City that you've lived in

[Gambit]

Which is a city that you've extensively lived in? A city that you can identify with? How would you describe that city? I've lived in New Delhi for 11 years. These are my observations. People quite aggressive and go getters in every walk of life. Night life is quite lively with many scouring pubs and discos. Lots of great places to eat. People of Delhi have very bad traffic sense and its a survival driving on the roads. Delhi is very green and a marked decrease in pollution since the introduction of CNG buses and much more relaxed traffic after the construction of numerous highways. Central Delhi is where all the politicians and govt servants live. Very nice area of town and quite affluent. The famous Connaught Place is situated there. South Delhi is a nice commercial area. Old Delhi(north) is quite chaotic. A notable area is the Chandni Chowk and Red Fort. Has great places to eat as well, most popular being the Paratha Gali and Karim's. I've been to Karim's and the seekh kebabs I had there were mind blowing. Took the metro from CP to there and got off. Took a rickshaw and after a while the rickshawala advised me to get off and walk as there was a rickshaw jam. :lmao: The food was unbelievable and extremely affordable. For Mughlai food, Delhi has no parallel. Also, some great South Indian food is also available at places like Sagar. On the outskirts of Delhi are satellite towns like Noida and Gurgaon where the rich and famous have farm houses. Weather very hot in the summer with temp rising upto 47-48 and in winter dropping to around 2-3 degrees celcius.

[Dhondy]

Re: City that you've lived in

I lived in Varanasi for three years when I did my MD in General Medicine there at IMS-BHU, and for another 5 months, as I prepared for the Test that doctors have to take to work in the UK. The first time I drove my trusty scooter from the station to the Institute, it was just hell on earth. Narrow streets, vendors plying their stuff in the centre between the two streams of traffic, lots of laid back cows, moving around as if the place belonged to them (which it did really), two wheelers honking their horns, and rickshaw-wallahs weaving in and out of the traffic like men on suicide missions. "Fukc!" I thought, "What have I let myself in for? I should have plumped for Delhi." I was greeted at IMS by my favourite senior, the genius who I had followed from my medical school to BHU. The guy was tops in studies, and somehow managed to excel at cricket, badminton and table tennis, and be an enormous hit amongst the chicks. No wonder I idolized him. Over tea, in a lazy road-side dhaba in one of those earthenware glasses that still smelt of clay, he put things into perspective. "Look", he remonstrated, "if you really want to learn a bit about medicine, and have a bit of time left over to take in the other things in life, you have come to the right place." He proceeded to prove his point by giving me a pillion ride over to the Shiv temple right in the middle of BHU, where, in the gathering dusk, we listened to the most ethereal Bhajans you could ever hope to lay an ear to. By the time I got back to my tiny room in the hostel, my gloom had lifted. This place wasn't half bad. The next day, we went to the nearby ghat. Benares has some seven ghats, each with its own rich history. You sit by the Ganges on one of the roughly hewn steps, and take in humanity passing you by. The city gets the highest number of foreign visitor hits after Agra, and sure enough, sitting there, on that summer evening thinking wistfully of home, I could see a few hippies smoking grass and getting along with the local urchins like a house on fire. On the way back, we took in my first swig of the famous lassi of Varanasi. I tell you guys, few things on earth can beat the taste of that concoction. The Institute itself was very clean, like an oasis in the middle of a rather dirty, dusty city. I stopped feeling sorry for myself when I found out that IMS had the 3rd best record of medical publications in the country, despite receiving fairly step-motherly treatment from the Central Government in terms of funding. Some of the staff were true luminaries, kept impressively up-to-date with the literature, slogged their bottoms off on the wards, and still found energy to grill the rookies at case presentations. Sure enough, I copped a few of those. Recovery was usually aided by a trip to the central chowk through a sea of chaos on my Lambretta, and the consumption of some disgustingly colorie-rich stuff the locals called Khwaja. Cor, the bloody thing tasted good! A few weeks later, I went home and got married, and my home-sickness was a matter of the past. It's amazing what a daily diet of home made parathas does for your morale, even if you are living in a room the size of a matchbox. But heck, who cared? I was happy, hitched, having just broken the record for the earliest nuptials in the family, and fabulously rich on a salary of 5,000 INR per month.

[sm332]

Re: City that you've lived in I have never spent too much time in any city. Dad is a diplomat so have bounced around all over the world; Paris Abidjan (capital of Cote D'Ivoire) New Delhi Rome New York Philadelphia Toronto But at the end of the day when people ask me where I am from .... the answer is simple and unequivocal - JAIPUR. For those who havent been to Jaipur, it is an absolute must ... great good, rich history, warm people and a small town intimacy despite the size of the city.

[Rajiv]

Re: City that you've lived in I have Lived in Bombay Leysin ( Switzerland ) Rhode Island New York Toronto Vancouver - Current ..nothing like Bombay

[vroomfondel]

Re: City that you've lived in sm332, my dad's from jaipur and I have brilliant memories from there. Bloody amazing lassi-waalas, pakoda-waalas, jalebi-waalas other tasty-waala-types. I also love going to the mandirs early on winter mornings, when they just wash the chowk and it's freezing cold...your feet go numb running back and forth from the tap with a little cloth bucket just so you can give all our bhagwaanjis a snaan. Me? Delhi (most of life) San Jose (a year or so) Los Angeles (4 beautiful, beautiful years) Berkeley (6 months) loved LA, I'll maaro a treatise some time. -- Dhonds, fab writeup on Benaras. I went there for a week or so a couple of years ago and stayed at one of those nondescript hostel types right by the ganga. Benaras has BY FAR the best food I have ever had. Michelin would need a literal galaxy of stars to rate this city's cuisine, and Zagat would have to write an encylopedia just to fit his adjectives. Everything is veggie, and made without Onion and Garlic and absolutely, gobsmackingly good. And the doodh, holy mother... I think shwetabh was also there for a while? damn, I got me hungry -- haldirams time.

[Bumper]

Re: City that you've lived in Dhondy excellent writeup, thanks for sharing your memories. My maamaji is a Prof at IT-BHU. Have been there a couple of times to Varanasi, to visit him. Having been brought up in the South, in a busy city, i found the community at IT-BHU so refreshing. Within the BHU campus, things looked so orderly & quiet. Outside BHU it was all chaos, ofcourse. Absolutely loved the Lassis & Golguppas. Wow those lassis, in those mud cups -- what an unforgettable experience. Even the chais in those mud cups in the railway stations were incredibly tasty. That railway station where i had to board my return train was called C.unt for some reason. I profusely used that word during my stay there :hic:, without knowing why its called that. I finally learnt on my way back, its actually Cont = Cantonment. Bloody embarrassing. :hic:

[varun]

Re: City that you've lived in Great writeup on Delhi Gambit. Can associate with each and everything you wrote I've stayed in Kashmir - Srinagar/Jammu - Absolutely beautiful. The locals are (or atleast were when i was young), really helpful and very kind. There was a river which ran along the hilltop on top of which our house was built, and I've had too many adventures associated with the place to list here. Ambala - Peaceful 3-4 years. My memories of the place revolve mainly around playing a lot of cricket there, and going for long cycle rides all around the cantonment. Noida/Delhi - Moved to Noida, and I remember not thinking much about the place at the time since it was pretty barren and empty. Then moved to Central Delhi, just a few hundred meters from India Gate. Amazing place, and used to love going for walks with my Dad upto Rashtrapathi Bhavan, then off from there to Bengali Market, to my school at Barakhamba road, then to CP to visit my cousins, then back again. The whole place was littered with Ice-cream stalls in the summer, and those were one of best memories that I had with my Dad as a young boy. Finally we moved back to Noida, and I was quite taken aback with the amount of progress the city had made. Right now, with the new highways/flyovers/freeways, it's one of the hottest growing townships and I'm glad I invested in some property when I did. Overall Noida is an interesting mixture of nuovo-riche villagers (who made a lot of money selling property), middle-class defense personnel (large parts of Noida were, and still are used as defense housing), and the very rich (mostly newcomers into the place, who can afford the soaring prices). Los Angeles - The last 5-6 years. One phrase describes the most attractive feature of the city for me "Beautiful weather". What I find sad though is that ppl don't like to walk around too much, even though the weather is so good. Too many cars for my taste, but still I try to walk to work and back as much as I can and enjoy the cool ocean breeze and the perpetual sun.

[Rajiv]

Re: City that you've lived in How many people from Army Family When I was studying in Rhode Island, my whole group was all delhi-army-crowd friendship started with lot of indifferences but nothing like north indians and food passion

[Gaurav]

Re: City that you've lived in Bombay Delhi Pune Indore Bhopal London Srinagar Birmingham Leicester Milan Rome Geneva Barcelona Madrid London kicks ass :-) Followed by Bombay then Srinagar for reason of roots and natural beauty.

[Guest dada_rocks]

Re: City that you've lived in Patna Muzaffarpur Kanpur Varanasi New Delhi Someone asks me which place I would like to spend the rest of my life the unequivocal answer will be Varanasi. There is something about this place, in cricketing terms I would equate it with the lazy elegance of Dada's batting. I never get tired of watching Ganges flow while sitting on the banks totally absent-minded. Smoking POT with white hippies while listening to the melodious sound of Dhrupad singer Dagar brothers working on their rudra veena like only they can. [ Those who are interested in traditon of Dagar family here is the link. http://www.dhrupad.org/dagar/index.htm ]

[Dhondy]

Re: City that you've lived in Aha! Dada and I seem to have a lot of places in common! Another Varanasite! How long did you live there, Dada?

[vroomfondel]

Re: City that you've lived in DR, dhrupad fan? Did you get a chance to see any of the dagars live? I saw wasif in the US, also the Gundechas and Uday Bhawalkar -- but watching it in India is a different feeling. (indian classical thread start karo dr)

[varsha]

Re: City that you've lived in Mysore - for 5 years Bangalore - for 3 years Ashford, Kent Maidstone, Kent North Middlesex Dartford Dareth Valley Swanley Orpington Notting Hill!!! :) Ashford to Notting Hill has made up 10 years of my life. Best experiences: Mysore, Orpington and Notting Hill Worst: North Middlesex - lived there for 2 weeks, absolutely HATED it!!

[The Outsider]

Re: City that you've lived in Nice thread. Will contribute in detail on a few cities later on. It has been a long journey for me though(in chronological order places I've spent more than a year): Lucknow Wilhelmshaven Bonn Lucknow Baton Rouge Lucknow Chandigarh Bangalore Philadelphia Berkeley Pittsburgh New York Have enjoyed all cities I've lived in at some level except perhaps Bangalore and Pittsburgh though my favourite remains Lucknow, the good old city of Nawabs.

[Aditi]

Re: City that you've lived in Santa Monica, CA Northridge,CA Cerritos,CA Mumbai, India Cypress, CA ...and back to Cerritos Berkeley, CA and Mountain View, CA are second homes Will post writeups on LA & Mumbai as soon as I can :)

[dhruvdeepak]

Re: City that you've lived in Dubai - childhood and final high schooling years. a great place to be when young. my family resides there so i head over there for holidays. also a great place for the holidayer and shopper. the city is growing at a frightening rate, expanding its borders by the day. plenty of foreigners working for multinationals, but of course the place has a huge majority of indians, so as an indian you always feel at home. plenty to do, wonderful sights, a friendly place, but busy and bustling with action. Urbana Champaign, IL - studied there for a year. a quiet little university town, population 100,000. again, full of desis. there is plenty to do even though it is situated in the corn fields of illinois. night life is pretty quiet, but the busy student existence is an experience i will never forget. Toronto - studying here currently. another large, busy city. extremely cosmopolitan with the cuisine, nightlife something to be experienced. quite a young population considering the number of educational institutes all over the city. a nice experience these past few years. in terms of employment, opportunities etc this is a good place to study. also quite agreable place for the young entrepreneur. but of course home for me is Bangalore, where my parents lived through to their 20s. I visit almost every year and find myself stunned by the ever-changing nature of the place.

[Guest dada_rocks]

Re: City that you've lived in

Aha! Dada and I seem to have a lot of places in common! Another Varanasite! How long did you live there, Dada?

On and off for around three years. Great people have so much in common :lmao: :lmao:

[Guest dada_rocks]

Re: City that you've lived in

DR, dhrupad fan? Did you get a chance to see any of the dagars live? I saw wasif in the US, also the Gundechas and Uday Bhawalkar -- but watching it in India is a different feeling. (indian classical thread start karo dr)

Varansi is unique place u can watch live most of the classical stuff and that too free of cost. I have watched jalota , pandit jasraj, Dagar brothers, Bismilla khan etc etc all live. By no stretch of imaginaton i am classical singing afficianado but there was sthg about that ganga ghat and varanasi it changes u even if it means temporarily. These days my music taste starts and ends with jagjeet singh. It has been like this for over a decade I guess.

[Dhondy]

Re: City that you've lived in

I dont see begusarai in there ... mishtook maybe ?

Nice...nice!!

[The Outsider]

Re: City that you've lived in :lmao: :lmao: Just trying to hide my roots.