The day I explored myself

Saad Ahmad
Sep 2, 2018 · 4 min read

With the classes called off, I found myself free from any obligations for the entire day; naturally, my initial response was to spend this leisure time like any other holiday; video games and sleep. But this time, conditions were different; I was at a bus stop roughly 1 km away from home, and the weather was delightful as opposed to the generally hot and dusty weather. It was the month of may, and so the hustle-bustle was missing.

Looking up, at the so restless clouds, I made up my mind to go on an excursion; I called back home to inform my parents about the trip and hopped on to a bus; I didn’t care about the destination and just wanted to enjoy the journey. I must say, never had I enjoyed a bus ride as much as i did that day, never had i observed the trivial things around me with such consciousness: I noticed sweat trickling down the faces of passengers, a guy trying to flirt with a young lady seated in the front row, a laborer who had a dust all over his face and looked dehydrated, (probably he worked at a construction site), a passenger who was seated in the back row had a gold tooth, the advertisements/posters of gurus who claim to be the supernatural and what not. I lost track of time in trying to take notice of the multitude of things around me. I got off at Delhi gate Bus stop, completely oblivious to the place around me. However, it didn’t take me long enough, seeing the catchy archaic structure shaped like an arch, to ascertain that I was near the walled city of Old Delhi.

Delhi Gate (Source: Wikipedia.org)

The gate was built by Shahjahan in 1638, apparently the emperor used this gate to go to Jama Masjid for prayers. (I guess there were walls also, built around the gate so as to make it exclusive for entry into the city, but were demolished for the construction of roads).

I roamed around for a while before entering into a more familiar territory, it was the Daryaganj book market. I had been to Daryaganj book market once for obvious reasons but I don’t remember much of the first trip except for the cursive writing books that we bought. However, this time it was different, this time I rambled around, ricocheting from shops to shops, went inside some, talked to some shopkeepers, met an avid reader, he was about my age and was looking for Dan Brown’s Da vinci Code. He mistook me for the shopkeeper and asked “bhaiyya dan brown hai kya ?”, and so our conversation started. Apparently he was here for the first time, very similar to myself.

It was surprising to know that some of the novels were sold by weight regardless of the popularity of either the author or the story. I mean, I find it rather funny to enter into a shop and ask for 1 kg of novels.

₹99 for a kilogram of novels :) (Source: Google)

My stomach had started to groan by now, so I searched for restaurants nearby on my phone and went to a Punjabi restaurant, the owner was very friendly, he served me a lovely glass of lassi ! I was delighted and felt refreshed after having a good meal. After rambling around for a little while more, I was finally back at the bus stop waiting for my next ride to a land unknown. I hopped onto bus number 838 and to my surprise it was headed towards the trademark of Old Delhi, the Jama Masjid.


Jama Masjid at evening (source: wikipedia.org)

I had visited Jama Masjid after a long period of time and the image was rather hazy in my mind, I pictured it to be a lot smaller than it actually was. Upon entering the courtyard, I was wonderstruck by the sheer size of it, boy was it magnificent ! The view I had was very similar to one in the picture above. The fluttering of pigeons, the majestic grandeur of the architecture, the serene atmosphere and the wide expanse of shimmering sky added to my awe.

One stark difference I noted that was very different from the modern Islamic mosques was that there was a little pond for ablution whereas the modern mosques have taps. (I think it is a bit unhygienic to wash yourself from a pond where many people wash themselves, also I am unaware of the frequency of water cleaning procedures). Nevertheless, I felt spiritually satisfied and my mind was at peace.

It was 6 o’clock and my stomach had started to groan again, I decided, for a change, to have dinner at some modern restaurant. Booked an UBER to Select Citywalk, Saket. Meanwhile during the ride, I enjoyed a beautiful sunset, everything, which otherwise seemed so boring, looked so enjoyable (yes! even the traffic).

I had spaghetti with sausages and plum cheesecake for dinner, although the food was very good, but it wasn’t as enticing and as rich as the experience I had earlier that day.


The Takeaway

I think, the biggest takeaway from these kind of excursions is that you get to explore yourself, you find beauty and enjoyment in trivial things. You look at and observe what’s around you, and most importantly, you realize that the world is much bigger than your perceived one wherein you are so consumed.

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