul Kalam had continued there, I would have felt goose-bumps!

I had a glimpse of several political addresses. 24 Akbar road, 10 Janpath, Sitting-ministers' residences (Dayanidhi Maran - to name a prominent one) , residences of ex-ministers who are still sitting (Mani shankar Aiyar) for god-knows-why?! I wondered what the others were doing that hot summer afternoon.

Coming to think of it, the heat was unbearable. It was summer at its peak in Delhi. Though I was happy seeing all historical sites, I struggled a lot to manage the heat. An unnecessary stop at the Lotus temple worsened things. I walked on bare-foot on the shining hot tiles floor and roasted my feet. It was horrible.

--S--

(To be contd..)