MAJNU A TILLA: Mini Tibet in Dehli

This was my first visit to majnu ka tilla. This is not a place that is extraordinarily popular as some markets of Delhi. My experience of this place was surreal if i can say so without exaggerating.

The entrance is a through a gateway which leads to a thin lane which further divides in lanes.

The monestry is like the centre of the area and is one big courtyard which you will find with people selling tea and La phing; this is a dish made of starch, the vendors take one sheet of this puts salt, oil, garlic chutney which is a huge part of tibetian food as can be found in all the restaurants here, soybean granules a bowl of this just for 30 rupees . After having one bite of it you realize that this must be an absolute soul food in Tibet.

Then we headed to the monastery and which was  a calming and my not so often encounter with religious place. the monastery has a huge prayer wheel around 10 feet tall.

lamps at the entrance of monastery 

Then we headed further with our expedition and with every step in the lanes I felt more and more like a tourist in my own city.

There are so many charismatic places in Delhi one of the most diverse city of India currently the 9th civilization of its own. With every street having its own story and offering different experiences I had never felt like a tourist before in my own city.

I roamed about the streets ike a curious child with something new a every turn.The lanes are filled with shops selling incense sticks, teas, traditional clothes along with imported shoes, knock offs of various brands, shops selling gems and stones, silver jewelry, more shops selling la phing, momos stall, shops selling mantra streamers, true Tibetan ingredients.

Shop selling tibetan ingredient.

We sat down at Tee Dee which was suggested to us by the la phing lady. the place is a small eatery with tibetan and chinese food. The chair seats were covered with handloom fabrics giving it a rustic look. We ordered shablays that is a deep fried stuffed patty like samosa but filled with vegetables which is wonderfully flavoured with ginger.

The next thing we ordered was Devil's Momos these were steamed momos sauteed in chili garlic sauce the heat does justice to the name.

Tingmo is a steamed bread which has a texture as if a kulcha and bun had a baby. According to wikipedia stuffed tingmo is called momo so it's mother of momo??? (brain fart moment)
Chinar apple beer as easily found, this is a kashmiri frizzy apple juice totally refreshing and soothing along with the spice.

Tee Dee has an amazing over all vibe when you look down the window you see the tiny lanes and the place has soft music playing.The ambience is normal and the rates absolutely nominal. The service staff is friendly and they leave you alone with the menu and a notepad to write down your order. My friend bought it in my notice that it seems like a perfect date location with good food,good soft music over which making a conversation is not like yelling which happens in most of the place playing edm.


Majnu ka tilla will make you feel alienated from the hustle and bustle of Delhi despite being in the very centre. If the weather is pleasant or it just rained the place can be considered a hill station, apparently tibet is a hilly place and it's not just the tradition, culture or food that has tibetness in it but the entire area is so that is gives a different type of euphoria.

This is definitely a mini getaway place for me!

Camp Song Brook

In the arms of the himalayas, a camp in a valley near dehradun lays camp song brook. The name is appropriate the campsite is near the river.

Living in tents surrounded by nature can be absolutely amazing when you live in a concrete jungle.

With a few adventure sports and a natural lagoon to kill time.
Walks to the river in the afternoon and going to washrooms in groups because you are surrounded by dense forest. Going to the camp in a truck and having no cellular network and no electricity for hours.  These kind of experience are new for our generation for whom wifi is most important thing. 

With a trek to see calciamite cave to spending nights under the stars with your friends.
When we have no technology we talk to people around us and realise that there  are a lot of different people worth knowing and you come closer to people who you already knew. We discover that people can survive without knowing uno. In stormy nights we found out who actually cared and that the best way of not getting scared of ghost stories is listen music on the loudest.
We gain new acquaintance. We know how trippy dj lights can be and we discover another genre of music altogether. We discover tthat sleeping for 2 hours a day is enough to function normally and how good it is to breath non pollutant air.

In places like these we discover ourselves we have all the time in the world to introspect and we return happy to our concrete jungle.

Woodbox cafe

This cute little cafe in hudson lane is a must try.
With quirky decor which includes lamps made with playing cards, cutlery, multicoloured cloth.
The menu includes continental and affordable world cuisine
The most loveable thing was glasses made out of old alcohol bottle, Absolut vodka and Grey Gosse to be specific.

The food was good
Spaghetti and meatballs this was served with a tangy red sauce and gralic breads not the best in town but decent.

Chilli panner pizza this Chinese Italian fusion is definitely a hit the crust was thin and exceptionally crisp. Pieces of Chilli panner topped with chesse and green onions. Really good pizza a must try

The best was ferro rocher's shake. Chocolate milkshake with nuts and ferro rocher's it was like heaven on earth

Black current virgin mojito was also good.  These drinks were served in those glasses made out of vodka bottle

The overall experience was good. The service was okay and the prices pocket friendly. Quality and quantity both were take good care of.

Will I go there again?
Definitely.

Anoushka shankar live show

Hari prashad Chaurasiya, Vishwa Mohan Bhatt, Anoushka Shankar performed at Swami Haridas-Tansen sangeet nritya mahotsav.
This was a 4 day program and first of these classic shows of this year.

For someone who appreciate this genre of music and who loves sitting at a place and enjoying the soothing rhythm it would be a great weekend and was definitely for me

Today the auditorium was over-packed with maximum number of music lover as compared to the other days actually because it is a Sunday.
The host for the evening was Sadhna Shrivastav
This show goes back to being an annual event for 17 years and it started by the efforts of Vidhushi Uma Sharma.

The first performance was by Grammy winner Pandit Vishwa Mohan Bhatt. He played Rag Shyam kalyan. He is the student of Mrs. Ravi Shankar.

Then he played Meeting By The River for which he got the Grammy and you could see Mrs. Ravi Shankar gleaming with pride

Anouskha Shankar has been playing guitar since the age of 9 and was trained under her father Maestro Ravi Shankar $$$

Afresh

10 day through since we started this new year 2016. By this time everyone has almost failed at their new year resolutions. If u have not then you are lying or you have some one breathing down your neck to make sure you continue that resolution you made in the end hours of 2015.

I do not believe in this concept of resolutions because it just give you a chance to fail at something in the very beginning of a new year. 

In fact welcoming new year 2016 was quite weird for me because according to me new year began with the onset of academic year.No one will ever be happy about the date changing and being left with only 20 to 25 day before your dreadful exams begin but this year the academic new year and the calendar new year happened to have the same beginning

So this year I decided to leave a few things behind with 2015 and accept a few for 2016

• Subjects that made you miserable.                                                                         Seriously if you have a major to which you have to procrastinate and you absolutely hate then just leave it and give your life a new start.
• Let go of people some people in your life do not put in as  much effort in knowing you or being with you as you deserve. They rarely have damns to give to any good or bad about you but you still think that they are important. My dear believe me they are not, if they do not care about you or have the time to appreciate how awesome you are then they need to be left off with the old date
• Be thankful just spare a moment from your life and appreciate what all you have a roof above your head, a full belly and a few people to whom you are the world. if you have these things then you are the luckiest human on this earth. for that moment forget about what all you do not have just be grateful for all you have.
• Do that thing that you wanted to. maybe it is that dish you have pinned on your pintrest or that new restaurant you wanted to try out or binge watch that tv show you wanted to or read that book you bought but never got around it. Just do it for yourself.
• Save for something you really want to have. 
• Travel.