Delhi has been kind to me… so far so good… I have travelled in a tightly packed metro… with no room to even adjust my elbow without inviting glares… I have started cooking again… much to my surprise… I have made different/unconventional curries (which my PG mates have a good laugh at), rajma rice, paneer, pulao and more… explored the market around my house for things of daily use, things which seem insignificant but without which life becomes a bit of a headache… for example, scotch bright, rusk, soap-case, toilet paper, small dustbin and all.
First, the weird stuff… A couple of days back I saw a naked man lying on the road, without a care in the world or perhaps he had so much to care and sweat about that he decided to give it all up, get drunk and just hibernate… to store some much needed energy to deal with Life once more or once and for all… but yes, not without, putting his toned body up for exhibition… yes, I know there is so much that is creepy, awful and disturbing in this wide web of a world, but This was right up there!
The poverty and pollution in Delhi hits you right in the face… like a slap. Also, the area where I work isn’t all that developed… so open display of domestic violence wasn’t something that left me agape… it was when I jumped in that the onlookers woke up from their slumber and the “man” in the picture reluctantly chose to stop… I wanted to hit him right there, where I’ve heard it hurts the most, but, then, I realized that it isn’t my business and that you cannot help someone who doesn’t want to help himself… in this case ‘herself’.
Something else that has been bothering me a little is the body language of most of the young girls I travel with in the metro (I say ‘girls’ because I haven’t yet gathered the courage to travel in the unisex boggie)… Either they seem too dejected… too precocious… too restless or way too loud… in short, civic sense is missing… what to talk of eye-contact, even the glint in their young eyes is not there… everybody has headphones on, the latest cellphones in their hands, the cuckoo-cu-ckoo of Whatsapp as jarring as always…
Delly-Belly Findings… (Only good ones)
1. Veg BBQ burger at Wenger’s Deli, Connaught Place and their smoothies… Slurrpp…
2. Delhi Metro Emoticons exist… when a girl standing in front of me was about to get off at Rajiv Chownk yesterday, she quickly messaged two emoticons to her friend… ‘Ruk Ruk ke chal rahi hai’ and ‘Rajiv Chownk’… and I almost did a flip at my old-ness… was I unfit for this ‘high-on-adrenaline’ Delhi crowd…
3. Awesomeness literally came knocking when I found out that there is a mosque somewhere near my rented accommodation… so when I am in the kitchen fixing my dinner, I can hear the namaaz… which fills me with awe and wonder… and leaves me in a state I believe is called Trance.
4. Also since the metro station is around 90 metres away from my place, I can even see the metro, coming and going, when I stand in my balcony…
5. And yes, a sikh family lives right next door… I was feeling so homesick the first day I landed here… that I was breaking into dramatic tears after every half an hour… until I saw them… Balle Balle.
6. I just realized I am too tired to talk about my work at ‘Salaam Baalak Trust’ at length… Moreover, it deserves a separate article… something commensurate to the experience… to divulge how the children I am wanting to help are in fact helping me find myself. So… Coming Soon!