Digboi to Pune Via Delhi - Part II

Over Delhi en route to Pune: 11:30 p.m. 20.2.2011

When seen from above, one can witness the complexity of human life, in the millions of flickering lights. The air is clearer because of the evening rains and I try hard to locate, the flash of light that just attracted my attention. From so high above it looks like a humongous network of incandescent veins coming alive with teeming human activity as the city prepares to sleep.

As I look down it seems pockets of this labyrinthine modern metropolis have an aura around them, because here the lights shine more brightly than in other parts. Are these, the so called posh areas of the city? I wonder. Is it possible to identify the growing rich and poor divide even so high above? Even when everything looks so quiet, pristine and accommodating, I remember the different people I have seen over the years on the streets of Delhi. Hungry, homeless, young children running after the traffic to make a buck or two with the small knick knacks that they try to sell. Young women carrying babies crying out of hunger and malnutrition. Beggars with various mutilations in different parts of their body desperately seeking help from passers by. I wonder if they would be sleeping under one of these million lights trying to catch its warmth and survive this cold winter night.

Now we rise above, slowly through the white clouds, which were an intimidating grey some hours back when I had landed here in Delhi. But now, the moonlight slowly pierces through the thin blanket and as we rise higher, I can see the heavenly counterparts of the lights below. I wonder how, even after being out of sight, the sun still sends its warmth across through the moon which is now being reflected by a carpet of woolen white. It looks endless, as far as my eyes can see, and the vast expanse of sky above, with the lone moon and the faint stars look mightier still.