Shoppers Stop

I went to Shoppers’ Stop in Saket, MGF Mall today in search of something very specific. It is shiny and sleek and full of bright lights, great displays, no shoppers and loads of staff.


I found what I was looking for.Two items.


The girl wrote their codes on a handwritten receipt and asked me to go to the till.


Off I went.


At the till a young man looked at the receipt and tried to put the information into the till.


He was unable to do so. So he went to her and picked up the goods and tried to scan them into the till. The scanning did not work so he then tried to input the coding of the products into the till. This did not work either so he went and asked her for two other products and then finally inputed the information of the other products into the till.


Now why could I have not gone to the till and paid directly you just have to ask???


A bill finally.


I paid instantly and waited a little more.


A till receipt was issued and I went with that one and the handwritten one to the girl who looked at both, kept one and gave me the products.


I attempted to walk out but at the door I was stopped.


A security guard had to check the receipt in the bag against the products, which he failed to do and then stamp the receipt one final time. What should have taken 5 minutes took 25.


SHOPPERS STOP – you bet – Oh my,what an irony in the name!!

Memorable Moments - Goa part 3

Walking along miles and miles of empty beach in Varca and seeing this.




Eating Greek on the Goan coast
Going to a Greek restaurant perched on the Hilltop in Vagator called “Thalassa” and talking to the owner Mariaketti from Corfu who all those years ago travelled to India and has never looked back.


Seeing Indian women enjoying the water, not just the men for a change.

Eating the best Kebabs at Dhum Byriani

The boys enjoying the Sunburn Festival on Candolim beach


Going to Anjuna Flea market on Wednesday afternoon. Huge, never ending and so so mad. Well worth a visit and I defy anyone to go in the there and come out not having spent a rupee.

Visiting the Ocean of Milk waterfalls near the Karnataka border on the 31st of December.


Crossing the river beds in our beach buggy

Becoming bronzed from all the iron ore dust carried by lorries to and from the mine along the way and husband's mad Indian drive to get past them.

Goa Part 2 The Beaches

Imagine one long stretch of beach punctuated by coves and rocky outposts and fishing villages. This is Goa.

We stayed in Anjuna which is quite north and we explored the beaches of Vagator and Aswem,Morjim and Chapora.

Anjuna and Vagator beaches were within walking distance from our hotel and they were pleasant with some lovely beach huts, plenty of places for refreshments and great meeting places. It is so easy to pick up a conversation with the person lounging next to you about what brought them to this place and where they hailed from.

Aswem was so IN- it has the beautiful La Plage restaurant at its entrance run by the lovely Francine and her husband serving Pomfret with almonds and tuna with wasabi mash, beef fillet and gratin dauphinoise. For us this was like manna from heaven. The beach there is sandy and long and full of lovely beach shacks and loungers. We enjoyed spending lazy days there reading, playing football and beach volleyball and then eating well and wowing another spectacular sunset.

Candolim, Calangute and Baga are further south and are more the charter belt territory. I have to confess we stayed away from them though the boys frequented the clubs there at night and of course the buzziest festival SUNBURN was held on Candolim beach in the last days of 2009 hosted by apparently the worlds best DJ . The stretch of road there is full of souvenir shops and restaurants catering to the tourists on a 24 hr basis. No pavements, as such and the road is always incredibly busy so walking there was not particularly pleasant though enough people did it.

When we drove further south we visited Fort Aguada where a big Taj Fort Aguada complex exists (reputed to be very pricey) and where the beach seemed limited. More rocky than sandy. However there were a lot of water sports on offer here. The Fort sits on top of a rocky headland and was built in the 16th Century to offer fresh water supplies to the passing ships. There is not a lot to see in the fort but the stunning views on both sides of the headland.

Driving further south, along reasonably good roads, we came across Varca beach. This is somewhere I wanted to visit and I was not disappointed. We got to the beach and on both sides stretched miles and miles of beautiful and empty beach. A big contrast to the more crowded and densely packed North. We has some long walks and watched the purple reef heron , the kentish plovers and the ringed plovers all happily in greater numbers than the tourists.We marveled the beautiful conch shells washed on to the beach, the little girl who did tight rope walking in front of us and the sheer beauty of the sand patterns as the tide pulls away.

There were few tourists and this part of Goa had a completely different feel to it. We loved it. Unfortunately we did not get to Palolem which is reputed to a paradise beach but we thought it would be nice to leave something for next time.

Delhi in January

Pea Soup- enough said

Goa Part 1

I have wanted to come up with the complete description of what Goa meant to me and I would say two words sum it up “Letting Go” but far better captured by this picture of a dog on the lawn of the Cathedral of St Catherine in Old Goa.

The weather was wonderfully warm and inviting though we did have some overcast days. The beaches are plentiful and varied, more on that later, and the place is such a wonderful bazaar of the bizarre. Reconstituted hippies, middle aged women looking for adventure, hip young things with petrified faces as they negotiate the narrow pot holed lanes on their scooters and motorbikes, stoned and drugged dreadlocked dudes doing their thing on and off the beach and plenty of young Indian men just wanting to be part of the action.

The state is small by Indian standards, but size was never important as we all know. It’s what you do with it. Goans do a lot.

Firstly the Xmas spirit so hugely absent in Delhi was alive and well in this state where Christians love their nativity displays and their fairy lights. Churches everywhere, big imposing ones like the ones in old Goa, the Basilica of Bom Jesus, which is a World Heritage Monument  where St Francis Xavier is kept in an ornate coffin. He is responsible for converting a large part of the population here in the 16th century, and then smaller churches all built in the Portuguese style bedecked with Xmas lights.

The state is one long strip of beautiful coastal beaches and villages with coconut trees and lush vegetation. Everywhere the distinctive architectural style of the porched house with the chairs built in to the house entrance. The ornate verandas and beautiful windows and shutters are individually crafted. A lot lie derelict and uncared for but are ripe for masterful makeovers which will attract the tourists from all over the world. Our hotel, Casa Anjuna,  was one such house beautifully laid out in gardens with rooms which were decorated with old pieces of furniture and four poster beds.

The sweetest moment

I bought a pair of flip flops from a lovely old man in Goa who sat surrounded by hundreds of pairs. That night I wore them and on my way to the beach I stopped to show him. We both smiled but what made me just melt away was there in the middle of the wooden floor of the beach hut was an angelic baby, his grandchild, barely a few months old wearing a bobble cap and covered neatly with a grubby but lovingly arranged cloth.

The baby was lying on its back with its arms by its head and its little fingers all relaxed.

It was the vision of loveliness, of innocence and abandon, a baby Jesus.

On top of it, protecting it from all sides, a netted food cover.Priceless.

A New Year

To all my friends and family, my readers and my fellow bloggers the very best for the New Year. It is the year of the Tiger according to the Chinese calender and I cant help feeling this is a very positive omen given the fact that we are in India and we have spotted our first tiger. Such magnificent beings and rightly I think I should dedicate this posting to the Tiger we saw at Panna in Madhya Pradesh.

 More about the place in another posting but here she is in her full glory.On New Year's Day, people in certain countries gather on beaches and run into the water to celebrate. (We shall be doing exactly that in Goa.) These events are sometimes known as polar bear plunges, but we are hoping ours will not be polar bear temperatures !

In Britain an extra round of football fixtures is played (unless New Year's Day falls on a Thursday, Friday or Sunday).

n Pasadena, California, United States, the Tournament of Roses is held, with revellers viewing the parade from the streets and watching on television, followed by the Rose Bowl college football game.If you are in Vienna you should go to the New Year Concert

Hindus celebrate the new year by paying respects to their parents and other elders and seek their blessings. They also exchange tokens of Good Wishes for a healthy and prosperous year ahead.

The New Year's Day Parade is held in London. Performers include acts from each of the city's boroughs, as well as entertainment from around the world.

In Pennsylvania and Ohio, mostly in or near Pennsylvania "Dutch" (Deitch/German) areas, it is common to celebrate New Year's Day with a meal of pork, sauerkraut, and mashed potatoes. The practice comes from a Pennsylvania "Dutch" tradition that dictates these foods will bring good luck in the new year.That is one tradition I full heartedly adopt. How do you celebrate the arrival of your New Year ?