Barely an hour after stepping down onto the capital city of the country, I could tick off one from the to-do list that I made prior to landing in the city - a midnight 150 kmph bike ride with my cousin brother tearing into the ice-cold air, racing down the highway with heavy rain chasing our butts! While I was primarily engaged to the India Today Conclave commitment, I made some time to catch up with old friends living in the city. My childhood friend Tanushree took me for shopping at the Dilli Haat and the nouveau-riche locality of the Hauz Khas village. I returned the favour by treating her at the Amici Cafe there. So generous of me!
The India Today Conclave was a big success and I won't talk about it anymore (do follow my previous post for news on that) - I met so many people, both famous and infamous. I interacted with the newsmakers and the newsreaders, and with some of the Page-3 personalities who had no idea if there was a Kejriwal or a Khandelwal sitting on the stage. To them, their 'pallu' demanded the maximum attention that night.The highlight of the Delhi trip was my Dilli Haat and Hauz Khas visit as I had never been there in all my earlier visits.
There is only one thing that girls are crazy about - footwear shopping. And there is only one thing that guys like me are crazy about - food. Collocate both of them and where do we find ourselves if we're in Delhi? Yes, the Dilli Haat or Delhi Haat for some. Located near AIIMS Hospital, opposite to the INA market, this is where you'll find foreigners shopping for souvenirs and accessories to take back, to wherever they've come from.You will definitely find a shop that sells items from almost every state in the country - Manipur, Mizoram, Bengal, Orissa, Rajasthan, South Indian (people in Delhi are yet to realize that South India is not a state as such, and that it is further divided into Tamil Nadu, Andhra, and blah and blah..) and others. It is a joint venture between the New Delhi Municipal Corporation and the Delhi Tourism and Transportation Department to promote the Indian handicrafts industry and popularize Indian cuisine. The price range is pretty high as the general clientage is mostly that of foreigners.
Although the Dilli Haat offers a variety of foods and a motley of items to tingle one's taste-buds, Tanushree treated me to something that I had never before tasted - a Fruit beer. Non-alcoholic, aerated, extremely refreshing and cheap, if this be available in Kolkata, I would be having this on a daily basis!After Dilli Haat, we got on board the metro as it took us to Hauz Khas. And I could never have realized how amazing and chic this place is, had she not dragged me into it. As you enter the so called 'village', all you see is a long winding avenue, with a deer park on one side and a packed car parking on the other. By the end of the road, you'll find yourself amidst a bohemian crowd peering into the swanky roadside showrooms and restaurants. By the time you reach the very end, where you think that only a dead end should exist, you suddenly come across the Hauz Khas Fort.The place takes it's name from a water reservoir that Allauddin Khilji built to supply water to the nearby Siri fort. A level above the reservoir complex, there's a 14th century madrasa that the ruler Feroz Shah Tughlaq commissioned to be built. In its heydays, it used to be one of the largest madrasas in the land with a thriving international reputation.The meandering pathways with all the swanky restaurants and booming nightlife reminded me of my time in Mumbai. Like always, I do a quick online search - 'places of interest Hauz Khas Village' - and come across a blog post written by a fellow blogger Souzeina Mushtaq. In her review of the place, she correctly mentions that the juxtaposition of medieval architecture, ghettoized pukka tenements and the narrow alleys remind one of the Istanbul in the time of Orhan Pamuk. Much thanks to this blog and it's author as they helped me scrutinize this place better. Thank you!A decade ago, the Hauz Khas kind of niche was perhaps packed with the atypical Delhiite in all their non-conformist glory and chic elegance. However, with the increase in the arriviste population in the city, the neo-modern alleys of Hauz Khas (that flaunt graffiti on the walls) are currently the most hip of all places in the capital, where strangers, loners, friends and families descend 'to elevate' - I nicked this line from the blog I mentioned earlier. Its a change in the status of how we discriminate among the 'rich' and the 'very rich' nowadays.
After Delhi, I traveled to my hometown Jhansi. While I have never lived there, I always miss the sprawling big house, my cousins and the familiar scent of my grandparents who have both passed away a couple of years ago. On my way to Jhansi, as I took the Jhelum Express, I accompanied a group of eight girls, who were in their third year of Psychology studies at the Indraprastha College that is located at the north campus of Delhi University. They were traveling to Goa to spend their Holi vacations in style.While I always tell you of my hilarious train travel experiences, this time I choose to keep mom on it. For a change, it was fun! And also boring in a way, as the girls turned out to be just like me. They made fun of the other co-passengers and laughed out loud - something that I do in my head and laugh out loud on my blog. One of them was half-Bulgarian and half-Indian, and her name was Tatiana. Her nickname was a rather a one-that-must-not-be-named in public kind, as the three-letter palindromic word is seldom spoken loudly in public. The other girls had no problem announcing it out to the world.I thereby realized that I have completely lost the ability to enjoy the company of civilized and normal people to travel alongside on train journeys. With this significantly distressing afterthought, I sign off early tonight. Kinda sleepy, I'm getting. Maybe I'll talk about the rest of the trip and describe places such as Chhatarpur, Jhansi, Orchha, Parichha and Khajuraho, where I occasionally went on road trips. Till then, sayonara!
