The Colors of Rajasthan-Udaipur (Day 12)

January 25:

The next morning we found out that the City Palace was newly opened again after the royal wedding, so we decided to head there. When we walked in, we saw that they were still taking down the decorations from the wedding and even setting up tables and fabric streamers for an after party for later that night.

Love the 'stache!

After seeing many palaces in Rajasthan on our trip, I can say that the palace itself was just another palace. Crazy to think that I can say that, but when you’ve seen five, you’ve seen them all. Unfortunately by the end of our 2-3 hour long tour, I was hoping for a Café Coffee Day in the gift shop.

Next up, was a cooking class I had signed up for. The hotel we stayed at was offering a cooking class plus lunch for only Rs 600 ($10). Bargain! We learned how to make so many delicious foods. We started our class with making some chai but then learned how to make Malai Kofta (creamed potatoes, fried dumpling kind of dish) and some other north Indian dishes. And the best part? We got all the recipes!

I know you’re all dying to know how, so here’s the masala chai recipe:

Indian Chai (makes 3 cups)

Chai Masala (Tea Spice)

*This can be kept for up to two years in an airtight container

Combine equal amounts of:

Green Cardamom

Black Pepper

Clove

Nutmeg

Mace (flower of nutmeg)

Dry Ginger

Ingredients:

• 2 cups of water (125 ml x 2)
• ½ teaspoon chai masala (tea spice)
• 1 teaspoon tea powder (assam tea)
• 2 teaspoons sugar
• 1 cup milk (skimmed milk)...doesn’t matter if it’s hot or cold

Method:

1. Put bowl on heat and add water
2. When water starts to boil, add chai masala (tea spice)
3. Wait one minute then add tea powder and sugar
4. Wait one minute again. Then add milk
5. Wait for boiling. When it starts to boil, boil it up and down 5-7 times on low and high heat. You can also take it on and off heat.
6. Then take it off the fire and cover it for two minutes
7. After two minutes, strain (filter) it In a cup or pot. It’s ready to drink!

After being stuffed to the brim with all this delicious Indian food, we decided to walk it off by doing some shopping. I’ll warn you now, Udaipur is very dangerous on the wallet. Not for pickpocketers but because of all the amazing finds! By the end of the two days we had in Udaipur, I had an entire tote bag of extra goodies that wouldn’t fit in my suitcase. Good thing I have a bigger suitcase in New Delhi!

We ended our time in Udaipur with a group dinner on the lake. We had a table overlooking the lake, with all the old buildings lit up at night. It was like a beautiful night in Greece or Italy. I never thought I would be a lover of dal (lentils), after all the dal I’ve had during my time in Delhi, but this dal makhani was almost good enough to lick the bowl! I couldn’t have asked for a better ending to Udaipur.

The alleyways of New Delhi

This whole week I’ve been going to some of SPYM’s program sites in order to get a better feel for the vast amount of work the organization does. On this particular day, it was planned that I was going to work on some things in the office in the morning and head out to visit a homeless shelter after lunch. And this morning like every other morning and afternoon, there’s chai time. There’s nothing like chai interrupting you doing your work :) 

The morning came and went with random tasks to get done and soon it was lunch time. SPYM is an organization unlike one I’ve seen before. They provide three meals a day to their staff. Usually though the staff just eat lunch there and eat at home for breakfast and dinner. Today’s menu was palak paneer, rice and dal....yum! 

After lunch, I came back to the office and waited for one of the staff to bring me to the homeless shelter. In true Indian fashion, after a little over an hour it was decided who was going to bring me and then we decided to leave. 

Side note: I should mention that yes, Indian time is not exactly American time, but my organization is currently short-staffed so everyone is running around doing the job of two people. So I can completely understand people being late because they’ve been tied up with other things going on. When I’ve asked some staff how they like working for the organization though, they keep saying how happy they are to have a job, especially in the social services. It just goes to show you that money doesn’t buy happiness!

It was a little after 3pm and the shelter was about 40 minutes away. I think it was safe to say that I definitely wasn’t finishing work at 5pm. Once we got on the road, we had to make a detour to drop off some paperwork to a training center near by. A half hour later we were back on the road and ready to head to the homeless shelter. After getting lost a few times and getting caught up in the New Delhi rush hour traffic, we finally found the right area. The homeless shelter ended up being in a neighborhood where the only way to get to it was to drive through an alleyway, the width of a driveway. So we drove through motorcycles coming at us, guys pushing carts of flowers and fruit, kids playing in the roads....classic India. I only wish I had captured the moment on my camera! We had finally made it. 

This is one of those times when the journey outweighs the end. And this is one of the reasons why I decided to come to India. Sure every so often I get frustrated by the auto rickshaw drivers trying to rip you off or the different pace of time, but after learning to take it in as part of the journey, I’ve started to actually enjoy it! It’s part of India’s culture and I wouldn’t want to ever change that.