Udaipur Part 3

Udaipur

This is my 3^rd visit to Udaipur and surprisingly, my first entry about it. I could write about my repeated visits to the City Palace, Sahelion ki Bhag, Pichola Lake etc etc, but they were so boring even the first time, that going there the second and third has not voided the reason to write about them entirely. So I will stick to writing about the cool things that happened on this trip, some in fact, were paradigm shifts with regards to my relationship with the Royyuru’s.

To start off, it was Geet’s dads 60^th birthday celebrations in Udaipur, and Naan booked Udai Villas for all of us, which is pretty much the best property to stay in Udaipur, and turned out to be one of the best services we have ever received at a hotel.

So it all began with Naan surprising dad with his visit to Bombay. I had some crazy coordination to do on the Thursday night where I had to go home and pack my clothes for stay at in-laws as Geet would be there once Naan comes, then pick mom from Oberoi Mall junction, go the international to pick Naan, then get to domestic to pick Geet who was returning from Hyderabad on the same day, and finally go home to surprise dad. And it all started with my driving our car into a ditch outside our house, for which I thankfully received some help from some guys smoking nearby, and managed to not keeping Geet’s mom waiting too long. It was just a total rush from thereon, and managed to complete everything with precision timing. And it turned out to be worth it at the end of it all, as Geet’s dad was immensely surprised, which was the point of all this planning.

The next few days was chilling out with her family. Saturday morning we played squash, evening we watched Drishyam, Sunday we lunched at Masala Library, which turned out insanely expensive for the level of appreciation Geet’s parents had over the experimental food. But the good thing was, the first of the paradigm shifts happened here. Naan peacefully ordered a cocktail. In fact, Geet ordered the same drink and asked for it to be a mocktail. So we specifically ordered an alcohol based drink, which was a first for me in front of her parents. It took me nearly 3 years to finally start having some Breezers at least in front of them over these lunches/dinners we used to plan as Geet would just never let me even consider that option, which was so painful as I really appreciate my food when it is accompanied with a drink. But thankfully, all that changed on this day. We ordered a drink specifically in front of them, and I was so glad they knew we were having alcohol in our drinks, until mom nicely took a sip from my LIIT and nearly threw up when she tasted it! So clearly, she didn’t know what was in them, but hopefully at least dad did. But irrespective, I am now confident of moving from Breezers to cocktails from our next dining out moment.

Anyway, Monday morning we left to Udaipur. We barely slept the previous night as Geet and I were working till midnight on Sunday and had to wake up in 2 hours for the red eye flight. So we didn’t even get the first stage of the power nap, and had to stay in that transient state all the way to Udai Villas. Once we got there, we thankfully received our rooms immediately, unlike the time at Lalit Hotel where Geet and I went for our first anniversary, where we had to painfully wait for some 3 hours before getting our rooms.

So after checking in, we caught up on some sleep, then went out to lunch at Ambrai, which was the same restaurant Geet and I ate at when we were the last time, only that was dinner and now we were having lunch. Got back to our rooms, slept some more, and stepped out for dinner at Upre.

Here was the second big paradigm shift. We ordered Mutter Mass, a mutton mince dish with peas, which was Geet’s suggestion. It was a good follow up to the Lal Mass we had during lunch which Naan was having for the first time on my suggestion and he completely enjoyed it. I had never heard of this Mutter Mass before, but turned out really tasty. The paradigm shift moment was when Geet tasted some of it from my plate. Now this was the first time she’s having mutton with me, in all of these 5+ years I’ve known her. So glad she finally broke this barrier. When I first met her, she wasn’t having chicken either, it was just prawns and crabs. It was a restaurant in Chennai called Kabab Junction where she first dabbled in chicken given how much K and I were enjoying it there, and thereafter she’s managed to have it although it was always small pieces without the bones. And now she tried mutton, albeit in mince form.

The next day, we had a beautiful moment with a peacock outside our room, which decided to take off right over our heads and land on the terrace. Something I managed to get on my phone camera making it a spectacular shot.

We spent the rest of the day dong some more sight seeing and eating at Natraj, a restaurant specializing in Rajasthani Thali, where all of us enjoyed the Daal Batti, Jeera Rice and Daal, and everything else on offer on the plate.

I left after this as I was returning a day before the rest, and it was back to work for me from Wednesday. A few days later, Geet’s mom made Capsicum stuffed Mutton mince, and Geet once again tried it from my plate, so Udaipur was definitely not a one off. Now I need to have a cocktail when we go out next. That was completely assure me that all that happened on this trip are not one offs and definitely paradigm shift moments.