Dilli O Dilli

 Went to Delhi and a conference at IMT Ghaziabad, where I found old colleagues. Two of them, Rashmi and Jayanthi were in a mood to smile, so here they are (above). Below, a special session on Retailing (a course I teach to doctoral students at Indore).

 The address below is my workplace in Connaught Place, that I adorned (!) between 1984 and 1985.-now you know how ancient I am :)  It used to be an Ad agency of the Living Media/Thomson Press group. My work life began here.

 An interesting way to adorn the outer wall of a restaurant in C.P. (below)

 And my visit to a city is never complete without a book store being included..this one has a tea room called Cha bar attached! The layout of the books is really tasteful too.

If I Were the Delhi CM

If I were the Delhi Chief Minister, I would do the following (since there's no chance in hell of this happening, I am free to make promises I can''t keep)-

Move all VIPs to Hissar, Haryana where they can't bother the average Dilliwala/wali. Obama can visit them in Hissar on his next trip.

Move all malls to Connaught Place. So you don't have to go too far. All movie halls will also be in CP, or most, if you do that.

Build one IIC in every locality in Delhi, and make membership available at a modest fee.

Build a couple of badminton and tennis courts in each locality, and move all the gyms to Gurgaon.

Ban cars and make the metro move everywhere, with e-ricks to ferry people to and from the metro stations. Also solves the lal batti problem plaguing VIP cars.

Make 4 more Golf courses in Delhi by moving out some old factories.

Give free crash courses in politeness to the macho guys.

Ban winters.

Move NOIDA to Agra and Ghaziabad to Lucknow. Half the traffic will vanish.

Nizam's Kathi Kabab - Eating Pleasure

This is a place that interested me coz I was raised in the Nizamian territories (though in a different socio-economic class compared to the Nizams). I was introduced to this place in Connaught Place by an erstwhile colleague, Sourav, who was a foodie. Mutton preparations are hard to find anywhere, particularly if you want quality, which for me includes their being well-cooked, in addition to taste.

I made a foray into CP yesterday, and decided to taste some mutton koftas- keema balls in a gravy- at Nizam's. While in this place, I noticed many good things about it. Its decor is nice, and different. It uses space (not much of it there) efficiently. Its signs are well-designed, and references from eaters or raters adorn many walls. All well-deserved. Apart from the excess oil, it turns out perfect dishes, in my view.

Mahatma's famous quote about a customer being the VIP is also displayed. (Self) Service is decent, with a wait time of about 15-20 mins., as promised. Will surely go back often.

Eating Out in Nizami Style

Very few eateries get their mutton right. Usually it is under-cooked, or stale, hard or the meat is overshadowed by the bone. But I must say that Nizam's Kathi Kabab in CP, Delhi,is a place that gets it right on every count. Delicious stuff, the mutton curry, just the right amount of flavour, taste, melt-in-the mouth consistency, and so on. The only minus would be the quantum of oil, but then, all the pluses count for more. This place is behind Plaza cinema on one side. It was not crowded today, unlike earlier times. So we actually got a table (probability of that is pretty close to zero normally).

The keema balls were delicately flavored, well-done and again, melting in your mouth variety. When done right, few things can be compared to this, my favorite concoction. Pathhar ka gosht from Hyderabad maybe, or a Gilawati kabab from Lucknow. Not much else! Subhanallah. Connaught Place seems to have a bombed out look on account of endless digging up though, making the approach to this place a bit tough.