The old forts, buildings and monuments of Delhi, an epitome of its textured past, come to mind when you talk about places to visit around the city. Rich narratives of how the city transformed as power went from one dynasty to the other, often with a lot of bloodshed, dominate the storytelling here. However despite this overpowering flavor of history, with its weathered forts and their ramparts which mutely stand amidst the modern and mostly indifferent surroundings, our national capital territory does offer much more. In between the triangle of Delhi, Gurgaon and Faridabad is Asola where I had gone for a trek organized by “Delhi By Foot” few months back, a departure from the more famous landmarks.
As per the instructions on the page of “Delhi By Foot” the group had assembled in the parking lot of Manav Rachna International school in Surajkund. At the designated time, our caravan of vehicles, led by our trip’s organizer Ramit, had started to head towards the point from we would start the trek. It however had come to a standstill within a few minutes. Bholi, a resident of the village situated on the edge of the arid forests of Aravali had got late, he was the one to guide us through the forest. There was time to catch a cup of tea, wake up properly on a Sunday morning. Almost at the point when we would have got restless Bholi arrived, with a wide smiling face he apologized for being late and got us going again. Only a few kilometers inside the Surajkund – Delhi road we reached the point from where the trek was to begin.
We had left our cars behind, slowly the group headed into the forest mainly comprising of thorny bushes and trees. The terrain was ok with not many steep slopes to negotiate. The signs of urban life were left behind with even the cellular network giving us a miss at some points. A few kilometers into the trek some of the members had started feeling the brunt of the sun. There were some groans and whispers of impatience but the group soldiered on. Bholi kept egging us on by saying that we did not have to walk much further.



Courtesy: Delhi By Foot