The Sunset Constant

New cities can be overwhelming. The crowds, the culture, the food, the climate, the streets. Too much to take in when you’re visiting a place for the first few times. I had a similar experience in Delhi recently. I’ve been to the city twice (my last visit was in 2016), but the experience this time was different. It wasn’t like last time, when I spent an entire evening sitting on one of the broken structures of the Hauz Khas fort that overlooked a small pond.

A lot of things were different this time. It looked as if the city got busier. Every part of the city underwent some kind of construction, the visibility wasn’t great, and I could see tightly packed high-rise buildings occupying every inch of the city. I was there for four days, and on a very tight schedule. It wore me out.

On the last day of the trip, I was half asleep in a van, on my way back to Delhi from Jim Corbett. I was tired. I badly wanted to throw myself into a bed, tug myself under the sheets and sleep for two straight days. It was almost six when the van entered Noida and the sky started changing colors. I saw the sun setting behind the busy cityscape. For a moment, I forgot all the pain and tiredness and focused my attention on the sunset. It was beautiful.

How much ever new or overwhelming a city can be, watching a sunset makes things better. It reminds us that all of us share the same sky. Irrespective of the city we live in, we’re the same people underneath. As the sun fades into the darkness, it calms us down and cools off our anger and frustration towards a new city. It prepares us to see the same city in new light at dawn.