Dilli wali life

Moving to a new city has it's share of perks and pitfalls.This time around I have decided to brave the heart of the North Indian hinterland, rajdhaani Dilli. Comparisons to other places where I have spent most of my life are ready to spring to the forefront of my mind, especially since I'm moving from Bombay (I refuse to call it Mumbai)which has been part of an eternal megacity (Delhi vs Bombay) debate.

Delhi feels like a big city. The metro is a-mazing. I can't imagine what life would have been like, living in this sprawling metropolis, where distances are so much greater than Bombay, before the metro era. Announcements inside the metro include a plea to refrain from sitting on the floor of the train. My mind goes back to the plea in Bombay, to not travel on the roof of the train, as it may result in an unpleasant and untimely demise of the commuter. What a change.

The women's compartment here is marked by a very distinct sign board of pink with white flowers as a background for a flowy sort of font that says "women only". It's an eyesore. In a city with remarkably well designed signage, clean, crisp and very well maintained; this is just out of place. Wouldn't a woman symbol have sufficed, I wonder? More troublesome is the thought that most women might not feel this twinge of indignation at this kind of visual stereotyping. Or maybe i'm just crazy.
Feminist musings aside, I hope this signage changes soon. Just remove the flowers maybe...and change the font. I can make my peace with pink. 
(Another completely disconnected thought : The women here are remarkably well dressed.Ah the travails of trying to fit in..Sigh.)

Photo credit: http://anuradhagoyal.blogspot.com/

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I spent the first weekend here house hunting in Noida. But I was determined to get some time off from the mundane task to get the new city feel. So off to Connaught Place we went. A lunch and some window shopping later, we headed towards Indira Gandhi National centre for the arts. What a place. It has a sprawling campus( I'm not accustomed to this display of space and magnitude after the time spent in the tiny bylanes of Bandra). The North-Eastern art festival was on and folksy soft rock sounds floated towards us as we traversed to the CV Mess, where we wanted to see an exhibit of Indian audio visual archives. The magnitude of material to browse through in the interactive kiosks was staggering. Old recordings, video, photos of celebrated Indian musicians, artists, poets and dancers. In the hour I spent there, even as the realisation of my extremely limited knowledge of Indian art/music/dance/literature slowly dawned upon me, I saw how empty the place was. As we signed out of the exhibit, we saw the number of people who had visited this awesome wealth and repository of culture. It didn't reach 3 figures. 

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Momos! Finally a street food that I love, that I craved for in Bombay and is so readily available to me here.Also the aloo ki tikki, which is best had in north india. I could never wrap my head around the ragda chat and golgappas filled with warm matar while I was there.This is the food I know and I grew up on. Ratatouille moment happened. 
The weather is pleasing(for now). I'll keep a bottle of brandy in my closet for the coming months. The Delhi winter is coming. Bring it on.

Amorphous and organic,
Like a giant evolving cloud of cotton
So wonderfully grey, 
So painfully close,
Tainting the things it touches,
Making them whole.
It's something to revel in,
Something to celebrate.
Wait, watch, try, suspend
It will always catch the bait.

Khaana Peena

The place where I go to feed the good ol' tum when hunger strikes.Though it's a lot more than just food that you can find there...The best conversations are brewed around good grub.I certainly think so:)

Play

When I was bored of the project work, I took an illustration I had made for one of the pages of my booklet and did some tp with it . Fun!!

:D

Train travel

I was traveling from Bombay to Baroda in a shatabdi a few days back. The seats were comfortable, the compartment temperature was just right and the coffee was served hot. It was a nice combination. I just found myself wishing that the train wouldn’t rattle and move so much; I ended up scalding my tongue. Not pleasant at all:|
I wait for the day when magnetic rail comes to India. A smooth ride with hot coffee and an unburned tongue :)

Networked!

Turn on the computer.

Connect to the internet.

Launch ie /firefox /chrome /safari (I wish )

Gmail, facebook, twitter.

The routine that I, and I’m sure a lot of us, go through everyday; multiple times throughout the day. These days though, I find myself favoring twitter over any other social networking site. Part of the reason why this change has taken place is because I find myself getting increasingly bored by facebook. The same old applications, the interface that changes, but still remains repetitive and dull; and the brainless quizzes have taken a toll. To be fair, I never was a fb addict in the first place. So this change is not so astounding.

But it surely makes me wonder: Do social networking sites have an expiry date? I remember checking my orkut account religiously some time back. I dint even realize when I stopped. It was a sort of slow severing of connections between us. And now, as more and more of my friends join twitter, facebook recedes a little into the background (for me). True, the things one does on either of these sites is quite different, but if the success of such sites is measured by the amount of time the users spend on them everyday, then who knows what the future holds? Changes come along so thick and fast nowadays, I guess people are more liable to get bored by the same old stuff in a relatively shorter span of time.

That’s definitely what’s happening to me. Maybe I’m waiting for a change that hasn’t come yet. Otherwise facebook, at least for me, just might go the orkut way.

This city

I like bombay...rather mumbai.
I finally figured out the easiest way to commute between my temporary home in tardeo, to my workplace in parel (by bus) .Still havent been on a local alone..but i'm planning to do that soon.
My bus takes me via the worli seaface road.I can see the setting sun (or almost set sun) on my way back.It is a beautiful sight...extremely therapeautic.
The city also somehow wants to make you work harder...I guess it's the constant knowledge of being around so many people, all the time, everywhere.
And this place is nicer ( if you campare with the rest of India) to its women too.
But all said and done, i still sorrta miss Pune...
I'm happy to be here..and i will be happy to go back too!
:D

when i write

it's clean and white
it urges me to write
it used to be paper
and now i press some keys
to watch these letters appear
out of thin air
and what is in front of me
is no longer bare
it has grown into a thought
but i must confess
i dint think about it a lot
so my blog waits
it's been quite long
i'd been switched off
it was very wrong..
i think i'll apologise
the fear got to me
that wen thoughts
are 'penned down'
they become reality...

Sleepless

The memories grow hazy
In my mind’s crammed rear
As I lie on my bed
And watch the fake stars disappear
The doubts gnaw on everything
That I once held dear
Laughter seems a distant echo
Indifference is what I fear
Now I wait and I pray
For the dark clouds to clear…

These lightless labyrinths of my mind

Lost all sense and respect of time

A single lucid thought is hard to find,

Confused, numb, or just blind??