It was yet another evening with everything usual about it. The only thing bugging my mind was my bank account's poverty-stricken and recession affected condition which has been actually deteriorating day by day (thanks to my shopping fiascos). Making few, quick bucks was on the top of mind, so that is when I thought of collecting my old, torn, worn, neglected engineering books and sell them off in chawri bazar. After much hard work and weight lifting (an average engineering book weighs around 1 kg), I headed off to chawri bazar and what a journey it was!!
It was a smooth and merry ride till came the narrow by lanes of my destination. The place was over flowing with rickshaws, bicycles, scooters, redis, cows, buffaloes and cars (and that too not with nanos..but full blown sedans and SUVs). The sight of meagre 8 feet road accommodating every possible medium of transport was actually appalling. And if this wasn't enough the road even had temporary and shift-according-to-convenience road divider of redis. Why the hell on this earth (chawri bazar in this case) did the planners (if they ever existed) put everything at one place. Name what you want and I bet nothing can beat Chawri bazar. Have a marriage..get the cards printed, doing engineering..what better place to buy books at reasonable price, need to fix up your car..get tools, steel rods..blah blah, your taste buds in dire need of finger licking food..dont even think twice before heading here..you can get chats, fast food joints, kachoris at every second shop. Visit the place at around Id, never before would you have tasted better mutton. If India is a land of diversity then Chawri Bazar for sure is the land of shopping diversity. The place looks like a big open mall where you can find everything you need or desire. And this being the primary reason for the place being overtly congested. The smoke of vehicles got me close to my first major asthmatic attack. Even the two layers of thick hanker chiefs couldn't help my cause. Twice my slipper came off and fell on the road while I was on my scooter and all thanks to the over congestion, it was as hard to find as it is to find your kumbh ke mele mein bichada hua bhai/behen. If that wasn't enough to test my nerves, then came the final nail in the coffin when my jeans was ruthlessly torn apart by some 3 feet long iron rods which were being carried by a 1.5 feet wide rickshaw. I know torn jeans are ‘in’ but this wasn't exactly the way I wanted them. Moving over the pot holes and getting a jerk at an average of 2/sec, I finally reached my destination and made a handsome money of Rs.500 (during a financial crunch, even this much looks fab). Grabbing the money and books I finally and quickly turned to make an exit. I wasn't expecting the return journey to be any smooth. To my amazement (bewildered by the initial route, I took a new one this time even though a major risk it was), it was the other way around. It was not exactly bad as I had thought, until I reached a lane with three cows standing across the street, not even leaving an iota of space to go through. As my luck would have it, I had to go back by the route I came from, which was buzzing even more. Afraid of loosing my hard earned money in the mad rush, I safely put it in inner shirt's pocket.
While on my way to home, I came across a billboard saying 'hum badlenge to badlegi delhi'. I wonder how far this is true. All right, agreed that we make the place we live in but while we are doing our bit towards the society (I never throw waste on the roads, never spit, take care of street dogs, plant trees, avoid vehicle whenever possible), aint it government's responsibility to at least have a look at this situation, to restore the old charm of Chawri Bazar, to make it look like what it used to be..of beautiful tombs, darwaze, mosques. This metro clearly aint helping the cause.
The 2 hour journey which was supposed to be of 1 hour finally ended but not before making me feel nauseating, thinking and short of fresh breath. But then, I took out my Rs.500 note, felt its warmth, and basked in the glory of earning my hard earned money!!!
