Thursday, April 8, 2010

Another strange day in India



Well what a funny old 24 hours it has been. Again…..
Here's pic of go-to-man Harry (in the turban) Raj, who invited me to stay then went to Japan, me, Robin and Manish.
First off was getting a taxi organised to drop and wait for me at the Wednesday karaoke place (Harry’s in Ansel Plaza – go there if you get a chance), where unfortunately I drank enough Old Monk rum to sink a ship and for reasons unknown (but I think we can all guess) was goaded (thanks Manish) into singing. Well, it would be better described as sharing my unique vocal interpretation of popular songs. More than once. Different songs. Oh dear. All your favourites – well they were before I had a go at them…..you will be pleased that I didn’t attempt, Whitney, Celine, Britney or Shirley Bassey. Or Metallica! The will is weak sometimes. But it made me laugh.
Anyway, enough of that!
Today after minimal sleep my ‘go-to-man’ Harry (not connected to karaoke Harry) decided that we should go on an outing. Because it is only about 9000 degrees outside. And I drank a lot of rum, as you may recall. So off we went to the Parliament Museum, which I have to admit had a very interesting multimedia presentation spread over 2 floors, about democracy in India, right from emperor Ashoka way back in, well a long time ago – look it up yourself! There was a great bit where you stood in a room and they projected Gandhi on his peace march walking along, and you could walk along too. I really enjoyed the bit where you got to sit in a mock up of parliament next to models of parliamentarians who were there when Nehru made his speech “Tryst with Destiny’ on the night India became independent. I then got to meet a friend of Harry’s who is in charge of the parliament library, who is also a keen mountaineer, trekker and photographer.
After that it was DEFINITELY lunchtime, so Harry recommended a restaurant in Pandara Rd, called Gulati. Always trust a Sikh on restaurant recommendations! It’s a fairly typical Punjabi/North Indian restaurant – as soon as I walked in I knew the food would be good. And it was – buffet with all sorts of stuff, the best Mulligatawny soup I’ve had for ages, and a dessert that I had forgotten about over the years – Fruit Cream, I think it is an Indian invention with evaporated milk or something and tinned fruit, BUT also with fresh green grapes this time. YUM. And pink icecream – and Gulab Jamun. That's it in the 2nd photo. I feel ill.
But the fun wasn’t over yet! We went to the Railway museum where we had a ride on the toy train, laughing all the way. I am such a dag I took a thrilling 4min 16 second video of it for Robin – he really loves old trains but didn’t get time to go. All you can hear is Harry laughing his head off in the background. Then we played in the museum for a while (Harry had lots of fun pressing buttons to make trains go toot toot), and at the gift shop I went wild and spent Rs 110 (about $2.50 Aussie)on presents. Gee I had better slow down.
And in Shoaib/Sania news - yesterday he signed divorce papers for the woman he never met and never married, because (and I take this from the papers I DIDN'T MAKE IT UP) the Ayesha person handed over to police her wedding night clothes from 2002 which still has Shoaib's semen stains on them. YUCKO. I think she needs a better washing machine.
And the head of the anti corruption force here in Delhi was arrested after taking a Rs 1 Crore bribe. Which is a fair whack of money in any language.

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