gully seher mein re maaro ghaghro re ghumiyo

prabha and her husband atul are visiting us. completely awesome time we are having. especially prabha and me. we love ourselves some gossiping sessions sans husbands and baccha. also, i am discovering delhi with them. went to chandni chowk and bought a fancy soorma daani. the dukaanwala insisted i put the soorma on then and there. for a couple of very scary seconds, i thought the guy was trying to scoop my eyes out, but he managed to lagao soorma, and it didn't look half as bad. so full points to the man and full money also because i bought the whole schmoodle.

from there we went to the paranthewali gully. i am very glad i am used to eating in seedy looking joints. i am also gladder that i had had no breakfast and it was almost lunch time, so i didnt get second thoughts. the place is stuffy, filthy and full on crowded. BUT. BUT, those guys sure know what they are about. we chose to eat paneer parantha, aloo parantha, dal parantha and pudina parantha. prabha ordered the rabri parantha. i thought she was being extremely brave. only later we realised she had, for some reason, thought rabri = ragda. luckily for her, the parantha turned out to be amazingly yummy. only, it does not qualify as a main meal, it is a dessert. the choice of paranthas was a mile long ranging from the regular to the absurd (khurchan parantha anyone? or maybe you'd want a sample of bhindi parantha? or nimbu?). the lassi deserves a song written on it... "aye mere pyari lassi, tujh mein meri jaan fasi" types.

then we went to the red fort ... which was closed for honest tax paying citizens of India because some vvip was due to arrive on a visit. so sweet. after all, we are here to oblige and visit again at their convenience. atul was especially very sweet about the whole thing since he had had a similar experience at the Taj the previous day. he would have loved to meet the vvip and tell him exactly how cool he found them.

then we went to dilli haat in an auto. that had a meter. and the driver WANTED to go by meter. in delhi. will wonders never cease?

there is a metro line right upto dilli haat. super freaking awesome. considering how much i love the place.

now i am tired. and i have sent the visiting couple to see akshardham. later in the evening we plan to do some more ghooming.

happy days are here again.
and my comfort salwar kameez has suddenly gone tight on me.
the price you pay for all that happiness.

mooch nahi toh kooch nahi

we were supposed to meet over brunch this sunday ... and i forgot, so did sri.
we had all of 10 odd minutes to announce our departure, put ita to sleep, leave instructions for when she would wake up, get out of pyjamas, wear clean clothes (damn the bath, damn the bath... it was sunday!) and leave.

minutes before our destination and in the middle of the zillionth signal, we noticed an auto driver trying to commit suicide under a water tanker. on closer observation we realised that the guy had wedged the auto (almost) underneath the tanker so he could clean his windsheild with the water dripping from the leaking tap behing the tanker. we almost missed the bearded salesman during our enthusiastic photographing of this cleansing ritual. almost but not quite.

the false beard and moustache set we bought for Rs.15/- turned out to be a riot at the brunch meeting. fulltoo paisa vasool. all of us tried it on, with variations of course - with moustache, without moustache, the beard on the head (a few drinks later) ... and got ourselves photographed.

it was one of the most amazing meals i have had. we laughed more than we ate, which if you know us, would really tell you how much fun we were having.
if only i could find the picture of mugdha and me posing as sardars now.