A Short Story

While Sifting through my old e-mails, I chanced upon this story I had written when in 1st year of college. It was for the Hindustan Times 'I Love Delhi' competition. Am Posting it here.

I Love Delhi

The morning was cold windy and unhospitable. Standing by the bus stop, I could feel the cold breeze whisk away the least amount of heat my body tried to conceal. My ears had gone numb and my nose felt like an iceberg jutting out of my face.Out of the corner of my eye, I could see two girls giggling and looking towards me. This most certainly meant that my cap, my monkey cap rather, would stay in my bag since the last thing I would do in front of two
girls is wear a monkey cap.

The bus came. A burly jat peeked out of the window, his head covered in a trademark shawl and shouted "Airportpaalamdwarkanajafgarhke" and I climbed on, quite unhappy to leave the warm kingdom of my quilt in the morning and currently, the company of the giggling girls in order to pursue the noble cause of education.

The bus rumbled slowly and after nearly one hour of shoving and pushing and jostling in the bus, I got down in front of the college gate, quite unwilling to face the great new challenges that the day would throw up.

As it turned out, the teachers for the first four classes were absent and the last two periods had already been earmarked for the daily chore called bunking. Hence I decided to go to CP along with my friends.

We reached CP (or Rajiv Chowk , though I have great affinity for the name connaught place) in an hour and spent some time wandering about watching the tall buildings, the beautifully renovated Central Park, the throng of beggars near the Hanuman Mandir and of course the underground market of Palika Bhawan, the second home for many a teenager who comes searching for pirated CDs. Finally, we decided to go and catch a movie at the plaza.

It wasn't a bad movie. However it seemed to lose its way in the middle, enough for me to shift into a state of semi-consciousness. I woke up in between when I heard shouts of various people and found that everyone was running toward the exit in great panic. Behind me, I could see nearly half of the hall, being ruthlessly ravaged by a fire. Soon enough I was part of the commotion and stampede. Somehow managing to wiggle out of the hall, I found much to my dismay that none of my friends was anywhere in sight. When I checked the back-pocket of my pant and found the familiar hump of my wallet missing, I was nearly devastated. I had managed to lose 500 rupees in cash, my identity cards and other important paper bits. Adding to the
agony was the fact that my spectacles had fallen prey to the stampede and all I had currently was a piece of the broken lens and half a frame.

Nearly an hour passed and my friends seemed to have disappeared. The stampede had caused minor injuries to people, including myself. There were no serious casualties apart from my mood.

As I sat on a bench, pondering what to do now, a girl nearly my age came and sat next to me on the bench and asked me "Excuse me, is this your purse?". I looked up and was overjoyed to see my dear wallet. "Thank you very much, words cannot express my gratitude. Is there any favour that I can do for you in return?", I said very honestly. She laughed a clear ringing laughter, something that completely filled my mind."Well I am new to Delhi, could you tell me something about the places here and show me around?". I was distinctly puzzled. Women in Delhi were generally cold, unfriendly, thought of men as rapists and carried about pepper sprays. Hence the warmth in this girl's voice left me somewhat wary. However I had nothing much to do the whole day and if the girl's intentions were bad, why would she return my wallet ? Hence I put aside my doubts and decided to take her around.

Her name was Swarna. She was studying economics at Delhi University and had supposedly come to Delhi recently. She was of medium height and her face had good features. She had no inhibitions in talking freely with a stranger like me and I must say that if it was not the warmth in her voice towards which I felt a strange attraction, I would have never ventured out with her.

We visited the nearby places namely, India Gate, Red Fort and Chandni Chowk. All along I explained to her how Delhi had served as a city during nine different historical periods,about how the various kingdoms had contributed towards the Delhi as we see it today. I also tried explaining the histories of the places we visited to the extent that I knew about them. The talk
seemed to revive strange feelings inside me. I felt guilty that I had managed to ignore the beauties of the city in the fast paced rush of a life I was used to. Hence this chance meeting seemed to revive in me a feeling of having regained something ,something greatly valuable.

Finally, as evening started to set in, we went off to Akshardham temple. She was amazed to see the temple."It almost looked like we had arrived in a different realm. We watched the musical fountain show that had the fountain dancing to the vibrant music . After the show was over, we walked toward the auto stand. The ferociously cold wind howled in my face, leaving me cold.
Swarna put on a cap and said to me " I believe you should put on a cap too". Rather sheepishly, I put on my monkey cap. She seemed delighted. I gave a smile that showed my happiness of being in her company. She gave me a peck on my cheek. I quietly stood there, blushing.I felt a searing,
unmistakeable emotion rising up in my heart. She said "Well you have certainly done more than a favour for your wallet" and started moving away. I wanted to tell her to stop but before I could say anything she vanished into thin air.

And then I realised, perhaps I had just met the spirit of the city, personified. In that instant, visions of this city flashed in front of my eyes, the tall rising Qutub Minar, the elegantly shaped Lotus Temple, the serene expanses of green in the Lodhi Garden,The mammoth sized palace of
grandeur the Rashtrapati Bhavan, The dingy alleys of Chandni chowk with its crowdful of people, the face of Delhi's history the Red Fort, the abode of the faithful The Jama Masjid, the Ghats- homages to the leaders of the Nation and above all the hustling, bustling city that had crept into
everyone's heart.

And then I cried out in joyful wonder "I LOVE DELHI"!