Category: India, 2019

Delhi and Punam

November 1

A slight digression. For those of you who have wondered what I think is the greatest invention ever made by man, I want to put your anxiety to rest. It’s the shower. I mean, the wheel was good, too, I suppose, but the shower was shear genius. I was reminded of that this morning, showering at the Imperial.

Moving on, now, with the day, we breakfasted at the hotel and then met the real reason we came to Delhi, Punam Ghandi. Punam (she correctly predicted that we’d never forget her name if we thought of “shayna Punam”) is the fabulous guide we fell in love with on our first trip to India, thirteen years ago, and saw again when we went to the South of India. She’s a great conversationalist on any topic, exceedingly honest and extremely knowledgeable, to boot. She’s become more of a friend than a guide, and we just wanted to hang out with her.

And that’s what we did. Carol still has a pretty bad cough and was not anxious to spend time outside, because of the poor air quality (and the heat did not seem attractive, either). Especially being the last day of our trip we wanted to take it easy. When we told her we’d enjoy seeing some art, she suggested that we see if Rohit Kaicker was around and, if so, go over to his gallery, located in his home, to see his fabulous collection and listen to his expertise about the art he collects.

Rohit was home, so we went over to his gallery and spent an hour and a half looking at and talking with him about his outstanding collection, which he says is a hobby that he picked up from his father. Clearly, this is much more than what we would consider a hobby, as he has rooms full of exquisite work.

You may recall that Carol and I were both blown away by the miniatures we saw in the palace museum at Jodhpur. That was the kind of work Rohit collects, a good deal of which is of a quality comparable to the museum work. We were able to examine the minute squirrel tail brush work on these pieces with a magnifying glass to appreciate the detailed work. We wound up buying an outstanding piece (more than twice the price of some very nice other pieces he showed us) and I look forward getting it home, framed and hung. It will make a great addition to our eclectic collection. We can be confident of its quality, not only because Rohit told us so (Punam had said about Robit before we went to see him that he was “too honest”), but because when we walked through his home, one of the pieces hung in his private collection was part of the same series as the one we purchased,

From Rohit’s house we drove to the National Modern Art Museum and walked through the collection. While there were some pieces we liked, for the most part we were not impressed. We drove by an area in which rather amusing paintings had been done on buildings that were not of the quality of the graffiti art I’d seen in Joburg in April, but fun to see.

We then went to lunch with Punam at Basil and Thyme, a small and unpretentious restaurant with excellent food. From there we went to another area to do some last-minute, small shopping, which was only partially successful. As it was already almost 4PM, we decided to declare victory and head back to the hotel, where we napped, had dinner, packed and prepared for the midnight pick-up for our 3:20AM departure for home, via London.

I’m posting this from the Business Class Lounge in London. Final post will be a reflection on the trip. If you’re still with us, you might as well stick around and find out whether we had a good time.

4 comments to Delhi and Punam

  • jeanzunkel@gmail.com

    You will have to send a photo of your new piece of art.

  • Phoebe Snell

    Great that you got to see your friend!The graffiti art is so fun! Sorry about Gee-Gee’s cough. Have a good trip back:)
    L,
    PR

  • arnie

    Will do, Jean, but no photo can capture the detail that makes it so special.

  • Barbara Sandler

    Okay, then, when should we all stop by? Let’s say, for dinner and drinks?
    So just let us know when your newest acquisition arrives and we’ll plan
    around it. Thanks for thinking of us!

    Love, Your Little Sister

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