To Delhi, With Love

By the end of this day I will have left this city for good. Delhi, where I lived for the past two years and some more. I wish  I could define my relationship with this place, express in a few lines what this place has been for me but I can’t. It’s a complicated relationship of some sorts. There have been times when I have hated Delhi to extremes. And then in other times I have had nothing but infinite gratitude to this place for what it’s done to me. Delhi was my ‘shock absorber’ when I first landed here.

mindless musings

A week ago I had a sudden surge of development optimism. It happened amidst our class discussions on what is wrong with poverty lines and micro credit. My argument was if the credit market doesn’t exist for people below poverty lines anyway what is wrong with MC creating it? At least some people are benefiting from it aren’t they? I surprised myself by even thinking along those lines. It’s been long since I lost faith in development as is practiced I felt as though I were was going back to the old days of development optimism, the innocent ‘I’ll change the world’ attitude. Yah, it seems so innocent when I think of those early enthusiastic dev days. Now it seems like it was only a fleeting thought.

scribble scribble

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Food

Prescription for Writer’s Block

My prescription for writer’s block is to face the fact that there is no such thing. It’s an invented condition, a literary version of the judicial “abuse excuse.” Writing well is difficult, but one can always write something. And then, with a lot of work, make it better. It’s a question of having enough will and ambition, not of hoping to evade this mysterious hysteria people are always talking about.

THOMAS MALLON

It was about a week ago that the thought of writing something occurred to me in recent times. It was right after I finished watching ‘Julie & Julia’. Julie’s blog was an inspiration. I thought of all the things that could be written throughout the movie. But wrote nothing when it was over and that was that.

Dashain 2011

Dashain 2011 By S. Thapa

Our Dashain was a small private affair: five girls, a bit of dressing up for the occasion and lots of photos. Dashain was barely acknowledged last year so it was mine as well as everyone else’s first Dashain away from home. My day started by reading news about Jobs’ demise which saddened me deeply but all thanks to the girls here who cheered me up and helped me get ready for the occasion. Walking out with the big red tika on our foreheads with people staring at us, students from elsewhere asking us for the tika as well….it felt so good to be different. It was as though we had taken up the herculean task of preserving and promoting our culture here. Big words, I know.

Lastly, my heartfelt thanks to the spirited Nepali girls for just being there…

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शुभ दशैँ

आजको खाजा – गुन्द्रुक

यस ब्लग हेरिरहनु भएका सबैजनालाई विजयादशमी २०६८ को हार्दिक मंगलमय शुभकामना ।

Gravity

This is a collage of pictures I took some weeks ago. The hands and hair belong to S and B. All thanks to them for allowing me to experiment on them The song playing in the background is Gravity by Sara Bareilles which helped me create a story out of nothing…

Tughlaqabad Fort

View from Tughlaqabad (Pic by Shamima)

For the ones interested in visiting Tuglaqabad Fort in Delhi, it should be clear that it is a fort that once was. It isn’t there anymore. What remains now are the massive walls which will give you more than a hint of what existed in the past. Some people might even say ‘Haan pahad hai’ ( Yah it’s a hill) when you ask about the place. But don’t expect a hike either. Nonetheless, go there.

Situated on the outskirts of Delhi it offers a magnificent view of the city. It is no hill (for a Nepali) but on climbing the ruins you find yourself on an elevated point where you can feel the cool breeze across your face. It’s the USP of the place apart from the ruins. Destruction can indeed look very beautiful at times.Half a part of a wall, an underground passage and the massive fort wall visible from the main road make Tuglaqabad Fort what it is. Across the street lies the mausoleum of Ghiyath al-Din Tughluq.  It is a well-kept unique structure with sloping walls surrounded by green grass.Coming to think of it now the place is ironical in a way. The fort where people once lived is in ruins. The building which houses the tombs of the dead, however, is well maintained. But all of it corresponds to the fact that Delhi is a place which celebrates death. The most beautiful places here are built around tombs like Lodhi garden or tombs themselves like Humayun’s Tomb.

Hope the pictures(below) inspire you to visit the place if the text didn’t.