a snapshot of dilli

Those sure were the best days of life. The boulevards of DU show it all, not a single tree to be left. You become what you really want to become, even if you were not quite sure about it. You can turn into the coy girl from the tomboy that you used to be. You can turn into the well read pseudo intellectual from the loser you used to be, wooing ten thousand girls in the University Special. College makes you grow up.

Those love stories, the bhel-puri at patel chest (still not quite sure what they teach there :P), the beautiful firangs at arts faculty – who come to India to experience/ study the culture. It is unbelievable. I sure want at least one of my kids to go to north campus- can see you guys and the kids hating me already. But this is what DU has got into me; I just want it the Delhi way.

Delhi University-> Delhi -> India…

A recent visit to our Old Delhi aka puraani dilli aka sheher. Me and a bi-product of my 5 years at DU aka toni woke up that day at 6:00 AM. Toni as usual does’nt let me put kaajal coz she sucks. She does not understand that I will not even get one orkut/ facebook pic right if I don’t do that. Anyways am not putting any of my pics here eithere, COZ I LOOK DEAD IN THAT. A banana each for breakfast and there it begins, the trip to the metro station at CP (ouch Rajiv chowk). We board our pyaaree DMRC and head to Jaama Masjid station. There we are- our first stop for today’s heritage walk (spent all my life in Delhi though!!!).

We jumped out of the metro and climbed the stairs to get to the lane that lead to jama masjid. A thousand male eyes staring at us as if we had done something wrong. They did not approve of 2 bold (err) ladies – walking down this road, toni was being vouched as the firang (Phew! That was irritating). It was a lane that must have been beautiful (which it still is in its own right), the kinds sanjay leela bansali tried to create in well yes I saw it – saawariya. The lane is full of electric towers and tangled cables which is barely providing electricity to the lane itself. Just before we landed at jama masjid we saw another spectacular – Hotel Jama Masjid. Must have been a biggie sometime. Another left turn and there we were standing there next to the stairs that lead to the largest mosque in India. Major accomplishment this one, phew. It was huge, the dome, the square. There was a notice board outside the mosque that said “No Muslim visitors allowed inside the mosque before 8 AM”, so we waited and waited. At 8 AM, we got in with just one camera, thanks to toni we were being charged Rs 200 for this instead of Rs 20, and there she started in her Allahbadi hindi. The guard was impressed and he said “Aap jaa sakte hain 20 Rs mein, maine socha aap angrez hain ” . It was beautiful, you can see red fort from the opposite side of the entry gate. We wanted to go up the minaret from where you can see all of Old Delhi but it was to open at 10:30. So after taking a zillion pics of the place with pigeons flying in front of the dome, we headed to our next stop.

Red Fort- I was just wondering , why is it that the players in the Mughal era did not accept change easily- that has lead to bringing them from being rulers to beggars. We have to accept that the only thing we can count on is change. Even though it runs in my kayastha blood- accepting change and moving on, it is still tough. Diwan-e aam, Diwan-e –khaas, rang mahal, nadir shah and the peacock throne, the courtyard- it was amazing. And there was this mysterious building which I have always wondered about, Victorian architecture in a restricted area of red fort. I so want to know what is it all about. I remember seeing it from the ring road near shanti sthal in my everyday 30 Km travel during college days. It sure is beautiful. And to our surprise, there was a restaurant Daawat Khana out there, open only till 6 PM. Nice place. Its impossible to take bad pictures at red fort. The Mughal era came to life after our visit to the museum inside red fort.

Just 250 meters from Red Fort, is the mighty Sheesh Ganj gurudwara. I think the grandeur of Sikhism cannot be taken away by anybody. This gurudwara is washed with milk every morning at 3 AM. Sikhs wearing a tom of gold cleaning the steps of the gurudwara with their own hands. Toni said she felt slightly ashamed because she was so inferior in terms of belief when compared to these people. She did not want to step on the stairs. Wanted to sit there all day, but had to leave with my all time favorite statement “How can people leave India and go to another land forever, how can people hate India”. Its beautiful, there is so much to be explored. She has never conquered any country in all these years of her existence. I am so proud to be born here.

We said good-bye to sheher after having my grandma’s favorite matar samosas and jalebis from the jalebi vaala at the corner.

Next post on humayun’s tomb…cya there