Tuesday's dinner: Egg bhurji (scramble) with mattar (peas).
An American girl in Bombay -- and Delhi, and Calcutta, and Shimla, and a few more towns -- explores her husband's Indian roots.
Feb 14, 2013
Food: A light dinner at home
Food: Fish curry at home
Pardon the flurry of these posts -- much catch up!
Here: Fish curry at home Monday in Bombay. Pomfret in a tomato-coconut milk sauce.
Food: Wedding snacks
Paneer tikka: Just couldn't resist. (From the wedding reception on Monday.)
Food: Breakfast in Chandigarh
Quite a spread, huh? The usual cereal and fruit, plus some mattar kachori made by Vinita-didi.
Food: Chocolate
Mrs. Pradhan, the same woman who made the delicious dessert cups, also made lots of other chocolates for us, including these little fish. (Thank you!) I ate this one on Monday.
Food: Donut Day
A belated donut for Fastnacht Day, had yesterday at Bombay domestic airport.
Feb 13, 2013
En route to Chandigarh -- and beyond
(posting much later in the day after writing)
After a slight hiccup of yesterday spent mostly in bed with a stomach bug (it was bound to happen at some point), we're now on a plane headed to Chandigarh. There, we'll visit with Bua, Pops' oldest living sibling, and her daughter, Vinita-didi, before traveling on to first Dehradun and then Shimla.
From there, Ma and Pops will head back to Bombay and I'll head on to Bangalore to see my brother- and sister-in-law -- my devarji and devrani. Bangalore will be my jumping-off point for trips to Mysore, Kochi, Munnar and Madurai (with Kate D.). Once I've conquered the south, I'm hoping to head east to Calcutta and north again to Delhi, though those trips have yet to be sorted out.
Chief accomplishment of the week so far: Getting my new backpack all packed up. Looking forward to seeing how everything faired when we arrive in C'garh!
Feb 9, 2013
A day in London
While booking my trip to India, I had the good fortune of finding a flight to Bombay that included a 10-hour layover in London. I like to break up the 20+ hours of traveling to India when possible, and this particular itinerary allowed me to have two overnight flights bookending a lovely day in the sunshine.
On suggestion of my friend Anna, whom I planned to meet later in the day, I started my day trip off in central London from the Westminster Tube station. It was a perfect place to start, as Big Ben greeted me as soon as I could see the outside world.
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| Big Ben looms large through the canopy at Westminster station. |
I stayed at Westminster long enough to hear Big Ben chime 1:30 p.m. and then headed on, as I had only about 90 minutes left to sightsee. I headed north, first along the Thames for a block, stopping to get a solid snap of the London Eye.
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| The London Eye -- quite the Ferris wheel! |
At Picadilly, I judged that I was in desperate need of some sustenance -- so I hailed a cab toward Covent Garden, in search of a noted chippy. (You can't head to London and miss a chance to have real fish and chips, can you? Thanks for the suggestion, Carl!) You can see the results here. Overall: Highly impressed.
Finally, refueled and in need of some caffeine, I headed back toward Trafalgar Square for tea. After an amusing stop at the post office (they have a take-a-number system, like a deli -- how efficient!), I finally found my long-lost friend, Anna, outside the National Portrait Gallery. We settled in upstairs for the aforementioned afternoon tea (see here), catching up about traveling, studying, writing and the old gang for nearly three hours. Afterward, Anna walked me through Leicester Square and dropped a very jet-lagged version of me at the Tube to head back to Heathrow. I had just enough sense left to pick up some postcards from the shop inside the station.
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| Postcards, written on my Tube journey back to Heathrow. |
For now, off to lunch in Bombay at Royal Willingdon Sports Club, a great reminder of the British presence and influence here in India. For full photos of London, see here.


