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Common Thread

This the second time in my life I have been in Delhi decades separating the two visits. That first time I came by train with my father for my first job interview, I was a few months away from graduating college. I could not recall any details from the trip other than a short shopping trip after the interview before catching the train home. Delhi remained a pleasant memory for me since then, that interview converted to my first job and defined the trajectory of my life. First jobs don't have to be extraordinary in any way for that life-altering outcome. It almost does not matter what it is - but it determines what kinds of stimulus you will experience for change. That change (or a series of changes) is really what does the trick but it all relies on the initial stimulus. 

Those thoughts crossed my mind wandering through Dilli Haat as I browsed through the wonderful store display and food options. This time the city seemed vast and full of hidden treasures but I was still very short on time. And the mad traffic of the city eats into so much what little of it I had. Distances on the map I learned do not mean anything and cannot be presumed to have a correlation to time taken to get there. No matter what your mode of transport you could not beat the cruel math of distance unrelated to time. 

When we visit a big city for the first time (it might as well have been that in the case of Delhi), I realize that I will only scratch the surface of what that city is about. I will leave with impressions formed by in random time-slices. With Delhi, I felt like the city was holding out against me and making it impossible to even form that cursory impression. It was like having a series of disconnected themes and upon waking realizing they were held by a common thread,

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