Delhi

Delhi is a city of flyovers and high-fliers.  People from all over the country are driven to the welter of opportunities that the National Capital Region offers with the magnanimity that the emperors of the walled city displayed to their favourite courtiers and courtesans.  Anyone who has the inclination and the drive will find his or her place in Delhi sooner than later – under the flyover if not above it. 

Sprawling landscape around Qutub Minar

The loves we share with a city are often not very upfront.  What drives Delhi are not merely the well-maintained roads and flyovers and the exquisite metro service but also the secret gratifications it offers in the sprawling malls with their multiplexes and the greenery that throbs in the woodlands that dot the city’s map with an unusual excess of nature’s bounty.  You can drive a dilapidated Bajaj scooter or a luxurious BMW and be at home in the anonymity of Delhi’s crowded vastness.  You can wear a cheap outfit bought from the street vendor in Chandni Chowk or a royal dress from DLF Emporio in Vasant Kunj and be a proud Delhiite.

Delhi has a unique design.  There is the old city of Shahjahan with its limestone and marbles, walls and tombs, that carry breathtaking tales with the patience that only stones possess.  Then there is the New Delhi that stretches seemingly endlessly into the neighbouring states. 

An ashram in Bhatti Mines

The metro trains that run in the sky with skyscrapers of all shapes and sizes silhouetted all  around lend a distinctive flavour to Delhi.  The cycle rickshaws still linger on in Shahjahan’s city where life teems with primitive passion in contrast with the luxury of the sophistication that one encounters in South Delhi.

There is a whole world beneath the surface of Delhi.  It’s not only the underground markets like Palika Bazaar or the underground metro rails that draw you to the entrails of the city.  There is a whole network of subways some of which are more crowded than the overground thoroughfares.  Some of the miracles of human imagination and invention can be found in those underground worlds.  The Rajiv Chowk metro station is one such miracle with a whole underground universe that teems with thousands of people at any given time when the metro trains are in service. 

The best thing may be that Delhi connects.  There are people who will help you to make the connections.  Whatever kind of connections you may wish for.  There are the services.  There are the facilities.  There are the transport systems: from the humble cycle rickshaws in the walled city’s congested lanes with their royal arches of yore to the innumerable flights that take off from the various terminals of Indira Gandhi airport.  And there is an abundance of godmen and their ashrams.  Hundreds of vehicles of all types, mostly of the richer varieties, ply towards these homes of holiness particularly in South Delhi on days when the godmen deign to shower their blessings on the yearning teeming devotees.  What is a city without some spiritual connects?  Delhi has some inimitable godmen especially in Bhatti Mines.  The very air of Bhatti Mines is redolent of the heavens.  

PS. This post is written for the #madeofgreat theme of Tata Motors:

 http://madeofgreat.tatamotors.com/