Jaunted

First Class Travel / Air India / Travel Snapshot / → All Tags

Air India Breaks Out the Bling In First Class

When we last took a peek at the first class cabin of an Air India Boeing 777, we were a little concerned about the bright Bollywood-purple lighting in the publicity shots. So we sighed with relief when we saw this "real life" shot of what business class and first class looks like on a recent flight from Delhi to London.

The scary purple-ness is gone, and now what we see is blissful gold bling. Beyond what you can see in this picture, there's even more shiny gold bits with gold trim on the windows and other parts of the seats. This is so Bollywood that we're practically awaiting dancing girls to come down the aisles; we already spot a colorful sari off to the left.

In case you're tempted to mix in with this bling, a one-way business class ticket—they call it Executive—from Delhi to London will set you back just under 72,000 Rupees ($1,500); or you could just rent a good Bollywood DVD for $3.95.

Related Stories:
· Air India's First Class Seats Have That Bollywood Glow [Jaunted]
· First Class Travel Coverage [Jaunted]

[Photo: vm2827]

Food Porn / Travel Tips / → All Tags

Eating in India: Fruit Carts and Markets

One of the best additions to my diet here in India was a little unexpected -- why did nobody think to tell me that the produce here is amazing? The fruits and vegetables sold from an average Indian pushcart could give the most la-di-da Manhattan grocery a run for its money. One current obsession are the oranges (narangi in Hindi). I paid 10 rupees for these four, but you can probably do better.

Although there are also varieties here that look just like the jumbo Sunkists back home, the smaller, greenish ones are a lot less watery and much more tangy. In a branch of the Food Bazaar store back in Bangalore, the stockboy told me that the big ones are for eating, but the smaller kind is for juicing. (An acquaintance told me the exact opposite, so I go ahead and eat them both.)  

If you're out hunting for fruit of your own, it pays to be flexible. There's not telling what the cart around the corner might have. It's a good idea to stick to fruits you can peel, or at least wash everything well. Some other hits include the tiny limes used for fresh lime sodas, the figgy sapodillas (they look like round potatoes), and melons of all sorts.

Festivals / Drugs / → All Tags

India Update: Holi, Smoke?

As you can see, my companion Don and I both managed to find Holi, India's festival of colors. It took a bit of doing -- the embassy- and government-rich area around our hotel keeps things classy but also a little too sterile and spread out for a holiday like this. If you want to celebrate Holi in a public place here, it seems the place to be is Old Delhi, where the streets are windy and muddy, the storefronts are shoulder-to-shoulder, and Holi is taken seriously. As we wandered, we kept half an eye out for colored water coming from above. But when it came to the color being rubbed on us, we just went with it -- it gave everyone so much pleasure, and it made us so darn pretty.

One small warning: because we were guys, the festival was a lot easier to handle. Women are routinely molested as part of the "fun," and for Western women especially, it's better to check it out from above or from a distance. For everyone, pickpockets are a danger to keep in mind.

As I mentioned yesterday, cannabis-laced treats are a traditional accompaniment to the festival, regardless of whether or not the stuff is illegal in a particular area (as it happens to be in Delhi). Pot is smoked, sure, but the main form is bhang, mashed-up leaves and flowers.   That mixture gets thrown into lassis (yogurt-based shakes), candies, and especially into thandai, a sweet milky drink with almonds and rosewater. So integral is this last treat to Holi that the august Times of India printed the recipe for a "bhang ki thandai" on page two of the print edition today, along with lots of other advice. Rock.

Opium also makes an appearance in some versions of traditional sweets. Take gujia. Around Holi , these deep-fried dumplings filled with raisins and almond have been known to also get a hit of dope. As one Indian wryly observed to us, this kind of drug abuse tends to be self-limiting, since the dumpling-eaters tend to drift off to sleep soon after.

And what about us? Did we score? Our Spidey senses failed, but then we weren't trying too hard to get drug sweets. It was trippy enough being smeared over and over with color and then closely hugged -- twice -- by one stoned teenage Indian guy after another.
--John Rambow

Related Stories:
·   India Update: Holi [Jaunted]
·   Is Holi a Sleaze Affair? [Hindustan Times]
·   Holi 2006 Special [Hindustan Times]
·   A Word of Caution About Holi [Indiamike]

Holidays / → All Tags

India Update: Holi

Greetings from Delhi, where I'll be for next week and a half. Today's the second day of the primarily Hindu holiday of Holi, a three-day springtime festival that I'm still trying to get my mind around. The main day, tomorrow, fills me with excitement and dread -- the main activity of "playing Holi" is throwing colored water or powder on people.

As the Rough Guide to India warns, a little primly,  "expect to be bombarded with water, paint, coloured powder and other mixtures; they can permanently stain clothing, so don't go out in your Sunday best." The papers have been filled with public-service ads from the police cautioning against throwing "colour on unwilling persons" or throwing "dirt and chemicals." As I interpret these ads, innocent victims are going to be targeted with both dirt and chemicals.

Kids were already getting revved up on Monday -- a couple of them on a balcony launched a badly aimed stream of water in my direction after first cheerfully yelling hello. Fair warning.

I don't think it takes a semiotics major to guess that all this sprinkling of powder and liquids would be accompanied by a lot of flirty behavior -- I'm not sure how flirty yet, but we'll see.  Some people say that it's the only day on which Indians are allowed to flirt openly with each other. They might be helped along in this direction by the opium- and pot-laced sweets that are a traditional accompaniment to Holi. More on those tomorrow. --John Rambow

Image from Beat of India