Delhi is all about family. Most of my family is there. So, naturally, it is always my first stop. I visit with my brothers and cousins. I had a wonderful visit with all of them. I always visit Satish’s place first. It represents home to me as that’s where I grew up and spent my childhood and my parents lived there. Then I visited Sunil, Mesho, Pappoo and my Mamaji’s home (mother’s brother). Then I venture out other familiar places.

Delhi has completely changed since I left there in 1984. It has expanded so much that it is not even considered one city anymore; it is now referred to as NCR for National Capital Region. Yet, it still retains a lot of old charm, especially in the historical heart of Delhi, also called the Old Delhi – quite appropriately. The same street food and traditional delicacies like Chat, Gol Gappa, and Kulfi still taste the same.

New Delhi has also completely transformed. When I left, there were only 3-4 fancy 5-star hotels with good restaurants. One of them was Maurya. It had my favorite restaurant Bukhara. It is still a special place. It has even hosted several US presidents including Clinton and Biden. I stayed there last year and had a great time. I enjoyed several meals at Bukhara.

This year, however, I decided to try another highly acclaimed hotel called Andaz by Hyatt. It is in a brand new city called Aerocity, created at the edge of the Indira Gandhi International Airport. They gave me a beautiful room facing the runway. Views at night were spectacular from the bay windows. I couldn’t hear any outside noise. Where Maurya offers traditional elegance and laid back hospitality, Andaz offers more modern architecture and efficiency focused on fast moving business travelers,

Aerocity is also very well planned. It has a great promenade with beautiful shopping and great restaurants. And Real convenient. There is a Metro station about three blocks from the hotel which has direct train service to the Connaught Place, the city center. I could there on Metro in 20 minutes. The same trip in a cab could have taken up to 90 minutes. Delhi roads are really congested. The traffic just snarls.

Yet, I can’t take Delhi for more than a week. Pollution is really bad. I begin to get allergies and start having respiratory issues. I bid bye bye to Delhi for now and headed towards Bangalore on November 22nd to attend a one week health care retreat at the highly acclaimed Jindal Naturecure Institute (JNI). More on that in my next post from there.