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| Walking with my niece. Gurgaon, November 2021. |
Well here we are cooped in again. Another Covid 19 variant has come into our lives. Omicron, before you get worried. It has been around for a couple of weeks now. Some are saying the curve is flattening in Mumbai.
For people of my generation, this Covid affair seems like the Ambassador cars with their Mark I, II, etc etc. For a younger generation, and us, a bit like the iPhone which is at 13 at the last count.
We had just begun picking up the pieces of our lives. Planning work. Interesting stuff. And puff. It is back to ‘sit home and study, exams are coming up’ time, which us Bengali kids grew up to. I know this can sound flippant when there have been so many who have suffered or lost dear ones, lost jobs…as of today, Delhi restaurants have gone into a no dining in mode. Just when they must have began making plans for the future, bruised and battered as they were. In Mumbai, I think a night curfew is back making eateries shut early. So many home chefs, cloud kitchens have suspended operations with owners or staff getting infected… but then sometimes, humour is all we have. When people ask me how we are, my answer is ‘so far so good.’
I have come across a few collegians and school kids socially recently and asked them whether they miss going to school or college. No, they replied with a smile.
I am in my mid-late 40s and am allowed to be comfortable cocooned at home with my wife, two cats, iPhone, Macbook and TVs to project OTTs, but isn’t school and college all about having the best time of your life? There is so much that happens outside of textbooks here that prepares us for life later. And yet we have a generation of kids who are happy to be at home? Something’s wrong with this, but then they say humans adapt. We are the generation which had aerated drinks and chocolates (in regulated amounts due to affordability) as kids and grew up sort of OK. Something that will shock today’s new parents. I guess when the time comes to step out of the ‘cave’, as a former market research colleague put it recently, today’s kids will fare all right too.
At a personal level what makes it worse for us is that there are building repairs going on. It is the turn of the apartments of our side of the building to have its windows covered with plastic. All three sides it seems! Even though we had been told it would be one at a turn. I feel sad for our poor cats. Especially Baby Loaf, who loves basking in the sun by my desk when I write. Now he is sitting quietly on the beside me. Winter is when he could do with some sun. Nimki, who is sitting behind me as I edit this piece (9pm), was sleeping on my shorts in the cupboard looking for warmth this afternoon.
We have adjusted in some ways. There was a ‘cold wave’ a couple of days back in Mumbai (13 deg c at night) and it rained once before that. For us at home though, life is like Astro Turf hockey in an indoor stadium with the terroir making no difference. I have taken to stepping out of the apartment to take pictures of my breakfast and lunch at the landing in natural light. Saluting the sun god while working for the gods of Instagram.
As I read the news about airports being covid hotspots, and about Calcutta reducing flights from Delhi and Mumbai, I feel grateful that my mother guilt-tripped me (it’s a Bengali mother thing to do) into adding Delhi to our itinerary, when we travelled last November.
The idea then was to meet my grandmother in Kolkata, who was by herself. My mother had been with my brother, sister in law and niece for most of last year in Gurgaon. We thought we would make a smaller trip to Delhi later to see them. Well we changed our itinerary after my phone call with her and added two nights at Delhi NCR, ie., Gurgaon after 5 nights in Kolkata, before heading back to Baby Loaf and little Nimki who were being cat sat by their didu/ mamma (my mum in law) with their big sister Gia coming up to check on the three every day. In a house which seemed like Paris when the Germans invaded (I was reading ‘All the Light You Cannot See’ set during WW II then) with internal repairs going on in our hall and bedroom while K and I were first in an exquisite suite at the ITC Royal Bengal in Kolkata and then in a lovely room at the Trident Gurgaon which faced the garden and made one feel as if one was anywhere but Gurgaon.
The latter turned out to be a great pick of a hotel, thanks to Mallika Gowda who worked there once (‘stay there and you will fall in love with Kainaz again,’ she said). Both of us loved the sense of space and tranquility on offer and the food, be it the chhole bhature or eggs benedict at the breakfast buffet at the Cilantro, the lamb burger and avo toast we had called in through room service, the cappuccino, and the north Indian dinner that we had at their specialty restaurant, Saffron, were all of pretty quality. Classics done right. The service was warm and yet unobtrusive. Definitely a hotel we would like to go back to, said K again and again through the trip, and that made me happy.
While I did give you a detailed account of our trip to Kolkata here, on the blog I had not written on our Gurgaon trip. So here goes.
Well Gurgaon is always about family. It is has been like my second home ever since my younger brother and sister in law set up base there and now it is my niece’s hometown too. Which is why we do not go out much in Gurgaon, specially when on short trips like this and of course with the fear of the pandemic around. Our meals were at their house (my sister in law is a great cook), lunch was hosted by them at one of the many DLF clubs in Gurgaon (we landed at the wrong one first) ,where we had some pretty good Chinese fare of chilli chicken and fried a la Gurgaon, and one family dinner was at the Trident’s Saffron.
Abhilasha Jain, of Marwadi Khana, wanted to send some food for us so I suggested she give us some dal bati chudma to eat on the flight. My advice? Never do this with a Marwari. Their generous hearts do not get the concept of ‘something small.’ She sent about 6 to 7 kilos of delicious food and sweets which we eventually opened once we reached Mumbai and ate. The food showed why she is such a class act and was worth the excess baggage we paid (not just because of her tbh, but all the gifts we were showered with).
One Gurgaon travel tip I can give you, is that while in Kolkata our struggle with Ola and Uber drivers was to get them to switch on the aircon, in Gurgaon it was to accept our booking. The moment you book, the driver calls up and says, ‘kaha jaana hain’ (where do you want to go) and would come over only if our life goals matched The other tip, is Delhi airport sucks. Specially the Vistara counter. Such pushing and shoving in the time of social distancing! Felt like I was in a Virar local! Of the three airports we experienced in the trip (the other being Kolkata), I am happy to say Mumbai was the most orderly and had the cleanest loos. And we have the most customer friendly Ola and Uber drivers.
Well, this was not much of a travelogue I agree, but the trip was all about understanding what family means to me. Specially when one was meeting them after 19 months (of the pandemic) plus more. It was a delight to meet my niece who is approaching 6 now and is currently in a ‘non-shy’ phase. Which meant we did not miss any time in warm up unlike when she was 1 to 3 years old, with her bonding with K and me right from the start and she even wanted to stay with us in our hotel (till my brother pointed out that would mean taking over rest room duties and we figured out we are better off being the visiting uncle and aunt).
It was nice to see my mum relaxed to during the period we were there. Far more active than she was than we have met her in the past. Cheerful too. Made me realise that our going over was the right decision. And of course the small detail of the Omicron virus which would have made a visit later uncertain. My niece and her have found best friends in each other. Just as my mom in law has in Loaf and Nimki.
My brother and sister in law are always great hosts and which is why Gurgaon feels like home to me as I said earlier and you can squarely blame them for my not being able to tell you much about the restaurants of Gurgaon. Not that I am complaining and I am sure you will understand.
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| Placating Loaf and Nimki after we returned from our longest trip so far after they came into our lives. |
So what did we learn today, as Bourdain would sometimes say at the end of an episode, meet family, friends and those who matter to you as and when you can. You never know when you will get your next chance in this uncertain world. And they might be missing seeing you more than you think!
Take care and stay safe. Mask up. Chin up.
