Delhi Bites
I have always been a travel freak. I owe this part of my genes to my father who was himself one. This has allowed me to develop a great sense of appreciation of joy and nuisances of travel alike. Having visited almost 80% of India on travel pursuits, I believe I have developed a very good sense of understanding of various parts of the country. Delhi has definitely one of best learning experience in terms of cross-cultural amalgamation and so called weird expectations for any non-delhite. By weird expectations, I mean to mention expectations like unsafe for women, traffic jams, crime, goons, etc. I have been very positive by terming it as expectations as many of foreign travelers have found it amazingly charming to take it as an attribute of Delhi rather than negative ones.
Though I also have similar expectations and experiences in Delhi, what makes everyone to behave in so called Delhite fashion. I had been critical of some of my friends hailing from Delhi who have such Delhi Stars in their personality but my experience here is something which has taken me for a surprise. I have taken up a new job in Delhi and used to travel everyday from Greater Noida to South Delhi. Now I have shifted to South Delhi, so journey is just 15 minutes from home.
What is not important here is that I used to take so much efforts and time to reach office and then come back. What is biting me actually is the psychological impact in my behaviour due to varied circumstances and experiences. To start, I lost my mobile phone on the 3rd day of office as I boarded in the bus in Noida. Mind it, I was just inattentive for 3-4 minutes and it was stolen. That was the 1st blow which left me irritated and handicapped for 10 days. Secondly, the airtel people didn’t deliver me the sim for 10 days after having promised me to deliver in 2 days. I called them around 15 times and got a promise around 7 times. On one of those days, one of them called me to ask me where to deliver me. I asked him to deliver him at my okhla office as it was also convenient for him. He didn’t turn up. When I called him to check what happened, he said “ Sir main sabji lene chala gaya tha. Ghar pe khatm ho gayi thi”. I became furious and complained at Call centre and told them I am filing complaint in consumer court and banged the phone. Some senior guy called me and said they will deliver next day. Some other guy called me next day and said “Call centre wale paagal hai. Hum deliver nahin karenge. Aap khud aake le jao”. You can’t imagine my reaction after I heard this.
There have been other nuisances as well. When you want to take an auto rickshaw, it can be guaranteed that he will not go by meter and instead ask for an inflated amount. After fighting and arguing for 6 months now, I observe a lot of changes within me. Delhi has bitten over an individual’s personality attributes and impacted if not changed his approach. Now every time I have to catch a rickshaw, I am ready to fight (as a warrior). The changes reflect in my approach towards problem solving too.
The idea of an experience is to learn and to make life better. However, it is not happening in this case. Is it the reason Delhi is like that? Is it that people behave the way they do or may be I have started doing. I am yet to discover. Let’s see how it goes and how I pull it back.
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Hmmmm…nice experiences……..i had d same…..nice Blog….:)))
Oho intersting article. My Delhi experience is quite different as I wouldnt be ever stolen, but with the autorickshaw, this is a very good description haha!! Like a “warrior”!! In my case, as I am a lady, I could use my smile to bargain a cheaper price but I’m not sure it will work for you ;-)!
Soon I’ll also live in South Delhi, so I’ll more to share concerning my daily experience in the town.
one hell of an experience..nicely penned ! 😉
umm…. quiet true.. n kudo’s 2 u man .. evn i lost my phne d 2nd dae.. i 1st went to delhi .. once u adopt tht place.. u start loving itt…… n more likely whn u go to the real delhi .. deli-6 … thn ull find … its much more simpler d odr side.. 🙂 🙂
It seems so obvious to visit at least one bad incident for everybody who visits delhi…….hhehehe
quite an experience ha….many many more to come…:)
Nice topic to start a blog…m sure u ‘d gets loads to write and
on our part lots of experiences to read..:)
Very true…………. I also agree in different parts of the country people’s approach towards life varies widely………… I have lived in 4 different states of India and traveled across 23 states and i feel DELHI is unique!!
Hehehehe… Y it seems that when you use to describe me …. used same words which you are using for yourself here…. your experiences are hilarious but I’ld say … its not Delhi …. its just that now you getting a chance to observe the either side of humanity!! **a proud look away!!
Very truly said Prateek………….have lived in Delhi for almost 14 years and have yet to understand the wayz…….it shall make you strong enough and sharpen your abilities of immense problem-solving, patience and survival!!! Well written, as alwayz….
Hehe.. finally I know why you have been fighting and arguing with all rickshaw walas… and of course always like “a warrior”… unhone kuch bola ni ki always ready to give them back…
And as far as writing is being concerned…you could have elaborated the first incident a bit… by telling what sort of various problems you encountered… like I would of course like to know that how can you spend 10 days without a cell phone…:P
Now I also know from where have you got this attribute of bargaining like girls do.. 😛
And call centre experience actually reminded me of a very troublesome and pathetic day of my life as well.. and as events were going on in it… the way you described the incident..was nicely put up.. but yes… I would really like to know ki uske baad kya hua… what step did u take after getting way too much frustrated and irritated…
And yeah..!! Sharing your experiences might help some people in future…as we never know what may happen in next moment and what may click at that particular moment… and even if there is no moral in the end at times… people like me will keep calm thinking, yaar ye sab har kisi ke saath hota rehta hai and might even laugh at the situation instead of crying… 😉
So keep sharing your experiences and keep helping others…:)
Read this one late I guess. (was written a lot earlier) !!! Nicely put. Enjoyed reading it more maybe because I knew about those incidences.