Dilli. Beautiful?
As Khushwant Singh said – Delhi is like his hijda mistress Bhagmati. She is ugly to an outsider but reveals her charms only to insiders. If you can look past the squalor, you can enjoy the Sufi-ism, the sandstone domes and IHC.
He also said that no one belongs to cosmopolitan Delhi.
If a person says he is from Delhi, people ask “No, tell me, where are you originally from?” To which he may answer “Arrey, I am from pro-par Delhi.”
(Pro-par = Proper)
I realized how Delhi grips one, when I hit South India for a long trip and started missing the blingy jordaar tube-lit dhabas on the highways – the Las Vegas strips of Dilli.
So again, is Delhi beautiful? Only if the following makes it so:
Dilli ki sardi. The invigorating brrrr of winterrr.
The Sin-Cityness of Dilli. Dark alleys where you’ll be yanked in a Maruti Omni (kidnapper’s vehicle of choice) and feature in the newspaper-headlines the next day.
Old-world Chandni Chowk with streets stocked with spare auto-parts. Grease n black. Food lanes stuffed with beggars on haunches. Animated halwais. Stoned sadhus. Qutb minar. Ghost town Tughlaqabad, successfully accursed by Saint Nizamuddin. (The saint told Mohd. tughlaq - Only jackals and dacoits will haunt your fort.)Nizamuddin Dargah. Pigeon specked Jama Masjid. Dirty Yamuna with glorious yestyeryears. Dilli darwaza. Ajmeri darwaza. Bullet-marked Darwaza. Horseshoe darwaza. Rashtrapathi Bhavan. Wide avenues on Janpath road. Embassies. Fat ambassador cars. Hauz Khas (the royal bath). Haus Rani. Lutyens grandeur.
Bohemian jaunts in Janpath, stories of Paharganj chemical drug concoction explosions, strangers I meet at Blues and TLR.
The dude-ism of Delhi. Guys who you know are MCPs just by looking at them, designer gloss, rash driving.
Café Turtle + Book shops.
Insomnia and house-hunting. Real estate brokers with aquariums.
i Want-i Want-i Want shopping at Ambience/ Select Citywalk.
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Dilli. Too much personality for 'beautiful'.
January 13th, 2010 - 06:43
lovely!! Yeh dilli hai meri jaan!
January 13th, 2010 - 06:47
Delhi 6y!!
January 14th, 2010 - 01:22
More here – http://fuchsiafunny.blogspot.com/2009/04/what-delhi-is-to-me.html
And Medhavi says:
I totally agree to what your Malvika has to say.. Delhi has its charm which is revealed to those who “belong” to it!
Its difficult to understand Delhi – a place where nobody stops for the other, bt we stop to see and gather a crowd wn an accident takes place..or something weird happns.. though we wdnt do much abt it
even at a green signal we need to honk to make the other move..
we get scared of crowds in the metro/buses when there’s the Trade Fair happening.. or some Sale season going on.
(Ps: we love Sale Seasons). There is actually a term called ‘Diwali Rush’.
Autowallahs here are pricey. If you get a good one, your day was made – if not, they all shd be “spanked”.
We are very “bhangra” – jazz is for the “elite”. And we love the golgappas. The Aggarwal Sweets culture favours that actually.
We like to squeeze in – there may be no space, but we got to. This is true for women in Metros and Cars on the roads.
We love the boat rides at India Gate…and the lawns.. and the pink cotton candy.
And unlike a Bombay, you’d see a lotttt of families dine out here – Sagar Ratna/ Nirulas.. the likes!
Delhi doesn’t ignore anyone – staring eyes at people wearing strange stuff/talking loudly/holding hands..
And in the Sax of the City phenomenon: we have the attitude .. we flaunt it.. but only in those dark dark lanes in the car backseat where no one wd know.. no hotels..no friends’ houses..!
Delhi is a rainbow of emotions!”