I hate going out on Sundays, the only day I get to laze around at home. Last Sunday, my husband almost pulled me out for an off-beat city excursion. We headed to Chandni Chowk in Old Delhi, around 20km from our home in South Delhi. After having parked our car next to Red Fort, we set out on a walking tour. Over crowded streets packed with shops selling saris, salwar kameez, electronic goods, footwear — I felt like running back to home. A brief walk halted at Gali Paranthe wali.

Haunting! I couldn’t afford to break my diet chart but was forced to. I was surprised to see foreign tourists stuffing themselves with paranthas in medium sized stalls. Expecting a menu card was foolish on my part, instead walls of the stall had almost 45 varieties of veg paranthas scribbled on them. Starting from mirchi, bhindi, aloo, gobi, dry fruits, rabdi, pulses, mixed vegetable, carrot, bitter gourd — parantha stuffings were myriad! Steel plates with aloo subzi, cheese, kaddu subzi, kele waali meethi chutney & green chutney graced our table before we ordered for paranthas. I wanted to taste the rest after the first bite. It wasn’t the usual parantha that we have at home, it’s more of stuffed pooris deep fried in ghee. No complains, it was heavenly! Forget diet, we wanted more!

Next, we headed to Amritsari Lassi Corner. I am a huge sweet lassi fan! I don’t count calories when it comes to this cold drink. I can’t let go a golden chance to savor a plain sweet lassi (topped with a dollop of butter). A spoon helped us see how thick the lassi was. Sinfully delicious. But butter was a strict no-no, hence my better half gulped it from my glass.

We couldn’t leave the narrow lanes without stopping at Ghantewala, a legendary sweet shop which sells halwas and authentic Indian sweets (pure ghee products). We bought a kilo of jalebis. We tried searching for the same near home, but failed miserably! Hence, we wanted to take home a huge quantity good enough to last a few days. While they fried our pick in front of us, I fed myself with kesar kulfi and faluda! Suddenly there was a gentle pat on my shoulder, turned — we met an old friend with his wife.

The duo wanted us to join them for lunch, but we were through. Nonetheless, catching up with old pals is fun, so four of us went to Gole Hatti. The menu featured chhole bhature, chhole kulche, veg. pulao, chhole-chawal-palak, dahi-bhalle and ras-malai — all clean with proper standards of hygiene.

Walking through Chandni Chowk was not easy. Small and big vehicles, scores of heads at every corner. We walked into Giani Faluda, just to check what they had in store and ended up buying Rabdi faluda, dal halwa to take home.

Walking would probably aid in losing the countless calories I consumed last Sunday. Deadly combo of friends and feast just made my Sunday so special. Trust me, it was stomach friendly. So without worrying about Delhi Belly, you can spice up your Sundays too!