Wednesday, October 31, 2007

I finished the marathon and all I got was a lousy pair of shoes

DELHI (31 Oct): 2 hrs and 7 mins (my best so far), and could have been easily reduced to 2 hrs if my new shoes had cleared the training runs.

Kids, we all learnt a lesson on the 28th. Never, never run a long distance race with worn out shoes, no matter how well they have served you in the past. My legs are still fatigued from the race.

Rants apart, this was a nice race, with a different route -- Chanakyapuri - Safdarjung Flyover - Prithviraaj Road - India Gate - Rajpath and back. The crowd was bigger, with more serious runners. There were a lot of first timers too -- Girish, Nitendra and Shantanu included. Nitendra got his picture in the paper (bib no. 3621), and is now contemplating modeling for Jockey and Rayban.

All was not hunky dory though. With idiots like Vodafone and Indiatimes managing the event, thousands of finishers had to stand in the queue for another 2 hrs before they could get their timing certificates and medals.

To make up for the boring marathon details, I leave you now with two yummilicious and totally unrelated pictures:


The dishes in front are ofcourse RajKachori (left) and Paapri-chaat (right). The ones in the background are not Chhole Bhature, but an awesome Bengali dish called RadhaBallavi (I hope I got the spelling right). The side dish is Dum Aaloo with a mouth watering gravy. All this food is courtesy the Delhi and Bengal food stalls at Dilli Haat.


Exhibit number 2 comprises of Jalebis from a hole-in-the-wall shop in Chandni Chowk (Old Delhi). It is the area's most open secret. The finger puts the thickness of the jalebi in perspective. It is the tastiest jalebi I have ever eaten, and its no wonder that a single piece (which is huge and very fulfilling) costs around 20 bucks. As a friend from Bombay put it -- it feels like a couple of gulabjamuns have exploded in your mouth.


Now would be a good time to wipe all that drool from your shirt.

Update: I have been threatened to acknowledge the sources of the photos. The Dilli Haat pic was taken by GoldenSilence and the Jalebi pic was taken by the Goan Bird.

6 comments:

Anonymous said...

I'm a sucker for jalebis and bengali mithais!!...will make it a point to visit ol' delhi ,to savour those sinful treats...
those are some killer jalebi pics!!...:)

Tweety said...

yeah.. that's right the Jalebis really tasted like gulab jamuns.. almost drooled on my keyboard after looking at the pics :p:p

Congrats for breaking your personal record :) The Mumbai marathon is up in a coupla months, so you can meet your 2 hour mark then hopefully !

Cheers
~Tweety

Tara said...

Congrats :-)
The Radhabollobi looks delicious.. its been sooooo loooooong since I tasted any.. :-( and chaat.. methinks I have to make a trip to India now..

Bridget Jones said...

Man, the food looks awesome ! I Miss Dilli Haat and chaat and all Indian food !!

Oh, and congrats for the new record, and here's wishing you luck for breaking it real soon !

Asterix said...

@anon: One advantage of living in Delhi -- jalebis on demand!

@tweety: I think I will go to the jalebi shop over the weekend and help myself to one more round :)

@vandana: Thats the power of good food! And thanks.

@Bridget Jones: Thanks. How is the food scene in Pittsburgh? I got only a glimpse on my visit.

mrinal said...

dude, for those of us who can't figure out why on earth anyone would want to run for 2 hours and bugger up their knees.... u have to do an explanation post. cheers!