A day in Dilli

I was in Delhi last week, just like so many of the previous weeks. The difference this time was that I stayed back on saturday. A friend of mine was in Delhi too and we decided to walk the Red Fort, Chandini Chowk and Jama Masjid area. I have seen the Red Fort earlier, but not the rest.

The entire day was well spent walking at a slow pace, exploring the smallest of the streets in Chandini Chowk while discussing a few nuances of what I thought was an elaborate swimming pool in the Red Fort to cultural colonialism and so on. Some good conversations happenned.

There was enough time at hand to 'soak up the atmosphere' in each of these places (as cliched as it may sound!). While we sat in these places quietly, each to our own thoughts, I suddenly realised that my thoughts were influenced by the place I was in, subtly, but influenced none the less. Anyways here are a few pictures taken from my cell phone.

I made a trip by myself to the India Gate later that evening. Though I have driven around India Gate earlier quite a few times but had never stopped there. Everytime I pass India Gate, I get goosebumps. And this time as I stood there, watching the flame flicker in the gentle breeze against the backdrop of the evening sun almost kissing Rajpath, I was overwhelmed by the place. The weight of history was a heavy but joyful burden.

Ps: We really do not take care so much about our soldiers/heroes. We reward the unnamed soldier with 'Indian of the year' through SMS campaigns, yet there are scams in coffins, allotment of petrol bunks and so on. Damn!