'The Grey Garden' restaurant in beautiful Hauz Khas Village

I personally believe that inception of TLR café (aka The Living Room Café) made a lot of us rediscover the beauty of Hauz Khas village. Its one thing walking inside the village galies (streets) in a quest of undiscovered style pieces (anything from cotton skirts to chunnies to shoes to accessories), eyeing the oh so beautiful, chic and contemporary style studios but what’s even more amazing is ending one of such hunts standing on a balcony perched high above these streets with a refreshingly cool, usually an alcoholic beverage in hand and admiring the chahal pahal of village dusk with a feeling of uncontrollable hunger pangs fuelled with the aroma of freshly cooked delectable delights. For a long time my favorite spot was Gunpowder’s balcony that overlooks the lake.

It was only recently that I discovered a new restaurant by the name of ‘The Grey Garden’ on my way to Gunpowder. The restaurant is right next to a fashion store by the same name. A call to my close friend who’s a bigger foodie than I am confirmed that the place was new so I thought to myself that getting a table for two shouldn't be a difficult task. To my surprise, when I realized the place was full and to get a table I would have had to wait for 45 minutes, I decided to leave it for another day. Now, don’t get me wrong here, I can definitely wait for something good but where food is concerned, I must eat when I’m hungry. 

So finally last night, after three phone calls to the restaurant, my friend eventually got us a table! Evidently, when she made the third phone call checking the availability, she was told to drop by in 10 minutes. Not wanting to miss this opportunity, we both rushed and arrived a minute too early; however we had to wait for 10 more minutes outside since our table was occupied by a couple pondering over a few thoughts over dessert.

The wait time was made easy when one of the owners offered us two chairs to sit outside and later emerged with a jar of water, full of cucumber slices inside it with an apologetic smile on his face. He handed us the menu to survey which was very simple and had only handful of things on offer ranging from starters, pizzas, fish, chicken rice, pad thai, and pies.  I was most curious about a pizza with pear, walnut and rocket as toppings. I have never heard of ‘rocket’ topping and upon my questioning, the owner simply answered that it was a leaf (?).

By the time we ordered, we were finally moved inside to our table that was next to a yellow leather messenger bag hung on the wall. The interiors were one of the most artistic that I have seen in Delhi. I absolutely loved the carefree ambiance maintained by a combination of dull lamps, knick-knacks under the table glasses, white cotton trimmings on the ceiling and beautifully apt jazz music oozing out from the speakers in the background.

Between the two of us, we ordered one starter, two glasses of wine, two pizzas and 3 slices of pie. The starter - Fried Chicken Karaage with honey mustard sauce just melted in our mouths. Next was aubergine and zucchini pizza which was a sure shot taste bud winner. My ‘rocket’ pizza also arrived, which was near perfect, except I think it should have had a little more of walnut since just one small piece of walnut per slice wasn’t really enough for my glut self. However, both the pizzas were full of unusual flavors, were perfectly thinned based and were served with olive oil, just a few drops of which tremendously enhanced the taste.

It’s surprising how two pint sized girls can have so much appetite but we finished every last bit of the supple banoffee pie that my friend insisted on ordering . The pie was truly a delight to eat, even more so because of the fact that it was not very sweet and was on a lighter side. We ended up ordering two more slices ‘to go’.

Overall, I strongly recommend ‘the Grey Garden’ for a beautiful culinary experience to all my friends who have wished for a long time for a restaurant with people who are like ‘us’ and who have a taste like ‘us’.

Delhi Metro, definitely a women friendly mode of public transport

It was with great apprehension that I stood waiting for women’s coach on a pink flowery Delhi Metro platform, to reach work on a day when office cab wasn’t an option. It was probably after 7 years that I was traveling by public transport in Delhi. All it took was one ride for me to switch over completely from traveling by car to traveling by metro. I realized life is so much simpler for women in DMRC world with things like shorter queues for women, a separate coach called ladies compartment, etc. The best thing was that my total commute time was cut half!

Ladies compartment is a blessing, inside which, the world is a little different! It was probably the first time in a public place where I didn’t have to go through the discomfort of lecherous eyes around me, because there were none. There was no body odor around me despite the heat outside. Gurgaon seemed so close! And no, I’m not getting any money from DMRC to write this in case you were wondering. 

One thing must I definitely admit is, 80% of the metro commuters need to undergo some sort of metro etiquette training. Of course I wasn't expecting firangi etiquettes and I most certainly am aware of the fact that we, north Indians, don't have the most polite public image. Most of us love pushing, cutting queues, forgetting the point of trash cans, indulging in random public confrontations over petty issues. But apparently, it seems that DMRC is trying its best to train dilliwalahs a few metro manners. Check out the Snakes & Ladders and Ludo board games, only priced at 10 bucks, available at the metro museum souvenir shop at Patel Chowk station and learn a few manners while playing since the rules of these games are designed so.

The McLeod Diaries - Shiva Cafe - Bhagsu - Dharamkot

 A much awaited trip for three girlfriends.

July 2008.

I have no idea how it happened. All of a sudden, in a moment of utter boredom, I heard myself utter "Let's go to McL eodganj". Priyanka was game for it, but it was a bit difficult convincing Reby. But after a week of planning, booking, arguing and bickering, we finally caught the train from Delhi to Path ankot. It was an overnight journey and three of us had a cabin to ourselves. We spent the night chatting, munching, laughing, and discreetly sipping white wine. After 3-4 hours of sleep, we woke up and got off at Pathankot station.

Ah, Saturday morning. We took a cab from Pathankot to McLeodganj. The cab journey took only 2 hours and I was amazed to see marijuana shrubs all around us. The scenery was beautiful and the cab driver told us about the landslide that recently happened in Himachal. As we entered McLeodganj, a typical Himachal traffic jam welcomed us. We got off the cab and after an hour of search, checked into Surya McLeod. We chose Surya because it was slightly far from the crowded hub. We didn’t have to worry about transportation as McLeodganj is a very small place and everything is just 5 minutes walk away.

After nice hot showers, and a big lunch, the three of us ventured out with our backpacks. We walked to a small village above McLeodganj called Dharamkot. It was just twenty minutes walk away but walking on the hills can be quite an exercise. The streets of Dharamkot reminded me of Goa. Narrow, with colorful open restaurants, and Israeli hippies walking around. It was on that very street, me and Priyanka spotted a sign that we had been looking for – “spike’s tattooing studio”. We had been eagerly waiting for this moment. We entered the studio, priyanka chose her tattoo design, and when my turn came, I chickened out. It just didn’t feel right. Maybe it wasn’t the right moment…

There’s something about the hills that makes you super hungry and God, McLeodganj is full of awesome restaurants and cafes with colorful walls and German / Israeli / Italian menu. We ordered pancakes, which were actually crepes, but amazing nonetheless.

We were too full to walk back to McLeodganj so we took an auto rickshaw back. We shopped on our way back to the Hotel. Where we drank some and changed for dinner. We wanted to dine at a rooftop restaurant but unfortunately all of them were overstuffed, so we couldn’t find a table, except at Asian Plaza where we had our worst meal of the trip. We ate dinner again back at our hotel cause a) it was complimentary, b) we were still hungry!

Next morning, we woke u p early and walked to bhaksunath temple. We wanted to go to this place that we had heard ab out “Shiva Café”. A stoner’s delight. All we knew was that there was a narrow path near bhaksunath waterfall that led to Shiva café. After reaching the waterfall, it took us good 10-15 minutes to figure out the trail to Shiva café. It looked very narrow and we weren’t sure if it was the right way or not. I led the way, thinking that I was taking the biggest risk of my life, stepping on the slippery rocks on a very narrow trail, next to a very small sign that said “Shiva café up ahead”. One wrong step would have made me fall crashing down to the valley. At that moment, I could feel fear pump up the adrenaline rush. I felt fear because there were no professionals helping us unlike in the case of para sailing or bungee jumping, still I felt a mad rush of excitement as I had never done anything so scary without anyone’s help. After 20 minutes, we were finally there.

There it was, up on the hill, surrounded by colorful hand painted rocks and flowers – the Shiva café. Surprisingly, the only way to reach it was the one we took, so reaching that place on a car is out of question. We woke up the caretaker and asked him to fix us some breakfast, while we drank in the natural beauty that surrounded us. Three pancakes and a few doobies later, we decided it was time to head back.

The walk down from Shiva café was surprisingly very easy. We saw goats, horses and a psychedelic bug. I fell in love with the latter. If you don’t believe how a bug could be psychedelic, check out the pictures.

We got back to bhaksunath and ate lunch at the German Bakery; apparently, Himachal is full of these German Bakeries. We had humus with pita bread, potato wedges, lasagna and a pancake (but of course).

Back at the hotel room, we took long hot showers and hit dharamkot again as we wanted to check out this place we saw yesterday “Trek and dine” but were too full to try food there. We sat there and chilled for hours. Smoked, ate, read, chatted and what not.

On returning to McLeodganj, we hit the main street and shopped our hearts out. Sigh, it was our last day there. Me and Reby checked out the monastery where we met two girls from Tibet, who had WALKED all the way to McLeodganj from Tibet. It took them one full month to do so and it’s not an unusual thing for them to do we spent ages talking to them, and realized how those girls were so much like us, when in fact they appeared to be so different. They told us about their life in Tibet. We didn’t have to tell them about life in Delhi as they already knew so much! It made me realize how Indian culture is so exposed to the Asian countries, just like how American culture is exposed to the entire world.

Back at the hotel, out dinner buffet was waiting for us. And we ate again. Our fourth lavish meal of the day. No one looking at us can believe we can eat so much

Next morning, we caught a cab to Chakki Bank (its closer to McLeodganj than Pathankot) and took the train back to Delhi. There’s something about the journey back home after a fun trip. It always seems endless and super annoying. Whatever, it was one of the best trips, because it was with my girlfriends.

S. Kwatra

The Pics

Sometimes there are things that happen to other people which touch the lives of even those who don’t personally know them. Imagine a girl, petite, pretty, about to be fourteen, excitedly making plans for her fourteenth birthday party, brutally murdered in her bedroom. Aarushi Talwar. Sigh..

The police claim that she was murdered by her dad Rajesh Talwar, who was having an extra marital affair with a family friend, also his colleague, Anita Durani. According to the police, the girl knew about the affair and so did their domestic helper – Hemraj, so the father killed both.

I’m not saying that the police are right or wrong, but just imagine, if they are wrong what chaos they’ve caused. First, think of what the father must be going through losing his only daughter and being arrested for her murder, being accused for seeing his colleague which people claim was so close to the Talwar family that they were almost like an extended family. Second, think of her mother, Nupur Talwar, whose happy normal family is shattered and been taken away from her, first her only daughter and then her husband. Third, think of Hemraj’s family, what they must be going through, with media reporting that he was having an illicit relationship with the daughter. Fourth, think about the Durani family, which is just like Talwars extended family. Both the couples are dentists and have opened a clinic together. Both have daughters of almost the same age.

Think about Anita Durani, who’s been accused of having an affair with Aarushi’s dad, being accused as being the “cause” for murder. The proof? Call records. Police found numerous long calls between Rajesh Talwar’s and Anita Durani’s mobile numbers. But do you think it proves that the two were having an affair? Don’t you think there's a slightest possibility that Rajesh’s wife would sometimes use his phone to make those phone calls? In fact there are numerous possibilities.

Would a father actually kill his own daughter to hide his extra marital affair? Could a doctor actually be stupid enough to think that forensic experts won’t uncover it? I wonder.

Aarushi, May you find justice soon. Amen