Crazy Kiya Re

I always wonder why is it that I start liking songs much more only after I see the video. :-?

I had purchased the audio CD of Dhoom 2 about a month back and did not find the songs all that great or catchy. But after seeing the movie last weekend, I have not been able to get those songs out of my head.. Not that I am complaining (infact, I am playing them over and over on my PC). The song "Crazy Kiya Re" would be quite appropriate in describing the effect the songs have had on me since yesterday. This is not the first time that I have observed such a thing.

Has this happened to you too ?

Engaged

I am not talking about myself, but about two close friends of mine. Both were my class mates in college and are now soon to be Mr and Mrs. I am feeling all god-fatherly about this latest turn of events. Its like their love blossomed right before your eyes and now it has grown and matured. Hee Hee. I am so happy for them!!

Before they officially told us about their relationship in college, a couple of us kind of knew that things were definitely going to happen between them. There are certain signs you see. Like going by themselves to the samosa stall during the break, the conversations between them in class.. and lots of such minute but very obvious behaviour patterns!!

So, come this weekend, Mr B and Ms R are all set to get offcially engaged! All the best you guys and a warm HUG to both of you.

F.R.I.E.N.D.S Contest -2

Update: Answers Published!!

1. In the episode "The One That could have been - Parts 1 and 2", what was Phoebe's profession ?
Answer: Stock broker

2. Who were the nap partners ?
Answer: Joey and Ross.

3. Who plays the part on Chandler's Dad ?
Answer: Kathleen turner

4. Joey had an imaginary childhood friend called Maurice. What was his profession ?
Answer: Space Cowboy

5. "Well, if you cant talk dirty to me, how you gonna talk dirty to her ? Now tell me you want to caress my butt". Who tells this to whom ?
Answer: This is told by Joey to Ross. Ross is dating a girl who likes to talk dirty and Joey tells this when he is prepping up Ross for it.

6. What is Janice's full name ?
Answer: Janice Litman Goralnik née Hosenstein

7. What was Monica's nickname in High school ?
Answer: Big fat goalie

8. Which actor dated Jennifer Aniston on FRIENDS and also in real life ?
Answer: Tate Donovan, who played the character of Joshua Bergin. He was a client of hers at Bloomingdales. They dated for a couple of episodes on the show.

9. Ross and Monica used to take part in an annual Football match. What was it called ?
Answer: Geller-Bowl. This continued until one year Monica broke Ross' nose, and their parents forbade them from ever playing football again.

10. What was Ross's score in SAT ?
Answer: 1250 out of 1600. He tells that he got 1450, when Monica corrects him.

ISYS

The first thing that struck me on entering this swanky and cosmopolitan restaurant at the President Hotel, Jayanagar is the colour Blue and the ambience. It reminded me of the restaurants at New York or LA which are generally shown on Discovery TLC. They serve Continental, Indian, Chinese and Thai cuisines and do a pretty good job in all of them. When we entered, we were promptly shown to a table. At that time, the restaurant was quite empty. It started filling up steadily and after an hour it was full with families, couples, kids and all variety.

We started of with some cocktails. I ordered a Mimosa (Orange juice and Red Wine). For my friend, the waiter suggested a "Jumaroo", which supposedly is the bartender's speciality. Curiosity got the better of us and we placed the order for it and it arrived soon with lots of drama. About 3 waiters came to prepare the drink while some 3 more waiters were around watching apart from the people seated around us. It is made from Orange Juice, Red wine and Blue Curacao. The waiter started off with orange juice in a wide mouthed glass. In another glass, he took the Blue Curacao and lighted it using a lighter. It started burning with a thin and almost invisible flame. He then placed a small pair of tongs over the glass containing orange juice, over which he placed two small inverted glasses. Over this he poured the slightly flaming Blue Curacao such that it gently falls onto the Orange juice without mixing with it. So, you have two layers of juice. The orange juice is at the bottom and the blue curacao on the top. He then took a glass of red wine and poured it over the orange juice + blue curacao from a height. The result - the wine went and sat at the bottom of the glass. So, we now have "Jumaroo" which contains three layers of liquid - blue curacao on top, orange juice in the middle and red wine at the bottom. How much do you think this costs ? Take a guess!!!


After relaxing over our respective cocktails and mocktails, we ordered soup and starters. I had a Gazpacho. Not very great. I have tasted better. Nothing exceptional of the other starters either. They were the regular indian stuff. Along with the starters, we got a complimentary bread basket. The bread was wonderful. Soft and sweet. The bowl in which the bread was served is worth mentioning. The bowl itself looks so eatable. Check out the picture below.


For the main course, Dutta and me shared an american chopsuey, while Dannyboy had a mutton biriyani. Both were quite good. I was quite satisfied with the food and the ambience. I must check out how good their continental stuff is.

One thing that bothered us was the noise. Once the restaurant got filled up, it became quite noisy. The music playing in the background was hardly heard and it did little to make the atmosphere more relaxed. But otherwise it is a nice place. Quite sophisticated and maybe quite ideal for a lovely and cosy date, barring the noise. Other thing that I observed was the wash basin in the restroom, or to be more accurate the absence of it. There was no basin under the tap. Under the tap, there was a slab of marble which was slightly slanted so that the water drains away. It was the first time I saw something of that sort in a restaurant in Bangalore.

Price wise, it was quite worth it. A lunch for three cost us about Rs 1200, with drinks. Quite reasonable by Bangalore standards. You should definitely check out this restaurant sometime.

ISYS, The President hotel, Jayanagar 3rd block, Bangalore.

Kannada Film Names

This came to me as a forward and I must say, its one the hilarious forwards I have received.

After the huge success of kannada film MENTAL MANJA, people suggested the below names for the recent/upcoming kannada films..
Sentimental Seena
Nightout Nagamani
Loose Laila
Kari Basya
Kalla Narayana
Blade Baira
Dabba Rathni
Dicchi Suresha
90 Kumara
Kaddi Kallesha
Mental maja.. Daridra nanja
Tikkalu Timmanna
Tukaali tammanna
Dingchak Daamini

The last one was my favourite =))

Dharwad Trip

There is some kind of thrill in deciding for a trip impromptu. I have always had loads of fun on trips decided like that. My Singapore trip was one such kind(although we decided and booked tickets one month before the actual date of departure, we decided on it, got leave and booked tickets in a day or two... you get the point?). Trip to Dharwad was also one such thing. Decided on it, booked tickets almost instantly and luckily even got confirmed tickets :D

It was supposed to be a two day trip, but eventually turned into a three day one. We left Bangalore on a saturday night and reached Dharwad on Sunday morning. The ongoing journey by train was very pleasant. Surprisingly, the train was quite empty. My friend, lets call him as 'S' and I were up quite late and were generally talking. The train was to reach dharwad at 6.45 am and since we were up quite late, were wondering if we would get up on time to get down at Dharwad. Nothing of that sort happenend though (it would have been fun if that would have happened). Woke up quite early and it was still dark outside. Saw the sunrise after a really loooooooooong time! God knows when was the last time I saw one. A friend (who also happens to be my colleague and boss) had come to receive us at the station and he took us to his home. It was such a pleasure to be out of Bangalore. The life there went on at its own pace and I was totally enjoying the relaxed atmosphere and lifestyle. Not that I hate the lifestyle in Bangalore, but everyone likes change every now and then.

I ate lots of new stuff. There is such a marked difference in the food between Bangalore-Mysore region and Hubli-Dharwad region, the latter being very much influenced by maharashtrian cuisine. Even Chaats also tasted quite different to the ones available in Bangalore. Enjoyed that too. :D

We visited quite a few places around. The first was a village called Saundatti. Its quite famous for the "Yellamma Temple" and also for the devadasi system. Nearby there is this dam on the Malaprabha river. Its built mainly for irrigation purposes. We visited it in the evening, just in time for sunset. Spent more than an hour over there taking photos and soaking up the serene environment around. The other major place we visited was the Magod Falls. Its about 80-100 kilometres from Dharwad. Its quite popular and I realised why after seeing it. The falls are extremely magnificent, cascading down in two stages. I dont know if there is path leading to the waterfall. The actual viewing spot is at a distance from the waterfall. The waterfall is amazing!!! I could not help but stare and be awed by the sheer power of water and the beauty of nature and forests around. The only sound was the roar of the waterfall. The photo below definitely does not do justice to the actual waterfall. It looks even more spectacular in real.

Learning to drive a Car

Yup, that's what I have been trying to do since the last three days. Been planning to learn it from quite sometime. It materialized recently. Through the course of the classes, I realised that I am more scared of hitting someone on the road than on being hit by someone. Ofcourse this is even more compounded by my fear of huge vehicles on the road, the erractic bangalore traffic and the concern that I will cause a traffic jam!! Man, I have issues (read that as lots).

Plus, learning to drive a car apparently makes me very very thirsty!!

F.R.I.E.N.D.S Contest -1

UPDATE : Answers Published....

Starting off with a contest on F.R.I.E.N.D.S trivia (Thanks Enigma, for the idea). Restating the obvious, I ask 10 questions and you tell the answers :O Lets see how much knowledgeable you guys are about F.R.I.E.N.D.S ;)

1. Which actress was originally approached to play the part of "Rachel Green" ?
Answer: Courteney Cox. She was the only one among the cast who was famous before F.R.I.E.N.D.S happened. At that time, she was also in the list of the "Most Beautiful Women". She chose to play Monica because she felt that she somehow related to Monica's character.

2. What is Chandler's middle name ?
Answer: Muriel.

3. Which movie does Rachel claim as her favourite ?
Answer: Dangerous Liaisons.

4. And which is her actual favourite ?
Answer: Weekend at Bernie's.

5. What is the name of Joey's bedtime penguin pal ?
Answer: Hugsy.

6. Who essayed the role of Phoebe/Ursula's stalker ?
Answer: This role was played by David Arquette, who is also Courteney's husband. That episode was telecast in Season 2 or 3.

7. "Well, I relied on a carefully regimented program of denial and wetting the bed". Who said this and when ?
Answer: This is told by Chandler to Rachel, when she asks him how he coped with his parents divorce.

8. Who breaks up with Ross because of his constant whining ?
Answer: Janice. This was in season 5, after Ross's marriage breaks up and he is also on sabattical from work.

9. What does Joey put on his head to scare Chandler during Thanksgiving ?
Answer: He sticks his head into a dead Turkey to scare Chandler, but then his head gets stuck there. Lol!

10. Who used to sing "I am Bea, I drink Tea, Wont you dance around with me ?" ?
Answer: Ross. They actually show Ross and Monica as kids with Ross wearing his mom's hat, playing with Monica's Tea set and singing this song.

General Yak Yak

Looks like I am suffering for a case of "Bloggers Block". I am at a total loss of words to blog about and neither is something interesting happening in my life. :( Maybe someone can tag me. Enigma suggested that I have F.R.I.E.N.D.S contest on my blog. Now, that is an awesome idea!!! I happen to know lots and lots of trivia about it. Infact, couple of my friends refer to me as "F.R.I.E.N.D.S Dictionary". :D So, in my upcoming posts you will definitely have some F.R.I.E.N.D.S related contests.

I recently purchased a copy of "The Fountainhead" by Ayn Rand. Its quite a famous book and many of you may have already read it. I had previously read this book about 6 years ago. I did not like it all at that time. Felt it was too philosophical. Although I got the main flow of the story, I was not able to understand many of the deeper and subtle meanings. Maybe this time I will be able to appreciate and understand what Ayn Rand is conveying. She calls it as "Objectivism".

A long holiday is coming up on account of Diwali. Am going to Hubli-Dharwad along with another friend for a couple of days to meet up with some friends. Hoping to have a great time and ofcourse eat some authentic Dharwad pedha. More on the trip in the upcoming posts.

Wish you all a Happy and Safe Diwali!!

Elements

I had been planning to go to this restaurant right since it came into existence (July 2004), but ended up going only last week. Nice place I must say!! Its on two levels. You can choose to either sit inside (ground floor) or alfresco (terrace). Going by the name, the theme is of the basic five elements. Oh, btw its a continental restaurant.

They have a quite huge and interesting menu. Although I did observe that there were more non-veg dishes than vegetarian. That said, the vegetarian food was quite good. On a scale of 1-5 (5 being the higest) the food can be definitely be rated between 3.5 and 3.75. We started with Cream of Mushroom soup, Spinach Fritters and Garlic Bread. The soup was lovely and the Garlic bread was amazing!!! Can't say the same about Spinach Fritters though. It was quite oily and it had a very prominent greasy after taste. Dont go by its fancy name, its basically a spinach bonda.

For the main course we had Corn and Spinach Steak, Veg Strognoff and a creamy spinach dish, whose name I forgot. All of them were really good. They have a nice collection of desserts too. I had a Lemon Cheese cake and yes, it was equally delicious as it sounds. The only catch was the quantity. The biscuit base and the cheese layers were almost of the same size as opposed to a traditional cheese cake.

Pricewise, it is definitely on the higher side. Might cost you around Rs 250-300 per person. They dont serve alcohol/cocktails. But they do have hookas available in many flavours.

Elements, #197, Nandidurg Road, Bangalore. Ph: 32904513

Blogoversary

Its exactly one year since I started my blog and put up my first post :D Yaay!!! In the past one year, I have put up 45 posts, which comes to 3.75 posts per month. That quite pathetic. Had hoped to put up much more than that, but kya kare... Hopefully you will see my blog updated more frequently.

This reminds me of the FRIENDS episode, where Monica and Chandler are celebrating their first anniversary and monica gets them tickets to Las Vegas. She says that they can start their celebrations on the plane and can so be called as "planeversary". Haa Haa Haa.

Would love to do something similar for my "blogoversary", but due to certain constraints can't go off to Las Vegas, or for that matter even to Goa. So I thought I shall celebrate it "my" way. I will go and have some amazing Chocolate Walnut Brownies at Pizza Port in Koramangala! *drool* They are totally awesome. I had mentioned it here long ago. Anyone wants to join in the celebrations ?

Oh Yeah, the treat is on me!!

Cute Office Assistant

I am talking about the Cat, one of the office assistants in Microsoft Office. I find that cat and its animations totally funny. The way it purrs, sleeps, when it peeks and sees what you are doing, the noise it makes when a hand comes and scratches it on its head. Hee Hee...

I had to really struggle to get that snap of the cat sleeping. It just did not want to go to sleep. :D

Which one among the Office assistants is you favourite ?

F.R.I.E.N.D.S Stuff

I am absolutely crazy about the TV sitcom F.R.I.E.N.D.S. I have seen the episodes so many times that I remember almost all the dialogues. Just a clip/picture from an episode and I will be able to recognize from which episode and season that is from. Infact, couple of my friends call me a talking F.R.I.E.N.D.S dictionary. Its true.

Being such a huge fan, its quite obvious that I like to collect F.R.I.E.N.D.S merchandise. So on my recent trip to Singapore, I came across the original DVD's of F.R.I.E.N.D.S and purchased the Season-5 DVD set. Due to financial reasons and other intended purchases, had to restrict myself to just one set. Else I would have definitely purchased the DVD set of a couple of other seasons too.

I just love to purchase music and film DVD's. Its so tempting. Since I started earning, each time I walk into a music store, I chance upon something that catches my eye and end up buying it. Initially, I was not at all aware that F.R.I.E.N.D.S was available on CD's and DVD's. Once I discovered it, there was nothing to stop me. Not that I brought all of them at once, but have been purchasing and collecting them over time. I have only seen the CD's of F.R.I.E.N.D.S in India and that too the ones from Saregama... not the Warner Bros one. Right now in my collection, I have the complete Seasons of 8, 9 and 10 on CD and Season 5 on DVD. I plan to buy the remaining seasons sometime soon. But I do not want the CD's. I want to purchase the original Warner Bros version DVD's. So when I go abroad the next time, I definitely know what I will be spending money on.. :D

The other F.R.I.E.N.D.S merchandise that I came across was the book "The One With All Ten Years, F.R.I.E.N.D.S ...'TIL THE END" by David Wild. Chanced upon it at Crossword. That too at 60% off. I immediately picked it up. Paid around Rs. 500 for it. Certain people were shocked to hear about it, but then who cares!! I have been wanting to buy somethng of that sort for ages and was not going let the price tag stop me. Its an amazing book. Its got lots and lots of awesome high resolution photographs, trivia, episode guide and interviews with the cast and crew. Its definitely a must have for any F.R.I.E.N.D.S merchandise collector. If you are a F.R.I.E.N.D.S merchandise collector, pick up this book at a bookstore now!!!

De Lekkerbek - Belgian Cafe

De Lekkerbek. This is the name of a Belgian cafe on 80ft Road, Koramangala, Bangalore. A nice, small and cosy place which serves up some great food. The ambience is great too. Looks like not many people are aware of its existence. Just the perfect place to lounge around and enjoy a nice hot cup of coffee. The fact that it is not crowded is a huge attraction for me.

I have visited this place about 3-4 times with friends of mine in the past 1.5 years. Quite less visits compared to how much I like this place. It was my friend Shub, who discovered this place. Since it is about 150 metres from my office, Shub, Pills and myself decide to check it out. All of us liked the ambience and food. Also its quite resonably priced by Bangalore standards!! Oooooohh..Also a very interesting menu! *drool*

I had been there today after a looong time for lunch along with a friend of mine. As usual the food was great. Not at all a noisy place. You can sit and have a decent conversation without being bothered. The place can seat about 20 people at a time. It has been renovated quite recently. The serve breakfast, lunch and dinner. Till now, I have only tried out Pancakes, Waffles, Baked beans on toast, Vegetable grilled sandwich and Minestrone soup. Liked all of them. Especially Waffles, which is served with sugar and Maple syrup. Yum!!! I have not yet tried their pasta. Will be having it the next time I go there. Along with these, they also serve juice, ice-cream, muffins, coffee, crepes and many more interesting things. Do visit the place. It is definitely worth going (over and over again). :D

De Lekkerbek - Belgian Cafe, V3 Trinity, 1020, 1st Floor, 80ft Road, 1st Block, Koramangala, Bangalore. Phone: 91-80-4131 3553.

Time Domain Aliasing Cancellation and Perfect Reconstruction

Hey Wait ! Don't run away !!! This post is not going to delve into any sort of technical details. I can understand your shock at seeing such a techie title on this blog. I too had the exact same reaction to the title the first time I read it. I was like, What the #@$% is this ????

I came across this title when I was studying some DSP concepts recently. I realised how much I had forgotten whatever I had studied during engineering. So, reading through those topics got me thinking about the final year of my engineering, where we had taken up a course in Digital Signal Processing (DSP). It was one of those "hyped" courses, where the pass percentage was not very high. Most were paranoid about such courses and many joined tutions for the same. Thankfully, I was not one of them. I still dont understand the logic of joining tutions during engineering. If the lecturer is bad and the textbook does not make any sense, then its kind of understandable. But the lecturer who handled this course was an amazing chap and there is definitely no dearth of good textbooks on DSP. But still, the students joined. Mainly because in the previous batch of students who had taken up this course, many had flunked. I dont understand why students get so influenced by this trend. Can't they think logically ? I have also observed this trend in subjects like "Fields and Waves", "Control Systems" and "Engineering Graphics". Literally, the entire class used to go for tutions for these subjects.

Coming back to what I had originally planned to put up in this post, the lecturer who taught us this course was an amazing chap. He has handled subjects for us in almost all the semesters and that too on different unrelated topics. From "C Programming" to "Operations Reaserch" to "Microprocessors" to "Digital Signal Processing" to "Fields and Waves". And he did justice to all of them. His notes were very much in demand. I still have his notes in most of the courses he taught. And he never used to read out the notes from a previous year's student's notebook. He used to dictate them by himself. Man, I am a huge fan of this lecturer. I happened to meet him about 4-5 months ago and he is still very much the same. Absolutely no change at all.

Apart from our lecturer, I am also so much reminded of my engineering friends. The masti we used to do in college: bunking classes, not listening in class, last minute preparations for exams, internals, results... etc. DSP was one subject we hated to study. We liked the classes and were in awe of the subject, but hated to study it for the exam. So much of fourier transforms in that course. It can be quite intimidating, with all those sigma and integration signs. We all heaved a huge sigh of relief after we finished the exam, which turned to be quite easy :D

Now that I am studying so many of those concepts again, they all seem so easy. I realised that it takes time for the concepts to sink in and I think three years have been more than sufficeint for the same. I am totally enjoying studying this subject now.

StatCounter

There is this cool site called StatCounter.com. It provides an invisible/visible counter and allows you to analyse and monitor visitors to your webpage/blog in real time. Each time someone access your blog, information like: from which city/IP address your page was accessed, the ISP, referring URL, keywords used to reach your page, etc., will be recorded. Totally amazing... Many of you might already be aware of it.. I came to know recently and I am so amazed and excited about it, like a kid who has been given a new toy :D

The best part is that its Free !!! Check out the site and see for yourself the features they offer.

My Cooking Adventures - Spaghetti

A couple of days back, I was in full josh to cook... So thought of cooking up some spaghetti. I had purchased a packet of spaghetti long time ago but had never got around to cooking it. So armed with it and some vegetables, I proceeded to make an extremely simple version of "Pasta Arabiatta"... And it turned out so well... Man, I managed to impress myself big time !! U must know that when I cook, I am extremely critical of myself. Even if the salt is a little more, I am like, Shit!! I screwed it up!! So, was maha khush when the dish turned out really well.

*Floating on cloud nine thinking about it*

Oookay, coming back to the post, and the recipe.... I must say that this post is very much inspired by foodie blogs like Saffron Hut and Food for Thought... I am so amazed by their passion for blogging about their cooking and ofcourse by the awesome photography...

Here is the recipe.....

Ingredients
(serves 2)

For the sauce :

1. Tomatoes - 5 medium sized ones
2. Onion - 1 huge
3. Mustard seeds - 1/2 teaspoon
4. Jeera seeds - 1/2 teaspoon
5. Extra virgin Olive oil - 2 tablespoons
6. Ginger - I small clove
7. Freshly ground pepper - to taste
8. Oregano - to taste
9. Salt - to taste
10. Sugar - 1/2 teaspoon

For the Pasta :

1. Dry Spaghetti - about 75 strips
2. Extra virgin Olive oil - 1/2 teaspoons
3. Salt - 1 Teaspoon

Method

1. Thoroughly wash the tomatoes and chop them up. No need to chop finely.
2. Chop up onions. Again, no need to chop finely.
3. Chop a small piece of ginger into small pieces. You may use ginger paste instead.
4. Put them all in a blender and blend till a smooth flowing liquidy paste is obtained. Make sure that the tomates and onions are finely blended. Trust me, you will not like the final product, if they are not finely blended (source: previous cooking disaster(s) by Your truly)
5. In a open cooking pan, heat the olive oil. Once heated, added the mustard seeds followed by the jeera seeds.
6. Pour the tomato-onion-ginger liquidy paste made in step 4. Be careful when you do so... Due to the water content in this paste and the hot oil in the pan, there will be lots of hissing, sizzling and splatterting of the paste. And it hurts big time when this hot paste falls on your skin.
7. Continuously keep stirring this mixture. This prevents the paste from splattering. Add salt as per your taste. Continue cooking on a medium flame for about 10-15 mins. It will take more time if the quantity is more (Duh??).
8. In another vessel, take about 2 litres of water. Add a teaspoon of olive oil followed by 1 teaspoon of salt. Bring this to boil.
9. Once the water has boiled, add the required amount of spaghetti. My advice: Dont break the spaghetti.. My belief is that the longer the better!! It will take about 10 mins for the spaghetti to be cooked al-dente. This is very very important.
10. Once the spaghetti is cooked to perfection, drain out the hot water using a strainer. Immediately pour cold water on this. Or else, even better, hlod the spaghetti laden strainer under running cold water. Keep it aside.
11. By this time, even the sauce would have been cooked. Add the freshly ground pepper, very little sugar and oregano to the sauce and cook for a minute or so.. You may also add some tomate sauce/ketchup if you like..
12. Once done, remove from fire and leave it for a minute.
13. In a plate, spread the spaghetti. Pour the sauce prepared in Step 12 over this and serve immediately.

I just reviewed what I have written and sounds like the procedure to carry out a science experiment... Haa Haa.. But I am lazy to go and redo the whole thing.. So Please adjust!!

Overcoming Laziness to Blog

Off late, I have been so lazy to blog..... Dunno why.... When I feel like blogging about something, I dont have an access to a computer.. and by the time I get to one, I would have lost all the enthusiasm to compose the post and blog it!!

Why the hell I have become such a sloth!!! Very Very Bad.....

So, today I overcame that laziness and put up a post!!!

*Pat myself of the back* :D

I have been following up on other blogs very faithfully though. Since last week, the blog that has got me hooked is Sayesha's blog.. Have been reading up the archives and comments and having a total blast!!!

And now I have to think of a title for my post... Dear God!!! I find it very very hard to come up with a decent title (maybe another reason why I feel lazy to put up a post).

Singapore Travel - Day 2 & 3

On the second day, we set off to Sentosa Island after a late breakfast. We caught the MRT and went to Harbour Front Station, from where we went to sentosa by the cable car. The view from the car was absolutely awesome. Got a lovely view of the Singapore harbour, the sky scrapers of Raffles place and Sentosa Island. During the first half of the ride, I was too busy taking the pictures. It was only during the second half that I decided to be selfish and shut off the camera and enjoyed and soaked in the great view :D

Sentosa Island is a nice place. Lots of tourist attractions around, but felt that it is kinda over hyped.. For lunch, we had taken Rava Idli and some pudina chutney made by Shub. I must say, I have never relished eating idlis some much as I did that day. Not that I was very hungry or something, but the idlis and chutney was really good. After the meal, we went to the Dolphin Lagoon at Palawan beach to watch the dolphins. Must say kudos to the trainers and the animals for the amazing show !!! This was followed by an hour of kayaking at Siloso beach which was lots of fun.... After the kayaking experience, we spent time by playing in the beach. I learned how to float :D. Must try improving on that at one of the pools in Bangalore. I was told that the beach was man made. I believe that the sand was imported from New Zealand!!!


Once the night set in, we went to Underwater World. In the entrance there is a touch pool, where you can actually touch some of the fishes. Ended up toughing a catfish. It was not at all slimy as it looks. Quite rough actually. There was also a Sting ray which apparently is safe to touch. When I went to touch it, I got quite scared.. Kept remembering the documentary I saw about sting rays on Animal Planet. Never thought I would feel like this. Anywayz, we continued our tour and saw many amazing underwater creatures like sharks, huge fishes, etc... Infact I dont remember their names...

We stayed over that night on the beach. Late night walks along the beach and much more catching up with friends followed. It was totally great !!!! Slept quite late, but woke up quite early the next morning. The beach was really good in the morning. There was a peacock just roaming around on the beach!!! We then boarded a bus back to the mainland and went to "Little India" for breakfast :D

Later in the evening, we paid a visit to the SunTec City Mall.. Huge place with four huge skyscrapes surrounding it. Managed to sneak upto the top floor of one of those towers and got a sneek peek of the view from the top. And what a view view it was !!!! Totally breath taking... I really envy the offices which are present on the top floor and the people who work there... It would be a great view from your office window... A view to take out all the stress away.. Trust me !! Its a pity could not click a picture. :(


Visited the "Bar None" at the Marriot hotel later.. Nice place and met one nice person ;) Lots of Good music and leg pulling by friends, returned back at around 1 am.. What a nite !!

Food Cravings

Of late, I have developed a craving for a food which is currently not in my reach :(( and that happens to be the food that was served on Singapore Airlines... Contrary to what many people tell about airline food, I totally enjoyed the food that was served on Singapore airlines during my recent travel with them. On the return journey, I fell asleep, due to which I was not able to have the food. And now I have developed a craving for that food..... Not only was the food great on the flight, but even the way it was served was also very appealing.. It was so neatly arranged... and ofcourse, no coments on the person who served it ;)

What do I do ????? How do I satisfy my craving ???

Ofcourse, I cant go ahead with the simplest solution of them all, i.e., travel on singapore airlines to have the food :D, cos u have to pay for the tickets and its not like its 100 bucks!!

Singapore Travel - Day 1

The day started by landing at Changi Airport in Singapore. I was totally awestruck by the structure. It is huge and so well maintained. There are so many flights in and out of Changi everyday. Had to wait for my friends to come and pick us up. So after the formalities we wandered around the airport and were just looking around for sometime. Once my friends arrived, we went to have breakfast. Breakfast and some catching up later, we boarded the MRT to proceed towards Boon Lay station, from where we had to catch a Bus to NTU. My friends are students there and accommodation had been arranged for us over there.

On the MRT, we got a nice view of Singapore. There are mostly apartments. Independent houses as in Bangalore are hardly present. The roads are so well maintained and clean. Infact you could lick them ;) Although I had hardly slept the previous night on the flight, I was in full josh and was in awe of what I was seeing !!! Sleep seemed to be the last thing on my mind.. More catching up on the MRT :)

The rest of the afternoon was spent in cooking lunch, yakkity-yak, eating, catching-up and relaxing, etc..

In the evening, we went to the Central Business District. Its called as Raffles Place and is full of skyscrapers !!! Lots of photos were taken and the eye-candy around was admired ;). We then went to this place called as Boat Quay. There is a river, on the banks of which are lots of restaurants and pubs.. We were feeling quite hungry, so we went to this coffee shop called "The Coffee Bean and Tea Leaf". I ordered a cheese cake and it was total drool material !!! I have never tasted such an amazing cheese cake in Bangalore. Yummy !!!

This was followed by generally walking around the area. We then went to "The Esplanade". Near this there is a small statue of "The Merlion". More photos. Was learning how to use my new Digicam in a complete manual mode, like setting the exposure, shutter speed, etc, etc... We then went hunting for a restaurant to eat dinner. ended up going to "Lau Pa Sat".. Its basically a huge food court. There are not many places serving vegetarian fare... Chanced upon an Indian stall (the only one serving veggie). This was followed by a bite of a Yummy "Banana Split" and a not so yummy "Mango Ice Kachang".



Once dinner was over, we got on the MRT and headed back to NTU for catching up on some much needed sleep.

First Flight Experience

I totally enjoy travelling to new places and exploring it. Last time ended up going to North India and Dalhousie as a part of a trekking camp. This time, myself and Mahesh ended up embarking on a trip to Singapore. Two of my friends, Shub and Danny stay there. It was a total fun experience . Full masti !!!!!

It was first trip outside India and the also first trip on a flight. So was extremely excited about it. We decided on the trip in such a short span of time and almost booked the tickets instantly. I should say that we were quite lucky to find a good offer on the flight tickets. So did not end up spending a huge money on the tickets, which meant that we had more money to spare for sight-seeing !!!

We landed up at the airport quite early in the hope of getting good seats on the plane. We managed to get window seats, but unluckily they were above the wing. So the view was quite restricted. Also, the flight was at night. :( But it was a good experience. I was quite excited about the flight journey and at the same time started feeling quite nervous. Right from the time I was a kid, When I used to hear news about flight crashes, I would internally resolve that I would never travel by flight. But over the course of years that disappeared and was replaced by the excitement of flight travel. But I guess some fear of the plane crashing still remained. To make matters worse, I regularly watch the program "Air-Crash Investigation" on NGC, which I find extremenly interesting. So, after the plane taxied onto the runway and got into position to accelerate down the runway, I started feeling quite nervous and excited at the same time. The plane started accelerating and it was not at all smooth as it looks on TV. The plane was shaking and I could feel the vibrations from the engines... I was like shit !!!! and was internally screaming in my mind. The feeling at that time was quite exhilarating. And then the plane took off and I relaxed after that.. whew !!! Now I feel like laughing at myself recounting that experience.

The rest of the flight was quite uneventful. I had never expected the jerk on landing. Felt little nervous at that moment, but then felt OK once the plane slowed down....

The food was quite good on the plane. Before the food was served, we were handed a menu detailing the food that would be served. What surprised me immensely was that it was in both English and Kannada !!! Now that was something I had never ever expected !!! It was a total surprise. I dont think such a thing is even there on any of the airlines in India. FYI, I travelled by Singapore Airlines :D Plus there ware individual entertainment units (LCD TV + remote) for each passenger. Ended up watching the movie "Rumour Has It" on the flight. I mean, I had to watch the movie, cos it starred Jennifer Aniston, who happens to be one among my favourites :D

Totally enjoyed on the trip. More details in posts to follow.

lol...

I find it so amusing when I get these mails which compares men and women and tell who are better or luckier people... I dont mean to be a sexist, but some of them are so funny... Here are some snippets from a mail I got recently and it tell as to why men are Happier people.

1. Wedding plans take care of themselves.
2. You can wear a white T-shirt to a water park.
3. Car mechanics tell you the truth.
4. You don't have to stop and think of which way to turn a nut on a bolt.
5. People never stare at your chest when you're talking to them. [ :)) ]
6. You get extra credit for the slightest act of thoughtfulness.
7. You almost never have strap problems in public.
8. You only have to shave your face and neck.
9. You have freedom of choice concerning growing a mustache.
10. You can do Christmas shopping for 25 relatives on December 24 in 25 minutes.
11. You don't freak-out when you go to a party and see another man wearing the same shirt, instead you become buddies.

Hee Hee.. :D

Tremors in Bangalore !!!

Yesterday, we felt tremors in office... I did not realize it immediately. Couple of my colleagues told me so and after that was able to feel the steady vibrartions.... Was stunned... Earthquake in Bangalore ?????????? Oh My God !!! Immediately went to rediff.com, ndtv.com and checked if any news was there about it... There was no news....

They were like steady tremors..continuous. I did not know how to react.. and the best part is no one seemed to be bothered.. Everyone was like, Can u feel the vibrartions ??? and then nothing... they went back to their usual routine.. For a second, got little scared. And then thought, what the hell !!! If an earthquake was intended to strike bangalore, there is nothing I could do about it. Its all fate.. Thinking so, got busy with work.. and kinda forgot about it...

Later I came to know that those tremors were not because of an eathquake. Infact the road infront of my office is being completely relaid and a fresh coat of asphalt was being applied.. I feel like a complete fool now.. :D (in my defence, I have never experienced an earthquake/tremors).

My new Digital Camera

Atlast I got to purchase a digital camera !!! I have been wanting to have one from a real long time.... I am so excited about it !!! Infact, gonna go on a photo clicking spree. Check out the pictures below.

I was reading the manual yesterday and its so overwhelming. There are so many features and infact I am such a rookie in photography, that I have no idea what many of them are used for. Guess it will take me a while to figure it out. Right now, content with staring and admiring the camera :D

The best part about the camera, is that it has got a 3-inch LCD display screen and its so compact.. Its like watching a miniature TV.

Cant wait to use it like a pro !!!

Lunch Buffet @ Indi Joe

I had been to this restaurant called "Indi Joe" for lunch yesterday along with a friend of mine. My birthday treat for him was still pending :D. They have a lunch buffet costing Rs. 175. And the food was so delicious *drool*. The spread was mainly continental. There was around 5 different types of salads, two different soups, pasta, noodles, pizza, cheese(yes, u read it correctly), flavoured rice, plain rice, curries and related stuff. But, the best part were the desserts ;). Lemme count.. There was Black forest mousse, fruit salad, chocolate and walnut pudding, two kinds of pastries, strawberry ice-cream and kulfi. Whew !!! I had all the desserts except the strawberry ice-cream. Infact, you can make a meal out of the desserts itself. Both of us hogged like pigs. Infact, we hardly spoke during the lunch. Both of us were busy wolfing it down.

Shub: U will love this place. I dont know why we over looked this place while looking for restaurants for our friday lunches.

One important thing I realised: Dont ever have soup at a buffet. It fills you up and you will not be able to do justice to the remaining dishes. I skipped the soup yesterday and realised how many dishes I was able to eat.

And ofcourse, it felt real great when my friend said that It was an awesome treat :)

Fond Memories

Well..... Yesterday was a nice day and was feeling quite happy.

Could not help but think about a similar day last year. This is what I did last year along with two of my friends. :D

Miss u guys... >:D<

Times Food Guide

I am now a prowd owner of the "Times Food Guide - 2006". Just purchased the book yesterday. Its like a bible to me. Lots of listings anf hoping to try all of them out. I have set a time limit for myself, but hopefully in this life time. Needed a "partner in crime" for the same.

Bombay Blue

Although I claim to be a total foodie, I realized that I have not even put up a single post on any particular restaurant. So I am gonna start with a restaurant called "Bombay Blue". This is definitely one of "my kinda restaurant". I am sure certain people know what I mean... For the others, My kinda restaurant would be the one, which serves a variety of my favourite cusines (Italian, Mexican, American, Continental), is kinda fancy :D and the food is amazing. Generally in these multi-cuisine restaurants, they end up screwing up any non-indian cuisine... But Bombay Blue was nothin like that. The cuisines which are available are : Italian, Mexican, Lebanese and Indian. I am not gonna talk about the indian food there, cos I felt it was nothing great. It was good, but there are other places which are much more famous...

Coming to the other cuisines, I particularly liked the mexican fare served there. My fav being "Tortilla Chips with Salsa sauce". This is one of the must haves.... Even the nachos were good.

Among the Italian fare, they have a nice collection of pastas with the regulars like Arabiatta. I had Spaghetti with a mexican based sauce, mexican beans, american corn and sprinkled with crushed tortilla chips. This was quite good, but felt that the corn could have been baked along with the sauce so that it soaks up the flavour.

The soup was really good. I ended up having the regular "Sweet Corn soup". And he does not have a Tomato soup (another of my favourites).

Oh yes I forgot to talk about the Menu.... I mean the menu booklet. It was huge !!!! 16 pages in total (yup, I counted the pages). The pictures in the menu looked totally appealing.... U look at those pics and it induces a craving for the food depicted there.. atleast it happened to me... :D

The drinks were quite expensive... Iced Tea cost Rs. 69.... and the quantity is quite large too.... My suggestion, take one glass of iced tea and share it among two... Also happened to taste white wine... It was good tooo...Hmm.. me currently fantasizing about the wine I had that day.. *drool*.

Try the "Pita pockets" among the lebanese fare.. Its good too.... Sizzlers are also available... Have not yet tried them there.. Next time I go there, Sizzlers is what I will be having...

The dessert menu was nothing special though. Just the regulars...

Bombay Blue, Level-2, Bangalore Central, Commissariat Road, Bangalore-1

Be prepared for some pocket pinching.

Absolutely Nothing

Yesterday was one of those days when I did absolutely nothing. It was quite some time since I did that (absolutely nothing). Hee Hee. We had a holiday yesterday. So, got up late and did nothing. It was so amazing to just sit the whole day with nothing to do.... I agree it would get quite frustating if this was an everyday routine, but it would be great to do it (absolutely nothing) once in a while.. Try it out. Its worth it... Me feeling very very nice and relaxed today.

No Title

I find it so hard to come up with some meaningful title to my posts. I end up spending more time thinking about an apt title for my post than in composing a post.

Has it ever happened to you guys ?

Currently Listening To...

"Tu Hi Meri Shab Hai" from the movie "Gangster". I just love this song. Must have listened to it for more that 25 times in the past week.

Broadband

Finally got a broadband connection at home. Yaaaaaaaayy!!!

So you can expect posts more often.

Why ?????????

I dont know why, but when ever I get into an auto, the auto drivers start talking to me in Hindi. When I respond back in kannada, they will be like "Oh !! You are from Karnataka only !!!".

Infact one of my colleagues told me that I dont look like a South Indian. It seems that I look more like a North Indian. Do you guys think so (Atleast the people who have seen me) ?

Eat, Eat and Eat

That is what me and my friend Ms. G used to do almost every other evening a couple of years ago. I think it was during our first semester of engineering. I used to drop by at her house in the evening and we used to take off on out eating tour :D.

We used to start with a nice & hot Tomato soup at a place called Turning Point. The soup was priced at Rs. 5 and was awesome. We had become so regular at this place and whenever we used to go there, soup was the only thing we used to have. Infact, we had become quite friendly with the cashier. By the time we landed there, the cashier would have made the coupons ready. No need to tell what we want. :D But then the shop closed down. No idea why. :( Really miss that tomato soup.

Anywayz coming back to our routine... After that we used to go to Jayanagar 4th block to have bhel puri... and no, not to a fancy eating joint, but to this road side gaadi. The stuff used to be amazing over there, plus the guy who used to maintain the gaadi was a stickler for cleanliness. Any thing u buy there was priced at Rs. 5. We used to start with a spicy Tomatopuri, followed by a Sevpuri and a delicious Bhelpuri. And mind you, we used to have one each!!! As an extra, I used to have one more Sevpuri and she used to have one Tomatopuri. Man, my mouth is watering thinking abt it. *drool*. After this we used to come back to Jayanar 9th block and have a nice juice/milkshake at Ganesh fruit juice centre. This was followed by a piece of Rasgulla at KC Das or a yummy Sabudana Vada. Whew.. And the best part is, we would have spent a max of Rs. 35 per person.

Although we were not able to do this everyday, the Tomato soup @ Turing Point was a very much daily routine.

Man, I seriously miss those days of absolute bliss.

*blush*

There is this sweet frined of mine, Ms. D, who happened to get married to another friend of mine, Mr. S recently (A love marriage obviously). What I find really sweet about her is the fact that even after all these years, she still blushes when we tease her with him. It so amusing :D. U should have seen face during her marriage... Totally pink... she was blushing big time....Very Very Cute.. :)

Keep it up Yaar!!! I hope the blush still remains in your face when u guys celebrate ur 50th wedding anniversary.

(Ring)ing Experience

U must all have seen the movie "The Ring". It came out about 4 years ago. A few of my friends happened to watch the movie in the theatre and raved abt it. It is this scary movie which really spooks you out. The movie is about this videotape, which if anyone happens to watch, will get killed. One more characteristic is that the moment you finish watching the tape n switch it off, you get a phone call which informs you about your impending death.

The concept seemed very interesting and since I could not catch the movie at the theatre, I got a VCD of the movie from the local video store. As it happens there was no one at home that day. I popped the CD into the PC and saw for about 20 mins of the movie. I could not continue further as there was a power failure. The moment the power went, the phone in my house started to ring. I was like, "Oh Shit!!!!.. Dont tell me". It was a quite scary momemt, inspite of knowing that it was just a coincidence... Now that I happen to think abt it =)).

The call turned to to be from one of my friends, who was feeling bored at home, so happened to call up. :)

Travel Chronicles - 3

Our next stop after Mt. Abu was Delhi. We had booked dorms at the International youth hostel. We set off to see the Akshardham Temple. Enroute we happened to pass through "Rajpath". We also saw the India Gate. The roads which we happened to pass by were really huge and there was not that much traffic either. It was quite cold though inspite of it being 2.00 pm. There was a huge rush at the temple. We had to go through some security checks before we entered the temple. The Temple complex is huge !!! The main temple building in itself is quite impressive due to its huge size and the carvings. The carvings have been done on a pink coloured marble. The carvings were quite good and I am sure lots of hard work must have gone into. But I felt that the temples in towns down south like Belur, Halebid and Somnathpur are much better and they seriously deserve more attention than what they are currently getting. There is also a food court in the temple complex which caters to the needs a cosmopolitan crowd. Down south, there is generally no food court in the temple complex and even if there happens to be one, they definitely dont serve pizzas and burgers !!!

After Akshardham, we visited one of my friends cousins house. We had to go searching for her house which took up some time. From there, we went to the nearest metro station to travel on the Delhi Metro. From there we caught the metro to Connaught Place. It was a nice experience travelling on the metro. The entire metro is on international standards, right from the station to the trains. My friends told me that it is exactly the same way as it is in Japan. There is a train almost every three-five minutes. All through the journey, there are announcements on the speaker as to which is the next station and some safety instructions. If such a thing ever comes up in Bangalore (Its high time Bangalore got one), I am sure it would be huge success. The cost of the ticket is also not that high. In Bangalore, for a journey from JP Nagar to Majestic on a BMTC bus, the ticket costs 9 rupees and it takes an hour to cover the distance. On a metro this distance can be covered easily in 15-20 minutes. You will also avoid the heavy traffic. A metro system must come into Bangalore very soon. I feel it will definitely make a difference.

That nite we boarded a train to Pathankot. Next day(28th Dec 2005) we had to report for the National Winter Himalayan Trekking Expedition at Dalhousie. This is an annual trekking expedition that is organised by the Youth Hostels Association of India (YHAI). The National Winter Himalayan Trekking Expedition at Dalhousie is for a period of six days. This was an awesome experience. Although the trek was a very easy one, I happened to meet so many people from many parts of India and made some very good friends. In our batch, there were around 16 people from Bangalore. We were a group of four. We happened to get along famously with four other people from Bangalore and one more guy from Mumbai. So we were like this group of nine and man, we had a blast!!!! It was really great meeting this set of people. One of the person we met has written a nice blog about the whole trip. Click here to read it. :D This guy has done an awesome job of writing it.. He has written about many many small but memorable incidents.

Travel Chronicles - 2

Mt. Abu fell very much short of our expectations. Places in south like Agumbe and Ooty are much better in terms of views and stuff. It was very chilly in the nights. We were there for two days in Mt. Abu. Saw places which are part of the itenary of a regular tourist like some view point, temples, sunset point, the Nakki Lake. The place has become very commercialized. Infact, there is a Coffe Day Cafe over there.

Have any of you experienced chill and warmth at the same time ? It was an amazing feeling, feeling cold and warmth at the same time. Its like having cold vanilla ice-cream with hot chocolate sauce. The only diff being, in the latter only your mouth gets to experience the contrasting temperatures but in the former its your entire body which get to experience the contrasting temperatures.

Travel Chronicles - 1

I had gone on a two week tour to North India, out of which 6-days included a trekking camp in and around Dalhousie. It just felt great to be out of Bangalore. We were a gang of four from my office. Our first destination was Mt.Abu. We took a train via Mumbai. The onward journey was quite good. All of us were excited about the trip and were pretty much yakking/cracking jokes and the usual stuff along the way. The first morning in train, I woke to a nice view of sunrise. God knows when was the last time I saw the sun rise... Plus the great feeling that you have two whole weeks to just enjoy. We had to change trains at Mumbai and also the station. The train from Mumbai to Mt. Abu was totally crowded, plus we had RAC tickets. So two of us had to adjust in just one seat. That part of the journey was so goddamn noisy. Even at 11.30 in the nite, people were moving up and down the train.. It was like a mad house!!! Whew!! The journey was quite uneventful. By morning 10, we were at Abu Road station. Mt Abu was abut 28 Kms from the station, so we ended up engaging a taxi to Mt. Abu.

I was quite surprised at what people had for breakfast. It was like samosas/jalebis/bread pakoda/rabdi... I have no idea how people can have such deep fried and oily stuff for breakfast.. We ended up having brunch that day.