Can’t live in Delhi, can’t live without
18 March 2013 1:26 AM GMT
My love –hate relationship with Delhi continues. When I am here, I often hate it. And when I am away, I long for it. It is not difficult to hate Delhi. This is the city where I first experienced molestation in a DTC bus.
This is the city where a young girl was brutally gang raped in a bus. It was in Delhi that I first saw ‘connections’ in action when a boy from my class whose name did not figure anywhere in the cut-off lists at colleges suddenly showed up for class one month after the session had started.
It is Delhi that is home to a power-crazy bureaucracy that makes the rules and bends them. It was here that I participated in my first political rally during the Mandal agitation. Many years later, it was here that I met one of the ‘Mandal agitators’, now a beneficiary of the system he had opposed, sitting across from me with the emblems of power on his epaulettes.
But for all its chaos and corruption, I cannot help but love Delhi. This is where I went to school, completed college, got my first job, had my first crush, fell in love, got married, had my daughter and made so many friends for life.
For all its systemic failures, what gives Delhi its charm, what breathes life into its inanimate structures, what keeps making you want to return are its People. I have realised that at a very superficial level, one can blame all Delhi’s faults on systems. And what redeems it is its Soul, its People.
For every rapist who lurks, there are many others who brave police lathis and water-canons to step out and express a will that cannot be dominated. For every corrupt babu there are thousands willing to leave cushy jobs and comfort zones and go on satyagrah with Anna Hazare.
And returning to Delhi after three years, I know that I could not have chosen a better time. Spring. The trees are in full bloom. The weather is not too hot and not too cold. What used to be just an urban village, Shahpur Jat, has become a hub for everything eclectic and host to a fascinating Spring Fling.
Music in the park is no longer something that only New Yorkers can enjoy.
Even Delhi is celebrating with music festivals of all kinds whether it is the Barmer Boys or Jazz moody enough to blow away your blues.
People are thronging little known nooks for photography workshops and nature walks combined.
But the best for the last – petrol prices have actually come down. This in itself is reason enough to fall in love with Delhi once again. Till next week!
The author has reported on Delhi-warts and all- for several years. She is now a Journalist-in-Retirement, dividing her time between watching her two-year-old daughter grow and seeing the city she loves evolve
This is the city where a young girl was brutally gang raped in a bus. It was in Delhi that I first saw ‘connections’ in action when a boy from my class whose name did not figure anywhere in the cut-off lists at colleges suddenly showed up for class one month after the session had started.
It is Delhi that is home to a power-crazy bureaucracy that makes the rules and bends them. It was here that I participated in my first political rally during the Mandal agitation. Many years later, it was here that I met one of the ‘Mandal agitators’, now a beneficiary of the system he had opposed, sitting across from me with the emblems of power on his epaulettes.
But for all its chaos and corruption, I cannot help but love Delhi. This is where I went to school, completed college, got my first job, had my first crush, fell in love, got married, had my daughter and made so many friends for life.
For all its systemic failures, what gives Delhi its charm, what breathes life into its inanimate structures, what keeps making you want to return are its People. I have realised that at a very superficial level, one can blame all Delhi’s faults on systems. And what redeems it is its Soul, its People.
For every rapist who lurks, there are many others who brave police lathis and water-canons to step out and express a will that cannot be dominated. For every corrupt babu there are thousands willing to leave cushy jobs and comfort zones and go on satyagrah with Anna Hazare.
And returning to Delhi after three years, I know that I could not have chosen a better time. Spring. The trees are in full bloom. The weather is not too hot and not too cold. What used to be just an urban village, Shahpur Jat, has become a hub for everything eclectic and host to a fascinating Spring Fling.
Music in the park is no longer something that only New Yorkers can enjoy.
Even Delhi is celebrating with music festivals of all kinds whether it is the Barmer Boys or Jazz moody enough to blow away your blues.
People are thronging little known nooks for photography workshops and nature walks combined.
But the best for the last – petrol prices have actually come down. This in itself is reason enough to fall in love with Delhi once again. Till next week!
The author has reported on Delhi-warts and all- for several years. She is now a Journalist-in-Retirement, dividing her time between watching her two-year-old daughter grow and seeing the city she loves evolve
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