The Heat Is Hot - In Delhi

Sorry, that was a bad play on the lyrics of the song by Glenn Fray - The Heat Is On. Just the right words for the climate in Delhi though. Whew! Chennai seems cooler man. Really. It can’t be nostalgia for sure that is making me remember it that way. During my last stint in Chennai, my landlord had installed an a/c unit in the bedroom and I used to make a beeline for it as soon as I stepped in. I was a bachelor then so I could lounge around in bed and only get out to surf the net or cook some food. I didn’t have anyone telling me to do this or get that. Disclaimer - I am a better man now ;)

After experiencing the heat of Delhi, I have learnt a few things. The thing that wears you down is that the heat never lets up. Just like the winters where it remains cold for days on end, the heat too gets to you after a point of time. Get into your car in the morning and the first rivulets of sweat start trickling down. If you happen to leave your lunch box in it, you definitely don't need to heat it. During the day, it becomes very difficult to step in and out of office. The air you breathe is so hot that you feel like choking. When you reach home sweet home, you can’t walk barefoot as the floor is nicely heated up. There is heat oozing from the sofa, the mattress and the cupboards. Feel like washing you face? Don’t open the tap lest you get scalded (we normally fill buckets so the water is relatively cooler). The other thing is that along with the hot wind comes a lot of dust. The maid normally dusts the house twice a week but recently that doesn’t seem to be enough. There is always a layer of dust by the time you return home.

People also tend to fall ill a lot. Cold and fever are common, so are bouts of vomiting and stomach upsets. I was out in the sun for two hours and had to rush to the nearest loo. In the short time my parents were over, my Mom had a bout of vomiting. Both of us recovered in a short span but it was yuck very unpleasant. We actually had to cut their trip short (why we called them over at this time in the first place is another story ;) The other day one of our fears came true when the landlady handed over the electricity bill. Whoa, the figures Rs 3840 leapt out of the bill and did a merry jig in front of my eyes. Till then, I had never seen a bill of more than three figures. Appetite is another thing that goes for a toss. Here I speak for myself as the average Delhiite does seem to have a very healthy appetite and come to think of it, they seem to be carrying along just fine.

The last few days have been a bit cooler though. The Met department had got it right that the monsoon is coming and there have been a few brief showers. The rains in Delhi always leave me a bit disappointed. In Kerala and to a somewhat lesser extent in Bangalore, it rains for extended periods. Chennai and Mumbai have shorter, slightly furious bursts that leave you drenched before you can find shelter. In Delhi however, there is a lot of hoo-hah before it rains. I have faced it many times while walking from one office to another. The wind springs up and blows like crazy. It makes little twisters and dust devils and you have to cover your face. Then the smell of rain hits you and you feel like a few drops of rain have fallen. You put your hand out expectantly and look up into the sky for deliverance but nothing comes. You wait for another ten minutes and still nothing. Damn, you turn around and head back in. After an hour, you head out to your car and lo, the few drops of rain that fell in the time you were inside have become crusty with all the dust that was blowing around. Good luck driving home mate. There has also been a time or two when I heard thunder and stepped into the balcony but phooey nothing to show. It was only last night that there was a brief but solid spell that even left the road wet . Of course today is much cooler thanks to this. A few spells like this should see us through June. July is when the rain is supposed to really kick in - lets see to what extent. Then the good weather till Oct and then the cold......

Drawing inspiration from Bing Crosbys song - Let It Snow, I can also look positively at the summer and point out a few good things

- A cold beer tastes even better than before

- Clothes dry in a jiffy

- You have an excuse for everything

      - ''Go buy groceries. No Darling its so hot"

      - "Why didn't you do this? Sorry Boss, its so hot"

- Shorts and skirts, spaghetti tops are in fashion. Like one of my friends said - Boy it must be getting really hot. The dresses are getting smaller every day.

- A cold beer tastes even better than before (did I say that before?)

See, there is a silver lining to everything. So go ahead, get a tan, get a beer, get a hat but try and ‘chill out’.

My First Run In Delhi @ runningandliving.com

After a 5 month hiatus, I finally went for a run in Delhi and it felt GOOD. Part of it was laziness but mostly it was because weekends have always been kinda busy with some domestic stuff happening.

I first heard of runningandliving.com when I went for the Bangalore Ultra Marathon. There was a paper insert with the stuff the organisers were handing out. Talk about timing - at work, talks were on about my move to Delhi. Within a few days of reaching here, very proactively I signed up as a member on their site and started getting updates on runs. In the initial days, most of the runs seemed to be in Noida and I was in the guest house at Westend. Since I didn't have my car yet and I didn't know the route (imagine trying to find Sector 61 early in the morning) and it was soooo cold, I had enough excuses to not go.

The run which was held on last Sunday - 9th May was at Gurgaon. As usual, there was a timely reminder sent out by Rahul Varghese who is the Chief Runner. He is an ex-MNC marketing head with 25 years of experience which he quit to explore his then new passion of running. As the days came closer, I started feeling nervous because a) I felt I haven't done enough training b) It had been a long time since my last run. On the eventful day, I got up at 4.30 am (blinking like an owl) and as usual took almost an hour getting ready. How I envy people who can get ready in a jiffy. I then drove like mad and reached the start point by 5.40 am which was the time most people also came in (the 10k run started at 6.00 am while the 5k was at 6.30 am). The start point was near Rose Park which is further down from Crowne Plaza Hotel, Gurgaon. The park has a huge parking lot and so have no worries of parking. After 5 minutes, Rahul came up carrying a small megaphone and took us through the run and the route. It was quite light hearted with him claiming credit for the good weather and comparing us to Olympic runners :) Post this, one of the sponsors - Elemention Gym had their trainers stationed who took us through a good warm up routine.

By this time around 40 runners had gathered and we started at sharp 6.00 am. The start point was the parking lot and the run was on the road. The distance one way was 2.5 kms and so we had to loop back and then do it all over again. Since it was so early in the morning, there was hardly any traffic. I had set my playlist to finish in exactly one hour because I wanted to better my previous time of 62 mins.  I started off and the first two kms went off smoothly. Then I started to feel the strain. As usual, my upper back started to pain. Then my breath started getting ragged and I was like - "Did I get up at 4.30 am to do this? Why am I going through this hell?" After what seemed like ages, we finally came back to the starting point and I started getting my second wind. I checked the time and saw that 28 minutes had passed by. Simple math meant that I would finish the run in 56 minutes :) but I had to factor in that I was slowing down. I wanted to speed up a bit then but tried to keep a steady pace till I reached 7.5 kms. All the while, I was wondering how much of time was left. I took the turn without stopping to drink water as I was scared of breaking my rhythm. I started stepping up the pace by focusing on overtaking the person immediately in front of me. Not as easy as it sounds because that person was in front by virtue of running faster than me in the first place. Still, I gritted my teeth and pushed on. You are not going to believe the next part - first there was a foreigner whom I would overtake and then he would catch up again. This happened 3 or 4 times till I decided enough is enough and sprinted ahead to put a few extra metres between us.My next target was a bald specy guy and the fun started all over again. By this time, the last km came up and the strain really began telling. My lower back and my legs started protesting big time and I slowed down. Just as the end was in sight, a couple of things happened - the songs ran out and that meant the hour was up. Also the foreigner overtook me at this time along with two others. Oh crap!! I finally crested the finish line and hurriedly pulled out my iPod to check the time. Hurrah, I had completed it in 1:01 hrs - one minute better that my earlier time. This combined with the euphoric feeling of completing a run successfully gave me an instant high. Course that was in my mind, my legs were still looking for a place to rest my bum. I sat down and waited for the world to steady. People were milling around chatting about their run, comparing, laughing or just cooling down. The organisers started handing out some packets and I was hoping it was completion certificates (like a Red Indian collects scalps, I collect paraphernalia ;). Unfortunately, it was only information leaflets. I quietly got up, did a few stretches and left the area remembering why it was that I came to these runs - for the happy ending.

p.s - do check out the video. It is not in exact sequence but done quite well.

Exploring Nizamuddin - Thanks to Intach

Well, this one is people who combine being history buffs and have no problems getting up really early on Sunday morning. Well I am neither and getting up at 6.30 am after sleeping at 12 am after driving to Agra and back on the same day was a teenie-weenie bit of a strain. But Dad was in town so off I had to go.

My sister is a whiz on finding out stuff to do via the Internet and she sent me a link for an article detailing INTACH and the walks the Delhi Chapter holds every Sunday morning. First a little bit about INTACH, in their own words - "The Indian National Trust For Art and Cultural Heritage (INTACH) is a nationwide, non-profit membership organization. INTACH was set up in 1984 to protect and conserve India’s vast natural and cultural heritage. INTACH has made significant contribution over the years in conservation and protection of our natural and cultural heritage."

I went on the Intach Delhi Chapter site and was happy to see that there was a walk on Sunday the 8th of March. The fee seemed nominal too - Rs 50/- but like I said earlier, timing was the issue. There was link on the page for registering and I left my phone number as they had written about a callback. Suddenly, on Friday evening 4.49 pm, I realised that they hadn't called me and in all probability the office would shut at 5.00 pm. I frantically placed a call and got through to someone who gave me the name and number of the co-ordinater. She confirmed that the walk was very much on and to meet outside the Nizamuddin police station at 8.00 am sharp.

Dad and me reached before time and parked the car in the lane next door. We even found a newspaper vendor on the opposite side who sold Malayalam Manorama (that's me, a mine of info). We met our guide Sapna outside the police station and chatted for a few minutes while a couple and a group of three joined us. Sapna informed us that the purpose of these walks was not to visit well documented sites such as Humayuns Tomb, Red Fort etc but to show people who had a greater interest in history lesser known monuments. She was a volunteer and belonged to a group of people who were passionate about these monuments and their preservation. She informed us that we were going to walk into the Nizamuddin Basti and see the shrines of Nizamuddin and Amir Khusrow. She gave us a brief introduction on Nizamuddin and then the area that we were going to see. The basti is a bit rundown and there were lots of Muslim men who had gathered at the various shops or drinking tea. We entered the shrine through some winding alleys lined with lots of shops selling religious books, CDs and roses to put on the grave. As we entered the shrine, we were asked to remove our shoes. We first saw the shrine of Amir Khusrow and then on to the shrine of Nizamuddin. The good part of all this was that Sapna really knew her stuff. The fear I have of taking guides at historical places is a) do they really know their stuff b) they seem to be in a bit of a hurry and wont let you wander off but with Sapna there was no such problem. She calmly took us through the many people thronging around and answered all questions with facts or possible explanations. There were a few other graves next to these shrines of prominent people such as Jahanara Begum as this was considered holy ground to buried in.

After this we moved on to Nizamuddins Baoli or water tank, which the saint is said to have blessed. We also saw the tomb of Akbars wet nurse, Ji Ji Anga and her family. It was in such a dilapidated condition with walls all peeling off and kids playing cricket outside. On our way out, Sapna also led us to the tomb of Mirza Ghalib which is not normally open to public viewing but she resourcefully managed to get an entry. All this took us nearly two hours. I had enough by the end of it as my feet were feeling very dirty and we were standing for all this time but Dad was very satisfied. He had answers to a few questions that were puzzling him and he was impressed with Sapnas knowledge. So if you are interested in history and would love to walk around these grand old buildings steeped in lore, do head out. You'll have a good time, I promise.

p.s. - Check this link for more information

If You Need Stuff In Delhi

The purpose of this piece is to help you find stuff in Delhi. There is not much I can add now as it has been only three months but I figure that I can keep updating it periodically. I hope I am that resolute. It is still easier for me to do it than say a guy who has been staying in Delhi all his life and has so much more to write, right!! Yeah yeah I know I am a regular do-gooder, just without the cape and all

South Indian Food in Connaught Place (CP)
I was thrilled when I saw a Saravanna Bhavan in CP. Due to the Kaveri water problem (at least that's my theory) there were no Saravana Bhavans in Bangalore and so I was really happy to see one here. Man, did I get a shock when I saw the prices. I mean Rs 40 for a cup of coffee is really expensive. I know the rentals in CP must be among the highest in the country but still... Now there is a roadside joint on Jantar Mantar road which is run by malayalees and serves similar fare. Delhi is, as you may know, famous for roadside food (and if you are moving here / just moved, you will be told this a countless times) . Now this place is quite dinghy and often there is a pool of scum water floating nearby. However, I can vouch for the quality of the food having eaten there. I would rate the food a 3 out of 5 as the sambar is not sweet, there is enough spice in the food and it is served piping hot. So if you have a strong stomach, do try this place out. There is a Kwality Walls ice-cream cart always parked next to this joint so you can cool your mouth off after that.

Kerala House - Connaught Place
Hey, I am a South Indian who is missing home food. Obviously, I will crow about my achievements in finding these places. Amazingly, this place is also on Jantar Mantar Road, diagonally opposite Patel Chowk. Another dinghy place but decent Kerala food. The lunch fare is unlimited thali with red rice, sambar, rasam, butter milk, two veggies dishes, 1 papaddom and lime pickle. This is at a reasonable rate of Rs 30/-. You can also buy fish fry (which is quite good) and fish curry again at Rs 30. Hey, I have heard good stuff about Andhra Bhawan as well so will head out there one of these days.

Big Chill
The first thing that struck me when I walked into the place was the amazing posters that were framed on the walls. Not originals but very good quality prints. I had a good time checking out them out. If you are an old movie buff then you will enjoy this a lot. The food is continental and quite good. There is quite a bit of variety with pasta, pizzas and the usual conti fare. The desserts are very good. In fact, they are so good that you will feel like having one just by yourself. So starve yourself a bit before giving so you can give it your best shot.

Anupama Sweets - Kailash Colony Market
I really like samosas and I found this place in Kailash Colony market where the samosas are good. My wife likes the chaat too (if I ever started a chaat shop, I would call it Dimaag Mat Chaat :-) The place is quite basic. It reminds me of the Udipi restaurants in Mumbai but a bit posher. The service levels are a bit slow and the people behind the counters are very insolent so go when you are chilled out. I am yet to eat their sweet selction as well as their dosas and idlis so will update at the earliest.

I need to find a place in South Delhi which sells idli batter cause I am tired of eating bread for breakfast every morning. Also, need to find a shop in South Delhi that sells Kerala masalas, pootu podi etc. Sigh sigh, it will take me some time to get settled. I like Delhi though. I think it is a jugadu place where you can manage the stuff you want but you gotta be a little tougher, little more aggressive but still chilled out. Go figure!!!

Back To The Gym

After three months, I have finally joined a gym here and have started working out. Feels really good too. I was a bit worried that I would feel lazy and not be able to go regularly. Now that I have gone four times after joining (this week), I feel confident that I am going to go regularly.

The first good thing is that it is very close to home so I can easily go in the morning. The flip side is it is cold in Delhi and getting up in the morning is a big BIG challenge. The alarm goes off at 6.30 am and then I keep on snoozing it till 7.15 am. Then it is a mad mad rush. The other good thing is that the trainers are testing me quite strenuously to check my fitness levels. Yesterday was 10 minutes of cycling, 10 minutes of running and about 5 sets of leg exercise ( X 3 sets X 12 reps). Amazingly my legs were not paining today. Ha ha ha.

My next goal is to go for a 10 km rum or a half marathon. I have joined running and living and Delhi runners but have still not been able to go for a run. The obvious reason is that I don't have a car but I suspect that I am too lazy to wake up on a holiday and head out. Which reminds that I spent 3k on a pair of Nike squash shoes and since then have not gone to play.

Another thing that keeps me going is that after coming to Delhi, I never once had a cold or fever despite the really cold winter. Even my oh so delicate stomach was in good shape. I attribute this to the time I spent in they gym and that is why I am such a big advocate of gym-ming. Fitness truly is (one of the) key to a peaceful state of body and mind.