By Yashvardhan Chawdhary
Drastically dramatic,
feeding your fears,
Delhi ensures you feel sombre with justifications
in the form of the slightest inconveniences,
it will withhold privilege when required most,
come raining down on you in the middle of October for
choosing a two-wheeler as your preferred mode of transport,
and there's nothing like its metro to re affirm we truly are
specks of dust just trying to find a place to sit,
This city is where civilization chooses to culminate,
voluntarily, for some reason,
often at India gate around 2 am,
usually with an ice cream in hand,
It is constituted by a collection of stories so immense that
it puts your and my reading list to shame,
each one competing with the other to make it out, but to no avail,
because no one ever completely leaves Delhi, no matter how hard they may try.
It’s only here that when the world comes crashing down on you,
depending on the day it does, you get to choose your comfort,
it's a buffet, have your pick,
Sunday mornings there's chole bhature and lassi in Paharganj,
chicken momos at Yashwant Place on Tuesdays, with a side of coming to a compromise with your faith,
Thursdays you may seek solace in a shawarma in Noida, while standing around
a damaged grey table, dogs waiting by your feet expectant of unintended offerings,
and Saturdays, irrespective of geography, you get to put together for yourself
a platter: of embraces, endless hope and a certain number of attempts to bribe Time,
induce him to not move forward until you've come to terms with him doing so,
and if that's not on the menu for some reason,
then there is always the option of straying,
building a makeshift bar from scratch,
injecting your veins with plastic bottle coke (coca cola) whiskeys while
inhaling kimam cigarettes,
contributing to public nuisance on overcrowded footpaths,
incessantly arguing with your brightest friends to let you call her
because you promised to not uncontrollably sob this time if she picks up,
adamantly question someone's decision of being a vegetarian
or taking an auto back home when a cab is virtually costing the same.
But it is also
only in this city
that you can exercise the luxury of upending it all,
Resuscitate your ventures,
Redraw starting lines,
make an hourglass half full again,
find respite in an unscheduled sunset,
familiarity in the company of your most trusted allies,
solace in a pleasant August breeze while driving up a
highway, humming to 'Dil Mere',
compose a new foundation with it all,
less fragile than your last one,
and rebuild.