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Lodi Gardens
 With
the evening temperatures dipping, the Lodi Gardens is
once again a beehive of activity and more and more enthusiastic
walkers take their customary rounds in this sprawling
Mecca of Delhi's walking brigade.
If you walk sedentarily, it would take you just under
half an hour to complete one round of this impeccably
laid out, undulating park. In the middle is the
Lodi Sultanate era monument that gives this place its
name. Some prefer to walk anti-clock-wise, trying to be
one up on the moving finger, as it were.
 Either
way, you would be rubbing shoulders with ministers,
Members of Parliament, business brass, diplomats, bureaucrats,
journalists and the like. Then there are those walking
with a purpose, determined to shed those extra pounds.
You might think that the scores of teenaged couples,
making the most of the veil offered by the shrubbery
and the foliage as dusk approaches, would be distracted
by these walkers in a tearing hurry to shed some weight.
You
would be wrong if you held that view, for, the young
ones inspired, perhaps, by Bollywood films, are lost
in a world of their own. On Sundays and holidays, people come here on picnics
with cricket kits and flying saucers and have a whale
of time.
 A
round or two at Lodi Gardens is really invigorating,
at the beginning or towards the end of the day. But
the lighted pathways and the rich greenery make it a
peaceful place despite the thousands who take a walk
here.
Yes, there are other spots fit for walking in this city,
like the Shanti Path diplomatic area, the Nehru Park
in Chanakyapuri, the Hauz Khas Park etc. But none, perhaps,
is as fulfilling as the Lodi Gardens, in this city,
which is being progressively stifled by vehicular pollution.
Ravish Mishra
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9:23:09 PM 
