WHEN LIFE GIVES YOU LEMONS

...Open a charming farmstay. In retrospect, Citrus County Hoshiarpur seems crafted just for a post-COVID world. AMIT DIXIT made a tangy holiday of it.

- AMIT DIXIT

IT WAS NOTHING SHORT OF SURREAL, HITTING THE ROAD for an out-of-town trip after months of being holed up at home. We slipped out of Delhi at sunrise, headed due west. At that hour, the world always brims with possibilities. The road in front of us lit up gradually, the traffic not exactly scanty. Everyone seemed to be in a hurry. Or, maybe, we were the ones trying to taking it slow, savouring every moment of the journey. There was an insatiable hunger in our hearts, a lust to wander. There was a more prosaic hunger as well, the one which was making our tummies rumble. But, although Puneet’s heart was set on it, Murthal—the world capital of paratha bellies— disappointed at that early hour, and we had to drive as far as Karnal before we could find decent oily flatbreads. Let me not be stingy with my praise. They were near perfect: straight-off-the-tandoor fluffy, bursting with flavour and fillings, paired with a dollop of butter and some masala chai to wash it all down. Even Puneet, an uncompromising paratha connoisseur, seemed visibly moved.

WE HIT THE HISTORIC grand trunk ROAD AGAIN,

as chuffed as a pair of pioneers. For a first outing after the lockdown, we could not have chosen better. At Mohali, we took a quieter country road, lined with trees which leaned over the path to touch each other, that is, when it did not have a stately irrigation canal gurgling past. The road had lurched north by then. At some point, there was pouring rain and the temperature plummeted. Once the skies cleared, we pulled over and popped open a flask of lukewarm coffee to dunk our cookies. Priceless.