DRIVING THROUGH DELHI: A LUTYENS’ CITY

Bordered by Haryana and Gurugram, situated at the heart of North India, Delhi attracts large number of tourists every year from all around the world. Famous for its architectural marvels and gobbling food, travelers love playing around Delhi. But if you’re thinking that achieving this fun is easy in Delhi, well, you’re mistaken. Driving around Delhi can be tough at times, especially in summer months. With the souring temperatures and rising travelling expenses, you are bound to spend some real brace from your pocket.

So if you’re standing at Red Fort under the scorching Delhi heat and thinking that now you should visit the Humayun’s Tomb, what travelling options can you think of in such cases? Getting puzzled about controlling expenses during traveling in and around Delhi can be a huge task. With the cab prices having risen by about 40%-50% in the last two 2 years, the option of renting a self-drive car in Delhi is here to save your money.

Self–Driving a car can be cheap and exhilarating at the same time. Not only you get the freedom of driving around the streets of Delhi at your own terms but you also get that necessary privacy which you expect in your own car. You can stop by at any point of your choice and enjoy those little things that Delhi offers to the travelers. So if you’re really stressing your mind now into pondering about the best self-drive service in Delhi, don’t worry, we got you covered.

Mychoize self-drive service is at your rescue. Mychoize offers the best deals and customer service in the market today with a wide variety of cars to choose from. The best part about Mychoize is the way the cars are delivered and the condition of the cars. Mychoize delivers the cars right at your doorstep in the same condition you expect your own car to be in. The self-drive service from Mychoize is for every traveler who is tempted about the idea of exploring the city.

Not only the prices that Mychoize offers are reasonable, the whole payment machinery is transparent. Hiring their service is unbelievably easy, i.e., three small steps and you’re good to go. The most stunning thing about Mychoize is the costumer support which is rapid and responsive. For the ones who love to travel and explore the beautiful city of Delhi, Mychoize offers unlimited kilometers so you can enjoy driving around the city without worrying about the distance limit.

Nothing is better than renting a self-drive sedan or a car of your choice and driving through the streets of Delhi at your own will, a true explorer’s delight. So if you’re planning to visit to Delhi or to just about any major city in India any time sooner, I recommend to use MYCHOIZE service. It will not only save your money, but would also give you the privilege of travelling on your own terms. Try it and you would not regret it.           

                    

My Idea of Solo Trips in India

Some things are beyond your control, and so is my urge for solitude. I do like to be with my family and friends, but I cannot ignore the compulsive need to spend time with myself every few months. This may not make me a real solo traveler as other people are around the world, but I love intermittent solitude every once in a while.

Trip to the mountains

If my love for mountains could be put in words, I would do that here, but I cannot. On my last trip to Kasol, I had very high expectations of the place, but that place was too much crowded with people. There were hundreds of folks wandering around, which made me felt even more claustrophobic than Delhi. I so wanted to leave that place and reach a quiet one that I just spent one night there. I left for Tosh the next morning and had a great time in the camp. Then, I went for trekking the next day, which was a really challenging experience. Although the mountains of Kheerganga trek intimidated me at that time, my heart still goes to that place whenever I think about it. The plush green forests were so breathtaking, even though tough to hike, that I wanted to click a picture at every few meters. I have been to several other mountain treks with friends and a few of them alone, which makes me confidently say that I love the hills of North India.

Trip to the beaches

I had heard it somewhere that mountain-lovers do not love the beaches, and it is absolutely true in my case. I like the beaches, but my love for them is a little lesser than the hills. Thankfully, I have never been to any beach site alone. There were people with me whenever I had a plan to go to a beach city, whether it was in India or abroad. I don’t know why, but beaches do not give me that peace that I receive from the mountains. I can enjoy my solitary time only for a while at such places. After that, I need someone to talk to, be it anyone.

Trip in the city

I have never met anyone who likes to walk around the city alone, but myself. I like to explore the new streets and cafes of Delhi, the religious shrines around the city, and the roadside restaurants as well. I hired Self-Drive Car Rental in Delhi last month and just drove to random streets wherever I felt like. It was an amazing day-out, which is unexplainable. I have been to various libraries, museums, and parks just for the sake of being in silence for a day. It gives immense gratification that I cannot elaborate in words.

A solo traveler, according to me, is not just the one who leaves footprints around the world, but the one who can enjoy silence in the mind and heart even while being among the people.

How I Found the Knack of Making Friends While Traveling

Even I don’t believe myself when I look back and realize that I used to be such a shy person. I was an absolute introvert and unquestionably happy about it. However, I always knew that no one knew about my existence and people would conveniently ignore me while taking group photographs. Whenever everyone in office went for lunch, they would not ask me to join them because I was working on my laptop. But hey, I do eat right! I feel hungry too. And I like talking to people as well.

But let me admit, I would talk to people only when they approached me. I have made a few really good friends from school and college, but they are equally introverts like me. Nevertheless, I was tired of this insignificant existence, and I wanted to change myself. And here I was, I began transforming my personality with my solo trips.

Yes, solo trips, where people who talk too much seek solitary time. Solo travelers are often quiet beings who talk to someone only when they want or need to, but my agenda of going around places on my own was to transmute myself.

Looking at people

I had read and realized it many times that there is a difference in looking at people and staring at them, regardless the gender. Therefore, the first step was to make a positive eye contact with people, which was the quality that I lacked. So I thought of practicing it when I was in office, restaurant, malls, and everywhere else. I would look at people and wait for them to look back. As soon as I made an eye contact with them, I would smile at them. Since it is difficult to look at women in India, I had to be very careful about the opposite gender. Whenever I smiled at a woman, I had to make sure that I was poised enough to strike a conversation to explain myself, if required.

Greeting people

A group of travelers was once talking about the best Self Drive Car Rental in Delhi, and I got interested. So I went to them and greeted them while passing by as I picked up my coffee from the counter. One of the members of that group came to the counter when I was standing there again, I greeted him with a smile. He was very receptive, and I talked to him about the Car Rental experience in India. It was great to know about the new concept of this mode of transportation. Although it was a deliberate attempt from my side to hold on the conversation for a couple of minutes, it felt like I had dropped off a huge burden from my shoulders. I had never talked to a stranger for that long time until that moment, and it felt like a great achievement.

The key take away from my experience from being an introvert to an ambivert is that I should never underestimate myself. At least now I don’t think of my capabilities and looks as any less than those of any other person I meet. Once a doctor told me that she may be good at remembering complex names, but she cannot remember simple names of people she meets. She often meets many patients and people in her professional life, which requires a lot of public dealing, but she forgets the names of people. When a highly qualified person like her is aware of her weaknesses and strengths, I found myself reassuring myself that I too have a few strengths in me, even if there are a few weaknesses. Recognizing my potential has helped me a lot in transforming my persona.

Things I Do To Achieve My Travel Goals Every Year

The first thing that I do every December is to create my travel goals for the next year; it helps me focus on the things I need to prepare and the money I need to save for the vacations. At any cost, I make sure I go for at least two vacations in a year, which may go up to four. It may sound too ambitious for the uninitiated, but I also used to be a person who would make excuses not to travel.  Then again, I realized it in time that I can always be too busy to travel and money will always be scarce according to my travel ambitions. Therefore, I started implementing a few strategies since 2015, and I have become a frequent traveler come 2018.

Save money

As I said, money is always too less for vacation plans. Earlier, I used to think that road trips require a lot of money whenever I saw the pictures of people on Facebook. Every other person seemed to travel abroad, which made me feel so low at times. However, I happened to talk to a couple of travelers who were fond of road trips around India. They had strategically combined luxury travel with budget travel. They would often travel in groups of 3-5 and split the costs to bring down the overall expense. They had also hired a Self-Drive Car Rental for a road trip to Spiti Valley.

The conversation with them made me realize that I do not need lakhs of rupees to go for road trips or even to travel abroad. Many beautiful countries are affordable to travel, and I started taking cues from travel bloggers since then. By saving just a few hundred or thousand rupees every month, I started accumulating a good amount of money, which I presently use to spend on holidaying in India. As I grow in my career, I would aim for foreign locations as well, but I am happy at whatever I am doing right now.

Having a companion

When I was a bachelor until last year, I had conflicting thoughts in my mind about marriage because I always thought that married people cannot travel much. On the other hand, the harsh reality was that I was not traveling much even when I was single. I would always ask my friends to go for a vacation with me, but everyone had their own tantrums. Surprisingly, I have got a wonderful travel partner as I got married to Anushka last year. She is the best travel buddy I have got as we have same interests whenever we go out of the city. Now I have stopped forcing friends to tag along, even though I ask them once or twice.

Prioritizing things

As I continue to work at my job, I have found out that I need to sort out many things so that I can travel more often. I used to keep myself occupied with unnecessary things such as gossips in the office, useless parties, talking to negative people, using too much of social media. I started sorting out these things and kept them on lowest priority since I needed to focus on researching about destinations I want to travel. Now I have more time to find out the lucky draws, travel contests, and attend bike rallies. I sleep early at night so that I can begin my day at a fresh note. Sorting out my life has made me a better and frequent traveler, which has indeed given me more peace in my mind.

How I Revitalized My Marriage over Road Trips

When I was growing up before the age of ten, I would ask my parents that whom do they loved the most. They would always take each other’s name, and I would feel sad about why they didn’t say that they loved me the most. However, in my teens and early twenties, I realized that the married Indian couples set the wrong examples for their children when they keep them on priority and ignore each other for a long period of the married life. But my family was different where Dad and Mom expressed their love openly and set the right model of married life for me and my sister. In addition to our family vacations, they would often go for couple vacations either with each other or with other couple friends.

Now I see many people in my generation who keep their spouse on top priority, and I resolved to do the same as well when I got married. In the initial years, it was easy to find time for each other, but it became increasingly difficult to spend quality time with each other with Myra tagging with us all the time. After five years of marriage, I finally decided to talk to Arun about it that we should go for vacations alone and leave Myra with her grandparents for a day or two.

Spending quality time

Thankfully, he understood without any tussle about family talks, and we went for our first road trip to Jodhpur. Unlike our family road trips, we would talk endlessly about things we do in our office, plans for career, and the things that make us happy. Our talks would not revolve around family issues, the groceries we need to buy or the corners of the house that need repair. All we would do is leg-pulling, abuse each other like we did before marriage, and romance like teenagers. We both agreed that spending time like this gives us better opportunities to express ourselves.

Setting examples for Myra

Just like my parents had set the right example for me, I wanted to show Myra over the years that the bond of a husband and a wife is a crucial one where we need to give importance to each other. When we went to a family trip to Bangalore, my parents needed to stay at a friend’s place. Since we had already spent a lot of time in Bangalore while attending a wedding, Arun and I decided to go for a road trip to the nearby hills.

We hired a Self-Drive Car, took Myra along, and went ahead for two days to spend some time in the pleasant weather of South India. When she saw us holding hands while sitting at the mountainside, she asked Arun, “Papa, why are you holding Mom’s hand? Can she not take care of herself? Will she fall if you don’t hold her?”

It was indeed very sweet listening to all those words from a three-year old baby, who wanted to know more about holding hands. All she knew that I held her hand while crossing the road or to protect her at other times.

I explained to her that when people grow up, they can hold hands to express love for each other. She nodded her head at that time, but the most gorgeous moment at that time came when she asked for my hand so that she can embrace it. She did not leave me for good five minutes, got bored after that, and went to Arun to ask for his hand!

Life lesson taught right, I guess!

Road trips are indeed great to make memories and learn things.

My Experience of a Road Trip from Kashmir to Kanyakumari

Driving all the way from the top of India to the bottom of the country was a tough decision indeed. I had to drive alone throughout the way and it was certainly lonely at times. Here I must admit that I am a fiercely independent person and a self-governing traveler who does not like to depend on anyone for anything. Even though I wished that I had company during my road trip for a few moments, but if I compare the pros and cons of not having a companion, the pros always win. The problem with driving with two or more people is that you have to adjust with other people, which I cannot do all the time. Therefore, I began and concluded my road trip on my own.

During the entire course of the solo drive, I would be in the car from morning until evening. I would eat whenever I felt hungry. I would stop whenever I felt tired and exhausted. I would pull over the car whenever I wanted to click a picture. Had it been a bike ride, I would have certainly felt more tired. However, since I had taken a Self-Drive Car Rental, the journey was indeed more convenient though expensive.

In Himachal

I met a traveler in a village in Himachal who was riding a bike from there to Mumbai. He had already completed one side of his journey and had already resumed his return trip. We talked endlessly for two hours, and drove simultaneously the next day. Although the drive was interesting, it became a little too much for me to adjust according to the stops he wanted to take. Whenever he felt hungry, perhaps all I wanted was to drive. Whenever I felt tired, he wanted to go for some sightseeing. Since we both were solo travelers, we understood that we could not carry on our concurrent road trip. We parted ways and I swooshed to continue my independent journey.

Know thyself

It is no hidden fact that a solo trip lets you know yourself. While driving on this road trip, I got to know about a lot of my weaknesses and strengths. I found out ways to improve as a person because every day teaches something new when you meet so many people. I met an old lady in her 70s who could not walk, but sold bananas every day to make her ends meet. She had no one in the house to earn for her, so she would come out of the house every day on her crutches and spend her day selling bananas.

When I bought a few bananas from her, I did not have change money. Although I did not want to embarrass her, I had to tell her that I did not have 50 INR change. She asked me about the rupee note that I had, to which I replied that I had a 2000 INR note. She cheerfully said that a group of young boys had handed over a 500 INR note in the morning itself, so she would manage the rest of the money for me.

My heart broke when I saw that those clever fellows had fooled her with the counterfeit 500 INR note. She gave it to me, I looked at her, and I could not resist warning her. I secretly kept the note inside my wallet and jokingly said that fake notes are exchanging hands in the market and that she should be careful. She asked for more and I explained to her how she could differentiate between real and fake notes.

How Traveling Around India Made Me Smarter

I had always heard that travel helps in developing one’s personality, which I never believed until I took my first solo trip. Having read a lot of posts about positive things in life, I had to overcome my pessimistic side. It was high time that I started looking at the bright side of things, people, and places because I had started feeling too gloomy. Things that gave happiness to people made me worried. Finally, I decided to go for a solo road trip and then group trips, lots of them. Let me share how travel changed a naysayer into an optimist.

Not comparing myself

Before I went out of Mumbai, I always used to think of the bigger car my colleague has, the diamond rings on the hand of my sister, and the posh house of my neighbor. No matter how hard I tried to ignore all these materialistic possessions people had, I would always find myself feeling awful about not having them, even though I lead a decent lifestyle. While traveling around Kerala, I saw the happiness on the faces of deprived kids. People in the villages had very little compared to what I had, but they did not want to have anything from me. Not even once I heard them saying that my watch was glittering or my car was looking so good. On the other hand, I had heard myself talking like that to myself and others. Those scenarios in Kerala and many other naturally beautiful places taught me that there was no use comparing my life to that of others because there will always be someone richer or poorer than me.

Getting out of the comfort zone

Staying in a campsite near Pune taught me to survive outside my comfort zone. At that place, we did not have proper toilets, water was scarce and very expensive, food choices were not there, and we had limited clothes with us. Until that vacation, I had always stayed in hotels, traveled in a Self-Drive Car Rental or a friend’s car, and ate at restaurants while carefully selecting from an assortment of foods. However, staying in the camp taught me that I should not take my possessions for granted and I learned to find bliss out of my comfort zone, which was my office and home.

Not being lazy

Travel is not cheap, and that I knew already. Perhaps that is why; I never went for a vacation for so many years of my job life. Thanks to my friend, Rohan, who pushed me to travel with him because he did not have company. We went to Indonesia, which was certainly expensive, and we could not afford to sleep in the hotel rooms. Rohan was very excited about visiting each place marked on his itinerary, and I had to comply because we had limited time in hand. We made the best use of our days and nights in that gorgeous country, and returned home with our phones loaded with photos. Looking back at those memories, I thank myself for not being too lazy to move beyond the beaches.

The best thing that travel has taught me is that I should never doubt my capabilities. I used to spend a lot of time thinking negatively about the things that I wanted to accomplish, but hesitated to even begin. I always wanted to learn dance, but I thought that I would not be able to move my body.  Traveling to Kerala gave me the confidence to dance and I enrolled in the classes as soon as I returned. This is a good number of accomplishments, for sure, and many more to come.

My Experience of Trying New Foods in India

During my entire life in Israel, whenever I thought of visiting India, I had never thought of skipping the Indian street food. However, when it came to actually visiting India, I went through the articles online, and they literally scared me out. Almost every article about tips to visit India talked about not trying the street food, and it was a huge disappointment for me. However, I went deeper into the details, asked a few friends, and finally decided that I would surely devour these delicacies, but from the trusted sellers.

So, here I was in Mumbai as my first stop in India. After I dropped my bags in my hotel, I straightaway asked the hotel reception for the nearby seller where I can get batata-wada, wada-pao and pani-puri. He stared at me as if I had come from Mars. I could understand this poor guy’s confusion and I told him that I had already researched well about the Indian food and that I wanted to try every possible thing.

He guided me to locate a few outlets, and also suggested me to try things like Bombay sandwich, paav bhaji, sev puri, kandha pohe, thaali peeth, and aamras. I felt grateful to him for the information that he gave me, and just rushed out of the place to see places and stuff my tummy with the delicacies of Mumbai.

My next stop was in Bangalore and the food traveler in me wanted to explore the foods of this city as well. There is no one stopping me when it comes to sniffing out foods. Now I had my list of target cuisines ready with me, but I needed a car to travel around since the public transport is not so great in the city. I hired a Self Drive Car Rental Bangalore Innova from a mobile app, and rushed to find out what I wanted. I tried the famous masala dosa, apple pie, Andouille Sausage on Sourdough Toast, mangalore buns, dal obattu, idla vada, sambhar vada, bhaji and filet kaapi, rolls and kebabs.

By the end of my four days of stint in Bangalore, I was stuffed badly and I took rest for a day while eating only salads and drinking juices. It was relaxing for sure. Eating so much can be pure bliss, but it messes with the body weight for sure. I could not follow my passion for food for the next two days, and sufficed with eating only light foods at a friend’s place. Her mother made me eat khichdi and daliya on my special request because Indians never treat their guests with such foods that are meant for patients. She wanted to cook butter paneer and chicken biryani for me as she is a brilliant cook. However, it was amusing to see disappointment on her face as she had to feed a foreigner guest at her home with plain khichdi. Her dialogues were priceless! And my journey as well!

How I Met Funny People during My Visits to Home

I have been meeting hilarious people since the day I have joined college. However, the current times have become even funnier after I have started meeting girl’s for marriage. I belong to a small town in Gujrat and people over there, though innocent, are highly silly in their approach towards marriage. They have a typical old school arranged marriage in their mind where the girl, despite her education and income, should be a housewife after marriage. And even if she chooses to earn post-marriage, the husband should never look at her income. Else, he would be labelled as a sinister person.

Incident #1

I have a job in core engineering in Noida, and I happen to visit home only after 2-3 months. Over one visit last year, I was supposed to meet a girl and her family for marriage. I was in small talks with the family about various things about job and life in Noida and Delhi. I told them a few things about my life, and they told us about theirs. To my family, everything seemed positive and we hoped for an affirmative response later.

However, a week passed on before we received a call from them. The girl’s mother asked me to make my Facebook profile public so that they could see, rather scan my social life online. I must mention that drinking, even socially, is considered offensive in Gujrat. I knew that I have uploaded a few pictures of mine while drinking in the bars with friends. Therefore, I did not want to anyone to breach my privacy since I don’t find social drinking as an offense. I asked if I could add the girl as a friend to let her go through my profile rather than opening it all for the public. She was added, but of course, the family rejected me because I was a drunkard for them!

I knew it!

Incident #2

I had a project from Self-Drive Car Rental Bangalore airport that required me to travel to the city. Coincidentally, the mediator made me meet a girl in my hometown who worked in Bangalore, but hailed from the same city as mine. I met her to realize that she is an ambitious girl, which was the best thing about her, at least according to me even if it was not according to her parents.

Nevertheless, I met her in Bangalore a couple of times and talked over the phone once or twice a day. Everything was going well as we got along well on the lines of education, career, running the house, and raising the kids. I thought that I had found the ideal girl who was modern enough to live a decent metropolitan life, and traditional enough to run a household. We had agreed that even if we reject each other, we would communicate it to each other before we tell our parents.

Nonetheless, to my surprise, I was rejected again because the girl’s father told my father that I was a greedy person who eyed his wife’s income!

I was like, is it for real?

I was rejected twice for the most baseless reasons ever.

I could only realize that while meeting such people from my hometown, I could only have a fit of laughter, and never find a suitable girl to marry.

I communicated this to my parents and they shrugged shoulders and said that they cannot find the kind of girl I was looking for, and that I should do it myself!

So, here I am, enjoying my bachelor life in Noida!

How Beggars Can Be Funny in India

The scenario of beggary is quite bad in India as it is in many other developing countries. Although I do not like the behavior of beggars with the locals and tourists, I cannot ignore their immense sense of humor and sarcastic tone of language. There have been several incidences when the panhandlers have turned sarcastic if their stubbornness to fetch money does not work. One such instance comes to my mind when I was traveling to Pune with my friend.

My college friend, Shikha, is a gorgeous looking girl, and she has been in touch with me for more than seven years now. In most parts of India, if a man is just standing with a girl, almost everyone assumes that they are in love. I am not talking about the hamlets of the country; this judgmental thought process prevails even in the metropolitans. We had planned a trip to the mountains with a couple of more friends, and we were to meet them on the Hong Kong lane in Pune. Since Shikha could not think about anything but shopping in the market, I decided to devour on some pav-bhaji.

I was silently enjoying my food while admiring the young crowd in the bazaar. Even though I had no intentions of entering even a single shop, I could not help but visit a couple of outlets that looked promising. However, I was tired of shopping in just a few minutes, and I decided to call Shikha. She, thankfully, answered and promised to stay with me until everyone else came.

As we were talking while enjoying our glasses of watermelon juice, a little child around seven years of age comes to us. He has a beautiful smile, but his clothes reveal that he is a beggar in the market. As he asks for some money, I cannot help but refuse since I do not encourage beggary, no matter what. He starts pulling my pants and says, “Bhaiya, paise do na." His act irritates me, and I try to shun him to go away while saying sorry to him.

He again pleads and blesses us saying, "Aap dono ki Jodi bani rahe” meaning may God bless you two to be together. I laugh at his words and tell him that the girl is not my girlfriend. He stops smiling and shows sympathy towards me saying, "Bhaiya wo to lag hi raha hai” meaning it was quite obvious to him. I ask him shocked what he meant by his words. He walks away while uttering, “Didi kafi achi hain” (Sister looks quite good).

I stood fixed in the ground while the savage child walks away, and I can hear Shikha in the background, laughing and rolling on the floor. I knew that I was slain for the day, and she will narrate this incident to everyone coming to meet us. Even I could not help, but feel impressed by the high levels of sarcasm running through the veins of every person in India, or Pune, I would say. I rested on my Self-Drive Car Rental and waited for the time when everyone would come and make lame jokes on me. Pheewww!

Why I Hate Traveling for Work

Traveling is something that has always been very close to my heart, but of late, I have started hating it. I don’t like to pack my bags anymore as I used to do earlier. I don’t like to experiment with foods the way I did a few years ago. All of this happened because I decided to choose travel job over desk job seven years ago. Only the first year in my job was great as I loved exploring new cities, but everything started becoming tiring after a while. Let me tell you why I don’t like my job anymore and why I want to return to a normal life.

No rest

Traveling for leisure is a different thing and doing such a pleasing thing for work is a completely different scenario. I hate waking up at 4 am to catch a flight at eight in the morning. I have to pack my check-in luggage at night and I cannot afford to pack a huge luggage since it takes a long time at the airport to submit and take it back. I hate waiting in the long queues even when I cannot stand straight for a minute. There have been times when I feel like I would crash any moment, but still I have to be there for an important job in a remote city in the other corner of the world.

No time for sightseeing

When I first went to Pune, I had thought that I would see as many sights as I can after my office. However, endless number of meetings and trainings were lined up for me in the administrative center and I could not even eat my lunch at peace. When I reached my hotel at 9 pm, the first thing that came to my mind was to have a glass of wine after a shower and crash in the bed. Three days went like this in the city, and my plans of going around Pune in the evening went down the drain. I have seen many cities around the world now, but some of them are only for the namesake.

Eating just anything

More often than not, I do get free food during my travels, but I have started hating it now. I don’t like the free meal coupons that include only fast food or unhealthy fatty cuisines. I rather prefer a bowl of cereals with milk in the morning, or just a plain egg omelet rather than lavish foods in every meal. Instead of having beer every evening, I try to grab a glass of fresh juice no matter what. The office parties do not interest me anymore, especially when my body clock is against the local timings.

Poor health

I can realize my deteriorating health whenever I eat unhealthy foods for a week or more. My body starts giving me signals that I need to bounce back to a healthy routine as soon as possible so that I can enjoy my work as well as weekends. However, no matter how hard I try, I can never be as hale and hearty as I would be at home. I used to work for a Self-Drive Car Rental company, have good food, maintain a stable routine, and go for parties only during weekends. Now I can party throughout the year, but it does not interest me anymore. As soon as I get a chance to be with my family and my cats, I take a flight to my hometown and spend maximum time with them. I don’t say that traveling for work is bad, but it saturates me after a while.

Thank God it’s Friday! I’m off for a Weekend Getaway

Every week on Friday, I get a feeling of doing something exciting. Rarely, just once in three months, I feel like sitting and home to relax. If I sit at home for continuously three weeks, it makes me restless for the entire weekend. I have to be honest with myself every Friday and make a plan with family or friends. Like every week, we made a program to go for bowling in Gurgaon, which unlike Delhi, is not well-connected by public transport. One has to own a car or hire a cab or an auto-rickshaw to commute in National Capital Region.

Anyway, Blu-O in Gurgaon is the place where we had to go. My friends picked me up from my office in Cyber City, and we were off to have a great time in Blu-O. The place is a gaming station where we can do bowling, play snooker, and many other games. I have zero experience in bowling, but I had a great time continuously failing and passing at the sport. Though we had a plan to return home after bowling, no one wanted to go home. So here we were off to Jaipur in an instant. Without looking back for a moment, we set off to the Pink City. On our way, we booked a hotel in Jaipur so that we can rest our heavy heads when we reach.

Early morning in Jaipur

We had driven at a leisurely pace from Gurgaon to Jaipur; we reached our hotel early in the morning. Thankfully, the hotel looked as it was shown in the pictures, and the rooftop construction was brilliant. The real Rajput architecture was used on the pillars and walls; it felt great to be there and watch the early morning sun. The houses and hotels in front of us showcased an entirely different picture of the Pink City. In that case, I feel that every city has a different mood at different points of time during the day.

A day spent in Rajasthani style 

Khameeri Hara Matar Poori was something I had never heard about, but it was a delectable dish that we had with Thandai. We decided to take some rest in the hotel until historical monuments opened. After sleeping for a couple of hours, we were off to Amer Fort, which is located pretty away from the central city. Nevertheless, it was worth taking the pain to reach there. Amer Fort is a sheer example of the royal lives of the Rajputs of the olden times.

We could not realize where we spent our three hours in the extensive Amer Fort. We had to force ourselves to get out of it and set off for Hawa Mahal. This place was again a brilliant piece of architecture with hundreds of windows. While clicking photos in the pleasant winter sun, it felt great to just sit there with friends. Although we wanted to visit more places in the city, we felt too tired to go ahead. So we decided to go to the hotel, but before that, the girls in the group wanted to shop around for Sarees and handicrafts. Maharani market is a beautiful place where we got almost everything we wanted. We bought things for ourselves and souvenirs for our families.

Just like every other weekend, this time was also spent well wandering around Jaipur in a Luxury Car Rental that we had taken from a car rental company. One more day went in a significant way, and I look forward to having many such great times with my friends.

A Superb Visit to Khotachi Wadi Village in Mumbai

After living in Mumbai for a significant part of my life, I have understood one thing that I am not a person who is made for constant commotion of the metropolitans. However, it is also true that I cannot escape this life because I have to sustain a reasonable standard of life, which is possible only in the urban cities. One place where I love going for a weekend getaway is the Khotachi Wadi village in the city; it is a tiny settlement in the Girgaum district of South Mumbai. People know this hamlet mainly because of the Chowpatty beach, but I try to explore things beyond that whenever I go there. I have a coincidental buddy who lives in the houses constructed in Portuguese style. Most of the people here are the original inhabitants of Mumbai, the East Indian Christians who came here more than a hundred years ago.  

The bright colors of the houses and their multi-storied structures are quite rare in the central city where tall skyscrapers are a familiar sight. The high ceilings of the enormous rooms behind the long-standing verandahs are a sigh of relief when you come from the congested apartments. I do not have any choice but to live in a tiny dwelling in the city, which I do not like very much because I come from Punjab where I have been brought up in huge Haveli style houses. The quiet ambiance of this place at my friend, Mahesh's house lets me relax and spend a good time with his family. I always go there early in the morning just to be able to smell the Goan and Konkan cuisines, most of which are made of fish. I never had much of fish during my childhood, but it was a fantastic experience to experiment with various varieties of it and fall in love with it.  

Mahesh's mother and wife, both are fantastic cooks, and they prepare such mouth-watering cuisines that I cannot help but lick every bit of food in my plate. They have even trained the male folk of the house to cook brilliant dishes. So whenever, the females of the house are not in a mood to toil in the kitchen; the men bring the kitchen to the verandah and cooking becomes a household activity. My wife and I enjoy being with these people, who are not indulged in the rat race of existence and triumph like us.

I work for Self-Drive Car Rental Mumbai, and it is easy for me to take a car and reach any corner of the city. It was just by chance that I met Mahesh while walking on the streets of Khotachi Wadi; I was asking for the directions to the chapel in the village. He accompanied me to the place rather than just guiding me with the instructions. I had loved his gesture of hospitality, which is rare in Mumbai. While talking to him for a while on our way, he told me quite a few things about the chapel and showed me the scenes depicting the birth time of Jesus. I found the mural of Virgin Mary with baby Jesus particularly amazing because of its simplicity. Mahesh told me that the villagers had constructed the chapel in 1899 to express gratitude to Jesus after they persisted the plague. 

After a few years of friendship with Mahesh, I realize that even Khotachi Wadi is gradually being converted into an urban town. The springing of high rise buildings poses a threat to the austerity of this place. Anyway, until we have time to enjoy the serenity of this little hamlet, I do not want to waste a minute that I can spend here.