Ponto de Vista

At Dilli Haat, the toilets are VeRy visible. In the foreground is Piya, who also moved back from the US — about a month before I did.

This is a view of the very festive Mata Ka Mandir in Jhandewalan taken from a window at work on the 8th floor of Videocon Tower (an extreme eyesore of a building) in which we work. Reflected in the glass are (from left to right) me, Rani, Rajat, and Ragini

A neat art installation put together impromptu by the bouncer at the Morrison Cafe in South Ex 🙂
When we arrived, the helmets and gloves had just lined the bottom two steps. The bouncer had been creative during our short stay…

need i say more? (Oh, it’s a Tantra t-shirt)

Look at that baby mouse — beseeching me not to eat him. I resisted for a long time, then I figured, with all apologies to the poor dear, James, and Ami — he was made to be eaten. And in Delhi’s heat, he’d simply spoil if I didn’t put him to rest. <sigh> Broke my heart, but he was delicious! And now I have a L. A. Burdick box from the heart of Harvard Square to keep trinkets in.

The same weekend Prashant came up, I had to eat a solitary lunch in South Ex II. The promise of “Indian-Mexican” lured me into the Gourmet Gallery. I chose the ‘mushroom enchilada’ which was described as ‘button mushrooms skewered and served with lettuce and a piquant sauce.’

They weren’t kidding. They meant it literally. (See the sauce bottle?) I was horrified and vastly amused. Finally I got them to give me a piece of bread to go with it. The staff then argued with me and said this is an enchilada. The tortilla only comes with a burrito or a taco. So there!!!!!!

I stopped by at Green Park market to buy gujjia — a dumpling stuffed with sweet coconut that’s traditionally consumed at Holi. But a) there was an hour’s wait for fresh ones and b) the dude behind the counter wasn’t wearing gloves when handling the rest of the sweets. So I opted for jalebis…
Greasy? Check. Deep fried? Check. But hot and definitely free of germs? Check.
One dude made dough squiggles and fried them, the other soaked them in chashni, cardamom & saffron flavored sugar syrup, and then packaged them. Yummy.

The day before holi, the festival of color in which traditionally a bonfire is lit at night, Sheetal and I passed by these happy women building an enormous bonfire — in the middle of a pretty big crossroads. From my side of the road, their efforts were framed by this lovely exhortation from the Delhi government.

I took my second day off from work because Prashant was coming up for the weekend. His flight was really late. I saw some apartments with a broker and then, because I was bored, I got mehndi applied 🙂 It came out really dark.
I guess my mother-in-law will love me. Ma says the aphorism makes sense because the harder your hands, the darker the mehndi. And the harder your hands, the harder you work, yeah?

On March 1, my first day at work, Sheetal’s maid Guddi packed my lunch in this old fashioned steel ‘dabba’. I had roti, dal and cauliflower sabzi. 🙂