Ponto de Vista

The Kanwarias are a sight I remember well from my childhood in Delhi — dressed in orange, they walk to the Ganga from their villages and towns to collect holy water which they take back, without letting it touch the ground, in two vessels. Their numbers and reach has grown in the last few years as per this Frontline article. What I noticed was that the average age of the yatri is much lower AND they’re also a bit hipper. Instead of the usual jhola sling bag, many are carrying backpacks 🙂 Of course, the day I took this photo, a truck driver on the Gurgaon-Delhi highway ran over two Kanwarias who then abandoned all their nonviolent teachings and burned cars and such in retaliation.

aight, it’s been too long since I posted, but I’m back. Lots has happened in the last month. I’ve changed jobs; I’ve seen the Punditz again; finally made it to the MOS and danced to the Bolly music of Suketu (who obviously needs a web site!); celebrated my nani’s 90th birthday in Bombay; started a new venture; ate sev puri and didn’t get sick; and most importantly, started really enjoying Delhi! I hosted a party at home and went shopping for snacks/drinks with Nakul at the store pictured. Beer, cosmetics and undergarments…all under the same roof. Who could want for more?? 🙂 I heart Dilli!

I’ve been a Punditz fan for a long, long time. I absolutely heart their music, buy all their singles off iTunes and their albums where I find them, I have a total crush on one of them, and my friends will attest that I am not very quiet about my single-minded admiration. So how could I pass up the chance to see them live? They performed at Elevate, which I had heard lots about and really liked the vibe of, with a percussionist, flautist, and a vocalist who also played guitar. The set rocked despite some technical glitches and a lot of random feedback when the singer (Mayank? Pappon) was on (I can’t find a reference to their guests’ names anywhere). They started the set kinda slow (a hard drop from the deep house before) and then built it up to Ranjhaan (yum) and finally Fever pitch.
Anyway, I had a hard time trying to decide between good photos and flattering photos so here are two 😉 Yes, it’s all relative.

We went out in the sweltering, mind-melting heat to catch a film recently and on the way, 5 minutes from the venue, 6 minutes from the start of the movie, our auto broke down. The driver said “do minute, madamji, sirf do minute,” but we didn’t believe him. Shame on us. He literally took under two minutes to pop out a spare tire from under his driver seat, prop up his scooter with a handy stick (no jack around), undo the bolts, pop out the punctured tire, replace it with a new one and vrrooom, we were off…

but alas, not the kind of sake I would like it to be… this is Cake Palace’s version of a shake.

Hmm, that makes me think of the Cuban-Chinese cocktails at Peking Tom’s in Boston. A lot of folks didn’t like the idea of a Sake-rita (using sake instead of tequila) but I quite enjoyed it… and the cumquat mojito…

Anyway, someone should tell them that milk sake sounds completely tongue-curdling, but a milkshake is an animal of an entirely different color, no?

There is a loo blowing in Delhi now. No, I’m not saying there’s a toilet…blowing in the wind. This is the hot wind that blows across the Thar Desert. Temperatures are soaring. Right now, at 9:50pm, it is 43 degrees Celsius (105.8 Fahrenheit). Last week though, everytime the temperature pushed 41, it rained. And during one glorious shower, the flowers blooming in the garden were crying petals. It was so pretty. There was hibiscus, bougainvillea, lillies, and flowering shrubs leaning up into the falling drops.

So tonight we had what is called a blue moon: Two full moons in one calendar month. But late last month, I went to attend the first birthday celebration for a friend’s son. She is half Sikh and she said she dreamt that her grandfather requested her to celebrate the birthday by giving thanks in a Gurudwara. The ardas was lovely, the langar pretty good, but the moon outside — a tiny sliver — with the light emanating from the curlicued windows was icing 🙂

We stopped one night after work to get a snack because I was starving. One of the group remembered there was a ‘geeley channe wala’ close to where we were, so we hunted him down and bought some boiled chickpeas tossed in chopped onions, cilantro, green chillies, salt, and lemon juice. It was tongue-tinglingly, lip-smackingly delicious. And I loved the fact that he had a muslin cloth shielding his wares and the old fashioned oil lamp…

The Sunday before last started out still and hot. By 2pm, the sky was overcast. By 2:15 there was a dust storm and really high winds. 10 minutes later we had torrential rainfall. Two of the big ficus benjaminas fell off a first floor balcony. The rain was cool and I was reminded how delightful it can be to get wet in the Indian downpour, when the water and the air around you are not freezing you to the bone… Anyway, everything was not all roses. Outside the house, this tree fell and crushed a neighbor’s car. A frangipani was also destroyed. But the irony is that I didn’t take this photo on Sunday. The tree was cleared away only a week later — because the car owners were waiting to file with their insurance company.

We’ve had frequent and intense rain in Delhi as the temperatures have soared. Last week I got off a bus and within the 20 seconds it took me to dash to the pedestrian underpass (or ‘subway’ in the local lingo), I was soaked. The rain battered the city for about 20 minutes and when it settled to a steady drizzle, I decided to walk home. But, the drainage in South Delhi sucks! So I had to retrace my steps, take detours, completely turn around even, and then finally, when I was about 50 yards from home — I got stuck! I was marooned on a 1-foot square of dry land and I really had no other way to go except through calf-deep muck! 😉 Then I saw inspiration. This dude was coming crab-like along the lower part of the corner house wall, thereby avoiding the flood below. So once he hopped on to dry land, I took his place and went the way he’d come — inching sideways along this random person’s house. And that’s how I got home without having to take my sandals off and wade through dirty, murky water! Hurray!