Pokemon Go: What happens when Delhi hosted its own poke walk

(Image credit: Performers' Consortium)

‘Are you guys playing Pokemon?’ asks an excited 19-year-old when he sees me peering at my phone outside Rajiv Chowk metro station.

My refusal didn’t deter his spirits as he went around repeating his question to people around until he stumbled upon his kind.

Sunday was the kind of day when if you saw someone staring down at their phones, the reason had to be Pokemon Go.

Taking the Pokemon Go fever a notch higher, the capital hosted its own Poke walks this weekend with 'trainers' hunting down the rarest of the creatures to add to their kitty of 'monsters.'

Yesterday alone saw a total of four pokewalks being organised in Connaught Place and India Gate with the attendance numbers going into hundreds.

There was no denying- Delhi loves its Pokemon.

(Image credit: Education Tree)

PokeHunt: India Gate started at 5 pm and continued till 7.45 pm last evening. The pokewalk began at around the canopy in the India Gate area with multiple poketsops around, allowing people to collect as many pokeballs as they wanted. The hunt then continued in the alley between the High Court and National Gallery of Modern Art and continued to Zakir Hussain Marg and Pandara Road before finishing at the Pokegym at Khan Market.

When the walk started, there were around 40 eager pokemon hunters, the numbers of whom seemingly doubled towards towards the end.

This walk was organised by Perfomers’ Consortium, a not-for-profit organisation. According to Manu Kamath, co-founder of Performers’ Consortium, they had no idea that the PokeHunt would get so popular.

“We chose India Gate mainly due to the large number of pokestops in the area. Besides, it is also a ‘pokemon rich’ region so that helped,” added Kamath. According to him, this was the route where you could find interesting and rare Pokemon such as Machop, Pidgeotto, Venonat, Hitmonlee and Kabuto.

When asked about the safety measures they kept in mind, while oragnising the hunt, Kamath said that the entire group walked with him carrying a signboard that indicated that they were playing the game.

He also has plans of recreating a similar hunt as early as next month.

(Image credit: Education Tree)

Not far away from India Gate, a similar scene unfolded at Connaught Place which saw pokewalks throughout the day which started as early as 7 am, and ended right about 10 pm. Excited gamers walked around the area with their phones in hand and powerbanks for company. It was a day to catch them all!

One of the Pokewalks organised by Education Tree saw a whopping 2000 people in attendance and the group is claiming that it was ‘India’s biggest pokewalk.’

As 20-year-old Harsh Mishra, who claimed to be the biggest fan of Pokemon Go said, “The reason this Pokewalk witnessed an unprecedented response is because youngsters are tired of just going clubbing or eating out on a weekend. We want something fun and something that we can do with our friends. There is nothing better than a Pokewalk for that,”

It should be noted that the game is yet to be launched officially in India though that hasn’t stopped it from taking the country by storm.

Watch the madness here: