DilliMeriJaan

In Delhi, we are very aware of how we look. Tight t-shirts showing off our biceps, are not offensive. We wear very tight jeans, which might make us impotent, but makes us feel very important. Females also have similar sensibilities. So one of the most lucrative business in Delhi, is running a gym.  Colonies are replete with gyms – from air-conditioned, glass – walled ones through which you can see people panting on treadmills and they can see you stranded in traffic, to simpler ‘mom&pop’ gyms, where friendly aunties do a ‘yoga-aerobic-zumba’ kind of mashups, conducted by other friendly aunties. But gymming, in some form, has to be done. But these are moderately to prohibitively expensive. Not counting the sportswear cost. And not counting the poor RoI because the gym instructors only focus on the shapely, young customers, who anyway need least focus. So the Delhi Government’s Gym in the Park initiative is a very welcome one. It is simple. Your neighbourhood DDA park, ...

IIT Delhi is located between the vast green campus of JNU and the sizeable green patch of Rose Garden in SDA ( Safdarjung Development Area). It, therefore, borrows birds and fauna from both these areas and has done a lot to preserve ecology, itself. Unlike it's greener neighbourhood campus, IIT Delhi is less chaotic. The streets are wide and the greenery is landscaped. Some argue, that this makes it less 'green'. That might be true of it’s jungle cover ( I do not have the statistics for it), but the campus has taken multiple steps to "Be the green change you want to see" - as their Environment Group's tagline says.  The streets are lined with solar lights. Some of the common buildings also have solar panels. The Eco group has carried out plantation drives and you will see some native trees on your walk through the campus. Jamuns are a favourite and if you park your car ( or preferably cycle) next to the main canteen, you will return to a windshield/cycle s...

Delhi has many parks, so you are never too far from a green spot, to walk and breathe in. The green cover in Delhi has been growing year on year and will hopefully reach the prescribed 33% soon. Also, Delhi has the second highest species of birds, among cities ( first being Nairobi) - who would have thought. There are 5 city forests in Delhi - each covering hundreds of acres (the ridge is 80 kms, check out it's uniqueness at http://toxicslink.org/delhiridge/about-delhi-ridge/importance-for-delhi ), filled with birds, deer, neelgai, and the omnipresent peacocks. But these are not what makes the Delhi evenings and winters, so vibrant. It is the parks. The 450 large parks - with an occasional historic ruin thrown in, like the Lodi Garden. Or the smaller parks dotting the city. But mostly, the tiny patch of fun, nor more than 200 mts from any Delhi house. Which start beckoning you like a mirage in a desert, as soon as the sun starts setting, on a summer evening. Little children star...

I did not go to North Campus as a student. And there was no fun to be had outside the fortress like South Campus college that I did go to. So I had to listen to stories of the canteen in Hindu College and the momos in Kamala Nagar and the general buzz around the campus, wistfully, all my life. There was little point in going to North Campus, if you were not studying there, just to pretend to be part of the excitement. That has to be experienced everyday- as a resident not a tourist. Then I started working in Qutub Institutional Area. The place has many post-graduate colleges and some organisations which seem to hire only students - the population in these organisations and the colleges merge seamlessly. Indeed, one of the organisation's canteen always seems full of the students from across the road and that particular college's dhaba is replete with the employees of this organisation - a case of "grass is greener on the other side" - literally - and the pun on ...