This time when I visited Delhi, a friend explained me the broad structuring of Delhi and it's suburbs. Delhi has grown radiating in different suburbs, those that include Noida, Greater Noida, Gurgaon, Faridabad, Ghaziabad and Sonipat to consider the key ones. Noida, I came to know is the abbreviation of New Okhla Industrial Development Authority. When one goes to Noida, a totally new landscape, quite different from Delhi's colonies and bungalows dawns. The tyranny of apartment blocks walling one's vision are arranged into societies and townships. The other lineup is the glitzy IT complexes which I had never seen so blatantly while moving in the main city before. This is not to say that the new suburbs are bad. They have clean air, less density and lot of free space...those that the typical corporate-jib inhabitants idealize. Those whose idea of cultural engagement is largely the mall and the multiplex on a weekend.
Yet, Delhi felt much easier to move through the metro, autos and buses. Inspite of all the deathly news of the toxic air, I saved myself without the mask. This time was also the first when I used Delhi's buses, and they were extremely convenient and cheap. I haven't really experienced choking roads in Delhi. To me, it has always been a city of wide roads, laid out concentrically, that doesn restrict movement just into a single spine like in Mumbai. The overlapping lines of Delhi metro make it quite complex and I feel it had been resolved quite well. Besides, the infrastructures seemed quite spacious as compared to Mumbai where people literally don't have space to walk on foot over bridges or train stations. Perhaps because Delhi simply has the land to spread, it felt more comfortable and convenient.
As a city of "colonies", Delhi has always fascinated me. The housing colonies are like hives with several entrances and internal gates that can bring varying degrees of control. I have always wanted to understand their layouts and how they become/merge in the public urban domain. Such a complexity of form disappeared in Gurgaon and Noida that had clear cut sectors with houses typically addressed with plot numbers. The metro in these suburbs begins to traverse larger distances between individual stations. The landscape begins to feel stretched... perhaps this is what we understand as sprawl.
Last but not the least, I spend some really intimate moments with close friends and acquaintances in the city. This is also what made the entire trip memorable as compared to others. This time I felt a distinct warmth that the city offered to me and, at once I thought, what if I was a resident of this very City. Perhaps it is the growing familiarity with a place that coaxes us to consider such a possibility. Inspite of my continuous hopping in the city from one end to the other, glibly over public transportation or Uber/ola's, I believe I could make some worthwhile conversation with people in an otherwise intimidating place. In this view, the city allowed me to tame it. I have always believed that people in Delhi, unlike Mumbai, have had the time to sit and stare, or even talk. Mumbai is a city which perpetually keeps you vary of it's next slipping timetable. Perhaps I saved myself of it in Delhi being a visitor! Still, Delhi, for now, seemed more livable than Mumbai.
