Sweetest Dard e Dil-li :))

A few hours more than twenty-four spent in the wintery warmth of Delhi were very special and extremely emotional as each passing moment connected family fragments in a happy reunion.
The platform was cold, foggy and dusty at about noon as my younger son and I alighted from the comfortable confines of the airconditioned compartment of the train that brought us from Lucknow to New Delhi.

The morning I spent in Delhi was invitingly sunny and the fragrance of nostalgia filled every little space around me. As my son navigated his way expertly through the majestic blocks of Connaught Place, I remembered the time, not so long ago, when I used to take the children around these very exquisite corridors during our winter holidays in Delhi...shopping, eating and having so much fun.

Commuting in those days used to be a nightmare in Delhi. But now the Metro is amazingly swift and convenient. We had to buy a couple of things before reaching my cousin's place in Jamia Nagar. Having done that we got on to the Metro. Everything perfect so far. But within a few minutes of being in the Metro my son realised that his wallet was missing.
The money he was carrying and his cards were gone....and we were like, "Oh! My God....what are we going to do now???!!!!!!!"

Frantic calls to get the cards blocked were made simultaneously as trying to get an FIR lodged for the missing things. Then a visit to the nearest branch of our bank to arrange for cash. All this took up most of the afternoon.

At my cousin's place everyone was waiting over "lunch". When we finally reached her place tucked away from the hustle and bustle of a polluted over-populated Delhi, the sun had already begun calling it a day. We were all ravenously hungry. Freshening up was hurried. But the sumptuous supper that followed was deliberate, lazy and so completely engrossing. Endless cups of tea and an unending chatter came to a halt as tired bodies succumbed to the coziness of luxurious silk razais in a room filled with the fagrance of affection and fondness.
After a comfortable night, morning came rather gradually and indolently as the Sun fought its way through the stubborn fog.

For the "breakfast" at another cousin's place at Akbar Road, we reached half an hour before noon!
The vastly spread out green lawn was filled abunduntly with the reclining rays of the Sun, mellowed in intensity as if shivering in the face of a bully called Winter!!!
The paradoxes of the morning were no less amazing as freezing arms bonded in warm embraces, and in the biting cold of the North we relished steaming hot idlis, dosas and sambhar perfected with rich authentic aroma of the South.
As the Sun spread its rays over the plentiful flower beds there was colourful resplendence all around.
We were in another world, where no dust, no pollution and no frosty feeling could ever reach...