Evenings Filled with Food, Music, Shopping, and Laughter

Last week, we went on a short trip to Delhi and Agra. This was one helluva action-packed trip that could easily provide fodder for half a dozen blog posts at least. However, I take pity on you readers and try to concise it as much as possible without leaving out all the fun.

Delhi has roughly three to four months of decent weather each year. Last week, when we visited, it was emerging out of the frigid cold of winter, and the mercury had not yet started spiralling upwards uncontrollably, so it was a pretty good time for outdoor activities and general frivolity.

In addition, there was a series of Celebrate Delhi kind of events going on so we were really in the thick of things :).

One of the most amazing experiences we had was in DilliHaat. Everybody I spoke to mentioned that it was a place worth visiting for the amazing ethnic goods and cuisines available from all parts of India. Apart from that, I didn’t know anything else about the place. What a wonderful surprise to see that it was like a mela (fair) filled with musical performances, tattoo artists (oh, how Snubnose loved the tattoos!), and tons, and I mean tons of stuff to see and eat.

We started off wandering rather randomly sampling all the various goods on offer before getting seriously into shopping.

I saw the most amazing jewelry box made of porcelain, and it was really on my must-buy list. I just loved it so much. Unfortunately, the practical side of me no-no’ed it. It would just take 2 mins for the snubnose to break it, and with it, my heart into a million pieces, sigh :(.

With my mind firmly focused on practicality, I let loose in the Dhurries shop. I saw all kinds of wonderful, colorful (and, most importantly, excellent quality) stuff before Mr. K reminded me that we would also need to buy another bag to carry the stuff home.

So, basically after running around like a mad chicken without a head, I settled for buying some colorful bangles, a shawl, and some cushion covers.

While I was at it spending money, the snubnose indulged herself with a couple of tattoos, chocolates, and some cotton candy. Here is a pic of her showing off her tats 🙂

After shopping, we retreated into the various food stalls to get something to eat. We bought some dosas and vadas for Snubnose from the Tamil Nadu stall (yeah, not very adventurous, we know), but it sucked big time, so I did not bother too much with food. The others went for the Maharashtra stall and found it very good.

While eating, we heard some melodious Sufi music and we went to get a closer look. This is what we saw…

The Times of India folks organized a Sufi performance by Kavita Seth as part of the Aman ki Asha celebrations. Along with it, there was also an Indo-Pak food festival. Yummy! However, the food was still being prepared, so we just settled in to enjoy the wonderful music before heading back home.

What an absolutely awesome evening!

The second amazing evening filled with music, shopping, songs, and food

This was Valentine’s Day, and we just happened to see in the newspaper that Shreya Ghoshal was performing at the Great India Place Mall in Noida! After hyper-ventilating a bit, we decided to head out there do some shopping, eat some dinner, and attend her show.

I knew this was supposed to be a big mall; what I was not prepared for was how huge and crowded and hot it would be inside. After barely 15 mins in the mall, I was fed up and dying to just chill out somewhere quietly. We had a short snack (mostly just for an opportunity to rest our legs and plan what to do next). The employees at the mall seemed to have no idea about the Shreya Ghoshal show, and we ended up running around in circles for some time until we figured out that the show was not in the mall but on the ground outside the mall. Hurry, hurry, hurry, rush, rush, rush, and we manage to enter the show just in time to hear Shreya Ghoshal crooning some of our favorite numbers:

• Pal Pal (Lage Raho Munnabhai)
• Jadoo Hai Nasha Hai (Jism)
• Piyu Bole (Parineeta)
• Barso Re (Guru)
• Teri Ore (Singh Is Kinng)

Unfortunately, we were a little late, and we missed one of my personal favorites – Bairi Piya from Devdas.

Her voice is so heavenly, it is very difficult to explain how wonderful it was hanging around in the open-air, just chilling out, and listening to these songs. What a perfect choice of singer and song for a Valentine’s evening!

Two very different but equally perfect evenings!

Huge thanks to the folks at Times of India for making our Delhi holiday so memorable!!