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Sat Sri Akal from the national capital.
I've been here for more than a month now. First observations: It is frikking hot, I totally understood why the amazing B&B I stayed at in my first week here had a fan in the bathroom, you sweat quicker than you can shower.
Aas paas barse, Dilli pari tarse is true to a large extent, there have been two good days of rainfall in my time here while Mumbai has been getting a drenching every other day. The perks of being a capital are plain to see though, between the Metro and the buses, public transport is excellent even if the rickshaw guys keep telling you stories about how the meter readings are all outdated and my ride costs more under a mythical new tariff rate. I keep riling them by telling them about the honest rickshaw guys of Mumbai, they sneer.
There are plenty of places to go, things to do and people to meet and I will be writing on some for DNA of Delhi.
The booze, oh the booze. Drinking out is so much friendlier on the wallet than it is in Mumbai!
I'll admit seeing 'No firearms' signs can sober you up quick but the rates and especially the happy hours will drown out any objecting brain cells immediately.
Drive down to one of the farmhouses at Chhatarpur where chances are you'll find a good resort with no other customers at the bar, enjoy it all by yourself with two guys playing live music just for you and not curl into a foetal position, crying when the bill comes. You go straight to foetal curling at the wine shop itself in Mumbai.
If you're only gonna eat out, Paneer will be omnipresent in your meals but that's a complaint only if you don't rate it much like me. Rajma, Chhole and Kadhi chawal are staple food, something I wish could happen in Mumbai too. Disappointingly, Dal-Khichdi, so popular with the Mughal rulers based out of Delhi is not easy to find at most restaurants.
I was invited to dinner at the home a friend of my father's in my first week in Delhi, I knew the family from their time in Pune. I politely listened to his cautions about staying outside past 10 pm 'because people are romba aggressive pa' and nodded appropriately in between stuffing mouthfuls. Then he said something that hit me hard. They were going away to visit their relatives in Trichy for a month. No home food, once, twice or at the most, thrice a week for the next month.
Thankfully I found out about the Adyar Ananda Bhavan in Green Park, close enough from Safdarjung Enclave where I was working out of then. About Gunpowder and Naivedyam.
And about the canteens at the Andhra Pradesh and Tamil Nadu state bhavans. Both easily reachable by bus. I even met the information officer at the Andhra Pradesh who informed me he works for the CM of Andhra. He kept addressing me as Moorthy but also insisted that I should not pay for lunch at the canteen so hey, free lunch right?
The best thing is that I can afford to live in a very central part of the city, South Ex. To buy something in a similar area in Mumbai I would have to sell an organ every week for 30 years and hope the builder doesn't run away with my money without so much as digging a hole.
My daily commute here is about 15 minutes. In Mumbai it's a soul and body crushing 90 minutes spanning rickshaws, buses and trains that feels like purgatory.
Plus there's a heritage structure bang opposite my accommodation where I play cricket on weekends and spend quiet time at nights wondering why mosquitoes aren't extinct already.
About 95% of my friends cracked a rape joke the first time I told them I'll be in Delhi for a while. You muster a smile the first time but you want to strangle a person when you hear it the 97th time. Then you stop telling people you're going to be in Delhi.
I live close to a big shopping locality (could be one of thousands in Delhi) so most of the people I see are well dressed and made up. They look good but here's the fact, Delhi men do lech, more openly than they think, over the rim of their chai glasses, through the hanging smoke of their cigarettes. You'd have to be blind to not notice.
More Delhi things: Stray dogs chill out on the roof of cars. All day. At night, when you're walking on a decently lit road except for those two cars under the shadows thrown by the trees and get closer and you hear a nasty sustained low growl, coming from a place closer to your neck than your heel, it's not fun. Then your chappal breaks.
Here is your change, it's torn. If you're lucky, you'll not get frikkin Alpenliebe or Apollo Pharmacy's inhouse rip off of Hajmola candy for change but you'll get actual money. Even then you're lucky if you get coins and not a torn 5 rupee note. I didn't even know there were so many 5 rupee notes still in circulation in India.
Breaking a 500 or a 1000 rupee note is a lengthy process. Shopkeepers will look at notes in so many angles that would make the Gandhi on it feel conscious. Then every other shopkeeper in the area is invited to pass his verdict on it's authenticity. Then they might want to sleep over it and hold a ballot. Hence I kick the ATM whenever it spits out only the big denominations.
It's a huge city, I've barely seen the start of it. As I do, I'll post more.
Sat Sri Akal from the national capital.
I've been here for more than a month now. First observations: It is frikking hot, I totally understood why the amazing B&B I stayed at in my first week here had a fan in the bathroom, you sweat quicker than you can shower.
Aas paas barse, Dilli pari tarse is true to a large extent, there have been two good days of rainfall in my time here while Mumbai has been getting a drenching every other day. The perks of being a capital are plain to see though, between the Metro and the buses, public transport is excellent even if the rickshaw guys keep telling you stories about how the meter readings are all outdated and my ride costs more under a mythical new tariff rate. I keep riling them by telling them about the honest rickshaw guys of Mumbai, they sneer.
There are plenty of places to go, things to do and people to meet and I will be writing on some for DNA of Delhi.
+++
The booze, oh the booze. Drinking out is so much friendlier on the wallet than it is in Mumbai!
I'll admit seeing 'No firearms' signs can sober you up quick but the rates and especially the happy hours will drown out any objecting brain cells immediately.
Drive down to one of the farmhouses at Chhatarpur where chances are you'll find a good resort with no other customers at the bar, enjoy it all by yourself with two guys playing live music just for you and not curl into a foetal position, crying when the bill comes. You go straight to foetal curling at the wine shop itself in Mumbai.
+++
If you're only gonna eat out, Paneer will be omnipresent in your meals but that's a complaint only if you don't rate it much like me. Rajma, Chhole and Kadhi chawal are staple food, something I wish could happen in Mumbai too. Disappointingly, Dal-Khichdi, so popular with the Mughal rulers based out of Delhi is not easy to find at most restaurants.
**
I was invited to dinner at the home a friend of my father's in my first week in Delhi, I knew the family from their time in Pune. I politely listened to his cautions about staying outside past 10 pm 'because people are romba aggressive pa' and nodded appropriately in between stuffing mouthfuls. Then he said something that hit me hard. They were going away to visit their relatives in Trichy for a month. No home food, once, twice or at the most, thrice a week for the next month.
Thankfully I found out about the Adyar Ananda Bhavan in Green Park, close enough from Safdarjung Enclave where I was working out of then. About Gunpowder and Naivedyam.
And about the canteens at the Andhra Pradesh and Tamil Nadu state bhavans. Both easily reachable by bus. I even met the information officer at the Andhra Pradesh who informed me he works for the CM of Andhra. He kept addressing me as Moorthy but also insisted that I should not pay for lunch at the canteen so hey, free lunch right?
+++
The best thing is that I can afford to live in a very central part of the city, South Ex. To buy something in a similar area in Mumbai I would have to sell an organ every week for 30 years and hope the builder doesn't run away with my money without so much as digging a hole.
My daily commute here is about 15 minutes. In Mumbai it's a soul and body crushing 90 minutes spanning rickshaws, buses and trains that feels like purgatory.
Plus there's a heritage structure bang opposite my accommodation where I play cricket on weekends and spend quiet time at nights wondering why mosquitoes aren't extinct already.
+++
About 95% of my friends cracked a rape joke the first time I told them I'll be in Delhi for a while. You muster a smile the first time but you want to strangle a person when you hear it the 97th time. Then you stop telling people you're going to be in Delhi.
I live close to a big shopping locality (could be one of thousands in Delhi) so most of the people I see are well dressed and made up. They look good but here's the fact, Delhi men do lech, more openly than they think, over the rim of their chai glasses, through the hanging smoke of their cigarettes. You'd have to be blind to not notice.
+++
More Delhi things: Stray dogs chill out on the roof of cars. All day. At night, when you're walking on a decently lit road except for those two cars under the shadows thrown by the trees and get closer and you hear a nasty sustained low growl, coming from a place closer to your neck than your heel, it's not fun. Then your chappal breaks.
+++
Here is your change, it's torn. If you're lucky, you'll not get frikkin Alpenliebe or Apollo Pharmacy's inhouse rip off of Hajmola candy for change but you'll get actual money. Even then you're lucky if you get coins and not a torn 5 rupee note. I didn't even know there were so many 5 rupee notes still in circulation in India.
Breaking a 500 or a 1000 rupee note is a lengthy process. Shopkeepers will look at notes in so many angles that would make the Gandhi on it feel conscious. Then every other shopkeeper in the area is invited to pass his verdict on it's authenticity. Then they might want to sleep over it and hold a ballot. Hence I kick the ATM whenever it spits out only the big denominations.
+++
It's a huge city, I've barely seen the start of it. As I do, I'll post more.
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