18th March 2022
This Holi is
different. So different that you almost bailed out of the annual tradition. It
required great amounts of will to actually get into the car; almost the same
amounts that it takes these days to pick groceries from the neighbourhood
market after dilly-dallying over an average of three days. Yes, things have
irrevocably changed.
Cotton Silk Trees twinning with DTC Cluster Buses
In these slowed-down reminiscing kind of days, it does not take
trigonometry to figure out that you are now in the final one-third of this god-blessed
life. And like the previous two one-thirds, things are going to be a little
different in this phase of life too. But for now, let’s continue this annual
tradition as long as you can still summon enough self-will while you can walk
and almost run on your own power without twisting that ankle again which by the
way still hasn’t healed even after three years of that evening in Imphal. Well,
battle scars are badges to be worn with pride.
Bougainvillea in all its Holi Glory
On a successive hot Holi afternoon (last year’s Holi sizzled at 40 degrees), you have set out with one place in mind. Everything else will be mostly random. The self motivation took some time to materialize and you are leaving quite late. You turn left on the DND loop to take you north on the Ring Road. Usually, you use this short stretch to climb on the Barapullah elevated road but today you will continue on Ring Road to make sense of all the construction happening on this stretch.
Today's route takes you across major parts of Delhi
Delhi few days ago in all its brief Spring glory
On the right, Yamuna has more bridges and pillars than water flowing in
it. Barapullah is being extended to Mayur Vihar. In the coming days, you will
bypass the DND altogether riding Barapullah all the way to Lodhi Road.
Delhi-Meerut Regional Rapid Transit System is rapidly taking shape with the
station on the left and the viaduct approaching fast from the east over the dry
river bed. Who really needs a flowing river when we can have all these bridges?
What a waste of prime real estate. People to the south in Kalindi Kunj have
realized how to utilize these priceless idling resources. Every time you cross
the DND you can swear more multi-storeyed building blocks have come up
overnight inching towards the rapidly receding river banks. Everyone is happy –
politicians, law-enforcement agencies, goons.
The Delhi-Meerut RRTS starting point at Sarai Kale Khan
Who really needs Yamuna and Aravallis and trees and wasted green spaces?
The Waste to Wonder Park at Indraprastha Park
You are not sure if this part of the Indraprastha Park where you spent a
late spring afternoon several years ago has still survived the concrete and
development onslaught. You are poking around the safety view-breakers. The park
got to be around here. And then you see the gate; the gate seems to be leading
to our own Jurassic Park. This is the Waste to Wonder Park that has the wonders
of the world crafted out of, well, waste. You have seen the photos of the lit
Leaning Tower of Pisa and other monuments. Maybe some evening you will come
here to see the Pyramids – fat chance!
Delhi turning into asphalt and concrete
Just beyond is the still surviving Indraprastha or the MillenniumPark with the interesting treescape. That post you wrote about the early
summer trees is surprisingly one of your most read blogposts – go figure!
The Pragati Maidan Tunnel ramps on Ring Road
There is some more development work going on in New Delhi. Okay lots of it. Pragati Maidan was flattened and all the old state pavilions disappeared. In their place, blocks of airconditioned concrete are coming up. Underneath, a tunnel is being dug up, that will bring even more NCR cars into the heart of New Delhi. The RRTS will bring in more people from distant places on the train, and the tunnel will bring in more cars into Delhi. Great idea to decongest the capital. Two loops open onto the Ring Road. The walls of the tunnel have paintings. On the other side, majestic trees were uprooted to build more approach ramps. Yes, the capital needs more roads and ramps and cars. Again, the rhetorical question - Who needs trees and a river? You need to lighten up; you are becoming a cynic.
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| The fluttering Tricolur |
Tricolours are coming up across the capital. The idea is that people feel patriotic when they see the flag fluttering majestically in the sky. But just below on the road, they continue to spit, throw chip packets out of the car windows, and jump red lights. You have a feeling that caning and sending them all for community service would better serve the country.
The Cotton-Silk trees have painted the town red. The sight of these
blooms high up on these buttressed sprawling trees is a sign that you have just
barely made it through another gruelling winter and nature is trying to tell
you that the effort was worth it. From the top of a flyover, it seems red
fireworks are being set off across the city. It is not easy being a Delhi
denizen – virus, pollution, the winter, and the most dangerous, fellow
denizens. The city is a set of Hunger Games and it takes all your survival
instincts to make it through every single day.
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| Feroz Shah Kotla |
Yes, this only happens on Holi afternoon - The iconic Vikas Minar
Every year the traffic on Holi afternoon seems to grow. Maybe, they too have caught on to your idea and are doing their own ‘Holi’Day runs. But on some stretches, you do manage to get shots when there is not a vehicle is in sight. This is a Delhi that harks back to those old days when this was normal during summer afternoons. When people would take refuge behind the chiks in their verandahs cooled by the air-coolers with khas khas and roohafza. Now pick any season or time of day and there is an endless stream of vehicles trying to get somewhere in this rapidly becoming restless city.
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| Rang Mahal of Red Fort across the street from Vijay Ghat |
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| Planet of Pigeons |
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| Vijay Ghat - Samadhi of 2nd PM Lal Bahadur Shastri (1904-1966) who coined Jai Jawan Jai Kisan |
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| Smt Lalita Shastri's Samadhi (1911-1993) |
Just opposite the Rang Mahal of Red Fort, across Mahatma Gandhi Marg is the Vijay Ghat gate. You remember visiting the samadhi of former PM Lal Bahadur Shastri few summers ago. Yes, you were surprised to see his wife Smt Lalita Devi’s samadhi too next to his. Well, today a congregation of pigeons has assembled outside the gates. You are not a great fan of these birds who have usurped the urban city just like the Vilayati Keekars have taken over the city’s greens. Poor sparrows have been de-domiciled out of their own city and are rarely seen now. Even crows fear to tread in this pigeon land. And like everywhere else, people buy grain and feed the pigeons as a collective gutar-goon crescendo rises under the afternoon skies.
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| The causeway connecting Red Fort to Salimgarh. Once, Yamuna used to flow below |
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| Heading north on GT Road |
You will turn left to ride the historical Grand Trunk Road through the Delhi University campus and the Vidhan Sabha. At Azadpur, you turn left on the Outer Ring Road to venture into parts of Delhi you rarely do. You are driving into Rohini, the sprawling mini-city built in north-west Delhi, a place you only read about in news once in a while. What does keep popping up is this place called Japanese Park. And Holi is the only day when you feel brave enough to come out this far to check out what this park is all about. Enough of Lodhi Garden and Nehru Park; it is time to visit the Japanese Park.
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| Swarn Jayanti Park or Japanese Park in Rohini, Delhi |
Rohini seems to be well planned with network of colony streets and grown trees. The houses are a mix of low-rise apartments and independent houses and is quiet on the Holi afternoon. Google Maps leads you into the parking. You are looking for some sign that says ‘Japanese Park’ but there is none. Apparently, the official name of the park is Swarn Jayanti Park in Sector 10. Google Maps calls it Japanese Park but as far as you could investigate there is no such sign in the park. So how did the park get its name?
DDA teaching us to Say No to Bribe!
The park has the usual paraphernalia of some Holi revellers in the throes of molasses derived beverages, defunct and muddy fountain pits dug in the name of development and concrete paths crisscrossing the park. Things soon start to look promising.
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| Kachnar flowers |
There are a few Cotton Silk trees still blooming. Just looking at those wholesome red blooms cheers you up. In the distance stars glint. The tree that you identify with Holi has made its appearance. The white Kachnar tree blooms above the canopy of the neighbouring trees. You still remember your wide-eyed wonder when you saw the Kachnar tree at the Oberoi Hotel gate on another Holi afternoon few springs ago. To you Kachnar reflects the sense of spring. Of course, spring has now deserted Delhi. It already seems like summer. Things are definitely changing.
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| Japanese Park in Rohini, Delhi |
A cricket match is underway in the clearing on the left. Just beyond is a heartwarming view; something that you have not seen in Delhi parks. A standalone grove of fig trees invites you to this island of green and tranquility. Walking beneath the canopy is a feeling that is hard to describe - a low murmur of chirping birds, leaves whispering to the breeze and the afternoon sun trying to pierce the tangle of branches above. You could make this your home right here.
But the question is bothering you. So you ask one of the boys why this
park is called Japanese Park. He is not sure but provides a believable reason.
The park is laid out like a Japanese park. You have not visited any parks in
Japan so you really cannot verify the claim but it sounds good enough. The park
deserves another visit when you can explore the trees in summer time. But before that you need to visit the Shalimar Garden again where Aurangzeb was coronated and is a treasure house of trees.
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| The brick St Martin's Church in Delhi Cantt |
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| Heading towards Dhaula Kuan and into New Delhi which is more familiar |
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| Gyarah Murti on Willingdon Crescent |
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| Teen Murti with petunia carpets |
From here you will try to make the return trip turn into a circuit as you drive through places in West Delhi and then Delhi Cantonment. Holi afternoon is incomplete without the mandatory drive on Willingdon Crescent where the lifetime worth of memories reside in the statues, the trees, the lawns and the now abandoned houses of Traffic Police Lines.
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| Spreading Happiness |
Rashtrapati Bhawan glows in the twilight just beyond the Teen Murti roundabout bedecked in fragrant petunias. You don’t have the heart to venture into the Vijay Chowk area where concrete is being poured into the green spaces. You turn back home.
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Full moon glows brightly over Barapullah. While life changes around you,
the moon shines as brilliantly as it did on Holi evenings even before Holi came
into being. This constant stir in your being calms down. The moon seems to be smiling.
We are transitory, like the waxing and waning phases of moon. These pushes and
pulls will continue. Tides will ebb and flow.
Epilogue: Incidentally, this Holi piece is the most delayed. In the past
editions, the Holi post would announce the inauguration of blog writing season.
While the saying goes, mind is willing but the flesh is weak; this time both
mind and flesh were weak and you spent your hours and days discovering the
charms of Malayalam cinema – a late comer to the OTT party. And like every time
a tech revolution happens you are the last one to get aboard the boat. You are
getting into the groove. Finally, you order groceries on the 30 min delivery app.
No more dilly-dallying to get to the neighborhood market. You are ready for the
big bad world of tech playing out on the screens. It is time now you went back
to the good old days of discovering the charms of life on the road and of
writing.
References:
Related Links on this Blog
A 'Holi'Day in
the life of Delhi 2018
A
'Holi'Day in the life of Delhi 2015
A 'Holi'Day in
the life of Delhi 2016
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