From April until June this year I did my summer internship in the events department at exchange4media. I was quite unhappy to be working in Delhi in the hot summer so I was already off to a bad start. Now that I think back though, it was a trip marked by some very memorable moments.
My now ex-roommate Manvi, has an apartment in Vaishali, Ghaziabad which meant we had to travel a long way to work everyday. Soon Manvi and I fell into a nice routine. After a few weeks we admitted to each other that our favorite times of day were the morning hours and the evenings after work. Why? We would wake up everyday and have a cup of my chai, and enjoy some good conversation about random things, and breakfast. Then came the car ride - since Manvi did all the driving, it was always an adventure! We would wave out to cops on the side of the road, get miserably lost and sing the worst Hindi songs with the radio.
On the first night in Delhi, we drove to India Gate at midnight with her friend Jam. We walked around there eating ice cream - apparently something everyone who goes to Delhi has to do! We also did a few trips to North Campus to have chaat and pav bhaji: loaded with butter and sinfully tasty!
Food - that's one of the major occupations in Delhi - for every budget, cuisine and ambience. Moving away from street food and into Khan Market's Big Chill Cafe. It is almost impossible to get a table there without at least a 15 minute wair, which gives you just enough time to enjoy a quick roll at Khan Chacha's. Then it's time to go crazy with the huge menu and its wide range of salads, pasta and cake at Big Chill. Oh their cake! - Blueberry Cheesecake, Tiramisu and the Squidgy Chocolate were some that I tried. Heaven!
Toward the end of our trip we decided to have a house party for our friends. I cooked chicken and paneer for everyone and the best compliment to me was that it was all polished off before my eyes! That was a fun evening with a random bunch of our friends, and very memorable too!
One night, can't remember the exact time, but Pato and Nanda came over with Nanda's cousin who we call Golu! The highlight of this night was that these guys had a present for Ashiana - glasses! They gave us 6 glasses as a home present, which was hilarious. Of course we put them to GREAT use and by the end of our internship, I think we even ended up breaking a couple of them!
During this internship I also did the usual speed shopping at Janpath, Lajpatnagar and Sarojini Nagar markets. Cheap and funky! It's amazing how little one can pay to get so much at these markets! I also met up with an old friend, Carylann, who now works there. It was really good to see her after so many years (almost 5 I think) and catch up about everything that's happened in between. She stays in a beautiful house that belongs to some family friends - it has some quaint furniture, Lazy Boys (!!!), and BOOKS! I don't think I have seen so many books anywhere else except my university library!
Small, random incidents that made it possible to get through the internship for me - the internship was not all bad, but it was not what I had intended to do, which was what made me most unhappy. But I made some really good friends there - Priyankshi, Gunjan, Pinkee and I were the events team and the two events I was a part of really taught me a lot, and reinforced my belief that events are REALLY not for me!
At the end of it all, I think what helped most in Delhi was having Manvi around. She really is the easiest (and sometimes toughest) person to live with - very mature in a lot of ways, full of surprises and a lot of fun to have around. Of course, Ashiana (our home in Delhi) which rapidly grew to be our escape mechanism, really helped, as did the reruns of How I Met Your Mother!
PS: Manvi, Pato, Nanda, Golu and I have pulled off some crazy scams during this trip too, but due to the public nature of this blog, I shall refrain! (Believe me they were fun though!)