Given the right weather and time of the day, it is fun to walk the roads of Delhi, especially around Connaught Place. You never know what unusual sights you may come across.Jantar Mantar, today, is known more for the multitude of protests that are held around all year round. That it was a device to tell time and record the changing lengths of day before machines made their appearance, seems to have been obliterated from the minds of teeming millions that pass by it each day.
Time is a concept, an individual entity that watches silently as humanity shuffles by. Does it smile knowingly? Laugh mockingly? Or shakes it head sympathetically as men try to stop time, tame it, rule it, master it? Dynasties come and go, civilizations perish, but time persists, a witness to all change.But humans being what they are, try to leave their mark. Some like the Jantar Mantar have stood ground for centuries and others like the Municipal Council building are new. These are testimonies to efforts of grand men. Men with money and power. Not to be outdone is the humble artist who drew an image of Lord Hanuman on the sidewalk. Surrounded by mud and broken paving tiles, you see it only when you literally stumble upon it. You stop mid-step and walk reverently around it.
This image will not last long. maybe till the next rain. But till then, it is unique. Another demonstration of the human spirit to leave a mark even in anonymity.
