Probably these Diwali holidays were the best in my Life. I had four continuous holidays Sat, Sun, Mon and Tue. On saturday I received a phone call from one of our old boarders who studied in the same hostel as I did. He is Wing Commander Murari Bhat, who is currently working as a Wing Commander in Indian Airforce.
Guess what he had called me for? He asked me to comeover and spend my holidays there. I was awestruck. How can people be so good and extend their reach of love to all others who conceivably share no relationship. Our only thread of relationship is that, I studied in the same hostel (Sri Ramakrishna Students Home) as he did with a gap of 20 years in between!! Thats it.
He has opted to remain a bachelor. I had seen him many times when he was in Bangalore and visited my hostel. But then he got transferred to Delhi in March 2005 and I was not aware of that. When I came to noida, he had called me up and asked me to meet him once. And our friendship grew. Anyways, I went over shamelessly packing my luggage enough for one day and left to his house.
He stays in Akash Airforce Officers mess located in Jhakir Hussain’s Marg( Damn it! all the roads in delhi have managed to find a mughal king for their name). I will write in all that we saw (though I wasted 3 precious days of his, I presume he also had a good time).
Shankar Math:-
Sunday evening we went to Shankara Math. Believe me there are as many south Indians in Delhi as north indians in Bangalore. It was good to see them speaking in Kannada, Tamil and worshipping in southern style. There was south indian prasadam too. I was shocked to see our Murari bhat singing in competition to some ladies. He sung the last song and won the competition any way!
I dont understand what is it with these people; As they grow old, it seems that their memory refuses to store anything other than hymns, mantras and songs. They chanted some mantra continuously and the pooja continued for 3 hours. It was called pradosha pooja (For lord eswara, pradosha stands for evening. Evening prayers are offered on the day of trayodashi and is believed to be very powerful tool to please him).
Five Point Someone and Lodhi Gardens:-
It was very sad that he had a working day, so I was all alone. I started “Five Point Someone” by Chetan Bhagat at around 9:00. Its around 270 pages, but believe me I finished it in 2 hours. Its a great book and you cannot stop it. The style of narration is so informal that you will feel at home reading that novel. It made great reading that day. Our Murari Bhat called in the morning, enquiring about my breakfast, called again in the noon to ask about lunch…. God! The man is great. I feel so proud to be around such people and hats off to my Hostel (Sri Ramakrishna Students’ Home). It creates such strong bondings.
Evening I was expecting to go for a jog because he had told me that he jogs regularly. But suddenly he had an invitation from his Air Chief Marshal S.P Thyagi for a party he was throwing to all officers - around 1500-2000 people. Obviously he can afford to do it (The guy lives in a majestic bunglow with estimated face value of 150 Crores and has a huge lush green garden, and probably the central government would have funded the damn party). Anyways, I was quite disappointed. Probably, he might have sensed this so we decided to leave at 6:00 and be back by 6:55.
God, That man is a machine. Though I finished half marathon (21 Kms) relatively comfortably, I could not keep up with his pace. The pace, the energy …. I was panting like a dog. Imagine a man of 41 years (He calls himself sweetly as 1964 model of apes), running like that. We did some 12-13 Kms without stop and were 5 minutes late to get the ‘Jai Hind’ of the guard at the gate. (Jai Hind, is the way the guys there salute, with rifle hung on left arm, they lift their right arm upto their chest level and touch their chest with their hands).
RP Bhavan and Metro:-
The next day (tuesday), we went for a long walk (6-8 kms). We saw the India Gate, walked on the Raj Path, saw all the power blocks of the country sitting majestically in the capital, conveying a sense of Elegance, majesty and patriotism. It was a wonderful feeling to be there, and feeling proud to be an Indian. That small flag ruffling away on the Rashtrapathi Bhavan will convey so much, and on the personal front I have made a point to hoist a flag on my company when I start one. Dil hain hindustani!
On the other end of the Raj Path, we find the new, classy, hitech, one-of-its kind Delhi Metro Railway Station. Its really well done, the trains can pick up their speed to 70-80 kmph within 3 seconds and come to halt in almost a second. The doors are fully automated and there are display boards and voice briefings inside the train. A fact to be appreciated is, the designers have made a point to synchronize voice and visual display, the display boards automatically display what is been announced on the voice system. Inside the train, its like a long corridor, very clean with opposite rows of seats towards each wall. The ticket system is cool and cheap too.
Good India, Way to Go!