Ponto de Vista

Last month, Tish took me to see Begum Abida Parveen in concert at the Jahaan-e-Khusrau festival finale held at the tomb of Ali Quli.
We camped out under the stars initially on uncomfortable chairs and then on the mattresses that were laid out, being hounded by mosquitoes, choking on anti-mosquito DDT-type fumigation, and bored by the never-ending opening acts on a lovely breezy night. Here, I captured Qutub Minar at gloaming, visibile through the fairy lights and the clay diyas, making the entire area seemed enchanted and far, far removed from reality.

I miss cinnamon rolls. I really do. I even miss the Pillsbury DIY (pretty awful) kind of cinnamon rolls I’d pop open at my brunches 🙁

When she was visiting, mom picked this up for me and I got so excited. But it was totally misplaced excitement. It’s not a cinnamon roll. In fact, it’s not even sweet. Noooo … this ‘confectionary’ is actually a mint/pudina roll. It’s spicy and … just not what my eyes and taste buds had perked up about. So sad 🙁 Next to it is depicted what was a sinfully good lemon tart.

I’ve promised folks pancakes for brunch someday. When I have a life …

A comforting sign in the elevator at the Kumars’ (no, not the Kumars at Number 42.)

Taken early last month when friends and I went to a Rahat Fateh Ali Khan concert at Siri Fort Auditorium. As we were waiting to enter the parking lot, we were overtaken by a ghodi. As her rider took her past us, I noticed the duo had a shadow. I found it so cute. Here they are.

I see these billboards advertising footware and sunglasses every morning. What i didn’t see until recently was that they’re housed in the National Tribal Museum (The Bharatiya Adimjati Sevak Sangh). Yup John Abraham is shilling shoes right under a statue Mahatma Gandhi, B.R. Ambedkar and others. The walls and the doorways of this building are beautifully wrought in tribal work as is the main gate. It boggles the mind to fathom what the Museum folks were doing when they decided to also make it a factory outlet!

These are my drugs. Three tiny alcohol-and-something-else-soaked sugar pills for my allergies to dust, pollen, and, well, Delhi 😉 It could be a placebo effect but the hay fever and sore throat symptoms have decreased dramatically. Yay for placebos and alternative medicines. Yay to not being hooked on allegra.

The building I work in (Videocon Tower)Â is the biggest eyesore in Jhandewalan. (I shan’t say anything about the giant Hanuman mandir here.) It’s visible from nearly everywhere; we just steer towards it when we’re driving to work. It’s also visible from a station away on the Metro. I took this photo on Saturday evening from the Metro stop. As I blithely stepped away editing it on my phone, I heard someone calling “Medem! Medem!” Yep, I was being pursued by a security guard who forbade me from taking photos in or of the station and demanded to see all my photos. So I happily started walking him through the photos of roadside temples, doggies fighting, and he let me keep my VT photo. 😉

I guess we do live in a digital age. But, but, but … shouldn’t they only be binary 1’s and 0’s?? Anyway, here are some Bittoo Digital Candles for your birthday cakes … 😉

Thursday a.m., amidst the papers, leaves, dust, and plastic bags in the garbage-collector’s tricycle was this bright yellow box for an “Electric Guitar”. As I got closer, I nearly choked.
The tag line in red reads: Experience the sweetness feel to flying the music sea. (click on the photo to zoom in)

I can’t contain my giggles every time I look at it. 😆

Yesterday, a chapter closed on the long-drawn saga of my elliptical machine. Three weeks ago, when I started looking for gyms I found they had all been sealed — i.e. the police had shut them down for operating out of residences. (Idiots!) So I did some research and found that the cost of 5 months of membership to one of these home-grown gyms pretty much equaled the cost of a mid-level elliptical machine (the only machine I do at the gym b/c of my feet.) After some serious comparison shopping, I found a good deal and paid an advance to have it sent to my house. That was more than two weeks ago. The piece “got stuck in customs,” had “trouble unloading,” “got stopped at the border,” and finally made it to Delhi, I’m told, but for some reason the dude had stopped answering my calls. Finally, I got him to commit (and that word is always used very loosely around these parts) to a time. Three more commitments later and many hours spent waiting and rearranging plans around the estimated drop-off time, I finally called off the deal and went to get my advance back. (I don’t know why I really expected the chap to show up at the time he said he would, honestly. I’m so naive sometimes.) And instead of the black model I’d chosen, I had to opt for this devilish red, flamed one instead from another vendor because it was in stock. And surprise, surprise! It actually showed up at home as promised, when promised!