Winter and why I love Delhi

Dah-lee mein seaons hote hain, Madamji (Delhi has seasons, Ma'am) the snobbish shop assistant proclaimed when I asked him for a cotton dupatta to match my paisley printed, light-coloured, cotton kurta. Instead, he proceeded to show me a vast range of beautiful pashminas. And, he hastened to add, such prints don't work during winter - stick to solid colours and bold lines and you will be fine. This was a couple of years ago. Now I know better. The seasons he was referring to are broadly two: Diwali to Holi and reverse, which includes a stuffy monsoon period as well. Post Diwali, you put away your cottons and muslins and bring out the woollies and the silks. In Sarojini Nagar market, depending on how the roadside vendor assesses your level of "cool-ness", you are offered socks or stockings. In Dilli Haat, Kashmir and HP artisans are the flavours of the season..exhibiting their gorgeous stoles / shawls / carpers and other winter accessories and crafts. Then there's adrak-waali chai, flavourful shorbas and hearty soups. 'Nuff said?

So folks, its that time of the year. The raat-ki-raani was in bloom just recently and dogs, big or small, desi or videsi, have started wearing sweaters while trotting about the city (only the finest Burberry will do, mind you, for our fashion-conscious residents and their pooches). Weather-wise, winter is just so delightful in Delhi. There are a host of free concerts in the park and several theatre and dance festivals. Over the past month or so, SK and I have been eating out on the terrace a lot before the real chill sets in and we're forced to flee indoors (SK will be fleeing inside a lot earlier than I, the So-Cal guy that he is :-)). A thin envelope of fog (actually a dust-smoke haze, the pessimist in me cries out!) greets us in the mornings now, soon to be the cause of a lot of trouble at the airports and railway stations. For all the technology and highly-skilled trained staff that airlines claim to have, they still can't seem to figure this one out. Come December and hundreds of flights will be delayed, our preparedness will be questioned and yet, nothing much will change. It simply baffles me, this ineptitude to deal with what truly harsh, winter-stricken parts of the world would label a 'minor inconvenience'. True, North America also has its airport-shutdown days and Siberia might witness quite a few disruptions, but nothing on the scale of what we have come to embrace as part of this otherwise glorious weather pattern.

It is Atithi Devo Bhavo time - when we welcome tourists from all over the globe, charge them unthinkable sums of money for a night in the city or on the fringes of a national park for a glimpse of the elusive big cat. All glory to them. And finally, its another special kind of season in India...that which signals the impending arrival of its foreign-resident, homeward-bound people (NRIs). Hoards and hoards of them (I too, was one such specimen, until recently) zipping from one end of the city / country to another, squeezing in yet another visit with yet another relative or friend or buying that last souvenir in the hopes that the luggage will not give way. My mother said once: NRIs yeti ghara, toch Diwali-Dasara