8/8/2019 Dwarahat to Dilli

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In the past two months, life has undergone a sea change. Till June, earlier this year I

was in the process of becoming a bachelor, now I am one, with an additional tag of 

unemployed. And as if one and a half months of self-grating was not enough, I have

landed in Delhi in order to see if I am really…employable. In between the calls (not

that there have been too many) and a boring-like-hell schedule I have been eagerly

noticing the sharp turns that my life here continues to take. Here, I try to gauge

some:

• Unlike college, I am not the first one to rise from the bed – my partner has a

class early in the morning and he doesn’t bunk it (yeah…KECians have

started studying over here). He’s the one who wakes me up (and it’s a

welcome change); I was the one who did that in college to him.

•  The water supply is abundant, and one does not have to keep the buckets

filled for ‘emergencies’!!!

•  There is no more ready breakfast on the mess table; one has to get some

from the market – an early outing ensured.

•  The paranthas cost only Rs. 5 as compared to 10 back in college. Even the

chai is Rs. 3 not 4 and almost double in quantity.

• No one charges Rs. 2 extra to keep the cold drink ‘cold’ and ice cream ‘iced’!

• A silent valley, occasionally echoed by the sounds of remote car or temple

has given way to non-stop screams, cries and honking horns.

• What used to be a lonely walk in the campus is now a quest to reach one’s

destination unscathed in the swarming ocean of people.

• Everyone knew everyone in campus and good evenings, good mornings of 

first years and the hi’s and hello’s of others were some things that

punctuated the journey from Kailash to Mehra’s. Here, none knows any and

even if they do – ignorance is bliss.

•  The girls who wore salwar-kurtas and jeans tops in college would be hailed

from Stone Age here. Tank tops, spaghettis and everything & anything out of 

the blue is ubercool and ‘in trend’ here. (Not that I am/was complaining)

• Spiky or long hair (low waist jeans too) were considered ‘stylo’ in the college

and attracted reprimand sessions from the faculty. The one with short

cropped hair, having a ‘maang’ on the left can be seen peculiarly seen in the

crowd here, everyone else is ‘normal’.

• A 3 km journey from Gochar to Dwarahat that costed Rs. 8 is worth only Rs. 3

here…

8/8/2019 Dwarahat to Dilli

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• In college, you couldn’t see more than 10 cars a day (including the ones

owned by faculty), here I see thousands including Mercedes, Bentley and

BMW, Maruti, Toyota, Hyundai and Honda are more than common here.

• Shopkeepers are no more fretting if we go their shops, perturbing their

solace, like they did in college. They are more than eager to have us inside

and more eager to peep inside our wallets.

• Late night strolls and talks on the phones were the real time to find solace in

college and occasionally I had the welcome company of the dogs and jackals.

Well…this hasn’t changed much – I still am accompanied by dogs and jackals

late nights, only they are disguised as humans. And…I find no solace.

I was ‘a known someone’ back in college and here, I am just another immigrant

trying to keep up with the pace of bustling life in the capital, struggling to carve out

a niche for myself- a career, a destiny, a life…

I miss you – KEC Dwarahat, I miss you badly!!!