Sole Travel Day 2

June 27, 2010

Delhi is all about the belly. As if yesterday's gastric, gastronomic delights were not enough, we headed to a South Indian brunch spot in Gurgaon. Is called Nayvedhyam. You are greeted by waiters in a lungi and chilled buttermilk. I ordered an upma, rasam vadai and coconut water. The upma was delish. Comes with huge aladdin ka chirag type of samabar containers and a green and red chutney. The rasam vadai was the biggest disappointment ever. The rasam was cold and the vadais coarse and non-crispy.

A quick dash to a nearby mall for last-minute shopping by Sachin and a quicker and madder dash to the airport to see my lad off. His travel was ending as mine was beginning. I don't get to see him for a month now.

Sri and I cantered around CP and Palika Bazar, ate a McChicken meal, took a Metro to Palika Place where my bus to Dharmashala set off from. Sri made sure I was safely deposited in the travel agent's office and after umpteen " Take care..travel safe..dont talk to strangers..call as soon as the bus starts..call as soon as you reach..Is the Bus A/c, check that..Is it a Volvo..Do you have leg space..." , he was off. God, i love old friends. They sort of morph into brother/father/sister/mother figures, that is very cocoonish and warm and fuzzy.

As I sat at the travel agent's office, the owner took it upon himself to entertain me. I was his "Behen" whose honour, dignity and safe passage was now in his able hands.Ladies only seat for me...no, no, no, that was not good enough..he would give his Madrasi (sic) sister an entire row to relax in. The bus was running at half-capacity, it seems. He pointed out a large photo of "parama pujaniya shri shri chandrashekharji" (of ex-Prime Minister fame)and claimed to be his erst-while right hand man. He further claimed that as the ex-PM writhed in pain at his final visit to the hospital, our travel boy was the one who took him to the loo, cleaned after him, changed his underclothes and the rest. As his descriptions went in-depth and graphic, my Mac Meal threatened to pitch forward in a messy projectile.

Finally, it was time for me to get onto the bus and embark on my Sole/Soul travel. The bus was a tiny school-excursion kind of contraption, the seats were velvet covered, leg space was non-existent. But the positives: I was in high spirits, I had an entire row to myself, an MP3 player full of music and a head-full of plans. Bon voyage, I say!!