Teesri Gali ka Vihar :)

The original motive of this post was to give some friends (who are currently enjoying their vacation elsewhere) an update of my extra-curricular activities, and that i WAS enjoying the holiday time. But as the day progressed, I realized that my excursion was turning into something blogworthy, a truly desi tunnel vision experience. Hmm, so here goes:

Its the Friday after Thanksgiving-6:00 AM, wake up with an interesting news on the TV (TV that’s been playing whole night, and usually does), about a new likeness based search engine like.com that would allow you to shop for your favorite celebrity style goodies. Quite “go-shop”inducing news. Even otherwise its been constantly drilled into my head by friends and colleagues, how I must go and avail the early bird discounts.....Well, so today I decide to go check it out. Hold on, but in the subsequent news, Chris Schaubel is reporting on how different stores arepotential wrestling zones.....Ohhhhhhh no, I don’t want to do that-the shopping bulb is dimming.....then, I have this brilliant flash. Go Santa Monica, Third Street Promenade. I assure myself that it wouldn’t be too crowded.....and thus the day begins. I get up, get ready, have breakfast and am off to SHOP.

10:00 AM, I reach Macy’s, avail some good discounts-buy a bag and a pair of ear-rings.....am completely emotional seeing ear-rings, they so remind me of Ms. E, one of my friends in Boston for whom my present always was a pair of ear-rings.....and no, neither I, nor she have and Henry Blofeld fixation. As I parade around, I hear some Marathi, she’s a really sweet Aunty ji and soon approaches me to ask if one or the other color would be better for the scarf she wants to buy for her daughter. We have a cute lil’ exchange, wish each other and move on.

11:00 AM, I walk out of the Santa Monica Place after spending some more time (and money) at my all time favorite: The Bath and Body Works . A block away I am greeted by two Indian guys, one of whom has a big Nama on his forehead. The guys say “Excuse me Maam,please take a minute to look through this book about meditation, its free, you can take it”.....and the dude hands out a book with the title “Bhagvad Geeta”. I wonder if Geeta has just been reduced to a book on meditation. I am a lil’ upset now, I politely refuse and walk on and keep wondering about it for next few minutes or more.....and I worry if this kind of preachiness is doing anyone any good-come on, if you really want to talk about it, put up a stall, keep the books, let the interested people come and do it for themselves.

11:20 AM, there is a sudden urge to hit the bookstore. I contemplate stopping by Borders on the way to lab, completely unaware that I am in front of one :). realization dawns upon me and I walk in and buy a couple of books (will write about them soon). BTW, I didn’t like this store much, they have very limited desi and psychology collection.....Westwood store is better, anywday. but I loved the lady who helped find a certain book.

Aha, and all this while I have also kept my camera-phone busy, clicking pics for whatever its worth. The pictures range from the really fake looking but cute X’mas trees, my favorite Poinsettias, balloons, flowers and what not :).

11:45 AM, I am at Express, and I am out within 15 minutes of idling around. I move on to Levi’s and soon realize that i am plain bored.

12:10 PM, am a bit tired and need something to charge me up-I decide upon Starbucks and get a Chai-at this moment am not interested in too much caffiene-just some warm liquid to soothe me. I lounge around a bit, reading one of the books I bought and listen to the music playing in the background. After Chai, its one more round of pictures, another lil’ walk to Santa Monica Place, and on the way am about to be greeted by the same bunch of guys, when they realize that I have been there before . they catch hold of a Japanese guy instead, who also politely refuses them and moves on. Inside the mall, I notice a shop named “India Arts”, am not sure if it refers to Indians from Asia or the Native Indians.

1:20 PM, hunger pangs.....I am in the food court now, and look around aimlessly. I know where I am headed to. I so feel like checking out the Indian corner here: Tandoor Cafe’. The owners are a cute Aunty ji and a gruffy Uncle ji. The girl on the counter is asking people to try out “samples”, she’s not Indian and so its a bit tricky to place the order as I end up ordering Palak instead of Spinach . Confusion sorted, I buy an onion naan with palak ka saag. I find myself a seat and sample the food.....The saag has got a lil’ sweet taste. I was hoping for something with my favorite ginger and a bit spicy fair.....its strictly OK. The naan smells fresh, its got a freshly baked home like quality (you know the smell of atta in tandoori rotis when you just take them out of tandoor, that smell)-its a big portion, has great texture, crispy outside and fluffy inside, but I strongly wish they had added some salt to the dough. and hope am not being too critical. I really wish them to be a hugely popular and succesful Desi food joint.

A picture of my khana

2:00 PM, am about to finish my lunch and I notice an Indian girl sporting Trojans t-shirt, as she sits close by and smiles. I smile back and we have the usual exchange-its sweet. She’s from Ne Delhi and I inform her that I am from Delhi too (well, that’s not completely true, I am from Amritsar, Delhi, Bangalore, Boston, New York City and Los Angeles equally). She is a graduate student doing Computer Science and claims that its very predictable. We exchange few more silly things, wish each other and I realize its 2: 30 PM and I have had enough masti for the day. I better go to the lab and do some work .

So, this is the story, full of Desiyana-ekdum interesting and enjoyable.....hai na Tunnel vision turning the Third Street Promenade into Teesri Gali ka Vihar.