Midnight's Child

I take the right at the newly constructed Vishwavidyala Metro Station on to Chhatra Marg and walk past the Vice Chancellor's bungalow.  It is past mid-night in December, I am heavily clothed. Heavy jacket, woolen socks, floaters but no shoes, muffler hanging around my neck and hands in the Levi's. My pace is slower than usual. I soak in the moment, the silence, the darkness, the chill and the solitude. Delhi has recorded historically low temperatures this year. I feel the tip of my nose going numb and cover it with the muffler, walking all this while. I approach the hostel gate of Miranda House to my right and PG Women's to my left. I pause for a moment and reminisce things that I should not have done and things that should have been done. I move on literally and in many ways metaphorically.

I am brought back to reality by the clickety-clack of a cycle-rickshaw that emerges from the darkness brought about by the canopy of tress beyond the university cooperative stores where the street lights have little effect. The cycle-rickshaw hurriedly passes by and disappears into the darkness as quickly as it had emerged. I walk on past the place where the U-Specials park in front of WUS on towards Ramjas passing Faculty of Arts, the Science Blocks, Faculty of Law and Nirula's. I stand in the middle of the road at the junction between Faculty of Law, Ramjas, D-School and St Stephen's deciding the direction to head in. The straight takes me to Kamala Nagar , the right towards SRCC and the left towards the ridge. 

I take the left and walk on beyond D-School, St Stephen's and Hindu. The long walk has ensured that the cold stays at bay, I let the muffler hang from my neck again. Soon enough I hit the cross road at Vishwavidyala Marg. A hot cup of tea is very tempting and I know that the possibility of getting one at this time of the night is the highest at Hindu Rao so I take the right towards Shri Ram Institute. However the though of the long walk back dissuades me and I do a 180 degrees and walk towards Gwyer hall hoping that I could find the chai wala outside the PG Men's. Now that Himmat Singh has shut shop after they moved the Maurice Nagar Police Station to near Patel Chest, the Vishwavidyala Marg is morosely quiet. Quite a lot has changed.

The chill  has ensured the chai wala's  absence so I decide to beat myself some coffee when I reached home.    I had been walking for longer than I thought I would, so I begin walking back home. I walk past Gwyer Hall, Faculty of Music and take the left on Mall Road and then the right at Hakikat Nagar and then the left at Nu Life Hospital and reach home, the mezzanine floor at 1944. I make my self the cuppa and begin reading Rushie's Midnight's Children.