I had always wanted to see New Delhi, the power centre of Indian politics not that I haven’t been to this place before. But eversince the Metro has begun changing the lives of the delhites, I wanted to get a preview of how the city looks and feels now. A business trip to Delhi was the right moment to visit the city. I am sure that Delhi will become a world class city in the coming days. It’s exciting because of the way the political will has driven the development and left behind the bad memories of a city which had no future at all.
We are a team of 3 people who manage tcs.com. The agenda then was to introduce our culture and thinking patterns to the team so that site structuring & other maintenance activities are accomplished smoothly. This was kind of a workshop for both us as well as the backend team where-in we learnt and gave back a few things unknown. I had a 6:25 am Kingfisher flight to catch to Delhi after which we drove straight to Gurgaon where our backend team sits. Giri had arranged for a cab which took us to our destination.
IT City
Gurgaon, for all I had heard failed to impress me. There’s nothing impressive apart from the grand architectural examples but the infrastructure like roads for instance has yet to take off. The meetings were long drawn and involved a lot of discusisons and debates on various design & development issues. Hence we just had to suffice having a wonderful lunchtime at the local Pizza Hut – one of my favourite joints. In the evening Sukanya invited me over to meet one of her friends from Delhi and we decided to have dinner with them as well. A little into about them – Nishant & Swati are a marvellous couple. While Nishant works for Indiatimes at Gurgaon, Swati is works at the Times of India at Delhi. I had a great evening with them not to mention the affection that they showed by treating me at Nirula’s. The night was definitely chilly and the tomato soup has never tasted so nice before. We were then dropped at our final destination of the day at Safdurjang Road and our guest house.
The Rise and ‘Fall’
The guest house is a bungalow for the employees of TCS and has all the facilities to make your stay a pleasant one. Both Sukanya and I were alloted rooms on the same floor but while she shared hers with Shreeja, I was alone in mine. A small acident occured when I slipped in the bathroom after coming out from a hot shower. The first few minutes I just lay on the wet floor, images of some bathroom falls which I had heard or read fleeting across my mind. At first I thought I had broken something because I had landed on my tail bone which had taken the entire weight of my body quite suddenly. I moved quite slowly, taking enough care of not ‘punishing’ any bone any further which might aggravate the situation. With the grace of god I was on my feet in a few seconds albeit with some discomfort and shock. In the effort to avoid any serious injuries to my head, some other parts of my body i.e my hand & my upper back, involved in the operation also took a brunt of the fall but my back was aching hard especially the area around my tail bone. I told myself that this looked serious. After cleaning up myself I limped back to my bed and slept. Turning from side to the other was a big effort for me due to the pain. The chilly night added to my woes and I had to sleep without any blankets because they were nicely tucked away in the cupboard which I wouldn’t know of.
The Day After
The next day I broke the story of my accident to Sukanya at the breakfast tabel and she was shell shocked. I was immediately drawn into a discussion of why I didn’t call for help immediately. The guest house had a MOOV in their first aid kit and applied some to the area. I had great difficulty in performing simple activities like walking, sitting & bending especially when I was carrying my hoversack around which was heavy. I took a painkiller offered to me by Giri which I felt made a difference. I was then adviced to have an X-Ray conducted of my tail bone and make sure that nothing was ‘out of place’. In the meantime we roamed around the city especially the Metro Rail which I always wanted to take a ride on and trust me when I say that this single most aspect of transporation will change the way Delhites feel about their city. It’s a great thing to happen to any city and all marks to E Sreedharan for achieving this unthinkable. Later we paid a visit to the Delhi-NOIDA expressway which is another marvellous achievement and it is so surprising how much has been accomplished in this city in such a short duration of time.
The next stop obviously had to be the hospital and we were recommended the Max Devki Devi Hospital at Saket. It’s like one of those hospitals which you see in hollywood movies – plush and clean and something we should be seeing in Mumbai. They have 4 of them in Delhi itself I guess. I went straight to the emergency ward where they immediately began a thorough check-up of my back to ensure I had no serious injuries. My blood pressure was checked and found to be normal and I had to answer some accident related questions which I replied without any qualms. I was then ushered into the X-Ray division where they took some pictures of my tail bone. Later I was checked by Dr. Ashish, an orthopaedician who confirmed that there was no crack to the bone and that I would be fine in 3 days time. I am now under some medication and I have been advised complete bed rest for the next week which is impossible for me. I am flying back to Bangalore for a day with another meeting with some Business Group.
This has been the most eventful journeys that I have undertaken in the recent times and I am thankful to somebody who loves me up there for this. I almost did not survive that fall had I hit my head on the partition between the dry and the wet areas.
Delhi Haat
One of the strongest reasons why Delhi is also building into a cultural and ethnic city. Delhi Haat (Bazaar) is a gathering of Indian traditions and cultures cutting across the length and breadth of the country. One can see handicrafts from states like Nagaland, Manipur, etc. and can also enjoy the folk music, song and dance from the other states as well. The most fascinating experience was having local food at stalls allotted to different states. I enjoyed Arunachali food stuff called momos while I relished every bit of the Radha Ballabhi at the West Bengal Tourism food stall. Scores of people including of course foreigners had descended upon this fun and fair even in the cold evening and I am sure they were having a good time. I really wish we had such an arrangement in Mumbai. But while our governments & politicians are busy fighting for the cause of the Marathi Manoos and taking swipes at migrants, Delhi has quitely but surely taken a comfortable lead in providing basic infrastructure to its people thus ushering them into an era of development and well-being. Jago Mumbai Jago!!
Nice pictures