Nimbu parantha and other such delights!

Bustling traffic, rickshaws, people running helter skelter... 50 wires attached to one electricity pole and running along the top of the numerous shops.. smell of ghee tickling your senses from a distance... traffic at a complete standstill for more than 5 mins at the redlight, in which time pedestrians zig-zag through the rickshaws, autos, scooters, an occasional car, trolleys to get to the other side of the road.. little bit dirty but not filthy... foreigners takings pics, sitting on rickshaws pulling them through the narrow galis.. colourful lehengas, sarees and dupattas in bright fuschia pink, yellow and turqouise blue (sometimes all in one saree!).. narrow and steep staircases running up to little rooms tucked away in corners of the building, hosting a range of sarees, jewellery etc... old uncles with potbellies negotiating on the order price of lehengas with glowing and pretty bride-to-bes.. the bride-to-be's eyes sparkling with pleasure on seeing that one diamond set that will steal away the evening! groups of people sitting cross-legged on the mattresses in the shops, drinking chai, brides, buas, mausis and mas conferring with each other to choose the right colour, embroidery and workmanship... men running after prospective customers with visiting cards saying "behenji, dekhengi to foren le lengee yeh sarees".. salesmen assuring customers in full-throated confidence that "aise cheez aur kaheen nahin milegi" whilst the next shop has the same thing and probably for less! and little children scuttering around, chasing each other and hiding in dark corners.. young kids taking orders from customers in the nukkad ke shops, with everyone screaming "chottu, pehle idhar order le!"... and the paranthas! At first one thinks they will be heavily laden with ghee and therefore indisgestible (umm, you may have guessed I am not an 'aloo parantha for breakfast' person!)... but the paranthas turn out to be light and not too thick (read 'fattening') and very very tasty! And then one wonders about how some of the nicest food in India are from galis and little corners, paying just Rs 25 for a tasty delight in the hustle-bustle of the streets instead of Rs250 for so-so food in 5 star environs!

So this was Chandni Chowk.. the place I had heard so much about but never experienced... one really needs to be in Chandni chowk to realise where the heart-beat of the city is.. usually I get very flustered and harassed in crowded places, and being a non-Delhiite essentially (well, in the sense that I didn't go to either school or college here), I had only heard of Chandni chowk but never actually been there.. so this weekend when my Mom had some work there, I joined her and thought of exploring the place a bit... and the outcome was pretty cool.. I was quite delighted by the little streets, small staircases leading to little shops.. people spend there lives in these cubby holes and I am sure they earn big bucks from it! And I thought it was quite clean... though perhaps I chose to be blind to the dirt, if any, in my endeavour to make the most of my trip and not crib! But anyways I've been to worse places, so it really didn't seem as bad as people had made it out to be! We had to meet someone there, and the person's shop was on top of the terrace of a small building... we climbed one narrow staircase, then another narrower one and reached the terrace.. and we find this guy's shop on a small extension way over the terrace, which we had to reach by climbing yet another 4 or 5 steps, without railings on either side, and steep and narrow as hell! It was so cute... this little world they had made for themselves... adjusting with each other's requirements due to mutual lack of space, living their lives in these small havens they had created for themselves... and living it happily and merrily...

Hmmm... I may have romanticised the experience a bit in my head, but at the end of the day, it turned out to be a good experience... it was like an event in my life.. "oh you know, today I went to Chandni chowk!"... too bad I could not visit the other side which I have heard sells stationary (stuff DU students love buying) for students, painting, wedding cards etc etc.. would have been interesting I am sure! But I did get to visit the famous paranthe-wali gali and it turned out to be as good as people had told me it would be! :-))