LIGHTS!

Light… natural or artificial… is like jewelry, an accessory for a building. Its like the 'sringaar' that is applied to beautify something - ornamentation. I admit that I had never noticed before how even the bland buildings get a colorful flavor with the help of ‘lights’. This time the Diwali celebrations pointed out that to me in open. 

After a routine long day, coming back from work, spending an hour in the pale yellow/white light of metro compartment, walking down back home you are greeted by the same buildings that you see daily – the same ‘block’ architecture with common elements, common technical faults and even common looks. But once, during this festive season you are welcomed by lights… all over the place. The buildings, for once, lose their boundaries and merge into one another as if they lie with a layer of lights on them. Everything – the corner balconies, the glass railings, the MS-balusters, the out-of-context cornices and motifs, the excessively provided glass doors – everything is overpowered by those beautiful lights spread over those boxes (no offense) uniformly. Suddenly, the road is converted into a ‘space’ highlighted by the lights around. On the other hand, very seldom you see such lights placed according to the architecture of a building – enhancing and justifying all the niches, parapets, voids, and massing. Whatever way they are used, they indeed put life in (though for short time) what seems to be a dead immovable mass.

Louis I. Kahn, the master Architect said, “The sun never knew how great it was until it hit the side of a building..”

The randomly clicked ‘show of lights’ on my way back home. Delight!

Good Morning!

Morning!

Early morning crowded metro station leaves me in a fix every day. I see people running like mad to catch the train which is standing at the platform. The hurry is to reach before the doors shut. No offense but I laugh at them many a times, not because of those weird expressions on their faces when they are about to bang on the closing door but because all this reminds me of that wonderful place where life was never in hurry. The mornings used to start when the matador would start its first trip – that too dependent on the seasons. People never used to rush for anything. They had their own targets but were not afraid of the consequences they might have to face if they don’t complete them. No wonder why people in ‘city’ attend motivational classes of some gurus where they teach them how to be 'fearless'. Fear bounds you. Fear of expectations. Fear of performance. Fear of getting late. Its all too specific in city. The ‘9:15’ Metro which will come in ‘01’ minute and would take ‘51’ minutes to reach the destination. And there, people enjoyed being there in that moment. No one ever shouted on the conductor for prolonged halt at different places. No one even had the answer to the question, “Gaadi Kab aayegi?” What all they could say was, “Aajayegi abhi..” Maybe that’s why we used to treat it as the 'country' space. There is no fear. There are no expectations. The life goes on like an organism, which functions smoothly as all the parts are working in coordination, opposite to the city. I always used to call Mumbai a city of machines, where people act like machines operating on some pre-ordered instructions. Delhi is no different apart from the fact that this machine is noisier. 

These machines travelling in Metro are so stressed that they use different ways to ‘disconnect’ themselves from regular things. Some shut their eyes and murmur the names of their gods and some plug in the headphones, shut eyes and concentrate on the music. What they all are doing is ‘forgetting’ or erasing their memories temporarily or getting ‘high’. People in ‘country’ never shut eyes while travelling so as they can see the beauty lying in the nature. For city we have songs like “There’s a big hard sun, beating on the big people, in a big hard world” (Eddie Vedder) I, personally, never like to see the sun when I am in city. And back there, we used to gaze right into the rising sun early morning. ‘Accept’ is something that a city teaches very well. Being one of the ‘machines’, I accept the conditions and try to forget things listening to music. But every time I plug in to “Paradise” (Coldplay) and close my eyes, I find myself in Sahil's room, the place which relates to the song very well. Or while listening to “Don’t you worry child” (Swedish House Mafia), I find Him Anshu sitting next to me doing nothing… 

“Next station is Nehru Place”, time to stop. 

That’s how I start my ‘city’ mornings!

Dilli ki sardi

One of the several ways to define 'Dilli ki sardi'.

The moment you see a "rehri" (cart) with moongfali and gajjak, and the sighdi (matki with coal/wood to warm up the peanuts) you know that Dilli ki sardi has arrived! People spend their afternoons standing around these pit-stops and enjoy the winter sun. Thats how Dilli celebrates winter.

Illustration capturing one such view!