Devanshi Dewan

Delhi for me, like any city for its residents, creates an immediate feeling of identification and belongingness. However, Delhi, the city where I would always crawl my way back to, evokes so many more emotions and memories, many of which I want to hold onto sacredly and protect from the evil eye of the world, but so is my affair with this beautiful, extraordinarily charming city that I wish to let go of all of it. I have lived here all my life and whenever it strikes me that any day now, whenever that might be, I'd have to leave her behind, a piece of my soul, as she only knows how to share extreme joy and happiness. This city is the warm hug of a blanket on a cold, winter night, sheltering, nurturing whilst also filling one to the brim with tender love and care. This is Delhi for me. Lately, whenever I am out exploring the city, it is with extreme carefulness that I notice each nook and cranny, as if learning and memorising every mile of how it looks, I’ve even come to enjoy the sound that other people like to call ‘noise’, mentally mapping every bit of this city as much as I can, too scared to forget as if having to capture all its essence in my suitcase and take it away with me wherever I go. This city has given me more than I can comprehend, let alone ask for, to fit into any writeup of this sort. The Delhi Metro is like a haven for the weary, the excited, the sleepy traveller which transcends time and space like a magical wagon and minutes later you realize, it’s a whole 'nother world you have entered into, as enchanting as the one you left from. Delhi, celebrates the arts, poetry, theatre and I recount numerous cultural evenings in the heart of this breathtaking metropolis being immersed in a Dastangoi session and another time, sipping my hot cup of coffee around a bonfire after a soul stirring play. Delhi is an emotion, a feeling of love and solace that I keep longing and yearning for till the knowledge of its existence stays buried safely deep inside my heart. DIL SE DILLI.

"The streets of Delhi are not mere streets ,they are like the album of a painter. Every figure I saw there was a model of perfection."

- Mir Taqi Mir.