Just as I SEE & FEEL IT !!

  Before its construction this locale was a ridge, enclosed with Kikar trees, populated by jackals and wild pigs. This area was visited by ht e residents of Kashmere Gate, Civil Lines during the weekends for partridge hunting.

 There were plans to have a central business quarter, as the edifice of the new capital of Imperial India began taking shape, mooted by W.H. Nicholls (the chief architect to the Government of India) who deliberated a central plaza based on the European Renaissance and Classical style. However after Nicholls left India in 1917, it was Robert Tor Russell, {chief architect to the Public Works Department (PWD)}, Government of India who eventually designed the plaza.

The area is instantaneously identifiable on any map of Delhi, being the big circle in the centre with radial roads spreading out in all directions, like spokes on a wheel. It is a rationally designed area and is home to one of India's first underground market- Palika Bazaar (Municipal Market), named after Nagarpalika. While outer Circle known as Connaught Circus (officially Indira Chowk), houses rows of shops and hotels, the restaurants and the Middle Circle has offices and small eating outlets.

 Connaught Place is one of the biggest financial, commercial and business centres in Delhi. It was developed as a showpiece of Lutyens' Delhi featuring a Central Business District. The place is named after the Duke of Connaught, the construction work was started in 1929 and completed in 1933. CP was renamed as the Rajiv Chowk after the late Indian Prime Minister Rajiv Gandhi.

        

{Facts taken from http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Connaught_Place,_New_Delhi)

 A small historical backdrop for a place that forms the heart of Delhi was essential for many of us have been to this place umpteen number of times and yet do not know much about it...CP from the time of its establishment holds the record of being one of the busiest commercial hub...and till date continues to be so...

  But as a wanderer around CP the essence of the place for me is very different. As I walk around the inner circle moving around the European Renaissance and Classical style Central Plaza, it’s like one can breathe the imperial air and sense British ladies walking around dressed in lacy gowns.

 Sip a hot cup of coffee sitting in a corner in Indian Coffee House and feel the aura that the very presence of so many diverse people creates. Every single person moving around in CP has a purpose of their own but all form the very spirit that CP has...

 There is no dearth of branded outlets in CP...one is free to shop for any branded item but the charm that is there to pick up random items from Pallika Bazar, Janpath, vendors from Gujarat and Rajasthan cannot be found in the sophisticated showrooms. The traditional and old charm of CP is retained by these vendors who make small stalls of books / accessories/ clothes / bags etc, just outside the big showrooms. Strange you know but these vendors are not hassled by the big names, branded outlets, rich or poor, they are out there to make a living of their own....

 You can choose eateries / food joints like McDonald / CCD / Barista / Nirula’s / Cafe 100 / KFC / Yo China, etc for eating wide variety of delicious snacks. But the magnetism and masti of eating golgappa, cheese balls, samosa, potato fry, kufi faludu, momo, etc, from the street side vendors is unrivalled and scintillating.

 You are in a mood to hangout and relax then just sit on the railings of the outer circle / pallika bazaar eat a chuski and observe all kinds of weird / happy / funny / sad faces all around you. As the eyes and mind wander around,  in one far corner you can also see a lady in her twenties I presume barely clothed, malnourished lying down in a corner of the Central Plaza, probably sleeping or in pain as it is evident she is pregnant.  

 As the sunsets and CP is all lit up with lights, and crowd ever enthusiastic enjoying expedition in CP, eyes fall on some people who are out on business you see. Indians and Foreigners both can be their clients and hence begins the transaction.  

 Tall buildings, branded outlets, eateries, restro-bars name it and you get it in CP...but for me the extravagance of CP comes from the elegant architecture of the European Renaissance and Classical style Central Plaza, the imperial air that still blows around CP, the people from all race, caste, color, creed, rich and poor, young and old, the road side vendors, janpath, pallika bazaar, the handicraft shops and the list is endless...

So here it is the Dil of Dilli if I may call it so - Connaught Place / Rajiv Chowk, just as I SEE & FEEL IT !!