Last week I had been to Lucknow and Delhi. It was planned in a couple of hours and probably the quickest planning we've ever done for a trip. There's a certain thrill about sudden plans and I totally experienced that. Had the time of my life.
_________________________________________
Friday, January 9
We reached the Airport at around 12 pm. It was my first visit to Shamshabad Airport and my first reaction was “WOW!!”. I was totally spellbound by the ‘International’ appeal of the airport. It was SO gorgeous. I felt proud to be a Hyderabadi.
Our flight was scheduled for departure at 1:10 pm so it was almost an hour in the lounge. So I bought “The three mistakes of my life” by Chetan Bhagat and it was a great company apart from dad’s frequent one liners and mum’s never ending instructions. We boarded the flight at 1:00 and I took the window seat (call it the typical Indian mentality :D)
We reached Delhi by 3:00 pm. The weather wasn’t as cold as we expected it to be.If not for the absolute hotties, I would have given the airport a 2.5/5. Our connecting flight to Lucknow was at 6:30 pm so we were in some for some more waiting and me, for some more ogling :D
We took our flight for Lucknow a little later than the scheduled time and reached Lucknow at about 8 pm. I felt slightly weird because the previous day I spoke to my Aunt and Uncle on the phone and the next day I was there, seeing them. By the way, my aunt and uncle , apart from being my father’s elder sister and her husband, have also been the best friends of my parents and thus I have always loved them like my own parents.
We were served American chocolates, assorted nuts and cookies(One big advantage of having a cousin who lives abroad :D) almost immediately after we reached their place and I knew my food festival had begun. But my happiness lasted only till I found out there was mutton biryani for dinner. Very difficult to digest if you are a self declared chick-eggitarian like me. But I thought of only one solution – a little bit of deceit and so I passed most of the contents of my plate into mum’s without aunt watching it,ofcourse. :P
Saturday, January 10
Uncle treated us with his special Mexican omelette topped with sausages, onions, capsicum and tomatoes for breakfast. Yes ,my food festival had finally begun.
We decided to spend the evening in the Army club playing tambola and having chocobar . Yes, its great fun biting an icecream when the temperature is 10 degree Celsius and there’s no fear of the icecream melting to become only the cream.
There were some really weird prefixes given to numbers when we played tambola and I couldn’t figure out whether they were put for the sake of rhyming or something else. Here are some I thought I must share :
-Watch your son, If you have one – 21 (:D)
-Naughty eight – 38
-Sexy Punjabi- 65 (???)
-Fox in a fix – 46
And this one’s the best,
-Sexy danda – 61 (:P)
Sunday, January 11
Aunt was planning for a firangi style dinner and she chose me to assist her in the above mentioned mission. She woke me up really early (8:30 am :P) and we began to make the chocolate cake.
We soaked in the sun for an hour and that really gave me the i-m-on-a-holiday feeling. I must mention that their place has this very “farm-housy” feeling. The garden, the huge lobby, the hall, everything had a therapeutic effect on me. My best time pass was to rest on the ass-will-sink sofas and munch assorted nuts.
For dinner we had baked vegetables cooked in white sauce with toast and chicken tangdi kebabs for main course and Chocolate cake and milk pudding for dessert. The word elaborate would be an understatement for this meal. At that moment I really felt the need of having a space-extendable stomach :D.
Monday, January 12
We planned to spend the whole day outside. Watching Ghajini and eating Lucknowi chaat topped our agenda. We went to Hazratganj which I was told is famous for its chaat and I was not disappointed one bit. I pampered my taste buds with Dahi puri first and trust me , it was the BEST dahi puri I ever had in my life. The gooey tamarind and date chutney, the thick creamy curd, the filling of the puri. It was just perfect. I hogged on 3 plates of dahi puri and wanted to continue but I realized that that would break all the barricades of etiquette. I also tasted samosa ragda and aloo tikki which were well prepared but I couldn’t appreciate them as much as I had already lost my heart to dahi puri.
We proceeded to a mall where we planned to watch Ghajini. A great movie it was. Aamir has done it again and hats off to him. All of us liked the movie and kept discussing it till we finally hit the sack.
Monday, January 13
We left for Delhi at around midnight and reached the capital early next morning.
Monday, January 14
It was the highest degree of bearable cold and thankfully, it didn’t cross that mark. We reached my Uncle’s (mum’s elder brother) place in fifteen minutes and it was relatively colder inside the house.
I last visited Delhi when I was in 8th standard and so this visit was special. Another reason was my Mum’s birthday.
We stayed in Delhi only for a day so I was really looking forward to shopping in Sarojini Nagar market.
I personally feel Sarojini Nagar market is one of the best places to shop in delhi. I almost went crazy looking at the variety. Clothes, shades, shoes, accessories, bags ,you name it and they have it. I shopped like a maniac and promised myself to go there as often as possible. :D
It was the usual cake cutting and birthday song for mum in the evening and all of us enjoyed a quiet dinner. Mum was happy to spend her birthday with her brother and Grandma.
Finally, we landed in Hyderabad on 15th. All smiles.
