The Qutab Minar expeditions - I

Well, I haven't written here in a while, and Peter reminded me of this last night. So I thought I'd pen down another act of my emotional mind. There are two instances when I visited Qutab Minar, both of which were spurred by these 'minor tiffs' with the only person I usually fight with - and I'm not talking about Sam.

Anyway, so there we were, drinking on a a weekend as usual, when one of us said something silly, and the other said something sillier, and as usual, the consequence was that I decided I had to storm out of the house (I don't usually remember what it was that led to my departure). There I was, standing at the Kishangarh T-point, Chevrolet Showroom in front, JNU to the right, Fortis to the left, and Cows, Buffaloes and my house behind. The last time I had walked out I had walked all the way past JNU, Munirka, Aggarwal sweets, DLF Promenade, Vasant Kunj B-block, and back to Kishangarh. This time when I reached the T, I decided to walk the other way - only this time I forgot to take my slippers along.

So, there I was, barefoot, trudging along with a mind determined to set eyes, for the first time, upon Qutab Minar. The route was simple - Kishangarh (left) Fortis (left) Andheria Modh (left) Mehrauli (left)... but has anyone ever tried walking barefoot on the road? It felt therapeutic... like acupressure, there was this warm feeling of blood rushing to the souls of the feet, and when it got tiring, I could rest on the empty drains a couple of times - back to the wall, butt on one side, feet on the other, the drain in between...with the 'terrific' view of Delhi night traffic in front, of random strangers on random vehicles, driving by at 2 AM - a myriad stories hidden in each shadow briefly changing shape in the light of the street lamp above, before moving on...

I remember reaching Qutab Minar, looking at it with awe, saying 'Hi' to it like it was some friend I had either always heard of or had met online, but had never gotten to meet before, and then as I turned around to go back home, I turned around and waved goodbye again... The journey back was no different...right turns instead of left, more acupressure, another 3 hours of walking, and I was home with swollen, aching feet. The blisters on my feet the next morning were the biggest and most painful I have experienced (yet), and stayed for at least 2 months (in fact a faint mark still remains to accompany my memories of that night)...