Amidst these auspicious days of Navratri; starting with the Day 1 festivities of Navratri on 28 October, 2019 we are totally caught up with late into night Gujarati Garba Dances and Dandiya sticks.
Draining ourselves to those rhythms and tunes, we waited till Panchami (the 5th Day) of Navaratri to let evolve our innovative Chef skills for the Anand Mela food stalls in the Durga Puja Pandal. After our last years super hit item, ice tea, this year we presented
- Small Burgers made out of Soup Buns.
- Small Veggie Pizzas
- Banana Walnut Choco-Chip Cake
- Dahi Kebabs
- Peach Ice Tea
Had the most amazingly fun experiences this year. Got lot of compliments for the innovative food items. And we were all blessed to receive the long awaited bountiful showers in Delhi/NCR finally. The small tent of Anand Mela was the only shelter for the people stuck there with the storm and rains lashing everywhere around. I could how the people of Mathura might have felt when the storm hit them with Lord Krishna lifting the Govardhan mountain atop their heads on His little finger. I know its a too far blown away comparison but truly good enough to give us jitters that night. Little kids had so much fun in the “muddy puddles” and the Rain.
The next day of Shashti when the Durga Puja Pandals start their Puja and Pushpanjalis, we went on for the Pandal Darshan around the city, esp. Chittaranjan Park area of New Delhi. We were lucky enough to have sun brightly shining over the city the next day and we could complete visiting 4-5 Durga Puja Pandals in the area till that night.
My son had this experience of roaming and witnessing Puja Pandals for the first time in his life. He enjoyed it every bit and more than anyone. By evening we were all full from the Anand Mela’s stalls of those Pandals. We were really lucky enough to spot a good parking spot in those small little cramped streets of CR Park. Starting with the famous Mela Ground Pandal which was HUGE, we moved forward to our favorite Shiv Mandir Pandal which was Magnificent and Beautiful and we were lucky to witness the Sandhya Aarti there in the temple’s Pandal. After stuffing ourselves a bit more with the food stalls’ items there, we moved to B-Block Pandal. By this time, it was post evening so all the events have started everywhere, Here, we got the opportunity of seeing Dunochi Naach competition which was being organised there. And I should mention this that the first participant of the competition was a 80 yr old male which was truly inspiring. Here’s is some video I could record on my phone.
You can see my 3 yr old son also learning some moves here with his toy battery-lit-candle in his hand.
After witnessing a fashion show after this, we could go to few more Pandals in the area before heading back to our home that night.
