An Evening in Connaught Place
Connaught Place in the evening time presents a very delightful picture. Men, women and children collect there and go round the place, and everyone is happy in his own way.
The place hums with activity in the evening. Since it is the main shopping centre of New Delhi, the fashionable men and women go there to buy their requirements. Shops all over Connaught Place are magnificent and wear a bright look in the evening. In many shops dazzling lights add to the beauty of the wares lying in glass cases. Their glitter is so pleasing that even people with no intent to do shopping feel urged to enter the shops at least to examine the goods.
Outside the shops the corridors of Connaught Place in the evening are full of hawkers who spread all sorts of their wares on the floor and sell them cheap. The less fashionable people prefer to buy goods from them rather than go into the shops and pay more. Crowds of people including the newlyweds and lovers walk leisurely in the corridors examining every shop and commenting on things of beauty and joy.
The lawns of Connaught Place become in the evening a meeting place for businessmen, students, jaywalkers, lovers and pickpockets. Though some businessmen strike their deals in nearby posh hotels, many prefer to sit on the open lawns. Joywalkers from Delhi and New Delhi swarm on the lawns and inhale, as they walk hand in hand, fresh air and please their eyes with the beautiful flowers blossoming all round. The lawns acquire a fairyland atmosphere in the dim lights of electric bulbs. The pickpockets are equally quick in their job on the lawns as well as the corridors. They shy among the lovers who cannot put up with the dazzling lights in the corridors prefer to stroll on the lawns.
The ice-cream hawkers, ice-cooled water vendors and even balloon sellers do a brisk business in the evening. They charge for their wares more than the normal prices because they know that with middle class gentry bargaining is considered as bad manners.
The circular roads of Connaught Place are full of all kinds of vehicles in the evening. Cars, scooters, taxis, even cycles speed past the shops in unending lines and the occupants bends their necks out to catch sight of beautiful objects all around. Some park their vehicles on the roads and sit on the lawns or go in for shopping. There is great hustle and bustle till the closing hour for the shops.
Connaught Place in the evening is very clean and tidy in spite of the great rush. The British built it in European style because they were used to pass their evening in calm and grand atmosphere. Now-a-days it has been completely Indianised.
