India Trip Part II - Delhi Days

 The week started with the early morning flight to go to Delhi from Thiruvananthapuram. Even though it was a vacation, we literally had to get up at 4 am to go catch this flight. That was the hardest in the trip. It was December and we had heard about Delhi being 'cold'. We had brought over warm clothes from US - but questions in mind were - how cold will Delhi be, especially for us going from the East Coast of United States?

Day 1: As we walked out the airplane in Delhi, a sudden chillness engulfed us. I immediately opened my backpack and got hold of the hoodie. We contacted the driver of the travel company who was waiting for us. Somehow we had missed seeing him in spite of him holding a placard and standing on the way and had come farther to the front. All good, found him and loaded our luggage in the Inova and seated us. I was happy to see clean bottles of water loaded on the door pockets.

We went to the hotel, checked in and ordered breakfast since we had missed the complimentary breakfast window by then. We were surprised they brought us bowls of plain yogurt along with the breakfast. Then in an hour, we set out to pick up the guide and headed to India Gate. It was massive. I definitely have been there as a child. Then we went to see Khutab Minar. 

 

Lunch was much delayed to our typical standards. We are always 12.30 pm lunch people, but since we had a late start to the sight seeing day, everything shifted. 

When we asked about eating chaat, the guide emphasized the need to stick to a hygienic and decent restaurant so we don't get 'Deli Belly' while in Delhi. We concurred and enjoyed a nice lunch in a good fancy restaurant. My two boys were a sport and enjoyed the food wherever we went. After lunch we went to see the Humayun's Tomb.

A honest confession is that we always overate, a multi course meal every time with appetizers to dessert - but, hey, we were in India, after all! After few days of back to back over-working the stomach, we all invariably felt the need to skip a meal to rest up the tummy! We were so exhausted when we got back to the hotel, it truly was the longest day ever. We skipped dinner, showered and crashed.

Day 2: We started the day with breakfast buffet that was complimentary. I absolutely enjoyed the Old Delhi tour. We went to the Juma Masjid where I was asked to wear a black gown to cover up. We admired the majesticity of the monument. From there, we got on a cycle rickshaw to go to Chandni Chowk Spice Market. That was the best moment of the trip for me. We zipped through the hustle abd bustle of the Delhi streets in the cycle rickshaw like we live there forever. We walked and the boys and us followed the guide -  not a moment to laze around or you may get lost in the crowd. I kept looking for where the boys and walking, are they still with us..? 

We got some rare spices in the Spice Market. 3 kms stretch full of these tiny spice shops..wow!

 We went to a gurudwara there - a first time for all of us. It was a unique experience to sit in there with the other devotees in the main sanctuary where the holy book is kept. We saw the kitchen where volunteers come and cook food to be given to visitors and the needy. We donated the prasad we got to the poor people outside the shrine. I noted in my mind again that one day I must visit the Golden Temple in Amritsar.

We hopped on the cycle rickshaw to head back to where we started and got on to our car. After an hour or so at a carpet shop and all the pressure to buy a carpet and ship to US and refusing to buy, we finally started to Agra. We had lunch in a travel plaza kind of place. The guide and driver had picked this place as a safe one to have lunch. Alas, to the dismay of my Son 2, when we started to order, this place had only vegetarian! But we were so starved that everything tasted super yummy. The food quantity was good even though the place was not fancy. Yet another day of super late lunch!

The hotel in Agra was nice. This was Dec 31. They had a new year party celebration in the hotel. It was decent. An MCee girl ran the show and conducted some games involving the guests. We could not do any justice to the pricey dinner buffet which was Mandatory Gala Dinner we had to pay for while booking (coz of the late and heavy lunch). I was pleasantly surprised to meet my colleague from US suddenly in this party. It is a small world, indeed! The boys had some dinner and went to chill in the room. We oldies continued till clock struck 12. Happy New Year 2025!  Travel saga to be continued in the next post!

India Trip Dec 2024 - Part I - Time with my parents

Looking at the last post I did, I realize it has been 2 years since I wrote anything here. For a minute, I got scared when I tried to load my blog post page and it said, it has been removed. I had almost forgotten that blogpost is gone, but my old posts were still alive in blogger.com. 

The December of 2024 was spent in India working from there for 2 weeks and having a family vacation for the rest of it. My boys now 23 and 19 years old had not been to India for the past 9 years.

 

The time spent with Appa and Amma in Nandhavanam (it is the senior living where my parents are at) was good. Appa laughed and smiled for my jokes and sang songs with me. We read some Sujatha story book I had taken with me - this is something we enjoyed since I was little girl. I had wanted to see Meyyazhagan with him and as expected, we both enjoyed every minute of it. The movie did not disappoint me watching a second time and seeing my Appa react as expected to for every scene was bliss.

Another movie I wanted to watch with him was 'Kishkintha Kaandam'. Thanks to my friend who uploaded good quality video of the movie! I could not watch it in the first visit to Chennai due to hospital visits that I had to take Appa to. But on my revisit, I made sure I try my best to watch it with him. I did make it happen in the span of few hours I had the day before leaving back. And he absolutely enjoyed and appreciated KK also! I made fun of his occasional memory issues and pointed him to Vijayaraghavan's character references!

I did not have time to take Appa Amma to a resort like last time. So all my time was spent in Kanchipuram suburbs with them. 

Two of the days I took Appa to hospital checkups I was able to take him to different restaurants than A2B. He only goes to A2B, Saravana Bhavan or Sangeetha. One day I took him to a Nagarjuna kind of restaurant hoping for a Ilai pottu meals with parippu podi and the andhra daal. It was not in my destiny during this trip to India. Lunch closed and we had to order a'la carte. But Appa now had to eat things that I ordered and really enjoyed the soup, naan, curry and veg fried rice. The next day I had him try idly manchurian which he would never have ordered if it was left to him - but ended up relishing it.

It has been 3 years since Appa Amma moved to Nandhavanam. This is the first time I was there for at least one day of the annual December Arts Festival. I took Appa to watch the first day music program and then boys and hubby joined too for that and the lunch that day. We did Wordle together (kids and I and thatha) which was a dream also. After that it was time to say bye and leave back to TVM. That made my heart heavy but I cannot show it out. Part of me wanted to execute the North india trip with the boys successfully. Part of me was sad to think I won't be seeing them this trip after this. It is what it is!