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.

My year end lists

I love lists. Like Alan Harper of two and half men, i make lists for almost everything. Shopping, packing for travel, movies to watch, restaurants to try out and so on. With the year drawing to an end, we've got every Tom, Dick and Harry with an audience or readership coming out with lists- best movies, best songs, best moments of 2009 and so on. So i was like, what about my best and worst lists?; they should go up in the blog. Hence this post. Only that, i don't exactly have a big list for everything. Maybe i'll just list out the best and the worst of a few things that really stayed on in my mind. :) I don't expect anybody to agree with them coz i have this eccentric taste sometimes:)
So here goes a few of my personal year's bests-worsts and expectations from the next year.

Best movie of 2009: Wake Up Sid. Loved Ranbir in the movie. ( I so wish Hritik was featured in a full fledged role in some movie. This would have totally gone to him! )

Best song: A tie between Chor Bazaari, Ikatara and Dhan te dan.

Best book: Or books. The Twilight series. Call me a hapless romantic, but i totally loved the series!

Best TV show: Highway On my plate on NDTV good times.

Most entertaining show: Rakhi ka swayamwar. People who watched it will agree with me. Maybe bigG boss was a serious competitor, but i was not blessed enough to follow the show and its kamaal ke characters.

Cutest tv actor: Josh Radnor of How i met your mother.

Most unwanted death on tv: Michael Scofield of Prison Break. Did the man have to be killed?

Worst movie of the year: From the ones that i watched, I must say What's your Rashee. Its one thing to overact. But in 12 roles?! No thank you.

Most adorable movie character: Russell from Up.

Most overrated restaurant: For me, it would be Rajdhani. I know that it has been around for a while, but i discovered it only this year. After reading rave reviews about their authentic vegetarian food and all, i probably had really high expectations. The food wasn't great. And blame it on my inability to gorge down food, I don't think i got value for even half of the 300 bucks that i spent on the thali.

Best ad: The docomo train advertisement.

Best moment: When i finished my last exam of the 8th semester.

Most exciting moment: It was the day my first salary was credited into my account. The cell phones of most of the people around me went off with salary update messages and i could see this smile wave spreading across.

Other random things:

1. Loved the Crest edition that Times of India came up with.
2. Booster Jus simply robs people of their money.
3. Malleshwaram and Jayanagar offer some of the best places to eat in Bangalore.
4. We should have more radio stations playing Hindi and English music. Whats the point in having so many stations when all of them are playing the same kannada songs over and over again!!
   
5. It is great to have friends from college in the same office and having one of your best friends for a room mate. Saves the trouble of getting used to and adjusted to the person.
   
6. Shopping is really fun when you go swiping your card. Its only when the bills are checked that the guilt really starts!
   
7. Almost all the nice guys are taken. Really!
   
8. Two States was probably one of the most widely read books of the year. I saw almost everyone around me reading the book.
9. It is great that there is a McD in almost all prominent shopping places. Don't really cre about the taste or calories as long as i get the energy to keep me going ;).
   
10. It is so funny that one can't remember much from the first half of the year when making lists such as this!

Anyway, here's my wishlist for 2010:

1. Slightly less clutter in the city. Wish something could be done about the traffic in Bangalore. I am sick and tired of travelling for almost 2 hours to reach Majestic from work every friday.
2. More restaurants serving a good vegetarian fare.
3. Autodrivers asking for not more than 20 bucks for minimum distance.
4. Stores giving a small cashback to people getting their own bag. It is high time something is done about the plastic bag menace.
   
5. Quality movies being released. Especially in the regional languages. I can't think of many good movies with big stars in Tamil and Telugu being released this year.

Well,perhaps there are more, but i can't remember any right now. Tonight will be spent ruminating over the year and going over its pluses and minuses. Then there is also a big list of resolutions to be made. Phew! Ushering in a new year does take some effort. Anyway, 2009 was great for me and am hoping the next year will be better still. Hope your new year brings you loads of smiles and success. Happy New year!

The week that was

The previous week has been one helluva eventful week for me. It started with a trip to M.G Road one evening in search of books and magazines. Found an alleyway where a nice gentleman was selling old magazines and novels. The stacks and stacks of readers digests evoked fond memories from school when i used to read them during boring classes. I picked up a few for as less as 15-20 rupees a piece depending on the year of publication. From there, i headed to Bookworm where i lost track of time, going through a multitude of books, some new, some yellowed, but each one of them shouting out at me to buy them. I had an eye on the Ayn Rand collection but the price was a turn off. So i settled for a good copy of Gone with the Wind and a few Enid Blytons for sister dear.
It was while i was at Bookworm that i heard about the Bangalore Book Festival. Told about it to a few friends and all of them jumped at the idea of going there. So off i went on Wednesday to palace grounds with a bunch of friends and loads of cash. And oh my god! My two eyes and three hours of time were not enough to take in the stuff on display there. After a lot of searching and sorting, i bought 7 second hand books- an Irving Wallace, David Baldacci, 2 Agatha Christies, Michael Crichton, a chic lit book by an unknown author and the Kishore Biyani book- It happened in India. All this for just 490 bucks, without burning a hole in my wallet. If only i had more time I'd have emptied it for sure! The Wodehouse and Stephanie Meyer collection cost a bomb, so i have to be satisfied with the pictures only here :).


Thursday came and we restless souls were on our feet again, this time for a movie- APKGK. The reviews looked okay, but what the hell, when there is Ranbir Kapoor in it, i can watch any movie ;).Left work early that day to catch the early evening show at Innovative Multiplex. The movie turned out to be really silly but have i laughed till my sides ached or what! I was laughing more at the movie than with the movie. But Ranbir's performance was top notch and comic timing was brilliant. Go watch it at least once. For me, for 100 bucks at Innovative, it was a great deal!


Skipped going home this weekend. Instead, went to the Groundnut Mela in Basavangudi. The whole of the bull temple road was filled with stalls selling not only groundnuts but a variety of fare that made it look like a village fair.

I realized what the charm of the Old Bangalore areas was all about. With rows of stalls displaying colorful stuff, my camera had a gala time. To satisfy the appetite that we had worked from all of that walking, we had the North Karnataka spread at Kamat Buglerock. I can say that this was by far among the most gratifying meals that i had in Bangalore. The violinists playing classical music in the backdrop was an added plus! The only thing i did not do was probably wipe my banana leaf clean ;). A nice ending to a memorable week. I now know that roaming the malls is not the only option to pass time here. There is absolutely no dearth for avenues and options in Bangalore to go all out and spend money and time :).

Hurrah to long weekends!

It has been a more month since i moved to Bangalore and i can't get myself to believe how quickly time flies! And how dramatically my life has changed in such a short span of time! Though my favorite hobby still remains watching movies, i hardly spend time doing it anymore, coz i don't get that kind of time. And also that there has hasn't been a great movie that's released recently! Instead, i spend my time planning for the day- what to study, what to cook, shopping, playing scrabble and singing with my friends i share the flat with ( I really don't know how else to refer to them! Flat mates sounds so impersonal! I guess i'll call them G and J henceforth).

I've also learnt the art of giving my parents an account of the whole day over the phone. Initially, it felt weird, going through my day's activities with them and asking them to do the same. I left out most of the things, did not know what to mention and what to leave out. A typical conversation would involve what i had for breakfast, lunch and dinner, the highpoint of the day and plans for the next day. It would never occur to me that they needed more details than that so as to differentiate the day from that previous one! Now, i remember to go through little things like some joke that happened at the office, the effort that went into dishing out a meal, a recipe that turned out bad, some new food joint we discovered or a new place that we found to shop at.

The whole transition thing did not really take that long. During college, everyday was like a day off. I did not have to apply my head unless there was a test and i could spend all my time day dreaming, chilling out with friends or sleeping. Not so anymore! I don't have the luxury of sleeping late on weekdays anymore. Every morning is a running race. If only i could give up on that extra ten minutes of sleep after the alarm goes off! But i am certain that running like this each morning can surely help me knock off a few pounds ;).

On the bright side, i have come to value the weekends even more. I so look forward to coming home during weekends, getting pampered by my parents, quarelling with my sis to reclaim all my stuff that she's taken over, going on a ride and sleeping till late. My mom feels for me that i don't get to watch TV in Bangalore and i get to keep the remote whenever i am home. Yay! I never got to do that before since my parents would get so annoyed with my frequent channel-changing.

Once back in Bangalore, each day is spent waiting for friday to arrive. It is not so difficult anymore! And the three consecutive long weekends surely help! I am so loving it!

New beginnings

I have known this was coming, all along. For i spent the whole of the last month preparing for this day- buying stuff, getting documents ready, packing, you get the drill. The packing happened with a great deal of excitement, so much that mother dearest was under the impression that i could not wait to leave home. Somehow, i did not even feel a twinge of sadness when i went for one last time to the college to collect some certificates.
But today, as i put the last of my things into the suitcase, there is this queasy feeling in my stomach. I have never been away from home for long. This morning, i got up knowing that i won't be sleeping in that bed for hours together anymore! Seemed like the whole house was spinning around me! (Perhaps it was nausea but i am not exaggerating! ) To clear my head, i went for one last ride on the empty streets of Mysore and cried my way back home. Maybe i will get busy with my life in Bangalore to mull over this, maybe not. But today morning, i am not exactly a happy girl. I don't want to leave home! Only consolation is that i have the task of setting up a new home with friends and new experiences to look forward to. There are hopes and aspirations that life at the workplace will be challenging and fun. In the past, i have spoken at school and college about farewells being a mixture of happiness and sadness, but today i felt the full force of the feeling for the very first time! Saying goodbye is really hard. This is how i am possibly meant to feel. And the feeling might just fade away as time progresses. So bring on the wings, i am probably ready to fly!

It's raining, hallelujah!

When the month began, I had like a hundred plans about doing this and that. Top on my agenda for the holidays was to watch movies. The first week or so was wasted because of half a day long power cuts due to scanty rainfall( That's what the KEB people told me when i called to complain about the power cut). I resorted to reading and slowly got back my age old average of one book a day when the rain gods started smiling and the power situation got back to normal. The books were dumped in favor of movies and i had a nice time.
By then, it was time to look for a place to stay in Bangalore. And let me tell you, it is one of the hardest things that i have ever done in recent times. There are a thousand things to keep in mind- a place close to the office, a decent locality, many outlets close-by that dole out good food, comfort level in the house, good security, proximity to the bus stand and railway station, the budget, no water shortage and the list goes on! At the end of the two-day long hunt that spanned three areas and included both our relatives coming out to help, G and i finally found a house that almost suited our needs after a few compromises. What a relief it was! The both of us, along with Jyo are going to turn this flat into a nice and comfy home :) To think that when i started out, i was under the impression that i'd find like three or four places that i would really like and will have a hard time choosing one of them!!!
Back in Mysore, i am now spending all the time indoors, thanks to the incessant rains. There is lots of shopping pending and loads of clothes on the line that need to dry! But i am not complaining much. What better time to savor a cup of ginger chai and grab loads of sleep!! I still got about a fortnight before work starts. The usual whining and blues will begin then. Till then, i had better put my feet up and ease those worry lines!

Yay!

That is all i can say! Yay! Am done with exams! Once and for all!! The demo also went pretty smoothly. Am going to have a B.E. degree soon! It is an exhilarating feeling! (Ya,ya. Am certain about clearing all the subjects. CIPE too! Of course, the marks in that subject will be courtesy friends around me in the hall. Thanks a bunch, people, for helping me on a day when my memory failed me totally!)
Anyway, coming back to the point, like i said, i will have an engineer's degree in a few days. Got me thinking as to what prompted me to take up the course. From what i can remember, as soon as the tuitions for the 2nd year PU started, all that was drilled into my head was that my only goal that year would be to max my scores in the theory exams and the CET. All the people around me were working for it, and so was i! Engineering after CET was like a default option. It was just a matter of choosing a college depending on the rank.
Now when i look back, this degree has been at the cost of so many childhood dreams. Starting from getting into movies just so that i could get to meet Hrithik Roshan at close quarters, being a journalist, getting into advertising, being a part of a travel show, to opening a restaurant that serves the bestest food in miles! They somehow just got lost as i grew up and joined the herd in what they were doing. Just hoping that the B.E. against my name is worth all that i have inadvertently given up! And if at any point i feel it is not, i am going to go ahead and chase one of those dormant dreams! :) But for now, it is relaxation time. I am going to get enough sleep, catch up on my reading and watch loads of movies for a whole month! Happy vacation to all of you who have that luxury ;)!