Visit to Dilli Hat and Redfort

It was the 30th of Dec 2009, almost the end of the calendar year. It was quite cold in Delhi and the suburbs like Gurgaon. I had some visitors from the US, who checked into a hotel in Gurgaon. Both of them medical professionals, work in Kaiser Permanente in California. One of them was visiting India for the first time (for that matter first time to travel outside of US). Imagine me taking them to the old part of Delhi with their congested roads, traffic jams, crowded areas with people pushing and shoving others. But it had to be done, so dont whine too much.

We hired a car, as I never venture into these areas in my own car. That was the reason I never visited Redfort though I lived in Delhi for the passt 23 years. The Taxi we got was a Maruti Esteem, too small for 4 people. We had to pack the visitors and my wife in the back seat. Our first stop was at Dilli Hat, my wife's favourite shopping ground with all those nice colorful handicrafts, shawls and cloth for suits. Our journey from Gurgaon to Dilli Hat had the visitors gripping to their seats which they dont even do it in roller coaster rides!!. It scared them to death. They were only relieved on reaching Dilli Hat. As we entered the area they got carried away by the prices and the beautiful handicrafts and started buying. For them the prices are always after dividing by 50 so obviously sounds very low priced.

They were fascinated by everything at Dilli Hat so spent considerable amount of time. They even bought colorful Bangles. We were initally planning to grab something to eat before visiting Redfort but due to this shopping event we had to directly go to Redfort. The driver did not know the route well and had to direct him several times. We had to get off very far from the fort as cars are not allowed inside. We walked a little on the dirty roads. The entry fee was Rs60/- per head. The whole area was dark and really frightening. We had tough time finding the ticket counters in the dark. The show starts at 730pm for English and at 6pm for Hindi. The time was almost 730pm and had to hurry down into the fort, very interesting path.

Sound and light show at Redfort was always in my list of places/events to see and so was very excited to be actually going there. We need to sit on benches in the open air with a cloth overhang. It was very cold and I didnt go well prepared. Not many came to see so had the whole bench(es) to ourselves. the show began at exactly 730pm (first time seeing punctuality to my liking). The narration was good and clear and crisp voice, so started liking it when the lights came on in different color and sound effects of water flowing from the Yamuna River, the sound of the galloping horses of the army. But later the excitement stopped as the story progressed with bad quality sound effects, lighting. Within the first halfhour got bored so asked my visitors if they wanted to sit for some more time. They were enjoying as they were getting a lot of historical facts 9some of which even I didnt know). I managed to sit through for another 20 minutes and prepapred to leave. The visitors came along (may be got bored too).

It was most disappointing show for me, may be because I had great expectations and was comparing with the show at Golconda fort near Hyderabad and our personal show which we did way back in 1961. My brother was the narrator and we (four siblings) helped with the sound effects. It was far superior considering the fact it was done almost 50 years back with little or no gadgets. The show we had was on "Tour of United States in the eyes of a visiting Doctor - my father". We had an open air sitting (like the one at Redfort), a real big screen. During the interval we had offered delicious snacks (prepared by mom) to our invitees. The entry was only by invitation. they all loved the show what with the sound effects and music from Mozart and Tschakovski. It was scintillating.

We quickly got out before the crowd 9whatever little it was) started to leave. We made it to the main road and called the driver to come and pick us up. It was late and we had to prepare for early morning trip to Agra so hurried back. luckily the traffic was negligible after reaching Tilak bridge.

Visit to Sultanpur Bird Sanctuary

It was a foggy day in Gurgaon, the 13th of December, 2009 three of us from the old trekking team started off on a day trip to the Bird Sanctury in a Honda City car. We had been planning on this trip with families and slowly people dropped off so ended up with the three musketeers leaving on this trip.

We took the road from Sohna Road via Rajiv Chowk. Instead of taking a left turn at the mosque we went straight, and straight away found the road to be very bad. Some time later we found the traffic coming in our lane from the opposite direction. We had to back up and go on the wrong side just to find ourselves left atop a cemented road with a foot of drop to continue. It was very good driving skills of my friend which got us through to the otherside without breaking the car. In the course of the short drive of about 22 kms we had another narrow road next to the flyover being constructed over railway track. Finally we were on good double road and speeded up to rach the destination, about 1hr plus.

We headed for the cafeteria to have a hot cup of tea. The taste was not good as compared to the tea available on the roadside which is brewed and brewed for considerable amount of time and making it strong and refreshing.

Now we started the long walk around the lake, there is a well laid out footpath for one to traverse around the lake and at the same time have a look at the Siberian Migratory birds. We saw several of them and a few Sambhars and a few deers. There are many types of birds but the Siberian cranes cathes your eyes. Almost towards the end of the walk, we found a small path to the left (we were going anti-clockwise) which led us to a peninsular land from where we could see these birds much closer which were sitting on treetops on an island. Some of these birds seem to be feeding their offsprings. The round trip had taken about an hour and a half including the bird watching.

The entry fee is Rs5/-, still camera Rs25/- and parking is Rs10/-. No eatables are allowed in the sanctuary.

We went to the cafeteria to have lunch. We felt it was easy to have a Thali (Veg Rs70/- and Non-Veg Rs90/-) instead of ordering a-la-carte. It was quicker and had variety. the restaurant was not expensive (tea Rs15/-, Cofee Rs25/-, Pakoras Rs35/-, Veg dishes between 50 and 80)

Outside the Sanctuary on the opposite side we saw acres of Mustard plants with their bright yellow flowers on their very green plants, it was a pleasing site worth taking a photo.

If you are game to drive through some rough roads, go for it. It was worth the trip. They have good accommodation for those who would like to spend the night over. I stayed there many times as the mornings at Sultanpur are very refreshing.

My Favorite Bagels

That was late June 2004, was waiting at the Hotel Mead, Wisconsin Rapids to be picked up by my prospective HR Vice President where I was to join later. We were to meet for a breakfast meeting, not nervous but very hungry. In a few minutes he arrived and took me to a Bagel restaurant. It was a simple and neat restaurant, it is now the time to order your breakfast. They will make it to your specific order and was bombarded with questions on what, how, which Bagel, what ingredients, toasted or not etc.. the questions came in plenty. As it is I was pretty hungry, fit to eat a horse at that time. Gave them whatever specifications I could understand (hoping that as long it is edible it should be fine). It was really a wonderful breakfast with Bagels and eggs and can never forget the experience.

Recently when I was in Naperville, a suburb of Chicago I was bent upon having the same Bagels as I had in 2004. Unfortunately I forgot the name of the restaurant so sent a message to my Vicepresident HR to get the name of the restuarant, pat came the reply 'Big Apple Bagel'. He remembered it so well as he took me to the same one on my request the next time I visited Wisconsin Rapids in 2006. Immediately I searched for their restaurants in Naperville and made my son take me there for a breakfast on a sunday. It was worth all the effort in locating my favorite Bagel Restaurant. Everyone thoroughly enjoyed the Bagels. This time I was more prepared on what to order. I told the restaurant owner ( family owned franchise) the whole story and told him that we came all the way from India to have his Bagels, he was very thrilled. So what did we get as a surprise, a small cup cake for each one of us - on the house. Some got Pumpkin and some chocolate cup cakes.

If ever you are in the United States try to visit one of these Big Apple Bagel restaurants, dont come back without having one. The bagels costs us anything between $2.80 to $3.90 and worth the money.

The first impressions always are lasting impressions

Fall Colors at Naperville

Coming from India I never experienced the vivid beauty of fall colors earlier. I used to hear about the inevitable fall season but didnt realize what it has in store for us till I visited Naperville, a suburb of Chicago. It was a beautiful sight to see, the trees are filled with vibrant colors prompting us and telling us that nature is God's art work.

It was just a week before the Halloween day and the trees at Naperville was in their best colors. You can see different trees at different stages of this coloration and amount of fall of leaves. They vary from clear green to dark red with in between shades of orange and red.

One beautiful place to visit in the neighbourhood is the River side walk, a beautifully laid out pathway for people to walk, next to a small river. You can see flocks of ducks trying to swim against the stream. At one point there is a nice wooden bridge to cross the river, reminds one of the bridge in Lucerne, Switzerland. One could spend hours just walking along the river, with ocassional stops on benches by the pathway to devour the colors of the fall.

Remember today?

For some strange reasons I got up very early today at about 0540am, outside it is still picth dark. Wondering if I am still fighting my jetlag after the US trip. It cant be the jetlag as I normally wont get affected by this travel between time zones.

Chilly morning, foggy outside. In Delhi/Gurgaon it is called smog, rightfully what with so much of smoke around. The introduction of CNG buses, Taxis and Autos seem to have reduced it but pollution is catching up on us. Need stronger measures and better implmentation.

Open the newspaper, reading it while sipping a hot cup of freshly brewed coffeee. There was no mention about the great leader of our country, Pandit Nehru. Today is his birthday and celebrated as Children's day, nothing on the front page. The whole paper seemed to be filled with tributes to Sachin Tendulkar. Not that I am not a fan of Sachin, I am. I truly think he is a great player, but very disappointed at the lack of importance shown to our great leader.

I know they say 'time heals' but it also seems to say 'time seals'. Contributions of people like Pandit Nehru seemed to have been sealed in a container called the past.

Government seem to spend a lot of money on the security of ex-leaders, can they not spend money on a picture of the leaders like Nehru on the front page, just once a year?

Sun is slowly emerging out of the clouds of dust and smog, hope will shine some light on people of the past and remind us that we exist in today's environment due to the hard work done by those great leaders.

My trip to the US

I booked my ticket to the US at least 3 months back, was to travel Delhi to Sacramento, San Jose and then Chicago. In the multitude transactions I had with the Travel agent (Yatra.com in this case) trying to get the best routing and the price I forgot to request the best of seats. SO finally ended up with 'make do' seating.

Came 30th Sept 2009 and me and wife boarded the flight to Munich then to Chicago (Port of entry into US). Came out of flight at 1830 in terminal 5, hurriedly collected the luggage, went past Immigration and Customs to hand over the suit cases to the United staff for onward journey to Sacramento. The flight was to leave from Terminal 1 at 1855. The attendants there told me that I will not make it to the flight but I insisted and went to board it. Just in time before they closed the gates.

Arrived at Sacaremento and didnt get my luggage. Imagine me and wife came to attend a marriage with all our fancy clothes and didnt get them on arrival.

It is a very long story (I had to 'hire' out my dresses for the wedding etc). To make it short, My luggage was handed over to me in Chicago on 18th Oct (19 days after arrival in the US).

The rest I will describe when I get into the mood.