###~this story is in continuation of the story “The MUSIGMA fiasco” which has been submitted to an international magazine for publication .This story is the subsequent part of that .BECAUSE OF THE RIGID TERMS AND CONDITIONS PUT FORWARD BY THE MAGAZINE THAT STORY COULDNOT BE PUBLISHED ON BLOG.But for those who had not read that story there would not be any problem in understanding .###
DELHI 4
As the terms clearly specify for the magazine. This story and all its characters are purely fictional and there are no links with any living person. Any coincidence ever found should be treated as purely coincidental.
The bus stopped at Fatehpuri at 3:40 am.It was still night and the wind outside was cold and sinewy.Paroo was busy sleeping with me in the upper deck of the bus.We had paid Rs 200 For this sleeping berths.Well although the jaipur trip turned out to be a disaster given that all but sunkara failed at the campus recruitment test conducted by MUSIGMA.Rohit was always agile and really energetic and now that he had made it to MUSIGMA ,he seemed doubly vibrant and energetic.But for the rest of us it was like moving in a sea of sand with no oasis visible.I pushed Paroo and told”abe uthja agayi hai delhi!uth uth jaldi..log utar rahe hai..jana nahi hai kya”.Paroo asusual like a teddy bear opened his eyes and said ,”kaha aya?agaya?”.I said ,”Dekke uth..sir nahi to patak jayega chat se..”.Paroo was covering his body with a shawl at night inspite of having wore two a sweater inside.HE did not waste any time and immediately took the ladder down .I took up my spectacles and wore them .I had two bags each loaded with files and clothes .I brought them closer and then from the upper shelf took out my pair of shoes and wore them.Finally when almost half the bus has already emptied I followed them to alight from the bus.The moment I got down the early morning chill gave a really chilly shock of my lifetime.It was deadly cold and the blustery winds were at rampage.”ek cup chaye ke bagair kahe nahi ja sakte ..”,I said to Ramji.Ramji replied “(in cold with short breaths)ab tere liye chaye kaha se jugaru?saare dukan to band hai!” .Suddatta cut in saying,”hoga rukh koi to tapri aaspas..main bhi chaye ke bagair to nahi age ja paunga..”.Prashant came forward and said ,”main ja raha hu.8 baje train hai nayi delhi se.Is thand me tumlog kaha ghumoge?”.I said ,”Ramji hai na saath me ..Ram Ram jai Ram..karte karte sab thick ho jayega..aur kya karenge..inki hi planning hai ye to ab aur kya ghumte hai aspas kahi..”.Prashant smiled and said ,”Ok bye phir !college me milte hai “.Without a word Gaurav Asati followed suit.
The moment paroo and Asati left we too started to decide hastily on our course of action.Rohit Sunkara was the only one amidst us who has had previous experiences of being at Delhi so we were obviously looking up to him .It was Ramji who had helped Sunkara again in the objective test of MUSIGMA so Sunkara whose grandparents house was there at delhi itself decided to help us out a bit further .He accompanied us in our search for a hotel nearby.Ramji in the meantime asked ,”acha hotel lene ki koi jarurat hai kya? ..shaam ko 5:30 ko to gari hai !”.”Itne saare luggage leke kaha ghumega?” came the repartee reply of sunkara.He continued by saying ,”dekho tumlogo ko na 3:30 baje se pahle nayi delhi station ke liye rawana ho jana chahiye ..kiu ki traffic yeha kaafi heavy hai aur kaafi time lag jayega nayi delhi pahoch ne me.”Suddatta in his bid to say something ended up saying ,”ha bo to hai”.
We searched the roads for an appropriate hotel and reached prince hotel .It caught my eye separately because of its position near the road and its princely size.But it was still dark and the roads were empty and the entrance to the prince hotel was initially not discernable.How ever Suddatta drew our attention towards the entrance which was dark but still unobstrusively visible at a corner near myriad closed shops.We were hardly being able to cope with the brumal weather and the blustery wind which was making us shiver hard to generate some bodily warmth.Sunkara was our leader ,our defacto guide and we like small children followed our father for the day.He traded terms with the hotel authorities .He said,”bhaiya ek room milegi kya ? bas saman rakhna hai.kya hai ki inlogo ko ghumne jani hai to saman rakne ki jagah chahiye thi to ..”.The receptionist was in his fourties and seemingly understood our distress a bit too well.He read our faces and understood that most of us were new to the place .He shot back before even Sunkara could complete his argument by saying,”TUmlog kitne ho?”.Sunkara said,”char jan hai sir ..main chala jaunga abhi.”.The receptionist did not even wait for his words to complete and said,”do room leni hi hogi..2 seater dono.700 rs jama kardo.”.Suddatta said,”700!!!!”.The receptionist brazenly continued as if expecting no resistence on our behalf,”yeha sign kardo aur id proof do sabki bas..”.Ramji finally became audible to our relief saying,”nahi hame room nahi chahiye ..thik hai chalo”. We got down from the stairs and came back to the streets.Sunkara said,”Delhi hai ramji Delhi ..yeha pe log lutne me time nahi lagate..itne raat ko room dene ke liye 400 se kam to lega hai nahi bhaloi wahi room agar sawera ate to shayad 200 me bikta .“ We moved on a few steps more and found ourselves at the entrance of another hotel.The receptionist was not ready to open the door initially.He asked” kaun hai bhai?kaha se arahe ho?”.Sunkara replied “yehi abhi bus se arahe hai jaipur se ..rahne ki jagah chahiye ..inko ghumne jani hai to saman rakne ke liye jagah.”.This time however the receptionist was not that adamant ,he thought over the whole thing for a while and then ushered us in.He said ,”room to khali hai par 4 seater nahi hogi.”.Sunkara said ,”Ramji batao kya karni hai?”.Ramji looked at us and his frustrated defeated us finally lit up saying,”thik hai de do par room to dekhao pahle..”.Sunkara and Ramji went up to see the room with the servant who was sleepy too .On seeing that the room had an attached bath too and the beds were long Ramji acceded and came back and informed us .Sunkara obviously was feeling impulsive to let go of us and move to his grandmothers house.But his job was far from over .After the id proof submission and signing phase we ultimately took possession of the room.Suddatta and Ramji then immediately started to ask,”Sunkara ab bata ki yeha dekhne ke kaun kaun se jagah hai aur kis order me unhe dekhna chahiye ..taki 5:30 baje tak bapas nayi delhi pahocha ja sake..”.Sunkara said ,”well aise to kahne muskil hai kiu ki main khud dus bar achuka hu abhi bhi delhi ki har gali nahi dekh paya hu ..aur tum log to muskil se 3 baje tak hi dekh payoge ..ekdin me delhi dekna namumkin hai..”.Suddata said,”chandi ko phone lagaye kya?usko pata hoga.”.Sunkara too acceded.
IT was 4:00 am in the morning and Ankur Chandok was busy sleeping which was incidentally his favourite hobby(same as most of us including the writer himself).For the first couple of times he did not pick up the phone.But finally answered in a sleepy tone,”kaun hai?(barely audible)”.”main suddatta bol raha hu..sunkara se baat kar”.Sunkara was a man of communication he was great at it.Chandok initially congratulated Rohit for his MUSIGMA qualification and then started to discuss the main matter.Ramji began to note down the result of the conversation in pen and paper .UBJ and Bharat were near passive and were silent listeners.In the meantime after about a fifteen minute of conversation the blue chart was prepared of our jeorney and it looked somewhat lke this---
1.QUTUB MINAR
2.INDIA GATE
3.CHANDNI CHAWK
4 INDIAN MUSEUM
5.PALIKA BAZAARNow as for food we decided to have some parathas at the chandni chawk ‘s world famous paratha gali.After we freshened up and finished our 1no’s and 2 no’s we accompanied our defacto guide outside to the metro station where we parted ways and we were finally all alone. I was still feeling tizzy owing to lack of proper sleep but then the enthusiasm to see something new spurred me on.I guess it was this unsurmountable feeling that continuously egging others on too.Suddatta was the first one to confess it saying,”thora so lena chahiye tha”.Suddatta in his heart had an ambition about the trip which he finally let out by saying,”qutub minar dekte hai pahle..”.Actually the place we were in was near Kashmere Gate and it was about a 40 minute distance to the qutub minar even if we take the metro.So immediately after weighing the options ramji said,”yaar qutub minar me kya dekhenge..photo dekh le aur kya?”.But Suddatta was adamant he said,”photo dekhna alag chiz hai aur asliyat me dekhna alag chiz hai..dono bahot alag hai..abhi vaise bhi bahot sawera hai palika bazaar aur chadni chawk to khula hi nahi hoga.dekke asakte hai aramse.”Bharat said,”you people decide fast what to do..the metro is about to come.”Ramji exercised his authority and said ,”isbar nahi ho payegi ..phir kabhi ayenge to jayenge..”.We did not know or remember the names of the various metro stations that SUnkara had stated only one station I personally remembered that was Chawri bazar where we needed to alight to get to palika bazaar.The was a list of stations near the ticket counter.It was still early hours of the morning so the counter was nearly empty.A Punjabi was taking a ticket and he was only visible man in the ticket queue.The list had a lot of symbols in it some were stating parallel routes which were under construction too.SO we did not know which path would be the best one.So I asked Suddatta to go and ask the man in the ticketcounter as to which station would be suitable.He went and asked,”INDia gate jane ke liye kaunsi station jani hai?aur yellow wali line jo map pe hai jo qutub minar tak ja rahi hai uska ticket kitne ka hai?”.The man in the ticket counter professionally replied “Central secretariat.” Then followed it up saying petulantly ,”tum logo ko kaha jani hai bo batao na ..map se kya lena dena hai!!”.I felt sorry for Suddatta for it was I who asked him to ask the first question.All the second one which he followed up with made me to feel more sorry for him.He had earnestly not given up on the idea of going to Qutub minar.I was ready to go there too only if that would have been feasible under the time constraints.We took our tickets it costed Rs 40 with Rs 10 each .We were given 4 cyclic plastics which had some number inscribed on them .For most of us this was our maiden jeorney in the metro.I back in Kolkata had had some previous experiences but each time I had someone elder to guide me and also there was paper system which needed to be inserted in a box at the time of exit .Here the system was a bit different.Here you needed to get the plastic infront of the machine and let it scan it .I and the other three went through the security checks which seemed to have been beefed up in the wake of the upcoming Commonwealth Games.Now as the other three I too hold the plastic coin infront of the scanner but in my case nothing was happening .I was taken by a shock because the other three neatly moved out.Then the security guard was alarmed to see this.There were not much traffic so obviously the attention fell on me.I first thought of jumping over the fence but then considered otherwise.The Security guard asked me,”Where did u come from? “.I was feeling rather pussilanimous and was seeking to have some cover for me.I replied,”ask them they would know more..actually this is my first jeorney so I just couldnot ..kind of”.Suddatta immediately came to my rescue saying,”kya hua?”and then replied ,”central avenue”.The armed security guard hastenedly asked “What ?central avenue????or kashmiri gate?”.Ramji rectified saying,”kashmiri gate”.Then he finally laughed and asked me to show the opposite side of the coin in the scanner.I showed just that and everything was okay.I felt ashamed as others laughed.
We reached Secretariat at about 6:55 am and moved out of the station .It was really cold and there was a thick haze of mist all around.There were three persons and one woman standing there at that time.I went up to the woman and asked ,”acha india gate kaunse side me ata hai?”.The women smiled and said,”main nahi janti hu .i am knew here”.Bharat then told,”okay man lets go and ask the police who is standing there ..he will definitely help”.He did just that and the police man showed us the eastern direction.We followed the direction accordingly.There were quite a few police cars visible nearby.There was a road construction project going on on the other side of the road.As we moved on towards the india gate we found that the two sides of the road were cordoned off with big sheds and heavy restriction on vehicle movements were imposed and in its place the republic day parade rehearsals were at full swing.First there was a series of motorcycles being driven side by side by army men who held their hands together showing great control.Then there followed a fabulous balance act in which one of the jawans were reading newspaper as he was riding the motor cycle followed by another one who was standing up on the motorcycle as the motor cycle moved on.There were a series of such hilarious stunts which made us really really proud of the inherent capability of our troops and we really enjoyed every moment of watching them perform albeit in a rehearsal mode.Suddatta and ramji were busy taking photos using their mobile camera .After about an hour there we moved back towards the metro .Our next objective was Chandni chawk.While moving back we hired an auto to take us to the metro station he took Rs 30 after hefty bargaining although the distance was commensurable with the sum.
At the metro station this time the jeorney was smooth.We took tickets from the counter which was still not very crowded.It was 7:30 am and public has started to come in numbers.Chawri bazar was our next destination for we wanted to see the famous markets of Palika bazaar all though none of us were in any mood to buy anything specific .We took the tickets and went through the security checks ,passed the entry points by using the plastic coins and then took the metro.Chawri bazar was just two stops away.The metro was fast asusual and we reached the station in no time.In the train in the next seat of mine sat a woman who was in her early twenties too.She was blonde and goodlooking.Infact to be very fare on an average girls of delhi are really really beautiful far more than any other city I have ever been to.Suddatta and Bharat too acceded to the point time and again.Once out of metro and moving towards the stairs when I said about my this judgement ,Suddatta agreed,”Delhi is known for its women.India ke sabse khubsurat ladkia yehi milti hai ..So UBj please don’t look around that way.tu uske chahre ko aisa dekh raha tha mujhe aise hassi aayi thi ki...”.To which I said,”I think umar hi kuch aisi hai ki fissal na abhi to jayaz hai ..but Ej wale case ke baad ab aur affair ki to soch nahi raha hu..ab ek saturation si lagti hai”. “to dekh kiu raha tha use?” Suddatta asked incessantly.I said,”aisa kuch nahi ,khubsurat thi dekhne layek thi to deha bas ..aur kya tu nahi dekh raha tha kya? Tu tu pura time usiko dekh raha tha train me..aur phir samne wala 56 saal ka Budda to akhe phar ke dekh raha tha ..Uski engagement bhi ho rakha tha .Uski haato me ek ring thi third finger me.Uski paas sony ericsson ki ek mobile thi usme ek ladke ka photo bhi tha ..I observed them all.That is part of being together for sometime in adjacent seats.”.Ramji replied,”UBJ rocks !!! I am always your fan ..”.Bharat replied ,“ha ha Sherlock homes to very specific..”.I said ,”UBj homes would be better.”.Suddatta added,”UBJ homes matlab UBJH.ha ha ha”.
Once on the escalator we were pushing each other umpteen number of times and deriving fun from it.The other pedestrians were smiling to see such acts.We moved out of the station to reach chawri bazar which was indeed a big place.But it was only 8:00 am and all the shops were closed.But only thing that deserve a special mention is that now as the sun had rose the morning chill had abated.We decided to look for some tea and some breakfast.Most shops were closed the ones that open especially the tapris were really in a very unhygienic condition.While strolling through the streets with our hungry stomach egging us on we reached to a decent shop which was already crowded for tea.WE had a goodday biscuit packet which we brought at jaipur but never utilized so far.We brought a cup of tea and then savoured the biscuits with it.Ramji paid for the tea and then we moved on to the next shop which was making vegpakoda .Bharat and I ordered bread omlet and Ramji and Suddatta ordered veg pakoda.The owner of the shop who was himself making those delicious pakodas asked us ,”Tum log naye ho kya?”.Ramji our leader said,”hum log delhi ghumne aaye hai..aaj hi sham ki gari se chale jayenge.Acha yeha koi dekhne ki chiz hai kya jo abhi khula ho?”.The owner said ,”ek kaam karo abhi to peeche park me baitho thora der phir 10 baje kareeb palika bazaar khul jayega phir kuch shopping karna ho to kar lena ..”We did just that after finishing off our breakfast .We made a beeline for the park.The park was empty but the gate of the park seemed elusive .WE had to move all the way round to finally get to the gate and then enter.The park was well maintained and looked beautiful.But then Ramji and Suddata were not exactly nature lovers.Ramji restlessly said,”park me kya dekhenge?park to Raipur me bhi hai bahot sare ..kabhi gaye hai?”.Suddatta brought some logic saying.”are Ramji abhi sab band hai kayi baitne se acha yehi baith lete hai thora der”.In the meantime as we were searching for some space to seat our eyes fell on a couple who were seating near the rose garden.Ramji said ,”yeha aayo to phir ladki ke saath hi aayo varna mat aayo kiu ki aise to aand khap ti hai !”.Suddatta said ,”Are Ramji kitni achi to trip hui ab kya hogaya? ..”.Ramji said ,”nahi kuch ladki bhi saath hoti to baat karke achi lagti aise to koi problem nahi hai lekin ..kiu UBJ?“.I said ,”bahar kuch English khare the ..unko bolte to man jate..vaise bhi mujhe nahi lagta hum me se kissi ka paas bhi utni time hai ki bo jake gapiyaye ladki ke saath, ab kya hai ki mostly ye trend dekhi jati hai ki jisse pyar ho usse shadi nahi hoti ..aur phir kayi baar to sex ke baad chor dete hai ladke..so I guess time faltu barbad karne ka koi ultimate value to nahi hai lekin haa man me kuch kuch aisa to sabko lagta hoga..”.Bharat adamantly said,”Yes brothel is for us man. Everybody likes to wear a mask.Everybody loves that mask.Even women want men who wear masks and that is reality.No body is succinct and direct.if I like you(to UBj) then it is for your direct nature.I like the way you go about things.See the English movies how they go about life .Noone is really waiting for anyone everybody is in a hurry.The girl hooks up with someone in the morning and in the evening it is someone else.The girls are indeed pretentious.I am more at one with Us philosophy of having night outs and In the morning you your way I mine.Life is fast.This is the truth even in a few hindi movies they have started to reflect on this .CORPORATE ,FASHION BEING SOME ..There is no use living in the dark”.I said ,”ha ha ha ok ok samaj raha hu ..lekin baat ye hai ki I guess exactly aisa bhi nahi ..bo bhi acha nahi lagega..kiu ki usme feeling nahi ayega..khud ko prostitute jaisa hi feeling ayega.”.Bharat pugnaciously replied,”ha but what I said is the truth of life .you cant oppose that .Starting from the first world war to the war between nations all have been for women.And prostitution is the oldest known custom because it was there even in ancient days .Take the example of the davinci code arguments when people were accusing the women on the picture to be a one of the prostitutes that lived at that time.”.Ramji acceded and took the thread forward by saying,”well mujhe bhi aisa hi lagta hai..kiu ki ye ladke saale parte leekhte kuch hai nahi bas yehi pare rahte hai ..all time ..aur ladki bhi aisi …ek dusre ki khapate rahte hai..jab bore ho jate hai to chor dete hai..bas aur kya ?(looking at UBj) tujhe kya lagta hai bo ladka jo us maal ladki ke saath baithi hui hai aur yeha waha chu raha hai ..bo usse shadi karega?”.I replied “kahe nahi sakte ..ho bhi sakta hai nahi bhi ho sakta hai..but one thing is for granted agar feeling do no taraf ho aur feeling strong ho to shadi karni chahiye kiu ki tab feeling aur reinforce hoti hai aur ek sapno ki jindagi ban sakti hai.SIrf ek drudgery bhari monotonous pre programmed eventless life koi nahi chahta .Love can open up dimensions.”.Bharat joined the discussion saying,”I read your stories in your blogs ..But see life is in reality is quite different ,it is very dynamic and pretty much like the Americans live which is more of fuck and go type and that’s what Indian youth follow today because today life is fast and people cannot go on like movies ..no matter how puristic ones soul may be I guess if one is influential one enjoys life like this atleast dreams of it this way.”.Well bharat has all his life been very direct and free talking needless to say that he had an inherent inclination to watch all the Usmade movies and had a fallacy to go to US to persue higher education.He was truly a meritorious student with an all india rank of 6000 which was decent enough and add to this his 96 percent marks in 10th and 95 percent in 12th you would now how good a student he was.The culture in the South is also quite open and liberalized somewhat in the model of Usa with good literacy rates and overall acclaim of English as the primary language. I said “ha ha ok acceded ..i give up ..i give up..may be this is the truth or the reality..but I write stories ..i write poems on love and hence I cannot vindicate this stand ..because through my characters I live a full life.For me Ej was there ,is there and will always be there.”Bharat said “for her U are not there so what difference does it make?”.Suddatta too joined in saying,”Ej chor ..koi matlab nahi..Ladki dekh age bar ..yeha dekh ek aur maal agayi ..bas aur kya ab aise hi chal ..ekdin 3-4 saal me shadi ho jayegi bas..khatam baat “.i said,”phir papa papa shuru ho jayegi bas..papa mujhe ye chahye ,papa mujhe bo chahiye .papa usne mujhe ye kaha ..agar harami hoga to phir puchega papa apne mummy ko kab dekha tha? ..papa Apne ladki patayi thi?etc etc”.All the other three bursted into laughter saying ,”ha ha ha “.
At about 9:30 am we embarked on our next mission target which was palika bazaar.Chawri bazar is kind of a real business place something on the lines of Camac Street and Park Street of Kolkata only difference being that it was even bigger interms of area and the underground shopping facility of Palika bazaar added more value.Cannaught place was asusual a busy thoroughfare by now. It was not 10:00 am so we were not allowed entrance into the palika bazaar and hence were waiting outside.Actually truth to tell we never had anything to buy inpallika bazaar ,we just wanted to see what was there and how did it look.In the interval we looked around the place it was truly beautiful and as the traffic increased with every passing minute I found that Suddatta was not wrong in the fact that Delhi truly is a place of most beautiful women.All of them were stylish ,all of them were having drop dead looks.I felt that with such vast array of beautiful women bollywood should have been at Delhi and not at Mumbai.Ramji somehow read my thoughts and said,”Bollywood me jitne heroines hai inko compete kar sakti hai ye choriya ..kiu UBJ?”.I said ,”abhi tak jitne ladki dekha hu bis me unnis to bahot jaada khubsurat hai ..I don’t know whether it is a matter of chance or truly the women of delhi are this beautiful.But ha rationally dekha jaye to shayad mukable me ladke utne khubsurat nahi lakin tashan bahot dekhate hai..par sabka ek jaise fashion chalta hai.Sab koi ek jaise dekhte hai ladko me to.Aur us fashion ke hisab se hum log kaafi out of fashion hai.”
Time whistled by as finally it was 10:00 am and we could not hear its pulse.Soon we found a train of individuals taking entry into palika bazaar.There were many gates to enter palika bazaar we opted for gate no 1.Once in we found that most stops are still opening and some are closed.The number of shops were huge.All of the shopkeepers here follow one common formula –they start off with a high price then if you are a good with bargaining then u can reduce the price to anything trifle.Bharat went in one of the shop to see some latest trendy jackets ,the shopowner told him that the cost was Rs 700 initially but as he bargained on saying ,”main ne to ye shirt 120 me kharidi thi in shikakulam..” then the shopkeeper slashed his price abnormally saying ,”ok phir Rs 100 me le jayo..”.Thats how it is here.We strolled through the market .The shopowners kept calling us .Some were really aggressive saying,”kiu paise nahi hai kya?”.However finally without any quarrel or adverse reactions we made our way out through gate no 1 itself after giving a complete round of the market.Starting from computer goods ,belts ,stationary almost everything was available here in great variety.We moved out of palika bazaar and took the auto to the nearest metro station Chawri Bazaar.From there we took the metro all over again to go to the Rajiv chawk.There we started to hasten up things.We moved out fast because it was already 11:30 am and we wanted to go to the redfort too.We went out and brought ourselves a earplug each for Rs 30 in all.We then moved out and walked by the crowded streets to reach a sikh museum.I asked Suddatta to call Ankur Chandok to know as to which way to go to the Redfort.He was out of balance so I myself called.Ankur told us that redfort and parotha gali are in opposite directions from the position where we were standing so he told us to decide for ourselves which one to go first and also told to do things fast from here on because from fatehpuri it may take about 2 hours in traffic to reach the new railway station.For a moment we were stranded we did not know which way to go then it was Ramji who took the initiative and told us to go to redfort first.So we followed him .From about 300 m from the red fort we could see the gigantic structure erected by Shahjahan.It was indeed one of the masterpieces of the mughal era .It was red in color owning the red coloured stones that were used at that time.We felt from within a really historic feeling which was accentuated by the fact that it was the first time we were at delhi and so far owing to our young undefatiguable minds and limbs have been able to vision atleast half of it.When we were closing on to the redfort we found that to enter redfort we need to pay some amount of entry tax which was to be paid at a place indicated by arrows.Bharat said ,”I have seen enough I don’t think I will pay bucks to see this old fort ..I have seen enough of ancient structures. “.Suddatta’s phone was running out of battery and hence he asked from bharat his phone which bharat promptly denied saying,”I will have to charge it too and apart from that If I give you my phone how will I be able to contact you when u will come out?’.Well the last question was very genuine but Suddatta for a moment was infuriated at bharat not giving him his phone because he felt bharat was nothing else but a big fat burden on him and us because he was severely uncommunicative and uncooperative.This feeling was actually fuelled by the fact that in one of the metro jeorney bharat asked permission to go to nearby ATm and took more than 20 minutes to come out of it inspite of negliglible queue length and Suddatta had to go and search for him a lot.
We went into the redfort at about 11:30 am and since the road was straight and on both sides of the street there were a large number of shops mostly of ornaments.We moved forward to make an entrance into the central fort.We had two tickets one was yellow in color and the other white.Now there was a separate room for the martyr’s blood painting which we saw hurriedly and then made our way out to reach the central fort where our tickets were checked and the white one was torn into halves.But still the yellow one was intact .SO I was wondering what to do with the yellow one.There were large structures and tombs made within the central fort some were broken .There were English translators who were translating the events as they occurred in history which led to the creation of redfort.We strolled about in the historic fort and then finally made our way back to the entrance which was the only way out.The mughal architectural genius was truly worth marveling at.The shear diversity was intricately defined in the sculpture of each statue.As we were about to go out we found the entrance of the museum where there was a guide who was collecting the yellow ticket.Now we knew what the yellow ticket for and hence followed the mass to the museum.Ramji wasnot particularly interested in history and museums.He was feeling restive but we insisted him to wait a bit longer .It was 12:30 am and we were in a shortage of time and wanted to get out of the museum too.The rifles and the old war instruments of india and abroad were kept stacked there.The stacked rifles were all of different types some were automatic ,some semiautomatic some had a nozzle which was longer than a elephants trunk.All of this substances although of minor importance to us but were actually of great historic value as they distilled centuries most defining moments.
We moved out of redfort only to find Bharat missing.We then gave him a call.Well to be fair I must confess that bharat was heavy and fat and took quite a lot of time to move about which perhaps ramji and suddatta were alien to as they were thin and skinny.Suddatta in particular was boisterously pugnacious in his saying,”bo mota hati kaha gaya…ab kaha dundne jana hoga is baby elephant ko?”.I said ,”kahi nahi..I am giving a call”.Bharat got his mobile recharged and was waiting near the statebank of india branch redfort branch.He marched back towards us like an estranged child lost in a fair.We were very relieved to see him back specially me because had he been late both suddatta and ramji would have been happy enough to leave him there for the day as a form of punishment.Anyways,after redfort stood conquered by this famous four we decided to move to our final destination which was paratha gali.We all were hungry and hence in grievious need to fulfill the call of our stomach.We did not have any idea of which galli was exactly paratha gali so we asked the assistance of one of the police personnel posted there.Based on the hand shown we strolled forward and reached our target at 12:45 pm and searched for an appropriate shop .To be very frank paratha gali was rather narrow but on both sides there were a large number of shops which sold paratha of all types aloo parotha ,bhendi parotha,nebu parotha ,mixedbhej parotha etc.We finally decided on one in which there were photos of mahendra singh dhoni taking parootha .Well there were other photo’s in it too.There was a photo of Jawaharlal Nehru taking parotha ,Indira Gandhi taking parotha ,Atal bihari Vajpayee taking parotha in that shop.So we took it as a standard and accordingly took our seats the moment a table became vacant.I and Ramji sat together and suddatta and bharat occupied seats opposite to us.It was a nice day so far and no rains which we heard had made life measurable for past few days.Ramji said “kal raat ko bhi to barish hui thi jab humlog bus pe the …”.I said,”mujhe to pata hi nahi chala ..main so gaya tha “.Ramji said,”Ej ki yaad arahi thi kya?”.I did not say anything instead I called the waiter to give the orders.Ramji gave the orders “2 aloo parotha 2 nebu parotha 4 mixed veg parotha lao aur 4 lassi”.I was not willing to broach the Ej topic instead started to say,”Ha to Ramji sunne me aya ki koi relative teri election larraha hai rajasthan me ?”.Ramji replied,”ha pichle bar to jeete the LokSabha seat me is bar mayor ke liye lar rahe hai jaipur me.”.I said ,”agar jeete to phir bara party phir ..ekdam jhakas wala ..veg nonveg dono ..unlimited..”.Ramji ‘s measured response was “pahle jeeto to sahi ..party to mil jayegi”.We chatted on as the parotha’s disappeared from our plates into our stomach in no time.We finished of the lassi too.It was really delicious .The food in parotha galli is truly fabulous but yes you need to select the right shop because HUMANSHU Bhatia(Nit Raipur ,4th year Information tech) visited this place lately and was lured to some other shop where the parathas were half baked and unctuous.Anyways luck helped us to avoid this it would have been rather disappointing end to the day if this would have happened with us.
We paid the bills which totaled to RS 520.Nebu parothas costed more about Rs 45 each.And we also ordered a few mixed veg parothas more so the bill according to figures were justified.We paid the bill and came back to our hotel after hiring an auto with Rs 40 .He initially took us to some place else but later when we told him that we don’t remember this road and we want to go near Prince Hotel then he understood the exact location and took us there by taking some bylanes.Once there we were relieved and we made our way to the bed .IT was 1:50 pm and we thought we should rest for an hour before checking out of the hotel.I wanted to go to take bath because next day entirely we would be on train .Infact Samparkranti Express is known for being late usually ,had we had some other choice we would have had opted for some other train even if it would have cost more.Anyways as I was about to go to bath Suddatta stopped me saying,”pagal wagal ho gaya hai kya ?is thand me nahayega!!”.I said “kyun?”.Suddatta said ,”bimar par jayega ..mat naha please ..koi nahi naha raha hai dekh..is thand me thandi pani se nahana kharab ho sakta hai ..train me bukhar agaya to?”.I relented and said,”ok chor nahi nahata ..ab jagah kar bed par sone ke liye ..”.I dragged Ramji’s blanket onto me.Ramji immediately tried to pull it back but it was a tug of war now.I need it so I pushed more overwhelming Ramji.Ramji then pulled Suddata’s blanket .Suddatta said,”kya ramji main kaise sounga ?thand hai na!”.Ramji replied,”Is nange Bangali ko bol..isne khecha mera..”.Suddatta almost immediately asked,”UBj nanga so raha kya?ye kya hadh nangai hai!!”.I said “UBj rules asusual..”.Suddatta ranted to say,”nanga mat so yaar ..ye kya hai(smile)..aur pakra pakri mat karna please..”.i said,”ha ha ha ok nahi pakrunga lekin Ramji ka guarantee nahi desakta”.Ramji like an hurt lion roared back,”saalo agar kissine mera chuha to pani pat ki jang lag jayegi..”.All of us including bharat was in smiles.
About an hour we rested and then we checked out .I double checked the room for we may not be coming back here ever again so it was important that we did not leave behind anything important.Well the jeorney of delhi was truly fantastic and all of us had contributed their bit to make it special.WE took an auto and made it to the station at 4:00 am.The train was running late by 2 hours .It would be arriving at 7:30 as announced by railways.We took our luggage to the waiting room and left ramji there to safeguard the luggage .Then I and Bharat went out to have some snacks .As we to moved searching for something cheap but eatable bharat was asking questions about EJ and how I met her etc.I told him to read my story “13,glassglow street Southern Avenue “ for my feelings and said as for reality we met at Pt.He was smiling all the way .He said,” I too am trying my hand at writing and have submitted my first story to everyday friction.com why don’t you submit your stories there.It is international so you would get to reach out to a large mass this way.I have read your poems they are awesome ..you write well ..you should try out everydayfriction.com.”.I said “ok”.In the station I brought two story books one was Ayn rands”the fountain head “ and the other was Mario pUzo’s underworld mystry.Bharat was an avid novel reader he asked me to give him one to read .I gave him Mario puzo’s book while I myself read Aynrand’s the fountain head.It was a nice story and I spent most of my return jeorney reading it.The train was rather slow and took a lot of unnecessary stops as it finally reached Raipur late at 8:30 pm next day taking about 25 hours for the jeorney.I and Ramji were in the same coach and sudaata in a different coach and bharat ,shashank and parla were in a different coach .The next day morning Ramji called Suddatta to our coach along with his luggage as he must have been feeling bored all this while.After a while Ramji was narrating the stories of his village and how he grew up which was indeed enchanting.Especially the part of the story dealing with his school and friends and their interaction with their teacher.The chemistry lab incidents when a boy accidently dropped dil sulphuric acid on the apron of the girl standing along with her and the sparking slap of her which ensured never again such an action was taken.We also discussed somewhat about the forthcoming campuses and Akash Institute which was next to come and provided a salary of Rs 6 lakh.A girl stepped in the train at bilaspur who was indeed very goodlooking and sat at the side lower berth of our cabin.Ramji become silent and so did Suddatta because Ramji was always very shy and could not speak much infront of any girl ,the same with Suddatta.With no one speaking I also had to be silent.The girl however was time and again glancing up and down towards me and Suddatta.I smiled to myself once or twice seeing this.I could help but laughed aloud as we neared Raipur and in my bid to break the ice said loud,”to ramji bhabhi ji kaisi hai?”.Ramji said stammering”kaun bhabhiji?”.The girl quite spontaneously looked at us .I kept saying ,”wahi gao wali doctor kota wali..”.The girl felt more interested and now bent towards us totally.Suddatta understood the whole thing and said ,”ha ramji bhabhiji ki call ati hai ki nahi?”.Ramji was in a fix and could make out anything and gave a few half smile half angry glances.And finally hit back saying “bo tere Ej ko dekhne gayi hai “.i said,”ab Ej kaha se agaya beech me..”.In the mean time train neared Raipur Station and the girl who was listening attentively to our stories attimes laughing by herself took up her luggage and queued up at the door.We followed suit. When we alighted we finally made our way out together and took an auto back to hostel.
DELHI 4
As the terms clearly specify for the magazine. This story and all its characters are purely fictional and there are no links with any living person. Any coincidence ever found should be treated as purely coincidental.
The bus stopped at Fatehpuri at 3:40 am.It was still night and the wind outside was cold and sinewy.Paroo was busy sleeping with me in the upper deck of the bus.We had paid Rs 200 For this sleeping berths.Well although the jaipur trip turned out to be a disaster given that all but sunkara failed at the campus recruitment test conducted by MUSIGMA.Rohit was always agile and really energetic and now that he had made it to MUSIGMA ,he seemed doubly vibrant and energetic.But for the rest of us it was like moving in a sea of sand with no oasis visible.I pushed Paroo and told”abe uthja agayi hai delhi!uth uth jaldi..log utar rahe hai..jana nahi hai kya”.Paroo asusual like a teddy bear opened his eyes and said ,”kaha aya?agaya?”.I said ,”Dekke uth..sir nahi to patak jayega chat se..”.Paroo was covering his body with a shawl at night inspite of having wore two a sweater inside.HE did not waste any time and immediately took the ladder down .I took up my spectacles and wore them .I had two bags each loaded with files and clothes .I brought them closer and then from the upper shelf took out my pair of shoes and wore them.Finally when almost half the bus has already emptied I followed them to alight from the bus.The moment I got down the early morning chill gave a really chilly shock of my lifetime.It was deadly cold and the blustery winds were at rampage.”ek cup chaye ke bagair kahe nahi ja sakte ..”,I said to Ramji.Ramji replied “(in cold with short breaths)ab tere liye chaye kaha se jugaru?saare dukan to band hai!” .Suddatta cut in saying,”hoga rukh koi to tapri aaspas..main bhi chaye ke bagair to nahi age ja paunga..”.Prashant came forward and said ,”main ja raha hu.8 baje train hai nayi delhi se.Is thand me tumlog kaha ghumoge?”.I said ,”Ramji hai na saath me ..Ram Ram jai Ram..karte karte sab thick ho jayega..aur kya karenge..inki hi planning hai ye to ab aur kya ghumte hai aspas kahi..”.Prashant smiled and said ,”Ok bye phir !college me milte hai “.Without a word Gaurav Asati followed suit.
The moment paroo and Asati left we too started to decide hastily on our course of action.Rohit Sunkara was the only one amidst us who has had previous experiences of being at Delhi so we were obviously looking up to him .It was Ramji who had helped Sunkara again in the objective test of MUSIGMA so Sunkara whose grandparents house was there at delhi itself decided to help us out a bit further .He accompanied us in our search for a hotel nearby.Ramji in the meantime asked ,”acha hotel lene ki koi jarurat hai kya? ..shaam ko 5:30 ko to gari hai !”.”Itne saare luggage leke kaha ghumega?” came the repartee reply of sunkara.He continued by saying ,”dekho tumlogo ko na 3:30 baje se pahle nayi delhi station ke liye rawana ho jana chahiye ..kiu ki traffic yeha kaafi heavy hai aur kaafi time lag jayega nayi delhi pahoch ne me.”Suddatta in his bid to say something ended up saying ,”ha bo to hai”.
We searched the roads for an appropriate hotel and reached prince hotel .It caught my eye separately because of its position near the road and its princely size.But it was still dark and the roads were empty and the entrance to the prince hotel was initially not discernable.How ever Suddatta drew our attention towards the entrance which was dark but still unobstrusively visible at a corner near myriad closed shops.We were hardly being able to cope with the brumal weather and the blustery wind which was making us shiver hard to generate some bodily warmth.Sunkara was our leader ,our defacto guide and we like small children followed our father for the day.He traded terms with the hotel authorities .He said,”bhaiya ek room milegi kya ? bas saman rakhna hai.kya hai ki inlogo ko ghumne jani hai to saman rakne ki jagah chahiye thi to ..”.The receptionist was in his fourties and seemingly understood our distress a bit too well.He read our faces and understood that most of us were new to the place .He shot back before even Sunkara could complete his argument by saying,”TUmlog kitne ho?”.Sunkara said,”char jan hai sir ..main chala jaunga abhi.”.The receptionist did not even wait for his words to complete and said,”do room leni hi hogi..2 seater dono.700 rs jama kardo.”.Suddatta said,”700!!!!”.The receptionist brazenly continued as if expecting no resistence on our behalf,”yeha sign kardo aur id proof do sabki bas..”.Ramji finally became audible to our relief saying,”nahi hame room nahi chahiye ..thik hai chalo”. We got down from the stairs and came back to the streets.Sunkara said,”Delhi hai ramji Delhi ..yeha pe log lutne me time nahi lagate..itne raat ko room dene ke liye 400 se kam to lega hai nahi bhaloi wahi room agar sawera ate to shayad 200 me bikta .“ We moved on a few steps more and found ourselves at the entrance of another hotel.The receptionist was not ready to open the door initially.He asked” kaun hai bhai?kaha se arahe ho?”.Sunkara replied “yehi abhi bus se arahe hai jaipur se ..rahne ki jagah chahiye ..inko ghumne jani hai to saman rakne ke liye jagah.”.This time however the receptionist was not that adamant ,he thought over the whole thing for a while and then ushered us in.He said ,”room to khali hai par 4 seater nahi hogi.”.Sunkara said ,”Ramji batao kya karni hai?”.Ramji looked at us and his frustrated defeated us finally lit up saying,”thik hai de do par room to dekhao pahle..”.Sunkara and Ramji went up to see the room with the servant who was sleepy too .On seeing that the room had an attached bath too and the beds were long Ramji acceded and came back and informed us .Sunkara obviously was feeling impulsive to let go of us and move to his grandmothers house.But his job was far from over .After the id proof submission and signing phase we ultimately took possession of the room.Suddatta and Ramji then immediately started to ask,”Sunkara ab bata ki yeha dekhne ke kaun kaun se jagah hai aur kis order me unhe dekhna chahiye ..taki 5:30 baje tak bapas nayi delhi pahocha ja sake..”.Sunkara said ,”well aise to kahne muskil hai kiu ki main khud dus bar achuka hu abhi bhi delhi ki har gali nahi dekh paya hu ..aur tum log to muskil se 3 baje tak hi dekh payoge ..ekdin me delhi dekna namumkin hai..”.Suddata said,”chandi ko phone lagaye kya?usko pata hoga.”.Sunkara too acceded.
IT was 4:00 am in the morning and Ankur Chandok was busy sleeping which was incidentally his favourite hobby(same as most of us including the writer himself).For the first couple of times he did not pick up the phone.But finally answered in a sleepy tone,”kaun hai?(barely audible)”.”main suddatta bol raha hu..sunkara se baat kar”.Sunkara was a man of communication he was great at it.Chandok initially congratulated Rohit for his MUSIGMA qualification and then started to discuss the main matter.Ramji began to note down the result of the conversation in pen and paper .UBJ and Bharat were near passive and were silent listeners.In the meantime after about a fifteen minute of conversation the blue chart was prepared of our jeorney and it looked somewhat lke this---
1.QUTUB MINAR
2.INDIA GATE
3.CHANDNI CHAWK
4 INDIAN MUSEUM
5.PALIKA BAZAARNow as for food we decided to have some parathas at the chandni chawk ‘s world famous paratha gali.After we freshened up and finished our 1no’s and 2 no’s we accompanied our defacto guide outside to the metro station where we parted ways and we were finally all alone. I was still feeling tizzy owing to lack of proper sleep but then the enthusiasm to see something new spurred me on.I guess it was this unsurmountable feeling that continuously egging others on too.Suddatta was the first one to confess it saying,”thora so lena chahiye tha”.Suddatta in his heart had an ambition about the trip which he finally let out by saying,”qutub minar dekte hai pahle..”.Actually the place we were in was near Kashmere Gate and it was about a 40 minute distance to the qutub minar even if we take the metro.So immediately after weighing the options ramji said,”yaar qutub minar me kya dekhenge..photo dekh le aur kya?”.But Suddatta was adamant he said,”photo dekhna alag chiz hai aur asliyat me dekhna alag chiz hai..dono bahot alag hai..abhi vaise bhi bahot sawera hai palika bazaar aur chadni chawk to khula hi nahi hoga.dekke asakte hai aramse.”Bharat said,”you people decide fast what to do..the metro is about to come.”Ramji exercised his authority and said ,”isbar nahi ho payegi ..phir kabhi ayenge to jayenge..”.We did not know or remember the names of the various metro stations that SUnkara had stated only one station I personally remembered that was Chawri bazar where we needed to alight to get to palika bazaar.The was a list of stations near the ticket counter.It was still early hours of the morning so the counter was nearly empty.A Punjabi was taking a ticket and he was only visible man in the ticket queue.The list had a lot of symbols in it some were stating parallel routes which were under construction too.SO we did not know which path would be the best one.So I asked Suddatta to go and ask the man in the ticketcounter as to which station would be suitable.He went and asked,”INDia gate jane ke liye kaunsi station jani hai?aur yellow wali line jo map pe hai jo qutub minar tak ja rahi hai uska ticket kitne ka hai?”.The man in the ticket counter professionally replied “Central secretariat.” Then followed it up saying petulantly ,”tum logo ko kaha jani hai bo batao na ..map se kya lena dena hai!!”.I felt sorry for Suddatta for it was I who asked him to ask the first question.All the second one which he followed up with made me to feel more sorry for him.He had earnestly not given up on the idea of going to Qutub minar.I was ready to go there too only if that would have been feasible under the time constraints.We took our tickets it costed Rs 40 with Rs 10 each .We were given 4 cyclic plastics which had some number inscribed on them .For most of us this was our maiden jeorney in the metro.I back in Kolkata had had some previous experiences but each time I had someone elder to guide me and also there was paper system which needed to be inserted in a box at the time of exit .Here the system was a bit different.Here you needed to get the plastic infront of the machine and let it scan it .I and the other three went through the security checks which seemed to have been beefed up in the wake of the upcoming Commonwealth Games.Now as the other three I too hold the plastic coin infront of the scanner but in my case nothing was happening .I was taken by a shock because the other three neatly moved out.Then the security guard was alarmed to see this.There were not much traffic so obviously the attention fell on me.I first thought of jumping over the fence but then considered otherwise.The Security guard asked me,”Where did u come from? “.I was feeling rather pussilanimous and was seeking to have some cover for me.I replied,”ask them they would know more..actually this is my first jeorney so I just couldnot ..kind of”.Suddatta immediately came to my rescue saying,”kya hua?”and then replied ,”central avenue”.The armed security guard hastenedly asked “What ?central avenue????or kashmiri gate?”.Ramji rectified saying,”kashmiri gate”.Then he finally laughed and asked me to show the opposite side of the coin in the scanner.I showed just that and everything was okay.I felt ashamed as others laughed.
We reached Secretariat at about 6:55 am and moved out of the station .It was really cold and there was a thick haze of mist all around.There were three persons and one woman standing there at that time.I went up to the woman and asked ,”acha india gate kaunse side me ata hai?”.The women smiled and said,”main nahi janti hu .i am knew here”.Bharat then told,”okay man lets go and ask the police who is standing there ..he will definitely help”.He did just that and the police man showed us the eastern direction.We followed the direction accordingly.There were quite a few police cars visible nearby.There was a road construction project going on on the other side of the road.As we moved on towards the india gate we found that the two sides of the road were cordoned off with big sheds and heavy restriction on vehicle movements were imposed and in its place the republic day parade rehearsals were at full swing.First there was a series of motorcycles being driven side by side by army men who held their hands together showing great control.Then there followed a fabulous balance act in which one of the jawans were reading newspaper as he was riding the motor cycle followed by another one who was standing up on the motorcycle as the motor cycle moved on.There were a series of such hilarious stunts which made us really really proud of the inherent capability of our troops and we really enjoyed every moment of watching them perform albeit in a rehearsal mode.Suddatta and ramji were busy taking photos using their mobile camera .After about an hour there we moved back towards the metro .Our next objective was Chandni chawk.While moving back we hired an auto to take us to the metro station he took Rs 30 after hefty bargaining although the distance was commensurable with the sum.
At the metro station this time the jeorney was smooth.We took tickets from the counter which was still not very crowded.It was 7:30 am and public has started to come in numbers.Chawri bazar was our next destination for we wanted to see the famous markets of Palika bazaar all though none of us were in any mood to buy anything specific .We took the tickets and went through the security checks ,passed the entry points by using the plastic coins and then took the metro.Chawri bazar was just two stops away.The metro was fast asusual and we reached the station in no time.In the train in the next seat of mine sat a woman who was in her early twenties too.She was blonde and goodlooking.Infact to be very fare on an average girls of delhi are really really beautiful far more than any other city I have ever been to.Suddatta and Bharat too acceded to the point time and again.Once out of metro and moving towards the stairs when I said about my this judgement ,Suddatta agreed,”Delhi is known for its women.India ke sabse khubsurat ladkia yehi milti hai ..So UBj please don’t look around that way.tu uske chahre ko aisa dekh raha tha mujhe aise hassi aayi thi ki...”.To which I said,”I think umar hi kuch aisi hai ki fissal na abhi to jayaz hai ..but Ej wale case ke baad ab aur affair ki to soch nahi raha hu..ab ek saturation si lagti hai”. “to dekh kiu raha tha use?” Suddatta asked incessantly.I said,”aisa kuch nahi ,khubsurat thi dekhne layek thi to deha bas ..aur kya tu nahi dekh raha tha kya? Tu tu pura time usiko dekh raha tha train me..aur phir samne wala 56 saal ka Budda to akhe phar ke dekh raha tha ..Uski engagement bhi ho rakha tha .Uski haato me ek ring thi third finger me.Uski paas sony ericsson ki ek mobile thi usme ek ladke ka photo bhi tha ..I observed them all.That is part of being together for sometime in adjacent seats.”.Ramji replied,”UBJ rocks !!! I am always your fan ..”.Bharat replied ,“ha ha Sherlock homes to very specific..”.I said ,”UBj homes would be better.”.Suddatta added,”UBJ homes matlab UBJH.ha ha ha”.
Once on the escalator we were pushing each other umpteen number of times and deriving fun from it.The other pedestrians were smiling to see such acts.We moved out of the station to reach chawri bazar which was indeed a big place.But it was only 8:00 am and all the shops were closed.But only thing that deserve a special mention is that now as the sun had rose the morning chill had abated.We decided to look for some tea and some breakfast.Most shops were closed the ones that open especially the tapris were really in a very unhygienic condition.While strolling through the streets with our hungry stomach egging us on we reached to a decent shop which was already crowded for tea.WE had a goodday biscuit packet which we brought at jaipur but never utilized so far.We brought a cup of tea and then savoured the biscuits with it.Ramji paid for the tea and then we moved on to the next shop which was making vegpakoda .Bharat and I ordered bread omlet and Ramji and Suddatta ordered veg pakoda.The owner of the shop who was himself making those delicious pakodas asked us ,”Tum log naye ho kya?”.Ramji our leader said,”hum log delhi ghumne aaye hai..aaj hi sham ki gari se chale jayenge.Acha yeha koi dekhne ki chiz hai kya jo abhi khula ho?”.The owner said ,”ek kaam karo abhi to peeche park me baitho thora der phir 10 baje kareeb palika bazaar khul jayega phir kuch shopping karna ho to kar lena ..”We did just that after finishing off our breakfast .We made a beeline for the park.The park was empty but the gate of the park seemed elusive .WE had to move all the way round to finally get to the gate and then enter.The park was well maintained and looked beautiful.But then Ramji and Suddata were not exactly nature lovers.Ramji restlessly said,”park me kya dekhenge?park to Raipur me bhi hai bahot sare ..kabhi gaye hai?”.Suddatta brought some logic saying.”are Ramji abhi sab band hai kayi baitne se acha yehi baith lete hai thora der”.In the meantime as we were searching for some space to seat our eyes fell on a couple who were seating near the rose garden.Ramji said ,”yeha aayo to phir ladki ke saath hi aayo varna mat aayo kiu ki aise to aand khap ti hai !”.Suddatta said ,”Are Ramji kitni achi to trip hui ab kya hogaya? ..”.Ramji said ,”nahi kuch ladki bhi saath hoti to baat karke achi lagti aise to koi problem nahi hai lekin ..kiu UBJ?“.I said ,”bahar kuch English khare the ..unko bolte to man jate..vaise bhi mujhe nahi lagta hum me se kissi ka paas bhi utni time hai ki bo jake gapiyaye ladki ke saath, ab kya hai ki mostly ye trend dekhi jati hai ki jisse pyar ho usse shadi nahi hoti ..aur phir kayi baar to sex ke baad chor dete hai ladke..so I guess time faltu barbad karne ka koi ultimate value to nahi hai lekin haa man me kuch kuch aisa to sabko lagta hoga..”.Bharat adamantly said,”Yes brothel is for us man. Everybody likes to wear a mask.Everybody loves that mask.Even women want men who wear masks and that is reality.No body is succinct and direct.if I like you(to UBj) then it is for your direct nature.I like the way you go about things.See the English movies how they go about life .Noone is really waiting for anyone everybody is in a hurry.The girl hooks up with someone in the morning and in the evening it is someone else.The girls are indeed pretentious.I am more at one with Us philosophy of having night outs and In the morning you your way I mine.Life is fast.This is the truth even in a few hindi movies they have started to reflect on this .CORPORATE ,FASHION BEING SOME ..There is no use living in the dark”.I said ,”ha ha ha ok ok samaj raha hu ..lekin baat ye hai ki I guess exactly aisa bhi nahi ..bo bhi acha nahi lagega..kiu ki usme feeling nahi ayega..khud ko prostitute jaisa hi feeling ayega.”.Bharat pugnaciously replied,”ha but what I said is the truth of life .you cant oppose that .Starting from the first world war to the war between nations all have been for women.And prostitution is the oldest known custom because it was there even in ancient days .Take the example of the davinci code arguments when people were accusing the women on the picture to be a one of the prostitutes that lived at that time.”.Ramji acceded and took the thread forward by saying,”well mujhe bhi aisa hi lagta hai..kiu ki ye ladke saale parte leekhte kuch hai nahi bas yehi pare rahte hai ..all time ..aur ladki bhi aisi …ek dusre ki khapate rahte hai..jab bore ho jate hai to chor dete hai..bas aur kya ?(looking at UBj) tujhe kya lagta hai bo ladka jo us maal ladki ke saath baithi hui hai aur yeha waha chu raha hai ..bo usse shadi karega?”.I replied “kahe nahi sakte ..ho bhi sakta hai nahi bhi ho sakta hai..but one thing is for granted agar feeling do no taraf ho aur feeling strong ho to shadi karni chahiye kiu ki tab feeling aur reinforce hoti hai aur ek sapno ki jindagi ban sakti hai.SIrf ek drudgery bhari monotonous pre programmed eventless life koi nahi chahta .Love can open up dimensions.”.Bharat joined the discussion saying,”I read your stories in your blogs ..But see life is in reality is quite different ,it is very dynamic and pretty much like the Americans live which is more of fuck and go type and that’s what Indian youth follow today because today life is fast and people cannot go on like movies ..no matter how puristic ones soul may be I guess if one is influential one enjoys life like this atleast dreams of it this way.”.Well bharat has all his life been very direct and free talking needless to say that he had an inherent inclination to watch all the Usmade movies and had a fallacy to go to US to persue higher education.He was truly a meritorious student with an all india rank of 6000 which was decent enough and add to this his 96 percent marks in 10th and 95 percent in 12th you would now how good a student he was.The culture in the South is also quite open and liberalized somewhat in the model of Usa with good literacy rates and overall acclaim of English as the primary language. I said “ha ha ok acceded ..i give up ..i give up..may be this is the truth or the reality..but I write stories ..i write poems on love and hence I cannot vindicate this stand ..because through my characters I live a full life.For me Ej was there ,is there and will always be there.”Bharat said “for her U are not there so what difference does it make?”.Suddatta too joined in saying,”Ej chor ..koi matlab nahi..Ladki dekh age bar ..yeha dekh ek aur maal agayi ..bas aur kya ab aise hi chal ..ekdin 3-4 saal me shadi ho jayegi bas..khatam baat “.i said,”phir papa papa shuru ho jayegi bas..papa mujhe ye chahye ,papa mujhe bo chahiye .papa usne mujhe ye kaha ..agar harami hoga to phir puchega papa apne mummy ko kab dekha tha? ..papa Apne ladki patayi thi?etc etc”.All the other three bursted into laughter saying ,”ha ha ha “.
At about 9:30 am we embarked on our next mission target which was palika bazaar.Chawri bazar is kind of a real business place something on the lines of Camac Street and Park Street of Kolkata only difference being that it was even bigger interms of area and the underground shopping facility of Palika bazaar added more value.Cannaught place was asusual a busy thoroughfare by now. It was not 10:00 am so we were not allowed entrance into the palika bazaar and hence were waiting outside.Actually truth to tell we never had anything to buy inpallika bazaar ,we just wanted to see what was there and how did it look.In the interval we looked around the place it was truly beautiful and as the traffic increased with every passing minute I found that Suddatta was not wrong in the fact that Delhi truly is a place of most beautiful women.All of them were stylish ,all of them were having drop dead looks.I felt that with such vast array of beautiful women bollywood should have been at Delhi and not at Mumbai.Ramji somehow read my thoughts and said,”Bollywood me jitne heroines hai inko compete kar sakti hai ye choriya ..kiu UBJ?”.I said ,”abhi tak jitne ladki dekha hu bis me unnis to bahot jaada khubsurat hai ..I don’t know whether it is a matter of chance or truly the women of delhi are this beautiful.But ha rationally dekha jaye to shayad mukable me ladke utne khubsurat nahi lakin tashan bahot dekhate hai..par sabka ek jaise fashion chalta hai.Sab koi ek jaise dekhte hai ladko me to.Aur us fashion ke hisab se hum log kaafi out of fashion hai.”
Time whistled by as finally it was 10:00 am and we could not hear its pulse.Soon we found a train of individuals taking entry into palika bazaar.There were many gates to enter palika bazaar we opted for gate no 1.Once in we found that most stops are still opening and some are closed.The number of shops were huge.All of the shopkeepers here follow one common formula –they start off with a high price then if you are a good with bargaining then u can reduce the price to anything trifle.Bharat went in one of the shop to see some latest trendy jackets ,the shopowner told him that the cost was Rs 700 initially but as he bargained on saying ,”main ne to ye shirt 120 me kharidi thi in shikakulam..” then the shopkeeper slashed his price abnormally saying ,”ok phir Rs 100 me le jayo..”.Thats how it is here.We strolled through the market .The shopowners kept calling us .Some were really aggressive saying,”kiu paise nahi hai kya?”.However finally without any quarrel or adverse reactions we made our way out through gate no 1 itself after giving a complete round of the market.Starting from computer goods ,belts ,stationary almost everything was available here in great variety.We moved out of palika bazaar and took the auto to the nearest metro station Chawri Bazaar.From there we took the metro all over again to go to the Rajiv chawk.There we started to hasten up things.We moved out fast because it was already 11:30 am and we wanted to go to the redfort too.We went out and brought ourselves a earplug each for Rs 30 in all.We then moved out and walked by the crowded streets to reach a sikh museum.I asked Suddatta to call Ankur Chandok to know as to which way to go to the Redfort.He was out of balance so I myself called.Ankur told us that redfort and parotha gali are in opposite directions from the position where we were standing so he told us to decide for ourselves which one to go first and also told to do things fast from here on because from fatehpuri it may take about 2 hours in traffic to reach the new railway station.For a moment we were stranded we did not know which way to go then it was Ramji who took the initiative and told us to go to redfort first.So we followed him .From about 300 m from the red fort we could see the gigantic structure erected by Shahjahan.It was indeed one of the masterpieces of the mughal era .It was red in color owning the red coloured stones that were used at that time.We felt from within a really historic feeling which was accentuated by the fact that it was the first time we were at delhi and so far owing to our young undefatiguable minds and limbs have been able to vision atleast half of it.When we were closing on to the redfort we found that to enter redfort we need to pay some amount of entry tax which was to be paid at a place indicated by arrows.Bharat said ,”I have seen enough I don’t think I will pay bucks to see this old fort ..I have seen enough of ancient structures. “.Suddatta’s phone was running out of battery and hence he asked from bharat his phone which bharat promptly denied saying,”I will have to charge it too and apart from that If I give you my phone how will I be able to contact you when u will come out?’.Well the last question was very genuine but Suddatta for a moment was infuriated at bharat not giving him his phone because he felt bharat was nothing else but a big fat burden on him and us because he was severely uncommunicative and uncooperative.This feeling was actually fuelled by the fact that in one of the metro jeorney bharat asked permission to go to nearby ATm and took more than 20 minutes to come out of it inspite of negliglible queue length and Suddatta had to go and search for him a lot.
We went into the redfort at about 11:30 am and since the road was straight and on both sides of the street there were a large number of shops mostly of ornaments.We moved forward to make an entrance into the central fort.We had two tickets one was yellow in color and the other white.Now there was a separate room for the martyr’s blood painting which we saw hurriedly and then made our way out to reach the central fort where our tickets were checked and the white one was torn into halves.But still the yellow one was intact .SO I was wondering what to do with the yellow one.There were large structures and tombs made within the central fort some were broken .There were English translators who were translating the events as they occurred in history which led to the creation of redfort.We strolled about in the historic fort and then finally made our way back to the entrance which was the only way out.The mughal architectural genius was truly worth marveling at.The shear diversity was intricately defined in the sculpture of each statue.As we were about to go out we found the entrance of the museum where there was a guide who was collecting the yellow ticket.Now we knew what the yellow ticket for and hence followed the mass to the museum.Ramji wasnot particularly interested in history and museums.He was feeling restive but we insisted him to wait a bit longer .It was 12:30 am and we were in a shortage of time and wanted to get out of the museum too.The rifles and the old war instruments of india and abroad were kept stacked there.The stacked rifles were all of different types some were automatic ,some semiautomatic some had a nozzle which was longer than a elephants trunk.All of this substances although of minor importance to us but were actually of great historic value as they distilled centuries most defining moments.
We moved out of redfort only to find Bharat missing.We then gave him a call.Well to be fair I must confess that bharat was heavy and fat and took quite a lot of time to move about which perhaps ramji and suddatta were alien to as they were thin and skinny.Suddatta in particular was boisterously pugnacious in his saying,”bo mota hati kaha gaya…ab kaha dundne jana hoga is baby elephant ko?”.I said ,”kahi nahi..I am giving a call”.Bharat got his mobile recharged and was waiting near the statebank of india branch redfort branch.He marched back towards us like an estranged child lost in a fair.We were very relieved to see him back specially me because had he been late both suddatta and ramji would have been happy enough to leave him there for the day as a form of punishment.Anyways,after redfort stood conquered by this famous four we decided to move to our final destination which was paratha gali.We all were hungry and hence in grievious need to fulfill the call of our stomach.We did not have any idea of which galli was exactly paratha gali so we asked the assistance of one of the police personnel posted there.Based on the hand shown we strolled forward and reached our target at 12:45 pm and searched for an appropriate shop .To be very frank paratha gali was rather narrow but on both sides there were a large number of shops which sold paratha of all types aloo parotha ,bhendi parotha,nebu parotha ,mixedbhej parotha etc.We finally decided on one in which there were photos of mahendra singh dhoni taking parootha .Well there were other photo’s in it too.There was a photo of Jawaharlal Nehru taking parotha ,Indira Gandhi taking parotha ,Atal bihari Vajpayee taking parotha in that shop.So we took it as a standard and accordingly took our seats the moment a table became vacant.I and Ramji sat together and suddatta and bharat occupied seats opposite to us.It was a nice day so far and no rains which we heard had made life measurable for past few days.Ramji said “kal raat ko bhi to barish hui thi jab humlog bus pe the …”.I said,”mujhe to pata hi nahi chala ..main so gaya tha “.Ramji said,”Ej ki yaad arahi thi kya?”.I did not say anything instead I called the waiter to give the orders.Ramji gave the orders “2 aloo parotha 2 nebu parotha 4 mixed veg parotha lao aur 4 lassi”.I was not willing to broach the Ej topic instead started to say,”Ha to Ramji sunne me aya ki koi relative teri election larraha hai rajasthan me ?”.Ramji replied,”ha pichle bar to jeete the LokSabha seat me is bar mayor ke liye lar rahe hai jaipur me.”.I said ,”agar jeete to phir bara party phir ..ekdam jhakas wala ..veg nonveg dono ..unlimited..”.Ramji ‘s measured response was “pahle jeeto to sahi ..party to mil jayegi”.We chatted on as the parotha’s disappeared from our plates into our stomach in no time.We finished of the lassi too.It was really delicious .The food in parotha galli is truly fabulous but yes you need to select the right shop because HUMANSHU Bhatia(Nit Raipur ,4th year Information tech) visited this place lately and was lured to some other shop where the parathas were half baked and unctuous.Anyways luck helped us to avoid this it would have been rather disappointing end to the day if this would have happened with us.
We paid the bills which totaled to RS 520.Nebu parothas costed more about Rs 45 each.And we also ordered a few mixed veg parothas more so the bill according to figures were justified.We paid the bill and came back to our hotel after hiring an auto with Rs 40 .He initially took us to some place else but later when we told him that we don’t remember this road and we want to go near Prince Hotel then he understood the exact location and took us there by taking some bylanes.Once there we were relieved and we made our way to the bed .IT was 1:50 pm and we thought we should rest for an hour before checking out of the hotel.I wanted to go to take bath because next day entirely we would be on train .Infact Samparkranti Express is known for being late usually ,had we had some other choice we would have had opted for some other train even if it would have cost more.Anyways as I was about to go to bath Suddatta stopped me saying,”pagal wagal ho gaya hai kya ?is thand me nahayega!!”.I said “kyun?”.Suddatta said ,”bimar par jayega ..mat naha please ..koi nahi naha raha hai dekh..is thand me thandi pani se nahana kharab ho sakta hai ..train me bukhar agaya to?”.I relented and said,”ok chor nahi nahata ..ab jagah kar bed par sone ke liye ..”.I dragged Ramji’s blanket onto me.Ramji immediately tried to pull it back but it was a tug of war now.I need it so I pushed more overwhelming Ramji.Ramji then pulled Suddata’s blanket .Suddatta said,”kya ramji main kaise sounga ?thand hai na!”.Ramji replied,”Is nange Bangali ko bol..isne khecha mera..”.Suddatta almost immediately asked,”UBj nanga so raha kya?ye kya hadh nangai hai!!”.I said “UBj rules asusual..”.Suddatta ranted to say,”nanga mat so yaar ..ye kya hai(smile)..aur pakra pakri mat karna please..”.i said,”ha ha ha ok nahi pakrunga lekin Ramji ka guarantee nahi desakta”.Ramji like an hurt lion roared back,”saalo agar kissine mera chuha to pani pat ki jang lag jayegi..”.All of us including bharat was in smiles.
About an hour we rested and then we checked out .I double checked the room for we may not be coming back here ever again so it was important that we did not leave behind anything important.Well the jeorney of delhi was truly fantastic and all of us had contributed their bit to make it special.WE took an auto and made it to the station at 4:00 am.The train was running late by 2 hours .It would be arriving at 7:30 as announced by railways.We took our luggage to the waiting room and left ramji there to safeguard the luggage .Then I and Bharat went out to have some snacks .As we to moved searching for something cheap but eatable bharat was asking questions about EJ and how I met her etc.I told him to read my story “13,glassglow street Southern Avenue “ for my feelings and said as for reality we met at Pt.He was smiling all the way .He said,” I too am trying my hand at writing and have submitted my first story to everyday friction.com why don’t you submit your stories there.It is international so you would get to reach out to a large mass this way.I have read your poems they are awesome ..you write well ..you should try out everydayfriction.com.”.I said “ok”.In the station I brought two story books one was Ayn rands”the fountain head “ and the other was Mario pUzo’s underworld mystry.Bharat was an avid novel reader he asked me to give him one to read .I gave him Mario puzo’s book while I myself read Aynrand’s the fountain head.It was a nice story and I spent most of my return jeorney reading it.The train was rather slow and took a lot of unnecessary stops as it finally reached Raipur late at 8:30 pm next day taking about 25 hours for the jeorney.I and Ramji were in the same coach and sudaata in a different coach and bharat ,shashank and parla were in a different coach .The next day morning Ramji called Suddatta to our coach along with his luggage as he must have been feeling bored all this while.After a while Ramji was narrating the stories of his village and how he grew up which was indeed enchanting.Especially the part of the story dealing with his school and friends and their interaction with their teacher.The chemistry lab incidents when a boy accidently dropped dil sulphuric acid on the apron of the girl standing along with her and the sparking slap of her which ensured never again such an action was taken.We also discussed somewhat about the forthcoming campuses and Akash Institute which was next to come and provided a salary of Rs 6 lakh.A girl stepped in the train at bilaspur who was indeed very goodlooking and sat at the side lower berth of our cabin.Ramji become silent and so did Suddatta because Ramji was always very shy and could not speak much infront of any girl ,the same with Suddatta.With no one speaking I also had to be silent.The girl however was time and again glancing up and down towards me and Suddatta.I smiled to myself once or twice seeing this.I could help but laughed aloud as we neared Raipur and in my bid to break the ice said loud,”to ramji bhabhi ji kaisi hai?”.Ramji said stammering”kaun bhabhiji?”.The girl quite spontaneously looked at us .I kept saying ,”wahi gao wali doctor kota wali..”.The girl felt more interested and now bent towards us totally.Suddatta understood the whole thing and said ,”ha ramji bhabhiji ki call ati hai ki nahi?”.Ramji was in a fix and could make out anything and gave a few half smile half angry glances.And finally hit back saying “bo tere Ej ko dekhne gayi hai “.i said,”ab Ej kaha se agaya beech me..”.In the mean time train neared Raipur Station and the girl who was listening attentively to our stories attimes laughing by herself took up her luggage and queued up at the door.We followed suit. When we alighted we finally made our way out together and took an auto back to hostel.
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