A little piece of my heart

If you are ever in New Delhi ..especially in the winter when the sky is overcast with clouds and a slight chill in the air take a walk . Take a walk down Janpath ..have a chai cutting and let the colors and hustle bustle warm long forgotten corners in your heart . Then if you're still longing for another whiff of life ..walk further and ask for the Bangle Market near Hanuman Mandir .
Its such a sweet coincidence that just last week I wrote on this very blog that I thought I was in a real life version of Sarojini Naidus "Bangle Sellers" ..and yesterday I was walking and I ran into my own thought :)

...Charlotte and I spent the entire day walking around CP and Janpath area and followed a very nice lady to the Bangle Market .
We took some shady roads along the way but like they say ..sometimes when you take a leap of faith ..you do actually end up flying and yesterday was one of those days .

We went to a very nice banglewallah ..called Razia Mehandi . He drove me a rough bargain but when he found out I am from Amchi Mumbai ..like a tru Mumbaikar warmed up considerably . After we paid him ..we still lingered around the store and chatted with him . He kept calling me Beti and was looking at me so affectionately ..its like one of those freak meetings when you run into someone but you feel like you've known them from some place before ..He called his little spot boy and said something to him that I didnt catch ..and then the guy went backdorrs and came back with the prettiest bangles I'd seen . I had already bought my bangles but these new bangles were so me it was ridiculous ...that a shopkeeper I had neevr met before would so accurately guage what I would like ..and pick out bangles I would have only dreamt of but never picked myself .
Then he asked for my hand and put them on ..and said ..Khuda Hafis ..He didnt charge me for bangles he picked out .

I was thinking about the bangle sellers long after I left Janpath and came back to the hotel where the crisp tones of the very gracious housekeeping staff were a stark contrast to the vivacious banter I'd experienced all day long .

In a very wordsworthian way .."The music in my heart I bore long after it was heard no more "

Salaam Delhi !