From where I sit, I can see tiny and not so tiny dots of light flitting around a largish nucleus more or less in an orderly fashion, like a disciplined army of fireflies coming from different directions to a central point and then dispersing on to their own different ways.

It’s funny how the view from the top is so different from what you see at the ground level.

Do you notice that our impression of things is based less on what they actually are than on what they appear to be? Do you realise the role of SIZE in forming our perceptions? Or how distance can annihilate most of our negative feelings?

I have a morbid fear of heights. My palms and soles break into sweat whenever I look up to a REALLY tall building, or when I see (on TV!!) some idiosyncratic adventurer cycling on a thin rope strung between two cliffs. But from my office I laugh at the nearby slabs of concrete which happen to be 15 stories high. No sweat! When I am driving, an erratic driver who weaves in ahead of me provokes anger. The same chap from up here is just another ‘firefly’!

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Delhi by night is a beautiful city, especially from where I am seeing it. Right across the busy Barakhamba Road is the tall yet naked Player Towers which has remained unfinished for the last decade and more due to some litigation. It overlooks the Ranjit Singh flyover which leads to the Inter Continental and the infamous red-light area of G. B. Road. If I look further north, I can see the dome of the Jama Masjid and the sprawling ramparts of the recently sanitized Red Fort.

On the way back to the here and now, I graze my sight over the dense woods adjoining the Yamuna which house the famous dead (Mahatma Gandhi, assorted Nehrus, the odd Zail Singh). Then I notice the extremely slow moving traffic around the ITO crossing. But what pleases me most is the immaculately manicured lawns of Modern School and the blue water of their Olympic-size swimming (no, I am daydreaming here; I can’t see any water at night).

Then I turn to face the concentric circles collectively known as Connaught Place. The yellowing (or graying) low-rises are home to some of the hottest nightspots, old and famous eateries and also to established shops facing the onslaught of young and trendy super-malls. From here it’s just a solid circle of light peppered generously with moving shadows.

If I walk around to the other corner of my office, the sight can be both elevating and disturbing, depending on whether I am looking up or down.

 On the horizon is the poorly-lit but beautifully shaped Qutab Minar some 10 kilometers as the crow flies. One could not see so far in Delhi some months back but the introduction of CNG-fuelled buses and some strict enforcement of pollution norms have seen reduction in smog levels. That’s the reason why I can even see the Lotus Temple which is well-illuminated at night. Closer up, there is India Gate which still has the Independence Day lighting of saffron, white and green that looks awesome from here. I wish I could see Rashtrapati Bhawan but the British Library is blocking my view.

I do not want to look down, but I have to. There are the parking lots which have a zillion cars parked bumper to bumper. If you have not seen the parking attendants in Delhi at work, you have missed something in life. They are like kung-fu masters who operate on razor-thin margins of error. They will scare even seasoned daredevil drivers when they sit in your car and park it. And now they are busy un-clogging the mess they have cleared in the morning.

That reminds me I have put in my mandatory hours of paid inactivity and I have to go down to become one of them ‘fireflies’.