Totally out of context

This past week’s been gorgeous, hasn’t it? Just like a Karan Johar song — kabhi dhoop, kabhi chaaon, kabhifog kabhismog,kabhitraffic, kabhi aur bhi zyada traffic.

This past week’s been gorgeous, hasn’t it? Just like a Karan Johar song — kabhi dhoop, kabhi chaaon, kabhifog kabhismog,kabhitraffic, kabhi aur bhi zyada traffic. Lalalalalalaaa. But that’s alright. As K.Jo says, ‘It’s all about loving your parents’. Errr...okay, that was out of context, but what to do, that’s exactly how most of this city seems to be! Completely out of context.

HT Image

Ponder, if you will, the irony of an endless traffic jam the very day an Auto Expo kicks off. Or the fact that the government office where the best and brightest students of India go to deposit forms for foreign scholarships, looks as if it’s stuck in 1875 — complete with cobwebs, crow shit, spooky broken furniture and even the lonely ghost of a rejected student. (P.S. I cooked up that last bit.)

Still contextual, but completely devoid of credibility — do you know that the construction of the Delhi Metro has killed the ghosts of Delhi? I kid you not! I went with a friend on a ghost hunt a couple of years ago, and oh, the horror, the horror! Two of the very-much-haunted spots of Central Delhi had been torn down to make way for the chug-chug train. But then again, who’d prefer scary spirits to the Metro?

Anyway, going back to being out of context. Have you ever noticed how most hotels/inns/bed&breakfasts right outside the railway station look like they belong to Ooty of the 1920s? Or even how those that line the highway towards the airport have big neon hoardings a la Las Vegas?

I feel like I’m writing a prosaic version of Alanis Morisette’s Ironic. ‘Isn’t it ironic… the electronic warnings about hazardous driving at the ITO crossing are the most distracting...isn’t it ironic, don’t you think?’

How was any of that relevant? Because, just like songs in every Bollywood blockbuster, the background music of Delhi, too, is always out of context. Smile at the irony and hum… Yeh Dilli hai meri jaan.