Rain is falling

Only today morning did i read a report in the paper that the temperatures in Bangalore are going above the roof. Sunday apparently recorded a high of 37 degrees. And i was wondering how the hell would i manage at home without the cool temperatures of the workplace that i have so gotten used to!
So when I saw signs of rainfall while getting out of office, i was happy. The rain has literally been playing hide and seek for the past week or so. One is so hopeful that it will rain and the entire day gets spent without so much as cool breeze outside. Everyday, i call my mom and ask her about the weather in Mysore. And she cribs a good deal about it. Once she is done, it is my turn and i do so too. Today she excitedly called around the evening and said it was raining there. I was so hopeful and looked outside to see an overcast sky.
Looks like the rain gods have seen enough sweat on all our brows and have taken the matter into their hands. Its started raining! Ah! The smell of mud when it rains.
Complete with thunder and lightening, it looks like we are in for a rainy night. How wonderful will it be if it rains really heavily and the offices declare that the employees can all work from home that day. Or else there is a flood-like situation at the workplace! I know it is too much for a person with the office in the 10th floor to ask for ;)
Anyway, i hope it continues to rain and the temperatures come down so that we can all venture out without the fear of being burnt down in the scorching heat.
And alongside, i shall also pray that this causes no harm to the mango crop. I would not want to trade eating yummy mangoes all through the summer for anything else!

Of Fridays and travel

I travel home from Bangalore almost every weekend. Work gets over around 4.30 and my train to Mysore is at 6.15. Plenty of time, one would think. But not when i work in Whitefield and need to travel as far as Majestic to board the train. And i can't just say leaving early for the day and escape from the office early every friday.

So every friday evening turns out to be a running race of sorts. Run from the office to catch the 335E to Majestic. Then run from the bus stand to the station and then all the way till the first or second compartment in the front to get to my seat.

In case i am taking the 335E, i need to leave early, since it takes a roundabout route and goes through all the office areas in Whitefield and then through the choked Old airport road. So i decided to take an alternate route one weekend. Took a bus from tin factory bound to Majestic. And what road would he end up taking? The old madras road- Ulsoor route. Metro work+ Offices along the route= big traffic jams. Result- I could not catch the train that weekend.

So for the past couple of weeks, i have been coming back by office cab to my place and taking an auto from there to Majestic. Worked out fine till now. The auto guy is pre-warned that the train is at 6.15 and that he needs to rush. Costs me around 90 bucks but they make sure i am there on time.

Last weekend, the auto driver, a frail looking ajja assured me that he could make it to the station with plenty of time to spare. I looked no further and jumped into the auto. As my luck(good or bad?) would have it, there was a big jam near the cantonment road and at the same time the auto's gear wire got cut! Without any other option, i paid the guy, got out and navigated through the jam to find another auto. I just said railway station, like i normally do and sat down. It did not occur to me that i should have said main station, coz the auto fellow started going towards cantonment station. When i said Bangalore station, he refused to go there and asked me to get down. I gave him a bad look but that was all i could do! Another search for an auto ensued and luckily i found one. The guy went zzuii-zzuii and cut across traffic and went through all kinds of short cuts. I kept my eyes shut and kept praying because he was actually driving horribly rashly and i did not want to stop him. He made sure that i reached the station right on time. From there, i ran like i was running for my life. And caught the train successfully.

Every weekend is the same story. I get lectured by the auto people to leave half an hour earlier to escape the weekend traffic. (If only my manager understood that!) And pray on the way every time that i should be able to catch the train. And when i find the train , still on platform 6 when i climb out of the subway, i say a silent thank you to god and rush towards my compartment. All of this effort is worth the smile on my Dad's face when he is in his spot at the Mysore station to pick me up and the joy in my mom's voice when i call her and tell her that i have reached and would be home for dinner in a few minutes. Any outsider seeing this should think i have been gone for ages! ;)

Go green!!

The Copenhagen summit, global warming, changing climatic conditions have all been in the news for a while now and we all do the talk talk part about how the environment is going to dumps. And also crib about water shortage, incessant power cuts and rising temperatures. How many of us actually take a step further to inculcate habits into our life that would help our environment? It was when I was watching the NDTV greenathon that I thought harder about it.

Living in a city life Bangalore with matchbox like apartments, it would be too much to ask everyone to plant a tree and bring the greenery back to the city. But there are things that we could do on a daily basis, which if each and every one of us incorporated into our lives would go a long way in saving Mother Nature.

First thing would be to get rid of plastic bags. They clog drains, remain in the soil for a hundred years and harm the environment in every possible way. I use plastic bags in my house only to dispose of garbage. It is a necessary evil. Otherwise, I carry my own bag whenever I go out. Start saying no to plastic bags at your local grocery store and encourage the store owner to sell cloth bags which the customers can reuse for their shopping. Or else, pick up these really trendy bags from jute cottage and turn up hep for that shopping trip. Better still, get yourself a backpack that can hold possibly everything from your shopping trip and keep dumping stuff as you when you buy them into your bag. That’s what I do. I have an array of bags for different purposes.

Try and switch off the lights and fan when you don’t need them. Many a times we tend to leave the lights on despite coming out of a room. Be a little more thoughtful and remember to switch them off.

Learn to recognize the value of the water that runs in your tap. I tell you, you need to go through a day with dry taps to know it. I had the wakeup call when the overhead tank of the apartment I stay in became empty and I had to survive on water stored in buckets for almost a day. Go easy on the taps when you are using the water and maybe even try to reuse the water. Water used to clean veggies can be used to water your plants (if you have any, that is). The water from the last rinse of clothes can be used to give your vehicle that much needed wash.

I am sure that once the metro if functional, most of Bangalore is going to turn to it for transport. Until then, use the available public transport. The bus day is a good concept that the BMTC has started. I am sure that if I had my vehicle in Bangalore, I would be tempted to zip around the city on it. But let’s face the fact- with the kind of traffic and pollution in the city, it is far better to travel by Volvo- sans any tension or worry. You can switch off your mind, listen to music or even catch a few winks on the course of your travel. You also get respite from the scorching heat outside. And to top it, it is one vehicle less on the roads and that much less pollution.

This is what I have made a beginning with. If you include any of these habits or know of anything else that can be done by everyone, be sure to pass them on. It is high time we stopped complaining and took steps by ourselves to contribute to conserve the environment. After all, we do need to make sure that our future generations get to see the beauty and bounty that Mother Nature has to offer. Let it not be something that they would get to see only in the pictures taken from our expensive cameras!

Yeh Swayamvar nahin, Shaadi hai :)

So Rahul finally got his Dulhaniya. I was fortunately at home on the day of the finale and it was not something that i would miss at any cost. The very fact that there were 16755 applications( he claimed that in an interview) for the title of Mrs.Mahajan had surprised me. Its one thing to be desperate to hog the limelight for two minutes, but choosing a platform such as the Swayamwar?! God, no! I think it is the girls who made it to the last three but did not get to marry the guy are luckier coz they got the fame and recognition that they needed and did not even have to marry the guy in return! Look what happened to the ganga ke kinaare wala guy from Rakhi's swayamwar. He charmed his way into the hearts of the right people and landed himself a show on NDTV Imgine.
Coming to Rahul's swayamwar, the guy stuck to the predictions and chose the front-runner for the title as his dulhan. He did not even give the kind of build up of hesitation and indecisiveness that Rakhi did on her D-day. The varmala was given to him, he stood in front of the three brides for about a minute and bang!, garlanded the dimply Dimpy. (The girl exudes fakeness throughout! The sharmaana and batting of eyelashes is so filmy. And it seems the fact that they both celebrate their birthdays on the same day is one of the bonds of their friendship! Something as lame as that? Please! ) Headlines today took 5 seconds after the varmala moment to declare it as breaking news.
Also accompanying this news was the fact that Dimpy was under contract with Maureen Wadia of Gladrags that she would not get married for some time. Mrs. Wadia is now planning to sue. Publicity from all sides for Dimpy!
The guy has been in news for drug abuse, is umpteen number of years elder to her, does reality shows, has an irritating laugh and a bad history. I really don't see what the cause of celebration at the girl's household was! But still, celebrate they did. Now that the shaadi is over, I guess it is some respite for other TV channels that were being hit by the TRPs of RDLJ. Whatever Rahul did it for- to clean up his public image or to start afresh, he made sure to grab the eyeballs and airtime of a lot of news channels. These channels will also do follow up on their status from time to time, jobless as they are. I hope the new Mrs. Mahajan gets to stay for a while longer than the old one. :) What would be an anti climax though, would be that she remains Mrs.Mahajan only and does not get to make it big in Bollywood ;)
Also watch out for Rakhi Swayamvar part 2. She will apparently get married in a swayamvar only.

Foodie!

When i was moving to Bangalore, the most prized possessions of my luggage were the gas stove, rice cooker and utensils that i had got from home. Apart from shifting base and starting work, the next most exciting thing for me was to set up the kitchen, experiment with cooking and also trying out food at different eat outs.
After being astounded by the prices on the menu in the various restaurants i visited and being not-so-happy about the taste, I have resorted to eating out only once a while when some place is very highly recommended.
These days, whenever my flat mates and i feel like eating something, we generally google the recipe or call back home to find out how it is made and then start work in the kitchen. Since cafeteria food is plain boring, lunch is also cooked and gets packed in the ubiquitous tupperware boxes. Of course, half of our ideas for the lunch box are borrowed from the friend whose mom packs delicious sabjis to go with his chapathis and paratha each day.
With so much cooking happening, the three of us at home end up spending half of our non office hours cooking and exchanging notes in the kitchen, over a steaming pot. Whether it is a full meal or just a cup of adrak ki chai, the pleasure of eating stuff that is a result of one's own effort is simply unmatched(even when it turns out not-so-great sometimes). So we thought we should start a food blog( here we go! Don't we have enough of them already?! Maybe yes, but we need to document our culinary achievements somewhere! ;) ).
Perfecting the art of cooking is a process that takes years. We are just starting off. And as long as i am, i will cook. And as long as cooking happens, i will post. Here is hoping that the blog is a document of our progress as cookers( that's what we like to call ourselves ;) ) And also hoping that the three many cooks don't end up spoiling the broth.

Phir Mile Sur? Nah!

I am a big fan of Mile Sur Mera Tumhara. I remember watching it on DD as a kid and singing along with it, making up lyrics in the languages that i did not know. When i heard that it was going to be remade with the current actors, musicians and sportspersons, i was thrilled. This was last week. I have waited one whole week for its Republic Day launch. And in the meantime, i have watched its making on Youtube, told about it to friends, and when they asked if it was going to be on DD again, i said, No. Its on Zoom- isko dekho. ;)So i wake up early today morning to watch it on Zoom. It started off well with A R Rahman and Big B. But yes, like all remakes, as it progressed, it was disappointing. Despite the fresh faces and all the hype, it did not work for me. And this is why:

• My personal grievance is that Hrithik was not featured in the video.
• It failed to hold my attention after the first time. My dad asks me halfway through the video- is it a one hour program?
• Suriya and Vikram should have in the same frame when the Tamizh bit came on. And what happened to Kamal Hassan?
• Where are the cricketers?
• The diversity came across very well with the multifarious actors but i failed to see the unity.
• I could see that people on screen were acting in most parts. The effortlessness on screen that was in the original was missing. It looked like it was more about looking good than being a part of a national integration video.
• Among the over-actors are Priyanka Chopra, Shahid and Deepika. The leggy Deepika, for God's sake looked like she dropped in directly after shooting for some ad! And you could have given the remix of Bakhuda Tumhi ho as playback for Shahid's part and not known that he was actually crooning mile sur into the mike!

But it also worked for me in bits-

• Salman Khan with the deaf and mute kids. It was really touching.
• The bit with Shobhana and Shaimak Davar doing some sort of jugalbandi.
• Atul and Sonali Kulkarni- they looked real.
• Amir Khan's taare zameen par inspired part.
• Sivamani drumming by the lakeside.
• The last part of the video with the sports persons- that was when i could actually see this feeling of National integration and pride of being Indian on screen. Thats perhaps because they were not acting!
  

The original had some really memorable parts:

• The mahout on the elephant during the malayalam playback.
• Amitabh, Jeetendra and Mithun, arm in arm, singing Mile Sur like they meant it.
• Shabani Azmi's part. Where do we have actors like her these days?!

The older version, like most people are saying now, is untouchable. It is simple, charming and works because it has real people. This one is more bollywood centric, glamorous and a poorer cousin of the original. It so totally proved that Zoom TV is behind its making! Isko dekho par without any expectation!

PS: Bad day for me. Nadal pulled out of the Australian Open. Was hoping for a Nadal- Federer final!

Ooty- Sidewalk Cafe

Ever since i watched the Ooty episode of Highway On My Plate(HOMP), i have wanted to go
there for the sole purpose of eating at the places that were featured on the show.
Last weekend provided the perfect opportunity. It had been two weeks since work resumed after the shutdown and we badly wanted to get away someplace. Ended up rounding up a bunch
of people- friends, friends of friends and off we went to Ooty.


First stop was at Pykara and we stopped at one of the home made chocolate stores to pick up
an assortment of chocolates, tea and essential oils.
A long road trip from Mysore to Ooty and the walk at Pykara got us all hungry and we knew
where to go for brunch- The Sidewalk cafe. However, we could make only by lunch time and we settled down to order some pizzas that they are famous for.

After placing our order for the pizzas and sizzlers we asked their manager if we could take a peek at their famous firewood oven. The genial manager let us into the place where they baked the pizzas and let us all help the chef with the making and baking. And not only that, each of us was allowed to don the chef's hat, turn by turn and we posed away merrily for pictures!

The pizzas came out of the oven nice and hot( They had to.After all, we had helped them make it) and we wolfed down the Sidewalk specialty pizza, a spinach pizza called Popeye
something and a jain pizza. The sizzler had the yummiest and creamiest pasta that i had eaten till date.

The place has some really nice desserts on offer too. Not only that, you can also take your pick at some of their tasty chocolates- run and raisins, walnuts, almonds, cashewnuts and the like.

Sidewalk cafe is a laid back and warm place. I was delighted to see framed, old coca-cola
print advertisements adorning the walls. The baking place is modeled like a bar where you
can sit around on barstools and watch your pizza getting done. Apparently, the place gets really crowded during the evenings. Since we made it slightly early for lunch, we missed the rush. It
allowed us to sit back and enjoy the lunch at leisure. At the end of it, i knew that it was
one more name added to my satisfied-after-eating-here list. Seems the place has become more famous after it was featured on HOMP. I am gonna recommend it to all of you too. Do not miss it if you visit Ooty.

A heavy lunch and then it was time for shopping at Charring Cross- more chocolates,plants and woolens. Eating and shopping- the ultimate indulgence during an outing! :)

So much so,that we forgot that there were other places to cover before we headed back to
Mysore. Somehow wrapped up all the places before sundown and headed back. Spotted elephants on the way, in the bandipur forest, quietly grazing at night.
It was a single day out to Ooty but i got back with my batteries charged. And each time one of the plants from back there flowers, it is going to remind me of the trip and bring a smile on my face.