Dilli Darshan----- By Guest Blogger :)

Hello every1… this time a guest of mine (I dread here to say this :D) gonna entertain you by narrating our Dilli Darshan in her own humorous (read hilarious :P) way… it’s a long due actually… she writes wonderful poems but never blogs… so I wanted to snatch her ideas---put in beautiful way and worderd in wonderful diction, and imprint them on my blog… n finally she agrees to that… n here goes our tour…in her words :)

Hi all…you have been following Divya’s thoughts through this blog and she has been regaling us with tales of IIFT and plane sickness and what not… When she asked me to be a guest blogger, I was confounded as to what should I write about? I am neither a writer nor a blogger, and this is the first time I’m attempting something like this…But when Divya, I and a couple of other friends went on a long-planned Dilli Darshan programme, I felt I knew where I fit in-I could be the humble chronicler of events….
Let me elaborate…

Venue- Room No. 402, New Hostel, IIFT (my room to be precise)

Time-10 a.m.

Door opens with a decisive bang. Divya walks in.

Divya - Utho, utho, utho!!!

Me (unfurling an eyelid) – huh???

Vinita (my roommate) – huh???

Divya – Get up! its so late! we have to go to Karol Bagh 4 shopping, n then we must go to Purana Qila, n then lets see if we have time we can go to CP and…… (more of this without a pause or a breath in between)

Me - huh???

Vinita – huh???

More of this for the next ten minutes…. Then as the energetic whirlwind had arrived, she disappears from the room…and leaves behind 2 weary souls in her wake, dragging themselves from bed. Not a very auspicious start to the seemingly long day ahead.
Let me explain. Vini and I are regular night owls, where midnight is our afternoon and we manage to greet dawn daily before thinking of hitting the pillow. Needless to say 10 am is “sweet dreams” time for us. On the other hand, Divya and the fourth member of our expedition, Pooja are bright eyed and bushy tailed creatures who can give clockworks a complex. Early to bed and all that. Not to mention the driving force that resides in Divya… Needless to say, we were obediently up, dressed and out of the door by 11. Stifling scores of yawns along the way…

Thus set out 4 musketeers, armed with cameras instead of the customary muskets. We took an auto to Karol Bagh market, where Vini and I lagged behind the other two, marching ahead enthusiastically. One of the reasons for this enthu could be that both had to do some Valentine’s Day shopping for their significant others…Bemused, Vini n I looked on at them n then at each other commiseratingly as teddy bears, cards, even furry hearts (!!!) n other such paraphernalia were examined, greeted with delight or frowns. Added to that I seemed to have been touched by some imp’s wand that day, and a series of mishaps kept happening with me, from twisting my ankle to being smashed into by people to what not.

In between this shopping frenzy, we discovered our stomachs were complaining and we chose a place called Raffles to lunch at. I’m a huge foodie, so kindly bear with me as as I describe d place n its offerings. Excellent Indian food,particularly the aromatic dal makhni and just right naans, but the décor is a mish-mash, with old Hollywood movie posters, incongruously clashing with utilitarian seating and a humongous rectangular chandelier overhead which made one's eyes hurt…
After that there was yet anothr round of V-day shopping, before we went on to the next item on our itinerary - Purana Qila.

First we had a round of boating in the moat that surrounds the fort. Needless to say, we got a boat whose rudder didn’t work, which meant we spent 15 minutes going round and round and round in the same place. Just as we started making some headway, even cheering each other on with some off-key singing, other boats which had been successful in reaching farther points, came back and started bumping into ours. After the 3rd one, we realized it was kind of fun. Really :)

Then we went on to the fort itself. A slight digression occurred when I spotted a sign saying “Butter Coffee”. I was stumped. Heard and tried everything from triple lattes to Brazilian blends, but this was new ground. While Divya settled for normal coffee, me being d adventurous kind, ordered a cuppa…Coffee was delicious, but it resulted in yet another accident- I burnt my finger. Thankfully Divya gave me company this time, otherwise would have been left wondering as to whether drinking dat brew led to developing butterfingers and hence dat innocuous name…

Going on to the fort-1st a brief description. Believed to have been built on the ruins of Indraprastha by Sher Shah Suri. Has three entrances, one named Talaqi Darwaza which led me to propose the brilliant theory that it must be the door by which Suri banished the wives and concubines after saying “talaq…talaq…talaq”. Sadly, not many people concurred on this. There was some heated discussion on whether Suri preceded Humayun’s period, or he fought with Akbar, and nothing could come of it due to total confusion and fading echoes of history lessons. But its truly a beautiful place, one of the many gems you seem to keep coming across in Delhi, neatly tucked away in a corner behind its mad rush of traffic and modern face. It was easy to imagine the grandeur of the place in its heyday, and the utter luxury of life its inhabitants experienced.

A slight detail I missed out-by the time we reached the fort, it was closing time. With usual cheek, we wheedled the guard and ended up not only visiting it but also in getting him to click our pictures, until he too was not satisfied until he lined up the perfect shot. A budding artist I must say...

Then we took an auto back, but the day was not over. Not only was the auto jerking like a camel gingerly treading on baking sand, but the auto driver spotted a Tata Nano n launched into a monologue on its shortcomings and inferiority to an auto. And yes he droned on and on, until we reached our hostel. FYI, its a 40 minute journey. Finally, tired but well fed and contented, we trudged back to our rooms, taking a little piece of history back with us…

Its back to me now… well, m nt completely a morning person you see… I sleep by 1 or 2am which according to these souls is too early… but my mom already feels m spoiling my health by doin this :D
N yea, I seriously and heartily thank Swayam for this effort of hers… love u dear :)