Dinner in the Bazaar

We had planned to walk into the bazaar and have dinner at Golden's Restaurant near the Clock Tower on Wednesday. However, another thunderstorm broke loose about 5:00. It let up for a while and we thought it was finished. But pretty soon it started again and rained hard for quite a while. So we ate in our apartment and postponed our walk to the next day.

On the way through the bazaar, I stopped to greet Sardarji, the shopkeeper from who we bought our vegetables and fruit back in the 1970s. He is quite old now and his son runs the shop. Over the years they have added many packaged foods and that is now the main thing they have. Their shop is one of the main sources of food for many of the WS staff members. They have everything from imported wine to muesli. I'm still amazed to see things like prepared mustard, mayonnaise, bottled olives, etc., all of which we would have been happy to find back then! I got a packet of my favorite biscuit (cookie) here, Ginger Nuts.

Our next stop was one of the many phone shops. Unfortunately, the Indian SIM for my phone is still in my desk at home, so I needed a new one. Dan had been in earlier in the week to make application for it, and we were ready to pick it up. The shopowner's son put it in and set it up for me. The whole thing, SIM plus 100 minutes of talk time, cost less than $5.00. If you need my new Indian number, just email me. (Not that anyone ever does phone me!)

The bazaar was being decorated with many lights and banners for a festival -- but I'm not sure what it was; the major ones of Dusshera and Diwali aren't for another month.

Lights still being put up near the Gurdwara at the bottom of Mullingar Hill

Light displays at the Clock Tower (or where it used to be); lots of them were blinking

Paneer pakoras, my favorite appetizer

Dinner of palak aloo (potatoes in spinach gravy), murgh do piaza (chicken in double onion gravy), and tandoori roti