Tuesday, October 11, 2011

Dilwalo ka shehar...

Alone we all stand

Dilli.... Yes, I'm in Delhi, the national capital of our country... Finally I'm out of Hyderabad, something I've been wanting for a really long time now...(Been here for 4 months now but couldn't manage to get time to type down my thoughts...)

What can I say about this place? Well... Delhi is all that you think it is and Dilli is also not all that you think it is...First impressions, I came here with my parents and we were taking a bus, this tall, handsome Punjabi sees my mother and instantly gets up from his seat saying, " Aunteejee Aap baith jao...". My mom said, "That's okay... chalega....".  We all have heard of large hearted Punjabi folk, but not all of us have experienced it. Within seconds he stood up and insisted my mom sit there, the smile on his face, the purity of thought. Fully impressed. That is Dilli for me. Clean, big, straight roads... Metros zooming over your head... Hot sun shining over you...

Teething problems were expected. Different food, different language, a different culture, people scaring me all the time "Don't go alone anywhere - "ye Dilli hai"". But I guess I've finally found my niche here. I think I will forget my south indian roots if I stay long here. I've given up on rice, completely stopped eating it and my hindi has become more fluent now, randomly peppered with Punjabi words. Parathas have become staple food now, I eat them for breakfast, lunch, dinner basically whenever I'm hungry. Thanks to hostel food Maggi is the next best thing. Since noone in the northern part of India even knows what a filter coffee is, chai... is my new beverage. Sari's and suits are out, it's jeans and capri's and skirts... what more...all my time goes in reading/eating/talking hardly anytime to sleep or think.... Don't remember when I saw the TV last... Economic Times is the newspaper I follow(rather try to follow) now...had enough of the changes? Well it's a lot happening and a lot happening on parallel lanes. Let's go into why I'm here :)

MBA! I think the most coveted degree now in India(probably after IAS). Well it's a rat race all the way, for all those who thought CAT is going to be it. Let me burst your bubble, CAT is just the beginning. You end up in a place where almost everyone has the same IQ as you do and then there is fight.... So a 93.6 percentile is fighting with a 94.1 or a 92.4, who do you think should win? It's each one for his own, we all stand alone, yes, we have groups and we have 'group work' but... you are never a group, once in the class we are all individuals and it all boils down to that. Here I have realised what it means to stand in a crowd and still feel alone or to be alone and still feel like in a crowd. It's strange strange feeling...

Can't boast of much photography or of much travelling around... you guys will have to adjust with a random click from my campus!