Pixelated

Strolling around college :)

2007-04-21T20:22:00.000+05:30

Would take the metro station to college. And while the Park Street stop was also an option, I'd mainly opt for the 'Maidan' stop, as did most of the other college students.

Our major hangouts were the coffee-shops. Barista on Park Street was was my least favourite, Cafe Coffee Day on nearby Rawdon Street was quite nice, but our fave was the homely li'l Cafe Coffee Pai on Camac Street. So, I took Premankur here the time we were touring Park Street, and I tried out the yummy chocolate shake.

Gosh, their onion rings were to die for! :)

Right next to Coffee Pai was the Malgudi Junction - South Indian fare, with the best filter coffee in that area! And yes, I appreciated it all the more, after my Chennai stint! :)

Shakespeare Sarani used to be called Theatre Road. Unlike the other roads, though, which have horrendous modern names and gorgeous old names, this one has cuteness for both its names! Something divine about clubbing Shakespeare and 'sarani' (Bengali for 'road') together, and Theatre Road also sounds very... yummy. :) Anyhow, right at the junction of Theatre Road/ Shakespeare Sarani and Camac Street, you have the mall known only as Number 22, Camac Street. We used to hang out at the coffee shop here quite a lot too, and my fave was of course the Sizzling Brownie. :)

For a touch of traditional cuisine, Krishna's on Camac Street has some of the best north Indian sweets in Calcutta, all very attractively packed in their silver-blue matkas; and of course - the best puchka/ gol gappa/ paani puri is to be found right on your street corner. The guy down there is in front of Vardaan AC Market at Camac Street. (Taking a break from brisk business!)

Xaverians - Nihil Ultra :)

2007-04-21T20:15:00.000+05:30

So, I spent twelve years of my life at this place, being brought up like a god missionary-trained boy. :) St Xaviers Collegiate School, Calcutta, was formed in 1860, and since then has become one of the best private schools in the city. Our nearest competitors are La Martinierre for Boys, whom we would call La Farts! :) Of course, they copied our uniforms and tried to be as cool as us - they were the brats, while we were the so-called 'gentlemen'. :)

Aa, and all the Jesuit priests! :) Father Boris D'santos, our strict Prefect and his cane - of which I got a couple of swipes now and then. :) And some of the teachers - AC, or s Chow, as we used to acll her, during my 9 and 10 standards, and Guha Roy during 11 and 12. :)

School had two gates, and the field was behind the main building, where the 'back gate' opened up, right next to the gymnasium (up there). While I now think the gym is full of old-world charm in it's porch-like look, I hated the place during my school years - that was where I huffed and pffed my way through horrendous exercises and calisthenics. And remember, I was a pudgy schoolboy. :)

Out through the back gate, and there was 'Delights', home of idlis and 'fountain pepsi'! And right next to it was the primary school - five years spent here. :)

Proud of our motto, proud of our badge,
Proud of our colours, proud of our flag.
Nihil Ultra, Nothing Beyond,
Be it in studies or on the playground...

So let's all give a lusty cheer
Fo'r our school so dear!
HURRAH!

Gosh, I don't remember any more of the anhthem, I'm afraid, and I haven't been able to find it online anywhere, which is a bit surprising!

Even further back on the timescale, there was Mongrace Montessori School, a stone's throw away from Xaviers. That was where I soent my fiurst schooling years, chubby as anything, and quite the prankster (I believe), and a penchant for pulling girls' pigtails! :) Of course, I didn't notice the beautiful old-world bungalow Mongrace is housed in, then!

... and the uildings oppsoite Mongrace are as ancient, it seems. Lovely old brick houses, with wooden shutters and verandahs spilling over onto the street, and tall iron gates... :)

And of course, the strangely vigilant Globe Detective Aency. I always thought how strange it was, that the seedy office was in a locale surrounded by schools. *grin*

New Town?

2007-04-21T20:06:00.000+05:30

Suddenly, a lot seems to be happening in West Bengal. Why did I post a snap of the hoarding on top (and the ones below)? Well, because they seem to be symptomatic of a new resurgent Bengal. As any Bengali in his twenties will tell you, we grew up knowing that industry was leaving Calcutta. When we grew up, most industrial houses were relocating away due to the unionism and associated problems of a Communist government - the longest serving Communist government, elected for more than three decades! And somehow, in the last five years or so, the Red Guys seem to ahve woken up to the fact that agriculture and Marxism alone will not help the state.

So this is what you have: spiffy ad campaigns; closed door meetings with the captains of industry; reining in unions and granting land for SEZs. So there was on Singur and one Nandigram, but thankfully the government is not abandoning its policy. What's helped: the great IT boom and the great land boom.

So you have all these vast townships coming up on the northern and southern fringes of the main city. Places like Rajarhat and South City which were earlier just hamlets or even empty land, are suddenly teeming with skyscrapers and residential colonies.

And the mall culture is suddenly everywhere in Calcutta. When I left in 2001, there was just the Forum mall and 22 Camac Street (down there), the only two high profile mall addresses. Now, there are so many - springing up in all those new townships and even in new swanky addresses in the main city. Signs of a new resurgence? Indeed...

Perhaps the biggest sign of this, a rethink of Calcutta on India's consumer-map is the opening of Kentucky's Fried Chicken and McDonalds finally here. The fast food MNCs, much as we like to hate them, delayed opening shop in the city for years - so while Bangalore and Bombay saw multiple outlets, Calcutta saw none. When they finally opened, bang in uptown Park Street, it was interesting that these outlets have been the highest revenue earners for the MNCs in India. Calcuttans are clearly hungry! :)

But in a good way, as if to signal that the new Calcutta does not necessarily mean a break from the old, we have one of Park Street's oldest and most famous addresses due for a relaunch. The Skyroom is memorable for so many Indians, not just Calcuttans, who came here to dance and eat during the 60s and 70s. It was one of the most sought-after places to be seen at in those days, but then it fell to ruin due to (what else?) labour problems. The current owners however are opening the place all over again - and though the shutters are down today, you can hear the busy workers inside, working inexorably towards a brand new opening. :)

Howrah Bridge II

2007-04-21T19:58:00.000+05:30

I love this snap - I think it is so... evocatively Calcutta! :)

The second Howrah Bridge, seen from Chowringhee Avenue, at dusk. Gorgeous.

Also strolled over to the race course grounds from Chowringhee, and took these snaps of the high fences.. and again, the second Howrah Bridge beyond the fences. :)

Nandan

2007-04-09T23:42:00.000+05:30

Headed out to Nandan one fine evening, to catch a movie and take some random snaps. This place is supposed to be the heart of Calcutta cinema, anc CM Buddhadeb Bhattacharya is said to spend loads of his time here. Highly subsidized rates for a really great airconditioned hall and some excellent galleries, in addition to the Academy of Fine Arts, ensures that Nandan is packed with people at all hours of the day. :)

I mean, when you consider that you get BALCONY seats for Rs 50, you kinda think that Communism isn't all that bad, really! :)

Watchdogs!

2007-04-04T00:00:00.000+05:30

The motto of Kolkata Police is "We Care". Not very original about it really, since even Delhi Police says something about "care", etc, but then we don't really know which came first. KP is Headquartered in its Lalbazar barracks, a lovely old red building. Sadly, I didn't go there and take snaps, so all I have is this information kiosk in front of the Birla Planetarium, and a potbellied Man in White at the Park Street-Russel Street junction.

Christian Park Street

2007-04-03T23:45:00.000+05:30

The southern end of Park Street is where my college is. Right across the street is the Park Street police station in a gorgeous red brick building, very grand and very non-police-thana-like! :) That actually reminds me of the Colaba thana here in Bombay - with the same air of old-world charm and grandeur. :)

While I'm going to post some snaps of my old college soon, just a couple of steps away is the white house where the Bishop of Calcutta lives. And right next to it, is the chapter of the Seventh Day Adventist Church in Calcutta. :)

... And in case you thought that good Christians only go for gorgeous gothic buildings, think again and get prepared for the monstrous granite thing that is Assembly of God Church! :)

At the soutern end, you have the old Cemetery, a heritage site in its own right! This place has the funeral memorials/ monuments of some of the very first European inhabitants of the city, together with some notable people since then. Right in front, there's a huge plaque announcing that this is where the great Bengal Renaissance poet and teacher, Henry Louis Vivian Derozio, is buried.

Buladi says Goodbye

2007-04-03T23:25:00.000+05:30

Bula-di is, or rather, was the West Bengal government's campaign face against HIV. The 2 year old campaign has been withdrawn now, owing to a paucity of funds, but it has had an amazing effect as far as enhancing knowledge of HIV and AIDS is concerned, in both urban and rural areas of the state. According to the WB State A Prevention and Control Society, around 9000 people have reportedly been infected by HIV since 1986, with another 4900 living with AIDS. The problem is: while the Buladi campaign will be taken off the billboards, the TV and radio slots, the government agency is not sure what its going to do next here. Ouch.

And, yes, while I was snapping pictures of Buladi on Park Street, Premankur was munching on a (hold your breath) date sandwich. I dunno about you, but I've never heard of a date sandwich! :) O, and he also does corn sandwiches. *grin* Corny boy.

Nostalgia on Park Street

2007-04-03T23:17:00.000+05:30

Park Street has a special significance for me - as corny as that may sound. I spent 15 years of my life here in this area - first at school, then college after that. And a lot of afternoons ahve been spent at the Flury's building, either at the confectionary itself, or browsing at the MusicWorld storenext to it - which happens to be India's largest, by the way. :)

Up there is Park Mansions, at the Free School Street junction of Park Street.

Mansion Cricket

2007-04-03T23:10:00.000+05:30

This old house is right opposite my college on Park Street. Not in the very best of condition, but it's still an amazing building. Very old world charm. :) And the kids playing cricket out in front added to the charm, I think. :) :)

Going, going... not yet gone!

2007-04-03T23:04:00.000+05:30

Victor Brothers, in central Park Street, is one of Calcutta's most famous auction houses. This place has been here forever, it seems, dealing in everything from antique furniture and memorabilia to jewellery and art. So, of course, yours truly decided to 'strike a pose' - for the right price! :)

Of course, when I went there, the shutters of the auction house were down, but I managed to get some neat snaps through the black shutters and the musty glass. Some interesting snaps, I thought.

Rock n Roll!

2007-04-03T23:00:00.000+05:30

I'm making that scary face because I'm about to devour a double-egg-couble-chicken kati roll at Park Street's famous Hot Kati Roll stall. It's about an eight inch long, three inch fat roll, wrapped in a greasy paratha, stuffed with egg, onions, capsicum, chillis, heaps of chicken, driping with all sorts of sauces, and tasting like apiece of spicy, sexy (fattening!) heaven. Nothing like Calcutta's greasy streetfood anywhere else in the cuntry! :)

Kusum Rolls, up there, is also infamous on Park Street. Right in front of the notorious Karnani Mansions, which is a reputed hell-hole of drug-addicts and pushers, pimps and hookers, this place attracts quite a good number of customers from the offices and colleges around Park Street.

Shutterbug on Park Street

2007-04-03T22:52:00.000+05:30

Walking down Park Street, I'm like this li'l Jap tourist in my shades and camera. If we start straight from the tip of Park Street, where it connects with Chowringhee Avenue, there's the great big Warren's building, housing Warrens Travels since Donkey's Ears. This place has been functional since long before independence, and though it's got several other offices in the building now, Warren's is still a fantastic part of its history.

Right opposite Warren's, there's the Asiatic Society building. And if you consult the history books, you'll learn that the Society was formed many ages ago, in 1784 to be exact, and made it quite fashionable among the British and other Europeans to delve into 'Oriental' studies.

Nestled right next to the Asiatic Society, is the Family Book Shop. :) Very family-owned, and the same homely charm of Bombay's own Strand Book Store. :) Their stall is completely mobbed every year, during the annual Calcutta Book Fair.

Queens Mansion, opposite the Park Hotel, straddles a whole block, from the Russel Street junction. This gorgeous white building houses several offices, restaurants, stores, and even a posh saloon - A. N. John's. O, and of course, we mustn't forget the little stalls selling everything from imported chocolates and false perfumes, to cigarettes and condoms. :)

The Russel Street junction is also where you have the India Hobby Centre and BigMax - Calcutta's first brush with the burger, long before McDonald's set foot in the city. The BigMax burgers were amazing - humongously large, with loads of mayo and coleslaw, and you could never not get your hands dirty eating them! :) When they opened a Rollicks ice cream parlour here, they used to dish out the largest ice cream sundaes ever - with some cones balancing upto five scoops of ice cream precariously on top! And of course, every trip ended with me and my brother gazing longingly at all the toys and games exhibited in the store windows of the Hobby Centre, on our way out... and sometimes, lighter wallets for mum and dad. :)

Gosh, and the street has these great furnishing stores - probably much cheaper than Bombay, even though these places have been around here since forver! The Oriental Carpets gallery on top is practically an institution, and so is the Nu-built store, which always has the most antique wooden four-poster beds and ornate cupboards at the windows...

The Park

2007-04-03T22:46:00.000+05:30

Welcome to the Park, Calcutta. One of Calcutta's most famous and earliest five-star hotels, the Park was also single-handedly responsible for introducing the pub/ discotheque culture to Cal. It's discotheque, Tantra, and pub, Some Place Else, are still one of the most rocking nightspots in the city. New entrants, like the ultra-posh lounge bar here, Roxy's, are carrying on the Park tradition. :)

Oops, and yes, at night, the loooong portico of the Park does have some pimps shuffling about, offering you 'college girls' - English Honours students are supposed to be the priciest, for whatever reason! :)

For some reason, they have these two idols of Karthik and Saraswati, in traditional dhhaaker shaaj, at the entrance of Tantra, all aglow in a weird blue light! :)

O, and if you come in the mornings, you can't miss the gigantic Oxford Book Store here, under the portico. Very expansive and very sexy, if you're a book-person. :)

Park Street Ragtag

2007-04-03T22:21:00.000+05:30

Park Street has traditionally been the 'hot spot' of the city. The place where you have the rocking parties and the elegant restaurants, and the o-so posh Park Hotel. Just some of the grand old dames from a Park Street known for its neon lights and jazz strains...

Windmills of the Gods: Aa, but Sidney Sheldon is no more, and this is hardly gay Paree, but Moulin Rouge on Park Street is legendary for the Indian and Mughlai cuisine they serve. And their Chicken a-la Kiev is not too bad, either.

Once overhead, on a visit ages ago, two waiters discussing after the exit of a family eating nearby: "Madam khaatey rehta hain!" (madame just kept on eating!) :)

Kwality/ Quality - This was an old favourite of my entire family. This is where we used to come all the way from North Calcutta, to dine on Chicken Strogonoff and Chicken a-la Kiev. And when dad found out there was a Kwality's at both Delhi and Bombay, he was desperate to go there, too! :) Kwality's, housed under the Park Hotel building, is for old school Bengalis and Marwaris.
Chinese Cook Duck: As for Bar-B-Q, though the name suggests spare ribs, what you get here is impeccable Chinese food. This is one of the most famous Chinese haunts in the city - and even though they also opened a Indian cuisine extension, it never got as famous as its parent. :)

Sing a Song: Cuz that's what you hafta do, at Trinca's. This place is one of the last remaining restaurants on Pak Street which still have a live band playing at night, reminiscent of the rocking scene of the 70s. Mum and dad used to come here in thsoe days, to watch Usha Uthup and others perform here. And while Usha's not here anymore, the restaurant did get renovated recently, and the music still plays till late in the night here... :)

Star Track

2007-04-02T01:38:00.000+05:30

The Indian Idol selections were going on at Calcutta, while I was there, and I tagged along with Premankur for his interview with judge Alisha Chinai. Also present were Udit Narayan and Anu Malik, both of whom insisted on hamming it up for the TV crews by singing in their nasal voices.

Aaa, but Alisha...!

Alisha's an Indian Idol!
Have completely loved her ever since she did 'Made in India' and it was great to actually see her in the flesh. She's called the Indian Madonna and all, so of course Premankur asked her about her 'reinvention techniques'. He started off with a silly "you're looking gorgeous today", that had her blushing and giggling, (even though her black harem pants with zippers and the big clunky boots were o-so-weird!), and then of course, our intrepid reporter proceeded to grill her about other matters... including the fact that she's now working with Anu Malik, against whom she had filed a Sexual Harassment charge in the 90s....!

Ooooo... gossip! :)

Chariots of Fire (?)

2007-04-02T01:33:00.000+05:30

Something gorgeously Grand about a horse-carriage - even when it's a cheesy silver one at the Gateway. Well, Calcutta is also dotted with horse carriages. From the equally cheesy silver ones (they have swans snaking out from behind the passenger's seat!) that park at Rajabazar with their undernourished steeds, to the slightly more sedate ones that take families and kids for joyrides at the Maidan, around the Victoria Memorial. Like the one on top. :)

And, though I've never really clambered on one of them for a buggy ride, I've always found myself wishing I did. Guess I'm just too much of a silly embarrassed pansy to go on one by myself - now that would be silly, na?!

I loved this one, with the good ole Amby! :)

In the middle of Middleton Row

2007-04-02T01:19:00.000+05:30

During my college/ school years, Middleton Row, that little patch of street behind Park Street, was mainly important for Loreto House and Loreto College. They were our sister school/ college, and there was all that fascination and swaggering bound to happen in an all-boy's school. Of course, the spire of the resident church at Loreto's - Saint Thomas - was also very impressive. but that impressed me only later on.

Went inside the chapel this time around and attended 4 pm mass. It's a small church, but very neatly done up, with very colourful paintings and murals on the walls. The service was actually conducted in indi - from the sermon to the hymns - and that was a bit of a surprise. Also, my HIndi sucks - big time. :)

Leaving the chapel, you're right in front of the old YWCA building, which also houses Golden Spoon restaurant. This place was quite afmous during the 70s for its rolls and biryanis, and mum says, she and dad were often to be founf here in thsoe days - yes, my dad was a Xaverian like me, and mum did college at Loreto! :)

And a short walk away from Golden Spoon brings you right over to Park Street - and the all-too famous Peter Cat near the junction. Peter Cat's chello kebabs are legendary! :)

Corporate Chowringhee

2007-04-02T00:54:00.000+05:30

Chowringhee Avenue is also where Calcutta's Corporate Barons have their headquarters. And, over the years, they have also added to the fantastically grand skyline here:

Reliance House: Previously, it used to be the Reliance Industries building, but following the group split, it now houses the Calcutta chieftains of the Anil Dhurubhai Ambani Group.

Chatterjee International Centre: This used to be the tallest building in Calcutta some years ago - though the original 25 stories doesn't seem very much these days! - but is now pretty much considered unsafe. It was set up by Purnendu Chatterjee's TCG. The mosaic work on the building exterior is quite yummy, really. :)

Virginia House: That's where tobacco barons ITC rule from. :) It's a gorgeous old white building, in spotless condition.

Tata Steel Building: The company's multistoried skyscraper provides a fantastic contrast to the empty lot next door - which has this really ornate gate in front.

Kanak Building: The beautifully restored red brick building houses both Citigroup and Standard Chartered. It's currently under some more beautification/ renovation.

chowringhee road

2007-04-02T00:45:00.000+05:30

Welcome to Chowringhee Avenue, or Jawaharlal Nehru Road as the Municipal papers and no one else calls it. :) This is arguably one of the first roads of Calcutta - not just a thoroughfare today, but pretty much 'the heart' of the city. And, yes, it has traffic snarls, now and then - but thanks to the brand new flyover, these have been reduced greatly.

Was walking down the road at dusk, and here are some of the sights that struck me -

Elliot Park: Inaugurated by CM Buddhadeb Bhattacharya, it's got your usual 'dancing fountains' at night, and a beautiful lake in the midde, surrounded by landscaped gardens.

Eden Over Maidan: Green expanse of the Maidan - often called Central Calcutta's 'lungs' - and way over on the other side, you can see the towering spotlights of the Eden Gardens Stadium. The maidan is dotted with cricket and football clubs, not to mention the usual lovers. :)

Three-in-one: The dome of the MP Birla Planetarium, in front of which the statue of Indira Gandhi bows - she has probably never looked this humble in her life! :) Far behind, to the right, you can see the spire of St Paul's Cathedral surfacing from the green cover.

Menagerie: Toy birds laid out on a white sheet in ront of one of the office buildings at Chowringhee.

The famous white pants: Premankur's pants - nicked from his mum. In white corduroy. He insists, his mum had men's pants made for herself. :)

Fly me to the moon...

2007-04-02T00:07:00.000+05:30

So this time, I decided I absolutely must check out the Planetarium. I have the absolutely faintest memory of going inside and seeing the show, when I was tiny, and every time I passed the mouth of Theatre Road, where you can see that great big dome looming out of the foliage, I was always sorely tempted to go by. So I went ahead a day before with Premankur, checked out the show timing for the next day, and there I was, standing in line. Camera in tow. :)

For anyone not in the know, Calcutta's MP Birla Planetarium was built in 1962 - Asia's largest and first planetarium, and coming only a few years after the world's first in London. And thes days, apart from the shows and the lectures, the Planetarium also offers post graduate diploma courses and a M.Phil in astronomy.

Before entering the main exhibition hall, however (show tickets: Rs 30 for English, at 1.30 pm), I explored the gallery around it. It's got all these great charts and drawings and photographs, plus the mandatory gift shop, but what I found most interesting were the Hindu depictions of the planets. So I snapped up Earth (the Vishnu Varaha avatar rescuing Earth-mother Bhumi from the ocean-bed, as in the legends), and the red-skinned god of Mars. And yes, Mars is sitting on a goat. :)

AS for the mail hall itself - it's got this avst hemispherical domed ceiling, plush leather seating arranged in a circle around the centre of the room, where the projection equipment is. The rim of the walls has frescoes of the Calcutta city skyline, and this is an amazing touch, when the show delves on the Calcutta night sky. It's seriously a fantastic sight, when the dome gets pitch black, and covered in goregous twinkling stars, and when they etch out the constellations one by one.

Aa, but cameras are not allowed inside, when the show is on or about to start. I clicked the pic above surreptitiously, but put it away when the show started. As for the show itself, it wasn't too bad on the knowledge and the light-show fronts, but the droning voice of some Old Mother Hubbard-wannabe talking about the stars/ planets wasn't very engaging. And then, when she suddenly starts shouting in the middle of the show - "You were told to put off your mobile phones! Am I not speaking proper English? Why can't you do as you're told?!" - I burst out laughing at the Headmistress Act. :)

All in all, a fun afternooon.

Aurobindo Bhavan on Busy Theatre Road

2007-04-01T23:40:00.000+05:30

I used to go to the Aurobindo Bhavan on Shakespeare Sarani (Theatre Road) for the children's library. Actually, my grandfather had suggested that I become a member there, once I hit class 5 and the school syllabus required me to come up with all those fancy 'projects' etc. So, while my brother had been a member at the British Council library across the street, it was li'l ole Aurobindo Bhavan for me. :)

Of course, the place is not about just the library! It's the focal point of the Aurobindo Society in Calcutta. The building is this really lovely old heritage structure, and also houses a theosophical library, an apiary, meditation centre, shop for handicrafts and tribal products, etc. It's an amazingly peaceful place, complete with twittering birds and huge palm fronds. Very nice if you want to be in a quiet place.

Yes, yes, I know the library seems like a mini-jail, with all the barred windows, but this is really the place where I discovered Enid Blyton and al the rest! :)

Fancy Fare at Russel Street

2007-04-01T23:24:00.000+05:30

The Astor Hotel on Theatre Road has been one of the foremost authorities on posh Indian cuisine in Calcutta since Donkey's Ears. And yes, the lovely old red building is terribly soothing to lounge in. They have a beautiful pool right behind the boundary wall, and you can enjoy your kebabs there next to it. This time around, granny took us all out to the o-so fancy Calcutta Club, and the tandoori food there was catered by the Astor. Lipsmacking! :)

Ad, of course right there you also have the Kenilworth Hotel, in its sparkling white building, on Little Russel Street. We used to go there for Sunday buffet lunches - no wonder I used to weigh 77 kg in those days! :)

Go Fish!

2007-03-29T00:44:00.000+05:30

Observe. The fisherman pants from the land of eternal sunshine, Goa. OK, so that was cornily put and those are pink pants (magenta!) which go around your butt and you draw the ends of the string together to put it all in one piece. Devilishly comfortable. Though the family hates it. I love the fisherman look.

Perfect for a nice lazy Sunday brunch, na?

(O, and yes, that;s my messy room, complete with 6 foot narcissistic mirror, loads of books and photo frames and painted mango crates with clothes inside.)

Fab Lighting

2007-03-29T00:20:00.000+05:30

I'm a self-confessed Fabindia Freak. I've checked out all the Bombay outlets within habitational areas (cross the Mulund and Malad stores off the list, please!) and the super-sized dukaan in Delhi GK, and also the one at Connaught Place there. And, on my recent Calcutta trip, the newly opened Fabindia at Gariahat.

And I looooove the paper lanterns. Adore them, Lust after them. Stand for minutes there, twirling them and handling them, till the attendants look alarmed/ greedy. And I love seeing them in people's homes. :)

Remake of the Decade!

2007-03-23T23:45:00.000+05:30

Flury's on Park Street was always a city landmark for the fashionable and the tasteful and the jetset. Only thing, it used to be a tattered part of history-landmark, and more of a place where you would go to remember the 'good ole days' of Flury's gone by. The waiters were terribly slow and hard of hearing, the paint was peeling off, but the mergingues-with-cream was still one-of-a-kind, as was Flury's itself. But again - it was a visit merely for the sake of a nod to history.

So, imagine my utter surprise when I set foot inside the all-new Flury's, the other day. The old world charm is still there, but the paint is spic-and-span, the waiters are amazingly crisp and know their fare well, the food is as good as ever, and there is an air of newfound prosperity. No more, the old visit at the end of which you left feeling sad...

Flury's was spankin' new! ... and shining...!

So, on my first visit there with Premankur the other day, I ordered old favourites Viennese coffee (they don't make it like this anywhere else, oustide Vienna, trust me!) and their trademark chocolate boat. The meringues are off the menu though, but these two were more than enough to make me not feel sooo sad! :)

And while I took some nice snaps of the chandeliers overhead and the interesting mosaic tiling on the wall panels, I also noticed their Easter Bunny is out - time for some de-lish Easter eggs too! :)

Premankur and I took these snaps because we are - quite simply - "vain morons". It's a private joke! :) But we look damn great at Flury's! :)

While the new Flury's has a new tagline also - Five Generations of Fine Confection - this is upheld in their new centre: T3, or The Tea Table, across the street from it. This is where they've shifted all the old furniture - and even the old waiters. As my uncle said, T3 is where the old-timer customers of Flury's go - to go back to the old days when they snapped at the waiters and whiled away centu

New/ Old Market

2007-03-23T23:14:00.000+05:30

More than 130 years since the Stuart Hogg Market was set up in 1874, it's rebuilding time again here. The bricks (of which the circular set up is just one take) are lined up to construct a new underground shopping complex - below the original gothic structure on Linday Street.

Welcome to New Market, as all Calcuttans call it. The then shairman of the Calcutta Corporation, Sir Stuart Hogg, may have inaugurated the market as a Whites-only preserve, but modern-day Calcuttans (very few Whites left here now!) have no hesitation in adopting it as their own. New Market now occupies the whole of Lindsay Street, stretching from Chowringhee Avenue out front, to Free School Street which flanks it. It is, in essence, a great big jamboree that sells and buys anything and everything, and one of Calcutta Traffic Police's worst nightmares!

Notable joints at New Market, which have been around for eons: Strawberry for childrens clothes, and yes, my mum was a regular there at one point of time; Nahoum's Confectionary, which makes the yummiest Easter fare and cinnamon bread; Badshah, which is one of the buzzwords for Calcutta-style rolls, Globe Cinema, which has been around for decades and is still as seedy as ever; and New Empire cinema, which has renovated itself to include a Domino's Pizza and a Barista outlet on the ground floor. Sadly enough, that other old movie hall in the vicinity, Lighthouse, which used to be one of the few good halls to screen English movies, could not follow New Empire's modernisation suit and is closed down now. :(

O, and yes, they built that awful montrosity called Sreeram Arcade with its fake Greek statue and Corinthian pillars right opposite New Empire. In a way, it was one of the first 'malls' in Calcutta - and in that respect, a trendsetter. We used to frequent the softy ice cream shop on the ground floor, when we were there at New Empire for a movie during the college years. :)

School's Out....!

2007-03-23T22:34:00.000+05:30

Back on Free School Street, the gramophone record-sellers used to be quite the men to look out for, at one point of time. There used to be lines and lines of stalls selling the very oldest and the very rarest LPs here, and they never used to be shy of customers. But, as Premankur plans to write about in a forthcoming story, many of them have switched to selling CDs these days, and so, while there may be a Woodstock LP on the lower shelf, pride of place on the shelf at eye-level is occupied by a CD of Kabhi Alvida Na Kehna!

But at least, some other elements of Free School Street remain untouched - the second hand book stores are still there, and so are the shops famous for musical instruments - guitar and piano makers. These guys will have it custom-built for you, if you so desire. :)

The Armenian College is a piece of Free School Street history. It's been here since 1884, and while the institute may no longer be the top draw for higher education in the city, it occupies a very important place in the city and the neighbourhood's heritage. :)

Now, when I took this snap, I had no idea of the role this shop has played in my family history. I took the snap as a joke - lofty sounding Saville Row, sitting next to humble Pritam Traders on seedy Free School Street: perhaps, the proprietors had been in London on the original street...?

Aaa, but then I came back home, and started trying on some old coats of my dad, which no longer fitted him, with the intention of spririting them away for myself, and that's when mum tells me that most of these old suits were tailored for my dad's wedding at... (you guessed it!) Saville Row on Free School Street, which used to be (apparently) quite the fashionable shop during the 1970s and 80s!

Took this one, just cuz I thought it was pretty. I'd wanted cane blinds for my place sometime back, but didn't know where to get them in Bombay. It's something we Bongs call 'cheek' - the kind that we roll down and roll up with ropes. And, here, walking down Free School Street, I see a whole variety of them. Wonder if they do export orders?

These colourful things are called 'khoi bags'. They're party accessories for li'l kids' birthday parties, and yes, I used to have them when I was chhottu. It's usually one large cartoon/coloured/ decorated paper bag, stuffed with 'khoi' and sweets and li'l toys and whistles, and hung up from the ceiling. The birthday boy (that's me) takes a long stick and punches the bag from below, so that it punctures, raining down all the worthless khoi with all the goodies (sweets, toys, etc) and all the kids start hunting for the best of them. Sort of needle in the haystack game. Was actually a lot of fun! :)

And that's the church on Free School Street, right next to the Fire Department HQ. I forget what the name is, but I do think it's grand. *sigh*

Calcutta Honky Tonk

2007-03-22T01:23:00.000+05:30

Central Calcutta's Seedy District: Sudder Street and Free School Street. Up there is Sudder Street, which has surprisingly lofty origins, snaking in as it does from behind the National Museum on Chowringhee Avenue, but then it degenerates, through a multitude of twists and turns, into this raggedly place teeming with cheap hotels, motels, brothels and foreign exchange shops. Perfect for hippie/ poor firangs.

Free School Street down there is now called Mirza Ghalib Street. This has got to be one of the city's most diverse roads ever - from posh restaurants to alleged Chinese mafia dens, churches to mosques, government buildings to old gramophone record stores, second hand book sellers to brothels. Welcome to the Hotch Potch! :)

The most memorable landmark here? That's easy - the Fire Brigade HQ, all in a peculiar shade of lime yellow, with its dozen or so giant red fire trucks assembled below. A six-year old's fantasy come true. (Well, apart from the brothels and the mafia dens, I mean!)

We Hit Chowringhee...

2007-03-22T00:59:00.000+05:30

Like Bombay, Calcutta has its fair share of movie halls with attitude and heritage that the current crop of multiplxes simply cannot replicate. A case in point is the Metro cinema hall at Esplanade. Housed in this breathtakingly gorgeous old-world building, the theatre is all about... elegance. Elegance, despite the terrible congestion of Chowringhee Avenue outside! :)

And a short walk away from Metro, you have the stately Grand Hotel - or the Oberoi Grand. Maybe not as old as the Great Eastern, the Grand nevertheless has reams of character and history. Don't let all the teeming crowds around the hotel fool you into thinking it's not first-rate!

And under the pillared portico of the Grand, you will find hawkers and five-star shops selling practically everything under the sun. An amazing Chinese food joint also, which we used to frequent during college days... and countless magazine stalls selling Filmfare and Cineblitz...

Metro to the Esplanade

2007-03-22T00:39:00.000+05:30

The stretch of Esplanade, where the Grand Hotel stands, leading in from dalhousie and Central Avenue, is just full of really old landmark shops, like Cuthbertson's on top. Of course, right next to Cuthbertsons is the much-recent Kanpur Leather Stores, and Premankur accused me of bias in that I didn't include it in my frame here! :)

Easiest way to get there? Hop on the metro, and get off at the Esplanade stop.

Once you come out of the subterranean station and spy the Shaheed Minar (Tower of Martyrs), previously the Ochterlony Monument, standing tall to your right, against the green expanse of the Maidan, you know you've come to the right place!

For the record, Esplanade is a major 'rallying point ' (pun intended) for the city's political parties. It's like, every time a party wants to annoucne a protest or whatever, theyt all descend on Esplanade and the Maidan and declare a rally or a bandh or whatever. With the result, traffic in central Calcutta comes to a standstill. Botheration!

Great Eastern Heritage

2007-03-22T00:04:00.000+05:30

The 167-year old Great Eastern Hotel, at the corner of Esplanade and Dalhousie has been the toast of the town long before the Oberois and the Tajs came about. This where the Queen of England stayed, for God's sake! :) But the place has been degenerating since the 1970s and the state government has woken up to this fact, finally - the hotel has now been privatised, ahead of its renovation, and the new owners say, they shall soon restore the Great Eastern to her former preeminent status! The facade of the building, of which you can see a part up there, will be kept largely the same, and there is also construction activity at the rear, down there, to build a new swimming pool and car park.

Come back in three years' time to the Great Eastern, Your Majesty! :)

Odd One Out!

2007-03-21T00:40:00.000+05:30

The LIC Building at B.B.D. Bagh up there. And I don't know which gate I'm posing in front of, down there. No, it's not the LIC building. :)

No Mean Reds Here...

2007-03-21T00:27:00.000+05:30

The Royal Insurance Building stands right opposite the General Post Office. Not very sure if it still houses the insurance company, but yes, whoever the current tenants are, they must pay a hefty price for maintaining the building n the great shape it's in! :) With its red and grey brick-and-stone work, the building is a charming foil to the GPO's pristine white.

Post-its?!

2007-03-21T00:06:00.000+05:30

I'm completely in love with Bombay's General Post Office, so I really didn't expect to be so awed by Calcutta's GPO. The dome is amazingly white, and now that I think of it, I do recall drives past the illuminated GPO at night, and I remember looking out of the car window and ogling the dome...

Built in 1864, this one easily outranks the Bombay GPO, and was apparently built on the site of Calcutta's original Fort William. There were some bricks laid out on the road next to the building, and I thought they would make an interesting snap, so SNAP! :)

And yes, pillars on the three sides - scream out to be clicked, too. :) Very Greek, methinks.

Punch Stronger Than Caffeine Here

2007-03-20T23:52:00.000+05:30

No,this is not the famous College Street Coffee House, but another one, just as famous. The Central Avenue Coffee House has recently been renovated and thrown its doors open for the public. Tue to form, it still has horrible decor (chrome tables and chairs) and a vast, airy hall - but then, people never went to the Coffee House for decor anyway - you always have a Barista or a Cafe Coffee Day for that! The Coffee Houses of Calcutta (Kerala too, for that matter), were set up by the Indian Coffee Board in the 1940s but were closed down by the British as they were seen to be a focal point of political activity. That's when the sacked workers took over and reopened the chain! And since then, Calcutta's Coffee Houses have come to represent independent and even revolutionary student/ citizen thinking - and of course, the more harmless adda.

Settled for a cold coffee at the newly reopened branch. :)

Grand Old Dames

2007-03-20T23:41:00.000+05:30

Stock Exchange Building: The Calcutta Stock Exchange was one of Asia's oldest exchanges, but has sadly fallen into much disrepair these days. Low volumes and suspect liquidity are just some of the problems here, and I remember there was talk in the pink papers recently about how the market regulators, Securitie and Exchange Board of India, might recommend the closure of regional exchanges like this one. Aaa, but the old building is still gorgeous. :)

HSBC Building: A stone's throw away from the General Post Office, and it's one of Premankur's favourite old ladies here at Dalhousie. :) Personally, I think the HSBC building at Fort, Bombay, is grander, though.

Income Tax Office: That doorway is amazing! And yes, with the close of the financial year ahead, tax payment does make me see red these days! :)

It's A Zoo Out There...

2007-03-20T23:36:00.000+05:30

Just some crazily fantastic artistic work on B.B.D. Bagh. :) The gate down there is awesomely huge - you have to see it to believe it! And there are seven carved elephant windows like the one on top on the ground floor of the concerned building.

The Loooooooong Walk..

2007-03-20T23:15:00.000+05:30

Just some more vignettes from Calcutta's City of Palaces... the good part of this place is its amazing connectivity. Even apart from the horrid blue buses, the metro covers both flanks of the B.B.D. Bagh area - at Esplanade and at Chandni Chowk.

Premankur and I first got off at Esplanade station on this escapade - walked over to the Governor's residence, down Dalhousie Square, right past the Allahabad Bank office and towards Writers' Building, into a little corner lane that came out near the RBI building, and then down that road to the General Post Office.

O, but wait, that wasn't all...

Cricket Crazy City

2007-03-20T23:08:00.000+05:30

Again, this is not really a Bong-exclusive thing - the worship of cricket Gods. Or maybe it is. In a city where the Indian team's World Cup loss to Bangladesh was witnessed with horror as in the rest of India, there was one saving grace: the prayers of his Behala brethren had spared Saurav-da from ignominous defeat like the rest of the team!

Lal Sarkar!

2007-03-20T22:26:00.000+05:30

Welcome to the land of the communists - the last really strong bastion of the Leftists outside Cuba, and the Americans or the CIA can't do a thing about it - and are extremely frustrated about this, if the conspiracy theories of hardcore Bengal Leftists are to be believed. :) But as with most things Red in Calcutta, we take this with a pinch of salt - despite the stern gaze of Netaji and the Forward Bloc flag fluttering around him. For, the Forward Bloc that he founded is for practical purposes a has-been in the world of everyday politics, while the CPI (M) rules the roost.

But while the Forward Bloc may well be a spent force, it is clear that the Red Army still holds sway in Bengal - and will probably go on doing so, for many more years. I took this snap of a so-called revolutionary poster pasted outside Writers' Building, the seat of the Secretariat of the West Bengal government. And, of course, loads of snaps of the building in question.

To my mind, Writers' has been synonymous with Leftist rule, even though it's not technically so. I mean, during the era of Congress rule, it was probably the Congress trade unions which held sway there. Premankur tells me, the place derived its name from the clerks of the East India Company who used to work there - and were called (imaginatively enough) writers.

O, and yes, he cracked the silly joke about how writers are intrinsically Leftist, and hence you have the CPI(M) holding sway there. Har-de-har-har. :)

That's a view of Writers' from the corner of St Andrews Church.

Andrew at the Court House

2007-03-20T21:40:00.000+05:30

St Andrews Church stands at the head of Old Court House Street, right opposite Writers' Building, and for a second I confused it with St Johns Church, which is Calcutta's oldest church. Anyhow, St Andrews is pretty ancient too, completed in 1818 and built on the site of the first Court House (after which the street is named) of the English settlement.

As you can see, I have a thing for old churches, too. Premankur and I took the obligatory snaps, of course. :)

Allahabad in Calcutta

2007-03-20T20:34:00.000+05:30

I have a thing for pillars. And I fell in love with these massive ones at the Allahabad Bank building at Dalhousie. The entire building is quite yummy, whitewashed and all, even though it's surrounded by utter commotion in the crowded district. :)

O, and of course, the clock on top was a must-snap!

Blue and Gold

2007-03-20T20:26:00.000+05:30

Calcutta's notorious 'tin' buses were a grimy silver earlier - while the spanking new ones woe an unnatural gleam that you just knew wouldn't last the week. So imagine my surprise, when I drop down to Calcutta this time around and see them all painted... blue. I believe the drivers are as reckless as ever, though, so at least some things don't change! :)

And speaking of constant forces of nature, our Amby taxis are much the same as well. :) Amen...

Is That The Money Tree?

2007-03-20T20:15:00.000+05:30

A five minute walk away from the Old Currency Office, you have the Calcutta arm of the Reserve Bank of India. As modern a building as its head office in Bombay, and as shocking an eyesore. I mean, there you have that huge building in the middle of all the old mansions of Horniman Circle in Bombay, and here you have this one in B.B.D. Bagh!

Much more pleasing to the eye are the RBI staff quarters, down there. Took a close-up of the pillars and first floor portico. :)

Mishti, Kashundi and Modhu

2007-03-20T20:09:00.000+05:30

Streetfood at B.B.D. Bagh is to die for - where else would you get a mountain of chicken biryani for as low as Rs 12/- ???? Not just the biryani, you have tonnes of other food to choose from - and of course, the Bengali mishti that the colleagues of every Bong expat beg him to bring back after a trip to the homeland. :) See and drool, up there.

Also tucked away in the lanes, you have these vendors selling neatly packed bottles of Bong style mustard (kashundi) and home-made honey (modhu).

All about the money... dum dum dadada... :)

2007-03-20T19:41:00.000+05:30

Talking about grand old buildings in the City of Palaces, the first in-depth snap session was the Old Currency Office. Gorgeous green shutters, like the ones we have at our home - yea yea, we have one of those old mansions to live in ourselves - and a great door emblazoned with the Asoka's Lions emblem, and i just had to pose for one. :)

Coconut Factory at Dalhousie

2007-03-20T19:36:00.000+05:30

Coconut Water - nothing exclusively Bengali about it, unless you say it the Bong way: daaber jol. :)

I hate daaber jol!

As you can see, Premankur quite loves the stuff.

City of Palaces...

2007-03-20T19:17:00.000+05:30

B.B.D. Bagh, formerly known as Dalhousie Square, is actually the part of Calcutta which lends it the name City of Palaces. This is the main financial district of the city, and houses most of the administrative buildings as well. The B, B and D come from three extremist Bengali freedom fighters, Binoy, Badal and Dinesh who lobbed bombs at some Brit policeman.

As far as grand architecture goes, this place takes top honours. The snap on top is of the North British and Mercantile Company Building, while the one below shows a quaint old signboard atop one of the other old mansions.

When I first saw Fort in Bombay, my first thought was: OMG, this is so like Dalhousie! And it is, really. It's the same character. Perhaps, with better character and many more 'firsts'. As Premankur kept telling me, you can safely say the first 'this' or the first 'that' with most things in Calcutta, really! :)

Old Guns and Older Buildings

2007-03-20T18:56:00.000+05:30

While the first stop of my Homecoming Tour (a la Kylie *grin*) was the Esplanade metro stop and Raj Bhawan, my blog buddy and city guide Premankur walked me over to the Ordinance Factory (up above), and from there we hotfooted it to Dalhousie Square, also called B.B.D. Bagh in central Calcutta.

As Premankur would tell you, I am quite the camera hog. But then, you already witnessed that with the Delhi trip. :)

So while we were traipsing around, chitchatting about how nonsensical a Bong I am, and taking snaps of countless verandahs and porticos and pillars and buildings, there were also loads of dear ole livinghigh and his pearly-whites.

Where Lions Roar...

2007-03-20T18:42:00.000+05:30

Raj Bhavan in Calcutta. There's a silly little story in my family, how my brother during his infant years would throw a tantrum every now and then that he must see a lion. And that's when the driver would be fetched, the car would be piled upon, and the entire family would drive over to Dalhousie (BBD Bag) to Raj Bhavan, so that my teeny-weeny spoil lil brat (older) brother could be satisfied at the four lions straddling each of the four gates of the complex. :)

Thankfully, I was never such a tantrum kid!

But the building we know as Raj Bhavan used to be Government House earlier. It used to be the seat of the British Indian Empire, till the capitol shifted to New Delhi from Calcutta in 1912. That's why the place is much grander than any of the other state Raj Bhavans, second only to Dehi's Rashtrapati Bhavan.

This, by the way, is the start of a series of Calcutta posts - from my visit to the homeland March 17- March 25, 2007. :)

O come o ye faithful....!

2007-03-11T19:07:00.000+05:30

Cute little church at Colaba Causeway. Right next to the police station, which itself is housed in a deliciously oooollllddd house, and looks thoroughyl adorable. I forget the name of the church, though, shucks.

Behind it, you can see the tall tower of that great big montrosity Hafeez Contractor has created out of a heritage structure on Cuffe Parade.

Gateway To/Of India

2007-03-11T18:53:00.000+05:30

Always used to get confused between the Gateway of India here and Delhi's India Gate. That is, till I actually lived in Delhi for some time in 2004, and that settled matters. Fell in love with India Gate, after having spent some memorable moments there, but Gateway here in Bombay has caught me off guard with awe at times too. It's the whole BIG thing, as silly as it sounds. The idea of royalty and all that jazz. Yes yes, everyone knows that the Gateway was built by the British Indian government to commemmorate the visit of the Prince of Wales (George his name was then, I think, current Queen Elizabeth's dad), and thereafter, all the action shifted to Delhi which displaced Calcutta to become the new capitol of India

So as you can see, while being an absolute egoist, I find history quite fascinating! :)

Full Name: The Taj Mahal Palace And Towers

2007-03-04T18:31:00.000+05:30

Welcome to Bombay's most famous hotel. The glitzy Taj Mahal, no relative to Agra's famous tourist spot, sees thousands of well-heeled travellers every week, when it's not playing host to some of the biggest corporate shindigs in India's financial capital.

On a less regal note, it's also used for emergency toilet stops by yours truly when I'm in the neighbourhood.

Fendi would be aghast!...

Pegasus Rides in Bombay

2007-03-04T17:53:00.000+05:30

Have always been completely hooked on to these gaudy silver chariots that go up and down the Gateway road and Nariman Point, offering pleasure rides. Appeals to the ditsy drama persona inside me, and I make no bones about it all. :)

Would be simply dandy to ride upto a club at night, while partying, on one of these. By Invitation Only, what the fcuk is that?!

Arabian Sea, off the Gateway of India

2007-03-04T17:38:00.000+05:30

Took this pic, a couple of Saturdays ago, when I went shopping with Stephen to Colaba. We poked in to all the shops there, didn't buy much, and then walked over to the Taj Hotel to take a leak. And, o yes, we played tourists and took snaps of the sea and the gateway. :)

...And then there was Light....!

2007-03-04T17:17:00.000+05:30

It's crazy, the number of lamps I have in my li'l room. Have bought bulbs and bulb holders and wires etc from the same electrician, and whenever he sees me walking down the road towards his shop, he asks straight away what wattage bulb I want. Scary shit.

But I love them. I think they look damn neat. Diffused lighting, yellow and not so bright on the eyes. There's the garden mashaal up there, whose gas cannister I replaced with a bulb. The cannister holds fake plumes now, ae you can see down there, and it's against this nice blue vase which has a bulb inside.

Then there's the red and black polka dotted vase which is teamed up with a paper mache lamp shade from Fabindia, with my rakhis from last year strewn on the four sides. :)

And finally, there's the blue candle holder with four coloured candles, given to me by Sharon in January. Used as decoration right now, but would be a deadly romantic aid, methinks.

Jack-o-Lantern

2007-03-04T17:07:00.000+05:30

The new lamps have been attached to my window extension. The plan is: move out a mattress there and new cushions, and voila, I have my little own verandah reading spot.

Ok, ok, so calling it a 'verandah' is a gross misrepresentation, but wat-eva!

It's pretty!

A Movie Hall Named After The God of Love

2007-02-28T23:28:00.000+05:30

Eros cinema at Churchgate is supposed to be the pin-up of art deco in Bombay. Was screening Guru the other day, when Rajat and I hit the Kaala Ghoda Arts Festival, so I stopped by to click a coupla snaps since I knew I wasn't going to see the movie that day. Eros is just one of many such old-style movie halls dotting South Bombay. The other famous one being Regal at Colaba, but I haven't snapped that up yet. And then Metro, which is now a refurbished PVR and all.

Naaa.... give me ole Black&White Eros anyday! :)

...easier on the wallet too!

PS: Wonder if the the guys who named the movie hall actually considered what happens in the back stalls in the dark? *grin*

No church, no gate...

2007-02-25T23:47:00.000+05:30

Churchgate Station - the terminus for the Western Railway. Actually, the main station building is this ugly modern montrosity, and what I've posted are snaps of the HQ of WR. :) No gate or church here anymore, though. Just Marine Drive a short walk away....

... and also, the yummiest Frankie rollls you can get anywhere in Bombay. Also, the sweetest cold coffee. : Hmmm... how come all my landmarks have something to do with food? Sheesh.

Across the Oval

2007-02-25T23:37:00.000+05:30

Towering Inferno? I always thought, that would make a great porno title! :) For now, though, it seems to be a great caption for the pic on top - Bombay University's Rajabai Tower, juxtaposed against the Bombay Stock Exchange, shot from across the Oval Maidan.

The Oval is this great expanse of cricketing history that is full by day in white uniforms, and makes for an exhilarating walk across in the evenings, post dark. Of course, with all the hullaballo over the Beer Man Murders in January, I was bypassing my evening walks for some time. :)

Played around with B&W there. It could well be from another century, na? :)

Queen's Station

2007-02-25T23:21:00.000+05:30

Took these snaps of VT/ CST (Victoria Terminus/ Chhatrapati Shivaji Terminus) ages back, one Saturday, coming back home from work. Actually, the way I see it, this entire photoblog is a way of ensuring that the digicam doesn't gather dust in the cupboard, unused and neglected. So there was Grand Old VT - Bombay's very own World Heritage site still in daily service - just waiting to be snapped up.

VT is the main terminus of the Central Railway line, the less posh cousin of Western Railway. I normally prefer the CR, by the way, since its much less crowded than the WR in the mornings, while going to work. Of course, most of the time, I'm rather late for work so I hail a cabbie - but since the cab usually passes by VT, I still get to ogle the building. :)

To Versailles, anyone?

The one below is just the rails outside the VT. Thought it looked nice in the light, that's all.

Like the Madonna Song - Shutter Speed!

2007-02-24T01:50:00.000+05:30

It's like the words in that Madonna song - faster than a speeding ray of light... Welcome to the fast world of Bombay. Where traffic doesn't quite move as fast as work timetables do. And where the mind works faster than clockwork. :) Rat race? Yes, but still somehow, transcends that.

It's all about shutter speed, I guess.

Fort St. George

2007-02-24T00:39:00.000+05:30

Fort is the place to be if you're a banker in Bombay. :) And yes, if you're into Public Relations like I am. This used to be the old Bombay Castle or Fort St. George, built by the British in the 17th century, but of course, the old walls are all torn down now. Today, Fort is the financial hub of the city, and though upstarts like Nariman Point and the Bandra Kurla Complex have stolen away some leading financial firms, a Fort address is still a must-have for any bank or fund worth its name. :)

The Citi Never Sleeps: Those are the pillars of the Citibank Fort office on D.N. Road, on top.

Lawrence and Mayo - another Fort institution. Love the old-world style of all the buildings here. Reminds me a lot of Calcutta, I guess - City of Palaces, and all that! :) When you come to Fort, it's a brilliant amalgamation of the city: old style, rag tag vendors, the art circuit and loads more.

Love the old ruins down there - I have no idea where they're from, which old building collapsed or got demolished, but that's all there is to them - still standing, even though they're surrounded by frantic hawkers these days. :)

And then there's the Goddess - never far behind from where there's money to be made and deals to be brokered. Perched precariously on top of one of those old buildings near Horniman Circle, you can easily say a silent prayer that the stock market won't crash.

Judging by today's 450 point crash on the Sensex though, don't bet on it! :)

Shopaholic in Fort

2007-02-22T00:18:00.000+05:30

No Parking: Hawkers behind the Flora Fountain at Fort don't really give a damn about where your car is parked. :) That's their hawking space, and if you do happen to park your car there, don't be surprised to find mugs/ chappals/ underwear for sale right next to your tyre!

Booked and Sold: The book sellers at Fort are legendary. Traditionally, they used to occupy the zone behind the University of Bombay, but following an eviction drive in 2005, many of them packed and left. They relocated in the many teeny lanes arrowing out from the main road, and some of them (like the genius up there) are gutsy enough to come right back to the main square, Hutatma Chowk. Passersby don't really mind - it's always a good thing to pick up a great second hand book for as low as Rs 30 sometimes. :) Reminds me of College Street in Calcutta...

The Establishment: But if pavement shopping really isn't your style, you can always duck into the Great Western Stores on D. N. Road. It's pretty much an institution over here, and as the pompous name suggests, quite pricey. They sell great shoes though - amazing formals.

Goa - circa April 2006

2007-02-22T00:04:00.000+05:30

Posting Goa pics from last year here, even though they were taken by a good ole automatic camera (my ooooold Vivitar which is sadly knocked up now), and then scanned. That's me at Anjuna Beach, very near the Zoori's bar, which we discovered much later in Jan 2007. In April, Rahul and I decided to hop skip and run away from work for a looong weekend. So there I was, avoiding my then-boss' phone call about some stupid Ambani press conference on a Sunday (murderous!) and laying back down to sip beer and eat fish steak. :)

I loved this trip, cuz we travelled soooo much. Rahul and I hired a teeny Kinetic, and travelled almost all across North Goa with it - doing all the stretches of beach, and down over to Panjim and Dona Paula. Old Goa, too - that's me in front of St Xavier's Basilica. Bought a pretty green rosary for grandmum here, and an exquisitely small statuette of Mother Mary for a love affair that's now gone sour.

I still have Mother Mary, though. :)

On Duty

2007-02-20T00:11:00.000+05:30

That's the place where I work. My first innings in the world of Public Relations. Something that I thought I'd totally hate, while I was playing journo, but hey lookie lookie, I'm kinda getting the hang of things here! For those not in the know, I'm doing a tightrope act at the company called Investor Relations, which involves way too much strategizing than is good for my blood pressure. But, hell, I'm 25, and I love it! :)

The J.B. Petit Building sits bang on Khadi Bhawan Chowk on Fort, which leads into my office lane. The building is this great big old hulk, now occupied by HSBC, built by the J.B. Petit Fund. Aaa, those rich ole Parsis and their trust funds! :) Behind the office building, is the J.N. Petit School For Girls. The archways are amazing to get lost in.

... And that is the Khadi Bhawan itself, down there. Took a close pic of some of the designwork on the huge pillars, and that's put up there. The KB is basically where you can get all those over-priced pieces of Indian culture you would love to sell off in a flea market somewhere in the US. And then, they'd be bought by a Las Vegas bordello! :)

Naaaa.... don't listen to me. They actually have some pretty nice stuff inside: picture a great big hall, very stuffy, feeling like air hasn't circulated in there for months, and all that is punctuated by these displays (clothes, statues, etc) with pink price tags that scream BLOODY MURDER.

Sweet tea and chocolate mousse house

2007-02-19T23:20:00.000+05:30

There's this quaint li'l bakery in the alleyways behind Horniman Circle called the Yazdani Bakery. Not exactly sure what it's supposed to be - Irani or whatever, but the tea here is heavenly sweet, and tastes amazing with the buttered buns they serve you. :) Came here with the Mad Bawi once, and we hogged on mushroom qiche and then chocolate muffins. Also picked up a whole 1 lb chocolate brownie cake, and that lasted all of three days in my fridge. The menu is appetising, as you can tell...

And then there's the Cafe Mocambo - owned by Parsis, it serves the most yummy Continental food I've tasted in Bombay. The Pork Schnitzels are to die for, the lasagne is great, the roast beef is mouthwatering and... and I'm running out of adjectives here. :) I remember most one time here: brother darling and I had come to town for lunch, on a day when the rest of the city was reeling under riots (some silly incident about some defaced statue), and we'd thought that the situation would get defused soon. Well, when we reached Mocambo's, we discovered that while the restaurant was packed to capacity inside, all the blinds and shades were drawn down, making it seem closed from the outside! :)

O, and one cannot leave Mocambo's without sampling the dessert trolley!

Roadside Romeo

2007-02-19T22:47:00.000+05:30

Dammit, my friends smoke. First there was Sharon and Sups on the bench at Empire Mills, and now there's Rahul who smokes like a chimney. Come lunchtime and we head out to gobble, then post the feeding session I'm usually asked for the three and a half rupees his Goldflakes costs him. :) And that's usually where it ends. Wedged between the gorgeously laid out pavement stones.

Love the pattern. Reminds me sooo much about those schematic diagrams in class 7 geography text books - the river and its distributaries and its deltas. :) Only, this is Dr. D N Road, in Bombay.

No comment :)

2007-02-19T01:21:00.000+05:30

Just some touching up, really...

2007-02-19T00:31:00.000+05:30

While the Fort area in Bombay is completely littered (oops, wrong word) with all these old buildings, amazing relics from British and immediatelly post-Independence India, the sad part is, many of them are in a state of disrepair. So they regularly go in for 'renovation'. Mahendra Chambers, right opposite VT station, and perhaps most wel-known now for the McDonalds outlet it houses on the ground floor, has been (so to say) 'under wraps' for almost all the time I've been in Bombay. And then, the other week, while walking to the station from work, I noticed that the covers are OFF!

Of course, now it's the turn of the HSBC building on Bank Road, Horniman Circle, to come under the architectural burkha.

Seriously though,... green???

Black & Yellow

2007-02-19T00:19:00.000+05:30

The all-pervasive Taxis of Bombay. The first time I came to Bombay, ages ago, we got this really chatty cabbie who took us all around Marine Drive and Churchgate, and showed us Mantralaya, saying 'yehan pe sab chorlog rehte hain' (this is the house of thieves) - much to the amusement of my dad. :) The best thing about a Bombay cabbie is: he knows! His brain is sharper and keener than the most evolved GPRS system - the guy knows! And that's amazing.

Lady Flora

2007-02-17T04:44:00.000+05:30

Flora Fountain is a complete Bambaiyya landmark. Bang on *hold on, real tonguetwister here* Hutatma Chowk, the place is a complete traffic stopper. Literally. The traffic snarls here at office time, right in the heart of the city's financial district, are terrible. :)

The fountain is actually only one of several such drinking water fountains that were built by the city's leading philanthropists at one point of time. While a few of them have been restored and culled, many of them are simply... forgotten. Conservationists are trying to relocate these old masterpieces - important now only for their heritage value, and no water fountain use - and restore them to their former glory. The Flora is the most famous of all of these.

Tried some Black & White snaps here of the Liberty Statue which stands right next to Flora, and the Chowk over all. A bit of history, eh? :)

Amen

2007-02-08T22:06:00.000+05:30

St Thomas Cathedral, at Horniman Circle, Fort. In terms of foodie landmarks:

Opposite Gujju favourite Dwarka.
Short walk away from Piccolo and its yummy chocolate tarts.
Just a stone's throw from Moti Karachiwala, which serves the yummiest rabri.

O, and yes, it's beautiful. Quite apart from Location. :)

Ideal Food

2007-02-08T21:27:00.000+05:30

Cafe Ideal Corner up there is my usual Lunch Place at work. The place has been there for ages, owned by some Iranis, and serves the most amazing food. menu changes everyday, but the staples are: old-style raspberry soda and caramel custard. Of course, dhansaak on Wednesdays and Fridays. :) Cutlet-gravy everyday, as with chicken salli. And yes, I do know the menu (s) by heart!

Up there is a close-up of laganu custard - a variation of custard, liberally sprinkled with dates and dried fruits, that is quite the rage in Parsi weddings. Down there is jerdaloo (apricot) chicken, a yummy tangy-spicy concoction. Parsi food usually has some sweet after-taste/ pre-taste.: you can call it the Gujju connection, if you like! :)

Was just experimenting with the camera in the restaurant, so up there is a close-up of an exhaust fan they have on the wall. Took it from the mezzanine flor where I usually sit (down there), which affords me a great view of the place. I love the little blue and orange glass lamps they have on the wall. Very... cheerful!

One last snap of Ideal Corner - the outside of the building from across the road.

Dalals and the Devi

2007-02-08T21:13:00.000+05:30

Welcome to the land of money. Stocks and shares may raise my blood pressure, but they will never deter me... from investing! :)

Funny thing is... a stone's throw away from the Bombay Stock Exchange, you have this cute little old Lakshmi mandir. Beautifully painted. It's on my way to cafe Ideal Corner.

Black Horse

2007-02-04T23:18:00.000+05:30

The Kaala Ghoda Arts Festival comes every February during the first week of February, and lasts for about 7-8 days. For those days, the entire stretch at Rampart Row, from Jehangeer Art Gallery to the Cama Hall, and the Horniman Circle Gardens inf front of the Asiatic Society building are utterly vibrant with (ahem ahem) The Arts. OK, so enough of sounding like the Mumbai Guide Book you find in your hotel room. Take my word for it - it's an amazing experience.

Painting brick by brick: Not just paintings, but also sculpture, music and dance performances, theatre and drama, book reading and writing, films and food - everything that could possibly be considered part of the Arts. The good part is, it's not even as highbrow as you would imagine an Arts Festival to be. :)

Dockyard Ditty: Inaugurated by the Naval Band's performance, the festival kicked off on Saturday, February 4. Our boys in white were impeccably turned out, and their instruments were in fine condition! :)

A last pic of the Kaala Ghoda Square, down there. Behind the makeshift model of the white airplane and the old-style roofed buildings, you can see the Bombay Stock Exchange standing tall.

Fairy Colours

2007-02-04T23:08:00.000+05:30

Like the shot of the guy through the toys, in the snap below. Smile, you're on Candid Camera...!

Of course, the lady down there doesn't look like she's in a very smiling mood. It's all work and no play here at the KGF - sell, sell, sell some more! :)

Kites at the 'Bombay Project'. By the way, Rajat hates me calling it KGF. :)

Fly High at Kaala Ghoda

2007-02-04T22:33:00.000+05:30

That contraption was labelled the Amchi Autocoptook, a highly creative individual's vision of what it would take to bypass the traffic in South Bombay - convert the humble zigzaggity auto rickshaw of the suburbs into a chopper that would evade the potbellied havaldars of the island city and help us reach our destinations on time... ingenious!

I'm Quackers about it! Green wooden duck for sale at a stall at the Festival.

The city's going to the dogs! An initiative to protest the rampant killing of street dogs in the city - the artists are arguing for compassion here. Methinks they should come to Parel post 3 am - the dogs here are so rabid that the last thing on your mind is compassion! (aaa, but then, I am the Pigeon Killer! *grin*)

Steel Dabbas. Part of the 'Bombay Project', you have steel bicycles with gleaming steel dabbas handpainted in reds and blues. You won't see too many dabbawallas on the roads carting these babies around, though!

Light up my trees... Pretty coloured lanterns hanging up there - very much for sale, and very much pricey. :) So says the cheapskate.

A piece of Tibet at Kaala Ghoda...

2007-02-04T04:00:00.000+05:30

The Kaala Ghoda Festival kicked off with this performance by a travelling Tibetan troupe. So you had the whole rigamarole - dancers, drummers and even this pop-star type in a great brocade jacket who crooned some stuff that received loads of applause from the crowd even though no one knew what teh guy was singing about. :) But then, that's Bombay for you!

Of course, other than the dance performances, what was simply amazing was the Snow Lion dance - very traditional Tibetan fare. The 'lions' were pretty talented: loads of leaps in the air without any embarassing separation of the head and tail parts, loads of funky drumming, and some great head-lolling that saw the crowd cheer its head off.

Got Rajat to take these snaps of the lions for me, cajoling him with the "You're taller than I am" argument, but once he got up front, he pretty much went ballistic, shooting some 10 snaps - these are the ones I've selected from those! Am quite satisfied with his handiwork! hehe.

No Black Horse Anymore, But Still... !

2007-02-04T02:54:00.000+05:30

Music to the ears: Apart from the Festival, Kaala Ghoda is an excellent place to hang out at. Even though the original statute of the black horse ('kaala ghoda') has been sifted out eons ago to make room for a (gasp!) car parking lot, this place abounds in... charm. And that's personified the most perhaps by Rhythm House, bang on Rampart Row: this is where you will find possibly the most exhaustive music collection anywhere in Bombay - it's practically a heritage institution of the city!

Also on the list of KG institutions is the David Sassoon Library, facing the square where the old statue used to be. This area is also completely littered with grand old buildings, continuing right onto VT and the Fort area...

Completely yummy for my camera...! :) Rajat was screaming at me while I stopped every five minutes to click. :)

And from the square, you can see the great big dome of the Chhatrapati Shivaji Maharaj Museum (also the Prince of Wales Museum) a stone's throw away. On my agenda to go inside sometime soon, hopefully...

Rajat up there, grumpily posing before the Museum.

Short Baroda Break

2007-02-02T00:06:00.000+05:30

Genie in a bottle: Came back home after the much-posted Delhi trip, only to discover that the geyser in my loo had conked it, and we were without hot water at the flat. So the next day, I ran to work without taking a shower (it helped that my last shower in Delhi had been only an hour before rushing to catch the flight) and there I find out that I'm to jet it out to (yikes) Baroda the next day. Early morning flight. That explains the reverential placement of the toiletry items on the basin of the Taj Residency, Baroda, when I finally get to have my bath there.

After a spell of nearly 48 hours... I'm SCRUBBED CLEAN! :)

So, after all the picture taking in the loo is done (sounds kinky, doesn't it? *grin*) I get down to work and all that jazz. After a long and tiring day of playing the good PR executive, I'm back up in my hotel room, looking out of my balcony onto the courtyard/poolside restaurant below. And that's when I decide to experiment with exposure settings again. The little yellow balls in the pics below are reflections of the lights in my room on the windowpane, through which I'm clicking.

Blues' Night Out: I like the effect! :)

Vote, Mumbai!

2007-02-01T00:14:00.000+05:30

Elections to the Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation, bettern known as the BMC to Bombayites, and so I thought it appropriate that the very first pics from my shutterbug evening last Saturday should be those of the BMC. Bang opposite the VT, another Bombay landmark, the BMC building is simply... GOTHIC.

For the record, around 83 lakh voters exercise their franchise in the elections to India’s largest municipal corporation, which has a budget of over Rs 12,000 crore, more than the budget of eight states. But unlike the Lok Sabha and assembly elections, voters’ turn out has remained low in civic elections in Mumbai - last time around, despite polling on a Sunday, the turnout was barely 42%.
I played around with some exposure and light settings to get just the right amount of blur on the people crossing the pavement up there. Didn't realize, how it would all fit so well with the Election theme! :)

Backdoor Entry? That's a glimpse of the BMC building through the arches framing the entrance of the Victoria Terminus (VT) bang opposite. This time, while voter mood seems to favour the Congress and the NCP, the incumbent BJP-Shiv Sena combine may well manage to hold onto their seats through the backdoor entry: low voter turnout traditionally has favoured the BJP-Sena, plus, with the Congress and NCP not able to cobble together a pre-poll alliance, things might get jittery for them!

Booked and Stranded

2007-01-29T01:55:00.000+05:30

Hit the Strand Book Fair at Churchgate this evening, and picked up a selection for myself. For almost 60-80% off on each book, it was a steal. Came back home happy after a yummy Toblerone Shake at Mocha's and arranged the books and packet artistically enough (or as artistically as I am capable of!) and snapped some shots. And now, I'm regretting not sauntering over to the shop on Saturday when I was camera-happy and snapping Fort. :(

For the record, that's what I bought:

"We were the Mulvaneys" by Joyce Carol Oates - picked up Oates' "I'll Take You There" from the book fair last year, and I quite liked it, though it was kinda vague at the ending. This book is supposedly her biggest, and comes recommended by (gulp) the Oprah Book Club, so I picked it up.
"Lasher" by Anne Rice - pure pulp fiction! *grin* I've looooved Rice's vampire and witch series, and this one is the second from the Mayfair coven series. Complete with all the swashbuckling and undying love drama that is sooooo much fun when one doesn't want any serious reading. :)
"Love in the Time of Cholera" by Gabriel Garcia Marquez - comes highly recommended from all quarters, and even though I found Marquez' "One Hundread Years of Solitude" terribly dreary to read, I decided to risk him again. Think, maybe I started with the wrong Marquez book.

Making History

2007-01-27T20:18:00.000+05:30

It will be around 1:08 minutes till my phone officially becomes part of History. *sigh*

My beautiful Sony Ericsson T610, the toast of the town when it was first launched and I bought it, two years ago, from a grey market shop in karol Bagh, Delhi. Shucks, and now the numbers are smudged, the panel paint is flaky and the battery threatens to die every six hours.

*double sigh*

Saddi Dilli

2007-01-21T18:15:00.000+05:30

Welcome to Delhi, and I thought this was the best opening pic I could ever come up with. :) Delhi's Devils is this really snooty bar in South Extension, Delhi, which I believe is highly expensive and not very good, but the name is just brilliant.

Meet Delhi's Devils then - Valay the cynically bitchy designer-in-the-making, Sharon who is Bombay's most valuable export to Delhi (on loan only) and Stephen the backpacker extraordinaire.

And yes, with the exception of the one on top, they all stole my hat on successive occassions. :)

Say hello to the Megalomaniacs

2007-01-21T18:01:00.000+05:30

Well, Sharon darling and I never make any bones about it. First afternoon in Delhi, and we hitch a ride to Connaught Place (metro: Rajiv Chawk - I mean, WTF is up with that?!) and start snapping pics, prior to/during/ after our lunch at Pizza Hut.

On your knees, Infidel...

2007-01-21T17:38:00.000+05:30

You see the dome of the Jama Masjid sticking out through the tangle of telephone and electric wires in your congested Chandni Chowk byelane, but it surprises you by its size when you're standing right in front of it. It's bigger than you imagined it to be. And loads more majestic.

We were supposed to take our shoes off before entering the Masjid, and also had to wait till the evening namaz ended. I'm doing some kind of weird jig down there, but Stephen doesn't look very amused with his shoes in his hands.

As gorgeous as the Jama Masjid looked at sunset, all the pigeons around were a bit of a turn-off. The verdict is: pigeons make great photography subjects - but are pests otherwise, and should be gotten rid off.

Conclusion: I have a knack for taking Stephen's pictures when he makes stupid faces. :)

Old Rajinder Nagar

2007-01-21T17:17:00.000+05:30

When I lived in Delhi ages ago, I was in good ole West Patel Nagar. And here was Sharon a stone's throw away - Rajinder Nagar, just inches (ok, so I exaggerate) from Karol Bagh metro station. It's in a lane bang opposite the Ganga Ram Hospital gurudwara (view at night up there), replete with electric wire tapping devices overhanging that somehow adds to the charming oddity.

My first day there, and Sharon and I click snaps of each other. :) Mirror Mirror On The Wall...

Down there, by the way, is Jacob, Sharon's significant other. They're boo-tea-ful. *grin*

Lightbulb Moments

2007-01-21T17:01:00.000+05:30

Sharon's place has this amazingly Sindhi chandelier that embodies KITSCH. Everyone in that house hates the damn thing - I of course fell in love with it as soon as I laid eyes on it! :) O what the hell, the idiots have a doorbell which sings bhajans in succession, so they really have no moral right to badmouth the chandelier! :)

Admittedly, the 'Kodak moment' up there was very much staged - but Sharon the Nutcracker decided that we must have an IDEA! moment, and there we were...!

The real lightbulb is down there. Was experimenting with lighting settings, and I quite like the effect that I got here.

Getting Cozy in Dilli Haat

2007-01-21T16:39:00.000+05:30

... and that wasn't just the Lovers prerogative. While Sharon and Jacob posed for cheesy snaps, I was scouting for the best food stalls and the greatest bargains at Dilli Haat. Sharon pottered about for danglers and beads, while Jacob and I hunted for the hot jalebis. :)

O, look - Bijoli Grill and the West Bengal food stall! Brings back sooooo many memories of the Calcutta Club! *beams*

... and Delhi Tourism is where we finally found the jalebis...! Decided to give the gulab jamuns a miss, though. That's more of a Bombay thing, after all.

Jugaar

2007-01-21T16:22:00.000+05:30

....That's a term which embodies the Spirit of saddi Dilli.

In its meanest interpretation, its the end-justifies-the-means principle in the wiliest way. In its most benevolent meaning, it's all about the Indian spirit of Entrepreneurship and making do with the little you have to create something that's Larger than Life.

... also embodied by the rampant power theft/ mangle of power lines that can be seen throughout Old Delhi, and even Rajinder Nagar where I was staying...

Red Fort Part I - Practising the PM's Speech at Delhi

2007-01-21T16:03:00.000+05:30

That's the Red Fort viewed from the Jama Masjid in Chandni Chawk. Stephen and I finally made our way to the Fort around 5 pm, but by that time we were not allowed to enter the fort precincts for sight-seeing. We bought tickets for the Son-et-lumiere show later that night, but didn't go in, as Stephen was utterly under dressed for Delhi's freezing weather.

Nevertheless, as can be seen from the goofy expressions on our faces, it wasn't a complete disappointment - we did take some snaps, do the Tourist Trick somewhat, and left kinda happy we'd made it to the Fort.

And of course, standing at the head of Chandni Chawk, I gave Stephen the whole spiel about how the mistresses/daughters/ladies-in-waiting of the Mughal emperors would traipse through the market places, buying bangles and henna and silks and every other kind of conceivable/ inconceivable thing. He seemed impressed. :)

Posing with the Lamp Posts

2007-01-21T13:16:00.000+05:30

Rajpath. North Block. Metro stop: Central Secretariat. My stop for travelling to South Delhi. Abuzz with activity ahead of Republic Day preparations. I loooove the lamp-posts.

WTF just happened???? Stupid man came into the frame, and the eyebrows rose - HIGH. Finally got the picturepostcard snap taken perfect-o. :)

Sale City

2007-01-21T13:03:00.000+05:30

Delhi is the best city in India to shop. (The loyal Bong in me hastens to add that Calcutta comes on top here as well, but since this is a Delhi post, we shall leave that for later...!) Huge SALE banners abound everywhere, and even where they don't, you're bound to get the best discounts. I did the rounds of South Extension, Sarojini Nagar and Dilli Haat religiously, and came up with whoppers!

Up there is me, the chronic shopper, with my bags at Sarojini. Down there is Jacob, who hates shopping, by the way. Sharon and I headed out for shopping at Sarojini, and since poor Jacob finished work early and had nothing else to do, he joined us - he grumbled and grumbled and got Sharon hopping mad at him, though. Later that night, he held a surprise birthday party for Sharon. :) *cho chweet*

Body count:
* shawl for grandma
* cushion covers for myself
* bed sheets for mum
* scarfs for dad, Kunal (shah) and myself
* shirt for myself (Fabindia, yay!)
* an amazing durri for Rs 200, which would have put me back by at least Rs 800 back here in Bombay.

Enter, Bed

2007-01-21T12:43:00.000+05:30

My first day of arriving in Delhi, Sharon and I hit Panchkuian Road (metro stop: Ramkrishna Ashram) to get a bed for her and Jacob. We scour the shops, try on sofa sets and shoe racks for the heck of it, nod sympathetically at shop attendants as they explain why they charge so much but don't hike our own budget - till finally we see the Right One.

:)

It arrived the next day, and the residents of 1/63 Old Rajinder Nagar (ground floor) were terribly thrilled at the latest entrant in the family! :)

Of course, I took a snap of the Lovers, but Ma'amselle got all coy in a sudden fit and deleted it from my camera! :)

Indulgence, Pure Indulgence

2007-01-20T17:49:00.000+05:30

... the American Diner at the India Habitat Centre, that is...!

That venerable old place that our fantastic auto rickshaw driver up there (Pavi's paying him) calls the India Heavyweight Centre. When we got in, Pavi and I kept the art galleries and the courtyard for later and dashed right into the Diner for a damn heavy brunch. Time for pancakes and eggs! :)

When we were done with the Diner, Pavi (up there) and I walked around the place. He told me how the Habitat Center is considered one of the finest buildings in Delhi in terms of over-all ambience, sense, utility and aesthetics. The auto driver agreed: he was pleased as punch about the two levels of parking! :)

O, and the auto guy had some very kind words to say about amchi Mumbai: he's quite in love with Marine Drive, thinks that Bombayites are the best people in the world, and Mumbai is one of the cleanest cities in the world.

I didn't correct him on the clean part. :)

Delhi's Answer To the Sydney Opera House

2007-01-20T17:24:00.000+05:30

The Ba'Hai Lotus Temple in Okhla. Have been dying to see it for ages now, but just been too lazy to see it all the time I was in Delhi. On the last day, Eric said he wanted to see it after brunch at Costa Coffee, and I tagged along. Beautiful hall. Great ceiling. And the atmosphere would have been nice...

...I say would have been because of all the people who crowded there. This place is supposed to be an area of self introspection and prayer for people of all backgrounds and faiths. Yet, we somehow managed to make this into a great big tourist spot. So even if you tend to ignore the occassional screams from children inside the great hall, you cannot help but be aware that people are standing in serpentine queues outside and being herded in and out in batches, and gawking at signs and whispering and muttering and taking pictures outside, etc etc etc.

Well, yea, I plead guilty to the 'taking pictures' part...! *grin*

I got the Blues!

2007-01-19T03:55:00.000+05:30

Blues in Connaught Place used to be a favourite hangout when we used to live in Delhi - so this time, we planned to meet up. Me and Mallu (Kunal), Sharon and Tilak who was down from Nepal. Red wine and Tandoori Platter for me - and it was great, even though they screwed up and got me the veg platter at first, and not non-veg.

And no, Tilak cannot afford me! :)

Red Fort Part II - Sitting Pretty at Agra

2007-01-19T03:33:00.000+05:30

As soon as Stephen and I arrived in Agra, the first thing we did was drink garam chai at the station - Agra was freeeezing! :) The second thing we did was walk around outside the station till this old rickshaw cyclist convinced us to hire him to drive us to the Agra Fort. We were also supposed to stop for samosas and jalebis on the way, but I reasoned we should first get to the Fort - and of course, a highly whiny Stephen started grumbling soon afterwards. :)

Agra was the capitol of the Mughals, since the Emperor Akbar's time. It was meant to be a twin capitol to Delhi, but of course, after the reign of the Five Great Mughals, the city sort of... dwindled. Amazing architecture though, and I felt like an ass for not charging my batteries long enough before hitting the fort.

Stephen was highly impressed by the fort, much more than he was by the one in Delhi. Of course, to be fair to the Delhi fort, we didn't really get much of a chance to explore the interiors. The outer walls of the Agra Fort still had some minay-kari work remaining - the walls must have looked amazing when the minay-kari was there in all its splendour, in earlier times...!

I adore these old park benches. Not very Mughal in nature, I know, but I adore them! :)

Then there was the pic down there - I mean, they couldn't have placed the damn loo sign anywhere else other than bang next to the main map of the complex??!!

In the end, though, we decided to ignore all that and just be like Kings. In the Hall of Private Audience (Diwan i Khas), there were two thrones, White and Black, for the Emperor's morning and evening, and these were duly occupied...