Delhi, the city of hearts, as they say has always been a strange place. Besides being the administrative capital of the country, it has many virtues as well as many vices. Of late, Delhi has also been termed as the rape capital for harbouring the maximum number of rapists and rape victims.
When Lalit went to Delhi for the first time in the year 1998, he was sad to leave his own city, which he perhaps loved more than any other cities of the world. It was only because his employers wouldn't give him a posting at Calcutta, otherwise, he wouldn't have ever left the city of joy.
As he was going through the streets of New Delhi, he saw the beautiful boulevards, with trees on both sides, adorning the areas surrounding the administrative complexes. Just as anyone else would do, he realised that it would be pointless to complain about things that were not right, rather it would be better on his part to accept the good things.
He was accustomed to travel in local trains and the Calcutta metro. However, Delhi had no metro then. And local trains were not so common. The very fact that he had to know the bus routes and rely on these unreliable public transports, often infuriated him. What made him mad was that, the adjacent houses had no gap. His rented room had practically a ventilation below two percent. He would often feel suffocated by the inadequate fresh air.
On top of everything, due to high rent of the room, he had to share it with Sameer, a man of his age from Gwalior. Often, Sameer used to bring bottles of beer and they would drink together, abusing the neighbours and enjoying.
Lalit, mostly went to short tours to the nearby places with his roommate and other colleagues on the weekends. This way, they had seen Agra, Jaipur, Mathura, Hardwar, Dehradune, Shimla and few places in and around Delhi itself, in a span of two years.
He lived the good and bad of the city for two years, until a day, when a surprise raid from the security forces came in search of Sameer. The police came and arrested Sameer, for having smuggled drugs.
Lalit, shocked that Sameer was a drugs smuggler, started to sob in fear of having been drugged by Sameer. He trusted Sameer and he was so dejected that he decided to leave the city. After a month, he applied for a transfer to the Calcutta headquarters.
His request for transfer was luckily approved and he shifted to Calcutta in another two months. He went back to Calcutta. He told his parents about what happened at Delhi. He was declared medically fit by the hospital, where he had gone for a dope testing.
A year passed happily, he met a girl, Sanjukta. He fell in love with her. She was working at Bangalore office and got transferred to Calcutta headquarters. Lalit and Sanjukta became very good friends and one fine evening, when they were going to a movie while returning from work, Lalit proposed to her. She readily accepted his proposal.
Two months went, and it was time for promotions at office. People were too busy backbiting one another. Sanjukta was promoted to the next grade, and Lalit wasn't. Sanjukta had greater responsibilities at office and couldn't give much time to Lalit. Slowly, they broke up and moved apart. Later on, Lalit found out from his senior colleagues that, he did not get the promotion because Sanjukta had complained against Lalit that he used to sexually abuse her.
He was, now again intensely disappointed by someone from his own city. He realized that it had nothing to do with the city or the closed walls or the suffocating rooms.
After much researching on the matter, he found out that those unventilated rooms of Delhi were only to preserve water in the body, otherwise dehydration would kill the men living inside them. He realised people were good or bad, cities weren't.
When Lalit went to Delhi for the first time in the year 1998, he was sad to leave his own city, which he perhaps loved more than any other cities of the world. It was only because his employers wouldn't give him a posting at Calcutta, otherwise, he wouldn't have ever left the city of joy.
As he was going through the streets of New Delhi, he saw the beautiful boulevards, with trees on both sides, adorning the areas surrounding the administrative complexes. Just as anyone else would do, he realised that it would be pointless to complain about things that were not right, rather it would be better on his part to accept the good things.
He was accustomed to travel in local trains and the Calcutta metro. However, Delhi had no metro then. And local trains were not so common. The very fact that he had to know the bus routes and rely on these unreliable public transports, often infuriated him. What made him mad was that, the adjacent houses had no gap. His rented room had practically a ventilation below two percent. He would often feel suffocated by the inadequate fresh air.
On top of everything, due to high rent of the room, he had to share it with Sameer, a man of his age from Gwalior. Often, Sameer used to bring bottles of beer and they would drink together, abusing the neighbours and enjoying.
Lalit, mostly went to short tours to the nearby places with his roommate and other colleagues on the weekends. This way, they had seen Agra, Jaipur, Mathura, Hardwar, Dehradune, Shimla and few places in and around Delhi itself, in a span of two years.
He lived the good and bad of the city for two years, until a day, when a surprise raid from the security forces came in search of Sameer. The police came and arrested Sameer, for having smuggled drugs.
Lalit, shocked that Sameer was a drugs smuggler, started to sob in fear of having been drugged by Sameer. He trusted Sameer and he was so dejected that he decided to leave the city. After a month, he applied for a transfer to the Calcutta headquarters.
His request for transfer was luckily approved and he shifted to Calcutta in another two months. He went back to Calcutta. He told his parents about what happened at Delhi. He was declared medically fit by the hospital, where he had gone for a dope testing.
A year passed happily, he met a girl, Sanjukta. He fell in love with her. She was working at Bangalore office and got transferred to Calcutta headquarters. Lalit and Sanjukta became very good friends and one fine evening, when they were going to a movie while returning from work, Lalit proposed to her. She readily accepted his proposal.
Two months went, and it was time for promotions at office. People were too busy backbiting one another. Sanjukta was promoted to the next grade, and Lalit wasn't. Sanjukta had greater responsibilities at office and couldn't give much time to Lalit. Slowly, they broke up and moved apart. Later on, Lalit found out from his senior colleagues that, he did not get the promotion because Sanjukta had complained against Lalit that he used to sexually abuse her.
He was, now again intensely disappointed by someone from his own city. He realized that it had nothing to do with the city or the closed walls or the suffocating rooms.
After much researching on the matter, he found out that those unventilated rooms of Delhi were only to preserve water in the body, otherwise dehydration would kill the men living inside them. He realised people were good or bad, cities weren't.
Comments
Post a Comment