Sights n smells of Dilli 6

So I am once again at what seems to be of late turning out to be my favorite haunt Chandni Chowk. Only last week I was here for the jam bottles that I had ordered.  This time around it was the cake pans and muffin liners that got me here. Now don't get me wrong, I have often made trips to this part of Delhi - the Walled City, but nonetheless it still requires some steeling up to brave the chaos of this place. With 'Teej' round the corner I have been dying to eat some nice, melt in the mouth 'ghevar' (honeycomb sweetmeat) and though Bengali Market is just next door with its two very popular sweet shops but somehow their ghevar has never matched the ones I remember eating in my home state of UP- the sweet used to be creamish with a soft texture and one did not need any of the heavy 'khoya' which is such a fad now.

A street view of Sirkiwalan bazaar

Chandni Chowk is a place which is never short on buzz - the milling crowds, the innumerable hawkers, small little masjids and mandirs - also, you name it virtually everything of your daily needs is available here in its narrow lanes where every nook and corner and every square inch has been occupied by someone selling one thing or another. One has to be prepared to do a fair amount of walking if you want to explore its meandering lanes and bylanes. The place is one big 'mela' everyday ... you need to be an amazing trapeze artist to walk this age old  historical bazaar without stepping on to someones toes or still worse getting stepped over.

Bade Miyan's famous kheer

But of course, my hidden agenda to come here is to gorge on its sumptuous street food - that is something to swear by, what with its original and authentic rich flavors. This place is a virtual treasure trove of shops which have been around for generations and which have passed on its recipes over generations and uncompromisingly maintained its standard. One such place is this delightful sweet shop, selling just one single item - an Indian delicacy, 'kheer' (a staple in most Indian households on festive occasions). This was the famous Bade Miyan"s kheer shop at Lal Kuan. One look at the creamy texture and I knew this was not to be missed experience. The kheer (rice pudding) had a brownish tinge to it which only comes after hours of cooking the milk on a slow fire. The milk had thickened to a malai like consistency and it was a very rich looking dessert. Sure enough, one bite into this lovely concoction of milk and rice and the wonderful creamy texture of the kheer came through, seldom have I tasted such well-made (though, very painstakingly) kheer.This labor of love is also fed to you with equal  amount of love and affection. A must visit shop if you are nearby, if for nothing else then just to experience the old world hospitality which is so rare in the Delhi I live in.

Bade Miyan's old world hospitality

Came across this very interesting looking fruit called canary melon or 'Sarda'- apparently an import from our neighboring country and eaten a lot during this holy month of fasting.

Sarda

A lot of carts selling dates too - again eaten a lot in fasts, for it is also a thirst quencher. This area had shops selling utensils and perforated ladles.One of them looked interesting and I was in two minds to pick it up but realized it was too huge for home cooking.

 One time I had got this interesting masala  (spice) packet for making 'kachori wale aloo' and one of the ingredients listed in the masala was 'kachri', a wild variety of cucumber which grows in Rajasthan - available in Delhi in its dried form, it is powdered and added to food for its tangy flavor. Chandni Chowk is probably one of the few places in Delhi that you can hope to get 'kachri'. I came across this shop with its quaint old style doors painted an interesting green. The huge crowd outside was what drew my attention. I was curious to see what they were selling that was attracting such a rush! Turned out to be spices, of all types, whole, powdered, special masalas for different types of curries, they even had some dal masala. I stood there thinking how to make myself heard in that din  and then I heard someone asking for 'kachri' - at last I was able to get hold of this elusive vegetable and see what it looked like. As I said this place has it all!

The spice shop and it's green door

 Feeling very excited after my last purchase - seriously how the smallest of things can make one feel so happy, I then bought my baking wares and some cute muffin liners.

Then it was time to search for the ghevar shop whose name I did not know- my only clue was some place in Chandni Chowk called 'Gali Shankar'. Now an interesting trend in this area is that when you ask people for directions mostly they would tell you it is just a little further away. I think that is a good ploy because if I had known when I started searching for this sweet shop that it would require me to cover virtually more than half of Sitaram Bazaar (one very well-known street in Chandni Chowk), I might not have gone through it ; that just around the corner bit kept me going till after a never ending walk by the end of which I was cursing myself for carrying my fetish for having desi ghee ghevar to such levels.I reached this much revered shop for quality sweets,but I was out of luck; the ghevar which obviously seems to be hugely popular had sold out by evening. All that was readily available was sev ki barfi, typically a Lucknow speciality.  Btw before you think that it is just another sweet shop, it turned out to be one expensive sweet - at 480/ a kg it had better be good. So now before sawan (monsoons) ends I think I will be making another trip here or otherwise it will be a wait of one whole year to taste this sweet as it is mostly prepared only in the months of sawan - little chance that my sweet tooth would let a year go by!!!

Ghevar shop's freshly made sev ki barfi

Ghevar shop's freshly made sev ki barfi 

Sleepless in Delhi

Delhi is huge, with every inch of space covered by buildings (Ridge would probably be, one of the few forested patches left in the city). But when one decided to go house hunting (we are thinking of giving our house a makeover and like the architect said that you need a high degree of tolerance to stick around .... so moving out seemed a more obvious thing to do) the actual picture is very dismal, not very many areas match the parameters of good, neat and peaceful living.

East and West were not on our radar, over populated with little infrastructure (if at all you can call it one) ... did not even pass muster for us to check out any dwellings there.

Central Delhi was undoubtedly the obvious choice ... the ideal place to live but rentals are mind boggling, and we simply had no intention to spend living in a temporary accommodation as much as it would perhaps cost us for the makeover. What was left was South Delhi - we already had a taste of South Delhi some years back ... thinking that it would be closer to hubby's workplace (Gurgaon), we had moved in to one of the so called posh South Delhi locality - a favorite among expats and embassy crowd. Our neighbors had some construction work going on at their place ... a pretty normal thing, but then there was a house behind ours (which was separated by the service lane), which too had some repairs going on. Sharp, 9 'o' clock in the morning the drilling machines would start and the noise between the two renovation sites was enough of 'jugalbandi' to deafen you - it did drive me crazy enough and it seemed endless, to switch back to my former residence. A sensible move because six months later when I visited the place we had temporarily lived in, the work next door was still in full swing, in fact they had enlarged the renovations they had planned and it was filled with construction labor and to add to the chaos the house facing ours (opposite the road) was being broken down to build swanky 'designer floors'. This time when the hubby suggested the option of going back, I shuddered imagining the nightmare the place would be with constant 'builder activity'. 

Apartments next to the Yamuna bed seemed a suitable option; they were central and offered all the amenities of a gated community. They had been built in 2012 and served as Commonwealth Games Village, used to house the players from various countries. They did get a bad press at that time and people were reluctant to move in to begin with, but given the space crunch in the city, families have started moving in - and honestly the place is more spruced up since then and is quite nicely maintained - green and open. The apartments are pretty compact and encourage minimalist living ... storage space is limited to a couple of closets. This suits me fine with my limited wardrobe, but not for the gen next ... my daughter probably would have to hold a yard sale to do away with half of her wardrobe if she were to ever think of moving in here.

CWG seemed nice, but too many Towers have been squeezed into a limited space ...  right now one of the better places to move considering our limited options but once it fills up, the place could well turn into a hell hole unless space and privacy is not high on one's agenda. We still haven’t struck it off !!

We also explored Noida, maybe it was my UP roots beckoning me - it was a complex on the Expressway ... (made by one of the better known builders of this satellite township) one of the earliest to come up in the area, and it showed - the outer facade looked worn out and so did the flats -the place itself was a maze ... like Jantar Mantar's 'bhool bhulaiya' - if nothing, it sure guarantees to keep you fit if the walk from the car park to the apartment was anything to go by. On the way back from Noida, a bunch of guys were trying to flag cars down posing as roadside sellers and seemingly harassing the car owners ... we didn't need any further proof that Noida was not the place for us - the law and order situation here scares the hell out of you.

Next Saturday was spent exploring the likes of Park Place, Mayfair and Central Park of Gurgaon - we conjured up images of a little London or New York in our midst. Truth hit us home when we saw them ....the surroundings were a far cry from anything even remotely close to the Big Apple or Central London. 

Truth is not far to seek - Delhi has been killed by the greed of the politicians in cohoots with land sharks. Permitting  builder floors was the death knell of this once, historically and culturally rich city which was open and green all around.

After a whole day of house hunting, we had a new found respect for our apartment, the worn out patches seemed a minor aberration and my kitchen minus its modular status still gleamed - not posh, nor swanky, but it was home. It did not take much to realize that we should be grateful for what we have ... it was warm and welcoming, I think the renovation would be on hold for some time till we find a utopian home. 

I am open to suggestions from my readers and fellow bloggers. Anybody!

Pleasures of suburban living

A vacation is always something to look forward to and more so when it means a respite from Delhi's tortuous summer where one gets nicely baked. I was travelling to the US  to meet up with both my children and ostensibly to help my son set up his apartment - a 22 year old kid was now a working man of a proud mother. 

When I started packing it seemed we would have a couple of pieces of luggage but somehow our list of things  kept getting bigger and by the end of it we had four huge suitcases stuffed to the T - there were eats for the kids, boondi ladoos for the daughter, samosas and kachoris for my son - all  typical Indian fare which they missed gorging on. I too wanted to carry my essential Indian spices for I knew I would start longing for my ghar ka khana after a few days of restaurant bingeing. Plus some stuff for the son which I thought (mistakenly) he would possibly require. 

Travel light is is a lesson I learnt on very early ... the time when we heaved and panted up our London apartment is something I won't forget in hurry or another time in Copenhagen when we discovered that our  beautiful apartment was on the third floor of a period building - guess that's how these Danes remain so fit. This was one such folly I wouldn't have repeated but for the fact that this time around they were essentials that couldn't be dispensed with. Our plans of taking a train to White Plains, from NYC had to be shelved and it was the yellow cab for us. The fares here are mind boggling and if we start converting to our currency you feel ripped off.

White Plains is a mere half an hour away from NYC and falls in the Westchester County. The journey from JFK passed in a blur- guess too jet lagged but what got encapsulated as we entered White Plains was the greenery around.

What draws me to any of the developed nations is the impeccable way in which things are maintained, the infrastructure is unfailing, all most all utilities will function normally ... this predictability in your everyday life is a huge plus and the overall neatness is a part and parcel of the Western world. White Plains was no different ... spotlessly clean, modern facilities, enviable quality of life and of course the lovely fresh air which you so very much miss in dusty Delhi ... in fact I could not help wondering that it is better than living in the happening NYC !

My son has a corner apartment in North Broadway with huge glass windows which overlook the Main Street, bang in the heart of this suburban city. One could spend hours just gazing outside and watch the world go by ... right across was a park which would be filled on weekends - young mothers would get their kids to play. On the opposite side was another park where a group of old ladies would congregate to catch up.

The lush green park 

There is a sense of community living in this place where the locals interact more with each other. On weekdays, you could see the hurried paces of office goers early in the morning ... and the somewhat more relaxed walk later in the evening when off the hook ... ah! these corporate and sleep deprived souls ... this aspect and the mechanical life that they lead 5 days in a week is somewhat depressing ... seen my hubby and uff now my son ... is there nothing we can do to change this (more about this some other time ... perhaps in another blog)

I love travelling and visiting new places but what mostly happens is that after a week or two I start to feel homesick, at a certain level the impersonal West starts getting to me and I miss the much used to boisterousness and warmth of our people back home.  So however, much I might lament about the heat and dust but my heart beats for my home country. So was with being here, after the initial enthusiasm had worn out I had a sudden rush of nostalgia for Delhi. But I must add, gradually as I lived on and got familiarized with my surroundings it  grew on me and before I knew I had started to enjoy being there. I wonder what one wants - fact is one is greedy and desires to have the best of both the worlds ... such is life!!!

White Plains is a very self-contained city and many multinationals have offices here yet, after New York's concrete jungle, its leafy green surroundings are very calming. While it has all the facilities of a big city it has retained its suburban charm. It’s a very peaceful, uncomplicated living with all the amenities at a stone's throw. From our apartment at North Broadway the shopping area was a mere five minutes’ walk. All the big major chains Whole Foods, Shop Rite, Walmart, Target, and Sears were there. So were innumerable eating joints. Only thing this place needs are few more Indian restaurants. my hubby could not help quipping that I should give it a try ... I laughed it off as good try of a mid-aged husband wanting to get more stag time, no way, tough luck !!.

Having lived in New York too I find the quality of life here in White Plains far more amazing, this place gives a suburban life style with the added bonus of being so close to the city for anyone missing the bright lights. There is an express train to Grand Central which barely takes 30 minutes and if you are not travelling during peak hours you can be sure of a comfortable travel. My stay here has been so enjoyable that I am loathed to leave this place, over a period of time it has grown on me and I will be taking back very fond memories of White Plains.

A local artisanal fair in the nearby park

 One would I guess have to wait for such life style in India - Modi's smart city... Seems a far cry, in our lifetime.