Delhi: Old and New

Me and Jiya in front of the India gate

Our amazing dessert- Banoffee pie and chocolate mousse!

Me and the boys! Divraj and Bikram (left to right)

After getting almost a full night's rest, I woke up to have breakfast with Jiya and Teena, as we planned out our day in Delhi.  We decided on a few places so that we could enjoy the day and not be too busy and of course leave time to shop! So we drove around Delhi to see the Lotus Temple, Himayan's Tomb (which was just visited by President Obama), the Red Fort, the India Gate, the president's house, parliment, and the house of the lords and ministers.  We stopped for lunch at an awesome Italian place called the Big Chill where we ate delicious pasta and shared two large desserts over coffee.  Spending the day together site-seeing, shopping, eat, and talking was so much fun!  After our lunch break, we shopped for a while and had a blast before we went to see the Sikh temple where the family attends. It was very cool to see the ritual aspect of the religion, which is a sect off of Hinduism.  When we walked up to the temple, we removed our shoes and Jiya purchased holy food for her two sons Bikram and Divraj.  We covered our heads and walked closer to the steps of the entrance where she bent down to pay respects.  As we approached the center, there was a bed where their holy book sits as they read through the entire book over three days.  The repeat this process on a daily basis; however, Jiya explained to me that she reads parts of this at home every day and at the rate she reads it, it takes her about a year and a half.  What I also learned was that Sikhs are the ones who wear the turbans because they were brave warriors who were not afraid to stand up to the muslims.  The other Hindus cut off their hair and pretended to be Muslims.  Just an interesting fact I had not previously known.  Jiya drank the holy water and explained to me the holy bath before we got back into the car and headed home.  At home, we were greeted by her two sons who are so sweet and adorable!  Jiya and I drank tea while I got to spend some time with her boys.  Then, Teena's mom arrived, she had just gotten back from a two month vacation in New York (Chappaqua to be exact) visiting her other daughter.  I was thrilled to spend time with another family member!  Preet, Maninder and Teena's son as well as Jiya's husband, also got home around the same time so I got to spend time with him.  Because of his work schedule and my busy in and out we had not spent any time together.  Luckily, Preet, Jiya, Divraj, Bikram, and I all got to go out to a lovely dinner at a Viatnamese restuarant at one of the Taj Hotels. Spending time with them was so much fun! I only wish I had more time with them, oh, and Preet is hysterical!  I of course was fed way too much at dinner and drank a wonderful cocktail with Preet (Jiya doesn't drink in front of the children or Preet's parents, which I found interesting) so I could not have asked for anything better for my last night in Delhi!  Since we absolutely HAD to have dessert and there wasn't anything great on the menu, we actually went back to the Big Chill and took out dessert.  Preet ordered two HUGE mudpies, which I absolutely had to make room for although I have no idea where it came from.  When we got home I ate dessert with the three of them before saying a sad goodbye as I was leaving early the next morning :(