So during those evenings when there was no power, we took the time to walk around in the parks. My in-laws’ house is at an amazing location. It is a corner lot and is surrounded by 3 parks. So much space and greenery just outside your windows is quite a unique setting. My in-laws were also one of the first ones to build their house here and planted quite a few trees in the parks so they feel pride seeing them so tall and bearing fruit or flowers.
In New Delhi, we ate out in some fancy restaurants like Oye Punjab, where the interiors are quite grand. This one has an interior fountain, but we had to pay the price for space the fountain took by having tables that are put close together. So close, that you feel you could have conversations with the people at the next table. The food was ok, but pricy. I guess we did pay for the ambiance.
In contrast, we took our in-laws to celebrate their 5oth wedding anniversary to Oh! Calcutta – also another fancy restaurant. I have never eaten Bengali food before, but my family claimed it was great food. The wonderful part of this restaurant was that it was not crowded (maybe because it was a weekday). The tables were not closely placed so even if it had been a busy night we would still have had a wonderful dinner.
Some of the restaurants I truly enjoyed were not so expensive and the food was great. We ate some great South Indian food (great for New Delhi) and some wonderful Indo-Chinese food. Even my kids tried some of these foods. We still had to track down Dominos and McDonalds for them though.
In addition to eating out we also shopped in New Delhi. In the past, we have done the mall thing. This time we pretty much stayed away from them, except to get McDonalds for the kids. (Pic 1: one of the malls in New Delhi) We braved the heat and visited such shopping areas like Janpath and Khan Market where they have little stalls with clothes, kitchenware, fake jewelry, and whatnot. There are tiny lanes created with all these shops, if my sister-in-law hadn’t been with me, I would still be walking around in there trying to find my way out. It seems like we did a lot of shopping in India, which is really not the case. One major shopping item on my list was a wedding gift for my mother-in-law. As I mentioned earlier it was their 50th wedding anniversary – Gold Anniversary. So I set off to look at some gold jewelry for her. Have you seen gold prices these days, I couldn’t find anything that looked halfway decent and within my budget and my budget wasn’t too shabby either. Anyhow, after looking at several jewelry stores both big and small, I ended up buying her a diamond and gold bracelet. Hard to believe that a diamond and gold bracelet fit my budget, but a plain gold bracelet wouldn’t.
I also went to a Sangeet (pre-wedding song party). The ladies came in colorful sarees (I got to wear my new one from Indore). The Sangeet is an event for family and close friends only. There were about a 100 guests at the Sangeet which was held out on the front lawn. Seating was arranged around the lawn. One end of the lawn was set up as a buffet. In the center was a stage. The entertainment was set up as two parts – first, a lady called on various family members and sang songs about them or their importance to the family. She was so spontaneous it was amazing. For later, a DJ was set up with a dance floor and in between these was a show with a fire thrower. It was still warm in the evening, and there were fans set around the yard misting the air to cool it. As we were leaving the party, two young men beat drums to bid us adieu. (Pic 2: Mehndi (henna) at the Sangeet)Copyright Kalpana Kanwar August 2009
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