When in Delhi, “Chase” Experiences

 When my family finally announced that they are going to visit Delhi and spend about a week over here, I was thrilled! It almost felt like I was their host, in this city that is very familiar to me, because I live here. Irrespective of the fact that they have all come to Delhi multiple times in the past, and must be fairly familiar with the city as well, I want to give them the “quintessential Delhi experience”. I sat down to “curate” an itinerary for “things to do” when they come to Delhi. In other words, what kind of experiences do I want them to take with them. 

“Of course you cannot miss watching the Light & Sound Show at the Purana Qila, but you also have to spend an afternoon at Dilli Haat and watch the Safdarjung’s Tomb all illuminated after it gets dark! And what about cafe-hopping in Hauz Khaas!”

The list kept growing longer. The list of experiences to chase, when in Delhi!

Cut to a couple of days later, at office during lunchtime. While sharing slices of pizza, a friend of mine broached the usual question that  most people in the corporate world ask each other towards the end of the work-week: “Guys, what are your plans for the weekend”! She narrated a list of things to do in Delhi over the weekend: a movie screening, a food festival, a cultural fest, a concert, and many others. All of us added our own bits of what we knew was happening. Spoilt for choices as we clearly were, we did not know which experiences were worth chasing, and which ones were not! And was it worth anything to stay back at home and “relax”, when so much was happening outside. 

Who doesn’t like experiencing new things in the city and curating one’s experiences with as much thought as can be put to it? Especially a city like Delhi has no dearth of what can be experienced at a particular time. However, here’s something that I have been thinking off lately: in the bid to chase experiences, are we spending enough time in savouring and relishing the ones we get? 

In the recent years, the city’s cultural landscape has become quite diverse, and yet repetitive. Sufi music festivals are no longer a novelty, one such festival would be hosted almost every month! Crafts and handicraft fairs are all in the run now, almost every big and small fair ground in Delhi hosts one. Many of these are touted as be “international” and grab your eyeballs. To top it off, periodic waves of what can be described as “random fancies” gain prominence across different city venues: candlelight concerts this month, and “bhajan clubbing” on the next!

The same can be said about heritage walks! The same monument will be visited by four different groups on four separate weekends in one single month, simply because everyone in Delhi talks and feels passionate about heritage! Whether that’s good or bad for the city’s heritage is a debate to be had on another forum, but the problem really lies in how some of these are just imitations of one another, rather than original interventions.

All of this sometimes makes me feel nauseous. Nauseous of how every place in Delhi has now got a tag attached to it of some experience that  no other place can offer you! For instance, forest bathing at the Aravallis, catching sight of ducks and fireflies at the Lodhi Gardens, Sunday brunch at the Sunder Nursery, and so on and so forth! 

Think about this: why don’t we pause for a little longer and try to savour the same experience a little more than we would normally allow ourselves to? I might want to sit and sketch at the Sunder Nursery, and spend a couple of hours beside the lake, rather than be on the rush to catch the concert at the Piano Man at Hauz Khas? After all, I am not on a trip with a travel agency and a group of 20 individuals to account for the time spent, but have come here on my own, with my own time and space. 

Deep down, I miss those pre-2020 days when Instagram was not such a rage, and the social media influencer wave was not on the rise. Yes, we did know when the book fair is going to happen at the Pragati Maidan (now Bharat Mandapam), but we would not be urged to “must do this at that spot”! We could figure out ourselves, with less social media intervention, what is worthy of being experienced and how long should you cherish that! Word of mouth would make some place sound enticing, and the thrill of exploring that place on its own terms would reveal itself to you!

I am not against curating experiences (people who know me personally would perhaps appreciate how much I love researching and curating lists of things to explore)! But my idea is also to not to make that list too long and make experiencing something just a check-boxing exercise. As long as you are not convinced that you have explored a place well enough, there is no harm in going back to it. Some places only reveal themselves when revisited, when you slow down and pause and reflect. While planning works, random experiences are not entirely bad! 

Above all, Delhi as a city should not just be reduced to a bunch of experiences. Yes, there are things to do everywhere every weekend, and that’s not bad! But the city and her people are also like a slow-paced novel that has chapters and narratives. You spend more time reflecting upon a single word, reading the same paragraph multiple times till you are able to absorb its meaning. And that, my dear reader, is absolutely fine!