Thursday 5th - A Delhi Meetup

Today is the day of D's annual visit to the National Rail Museum in Delhi. Despite what it says on the website about opening at 9.30 the ticket office does not open until 10 a.m. There has been much ballyhoo about a refurbishment of the museum that was due to complete in December 2014 but which is far from finished. From the look of the work that has been done so far the aim is to convert the place into a kiddies' playpark. There has been some work on the exhibits and a little work on the signing. The indoor exhibit hall is closed. It is a great shame that a potentially excellent museum is being allowed to die.

That visit cut short, D goes to look for R in Jor Bagh where she has had rather more success in finding the bookshop. The book we seek is not in stock but can be ordered for Saturday delivery which works for us. Next up is a Metro trip into the city to visit the street of State Emporiums. We leave the Metro at Rajiv Chowk, formerly known as Connaught Place, and still called CP by most people. This area is notorious for touts and hustlers and a couple of them get the rough end of D's tongue as he checks the navigation.  Happy that we are in the right place we stride out. We can see where we want to be when one more tout tries to tell us that the Government shops are down a dubious looking alley. R is able to fulfil her shopping list with relative ease and we have bags of time to make our next appointment. 

This appointment is a meetup of IndiaMikers at the Cafe at the Treveni Gallery. We get there a little early and have a light lunch to set us on as we plan to eat out tonight. We know that A, who we usually meet when we are in Delhi, is on the Metro heading in from the suburbs, and we spoke to G a couple of days back. The Triveni Cafe is a very pleasant spot and nobody seems to worry if you spend an hour over a glas of tea. A appears and we catch up on each others news, but G is unwell so is not coming. R goes to look at some of the art, while the boys gossip. When she returns it is deemed time to go for a beer.

We walk up to CP passing several groups of people splattered in colours as Holi gets off to an early start for some. The first place that we try has no draught beer and only small bottles so we move on. The second place advertises happy hour and a terrace so we go for that. The beers are small bottles but at 2 for the price of 1 the deal is not too bad and we settle in at a table on the terrace overlooking CP. Local rules have kept this part of Delhi low rise and we get a great view of the sunset. 

The conversation flows and it is time to order food. After about an hour nothing appears and we ask where our food is. Eventually we give up and ask for the bill. Even this doesn't appear and we have to threaten to walk out before anything happens. Our timing at the metro is perfect and we walk straight onto a train. It is remarkably empty and R gets a seat. Presumably people have gone home early for Holi parties. One of the Bungalow's neighbours is having quite a noisy one but it doesn't keep us awake.