Happy St. Patrick's Day!

Happy St. Patty's Day! In India St. Patty's Day is just another day of the week. I'm wearing green, but that has more to do with the fact that I own a lot of green than anything else.
So, in honor of the day of green I'm going to talk about some of my favorite green place in Delhi. See, before I came here I was told by someone that one thing that Delhi doesn't have are open spaces, like parks or gardens. Turns out this person was totally wrong, there are plenty of parks in Delhi, you just have to know where to look. Some of this may be a repeat, but I'm enjoying the spring here so thought I would share my happiness with a tour of my favorite green places in Delhi:
1. The rose garden by my office. I can walk there on lunch, which I don't do often enough. It has lots of roses which are fully in bloom right now and a fountain that has actually been working the past few weeks.
2. Hauz Khas village area. My favorite Sunday destination (Sundays my driver is off so I stay close-ish to home because I like to know exactly how much the auto rickshaw guys should charge me and where to go if they get lost). This is a really large area where I actually managed to get lost this Sunday. One part has a few old tombs, another area, called the deer park - which I think I mentioned before - has deer, obviously. A few weeks ago I saw what looked like two deer trying to fight each other but really they had gotten a stick stuck in their antlers and they were trying to get it out. There is also a huge "basin" which is actually a rather sad looking big pond, but it looks really good after monsoon season, it is just very dry right now. And, the area where I got lost this weekend was the Bougainvillea (sp?) garden. These flowers are very much in bloom right now, they are super bright colors; but the reason why I got lost was that it was so secluded I couldn't hear any traffic...a very big deal in Delhi...so had no sense of where the street was.
3. Lodhi (or Lodi) Gardens, my favorite. My favorite probably because it is the first green space in Delhi I went to, but it is a lovely garden with these beautiful tombs throughout, and last time I went a took a different turn and found their green house.
And, not only are these places pretty, but they also have some fun signs about what is/is not allowed. Like, don't smoke, don't drink, etc., but also "don't gamble" - seriously, I've seen that twice, and in Hauz Khaz where there is the sad looking pond "don't to laundry".
So, if anyone comes to Delhi and visits me, expect to see one or two, if not all three of these places and you will see the green side of the city.