The "New" Delhi

We landed in Delhi at 12:45 am yesterday. A full 2 hours behind schedule. Our flight from Baroda was delayed due the standard reason "late arrival of the aircraft". I mean how stupid does that reason sound? And its the same reason every airline dishes out for the delays.

Fortunately we were informed of the delay over SMS and we used up the time to catch up on some shop talk with colleagues over a few drinks. Baroda was also cold but we were warned that Delhi would be worse.

12:45 is not that bad a time to reach a metro, but it is horrible if you need to drive another hour to get to your destination, in our case, Faridabad. A colleague of mine took nearly 2 hours in the morning the previous day and I was praying we would take less. Fortunately there was no traffic and we zoomed into Faridabad and reached the hotel at 1:30 to be welcomed by our colleagues who were up & about with their 3rd round of drinks. I had a cup of tea and crashed into bed at 2:30.

I am getting to Delhi after nearly 2 years and the changes are amazing. The roads are really wide (which still results in traffic jams, I am told. Thankfully I saw those roads in the wee hours of the morning sans any traffic), the metro work is in full swing and from what I understand it will eventually be the lifeline of the city, there are still enough trees lining the roads and the winters are nice & cold.

Gurgaon on the other hand is still seeing so much construction & the infrastructure is inadequate. Public transport is woeful and the traffic sense is still absent. So you are damned if you are in your own vehicle and damned if you aren't.

I also happened to drive on the newly opened toll expressway from Gurgaon into Delhi. Its an awesome piece of engineering with lovely signages but the exit points are crowded beyond belief. It took me 45 mins to traverse a road which would have otherwise taken about 10 mins & I ended up reaching the airport 15 mins before the departure time. Fully convinced that I would miss the flight, I was relieved like hell when my check in was accepted at the Kingfisher counter.

Ironically I landed in Mumbai at 12:45 am (same time as Delhi the previous day) which was an hour behind schedule thanks to air traffic congestion at Mumbai airport. Whether its air or road, traffic problems are here to stay.

On a totally different note, the food on Kingfisher is exquisite!