I saw it..........

I have noticed that majority of content on my blog is about events that took place in delhi. I confess that spending 5 years in this city doesn’t qualify as being a true “dilli-walah”. I hardly know about places outside south delhi and strongly detest travelling in DTC buses. It is a place our media loves to loathe, perhaps due to the million expectations which they have from our capital, but the one thing that makes it so seductive are the contrasts visible on every street. Comparisons with beer can be made-bitter in the first sip but tends to get smooth as one goes on.

This December, I was walking around CP with a friend, getting really excited about the efficiency of the metro garnished with the well landscaped central park above the station. Any visit to CP is literally fruitless without stopping at Wenger’s, which is almost an institution in selling the tastiest breads and pastries. We both grabbed our swiss rolls, and walked out to enjoy them in the crisp winter. CP has wide sidewalks besides the shops with scattered benches to sit. We found a good spot and took out the rolls from the boxes. The ambience was festive. Fat aunties and uncles with fatter children were buzzing here and there. Everybody seemed so well fed and prosperous. Three street children were playing right next to a garbage can. They were all waiting for some spoilt kid to throw chunks of his/her pastry for reasons like insufficient cream,change of mood.etc etc.

[The sheer irony of the situation just hit me. I guess we have all been through this at some point of time in our lives. A rainy night-the busy traffic signal-a hand tapping on the fogged window of the car-no change in the purse......Our attention span in such cases usually lasts no longer than a second. Some pleasant topic of discussion always comes which puts that snippet of reality behind.]

One of them came to us. My friend gave her a five rupee coin. She said something in the ear of the other two. They came running as well. I had a tenner. I gave it to the elder one and told her to share it amongst themselves. She very politely agreed. But after getting the money, she predictably didn’t. The third one came and I was like “what the hell, lets go sit somewhere else!!”. But then I looked at her and looked at my roll. I gave her a tenner. She started dancing and mocking the elder girl with the note fluttering in her hand and they were having a good laugh.People say one should find happiness in the worst of circumstances, I just saw it…..