back... but not done yet... :)

so, just flew back from Devigarh Fort Palace yesterday afternoon after a truely exhausting, fantastic, over-indulgent (food et all) wedding! :) I got TONS o' fotos... so I gotta put 'em together, sort 'em and then post 'em. In the meantime, watch Eklavya-The Royal Guard, with Amitabh Bachchan and let me know how it is. I still have to see it and figure out what happened where in the Palace. Needless to say, sitting for 3+ hrs isn't gonna help the seemingly never ending expansion of the place where my waist used to be! :)
Talking of which, its time to go for a "family" dinner prior to the Delhi Wedding Reception tomorrow (as there was a reception in Devigarh as well).
Working in Pakistan is going to be quite the contrast to this opulent life.
It was with a sense of gratitude, pity, wonder and shock seeing the mud huts with the recently milked buffalos and crying babies just outside the fort walls. How many centuries has it been like that? It was no different than when the artisans were building those beautiful churches in Europe while living in mud huts. Poor but talented building for those with the means... many of whom who just by chance (or not?) born into it.

wedding frenzy...

so, the wedding parties have started... last one at yesterday, at Sanj's cousin's place, with the traditional (and oh so awesome) Dholis, whole loads o' food (solid & liquid) and dancing till way past 5am!
And the day before... something that anyone visiting Delhi should not skip... Chandni Chowk and Paranthe vali galee (Road of Parathas)... where we had more parathss than I can count... and ALL were deep fried! Now THATS the way to have a paratha! The one's I remember (all stuffed much like us after): tomato paratha, paneer (cheese), aloo (potato), besan methi (in english?), dal (lentil) and the best... was last... a sweet paratha stuffed with malai (which turned to a cream cheese like texture post-frying), raisins, chopped cachews and sugar... all deep fried!MMMMMMM... kicks a Tim's donuts butt anyday! :)
Damn, all this talk of food is making me hungry... and I won't even get into the nuances of eating Gol Guppay at the M-Block Market, GK 1.
oh hello!

changes abound...

So, the emotional roller coaster continues... that is something that I can't and don't want to avoid... but I wanna focus a lil' on a happier note in this post...
The first sacrifice of the wedding has been made! One of my fav. pants (trousers for you Brits!) has bit it... rather, I should say that cotton doesn't stretch the way it should to accomodate Indian Wedding food! No, it didn't rip down the middle but rather more slowly and of course, at a pre-wedding party/function, the secondary button that holds the remnants of my waist in place snapped off! And just one trip to the loo later took care of the other one! So, here I sit, insistant on wearing my fav. pants, held up by a leather belt that is also now one hole closer to not holding me up any more! Damn you butter chicken!
Oh, also, I've updated the #19 - London photos and a new album, # 20 - Delhi.
Enjoy! :)
buenos noches all!
Wish me luck! And yes, I'll be switching to the one-size-fits-almost-all Kurta Pyjamas soon! :)

the lost poem...

Many of you know that I lost most of my posts from 2001/2002 travels when the blog company I was with "changed business focus" and deleted every blog! That'll teach me to back up! Anyways, thanks to M.P. and a chance inquiry, I got emailed a copy of that poem a few days ago. :) It feels somewhat appropriate to post it again. It was something I had written after witnessing a person die, 6 painful hours after we found him on the road in Bombay and stayed with him at a local hospital while feverently trying to contact someone... any one in his family.

I saw a man die today.
I saw a man suffer today.
I saw the fragility of life today.
I saw a lack of respect for life today.
I saw seeming strangers caring for life today.
I saw the transience of life today.
I felt a renewed respect for life today.
I know now that there is no tomorrow... only today.

sad news...

I know I haven't posted any updates in a while... things have been crazy... I'm not sure if I can even write much about Kuldip Uncle's passing away yesterday. It feels so surreal as not even a week ago we were sitting in London, at an Iranian restaurant, joking and him making plans for a visit to Canada in August. A minor TN surgery a few days after I left his house was something we talked about in passing but could never imagine that he would not make it out of the hospital.
He was my Dad's business partner in Iran and our families have been very close for a very long time. I still remember his hard headedness and jovial nature especially when I think about his insistance that the Qutub Minar is taller than the CN Tower in a long and drawn out discussion at his house in Tehran many moons ago.
I'm not even sure why I'm writing this... maybe because if I write it, it might seem more real.
Kulid Uncle... your physical presence will be missed dearly. I know you and Dad are still with us and possibly having an other worldly banter about the Qutub and CN Tower.
love always
J

Delhi Mobile number

here it is... 011-91-997-1313-281
okji... time to go eat again! Thank god for the stomach expansion room in kurta pyjamas! :)
oh hello!

squared

so, as the wedding preps continue, I'm hoppin' around town with my Aunt trying to help...
We ended up at Square One today... and funnily enough I'd say its quite the opposite of Square One in Mississauga .Like the Mississauga Square One, this one is also mostly filled with Indians... and unlike it, there's no dollar store, walmart, McDeath or things of that "class". The Delhi Square One is an elite mall filled with Designer boutiques from 'round the globe.The immense growth and wealth (albeit not spread equally) of this country was exemplified when I was here last as I overheard a shop keeper say under his breath to show my cuz (an NRI-Non-Resident-Indian) last season's clothes as they can't afford this seasons! Today an NRI is also jokingly called a Non-Required-Indian... quite the contrast of a few years earlier...
Anyways, I can smell the great food cookin' away (not so far from me)... so I gotta go... :)
happy shopping... in either of the square one's (or even better... support a charity and go to Value Village!) :)
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Actually, I stand corrected... pls. see the attached comment :) So... go to GOODWILL instead! :)

Velkumm to IndeeAAAA!!!!

so... am in India... a land where if your car brakes fail you can still survive but if your horn fails you'll bite it for sure! The flight was good... gotta hit the sack... yaaaawwwwnnnnn.... Don't have a mobi (or handy- in Germany) as yet but will post it as soon as I get it! :)

London to Delhi today... hopefully!

So, I begin with looking outside at a gloomy, cloud-filled London sky and like the weather I want to rant a lil'. So, am still credit card less... even though AmEx and Scotia promised them to be here by last thursday. Its now Monday and funnily enough, the emergency card issuing office for both cards operate from 9am-5pm Eastern Standard Time- if you DO have an emergency and are in a different country, then you can call and complain but you can't speak to the emergency department. So, the Customer Service folks tell you to call back to complain again at a more convenient time (e.g. at 2 am London time!).Grrrr. You'd also figure if they are sending these "sensitive documents" with UPS or FedEx, which they both confirmed that they do, they'd have a tracking number to find out where are the cards.By my now-heavily-British-influenced-thus-oozing-with-sarcasm blog posting, I guess you can tell if I have the tracking numbers :)

Anyhoo... on a brighter note (and I thought I almost saw the sun come out but alas, it was a passing headlight!) I thought I'd write a lil' about words that make u think (if you're not from London or Germany) - Bad Essen (a spa town - NOT bad eating), Butt Strasse (BUTT road - damn, I wish I had my digi handy), Handy (a mobile phone... why "handy" 'cuz you use in in your hand, innit!), Pants (undies... not those long things that go ontop of your underwear), takin' the piss (bugging someone as opposed to emptying your bladder), Cockfosters (last station on a tube line and NOT a dirty adoption program) and last but not least... if you pronounce this drink very quickly... it sounds like... Faa-khing-er. :) I promise to write cleaner when I get to India. :)