Life so far

It’s been some time since I published something new about myself, about people and about life in general... I had always wanted to write for sometime now but you can attribute my inactivity online to various reasons apart from just being lazy...

For few days I will publish past i.e zoom to flash back, reason, I think next few days will be utterly uneventful, boring, and listless.

The most recent event in my life was last Sunday morning... 9:00 AM i am still fast asleep... Tring Tring...goes my mobile screaming for attention. I recognized it was a Singapore number... my heart skipped, is this the call I have been waiting for so long. Oh! I miss her ... Just kidding... well it happened to be Sir Charles…The Wise man from our senior batch. Guess what? He was in Delhi, Thanks to floods in Mumbai which forced Charles to change his travel plan and visit Delhi. He some how managed to dig my number from some of his batch mates back in Singapore. (Guanxi in action).

Just for records Charles was my room mate on the memorable trip to Shanghai, it was pure coincidence that we were allocated the same room and top of that we were carrying exactly same HIGH SIERRA backpack. That's where all the coincidence stopped.

Well I suggested that we should meet in the evening after he had done his Delhi Darshan. The idea of showing around Charles brought back memories of early this year when Mr Verma and I were accompanying Ms Nan to everywhere she went :)

But before I could meet with Charles, I had to catch up with Karim's food with Amit. Eating food at Karim's has been a ritual among my mates (Amit, Kapil and Seemant) that ensure good health, success in all forthcoming endeavors and guarantee friendship (secret of Good mood, Karim's food). The Ritual requires a trigger by way of an announcement that declares presence of at least two of the gang in town.

I have another mission in life to spread the addiction of Karim's food to my new friends, basically to initiate them, my victims have been Anshul, Nan, and the most recently Charles.

A bit about Amit Nagpal. Amit Nagpal and I go back almost close to two decades. He is the most humble, intelligent, no-nonsense friend I have. I have seen many facets of him including his very privy self. He hasn't changed much in last so many years, except for love handles. One thing still hold true for him is his Lion like appetite. Both of us had a moment of silence when we were digging mouth watering Kebabs which melted in mouth and then we devoured by Butter Chicken, Roghan Josh and tandoori/ roomali. Ah! This already making me hungry

Immediately after great food at Karim's, Amit decided to indulge in coffee shake at IHC, that just did him. I never knew that a Bloated Amit gets Nostalgic. Guess of all the things it was IIT-Delhi Campus that he wished to go. So, off we drove to IIT-D campus, a campus big enough to hold at least two NUS. Didn't do much inside the campus, just drove-in and drove-out to make in time to meet Charles, who was waiting for us at IHC.

Time to get bit philosphical here "Life offers paradoxes" I was about to say goodbye to a dear friend and at the same time welcome another dear friend exactly at the same time. How rude can life be? it doesn't allows you to express good bye in true intent but excites you about the new arrival .Guess that's life "a paradox". Good Bye and God Bless to Amit for his future.

Charles the wise man was in dire need of good coffee to stimulate those grey cells. We bought a take away coffee from Barista and headed to Connaught Place in my grand Old Jalopie, there we boarded METRO (MRT for Singaporeans, Subway for NYites) and reached the ancient part of Delhi, The old Delhi. We walked through the bylanes of Delhi which has a distinct smell, a blend of moisture from aged building, Continuos incense lit by shopkeepers and human offering to the old town. This was first time visting old Delhi on a Sunday. The place was more chaotic than usual with its street bazaar selling anything and everything on the pavements and wherever hawkers could find a place to sell. This Place has lot of history, well we walked over to red fort then to Jama Masjid unfortunately we couldn't enter the premises as we were too late.

Denial to enter premises did not damper either mine or Charles Spirit, I was already planning to have another great meal at Karim's Jama Masjid and Charles decided that he need to visit old Delhi on Tuesday, which he did and I guessed enjoyed.

Karim's excellent food - kebabs, noorjehani chicken, Nargisi Kofta, roomali and tandoori roti - did elevated our moods, after that we headed for a round of coffee. The best was yet to come - we went ahead to have a paan (sweet leaf, laced with mint sauce, cardamom, fennel seeds, betel nuts). Charles liked paan too much, he ordered six for his trip next day and consumed two more, which was enough to destabilize his internal ecosystem, just too bad he had to undergo all that indigestion. Glad he didn't tried tobacco laced paan.
This was Sunday 30th july, Charles is back to Singapore... definitely a long long post... It is more of a weekly digest than a daily snippet...