Summer in Delhi!! Does not sound that exciting righ? I know! But, we being we, managed to make even this holiday an absolute super one!
Unlike all our other getaway’s, this was the most planned and not a road trip! Jayeeta ....fondly called Joyee, one of our closest pals was to be married to her long time sweet heart Sourabh...whom we called Dada, And both happen to be my class mates from Christ College, along with Jayeeta being my colleague at work as well, we worked together at Goldman Sachs! We would miss this for nothing. Making this reason as our excuse this time, we also decided to touch base Agra, & visit the beautiful Taj-Mahal.....So we PLANNED! January 2007, went in planning, February went with the phase-1 execution of this plan, & March passed with the shopping, April 2007came in a blink! This time we packed some decent clothes & shoes unlike our usual Tees & shorts & denims & jackets & floaters! We packed some formals & traditional wear, along with some heels to match with. Before we could be done with all of this, we were taking an early morning’s flight to Delhi, having working until late that night, having just an couple of hours to get back home, get dressed & back to the airport before our flight could take off, it was sheer craziness for me to make it...however we managed! Just remember entering the plane & buckling up, the next thing I heard was the voice of the pilot announcing that it is 8.30 in the morning & we will be disembarking in the next minutes.
With just a little over 2 hours of sleep in the last 48 hours, I was wide awake, ready to face the fury of Delhi’s summer for the next 8 days. Waiting for us at the airport was our host of Delhi & Pavan’s colleague Mohit, who had planned his holiday because were going, however he had reached 3 days earlier. The heat was already getting to us & the traffic to top it, reaching to Mohit’s house took us an hour & a half. Greeting us there, was a big cold glass of desi lassi & rich butter coated parath with dhal. This was bliss, like oasis in the desert! By the time we finished our breakfast, it was time for lunch, we rested until evening....a much needed one & set out to explore the streets of our capital city at 19.00hrs. Our first stop was at the Lajpath metro station, an exact replica of London’s tube station. This is something that Bangalore lacks. We got out at Cannaught Place & went around the stores, looking at the windows. Hungry, we stopped at McD for some burgers & coke. From there we headed straight towards the mighty India Gate, here it stood, emphasised by lights, keeping within the million stories of each soldiers who laid their lives trying to keep the tranquillity of this country & peace amongst us! A salute of every one of them & each drop of blood, they shed for each one of us enjoying our freedom today. Awed by the greatness of this magnificent monument, we sat there until mid night, relishing the chaats, chuskis & ice creams, it was more like a fair!
We started late the next morning, as we had just decided to go around Delhi for some shopping & window shopping at Cannaught Place, Janpath, Palika bazaar, Greater Kailash etc. We spent the entire day, just walking around & at 21.00hrs we again got back to the dear India gate to just enjoy the air & watch the fair! Our day 3 was no different, shopping, eating road-side delicacies, drinking lime soda & chai from the streets! We then decided to explore the night life to Delhi later that night, so we met up with few of other Mohit’s friends & we took off to the nearby Gurgaon, danced the night away & retired almost at dawn.
Day 4 – Apr 20 – Joyee’s Sangeeth & Mehendi.
The reason for all our planning & the cause for this holiday, was finally here, it was Joyee’s wedding & today was the evening of Sangeeth & Mehendi. The night’s strain had worn off soon as it was time to pack off and go to the nearby by state of Uttar Pradesh’s border city, Gaziabad, where Joyee lived and her wedding was supposed to take place. We headed soon after a quick breakfast with Mohit who escorted us & reached Gaziabad within an hour. Here it was...Joyee’s house, packed with all her relatives, located on the 14th floor, surrounded by 7 shopping malls & housing one of my best pals, it felt like being back with family when we got there. People of all ages, all busy, working, cooking, dressing, the girls dancing, the house was entirely a wondrous mess! I loved every bit of it. The hustle & bustle of the house, where the wedding was to take place, the music & dancing, the rich aroma of the food being cooked....God, was this real or what??!! After a heavy Bengali lunch, we retired for a short nap at a near by guest house that was booked for all of Joyee & Sourabh’s friends & relatives who were attending the wedding. All dressed for the evening, we got back to Joyee’s house for the Mehendi followed by the Sangeeth. Being a south-Indian, I had never had an opportunity to attend such wedding preliminaries occasions before, so I had the privilege of getting the most beautiful Mehendi I’ve ever had before, just like the bride’s, What more could I ask for...it was the icing on the cake! Then, heading towards the Sangeeth, I got a pleasant surprise.....Pavan was dancing with the girls for the show in sometime & he was practicing for it...lol...! Well, it turned out to be quiet a good performance & to top it, a lavish dinner! Exhausted, after the singing, dancing & eating, no soon it was time for bed.
Finally, the ‘The Day’, 21st April, by now many more of our friends from office had joined us & we were now a big group. All dressed, we left towards Joyee’s house for the Haldi or otherwise known as the turmeric ceremony. She was ready with a glow of the bride & wearing a shy smile. This ceremony was meant for the women folk & so Pavan & the rest of the boys, set out to explore Delhi....a all boys day out.....& we all know what a boys day out means ; ) . Anyways, we girls had no less fun. Poor Joyee was bathed in cold haldi water & that was not all, we girls were chased by all her aunts, so we all ended getting a taste of haldi. This was so much fun, with all the running around trying to escape from the haldi-armed auntys, the excitement, we never realised that it was way past lunch time. Well fed, we headed back home for the mush needed short nap, the night was going to be along one! BTW, the boys had not returned yet! Having slept for couple of hours, it was just an hour before the wedding could start. As we dresses, Joyee left to the parlour to get dressed, we were dressed in an hour’s time & were all waiting for her to return. She came.......suddenly transformed, our dear friend looked more like a Bengali Goddess & lesser like Joyee.....Man she looked gorgeous! We then set off, along with the bride to the wedding hall, at our arrival, all auntys were shooing off the evil spirits by hooting so loudly that the super-natural force would dare not cast an eye on the bride & groom. A rather unusual, but interesting & most important ritual I must say. The boys finally returned at 20.00hrs, dressed with rejuvenated excitement of I donno wht??!! The guests wre pouring in , the bride looked anxious & beautiful, the groom looked elegant with his ethnic wear, the giggly girls, the children running all around, the non-stop chatting of the women who’ve met after a long time, the men catching with the sports & news, the young boys & girls looking at the crowd & cracking their own jokes. It was like a fair, the energy was endless, the food spread was enormous. The bride was being greeted & wished & blessed by relatives & friends, before the pooja could begin at 21.00hrs. It was finally time, the bride was carried to the mantap by 4 of her cousins on their shoulders, her beautiful face covered with beetle leaf, only to be reveal it to her handsome groom & anxious guests. The pooja started, as we looked on, it continued for the next 4 hours, the guests who had to leave early, were having dinner & started to leave. Finally the most auspicious Sindoor ceremony took place....Joyee was married! The newly weds finally joined us for dinner at around 1 in the morning, As we chatted on & enjoyed the delicious meal, we did not realize how tired we were until around 3 am, when we called it a night & reached our guest houses.
We slept until late the next morning, tiredness making us reluctant to wake up, we decided to go to Agra that day as Joyee was leaving to Calcutta for a grand reception at Sourabh’s home town, along with Vinod, Pavan’s friend who at that time was in Delhi on an official project. We reached Joyee’s house by noon, when it was almost time for lunch & had a tasty Bengali lunch, it was time....she was leaving, We bid tearful goodbye to her & all her relatives & left towards Agra, the city with its rich culture & history, talking about the Mughal era in India. Joyee’s brother had booked a cab for the 3 of us & we left at 14.00hrs. We thought that me may reach Agra by around 17.00 & will finish visiting the Taj by 19.00, after which we will head back to Delhi the same night, however, that day being a Sunday, little did we know about the horrendous traffic, a journey that would otherwise take 3 hours, that day took us 5 hours & we reached Taj only by 19.00, the gates had just closed. We had no other go, but to stay back in Agra for the night, we found a near-by hotel & surprisingly the dinner was good as well!
The next day, was one of the most eventful days of my life! We decided to start early , as out a localiet told us that the Taj is the most beautiful at the break of dawn, though we were not early birds, we decided that we should make an effort this time & were up & ready by 5.45, & reached Taj at 6 am, we also found a guide to take us through. The gates opened, standing before us was the monument so famous that it is amongst the world’s seven wonders, The who’s who of the world has visited this grand living memory of a King’s love for his beautiful wife! The Taj is the most breath taking scene i’ve seen in my entire life & no words that i write can do justice to this beautiful magnificent monument! Though my second time at the Grand Taj Mahal, it still felt like the first, the same excitement, the same awe, the same respect...probably more for this symbol of Love! It looked more beautiful at dawn! Capturing the beauty of Taj in our eyes, we left Agra after 3 hours of exploring the Taj. Driving back to Delhi, in the heat of the morning was punishing, hungry, we stopped at a Dhaba on our way for breakfast. Feeling full after the aloo parathas & lassi, we dozed off due to the heat & by the time we reached Delhi it was almost noon, We got back to Vinod’s new service apartment at Greater Kailash, also known as GK, & decided to stay back with him for the next 3 days.
Vinod had to get to work the very same day, so he left by 13.00, we slept for a while & got out by 15.00 to explore the plush locality of GK. The local pubs, the shopping, the food joints were all great. We got back late after dinner at a local place & Vinod joined us by mid night. The next morning, we showed Vinod around the new place that he had to get acquainted with. He left for work, & after that we decided to visit Karol Bagh, Pavan being him wanted to check out some alloys & tyres for his car back home. This time we explored the city ourselves, navigating through the metros, getting on local buses & rickshaws, we enjoyed playing locals! We then got to a local pub, for a quiet dinner with some music & got home around the time Vinod was getting back. The next day was our last at Delhi, so we decided go for a posh lunch with Vinod before he left to office. The food was no doubt excellent & we bid goodbye to Vinod, who was our lovely host, dear friend & great company for the last 5 days! Of course he was going to be back with us in no time to Bangalore! Our flight was supposed to take off at 19.00hrs at evening, so we booked a cab to take us to the airport at 17.00. Reaching the airport, we were told that our flight was delayed by more than 2 hours!! Pavan, who had just recovered from a surgery that took place just a week before our departure to Delhi, was falling ill again & the cold inside the plane worsened it! The flight attendants were trying to help him out, & finally he fell asleep & that did a whole lot of good to him. We reached home by mid night, & the dampness in the weather of our very own Namma Bengaluru, our spirits raised, waiting for us was a friend of ours who came to receive us, Pavan who had not driven for almost 10 days now, could not resist it, back on wheels, he raced!
