Delhi chalo

I have been to Delhi more times than to any other place on business in the last two years.I have looked critically at the varied faces the city shows up during different times of the year. I have had a unfavourable attitude towards the city, dont know for how long and for what reasons. I really believed that there is lack of sensitivity and friendliness in the city.There is too much aggresion is what i have felt.
But i remember this is not what my next seat neighbour on my flight back to chennai thought. He is a Tamilian but been brought up in Delhi.When i told him my opinion that delhi is the most unfriendly city among all the metropolitan cities in India, he said, you must be prejudiced because it is not 'sea facing'!He said people who have lived all their lives in coastal areas, have been known to exhibit such feelings in landlocked cities! I immediately remembered feeling suffociated and claustrophobic when i was in Nagpur with athai in the early days of my career. She tells me ever so often that i missed the beach and sea so much, that i asked her to make 'tenga manga pattani sundal' atleast to partly recreate the scene!
This time i was little more charitable and was willing to give delhi a chance.Noticed the really wiiiiiiiide roads and the 'jamun' trees lining the road for miles at a stretch. Saw a good number of "State Bhawans"; uttarpradesh bhavan, Assam Bhavan and Pondicherry house on the right side of the road.Was mentally imagining all the goings on in and around these buildings, when something 'juicy and newsy" stirs them up! Ram Manohar Lohia hospital complex appeared next and with it typical hospital scenes passed by; Hospitals seem to have more prominently displayed boards than any other public place; trauma care; casualty;24 hour Chemist's shop....
We were by then nearing Connaught place and i suddenly spotted an array of handicrafts emporia of every single state; utkalika, cauvery, kairali, cooptex,rajasthali.......Felt an intense urge to stop and atleast window shop.But then they were closed when i came that way in the evening around 8 pm!!
Crossed palika bazaar and was looking for jeevan bharati building of LIC.Was remembering seeing all these places wide eyed some 28 years back on the way to Jullundur as part of our orientation programme.A flood of nostalgia swept over me when i remembered going for a movie 'daddy' with swarna in one of the theatres in connaught place. around that time.It is as though by a magic wand from that particular moment, my dislike to delhi as a place vanished and i started looking at it with kindly eyes!