aka Om Routray
I have written about Raju naan wale dwarka in another post but this one is about the owner. Sometime back, there was much talk about this lady who sold chole kulche from a streetside cart in Gurgoan. Her family had fallen on bad times and they owned SUVs and so the story went. But here is the godmother version of the story. This kulche stall has such a huge rush during all hours. I was there on a lean day and probably that’s how I…Continue Reading “The godmothers of Delhi streets: Dwarka”
Most of the times, I spot temples when I am looking for flowers. In this instance too, we spotted the heaps of flowers and then spotted the temple. There are no photography prohibited signs but a pot bellied, sandal tattooed priest moved towards us, shaking his head and waving his arms, even though we were far outside the temple premises. But if one thing I have learnt about priests from all my temple visits is that these guys can turn to goons in a moment….Continue Reading “Devi Kamakshi Mandir, Aruna Asaf Ali Marg”
Northern ridge If you have good company and pleasant weather, a day just swooshes you by here. Apart from the greenery and paths inside, there is the infamous khooni jheel to find, a few ruins to spot and photograph, fallen tree trunks to walk on and much more. Never take the same route back and see how hours pass by while you try to find a way out. There are loads of monkeys but they keep to themselves. If you can just tell yourself that…Continue Reading “3 places in Delhi for day tripping during monsoons”
It’s a virtual reality gaming zone but also serves great food. We will come to the food part later. First, the games. To be honest, I have never played video games in life, never even watched any sport on TV. Thankfully, it was unlike any other games arena I have been to, and I have not been to many. Easy to impress or not, I loved a few games here. We got a thirty game card and went around trying everything, apart from cricket. There…Continue Reading “Smaaash, Cyberhub, Gurgaon”
We all divide cities into safe and unsafe zones in our heads. Meher Chand market has been a safe zone for me, until someone broken the rear window of the car, stole a bag and walked away right in front of many people who saw nothing. What’s more brazen was that the car was parked right across the Café Coffee Day, on the main square in a well lit and crowded area. Anyway, after twenty minutes of going around and clueless asking around by local…Continue Reading “Delhi has its heroes”
How many of you knew that Paharganj is out of bounds for couples from Delhi? Rest of Delhi is not, the starred hotels are not. It is Paharganj. If you walk down the lanes late at night, salesmen would emerge from the darkness, walk a few steps in tandem and whisper “room room room’ into your ears. They know that what they are selling is illegal. They also don’t want to offend the woman with you, they just want to settle it man to man….Continue Reading “Paharganj – Out of bounds for Delhi couples”
I work in the mobile/tech industry. And, apps frustrate me. I tried ordering food via Swiggy the other day, but it picks location via a marker on the map. The map takes time to load, the marker drop can only be time taking, painful and approximate. I struggled for twenty minutes on two phones to add my address. Why didn’t I give up? Because I could not give up on my apps, if I did my salary would vanish. Then I tried ordering meat via…Continue Reading “Store goodtogo for meat delivery in Delhi”
Karma is a female canine and all that but passion and resolve to be happy can go a long way in messing up karma’s plans. Other than the ones who are predisposed to unhappiness, I can write a book on that, most other have a little wiggle room if they really want. Like this gardener from Bihar in a Lajpat Nagar colony garden. The guy has grown grapes and jackfruits in the small garden. There are sunflowers and massive tree sized jasmine flower plants and…Continue Reading “Growing grapes in Delhi”
Metropolis is a victim in Paharganj. It stands a little far from the crowd, right at the entrance, a little aloof and arrogant. May be, that’s why people hate it. Reading the reviews on Zomato, I almost decided not to walk in. Thank satan, I did. The restaurant is small, built like an alcove of an afterthought within the hotel. There are two rows of tables divided by wide pillars. It is certainly not pretty. The lights are not dim but not too bright either,…Continue Reading “Metropolis Bar & Hotel, Paharganj”
This one is a real cow, not the steel one I wrote about earlier. This cow, may be, lost a twin. But a woman earned her living for a lifetime. As I took the photo, a woman walked towards me, asking for money. She had put the calf on a goods carrier, did enough to deify the animal with a statue and a poster etc. The carriage stopped in front of every alternate shop and did the passive religious bullying. I didn’t see anyone paying,…Continue Reading “Holy Cow, Paharganj”
A girl looks on as a pickle vendor sells his ware at a weekly market in Dwarka. The nature of weekly markets change so much from one area to another. The market surrounded by highrises will have completely different stuff from this one which was closer to a local village. These pickle vendors belong to that narrow category who can traverse both. There are many more that can’t – the cloth sellers, the five rupee cup and glass sellers, 3 for 20 chole bhature walas…Continue Reading “Weekly Market, Dwarka”
All of us have different views about the tibetan colony. Some have been to the other one near Bus adda and think this is something similar and have never been here. Some go there for the beef, some will never go there because of the beef. I was there in 2001 for the first time as a student of the Delhi University. I was there recently after years. And, the place has changed. The restaurants are fancy, the streets are cleaner, there are cafes now…Continue Reading “Lama Shop, Majnu Ka Tila”
1. There was one passenger from Bla Bla car, one from Ridr app and me from Orahi 2. The passenger from Bla Bla car was a grey old uncle who was a branch head with a prominent private bank in Nehru place. The passenger from Ridr app was a leather jacket dude (henceforth referred to as The Yo )who worked with Yamaha in Sector 62, Noida 3. The passenger from Bla Bla car (henceforth referred to as Uncle)felt responsible, gave up in driving his chauffeured…Continue Reading “10 interesting things about today’s carpool”