More travel scribbles

Am writing this from Frankfurt airport waiting for my flight to Dublin. My destination is a further 45 minutes from there, a place called Dundalk. Its 3 pm right now and I guess it will be well into the evening before I reach there.

I have spent last few days in Delhi with my parents. Actually I was supposed to leave Delhi by Sunday, but my office travel desk mucked up my flight reservations from Frankfurt to Dublin and the next confirmed flight I got was 3 days later, i.e. today, Wednesday. I was disappointed, but haven’t complained much since that gave me a chance to stay home and be with my parents more. And everything about home is better than everything else in the world.

Delhi is still the same, and yet it has changed a lot. The city’s the same cos, the things that I associate with Delhi, and those that separate it from everywhere else are still there.

Many known people, loads of places that evoke nostalgic memories, and things that you know will stay there waiting for you even you return back after 20 years. I have spent the whole of my formative years here, and I believe there is nothing in the coming 30-40 years or as much time as I live, that is going to change the way I feel about the city. No other city could take its place, no other ever will.

What has changed or is changing and at good pace I think is lifestyles, infrastructure, and mindsets. The same way as the other metropolises of our country, but in some areas at a more impressive pace. In the next 3-4 years, the common Delhi-ite can reduce atleast 1-2 thought lines from his forehead I am sure. The Metro looks good, pollution has been effectively dealt as of now, the common man has had far lesser power outages ever since the mid size industries were shoved out of the city, the roads are cleaner, the satellite towns are getting more impressive by the day, salaries are increasing, so is buying power of the general consumer. Graduate students are getting far more options now in the city and fortunately I think people seem to be getting calmer, more organized and less aggressive in behavior.

I drove to my college, during one of these days in Delhi. I spoke with the teachers, went to the labs, walked the campus grounds, the stairs, the library, all my four year class rooms, my conference rooms and even the car park. It was just the same as how I had left it. Seemed as if I had just left it 3 months back. But the students looked a different kind than we were. Dressing styles seem to have changed a bit , yes.. Couldn’t find any chess players or cricket matches. Just students hustling past each other I strained my ears to hear the across railing student banter. Their perceptions of the outside world already look different. Thinkpads, IPods, BioCon, and Intel are the buzz words instead of the Infy, Wipro, TCS that we used to have. Not that I heard these words, it was just a small talk about a presentation to be organized somewhere in the city but their very talk seemed far more focused than what we generally were , or so I think.

2 new huge malls have sprouted up within a couple of kms from my place. Huge ones. I saw 2 and literally 2 Police Control Room vans at each road from the airport to my place. It feels like the city will soon start to reap the benefits of the massive infrastructure and amenity based ramp ups, it had started on a war footing 3-4 years back. People are gung ho about the highest building of the world that’s supposed to be built here, or the new tech parks in Gurgaon, but I am more happy to see that the Yamuna doesn’t look as black as a sewerage drain anymore and that barricades have effectively stopped the littering of the river. I am more happy to see less people honking mercilessly at the red lights for no reason whatsoever, to vent out their end of the frustration or something like that. I am more happy to see, efficient government offices and tolerant officers at atleast a couple of places.

“Rough Speaking People”, “Swindler Cab Drivers” , “Punjabi Show off culture” , “Endless bureaucracy” , “Bribe Takers”, “Fearless Power Rich people” , “Unhelpful common man” , “Lack of culture”

These are the various concerns and perceptions outsiders hold or like to hold about the city. Most of them still hold true, but definitely now to a far lesser extent than in the 80s. It helps when you have lived in the city to learn what you tend to lose when out of it. But still being as unbiased as I can get myself to be, and taking the most professional view I am capable of, Delhi still seems to me the best in India that you can live in, having the best comforts and the best growth for almost every sector anyways. I feel that the most important areas where the city lags, and some of which lead to the above perceptions are already starting to diminish. But it’s a long way still. More importantly, along with all this progress, the society and the inhabiting people should mature, in their mindsets and their cultural disposition alongside the facilities or the other betterments. For good.

Resume ----- Dundalk, Ireland , 1500 hours

Have reached my apartments in Dundalk. I will share it with an American colleague for a fortnight. Am already starting to experience the Irish – English weather, fierce winds, stinging rain, but then the country side is beautiful. :) Lovely grasslands, with cows grazing silently, a green lush horizon, clouds sweeping over hills, high cliffs bordering the sea, castles, farmhouses, it looks lovely. I have never seen such a deep green color the Irish sea here has in my life, the whole island looks green. Hope to be in Dublin this weekend, for the city fun part ;)

More later. Its meeting time .