Heaven, and a Lichee Tree!


I was traveling the whole of last week. Delhi, Gurgaon, Noida; mostly, trying to meet Radio Stations and seeking business. This used to be home last year. When living in Gurgaon and working in Delhi, my usual travel time was an hour and a half, one way. ‘Normal’ when one calls Delhi/Gurgaon home. Not at all ‘normal’; when one moves to Dehra Dun.

Let’s first define normal. Normal technically (in statistics and probability theory), means that out of a number of outcomes of an event, a large number are around the ‘mean’, called the normal curve, or just ‘normal’.

So, it ‘normally’ takes 1.5 hours from Gurgaon to Okhla. There is ‘normally’ a traffic Jam at Dhaula Kuan. There ‘normally’ are very aggressive drivers on the road. It is ‘normal’ for your blood pressure to go beyond 140/90 by the time you reach any place. It is ‘normal’ to ask friends if they have time to meet and ‘normal’ for them to reply “not this week, dude”. It is ‘normal’ to meet in a restaurant ‘mid-way’ and spend 300 rupees on a 30 ml of whisky, instead of inviting people home. It is ‘normal’ to lie to relatives “ Oh! I couldn’t come to Delhi this week”, just in case they invite you for a meal and you have to go through 1.5 hours of traffic, a jam at Dhaula Kuan and aggressive drivers, to have buaji’s Rajma Chawal. Its ‘normal’.

My office in DehraDun is 5 minutes from my home. Friends don’t ask me if I am free anymore, they just pick me up on their way home. I end up first reaching a relative’s house and then asking for Rajma Chawal.

The ‘normal’ curve in Dehra Dun is a little different. So whenever you feel that Dehra Dun isn’t the place to live anymore, I suggest a quick trip to Delhi via Noida and on to Gurgaon. It would tell you what heaven looks like. And oh! by the way, the Lichee tree in our lawn just had its first ‘baur’.

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