It was a late October evening when I bid good by to a friend in Amar colony at Lajpat nagar. His house lies quite near to the main arterial ring road. Although the bus stop was at a walking distance from his place, my friend cautioned me to not to take the normal route since it would be closed to all the pedestrian and motorized traffic at that time of the night. I didn't pay much heed to his advice and starting walking along my regular route.

It was around midnight and there was almost no traffic on the road. Amar colony becomes a different place by night. The sights and sound change, as the cacophony of road side vendors, blaring horns of cars, autorickshaws and small trucks, the tinkling of cycle rickshaws, and the general hum of people give way to distant voices coming from a television set somewhere, to the rhythmic hum of a cricket, to the crackling sound of dry leaves as one walks on the foot path besides the metallic road. Occasionally a car with blaring music would zip past by, an auto rickshaw would overtake and slow down to a halt a few meters away, while the driver would look at me apprehensively, through the rear view mirror. Then it would be my turn to overtake the auto rickshaw, as I would be approach the vehicle, ritualistically nod my head in negation and move on.

The houses at Amar colony and its adjacent residential hub, called National Park, are divided into rectangular blocks. All blocks have multiple entry and exit routes. But by night the space mirrors the passageways of a cantonment. With locks dangling on closed gates, a guard with a lathi and a torch dozing off silently at one end and boards displaying the timings of 'khulne ka samay' and 'bund hone ka samay'.

At the corner I took a left turn, gradually the gates of the houses gave way to the closed shutters of the shops. At the end of the row there was a tea shop with wooden doors. The doors were colorfully decorated with cutouts of film stars. The tea shop owner seems to an avid film buff. As the from the edges of the cut out of a film star emerged half visible faces of other stars, suggesting the counters of many layered of familiar faces. A poster comprising of a photograph and some text near the top right corner of the door caught my attention. It was a local resident welfare association's pamphlet. The image consisted of a group of half a dozen or so middle aged men standing in a semi circle with outstretched right hands, as if taking a pledge. The text confirmed my haunch. It said 'lets fight terror together' and something to the effect of 'together we stand and divided we fall'. I looked at it and rolled on.

As I edged towards the inner ring road I could see two interlocked road

barriers blocking the path. Instinctively I groped for the phone and called my friend. He scolded me for not listening to him and suggested that I trek back and try the gate at the other end, as all the gates except one would be closed at this hour. This would have meant walking at least half an hour more. I detested the idea but had no other option except to turn around and retrace my footsteps.

I was still talking to my friend, asking directions, when I saw this calf come from the other side of the barrier. As it approached the roadblock it paused for a second before sauntering in through the porous barricade.

I told my friend to go to sleep and started walking towards the road.