Dilli Dally - Part 5

Hmm.. posting this one after a looong time. This is attributable in major part to my laziness, and in minor part to my home trip last weekend. Actually, there's not been too much to blog about too. So expect this edition to be a short one.

hmm..over past 3 weeks, there hasnt been too much of activity or sight seeing or anything here in Gurgaon. Its only been office during the weekdays and malls during weekends. Movies, ice creams and shopping, especially books. I found this amazing book store called OM Book Store in a mall in Gurgaon. Its not very big but the collection they have is amazing. We spent alomst 2 hours there and were still not satisfied.. planning to return and do more book-hunting.

The only hectic period was when I was home during the month-end. Had a great time. Spent quality time with family. Also spent quality time with friends. Mom pointed out one little trvia: This was the first time I had been away from my brother for such a long period of time. Right since childhood, we have spent most of our time together. Even when we were away from parents (when we were staying in hostel for 2 years), we were still with each other.

Anyway, now that I'm back in Delhi, its back to the same old schedule. The only exception is the extra caution I am forced to excercise because of this dengue menace. Chalo thats it for now. Visit back for more next weekend.

Dilli Dally - Part 4

Hmm.. finally I've had a pretty much eventless week. Except for the 2 movies that i watched, i've done almost nothing (outside of work that is), this entire week. So i thought i'l do some other analysis of Gurgaon :D

Getting around

Surprise Surprise!. There are no autorickshaws in Gurgaon. Nor proper city bus service. So how do you get around? Simple. Take the cycle-rickshaw. These are actually more expensive than autos. Remember, autos in Delhi are CNG, so they're really cheap - only 4Rs/Km. But they hardly use the meter. But thats a different story altogether. They are so slow, you feel you could get down and push the auto.

Back to the cycle-rickshaw, they charge some 25-30 rs for a 10 minute ride. I was at first kind-of scared to climb one. But then got used to it and its not so bad. Whats better; everyone uses it in Gurgaon so no problems :)

Pet Pooja

Well, there's not been too much of eating outside this week either. While looking for my favorite food joints, I noticed that out here, the concept of "local chains" is yet to catch up; and i'm not talkng only about food joints. I mean the big names do have their chain outlets - PVR, Barista, Coffe Day etc. But I dint find any equivalent to Namma Bengalooru's Corner House or Sweet Chariot or G.K.Vale or Shanti Sagar. Not that its a big deal.. just an observation.

Congestion

This guest house is very close to the highway where the expressway construction is taking place. Whats so bad about that? Of course all the dust. I dont even wanna think about it :(

Also, the traffic jams are getting worse. With the deadline for the expressway being extended by 6 months, i dread to think of the consequences. It sometimes takes me more than half an hour for a 3 km drive to one of the offices. Thats because its on the other side of the highway. U have to travel a long way to even get to a U-turn. On the other hand, another office which is 8-10 kms away, but for which I dont have to cross the highway, is only 15 mins drive!

Its Weekend

As I mentioned already, I watched 2 movies this weekend. I watched Lage Raho on Saturday morning and Pyar Ke Side Effects on Sunday evening. You can read the blogs at the above links. And what better way to finish off a weekend than play half an hour of TT and after strugging a bit, hitting he smashes spot-on ;)

Dilli Dally - Part 3

Well well well.. every week seems to be more eventful that the last. Thats good isnt it :).

Well, after last weekend's heavy rain pounding Delhi, the roads have only worsened. Potholes forming everywhere.. and the potholes here are the size of a swimming pool. However, the weather has been a let down. The rains had brought down the temperature but only temporarily. Now its back to the hot days and hot nights.

Zaika:

Well, this week also has thrown up a few interesting eat-outs. One was dinner at a road-side dhaba along the MG Road (uhmm.. Delhi must be the only city in the world where MG road does not mean Mahatma Gandhi road - its Mehrauli-Gurgaon road). The dhaba is called "Sip-n-Byte". The food was ultimate, or maybe we felt that way because we were really hungry. Its reasonably hygienic and reasonably priced too. Nothing like a good dinner after a hard days work.

I had lunch twice at a Haldiram's. Nice place. Self-service. Good food. Today i FINALLY had the legendary "Matka Kulfi". Really loved it.

Then there was this team dinner at a restaurant called "The Fox". This place is extremely expensive. The food was okie-dokie kinda. But what I liked about this place was the atmosphere. There was a band playing for about an hour - a guy and 2 girls. They sang quite a few popular songs - Words, I have a Dream, Hotel California etc. Their performance set me thinking. They seemed really talented, the guy had an amazing voice. But what were they doing singing at a hotel? I personally feel they belong somewhere higher at a stage where they'l be noticed. They also seemed well-to-do. Maybe they just sang for passion, not to make a living. I also heard that most of the bands that play in Delhi hotels are comprised of Philipinos. Anyway the band has left a question mark for me.

Moving on, yesterday at Connaught Place, I wanted to cool out but dint want to go to the usual Coffee Days or Baristas. I found a place called Wimpy's. It was a reasonably good place. Just had finger fries with some dessert.

Weekend Time-Pass:

Yesterday evening, I had my first trip in Delhi Metro. Was quite impressed with it too. Read all about it here.

Today, I shifted to the Gurgaon guest house. I spent last week commuting between Kalkaji and Gurgaon everyday and spending almost 3 hours per day on that. So decided to shift here. The new Guest House is really cool. Its in an apartment complex which has 5-6 buildings of 20 floors each. The complex has a swimming pool and all. In the evening, I saw some kind of mini-program where there was a mike and an Emcee who was organizing games and the children from the colony were having a great time, singing and dancing and playing musical chairs. Only thing is the room is much smaller than the previous guest house.

Soon after shifting into this room, I went to what is called the "Mall Mile" in Gurgaon. There are half-a-dozen malls within 10 minutes walk of each other. I initially thought I'd catch Lage Raho Munnabhai; but as expected its all sold out. So i just thought i'd shop for formal shirts. After 2+ hours of walking in and out of shops and malls, i realised that I just wont get the right size for me. Most shops had a minimum of size 39 and even those who had 38, I wasnt completely convinced its the right size for me. The only way out for me is to have the shirts tailored :(. I was really frustrated, disappointed, disillusioned.... well, thats all that my vocabulary allows me.. but you get the idea. Not even a Choc-a-Vloc at the Coffee Day could cheer me up. I desperately need to put on weight. Else, i'l never be able to wear the John Players and the Park Avenues and the Arrows etc etc.

Looking Forward:

Well, next week promises to be less strenuous since my travel time will be like 30 minutes per day instead of 3 hours. I also hope to catch that movie probably next weekend. Also in the pipeline is a longer Metro ride, more shopping and that ever-elusive Taj trip. Read all about it next weekend. Ciao.

Dilli Dally - Part 2

All right, so this week was more eventful than last week :). So here is the weekly account

Weather

The weather is becoming increasingly bearable here. It started drizzling a few days back. And yestreday the drizzles grew into a full-blown thunderstorm, with winds and all. That has succeeded in getting down the temperature quite a bit. Plus now i'm seeing semblance of 'breeze', which was non existent all these days.

Culinary adventures

Well, after coming to Delhi, I have indulged in quite a few of these. Surprisingly, except one Chinese restaurant and one meal in a Pizza Hut, all others have been in South Indian restaurants! There's a chain of Southi restaurants called Sagar Ratna here in Delhi, and the "Thali" served there is quite good, i've already had it thrice. Other than that, the food at a place called Andhra Pradesh Bhavan is too good. This is actually the canteen at the AP Bhavan (all states have their respective houses near the India Gate area - this one was the 'house' of AP). There's no menu and all, u take a token for either veg or non-veg. The food was just too good.

Finally, today I had been to this place called "Saravana Bhavan". Apparently, its quite famous in Tamil Nadu. They even have branches abroad. Its like the Udupi or Kamat hotels of Karnataka. I again had a "Thali" and it was simply amazing. I had never thought i'd get such good South Indian food outside South India :)

Sight Seeing

Went to Akshardham temple today. Did not spend much time since it was very hot. But i was really impressed by the place. Actually, its not only a temple but a whole cultural complex. We thought its just a temple and so left our footwear in the car. Truth is that you only need to remove your footwear when going inside the temple. Rest of the complex you can have ur footwear on. Anyway since we had visited just past noon and walking on the stone walkways without footwear we almost got blisters. So we just did a quick tour thats all. But this quick tour itself has wowed me. The place is H-U-G-E. I'l probably visit the place again and check out the various exhibitions. Thats when i'l post more details. Sad part is photography is NOT allowed inside the complex, so i tried to get a shot from the car park and it dnt come out decent.

Well, thats about it for this week. Shall hopefully post more next week. Things still pending are the Metro ride and the Taj visit. Looking forward to next weekend for these activities :)

Dilli Dally

I thought I’ll start writing a weekly blog for this Delhi trip. In this first installment, I’ll also include snippets from my previous trip in June-end. But I don’t know where to start cuz there’s so much to write. Well, I’ll make an effort to make sense, but don’t blame me if I don’t :D

Weather:

Last time I had been here, it was extremely hot. When I had alighted from the plane at 6:30 pm, the temperature had been like 36 deg. This time was no different. I have kind of gotten used to the A/C everywhere - in car, office, Guest House and everything in between. But the power cut problem here has made me realize how much power I have been wasting. The backup inverter in the Guest House is only sufficient to run the lights and fans, but not TV and A/C. And I found out that the fan is sufficient most of the time. The A/C is needed only on exceptionally hot days.

It’s also raining in very short spells in Delhi. Not that it brings down the temperature in any miniscule way. No. Also, when it rains here, it rains only in very small pockets.

Finally, since it’s not very humid here, you don’t even sweat. That’s real bad for your skin.

Food:

Food here is generally costlier here than in anywhere in South India. For example, in the company canteen, a normal vegetarian lunch costs 40 rupees. And the quality is nowhere close to what it is back home.

It’s the same story in restaurants. A plate meal in a restaurant comparable to, say, Shanti Sagar will cost around 70-80 rupees, plus VAT. Breakfast at my guest house is 50 bucks and lunch/dinner is 80.

Coming to quality, the cook at my guest house is damn good. The food is so tasty here, that I actually try to avoid eating out as much as possible. But the same cannot be said about the canteen food or about the restaurants.

Spending time:

During weekdays I don’t find it hard to spend time. The morning is as usual spent in getting ready and all. In evenings, normally I get back to the room just around dinner time. Even if I come early, I either watch TV for some time, or take a walk around here for time pass.

After dinner, there’s normally some work to do. Like if I couldn’t complete some task at office, I try to do it after dinner. Else, I watch TV.

But the problem is during weekends. My first weekend is not yet over and I’m already dreading to think I’ll spend the remaining weekends. On Saturday, I spent about an hour at Nehru place (Its bang opposite the road from where I stay), half an hour at Palika Bazaar and more than an hour circling around Connaught Place. In spite of that when I returned to the room I was feeling bored to death in the evening. I also missed my home terribly yesterday evening. So I have decided. Henceforth, unless I have some concrete plans on weekend like shopping or sight seeing, I’ll go to office. That’s better as I can at least get some work done.

I’m planning to visit Agra and Akshardham temple among other places. Also plan to take a ride on the Delhi Metro if possible. Had gone to the metro station on Saturday with the hope of getting a train to some station near to my guest house. But it turned out there’s no station near to this Kalkaji. Anyway next time I get a chance, I’ll just board the Metro for the heck of it. Just go from one station to some other station 10 kms away and return J

Traffic and Infrastructure:

When I had visited Delhi last time, I had returned home impressed with the infrastructure. But that impression has not lasted long. This time, I’m being introduced to the other side of the coin. The roads and traffic sense in Gurgaon is very commendable. On the other hand, the roads around Okhla leave a lot to be desired. Also, its Okhla is among the dirtiest and filthiest surroundings I have seen in recent times.

The roads and fly-overs in and around Delhi are pretty impressive. Their design is pretty good too. However, the traffic sense in New Delhi area is HORRIBLE. People only care about themselves and no-one else. Yesterday I witnessed 2 minor accidents within a span of 20 metres and 60 seconds. The auto rickshaw and buses are worse than they are anywhere in the world. People are also hot-headed (probably the sweltering heat gets to their brains). I have already seen 3-4 quarrels and fights as people easily give in to road rage.

That’s it for now. I’ll try to keep updating the blog every week. Shall also try to take more pics and upload them. Hopefully, I’ll buy a digital camera by next week. If not, I’ll take the low resolution snaps using my mobile and upload them.