Chandni Chawk to Childhood

Here we are on Gurgaon Delhi expressway (NH-8) moving towards Dilli. NH-8 is one of the few good things for which I like gurgaon, I enjoy riding my bike here, ride is smooth and is really fast. One can also like gurgaon for lots of Theka. Hope you all know what is Theka? If not! It is a shop where you visit when you are in very good mood or very bad mood or when free to be in any mood.

BTW Nitin is driving, so let’s divert ourselves from Drinking :)

Let’s have a short introduction. We are five people in the car (Meenakshi at left, Pankaj at right, I in middle of left and right, Amit next to the Nitin (owner n Driver of new car); two more (Akshat and Prachi) will join us at CP (bole to Cannaught Place Metro Station).We are still left with 30 minutes of journey; so let me stretch this introduction part.

Starting with Meenakshi will be a good idea, because she is the one who planned the trip. Meenakshi is known for good reasons but is famous among team mates because she has got the magical credit card which fails (rather succeeds) to work at crucial time of paying bills. People now are more skeptical than happy at her treat. (Par yaar ek baar unhne mujhe pizza khilaya tha ussi credit card se, waise who doosre baat hai ki bill company se reimburse hone wala tha :D…………… She is good at everything she does but even better at crying (without tears).Above all she is gold medalist in Mathematics from IIT Roorkee and it’s both a matter of fun and pride for the team.

Pankaj sir or Guru Drona though looks like a silent person has nice sense of humor. I enjoy his gappe (conversations) and by now we have become good friends as he also loves drinking very much. He is a good investor, but will not remain for long, nowadays Meenakshi is conspiring to invest money through him at 50% profits and that too monthly. May god have mercy upon him! Pankaj sir is a nice person not because once he wrote the same SQL queries twice for me but because today He is the one who is going to pay all the bills.

Moving to Amit, Patna wale bhaiya, Programming God or one of the Pillars of our team, call him anything, He is serious with his work and hard working too, the way he guides for any work is amazing; quite serious, passionate and informative at each step. Looks like happy kind of guy who cracks joke at right time. He is also famous or rather infamous, no famous, ok lets not confuse, he is known for his crazy choices in Barista and Restaurants. People make sure that they don’t order the items which he has ordered …………………………till date.

Akshat’s dream of life is to read all the books in the world, He feels like spending his whole salary on buying books, has finished “Bhagvat Geeta” and is now doing time pass with Speaking Tree volume 4. You know sometimes it’s not that hard to figure out why people have lesser hair on their head, but Akshat is more concerned about his health, keeps fast and talks about burning calories (or just talks about burning calories? Amit sir sometimes doubtJ) Energetic guy, can work, talk and enjoy simultaneously. Nowadays goes for drinks also…..neither with boys nor alone (bigad rahe hai, its time to revise “Bhagvat Geeta” vats)

I din not know about Prachi much before but came to know about her tender nature during the trip. To sum up all, we are missing Vineet, Ashish, Ankush and Udit. First three of them are MERRY-RID and last Udit has taken leave to visit DHOLPUR, may be he is also planning for Dhol-Band-Baza in his life.

Now we are going to enter New Delhi and I am feeling good .I always believe rather everybody believe that Delhi is much better than Gurgaon. Delhi is complete in all respects whereas gurgaon is just a “kamao khao city”. Meenakshi is guiding us to the CP metro station as we sail through the city and finally we reach. Weather is quite nice and Sun is smiling at us, and I am also smiling with my goggles on, I bought goggles few days back and love it very much but generally feel shy to wear it, but here at Dilli nobody knows me, so why feel shy! To add to the surprise Akshat and Prachi are also coming happily with their goggles, Amit is wondering whether we actually planned for these goggles or it was just a coincidence and he commented “Team outing is a good idea for knowing the hidden aspects of a person, see these heroes!”.

We took ticket for Chandni Chawk and really enjoyed the metro journey. The world class metro makes Delhi :). more charming, Thanks to the concerned Authorities. While we were moving out, Akshat who talks about burning calories took escalator and I took stairs

Chandni Chawk is a very colorful place and we wanted to make sure we enjoy all the colors. We started with buying “mini gel balls”(I don’t know the formal name for this)….They are colored mini balls which when dipped in water for few hours grow big and beautiful like “kanche” Thanks to bargaining power of girls (i.e. Meenakshi n Prachi), We made a nice deal with 30% discount.Moving further, we reached a small shop where we found the sweet corn, I was amazed to see that corn, I never heard about sweet corn, we asked for the price, negotiated a bit, tested lots of sweet corn and just promised that we will buy when we return, with the excuse that we are just starting now and have no bags to hold. I know the shopkeeper must be thinking some “good” things about us (kaha kaha se aa jate hai muh utha ke)……………………

Moving through the narrow and crowded gallis (streets) of market we reached at Natraj hotel. It seemed very small and not so clean, but Akshat said it’s the best shop for dahibada and Aloo Tikki but I was not happy with his perception, But as team decided we moved to the first floor of the shop and I was totally surprised ,It looked like a nice restaurant and there were people for efficient service, we ordered dahibada and Aloo Tikki, service was quick ,things looked delicious and taste was godly, we repeated the order twice, meanwhile someone raised the point that this is not the only good thing and we are blessed with just one stomach :( and we asked for the bill.

I usually don’t eat much and the way team mates were planning the next stoppage “Parathewali galli”, I was no less than terrified. We reached Parathewali galli after crossing several gallis. I don’t want to surprise you but I will have to mention that there was a proper queue for entry and the so called hotel was totally packed. For time pass I was looking here and there and I found the poster for “Chandni Chawk to China” showcasing Akshay kumar in HAYEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEE pose, both hands crossed. We were lucky and got the entry after a small wait, we saw the list of parathas (24 varieties) and Akshat and Amit made the target to touch all of them. We started our order with peas Parathas, KARAILA Parathas, Chili Parathas. Everybody was very happy and excited and loud too, I am sure the people around us would have thought that we are coming to any city for first time (and more or less it was true as we came from a big gaon (village) called Gur-gaon :) ). We got served quickly and people around were relieved, Parathas were deliciously great and especially KARAILLA one. As we had decided, we tried checking as much items as our stomach could bear, but could take the count to 13 varieties only, BTW realizing the elastic limits of my stomach I felt wise to surrender to 7 varieties only. But Akshat and Amit could hold the flag till the 13^th variety (Pet tha ya black hole). The table next to us has in the meantime seen new faces for third time, also there was long line waiting outside, and thinking that it would be wise to move out before we get spotted and get cursed by the people in the queue, we simply followed the exit. We were feeling satisfied ,but stomach was crying for lemon soda drink to facilitate digestion, we took the drink , and that too twice from the shop which was selling it for the last 7 generations, the shopkeeper proudly said that they were covered by National Geographic few days back for their legacy. Wow. Such a small shop and National Geographic…cool……….

We were done with food and Prachi suggested how about going to Gurudwara, and that was really nice. We moved to Gurudwara and there was sudden feel of bliss. We had to remove our shoes before entry and soon everybody was in the business of opening their shoes and submitting it to the shoes counter; I thanked myself for wearing clean and washed shocks and preserving the freshness of the environment. I was the last one to open my shoes and Prachi quickly took the shoes and handed over to the lady at counter before I could stop her and say let it be Prachi, I will do it myself. I did feel bad at myself but at the same time was touched by her humbleness. I looked at Meenakshi and she silently acknowledged “Prachi is like this only”. We entered the Gurudwara, there was prayer going on with one person narrating some sacred stories, there was complete calmness on the faces of the people there, I also tried to understand what the person was saying but could not get much, and thought it would just better to communicate my wishes to Wahe Guru and move on with Prasad, Prasad was good and so was the feeling of being at Gurudwara.

With ‘Pet Pooja’ and ‘Bhagwaan Pooja’, it was the time to search for enjoyment ‘dooja’. I suggested for a visit to Red Fort and insisted team to take rickshaw instead of mini bus, I like rickshaw ride very much, as I can have clear look of things around, during journey. We hired two rickshaws and journey was amazing, I felt like child again seating on the back seat facing backward, that 10 min journey was the most interesting part of the trip for me. As I was looking left right, I found the place surprising; one can find Temple, Gurudwara, Masjid and Church just few meters apart. It was perfectly depicting the prosperity as well as poverty of India, from small Tea shop to Cafe Coffee Day, a big Brach of SBI to Beggar beside, big trucks to a man pushing a loaded cart. Now I realized why foreigners find India so interesting, they get to see all the colors of life at same place.

Regarding Red Fort, I would just say that it was simply boring .I tried to make the visit interesting by buying a booklet briefly explaining all the aspects of Fort, but that was not of much help, One good thing I deed was buying a small statue of Buddha made out of wood. It was really nice and today also I feel calmness within seeing at it. BTW we took rest also there which was desperately needed after so much of stomach exercise :)

It was almost dusk when we came out of Fort and people were feeling hungry again, and reason was difficult for me to understandL. It was decided that we will walk back to Chandni Chawk, and now the fun was back into the scene. Akshat took popcorns and everybody tried, Amit took Moongfallis and again everybody tried including me. Now everybody was in full mood to try anything and everything and Chat-Papri was close, we ordered Chat-Papri and repeated it thrice, they were too good and I ate most of them, then we took sweet corn and then Guava and then Cookies and then Ice cream and then FULL STOP.

Now it was time to return back and we were on our way to Chandni Chawk metro station. In the mid I saw a toy shop selling toy helicopter, It looked cute with LED (light) on its top and took rounds in circles when given “Chabhi”. I was in total childhood mood and I deserved one helicopter, but it was not just me, we had three more children (Pankaj, Prachi and Nitin ) in our group and they also wanted helicopter. It was really great to have that helicopter at that point of time. Everybody was so happy. We were close to metro station and suddenly there was a 5 year old child running after me and saying “bhaiya helicopter dedo, bhaiya helicopter dedo” I told what you will do with this helicopter, its difficult to operate and I have no time to make you understand (what a lame excuse !). He repeated “bhaiya helicopter dedo, bhaiya helicopter dedo”. I told him take this 1 rupee and have toffee and he happily took it and ran away. But suddenly I felt It would have been better if I would have gifted him the helicopter ( realizing the mistake I could just console my heart that one rupee is better for him than helicopter ,at least it will fetch him one bread)

Ending on such a sentimental node will not do justice to such a fun-doo trip. The chain of enjoyment continued at Cannaught place also where we did shopping, had Ice creams and Pani-Puri and bought Santa Clauz cap with blinking LEDs(lights) on it (I forgot to mention that the day was Christmas Day).

We said "bye-bye" to each other with Sweet Pan and Sweet memories.