Enjoy Delhi

Munish Khanna is a famous photographer, who has setup a photography training academy called ‘Munish Khanna Academy’ (link). For people interested in learning more about Photography, whether as a hobby, or to make this as a profession, the Academy is a good place to learn more about the art.
From the site:
Munish has developed a ” Unique Content based Basic and Advance training package” especially designed as an exhaustive, step by step study in the art and science of photography. The training is designed to cover every practical and theoretical aspect to tutor a beginner and advance an amateur not only during the course period but for a lifetime. The aim of the program is to gradually orient a student towards a complete photographic mind-set and develop his/her confidence in handling the camera for an independent indoor or outdoor shoot. The training covers all areas of practical photography including the professional guidelines on Digital Photography. The number of students in one group is restricted to 5-6 only, enabling individual attention. It is possible to undergo the training individually also at your own pace and time.

Contact Details:
munishkhanna@hotmail.com
55 uday park (august kranti road) new delhi-49 India
011-26518089,46039255,9871020341

A lot of people now have digital cameras, some of them having high end cameras such Digital SLR’s. Many people enjoy the photography they do, whether it be of social functions such as birthdays / marriages / other functions, or want to impress other people with their skills. And then there are people who are genuinely interested in photography as a hobby and want to improve their skills.
Well, there are many training institutes in Delhi, one of them being a place located just next to the Priya Cinema complex, an initiative of the Jindal Photo group, called Apex Academy for Photographic Excellence.
From the site (link): A synergy of class-room teaching, practical dark-room experience, live projects, downloads from photographers of repute in the form of tailored modules and workshops make it a holistic learning experience.
They run courses at various intervals, and are also available if corporates want to invite them to run training courses for their employees (minimum of 10 students, I believe). They teach the fundamentals of photography including history, techniques, the science, film, and also conduct trips where students can go and do practise shoots.

Contact Details:
Academy for photographic excellence
60, Basant Lok Community Centre,
Vasant Vihar, New delhi - 110 057
Tel.: 011- 41669520; 011- 46015225
fax. 011 4166 9520
E-mail:apex@apexindia.net

Delhi’s trendy people are always looking for a good place to jive, enjoy their drinks, shake a leg and have a good time. Float, located in the Park Royal Intercontinental Hotel in Delhi’s Nehru Place area is a good place to do that. The pub is a day and night pub that operates as a dance floor, as a restaurant, as a cigar enjoying joint (in a special glass enclosure), and as a pub. With all this, and with a great ambiance, including an open kitchen, you can be sure that this pub is popular, and it sure is.
The restaurant here has cuisines from all over the world, starting with some great starters in the form of Nachos, starters from Indonesia, Italian Bruchetta, Lebanese starters such as hummus, falafel with pita bread, Chicken Nuggets, and many others. And of course, vegetarians have a great variety available in the form of Chili Mushrooms, many Chinese starters, Paneer starters, etc. And if you are there for lunch, you get some great food in the form of some great Italian Pasta (where you can select from the different types of sauces, herbs, and other ingredients and get the pasta made exactly as you want). Then there are other Italian stuff such as pizza, lasagna; and of course, you can get some great wine.
And as for the desert, enjoy some great desert, with cheesecake (made in a unique way and very delicious).

Asia Kitchen is a relatively new restaurant located in Sector 63 in Noida. The location details are:
H-1A/33, Sector 63, Noida
Tel +91 (0120) 4218555/ 4218666
If you are coming from the Shipra Mall Side, you need to take the road that leads to Fortis; it is on the left side before Fortis (you will need to take the service lane).
The place has 2 floors, a ground floor and a basement. Together, the restaurant has ample seating space, with a mix of chairs and sofas for more comfortable seating.
The restaurant does not yet have a liquor license, so it cannot serve any cocktails or drinks. However, it does have a variety of mocktails and the standard lemon water, etc. The food is varied - there is Chinese, Thai, and North Indian (although this mixture does seem a bit strange - I saw on the same table, a group from an office eating a mixture of dal along with chopsuey and hot and sour vegetables; something this was not a pleasant sight.
The servings are large, and the menu choices are small (for example, the North Indian vegetable list was 2 paneer dishes, 1 kofta, 1 dal, and 1 other dish), so we ended up with a small number of dishes whose quantity proved more than sufficient. I felt the taste was great, and people eating the non-veg liked what they ate, but there were others who did not like the taste all that much.
Overall, for around 16 people, we ended up with a bill of around Rs. 350 per head, seemed a trifle high (but with drinks, starters and food, it may be fine).

For some time now, I have been eying the V3 East Center Mall in Laxmi Nagar in East Delhi. East Delhi does not have many good restaurants (in fact, very few), and it has always been a quest to figure out where one can go to when one wants to go out. Many times, we have ended up ordering food rather than going out. Some of the places where we have gone to are: Pacific Mall (Food Court - decent; Yellow Chili - Good; Moti Mahal Delux - So So; EDM Food court - not so good; Sagar Ratna (Vikas Marg and Galaxie Mall) - Decent; Nirulas - Seen better days; McDonald’s - Okay; Galaxie other restaurants - avoidable; Ansal Plaza at Vaishali - avoidable; Cross river food court - just about okay; Cross river top fine dining restaurant - avoid; Pacific Bridge - avoid, etc).
So there was this new Chutnees restaurant that opened in the V3S Mall at the end of Lakhmi Nagar, next to PSK and close to the Preet Vihar market. It seemed to be decent from outside (right next to the Moti Mahal restaurant), and the feeling that this would be a good deal increased as we went inside. The decor inside is a bit mixed, with a floor somewhat resembling a club (including a small depressed center area), big windows, books on financial matter near the entrance, and a mixed seating area with tables either having chairs, or individual sofas.
So we sat, and they handed us book size menus, with a combination of Indian and Chinese food (but no alcohol - only mocktails). Since it was late, we did not take any starters, just food. The food was good (no doubts whatsoever), but there were 2 contra points:
1. Even though there were only 3 families at that time, it still took more than 20 minutes for them to get the food (in all honesty, they said that it would take 20 minutes)
2. The quantities were a bit small, and that always makes you a bit dissatisfied.
But everything else was fine; the nans and rotis were great, the waiters were attentive. In the end, they left me confused since they charged a 5% service charge, so not sure whether to leave a tip or not. Overall food price was Rs. 900.
The saunf that they gave when we leaving was superb. And then, the kulfis that we ate outside the restaurant (just at the entrance to the mall) were great.

Contact Number 43021962, 43021963

Sherwani’s are being seen as the style statement when a male is about to get married; ethnic Indian wear, and very elegant, especially when the design on the You have a bride-groom who wants to look his best and stand out among the crowd (especially since nowadays in a marriage, everybody is dressed in their best). Depending on the closeness between the bridegroom and his fiancee, the girl also wants to have a say in how the bride-groom will look like, and you also need a place where you can see a variety of different types of sherwanis, as well as the classy suits that people nowadays wear as an alternative to the sherwani.
Most people want to find a good place where they can sample these sherwanis and suits. You also need access to good shops because a good sherwani can cost upwards of Rs. 20,000 with a good one normally costing anywhere between Rs. 35,000 to Rs. 50,000. You need to remember that this is a one-time cost, since a sherwani is not liable to be re-used in any way.
Sherwanis are available in fancy shops such as Gujralsons, Diwan Chand, etc. You can find these shops in many locations such as the Great India Mall in Noida, Lajpat Nagar, Cross River Mall in East Delhi, west Delhi malls, etc, but it is rare that you find more than one shop in a specific location. Chandni Chowk has a selection, but the best place that I have found for the male marriage dressing is Ajmal Khan Road in Karol Bagh. There is a short stretch on this road that has multiple shops - Diwan Chand (including a discount version as well), Gujralsons, Grooms, Rod, and Vasari. Through all of these, you should be able to find the one that you want. Do remember that the Sherwani needs to be stitched, and hence you will get the Sherwani after a few days.

Post courtesy Akshaya (link)

The first time when I visited Mainland China G.K.-II, I was very much impressed by their food. And I had a glimpse of what they offer for their daily lunch buffet - which is served on second floor. So, today I again headed toward Mainland China, this time to taste their lunch buffet.

And it was wonderful – simply wonderful. They have huge variety for the buffet, so such a reasonable price. If their a-la-carte menu is genuinely Chinese, their buffet is one of the best Indian-style Chinese to get in Delhi. To start with, they offer dimsums – I tried both veg and non-veg ones. Plus they had four starters – 3 veg and one non-veg; I was able to taste only two of them (since I had to save myself for various main course dishes) – Chicken Drumsticks Hunan Style and Crispy Veg. They had 5-6 types of salads on offer. And I forgot to mention that they had soups on offer as well – one veg and one non-veg. Their main course continued the more-than-enough trend set by starters and salads. They had five main course veg dishes and five non-veg ones plus rice and noddles both in veg and non-veg variants. My last visit to their place was totally a vegetarian one, this time I stuck with non-veg variety only. The non-veg main course dishes had nearly everything to try – chicken, lamb, prawns and crab. I tried Prawns In Spicy Chilli Sauce, Crabs in Butter Garlic Sauce and General Tao’s Favorite Chicken. And they were all delicious. Having stuffed all this in my stomach along with beer, my next target was wonderful dessert and fruits section. They had 5-6 desserts ranging from ice cream to mousse and fresh fruits.

Really, it was a very rich buffet in terms of variety of Chinese dishes plus the quality of food as well. And all this for 375 (+taxes) bucks per person only. Mainland China is slowly becoming one of my favorite places for Chinese. Next time, I am going to go for dimsum treat only.

Contact info:
Mainland China,
Plot No. 4, Local Shopping Centre,
Masjid Moth, Greater Kailash - II,
New Delhi - 110048
Tel : (011) 40535525 / 26
Email : mlcdel@airtelbroadband.in

This post by Akshay (link)

Yellow Brick Road is quite an interesting place. It is the 24 hour multi-cuisine coffee shop at this Taj property but it is more famous than the other specialist restaurants/bars there (Larry’s China or H2O+). The color scheme is very bright - mostly primary colours, and makes you feel as if you were eating in a kid’s room. The menu is set inside a news paper; it is like - while reading the news, why don’t you order something? I liked it - at least the concept is unique and quite innovative. The photos on the walls are of old Raj-era advertisements which give a nostalgic feel to it.

The food is not so great - but considering that it is a multi-cuisine attempt, it is ok. We tried a special salad (which was the best items on our lunch) - ‘Kurkuri Idli Chat’ (fried savory cakes made of a batter consisting of fermented black lentils, rice and fenugreek; all tossed up with other spicy items & sauces). It was something which we have tried and it was simple yet it tasted wonderful. Do try it if you go there. The fresh juices there are also wonderful. We also tried ‘Bangkok Vegetable Curry’ and it was fine.

Overall, the food is not so great but the place is worth a visit (but just one only).

Contact details: 1 800 11 1 825 / 91 22 6601 1825
Open 24 hours - Round the clock.

If you are looking for some great male traditional wear, whether for the party season, or for rituals such as attending marriages (maybe even your own), then Diwan Saheb is a great place to do your shopping.
The outlets boast of some great wear, such as Italian fabric suits, some great looking and stylish shirts, kurtas, sherwanis, jodhpuris, safas, accessories (shoes, belts, wedding turban (pagri), hanker-chiefs, etc). Of course, with this great style, prices tend to be a bit on the higher side as well; but if you are entering Diwan Saheb, then it would be expected that you would be willing to pay for the kind of quality and style that you would be getting. I know somebody who got a very fashionable party suit made for a sum of Rs. 13,000 and did not regret it one bit - it looked pretty great.
The staff is very friendly, and in our case, they actually kept the shop open for some time more till we completed our business. Outlets for Diwan Saheb are spread over Delhi and NCR:

1. LAJPAT NAGAR, NEW DELHI
40 E, Central Market, Lajpat Nagar - II
Delhi - 110 024, India
Tel : +(91)-(11)-41039009/41039010/29818866
Fax :+(91)-(11)-41039006

2. KAROL BAGH, NEW DELHI
6 / 30 W.E.A, Ajmal Khan Road
Karol Bagh, New Delhi - 110005, India
Tel : +91-11-25739755 / 25767134
Fax: +91 11 41039026

3. EAST PATEL NAGAR, NEW DELHI
23 / 4, East Patel Nagar
New Delhi -110008, India
Tel : +91 11 25781776
+91 11 25850492
Fax: +91 11 41039026

4. CROSS RIVER MALL, EAST DELHI
Shop No. F-9 & 10
Cross River Mall
Near Karkardoma Road,
Delhi.
Ph: 011-32425455

5. GHAZIABAD
M/s Roopali Exclusive
G-2, The Hans Plaza
Ambedkar Road,
Ghaziabad.
Ph: 120-6407200

Read more about Diwan Saheb at their website.