A day in the life of LIFE

It’s been 3 days into Delhi/Noida Life, and so far so good. The last week was enjoyable, yet taxing , with myself traveling around the South of the Sub continent, as the next opportunity to do so would not be expected in the near future.

A quick trip to Hyderabad to meet up with a cousin, to another journey into the beauty of the Agumbe Ghats enroute to the famed Jog Water falls, peppered with ‘return to base camp’ sojourns at home, eleventh hour shopping for my Delhi stint, created quite a packed schedule of a whistle stop tour.

In fact, as I prepared for the packers to move my stuff from Bangalore, my house resembled a gypsy camp, and looking at my voluminous luggage, Mom was almost certain I had a secret family whom I was shifting without her knowledge to my new destination. What’s more, she commented in full filmi ishtyle, “Beta, yeh sab saaman tumhare pas kahan se aaye? Bata do ki tum waise kaam nahin kar rahe ho joh tumhe karna nahin chahiye?”

Jokes apart, my exit from Bangalore resembled the scene from the flick “Hyderabad Blues”, with my mom making the choicest of dishes, giving the soundest of advices and pressing a couple of hundred rupee notes in my palm to be handed over to Lakshmamma, our maid, as a good will gesture, which made me realize that basic instincts hardly change.

The flight to Delhi was nice. My maiden flight since February last, this was my first departure from Bangalore airport in 21 years. Things have changed, and air travel has become affordable these days. But strangely mindsets still need time to adapt. I overheard an inquisitive visitor asking an airport staffer, “Bhaisaab, Platform ticket kahan milega?”

I had a south east Asian as my co-passenger, who read some weird book the script of which resembled the one used in the Harappan civilization. He seemed sick and tired and I did not want to bother him with my conversations, as I had the pretty air hostesses at my beck and call who compensated well enough for my disinterested co-passenger.

Just as I landed at the Indira Gandhi International airport, I changed my attire from a coastal beach guy to an Eskimo from Antarctica, and have never come out of it for the last three days. As I got into the cab, I told the driver, “Noida pola ma?” (Can we go to Noida?) A 150 minute flight did not remind me to revise and update my regional lingo from Tamil/Kannada to Hindi.

The temperatures have been tolerable out here. However, a turtle neck sweater, a leather jacket, a monkey cap, muffler, woolen gloves and socks, follow me like Karna’s golden Kavach in the Mahabharata. Finding south Indian food has become as common as India winning an Olympic gold medal.

A Mallu colleague(LI) took me to one Laxmi Café in Sector 27 where we gobbled up rasam, sambhar and rice in true “Saddi Dilli” style, though I had to treat him for finding the place. The bill made me believe I was eating at Saravana Bhavan in New Jersey, and also brought up the attractive proposition of quitting my IT job and opening a “Madrasi in Dilli” café. Food was decent, unlike the Masala Dosa that I had sampled in Badrinath a few years ago which tasted like anything but the Dosa.

The interesting observation about Noida has been that there are lot of well built nomadic bulls which keep wandering on the roads. Wonder why opportunistic India has still not cashed in on the opportunity to employ them. Roads are wider with traffic equally unruly, rest seems normal. In case someone tells you S/He is chilling out, it means s/he’s actually chilled out thanks to the freezing cold. There are no medium budget hotels easily accessible. Either it’s the road side dhaba or the above average premium eat-outs that are available leaving very few options to choose from. Any tips in this direction are welcome.The beauty quotient (both natural and human *wink*) of Delhi/NCR is considered one of the best in the nation and I am all set to explore the same. So till I get back on those details, “O bhaiyya ! do kadak chai banana, malai maar ke!”