After getting he re-endorsement of our visa at the FFRO office, we went back to the Park Hotel to meet up with another couple who would be joining us on the tour of 'Rajashtan on the Palace' on Wheels train. Dr Shrama (Dilip) and his partner, Jess, are Malaysians who have now made Perth their home. Dilip studied medicine in India, practised medicine in Subang Jaya until he moved on to Australia. Both of them have relatives in New Delhi whom they chanced to visit before this holiday.
The stress from the hours of queuing at the FFRO made us all very hungry. So we walked down the Parliament Street, down two blocks towards Connought Place and lunched at the Kwality Restaurant. This restaurant is an old Delhi establishment, much like the Coliseum Restaurant is to Kuala Lumpur. Pakdokter and family had visited this restaurant in our previous trips to Delhi 15 and 20 years ago. And the establishment has not changed at all! It even claims that the menu has been retained all these years and pakdokter was happy to relish the authentic Hyderabadi Biriani served here.
Jess, Ravee and Siti....
pakdokter's partner and Dilip Sharma.....After lunch Dilip drove us to the Cottage Emporium, a large department store specialising in crafts and textiles from various parts of India. After about 2 hours there we walked down Janpath, a famous street in Delhi for its many little stores selling textiles, jewelleries etc etc from all over India. Janpath has been given a clean-up, the government has built neat small stores along the road-side where various shops operated. These shops were not there the last time pakdokter was in Delhi years ago.
A side street of Janpath was lined with endless number of stalls hawking mostly textile works from different parts of India. The colours and atmosphere of this street was beyond pakdokter's description. Hopefully some of the pictures below taken with pakdokter's little camera could give a little justice to the actual situation.
The long walk made us all hungry again and we adjourned back to the Kwality Restaurant for their trusted dishes while we watched India being thrashed by Australia in the World Cup Hockey Tournament being held then in Delhi. India had beaten Pakistan in their opening match 2 nights earlier which sent the whole country into a frenzy!
the trusted dishes at Kwality Restaurant made us go back there for dinner.....
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