So Where Does Delhi Live?

So where does Delhi live?

Where does the heart of Delhi,

The real heart, the true heart of Dilli

Begin to beat.

Where does Delhi live?

At 18, with all the brashness

Of someone who had lived in a bubble

Of neatly drawn lines

I thought Delhi, ‘my’ Delhi

Lived in the meanderings of Hauz Khas.

I said,

No. I proclaimed,

That Delhi lived in pockets of North Campus

And of course, Delhi Cantt

And the great circle of CP

At Janpath and maybe the odd mall in Noida

And in some malls down South

And in the opulence of GK markets –

They have really good kathi rolls,

Go try them out.  

At 18, I was desperate to belong securely

To a place. I never had.

So I made Delhi belong to me.

At least, I tried.

Every moment since

I have fiercely declared

My belonging.

At 22, I am secure in belonging

But insecure in the breadth of Delhi.

At 22, I see Delhi inching out, opening up, engulfing in.

It lives in Gurgaon now.

And a little bit in Paschim Vihar.

It lives in the cacophony of Kashmere Gate

And in the merciless sun outside Tihar.

It lives magnificently at the India Gate Hexagon

And it lives in Gali No 10, Prem Nagar –

I can find it now.

It lives on the blue line to Vaishali

And a little bit on the Green line

(I am still unsure where it goes)

At 18, I remember dancing in the deer garden

To Delhi Drum Circles

And thinking,

Surely this is where Delhi lives.

I see now,

That Delhi does live beyond Delhi Haat and that market

Opposite IIT.

But just like at 18,

At 22 I can still not tell you

Exactly where Delhi lives.

I can tell you however,

Where Delhi began.

It began when -

An 18 year old,

Fresh to Delhi,

Turned to her friends

And said,

‘It’s 7 pm and my first day here.

 I should go home’.

And they turned to her

With matching grins

And said,

‘Stay out a little longer’.