[jyotirmoy]

The fog has returned to haunt Delhi. Dense fog has disrupted air & rail traffic. Driving to work in the morning means following the tail lamps of the car in front.

[iwanttogoback]

fog! blisteringly cleaqr skies, and a burning sun here - 38 tomorrow, 39 wednesday, 35 thursday, and so it goes!

what's the temperature like?

[jyotirmoy]

The temperature? 20C max & 7 min.

[cyberhippie]

I read recently that some Indian pilots weren't rated for landing in the fog. Hmmmmmmm

[jyotirmoy]

Delhi airport is equipped with CAT-IIIB landing system which enables aircrafts to land in very poor visibility conditions. It costs the airlines a big chunk of money to train pilots for CAT-IIIB operation. Although the DGCA had been advising airlies to train more pilots but the airlines except Indian have not done that. Most of them feel that very poor visibility persists for a week or two and only at Delhi. Many planes like the Boeing fleet operated by Jet airways are not fitted with CAT-III system.

[Hyderabadi]

On a different note, I saw a report on one of the Indian news channels about a car thief being chased by police and not able to see where he was going in the fog drove straight into a police station. Once he realized where he was   , he took advantage of the fog to get away from the cops.  

[jyotirmoy]

A similar thing happened to me but on that night I was not stealing car

[Hyderabadi]

jyotirmoy, on Dec 30 2008, 11:51 AM, said:

A similar thing happened to me but on that night I was not stealing car

[jyotirmoy]

After an excellent fog free December we woke up today to find Delhi completely engulfed in thick fog. Now it is past 1 PM but the fog hasn't yet lifted and in allprobability it wouldn't. Tomorrow is Sunday and in all likelihood we will have fog.

[cyberhippie]

You don't like fog do you jyoti da

[jyotirmoy]

No dear Cyber bhai I like my winters bright & sunny. A dark winter day is soooo depressing.
BTW yesterday's fog caused two train accidents, a couple of road accidents, half day closure of Delhi airport, diversion of both international & domestic flights, tripping of power distribution in north India, death of half a dozen poor homeless people................

[sbkane]

It is breezy and chilly today in Delhi, after last two days of drizzle. It reminds me of my first Delhi winter 30 years back when I came from warmer Mumbai to settled here. I had of course heard about Delhi winter but was not to be intimidated. By end-November all my office-colleagues brought on their sweaters and coats but I continued to be in my shirtsleeves and later in half-sleeved sweater. Although earning admiration for my bravado, I was beginning to feel uncomfortable and cold (the office then was not air-conditioned) but hated to accept defeat. The matter was precipitated on a particularly chilly day ( like today) that marked the beginning of the first cold wave of the season. It had rained the previous night and the day began with a breezy and frosty morning. I was absolutely miserable in the office, the chill reaching to my bones and my toes and soles aching with cold. That evening on my way back I got down at Lajpat Nagar market and bought a pair of thick pullovers and a pair of woollen socks and put them on right there at the shops. I had finally made my peace with Delhi winter. I also realized my folly in looking upon winter as an adversary, rather than as an ally that offers many wonderful things, albeit with a friendly warning to get equipped with adequate measures. I heeded the warning and it has been an unending romance ever since.

It is a season of delectable roller coaster of agonies and ecstasies. Leaving the cosy bed and quilt and getting down to the morning chores is agonizing. You snuggle deeper in your quilt and savour a few more moments of warmth, delaying the inevitable as long as possible. On getting up all wrapped up, you gaze at the hazy outside world through the window wondering if it is going to be a foggy or sunny day, look at the weather forecast for the day in the newspaper, as you languidly sip the morning tea, clutching the hot cup with both palms and extracting the last bit of warmth. The hot water bath with scalding water slowly trickling down the body is an ecstatic experience but inescapably sandwiched between the rather agonizing rituals of stripping down and dressing up with shivering hands and numb fingers. The breakfast too is a hot-and-cold affair- hot when you begin and cold by the time you are not even halfway through. Decked up with woollens, you step out in the bracing environs, ready to face the world.

The afternoons, if sunny, are glorious. Housewives sit out basking in the sun, exchanging gossip, colourful wool balls in their laps and their hands furiously knitting, resting in between to munch roasted peanuts, the shells strewn around at their feet or chomp salad of juicy carrots and radish. Another breed who have the luxury to relish winter afternoons are the babus in the government offices who can be seen sprawled all over the lawns around the India gate during the noon hours, extending their lunch break till late afternoons for their siestas. On a foggy day though one can lose one’s sense of orientation even on familiar routes, as I did on more than one occasion when after dropping my daughter at the school-bus stop, I missed the turn to our house and drove the car on to a garbage pile. On another occasion in a foggy night, walking back from a late night function across a small park from our house (in a colony of identical houses), I reached the house of my neighbour fumbling with the keys to open the lock, cursing my wife for handing me the wrong keys!

The days are woefully short and the warmth in the sunshine wanes much before sunset. The kitchen where the dinner is being cooked is a cosily warm and I help my wife with the cooking, stirring the subji, while she is roasting hot chapattis. (She wishes that I showed the same eagerness to help her cook during the summers!). Nothing, not even room air-conditioner can beat the delights of hot water bottle. On particularly chilly nights, placing  flat glass bottles filled with steaming water underneath the quilts half an hour or so before bedtime can save the torture of getting in to cold bed.

Winter is a celebration time. Markets and streets present a picture of lively carnival. There is a general air of festivity with the young dressed in their woollens moving aimlessly and noisily, dapper gentlemen in their suits, ladies in their colourful silk sarees and shawls and peherans, children with spring in their strides, eateries thronged with crowds, bargains in progress at pavement sellers around heaps of woollens and other wares, shoppers stepping out of stores with heavy packets in their hands and beaming smiles on their faces. One realizes that a winter season is needed to flaunt fashions and display range of apparel and variety of colours. After all, what range of wear and style can one show-off in hot and humid conditions? During my regular visits to Bangalore on official assignments, I used to sneer at Bangloreans slipping on their jackets and sweaters after every slight fall in temperature- But now I understand and sympathise.

A picture of Delhi winter is incomplete without those unique formal celebrations that begin with the onset of winter- marriage functions. Delhi marriages are epitomes of anarchy and chaos. Delhi reportedly holds a record of hosting highest number of marriages in a day. There were a record number of nearly 15,000 marriages on a particular day last year. On such auspicious evenings, roads are choc-a-block with vehicles, barat processions adding to the din and traffic delays. It looks as if everyone in the city is either getting married or is a guest at a marriage function. Every open ground of reasonable size is temporarily grabbed by contractors, called “Tentwallas”, who erect “tents” where marriages are hosted. Many an open ground has as many as a dozen tents and on the marriage day, invariably all tents are hosting marriages. The place looks like a veritable  “mela’ with utter confusion reigning supreme, people scampering wildly in search of “their” marriage tents, unable to communicate without having to shout above the cacophony of bands playing simultaneously.
On being invited to a marriage, you start, taking travel and traffic delays in to account, an hour later than the time printed in the invitation card. If you are an invitee from the bridegroom’s, you are likely to be welcomed by strangers from bride’s family with no known face from the groom’s camp around. They are all with the barat, which is yet to arrive. As you start wondering if you are at the right place, you see a familiar face in the crowd and after mutual reassurance, you get down to the business of being a guest. That involves feasting on Chaat, Panipuris, pakodas and cold drinks being served by liveried waiters strutting around. Appetites whetted, everybody is longingly looking at the dinner arrangement, not yet thrown open, waiting for the barat to arrive. After a while a few mothers with hungry kids and a few oldies also hungry and unable to wait any longer surreptitiously edge towards the dinning rows and soon a stream grows in to a stampede. You join the melee and after having had your fill, return home after meeting the groom if the barat has arrived by then or without doing so, leaving your gift packet with someone to hand over.

Winter season is one common thing that all ex-Delhites miss acutely and feel homesick about. When two ex-Delhites happen to meet, you can bet your last coin that they will end up talking longingly about how they miss Delhi winter. Notwithstanding fog, delayed flights and other inconveniences, Delhi winter is a wonderful season that almost makes one feel “God’s in his Heavens, All’s right with this world”.

[jyotirmoy]

Yes I remember those days, you trying to brave the cold. I had been a bit more prudent to have bought a nice jacket from Mohan Singh place.
And talking about driving in the fog, once I was returning home from CP after partying with some visitors staying at Imperial hotel. I missed the right turn near Anand Vihar market & drove straight in to the police staion compound. A quick U turn saved me from great harassment.

[Hippie at Heart]

Nice ode to the Delhi winter!

[jyotirmoy]

Dear Kane, you have rightly described the typical Delhi wedding. It is fashionable for the groom's party to arrive late and keep the bride's party waiting endlessly. This is a reflection of the feaudalistic mind set of average Delhites. These days I care two hoots, simply arrive at the venue, hand over my gift, say hello to all I know and make a quiet exit. Thanks to Supreme court orders we are spared the whole night blaring music.
I would also add that these "tentwallas" and "decorators" have formed a mafia. They book all the venues through their cronies in the MCD and then the hapless people who are getting married pay thru their nose.