Ye Dilli hai mere yaar...

Okay, before I start this post, there is a special note for die-hard Delhi fans: I love Delhi J

There is this strange irony of my life. The more I used to consider Delhi-NCR as the worst place to live in, the more connected I became.

I was born in Delhi. Nearly 90% of my school life was spent in this region. When I completed my schooling, I was kind of relieved that I don't have to come back to Delhi. I was happy at Jaipur. But I landed up at Gurgaon (NCR) for MBA. I was placed and my company stationed me at places like Mumbai, Chennai and now Bangalore. And guess what??? I got married to a Delhiite.  

But there is something magnetic about this place. I may have started realizing this magnetism only after spending some time in South India. The name of the famous roads, the numerous autos which keep on exhaling unbearable polluted fumes, the street food, the roadside chit-chat sessions of young groups, housewives buying vegetables from vegetable carts in their night gowns and bargaining on top of that, India Gate, the disinterested government employees, the government buildings, historical monuments, congested streets where there is no space for parking and yet each family proudly own atleast two cars, cheaper daily-use commodities (here I am comparing with South India), jugaadu attitude, Metro, latest model of cars or bikes speeding along-with cars which may crumble down to a pile of metal anytime etc etc.

Whenever I would travel through Delhi Roads, I feel some kind of connection with the names of the roads and areas, though I may not be able to guide you to any damn road of Delhi. Barakhamba Road, ITO, CP/ Rajiv chawk (for Metro travelers), Dilshad Garden, Akbar Road, Sardar Patel Marg, Rajghat, Janpath, Rohini (this is where I spent almost 7 years), Pragati Maidan, Dwarka, Mayur Vihar (this is where I am going to spend rest of my life J), Chandni Chowk, Karol Bagh, Kamla Nagar etc etc.

I may not have been to all the historical places of Delhi but just passing by them also gives a sense of pride to be present in the capital city of India- Delhi. It is polluted, it has now got extreme weather conditions- too cold in winters and too hot in summers, it is congested, it is cunning, it is the prime aim for terrorists, it is crowded but whatever it is, people born and brought up in Delhi cannot stay away from this place for long.

Here you get the best street food of India. Here you don't shy away from buying things from street and bargaining too even if you are the wife of the Director of a company. This is the place where you can sit in any local market with friends yet have a feast with inexpensive momos and chole-kulche. The roads may be less crowded during mid-night but not deserted, where the business language is English when you start and quickly changes to Hindi or Punjabi, where people have started travelling according to the timings of Metro, where still there are numerous areas where uninterrupted power supply is still a dream but the people are complaining and not rebelling, where people have forgotten the concept of balcony (almost 95% of the families residing in apartments built not very recently have covered their balconies and converted them into rooms), where people are too concerned about their health and so religiously go on morning walk and gulp samosas and chicken tikkas in the evening…

But Delhi is rightly named as a place of people of golden hearts (dilwale). Only a true Delhiite may cherish the title song of Delhi-6 J. Though I cannot call myself as 100% pure Delhiite, but I love this place in spite of all the ironies with which the people live here.