Loving my city

I am standing next to a glass window of my room on the eighteenth floor of Le Meridian in Delhi with just a night lamp dimmed behind me.

The vast expanse of the city lying in front of me is so overwhelming with each twinkleof light having its own story. As my eyes get used to the darkness outside, I can recognize my city better, the Connaught place, the semblance of the railway station, the buildings on Barakhamba road, the sodium lamps on the ridge and the slowing moving traffic on the wide roads of Lutyens Delhi.

I have never felt so close to this city as I am doing now. I never felt so related as I feel now. My childhood and my teens seem to be strewn all over this place, be it the visits to Kali bari and children’s park with parents when I was a kid, or the school bunks to CP. I can feel the excitement of holi and the anticipation of Durga Puja. I can sense the anxiety of exams and the tension of results. I can also feel the vibrations of that rickety auto that took us to Jama maszid to buy crackers during Diwali or the flavour of the candies and the crax that mom got me for every school picnic. I can still feel the pain of that water balloon that hit me on Holi and the race I had to escape the colours that my friends wanted to put on me. I still miss those hide and seek games we used to play when DESU (Delhi Electric Supply Unit) had power cuts plunging the whole locality into darkness. I can feel it all, as if it’s all running like a motion picture in front of me  and it feels great to know that I belong here.

This was all that has made me what I am. This is what I am.

But that was then and time moved on. I don’t have to go to school any more, the holis and diwalis are there but have morphed in form, the companions I had are just a hazy picture in my mind, the games we played, the picnics we had the and the eighteen years I spent growing up with Delhi are all becoming a canvas that is gathering dust as the years go by.

Today, as I look at the expanse of this city, I feel it’s my own. I feel so close to each and every aspect of this city. I suddenly have a feeling that I want to grow again with this city and create new memoirs so that next time when I stand near such a window looking out, I have a new story to tell.

I own this skyline and it owns me.