Dilli Meri Jaan

I have always longed to visit Delhi ever since I started to understand about the thing around me. I mean you always know what is the capital of India during school days. Ask a question in a 4th grade class and you will see almost all the hands go up in the air immediately. Even my uncle taught his 2 yrs old daughter about the capital. "Beta Avanti.. what is the capital of India?". "Dilli", pat comes the reply. So what is this aura around the name Dilli? Surely it is the capital of the biggest democracy in the world and every Indian should at least visit this city once. So when my boss asked me to go to Gr Noida for a project assignment, I immediately accepted it and packed my bags.
The day started on wrong foot when my driver did not turn up on time in Pune and then I had to guide him through a bond flick like run up to airport. Thankfully I was just well within the time to reach Pune airport. Strangely the flight took Navi Mumbai-Gujrat-Rajasthan route. I really don't understand that. I think there was some air traffic jam on more straight forward Maharashtra-MP route. Terminal 3 at IGI was an amazing experience. It is so huge that it took almost 1 km bus ride to reach to baggage collection point. Bus ride was chaotic unlike any other international airport. There were cargo vehicles plying and trucks turning out of nowhere on blind turns. I found it amusing. The baggage area had 17 belts and the area was well decorated with Indian cultural paintings.
Got into the cab quickly and the 2nd journey started. I was finally in Delhi. Signboards for Nehru Place, AIIMS, Kalkaji, Gurgaon, Noida, Faridabad were all over the place. Roads were good in shape. Overhead metro routes were running across at some places. It was a visual treat considering that I had only seen such scenes on Nat Geo or some hollywood movie. Then I got to see Najafgarh-Nehru Place bus which was jam packed. I remembered Viru's interview in some daily that how he used to travel to Delhi every morning at 6 am for cricket practice.
After crossing Yamuna river, which was quite huge, we entered Noida and then it was non stop jorney to Greater Noida via express way. More to come on my proposed Delhi visit this weekend. I am very excited about it.

Advantages of being an Adult

I know this sounds a bit different to you because general notion is that childhood is the best where you don't have to worry much. Just start crying and you will get whatever you want provided it is justified, not 100% but at least to some extent, it's as simple. I see kids these days and their new kid categories.. they are not just sweet anymore, they are less dangerous, dangerous and more dangerous in addition to cute, adorable n blah blah.

When you are an adult, you don't have to nag about chocolates, candies and ice-cream. Buy any number of candies as you want. you are the king! You don't have to take permission from anyone. How cool is that?! You want to play/watch cricket.. just dial your boss's number and tell him that you are not feeling well. Now this involves some acting skills but it is fun. When you are a student, you can't really fool your mother. She will catch your lie in a minute, after all that lady has brought you into this world. She knows you inside out. But in office you can do this! This is the protocol that corporate world follows for sick leave. Being an adult removes the possibility of bullying from your elder brother/sister/some strong kid from your school.

It's time to take some time out and go back to being a kid again. It feels amazing that you can still be a child with enormous power, which you always longed for all your childhood, at your disposal. Everyone has a child hidden inside him.

Traffic on a typical Indian Highway

Imagine yourself sitting in a cab driven by your driver on highway. There is a vehicle (can be anything - a rickshaw, an overloaded truck, a local transport bus etc etc) ahead of you driving at snail's pace and your driver is honking..  honking.. and again honking. Switching levers between upper-deeper-upper. This driver is desperately trying to get past this vehicle as if the driver is competing in season ending formula one grand prix and this maneuver is going to get him the F1 title ahead of Seb Vettel. Nevertheless he still fights, trying to change the lane but then there is honking from backside. Other drivers are in the race too. They won't let their position slip away. It is like he is telling your driver "Dude.. what are you doing? You are stuck there and look at me.. I am on faster lane. How dare you to come in my lane and slow me down. I will honk you down". You are witnessing this amazing race moment and involuntarily become part of this race. Now you feel that I am part of my driver's team and he should win at any cost. But alas, neither you have accelerator peddle at your disposal nor you can stop vehicles coming from backside in other lane. There is no way that you can help your team to win except for praying. You watch this episode helplessly.

Then the miracle happens. The slowest moving vehicle's driver realizes the signal that something is happening from behind or may be he has his IPOD plugged to his ears and battery is discharged, and he gets to hear the ugly horn. He gives us some space to pass by and our driver finally gets past him. Now this is the moment of the race. When the overtake is in progress, our driver slows down a little to match with other vehicle's pace and for a split second, there is an eye contact between two drivers. The looks are fierce and angry. I didn't know why they do this but after so many experiences I have realized that this is a protocol to tell the other guy that you have denied me the right to win the race and you suck at driving. Your vehicle sucks and I have a much better machine. The eyes do exchange certain words about each others mothers and sisters. There can be actual words exchanged provided the driver belongs to some big shot political party. All this action lasts for only 2-3 seconds and before you know, our drivers starts honking again. There is another vehicle waiting for him.

I for Indian

2nd April 2011 - This was the day when India won the cricket world cup after a gap of 28 years. Last time India won the world cup when people like me were not even born. So I did not have a real feel of being world champs. Now I do. Some people might say that India have won T20 world cup few years back. But its not like a real world cup. After all which sport has a world cup in every 2 years?!

The moment Dhoni smashed Kulasekara into the stands, whole India erupted in joy. Everyone cried their throats out, from 80 year old to 10 year old.. at societies, chowks, roadside shops, homes. I had never seen crowd in such a huge numbers on streets. That was a proactive gesture by the 'Janta'. Everyone celebrated like there was no tomorrow. I can say that we did a 'SPAIN' (Last year we saw the wild football world cup celebrations in Spain)

Dhoni and his men gave Indians something to cheer about. We were tired of reading or witnessing daily corruptions, scams. Who doesn't have problems - financial, personal, relationships, family. But Team India made Indians to forget their own worries at least for next few days. There is a feel good factor created by this victory which will last for some time.

Cheers to Team India!