Dilli - meri jaan
Thought to pen down a long ago... "Dilli" - meri jaan
Its five plus years for me in Dilli now...... I remember the first day of me stepping in Nizamuddin Railway station at 22.30 hours on a Chilly November 17, 2003.... I was not exposed to such chillness before and the mercury must have read around 17 deg C. Just with a help of a sweater and a shawl I found a 6 feet place in the second class waiting room to rest myself. I knew no one in Delhi at that time and I got a contact of an IIT PhD student from someone and I didn't want to disturb him at that late night. The next morning I got an auto that negotiated with me for a couple of minutes and agreed to take me to IIT at Rs. 70/- with three more persons along with me who wanted to go to Malviya Nagar. I was not a south Indian who knew nothing in Hindi but I was smart enough to argue at that point of time as I knew Hindi and was able to pretend that I'm not going to be an "ullo". But finally my dear auto wala made me "ullo" by making me sit in the front seat along by his side and the rest of the three persons at the back side and started to ride. 35 minutes later when they got down they paid 40 bucks to that guy and sitting in the front seat and getting exposed to the chillness I was freeze and when I saw them paying 40 bucks I was shocked to believe that I'm being cheated here. He made me sit in the back seat now and started to smoke even after my request to drop the beedi. I joined my duty the very same day. Got introduced to a set of colleagues and was staying with the PhD student for a couple of days. I started to hunt a room for me the second day and was successful on the fifth day. I could manage to pull out a single room without a kitchen & shared bathroom for a rent of Rs. 1500/- at Katwaria Sarai, very adjacent to IIT. After a week of residence in that room and the interaction with my colleagues, and my environment and people at Katwaria Sarai and their behavior and to add up all the chillness!!!!..... The only thing I could wish for is to quit my job and run back south!!!!.......
December brought more chillness and literally I had nothing to do at my job as it was winter vacations and I was killing my time and seriously the most disgusting moments of my life. I can't sit idle in a place for a while, I need to do some damn thing!, else I'll go mad. Thankful the semester started and I had an opportunity to interact with my first set of students. That brought me some change in the world where I had nothing to do. Honestly speaking everyday I was expecting 13.00 hours so that the heat transfer lab would start and I'll have some opportunity to interact with my students...... life started to change. New friends, in the form of my students who literally were now getting me exposed to dilli. I started to explore new places and started to go out with them. Generally we get to see south Indian students going out with south Indian people / friends in IIT. I also used to do the same, but by doing so I got to understand that my views of seeing people around was with a mind set of a south Indian [no offense meant to anyone], which clearly is a negative way of living. Now I decided to do it with an open minded thinking. Suddenly winters seamed so pleasant [month of February], the roads were blossoming with colorful flowers on both the side. Dilli started to make me think that she has something more in her :).
The culture and the lifestyle of Delhi'ites are something which I started to admire for. I started to roam around Delhi alone. I've explored a lot of markets, roads, centers, exhibitions alone and sometimes just by walking. This was just to get used to the lifestyle of people and to understand the local people and I used to interact with them. I had all my weekends with me where I had nothing to do..... I was happy at the summers because we are used to it. I roamed a lot and got to see a lot of places and people. Suddenly I started to feel that this place has something in it which I could relate to but I couldn't get what was that. The end of the year made that happen. I went on a trip to Goa with my students, where I got to know about AID.. And probably that was my New Year gift to say [a separate blog would come up briefing it up how it happened]. From there on I got to see a different Delhi..... Non stop journey and five years over by now... WOW!!!!...
Some so special things I would like to point out about our Dilli are.... Chandni Chowk ki galiyan, nai sadak ke stationary shops, Darya Ganj book market, Paranthe wali gali, Gol Gappes, lassi, chilly winter mornings, hot hot summers, Radio Mirchi RJ's, blue line busses and its conductors, mixed culture, different accent Hindi language, art and craft bazaars, Dilli Haat Momo"S, dance, drama, cultural activities, India Habitat center, and not to forget Dilli de kudiyaan :P. .... Dilli simply rocks in every aspect and its one city which makes you to get obsessed with her once you start to spread across.....
In simple terms Dilli ne mera "dil li"
Its five plus years for me in Dilli now...... I remember the first day of me stepping in Nizamuddin Railway station at 22.30 hours on a Chilly November 17, 2003.... I was not exposed to such chillness before and the mercury must have read around 17 deg C. Just with a help of a sweater and a shawl I found a 6 feet place in the second class waiting room to rest myself. I knew no one in Delhi at that time and I got a contact of an IIT PhD student from someone and I didn't want to disturb him at that late night. The next morning I got an auto that negotiated with me for a couple of minutes and agreed to take me to IIT at Rs. 70/- with three more persons along with me who wanted to go to Malviya Nagar. I was not a south Indian who knew nothing in Hindi but I was smart enough to argue at that point of time as I knew Hindi and was able to pretend that I'm not going to be an "ullo". But finally my dear auto wala made me "ullo" by making me sit in the front seat along by his side and the rest of the three persons at the back side and started to ride. 35 minutes later when they got down they paid 40 bucks to that guy and sitting in the front seat and getting exposed to the chillness I was freeze and when I saw them paying 40 bucks I was shocked to believe that I'm being cheated here. He made me sit in the back seat now and started to smoke even after my request to drop the beedi. I joined my duty the very same day. Got introduced to a set of colleagues and was staying with the PhD student for a couple of days. I started to hunt a room for me the second day and was successful on the fifth day. I could manage to pull out a single room without a kitchen & shared bathroom for a rent of Rs. 1500/- at Katwaria Sarai, very adjacent to IIT. After a week of residence in that room and the interaction with my colleagues, and my environment and people at Katwaria Sarai and their behavior and to add up all the chillness!!!!..... The only thing I could wish for is to quit my job and run back south!!!!.......
December brought more chillness and literally I had nothing to do at my job as it was winter vacations and I was killing my time and seriously the most disgusting moments of my life. I can't sit idle in a place for a while, I need to do some damn thing!, else I'll go mad. Thankful the semester started and I had an opportunity to interact with my first set of students. That brought me some change in the world where I had nothing to do. Honestly speaking everyday I was expecting 13.00 hours so that the heat transfer lab would start and I'll have some opportunity to interact with my students...... life started to change. New friends, in the form of my students who literally were now getting me exposed to dilli. I started to explore new places and started to go out with them. Generally we get to see south Indian students going out with south Indian people / friends in IIT. I also used to do the same, but by doing so I got to understand that my views of seeing people around was with a mind set of a south Indian [no offense meant to anyone], which clearly is a negative way of living. Now I decided to do it with an open minded thinking. Suddenly winters seamed so pleasant [month of February], the roads were blossoming with colorful flowers on both the side. Dilli started to make me think that she has something more in her :).
The culture and the lifestyle of Delhi'ites are something which I started to admire for. I started to roam around Delhi alone. I've explored a lot of markets, roads, centers, exhibitions alone and sometimes just by walking. This was just to get used to the lifestyle of people and to understand the local people and I used to interact with them. I had all my weekends with me where I had nothing to do..... I was happy at the summers because we are used to it. I roamed a lot and got to see a lot of places and people. Suddenly I started to feel that this place has something in it which I could relate to but I couldn't get what was that. The end of the year made that happen. I went on a trip to Goa with my students, where I got to know about AID.. And probably that was my New Year gift to say [a separate blog would come up briefing it up how it happened]. From there on I got to see a different Delhi..... Non stop journey and five years over by now... WOW!!!!...
Some so special things I would like to point out about our Dilli are.... Chandni Chowk ki galiyan, nai sadak ke stationary shops, Darya Ganj book market, Paranthe wali gali, Gol Gappes, lassi, chilly winter mornings, hot hot summers, Radio Mirchi RJ's, blue line busses and its conductors, mixed culture, different accent Hindi language, art and craft bazaars, Dilli Haat Momo"S, dance, drama, cultural activities, India Habitat center, and not to forget Dilli de kudiyaan :P. .... Dilli simply rocks in every aspect and its one city which makes you to get obsessed with her once you start to spread across.....
In simple terms Dilli ne mera "dil li"
Comments
kaafi simple si baatein par its good the way we ourself become delhites ...
a slow and steady process :)
one thing is sure we really njoy to live in delhi ,and thats why we are not able to leave it Selva .. :)
if yamuna was cleaner, am sure would have appeared in your blog... i think we try to forget about our river these days for the same reason
newaz like arun n darshan... u r also become a quite good permormer in writing.... oos auto wale ka face yaad aaye to batana.... saale ko Dec mein toll bridge par latka kar chor denge(for night out).... aur Rs 184 bhi le lenge [70(principal value) + 14(interest) + 100(underestimation charges)]... nw happy!!!??? :)
Good...
@Kunal.. I remember those golden days.. you guys came on Wednesday 13.00 hours...they only exciting part during those days was the lab hours in the afternoon daily except thursday :)