as an afterthought,
the day out with abhijit da at red fort last week, was a very nostalgic experience for me. i remember the last time i was there, and it was exactly 9 years ago, when i was a girl in class 9, and we had not even completed our final examinations. we were a group of 99 girls and the destination for our school excursion was delhi and agra.. of primary importance then amidst several other places on the visit list was the red fort. i wasnt as smart in those days as i am now :) and more so for the fact that i did not have a Google box right next to me..i had to depend on knowledge being imparted to us. it was fun and educational at the same time, and i remember the traffic getting held up when 99 girls in two almost straight lines scurried across the road to the lal qila...
i remember standing at the entrance and i distinctly remember the click clacks of the 99 cameras from almost the same spot and the same speed. i mean there were almost 5 - clicks from the same camera of the same frame, in case she missed out something in the earlier ones!! what immature kids we were then... i remember a whole lot of details and i wish somebody hadn't told me that we could look at the qutub minar from the red fort, because for the love of god, even if you stood on top of the highest building from anywhere near the fort, you still will never be able to catch a glimpse of the qutub minar!!! now i can see it everyday, because it is plainly visible from my university :)
we were never taken to the jumma masjid. maybe it wasn't a very good place to be in coming from the missionary school background, and i didn't understand it then, but i was for ever more fascinated by the place from a very young age, and i promised to myself that if i ever returned to delhi, the first place i would go to was jumma and pay my respects. it was by sheer luck that i returned and i did go to jumma. it simply took my breath away. my friend and i were walking from the red fort side along the road, when suddenly up ahead in the distance i could see the minars standing tall peeking out from behind the narrowly congested houses, and suddenly within minutes of walking, it suddenly loomed up in front of me... but some how you never get the feeling of being intimidated...
and it is so peaceful inside, there are crazy foreigners dressed in crazy funny garbs, and there are kids bawling on the steps, and there are also pious men who do their regular ablutions to get in time for the namaz, and women cover their heads and we all have to keep the soles of our shoes together and yet... there is peace. whoever said that the muslims are anything but a peace loving people, should not only watch their tongue, but also come to the jumma once...i mean its personal preference, but this place has something about it, some sort of a mystic effect which either will wrap you up in its entirety or will repel you i think... and every time i climber up the stairs in the hope of entering the masjid again, it surpasses my expectations.. every time... thats what aashique told me when he took me to the "traditional triathlon" (thats another story as of now) we were about to enter chadni chowk - "oyndrila, you'll either like it, or you won't. there's no 3rd option about it". but this "city of djins" (name taken from another kindred spirit by the name of William Dalrymple) has a charm of its own..whether you call it being soppy and mushy about a place i'm new to and thereby am quite attached to, or whether you call it to be overt nostalgia of coming back in a full circle...
and it is so peaceful inside, there are crazy foreigners dressed in crazy funny garbs, and there are kids bawling on the steps, and there are also pious men who do their regular ablutions to get in time for the namaz, and women cover their heads and we all have to keep the soles of our shoes together and yet... there is peace. whoever said that the muslims are anything but a peace loving people, should not only watch their tongue, but also come to the jumma once...i mean its personal preference, but this place has something about it, some sort of a mystic effect which either will wrap you up in its entirety or will repel you i think... and every time i climber up the stairs in the hope of entering the masjid again, it surpasses my expectations.. every time... thats what aashique told me when he took me to the "traditional triathlon" (thats another story as of now) we were about to enter chadni chowk - "oyndrila, you'll either like it, or you won't. there's no 3rd option about it". but this "city of djins" (name taken from another kindred spirit by the name of William Dalrymple) has a charm of its own..whether you call it being soppy and mushy about a place i'm new to and thereby am quite attached to, or whether you call it to be overt nostalgia of coming back in a full circle...
i love delhi, and its each nook and cranny i wish to explore...
most of all, i love chadni, and thanks to Aashique (the awesome), i have had the fortune of discovering what chadni is like, discovering the taste, the colours and the vibrant vibrant place it really is...
i love delhi.
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