Chandni Chowk

As if the hectic travelling to and from DCAC getting scorched in the sun everyday was not enough, I, along with my friend, had one hell of a time two days ago. At the end of it all, we were as exhausted and tanned as we may never have been. I personally had the priviledge of exploring a lot of the so-called 'original Delhi', and had been overawed by the witness of what I believe was the real India-Chandni Chowk, which filled me with a sense of nostalgia. Like how Ishaan Awasthi had found the whole of Mumbai so fascinating-it added immense joy to my heart.

It all started with the nasty temper(or so it seemed) of our English teacher in the morning at college, when he reprimanded all of us severely and warned us not to attend his classes unless we purchased and brought our textbooks to class. He seemed to lose all control of himself when he found out about our not having the books with us-his face was a fearsome sight. So my friend and I decided to visit the famous Chandni Chowk that day itself. I had also to meet another friend of mine at Connaught Place. As usual, we boarded the bus from college to Central Secretariat, and then metroed our way towards this guy who had come to Delhi for the first time. A lot of walking in the sun in the afternoon of summer and a short chat(shamelessly again in the sun) later, we found ourselves accompanying him amidst a huge rush to the New Delhi railway station again via metro, and then moved towards Chandni Chowk.

This place was totally new to me, and you could notice and percieve the economic condition of the people here, by their attire, gait and of course by the fact that they were not pretentious. From the station, it was an endless walk to the dingy and dirty streets congested to the core. But once we were there, our eyes were full of shops-I think it was the time when I began to realise women's nature, the ultimate
pleasure of shopping:with all the refreshment stalls, all kinds of books, calendars, purdahs, salwars and other dress materials, and of course the spicy food at dirt cheap rates. I was most interested in refreshments-we had lemonade the first thing, and subsequently countless bottles of cold-drinks. Suddenly you do not mind the pushing and shoving of millions of people around you, do not care about the sweat or exhaustion so much. We had to walk a long way again, but this time with a spring in our steps. Everything was so fascinatingly new to me that I felt like a five-year old.

We had come here for our textbook, and after a lot of sight-seeing of sellable items, we purchased it from a shop which only my friend could locate out of innumerable similar-looking ones. "Hey, haven't you visited the Red Fort?", my friend put forward this embarrasing question to me, to which I sheepishly denied. How was I to realise that the guy would take me to the fort? I was too happy to oblige-the outing was turning out to be more than just an outing. At 50 degrees and with a smile on our faces, we told our legs to move ahead, and boarded an immensely congested bus going 500 metres towards Lal Quila. Within seconds, we had reached the meaningfully magnificent monument, but the best was yet to come.

'It's a Monday, it is closed.' I could not believe what the personnel at the entrance were saying. Defeated, we sat and consumed another bottle. By now my friend's pockets were full of holes. More than 190 rupees were spent on drinks and the spicy samosas. I was determined to not stop our fun here-I forced him to visit our home, which was almost two hours away from his. At 4:30 pm, we made our way back to the Metro station through bus and endless walking. We were roasted brinjals by then.

Two hours of travel later, we reached home. It was nice to come back here, and I was compelled to say 'home, sweet home'. My friend, after a brief time, left at 7:00. Father arrived, I started to read the newspaper, chat with my parents, and by 8 I was asleep. I could not reflect back on the events of this unbelievable day.The reason why I call this unbelievable is because we have nowadays confined ourselves to our homes:sight seeing of this kind with people of our age and with carefreeness is extinct. Fun nowadays are of a different kind-chatting and playing on computers, surfing the net, visiting fabulous restaurants and partying. I do hope that this is the beginning of the days of my second childhood and that I visit other fascinating places as well. I also thank the Almighty for making me live such a beautiful dream. This was a day which rekindled my past, during a time when I am supposed to foresee my future.