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Capital destination... dreams and discovery
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SYED ASIM ALI looks at Delhi through the eyes of a newcomer for whom every street corner holds an interesting story... .
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CITY DREAMS: Delhi continues to be the dream destination of millions. Photo: Sandeep Saxena.
THERE IS more to Delhi for a small town boy who moves here from a neighbouring State than the lure of employment and there is palpable excitement in coming to the Capital.
Govindpuri near Kalkaji is a locality where a newcomer would find people from middle and lower middle economic strata, and consequently a convenient place to stay. It does not resemble other ghettos in many cities of the nation. The food one eats at the place is junk, but the people are caring and nice. Though the place is not too familiar to those who haunt the swanky parts of Delhi, it is reminiscent of the pluralistic and secular societies school textbooks describe. Sometimes the lesser educated are better than the educated.
Delhi is one of the most polluted cities and one of the greenest places too. The flavour is history with a green topping. From the political houses to the best hangouts and universities, all are associated with the country's history. Take Connaught Place, the two concentric circles of Colonial style architecture built as a shopping and business centre in 1931. Named to venerate the visit of the Duke of Connaught - King George V's brother - its inner and outer circles and Central Park with its gulmohar trees remind one of the Colonial past of the country, and the Delhi public steadfastly refuses to use the new names Rajiv Chowk and Indira Chowk.
As for academics, Delhi University is a dream destination, offering the best courses in the best colleges, but the crush for admissions makes daily headlines, and with cutthroat competition for the cut-off lists, it is a garden where - to borrow an image from Ghalib, another historical Delhiite - not all, but a few are able to carve a niche and become as evident as tulips and roses. The university stands for more than its current claims to fame, with buildings that stood witness to the bloodbath of the 1857 uprising. The Mutiny Memorial and the flag staff tower are reminders of the tyrannies of an imperial past. The office of the university was once the Viceregal Lodge. But for people now the university is more famed for its Stephens, Sri Rams and Hansrajs, from whose portals the intellectual aristocracy emerges.
Delhi for a newcomer is also attractive for the religious places and harmony the people live here with, untouched by the mad fringes of society, perennially making fundamentalism into a popular emotion. An example is Bangla Sahib Gurudwara and the nearby Sacred Heart Cathedral, their proximity an emblem of the religious tolerance of the people of Delhi. The former - a Sikh shrine in memory of Guru Harkrishan Saheb, who came to Delhi with miraculous healing powers to eradicate chicken pox and dug a lake at the place - is still associated with medicinal powers.
Another emblem of interfaith worship is the Laksmi Narayan temple - the Birla Mandir - built in 1938 and inaugurated by Mahatma Gandhi where worshippers of all faiths and castes are welcome. Old Delhi's Jama Masjid, a mosque of the Mughal period, dating to the 17th Century is a tourist attraction like the Birla Mandir and people of various faiths can enter and have a look.
As for helping a stranger find these landmarks, this city's populace is as mixed as its culture. A passer-by can direct you the wrong way with nonchalance, and while you struggle to get off a crowded bus - whose conductor may just have charged an extra Rs.5 for the ticket - someone might relieve you of your wallet. A wily auto driver might fleece you, but then there are good and bad people everywhere. This city is more than the sum of its parts.
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