WELCOME BACK
Disclaimer: I am aware I sound like those annoying NRI’s (non-resident India), who come from their first world spaces and then rant about all that is wrong in their home country, but I had to write this down before I lose the feeling and can no longer see the contrast. It’s only a matter of days until I become one with my own country, and then Sab Chalta Hai Yaar!
I am noting down some observations of my first few days in Delhi and the NCR (National Capital Region), after a long time away.
Metros
I head toward the ticket counter at a metro station in Gurugram. Of course, I am not the only one trying. There’s a crowd, not a queue, and the only way to get through is to blend in. It’s all too familiar, but it’s been a while, and I think I may have lost my flow.
I join the crowd, remembering the choreography, the dance everyone knows. Push left, push right, one shoulder at a time. Feel the force and the direction of this human mass. Sense the vacuum, fill it. Don’t shove your way through; it’s terribly impolite, we are in this together. Move with the flow, follow the steps, and you may reach your destination.
At the destination, you may find what you’re not looking for and be directed to another group. Restart. This time it will be faster as you have practiced. You reach your destination and find a telecom provider selling its own metro tickets at the station. Interesting—I Reddit this, and it has scam written all over it. I don’t care. I take it. I worked really hard to get here.
Transactions are almost cashless everywhere. Now, in the metro stations you find kiosks offering these online payment services. It’s all very confusing at first. The list of services is endless, numerous text columns, like a menu of a small time restaurant with 50 dishes in the vegetarian starter section alone, half of them misspelled. Textual clutter is high! I rub my eyes, its still very confusing, I move on.
The announcements fill my ears, and I find myself completing the sentences before they finish. “Vistpotak” and “Dandaniya” still sound funny to me as they did 10 years back when I used the metros. The trains themselves are still in a very good shape, what’s happening on the stations is whole different deal. Some metro stations now look like proper bazaars. Why one needs to shop in between short distance transit, I don’t want to know — but then again, why they still sell perfumes on airplanes is way more fucked-up.
The smell of bread pakoras fills the air. These stations now resemble food court section of small-town malls, with stalls for jumbo burgers, double-decker sandwiches, amul milk, momos, and steaming sweet corn cups. The advertising here reminds me of the graphics used for breaking news on tacky news channels and not-so tacky news channels. Bold and bling colours compete for attention and taglines like a tadka splashed in italics at a 45 degree angle.
Inside the trains, faces are unamused, people look tired, or are buried in their phones, like in Berlin, and anywhere else around the world. But it’s chatty here. In India, everything is very chatty. I love that.
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Everything is also very accommodating here. I always knew this, but I’m seeing it more vividly right now. Depending on one’s budget and preferences, there are (S, M & L) small, medium, and large options everywhere—whether it’s food, phone packages, or even public transport. From solo autos to shared autos to stuffed autos, there’s something for everyone.
Aam Admi
I met this person at a bar in South Delhi, and I tried to explain to him how Delhi reminds me of an old photograph that gets hazy and a shade darker, a lil more sepia as time passes. He laughed and said, "A few days ago, it was like a black-and-white photo when the AQI almost went up to 1700.”
Aree, it’s all construction dust! It’s all construction dust!" he added. I asked him what he does for work, and he replied cooly, "Real estate."
He said ever since the metros connected all of Delhi, more people from outside Delhi have moved in because now it’s easier for them too. So, while the metro has relieved Delhi of some of its transportation troubles, it’s also led to an influx of people from surrounding towns. This has put even more pressure on the city.
Maybe they’ve got to do the Venice thing, I thought to myself. Tax the visitors of a sinking city. Though in the case of Delhi, it would be the workers that come in for work, it won’t work.
I asked my friend if she was using the metros. “Nahi yaar, now with the whole remote working thing, I barely get out and if I need something I basically ‘blink it’, she replied. Thanks to the convenience brought by the delivery services, you could live your entire life without ever needing to step out. And why would you step out, it’s pretty chaotic, loud, dusty and dirty in most places.
So people don’t see the crumbling city outside because they are mostly inside their homes or their cars. I haven’t had the chance to talk to those who can’t afford to stay inside all the time, except for our maid, Dolly. She recently moved to the area from Kolkata, she is 22, tiny and really lovely. Most times she walks back home because she doesn’t want to spend 20 Rupees on the shared auto ride. Walks back home! With those heavy metals in the air and honks as sharp as blades piercing your ears.
Meanwhile, I want to go to the salon in my neighbourhood, but I don’t, it is walking distance but it’s terrible. I know everything I get done in the salon will be undone on my way back. There is also kachra, (garbage) everywhere, like every 100 meter, an anonymous boundary wall broken with garbage spilling. Thick layers of dust covers all streets, trees & plants, street food & the vendors, all people walking & the phone screens they are looking at. Why doesn’t anyone feel something needs to be done about this. I forget they are all inside and to be honest, most people I know don’t take autos, or metros on a daily basis.
Paradox
Some areas in the region are still very beautiful. The parks in Delhi, you can go there and forget that it’s the most polluted city in the world. Such beautiful old trees, of course still covered with dust but most people won’t notice such trivialities, they are busy staying relevant by making TikTok reels. Cute and cringe.
Have you got off the yellow line on MG Road station in Gurgaon? It’s deafening, the trrruuoo trrruuoo of auto rickshaws, peeeyyyy pey of speeding cars combined with the aiyoowaiyooo of police sirens, it hertz hard.
Or have I become soft.
Umm did I forget the sewage water collecting under the stations. Every time I call a cab to get home from there, I have to hunt for a dry spot just to jump over. In one such rides home, I complained about the city to the uber driver, he complained back but with more facts from his lived experience. He remarked thoughtfully, while casually driving in the wrong direction, that this was not the path the city was supposed to take. I couldn’t agree more. The dust, the filth, the occasional wafts of sewage, the unruly traffic in the night lights of this urban chaos, it’s giving Mad Max vibes in Gotham city but the Ganges of Wassepur version.
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Next up LIQUOR STORES…To be continued
First written on my substack on Dec, 2024: https://justabotintheuniverse.substack.com/p/welcome-back