Year: 2009

  • Hauz Khas

    This is a little corner of South Delhi well worth exploring. It is tucked away and mercifully preserved. Its history is what appeals to me. You wander through forested parts as it was perhaps in those days and you come across a Moghul tomb, resplendent with its dome and beautiful arched doorways. Inside lies the…

  • The preferred way to travel India style

    This blog is dedicated to all my animal mad friends, Ronnie, Ginny, Marie-Claude,Helen Lacy, Laurel, Debbie, Jennifer G, Tina, Christine, Auntie Anna, Ninimou and Aspa who would get a kick about what I saw on the streets of Delhi today. We were travelling into Delhi and saw them and then completely by chance and several hours later we…

  • Oh God is my Hindi that bad ?

    Was at a reception last week and had just finished dinner so I turned to one of the waiters, there were a few of them on hand, and said : “Can I have a glass of water please” He looked blank so I repeated it a bit more slowly this time. “Can… I…. have…. a…

  • Truly a Mezze

    Driving into Delhi today and the car slowed up by some traffic lights.On the left some shops, a high pavement as you often find here and an alleyway.Coming down the alleyway a middle aged woman in a sari holding a wire framed box.She got to the pavement and I could see something was stuck inside the box…

  • Guru Nanak's 541 st Birthday today

    In the summer I wrote a piece on the Golden Temple and the way Sikhs flock to this place of pilgrimage. Their Guru is Guru Nanak and today is his Birthday. The word Nanak means “Fire”  and he brought fire/ light to his followers. He was totally non secterian and when asked about his caste…

  • A small step for MM and all that jazz

    While not earth shattering it was an important milestone. Yesterday for the first time I drove on the Delhi roads. Yes, I acknowledge it was Sunday and the streets were quiet but we negotiated the Mandy Road, the bicycles and the carts, the trucks and the people and reached our destination without any serious mishaps.…

  • Half Marathon in Delhi today

    Sometime ago I mentioned that Indians and Greeks are not the keenest on sports but this seems to be rapidly changing. The Greeks brought the Marathon to the world and the good people of Delhi nearly 8,000 of them are going to be out on the streets today to run the half marathon which is…

  • Indira Ghandi

    Today is the 25th Anniversary of the day she was assassinated and the papers are full of tributes to her.Two thoughts come to mind: I remember her assassination, like JFK’s and Diana’s death but am I really that old? Where were you ? Her words which are such a chilling reminder of what it is…

  • Adopt a Monument

    I came across this interesting news item the other day. The Archaeological Survey of India (ASI) has launched a project which allows a school or college to adopt a monument in their neighbourhood. The kids are given an orientation day and then they can participate in cleaning up monuments that have been defaced or have…

  • Sunday morning bird walk on the outskirts of Gurgaon

    Picture this, mist in the fields, a slight chill in the air, in the distance the skyline of Gurgaon’s high rises, the new satellite town that has grown exponentially in the last ten years. We are standing next to a sewage water channel. Promise at this point you will read on.The sewage we are told, leaves the city and…