Summertime in the City

The summer is officially here and it came quickly and without warning. Last week, temperatures reached 42C, which is about 108F! Central and Eastern India are experiencing an early heat wave, with temperatures reaching 45C in some places.

The strain on the power supply is also apparent. Yesterday, our power went out several times for just a few minutes in both the morning and evening (and probably during the day too, but we weren't here to experience it). Fortunately, we have an inverter, so we have some power even during outages (but no AC). But the best part of this is that our internet connection works even when the power's out.

While there are many things I hate about the summer (sweating the moment I walk outside, the ants that appear in my kitchen, power outages), I've decided to focus on the things I love about the summer.

Things I love about summer in India:

- Fresh mangoes, mango juice, mango shakes
- Not having to turn the geyser (hot water heater) on because the sun and heat do it for you

So, that's all I've got for now, but hopefully the list will grow as I prepare to deal with the summer heat. Wish me luck.

IPL 2

This weekend kicked off the second season of the Indian Premier League. The only catch to this year's follow up to the first highly successful and lucrative cricket tournament is that it is being held in South Africa, not India.
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Thanks to the ongoing elections in India (more on the elections in the next post), the entire tournament was moved to South Africa. State governments insisted that they could not provide adequate security near election days and the IPL was forced to come up with an alternative schedule. This schedule had random cities without an IPL team hosting many matches and several host teams without a home game, including Delhi.
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Finally, Lalit Modi, founder of the IPL announced that the tournament would not be cancelled, but would be held outside of India, in either South Africa or England. I think it's quite a shame for India. The buzz and excitement around last year's IPL was refreshing and the money generated from sponsorships, ticket sales, and merchandise is something that is not usually seen in India. Although people can watch from here and buy all of the Delhi Daredevil t-shirts they want, it's not the same as the real deal.
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Already I find that I'm less inclined to watch the matches, but maybe that will change with time.

Bombay

First off, yes, I call it Bombay and not Mumbai. I've found that several of my colleagues refer to it as this, and most switch between the two.

A couple of weekends ago we returned to Bombay for the first time in over two years. During what was my first visit, we stayed at the Marriott in Juhu Beach, which I now know to be quite far from the center of the city. As a result, we spent most of our time hanging out at the hotel - enjoying the pool, the incredible breakfast buffet and the (once) popular nightclub there.

This time I vowed to get out and see more of the sights. Fortunately, there aren't that many sights in Bombay so we were also able to spend a lot of time relaxing at the hotel pool and enjoy our view of the sea from our hotel room. Here's the view...

View from our room at the Trident

On the first night, we walked around the Colaba area, including the Taj Palace Hotel and Cafe Leopold, both targets in the Mumbai attacks. We stopped by the Gateway of India, which I found utterly unimpressive and very small. It left me asking, "This is it?" After that brief stop, we had really yummy food at Bademiya, a Bombay institution. It rivals Delhi's Khan Cha Cha, but it's even bigger and takes over the entire alleyway with tables and chairs.

The Taj Palace Hotel

On our second day, we did the required visits to Victoria Terminus, Bombay University and the High Court, wandered through the Oval Maidan to watch a few cricket matches and eventually made our way back to the hotel for some pool time. As weekends in Calcutta (at the Park Hotel) and Bombay (at the Trident), I've decided to give up staying in smaller (and less expensive) hotels in major cities. The comfort, amenities and service are too much to give up! We ended the day with a very nice, relaxing dinner at the restaurant Indigo in Colaba. If we lived in Bombay, we would make regular visits to this place!

Victoria Terminus

Bombay High Court and Bombay University

On our final day in Bombay, we gorged ourselves on the great breakfast buffet and squeezed in a little more time at the pool. Finally, we headed off towards the airport, but stopped at Dhobi Ghat and the Racecourse on our way. Dhobi means washer in Hindi and Dhobi Ghat is the main place where the washers do they thing - cleaning laundry in the rows and rows of bins and then hanging them out to dry. And as luck would have it, in the 2 minutes that we stopped at the Racecourse, a race was just about to begin and we managed to catch the horses running by.

Dhobi Ghat - where most of the city's clothes are washed and ironed

A glimpse into the fashion world

We managed to get passes to one of the fashion shows during Delhi Fashion Week which was held here a few weeks ago. Despite the fact that we arrived incredibly late and missed all but the final walk, it was cool to see.

On a different note, I was shocked at the mall, the DLF Emporio, that played host the Fashion Week. Wikipedia sites it as the most luxurious shopping mall in Asia (with rental touching $20 per square foot) and claims that the mall features gold lining and Italian marble. After the show, we checked out the mall and all of its glamorous stores including: Louis Vuitton, Dior, Fendi, Cartier, Dolce and Gabbana, Versace and even Tiffany.


I just can't figure out who's shopping here?

Oh Calcutta!

We traveled to Calcutta, sometimes referred to as the Paris of the East, last weekend, which was my first visit to the former British capital. It's the third most populous city in India, after Bombay and Delhi. It's known for its heat, dust and poverty, but also for its food, sweets, arts community and architecture. I loved Calcutta and thought it felt much more like a city than Delhi. You could actually walk places or easily hop on the metro (the first in India). Though old, the metro convenient and cheap. People were also out and about throughout the day and night, unlike Delhi where you would think twice about anyone walking down a street late at night. People also seemed much nicer, but I feel this way about most places in India, so I am coming to the realization that it is Delhi that is mean and rude.

Calcutta is the literary and arts capital of India and this can be seen throughout the city. Book stalls line the streets and there's a bookstore or two around every corner. I couldn't resist the urge because books are so much cheaper in India. A book that costs $10 or more at home, is only about $4 there.

The focus of the weekend really seemed to be eating and we took this opportunity on every street corner. Between bites of rasgulla and prawn curry, we managed to squeeze in some sightseeing to Victoria Memorial, Howrah Bridge, the Marble Palace and even a quick dip into the hotel pool.

Calcutta's architectural history is due to the British, as Calcutta was the capital of the British Raj before New Delhi. Unfortunately, much of that history is fading, crumbling and unprotected. Victoria Memorial is one exception though. The entire grounds are very well-maintained and inside we found a surprisingly nice museum and a photo display from the British era. One of my favorite photos showed a street in Calcutta, with wide avenues and crosswalks to our amazement, all of the cars were in their lanes and all of the people were in crosswalks. Funny to think that 100 years ago, things were much more orderly than they are today!

Springtime in Delhi

Well, Springtime is long now. It's now a balmy 85F during the day, but I think it feels much hotter. I don't know what that means for me as it gets even hotter. But we took full advantage of the nice, but brief spring weather.

A few weeks ago, we visited the Mughal Gardens at the President's House. Unfortunately, it's a super restricted area where no phones or camera are allowed, so we wouldn't capture the beauty of film.

And soon after that visit, we went to the Delhi Garden Festival at the Garden of Five Senses to enjoy the weather once again. And like all good festivals and tours, it ends with a shop. So we of course, bought several plants for our terrace. Unfortunately, many of these plants aren't doing too well and I spent several hours today trying to bring them back to life. I hope they make it.