Dilli 5

I realise that Dilli 6 sounds more fancy and more natural than Dilli 5. Too bad though, we'll just have to deal with it.

Today marks 5 years of this weird, winding, unpredictable relationship that this city and I share. I moved here on April 12th, 2008. I was 15 years old, mildly excited, super anxious and scared and had already started missing my friends and life in Chandigarh. Back then, I would not have remotely imagined the life I lead or the person I am today. 

I was not sure this city would accept me. Which was fine since I had no intentions of accepting it myself. In the first four months here, I think I spent more time outside Delhi and inside it. And gladly so. Yeah, I was not a fan of this great, sprawling metropolis city of djinns that is the Capital of our country. I used to tell people that I hated it.

Call it maturity or lack of it, I have softened my take on the city. I don't hate it anymore. I still can't say I love it. I love Chandigarh, yes. It's home, no matter what. But today, I think I want to explore or write about something I would never ordinarily do. I want to talk about what I love about Dilli. Five years currently means a quarter of my lifetime and having spent a quarter of my life here, I think just for today, maybe I'll talk of the good and leave out the bad and the ugly - I have the other 364 days for it. 

History was my favorite subject in school. I used to have quite the eidetic memory when it came to history - dates, events, monuments, etc. But the last three years have had the effect of reversing this - not the love for history but my eidetic memory capabilities. To have history, a place, a thing or a person need not be a gazillion years old, I feel. A second can mean history. Or a second could create history. And so, in those terms, it would be unfair to call Chandigarh devoid of history. It is part of architectural history and many other stories for that matter. It's part of mystory. But Dilli is rich in history. I find it beautiful to step out of my house, walk not even two kilometers and find a remnant, a ruin from one of the cities that Delhi once was. I find it calming, oddly, to be surrounded by monuments. Of course, I was insanely scared as a child during my first visit to Qutab Minar, fearing that ghosts would haunt me. I love that in the heart of the city, in the midst of the commercial center of this city with a grand metro station just a kilometer away, I can find a 14th century step-well nestled among huge houses. I get a taste of British India when passing Lutyen's Delhi. I can feel history in the making when I visit the Jantar Mantar lane or the Ram Lila Grounds. 

Chandni Chowk caters to my love for history, culture and food. Its energetic, its colorful  it can be overwhelming - but it has the best food ever. It is old school - what I mean to say is that it is one of the few or possibly the only place in Delhi that I believe has some amount of tradition and culture that isn't transient or has been fairly stable. My take on whether or not Delhi has a culture (I realise that this sentence makes no sense, and I should know better as a student of sociology before using culture in such a context, but I really hope you get what I mean) probably makes for a more difficult an answer to write than one on the 'social construction of the self according to Mead and Goffman' at the moment. But today's focus is on the good stuff. 

I love the variety of food this city offers. UPSC/Shahjahan Road Chaat place, Kake Di Hatti and Daulat ki Chaat in Chandni Chowk, Aaloo Chaat and Nimbu Lemon (i.e. lemon soda) at the Sarojini Nagar market, Gulgule at the Lajpat Nagar market, Momos at SDA and Hauz Khas market, Maggi at North Campus, Badam Milk at Aurobindo Market, Paranthas in the lane next to IIFT, the Maharashtra food stall in Dilli Haat. Wenger's is love. Depauls' Cold Coffee. Mathura Chane-Kulche behind Scindia House. MAX MUELLER BHAWAN! And yes, The Big Chill. These are all that are striking me right now. 

And to get to all these places, I don't have to be dependent on be driven around by the parents or driver bhaiya. Delhi Metro Rail Corporation, respect. The freedom I experience thanks to DMRC was at one point, unfathomable. I love that on a given evening, I can take the metro and go attend say, the South Asian Bands Festival at the Purana Quila in the evening at a time when my parents aren't in  town. Which brings me to the music. 

Delhi has helped me become more aware when it comes to music. Or rather, experience more. I don't know what the scene is like now in Chandigarh, but when I lived there, Punjabi and Bollywood music apart, we kids listened to the mainstream western music - the popular names, the ones that came on MTV perhaps (back when they actually played decent music and that too English songs). I remember liking Backstreet Boys and Jal a lot. Apart from having heard varied songs by different people like Eminem and say Avril Lavigne too I think. I remember crying about not being able to attend a Jal concert back in class 9. My friend and I had made plans but either or both of us fell ill or something happened. But that was easily the most exciting thing, musically speaking. While it may have been luck and the people I met and befriended here in Delhi, I like what it's done for me, music-wise. Thank you for the music, yes. I guess I got lucky with the friends I made and the fact that Delhi as a much bigger city and had more exposure or a lot more happening 'scene' than Chandigarh. Honestly, I cannot imagine life without the beauty that is the music of Advaita. I began knowing more about Indian music, be it an Indo-Western fusion or just small bands coming up in Delhi. Once I joined college, I knew a lot more about the WMS or Western Music Society scene (of course, mostly or probably solely thanks to Radhika!). Music makes me happy. And its lovely finding more and more music that makes me happy. Its gratifying to attend gigs, concerts and music festivals.  

One thing about Delhi that has helped me find a little bit of me has to do with what I wear. I am not a shopaholic, as such. I am not and never was a fan of branded clothing. Somehow, Dilli helped me in finding what I feel most comfortable in. The ladies in Chandigarh are gorgeous and present themselves brilliantly. But I never felt like that was me or that I could fit in, in that sense. Delhi helped me find out that I'm that kurta and jeans wearing girl who would not be asked why she was wearing 'khulle kapde'. That I can pick up random bargains at the street markets. That I love those 20-30 Rs silver junk ear-rings. I could live my life wearing chappals - even if they're blue or green or black in colour.  

Connaught Place. Hauz Khas. Paharganj. Sarojini Nagar, Chandni Chowk ... 

There are some grey areas - some things that changed in me or changed in my world view because of living in Delhi. I am not sure if they're necessarily good or bad things. So I'll leave those out and keep it short. Well, kind of!

I like that I can think of at least a half a dozen options when I get bored. I like how I have a wider variety of food to crave for. I like how I could be listening to the perfect song as it rains at the Hauz Khas Fort and Lake. I like how I depend on the Metro. 

I could not have survived this city and the last five years without the people - thank you. 

I had a fairly bad contact with the Dilli kids 2 years before we moved. I wasn't thrilled when we moved and did not expect to make a single friend and let alone stay for five whole years and attend college at the University that annoyed the hell out of me in my first two years here (and still does, to an extent). So, while the word that gets out is one about the Dilli Walah's "attitude", try remembering my word about how you'll find jerks in almost every city or village or country or continent that you visit. But you'll almost always find your people. Like I did. While I'm tempted to name some with pseudonyms, the truth is that every person that I have been in contact with ever since I moved here has helped me. Either in adjusting to life here, or helped me recognize those who wouldn't be my people. 

Signing off,

The Unlikely Delhi-ite

P.S. - I'm quite proud of myself about focusing almost exclusively on the parts that I like about Delhi. I'm pretty sure if I spent more time, I could find a few more points. But, don't forget that I could go on and on about the stuff I don't quite like, too. Some other day, bro.