After my caffeine recharge and much need mobile phone recharge, I left Connaught Place. I decided to walk a bit more and catch a bus to go see India Gate.
I spoke to a few passengers waiting at the bustop and figured how to get to India Gate. The conductor in the bus I travelled was kind enough to yell out the name of the stop (on my request of course :P ), so it was quite easy to get to India Gate.
As I walked across a huge 6 lane crossing I noticed that the whole area was deserted, with the exception of a few army personnel in makeshift bunkers. So I decided to approach them for better directions.
Twist! Now get this, I totally forgot it was just a week to Indian Republic Day. So all the area around India Gate has been shut down from civilian entry! :(
I wanted to explore more but I had very less time at hand. So I just went back to the railway station to catch my return train.
I must tell you the work for which I had come New Delhi in the first place was only half done and it kept worrying me. So after a couple of chats with friends and parents, I started clicking pictures again.
It had begun to rain and started to feel much colder. So I passed time by finding a corner on the platform and clicking from that single perspective. It was fun to watch the world go by for about 30 mins as I tried to find and click meaningful pictures.
My return journey was a total contrast to the onward one. I had a bunch of senior people sitting alongside. It was such a drag the entire evening and through the night. I edited most of the pictures in this series as I lay on my lovely lower berth seat (haha… I never get lower berth!).
Later the following afternoon a few surprising things started happening. I came to learn that among the seniors sitting beside me were a few businessmen, an investment banker, a software developer looking to make a career jump, a person working in defence industry who couldn’t utter a word about it and finally Mr. M.L. Sharma. He is a government employee travelling to Bengaluru to participate in BSNL annual cultural meet.
As he said that, he pulled out his lovely Harmonium. He was a hobbyist and started learning the instrument very recently. Nevertheless, he played some good music and entertained us. He was very happy when I asked permission to record him (I will post a video soon).
As the dusk approached we arrived at Secunderabad. Although impromptu, the journey never felt that way. I enjoyed it a lot. It’s a pity that I couldn’t explore more.
Next time... New Delhi... next time!!!
Here are few pictures as I left the station. I hope you guys liked this series.
Last but not the least, here is a picture of one of the meals I had on the train. Costa coffee apart, these are the meals that I survived on for 2 days on the train. :P
Keep an eye on my blog for more posts :)
