I came back to Delhi after fifteen years for a short stay. Delhi stood like a Big Banyan tree, welcoming me to its shades. I felt as if I found my lost love.
The smell, color, language and the people all are the same and very familiar.
The memories also are rushing through, Delhi hold lots of them, good and bad, happy and sad. I still remember the lanes and by lanes of Baratooti, Paharganj and Karol Baugh. These lines taught me the tastes of Delhi, and eventually I fell in love with their culinary expertise.
In early eighties I ramble through these galis, and the corridors of Connaught circus and Nehru place searching for job. After each failed interview I went to the lawns of Nehru Park and India Gate in search of solitude.
It was fashionable to go to Chanakya Theater and watch English movies, and I wanted to be fashionable. Delhi taught me to pretend even though I often failed in that art.
Punjabis, Jats and other locals were very kind towards me. They said poor “Madrasi”, and I got accommodation without much effort. They looked at me sympathetically and I survived the sweltering heat and freezing winters.
I found my companion in Delhi. We both bunked our office and went to Buddha Jayanti Gardens often. She gave birth to my two kids in Delhi. Those were the happier times. We went to Pusa campus and watched peacocks in weekends.
My father in law and maternal uncle were laid to rest here, and their ashes were scattered on the banks of Yamuna as a seed of immortality.
The Toombs of Mughal’s never attracted me, and I hardly went there to wake them up from their sleeps. I always loved to go to Chadni chowk and sadar bazaar. Those grimy galis mesmerized me always. I also loved to frequent the lawns of Nehru Park and Lodi Gardens.
Delhi made me to look at life differently, and I learned to be practical and brave.
I will go back now, but Dilli, I will come visiting again and again with my children. We will roam through your galis, and corridors without waking up the Mourians, Mughal’s and the Thuglaq’s.
After all Dilli Dilwalon ka Shehr he!
