beingdesh

Category: Places

  • First month at…

    I am a month old in this MBA thing today, just woke up to the sound of the Jhaaduwaala on a lazy Thursday morning. The only day that I remember nowadays, about the rest I am pretty oblivious. Have lost the sense of days, always feel sleepy, get bored in the classes quite often, sleep in classes, have to attend them all, dont get much time to roam around in Mumbai and I am still to meet few of my dearest friends here due to lack of time.

    But still I am loving it, although MBA is much much different from the pre-conceived notions of yours truly, it needed a slight adjustment in my strategy to approach it, hopefully I am tweaking it right.

    Don’t think I am all that bored and down and out, this is the way we live, infact this is a new way of enjoying things, and last month has been great with lots and lots of interesting stuff happening. Few of the highlights being,

    • The amazing reception I got here, thanks to my friend Dhari, I will never forget that.
    • Getting back along with Pillu Bhai and Patrick Baba for a Alcoholic BakBak session, old days ishtyle.
    • The first classes here, my fear for Mathematics coming back, my liking for Fin increasing, etc etc
    • The only movie I saw here, the one in which Pappu cant dance saala, waste for 200 bucks.
    • Toto’s and getting the 10 Rs tip :))
    • Still avoiding a ZERO in any QM quiz here 😀
    • Freshers, all that stupid effort we put in for preparing some of the most pathetic ads which make Leo Burnett alive just to kick us.
    • KHAULTI KHABREIN
    • Quite a cheerful group of friends assembled here, one a Bangalore continuation, one reminds me so much of Sandy that I don’t feel he can be anything else, one a DAIICT ka bak baadshah and another namesake of my super nachaiya friend from DAIICT and many more including a 2/3rd CA.
    • Room-mates one of whom reminds me of an unpolished Rajeev of the First sem at DAIICT, the other is interestingly named as a English word for Pyaar and initial trends suggest that he is an excellent student.
    • A very very enthu batch especially when it comes to asking questions in class, anyway I just love everyone 🙂
    • A very cute bunch of girls 😉
    • Birthday celebrations here.
    • Screwing up Foundation exams :((

    Those were a few, anyway the thing different between Mumbai and Bangalore is that at Bangalore I had loads of time, empty time, which is less here, one needs to just give up a bit on his/her sleep to be part of lots of great activities, lets see whether I would be able to do that.

    Right now a trip to Khandala today is all that I am looking for… 🙂

  • Bye Bye Bangalore

    It’s Game Over Bangalore.
    14th June’ 2006- 16th May’2008

    So bye bye to my first job, to all those Hot Idlis, Dosas and Coffees, Mysore Pak :), Super Expensive movies(which I never saw, I saw only at super cheap places), those farewell parties and non-farewell parties, bits and bytes of alcohol, the niceness of Jayanagar, the famous 201 bus, lots of blogging, all that stupid CAT preparation, good weather, lots of cute looking girls whom I only watched at times, all that Dada vs Dravid discussion, Kannada Songs, late nights at office and returning back home in cab on a strange empty road, Vasanthi on Radio City, my bus journey to office, BMTC buses, Majestic, heavily crowded city market, even more heavily crowded Forum, the UnBanglorish BTM, Highly Bangalorish Basvangudi, the farway lands of Yelhenka and Hebbal, Volvo Buses, MTR, Food Street, juice shop near Kamkhya, the cooking we did, EB(Emotional Black-male, our so called pet dog), all those stupid street dogs, those stinking chicken shops, a housemaid who talks to only one person, has an animagus Crow and does black magic at night, to all my office mates and great friends I made at work, my reunion with many of my old school friends, and my continued union with all my DAIICT friends. I will miss everything.

    Above all I will miss my roomies at Seshgiri and the Three Towers of Kathriguppe( a clan famously known as Kathriguppe ke Kutte)- including seshigiri and two other houses inhabitated by fellow daiictians who became great friends at Bangalore.

    Its Mumbai… this Summer

    Technorati Tags: Bangalore

  • Small City Dreams

    An unshaved face, a stinking jeans, a dirty t-shirt, Kapil’s wrist watch, drinking frooti just before it, this and a whole lot of superstitions, nothing worked. Six months of stupidly wasting time was followed up with disappointment and nothing more. Six months of screwing up my brain, with just 3 movies (2 were at the end of period when it was getting closer), 2-3 canceled outings, Diwali* away from home, all this amidst hell lot of work pressure at office, night outs, nothing worked. I had a realization the day I gave it, that why people leave this country, so much struggle to get anywhere that people get really pissed off. Anyway I decided on something else though.

    I want to move to a smaller city, much much better than going to a country where no one knows you (this would be a bit different in my case, as I would be still Desi for them :)). So new vision statement for life was drafted,

    Small City, Medium Money, Small Dreams, Lots of Happiness

    Money has been kept medium as of now, but even small is Ok. I am tired of hearing about,

    • People taking EMI’s to run there life, take a home in Bangalore and pay up for next 20 years. Buy a car and pay up for next 4-5 years.
    • People using credit cards to run there life.
    • People stuck in traffic for half there life and profanity-fying the condition of Bharatiya Roads.

    Basically I am pissed of city life, after living 17 years in a township in Korba, Chattisgarh and four years of engineering in an extremely peaceful Gandhinagar, this is all too much for me to take. I think its better to strip down on your Monetary ambitions if you get happiness in exchange. The thing is after seeing so much, going to small place won’t be much of an issue for me atleast, there maybe difficulties initially but in long term it would be much more effective. In return I get,

    • A HAPPY family life…
    • A nice home with lawn and jhoola in it 😀
    • Kids who don’t pass out in pubs and watch movies for 25 Rs…:)
    • Me watching movie for 25 Rs
    • Neighbors who atleast talk
    • Cheap vegetables, cheap commodities, cheap most of the things.

    Even if I earn what I am earning now for the rest of my life at a small place, it surely would mean much more savings for me than me living in Bangalore. Maybe I am thinking too long term, but anyway one has to do it. Smaller towns and cities stay better as the big cities grow, the “Supposedly” successful crowd moves city wards, small remains mostly the same. although I am worried by the Mall-ification of these places too but most of them, I expect to be quite stable even in case of economic swings. Thinking about what I can do there,

    • A sarkari naukri, but extremely difficult to get that one.
    • Moving into Public Sector…
    • Moving into things like Manufacturing etc. which maybe the industries at these places.
    • Goto a small place, start my own petrol pump, a halwai shop and a hotel.

    All this will come up sooner or later, lets see how this stupid MBA thing goes on, one thing is for sure, I have had it enough for a lifetime here in a city.

    *Diwali Celebs were quite different this time, though I missed being at home but this is what we did for Bangalore Diwali,

    1. Got confused on Nark Chaturdashi as everyone in Bangalore celebrated that day itself 🙂
    2. One round of pooja at home on Lakshmi Poojan, couple of crackers bursted, prasad included Peda and Mysore Pak.
    3. Another bit of pooja at friend’s house, 2-3 rounds of crackers (extremely low quality ones), and gobbled up lots of mithai
    4. Dinner menu included- Davangare Benne Dosa(Butter Dosa) from my favorite shop in NR colony. Followed up by a nice bottle of Wine.

  • Bahut kuch ho raha hai…

    Its been a while since I have blogged at length, I mean they haven’t been one -liners as posted on the quark, but not much of self-generated data (don’t take it literally as people do tend to assume in my case) these days.

    Recently its been lots of work Putting my legs in too many boats

    Still Billi rules the priority list. Had an amazing weekend with sleep, LOTR, good food and finally no Bangalore outing (though still had a short one to newly opened McD). I am quite sick of moving around Bangalore now, especially the buses are hopeless and the autowaalas looking like looteras (no offense meant).

    Friday as usual was movie day, Jhoom Barabar Jhoom (rhyming with Shakalaka Boom Boom, both in name and content) was quite simple horrendous. Actually its the worst movie I have ever seen. Maybe not as I only saw half of it, don’t know what stopped me till interval. I simply hate my namesake (not because he took ash, but chumma[1] I hate him).

    Anyway last week I met Puneet Rajkumar on the sets of Milana. Amazing guy and so down to earth being quite a big star in Kannada Cinema. We talked a bit about places we come from and Kannada Cinema. Mast person!

    Along with him was the actress Parvathi, and as I heard its her first Kannada flick after a small stint in Mallu cinema. Amazing Girl 🙂 !!! And the handshake was really amazing ;).

    (Parvathi on the sets of Milana)

    This pic posted just to jalofy the male readers (me not sharing my pic with her though ;)). In the movie Puneet plays a Radio Jockey. Oh by Radio last week something else also happened,

    12th June, 2007 will be remembered as a day when Desi or Daisy achieved media moksha, finally. In the words of Kapil who broke the news,

    Desi popular ho gaya, sahi hai

    Desi(National)se ab InDesi (International) ho gaya 🙂

    Today morning after a long wait and persistent efforts desi was able to talk to RJ Vasanti (Radio City). He has given correct answer of a movie question and won some prize too. Desi was on radio city around 8’O’clock whole Bangalore was listening to him. (ab tak ham hi sunte the)

    Anyway it was not Vasanthi but Aviva who I met. I was just out of bath and listening to Radio as Aviva asked this on Radio,

    Whats common in the movies Cheeni Kum, RDB, Delhi Heights and Khosla ka Ghosla?

    Fir ekdum se dimmag ki ghanti baji and I SMSed 4646 as I have done for so many times this past year in Bangalore. Answer was that all the movies either fully or partly have been shot in Delhi. While ironing my shirt I got a call from Aviva, here is how the conversation went thereafter,

    Aviva- Hello!
    Me- Hello!!!!!!!!!!!! (a girl calling me at 7:40 AM :O)
    Aviva- This is Aviva from Radio City and blah blah blah…

    and it went on…I won’t bore you with the rest of it. But just two things,

    • I forgot most of what I was supposed to speak, I was Live on air yaar.
    • It was Aviva and not Vasanthi, I would have loved to talk with Vasanthi but it was fun talking too Aviva too.

    Ok the post is getting too long maybe and turning a bit baasi now. So closing it off.

    [1] chumma doesnt mean a Kiss, it means just like that in Tamil, some say its written as summa but who cares, its pronounced as chumma.

    p.s.- hamesha hi bahut kuch hota hai, nothing new about it. And I am desperate to watch Sivaji, someone please get me tickets.

    p.p.s- Also met Naresh this Friday, it was great meeting him after a long time.

    Technorati Tags: Abhishek Bachchan, Puneet Rajkumar, Milana, Jhoom Barabar Jhoom, Parvathi, Vasanthi, Radio City, Bangalore

  • Happy Anniversary

    For one year in Bangalore and one year at work…

    I thought I would be out of Bangalore till now, but its ok. Maybe next year! Things have started turning a bit boring nowadays but its OK, will manage.

  • The MTR way…

    After the horrendous loss of India on Friday, the weekend was surely going to be a dud. Morning I woke up thinking that whatever I saw on friday night was a dream. But my message box full of Stupid SMSes suggesting that I was wrong spoilt it up. So I thought better roll out for a movie Namastey London, well was waiting for that one for long time I thought.

    Thankfully I was also accompanied by my idli-hating, but foodiprising nonetheless friend Vaibhav. We along with couple of more pals checked into MTR. Ok now I have been to Urvashi-Lalbagh area like umpteen times but still it took me so much time to trace MTR. One of my friends suggested the place long back but you see something are destined to happen when it should.

    We checked-in and as per the legend we were in a waiting queue, lucky enough though as the uncleji cleared us off in 5 mins. I have heard about people sticking like 20-30 mins to catch a glimpse of the idlis.

    So after getting in walking on a historically pictographed staircase, we entered into a superbly cool place on the first floor. Well first I thought that it was the place which made it so cool, but later realied that the AC’s were playing their part well. Actually the place looked like one of my native homes in the village which was quite cool, so maybe the confusion. even the Wash Basin was the unique one with a pedal instead of a Tap.

    Well some food now, we had Badam Halwa, Rava Idli with Sagu and Masala Dosa. Needless to say everything was quite draped in Ghee, as the waiters were in their loongis. It was followed by a Coffee which was something like I have never tasted before, too strong but refreshing. the cost is a little high but MTR makes it up by the quality of food they serve.
    For me Masala Dosa was the standout dish and for people who like Ghee this place is awesome. The place gives that 20’s-30’s bit of feel. Feels like you part of a British Contingent in 20’s or discussing a the Indian National movement in the 30’s. One of my pals told me that earlier they served food in Silver Ware. That should have added to that feel.

    Anyway Mavalli Tiffin Rooms is surely the place to go in Bangalore, especially for the not so Weight Conscious guys and who have got the bit for taking the feel of a old Bangalore. By the way the movie also wasn’t too bad after that, but still MTR was all on my mind for the weekend.

    Technorati Tags: MTR, Food, Bangalore, Restaurant Review

  • New Year Party’07

    Ok finally some time to blog. A party to remember for sure, simply much more than its alcoholic content in Character and night full of regular stuff we did in college but stuff we had been alienated from for a while.
    All started with Happa and me discussing a possibility of a party where we would be sitting with couple of gals in a nice pub sipping taazi beer (draught as we know it) and getting cozy with a dash of bullshit. Don’t ask me what it meant but but getting cozy and talking bullshit was meant to be the theme. But that still remains a dream…huh
    Anyway in our quest to have a good pardy this is where we reached…

    Brigade and MG was nice that day, but too nice when it came to rates. 750/- for getting into our favourite hangout places Purple Haze and so we didn’t enter. Next we got no sasta places to enter so somehow someone found a place which I forced everyone to get out off. Now with nothing to do we entered McDonald’s chewed a few burgers and off we went to DVD’s house. Oh I forgot the cast,

    DVD the Designer
    Amar DVD’s room-mate and school pal
    Enginerd because he doesn’t like to be named maybe…
    Chotu the aaramdayak ladka
    KD …he is KD
    Happa… decalred the most eligible bacheolar from our college batch by Anand that day…
    Vinamra urff Tidda
    Akshay the experienced drinker…
    Me, desi, pattu, desh wahtever and sometimes Abhishek as Chetan called me that day…
    And then there was Chetan the star of the day…:)


    So we went to DVD’s house
    and we had this—>

    For the last time I QUIT NOW

    Afterwards it was speeches, gaana, naachna, rona dhona, hasna, ulti karna and what dung next day office jaana. (No more pics will be shared due to reasons beyond explaination)
    Though it was great fun but I won’t write much about it. Those who were there enjoyed it. Next year same party maybe a few gals would be around as some said.
    It would better be somewhere other than Bangalore but I am stuck here in Bangalore like this, dunno what to do…

    But wherever I go I can’t have it alone, so it better be anywhere loads of my friends around me…

    BTW all the pics courtsey tidda’s camera, meet Vinamra 🙂

  • Another Sachin and Kambli !!!

    Just came across this article from Mohandas Menon,

    When about 19 years back two Acherakar boys from Mumbai’s Shardashram had a 664 run partnership noone would have thought that one of them would be then would go on to become Sachin Tendulkar. The thing is that one of them was Sachin Tendulkar was such an historic event that it overshadows most of the events of that decade and maybe even that century. Noone can deny the god like status Sachin has achieved today but even God shows their best as kids. About Kambli people remember more for his stupid hairstyles (or no-hairstyles) and his crying after the SriLanka semi-final loss at Eden Garden’s 1996 rather than his double double centuries against England. He was a good enough batsman always there but never so much there.

    Now its the turn of two kids from Hyderabad, India’s new sporting hot-pot( Sania and Saina emerging from there) to give us Mohammad Shahbaz Tumbi and B Manoj Kumar. These two non-teenagers have broken one of the longest standing records in Under-18 cricket( Infact highest partnership in CLASS of Cricket) in India scoring 721 runs in a partnership for their school and hope they continue the good efforts till they grow up and play for India one day.

    Hoping that both of them goes the Sachin way, not his friends way.

    *This one was originally blogged at Sportolysis

    Technorati tags: Cricket, , Kambli, Sports

  • I wanted to be here…

    Last to last week I had a reunion at my place with all my college ke friends (40 of them) having a great time. But somehow I miss my school ki junta too much. Last week three of them niddu(Swapnil), rippu(Ripunjai) and Abhishek(Sona, quite ironically me listening to oh mere sona re…) had a reunion at IIM indore(IIM-I hate that word now…huh) followed by Abhishek’s home. It must have been great. All throughout my college lives I have missed these guys too much. Anyway me planning to go to Hyderabad with Pratik and there I hope to catch a few but I really hope next time I am a part of these pictures,

    Rippu, Abhishek and Niddu

    At niddu’s room I presume

    At Rock show



    Next time I will be there pakka.

  • Bangalore and my Belly

    I was instructed by my favourite professor at college before leaving. Abhishek better look at your weight. Well I have been following him and looking after it.

    First few days into Bangalore and I felt that Cauvery Water Supply for Bangalore has got parallel connections for Sambhar and Chutney. Anyway I have always loved South Indian food or for that matter any kind of food but excess of anything is not so good. But I still tend to manage it.

    Chapter-1 Prasiddhi and Annakuteera

    Former was better but I have been more loyal to the second one. Prasiddhi taught me that Banglorians are as addicted to Gobhi Manchurian as they are to Idli/Vadas. Both have fed me with Idli, Vada, n number of Baths (as it is written on menu), Ice Creams and Juices.

    Chapter-2 Chandni Chowk and The Village

    So after my initial tryst with Sambhar, Chutney’s, Vadas, idlis and dosas Chandni Chowk was something good. I mean had Tandoori food there and better I didnt pay for it my friend did. So did he when we visited Village at Indiranagar. Nice food, anyway I have realised that from time I have started making moneyI have started noticing things like ambhience service quality and all that crap. They kind of looked Phoney in the good world of food but I dont know how they have crept in.

    Chapter-3 Chinese…

    Chung, Beijing bites, Rice Bowl, Gobhi Manchurian and Chinese movies have been really nice to me in Bangalore. Leave Chung where me and Vaibhav were fooled by a unusual sounding dish which turned out to be an omelet or Rice Bowl where food sucked somehow and Beijing bites which has been ok I feel more Chinese now. Suppose I could start working in a Chinese Restaurant now.

    Chapter-4 Corner House

    This has been my favourite part of Bangalore till now roaming on MG, Brigade and then going to Corner House. DBC and Hot Choco Fudge are awesome and I am glad Happa took me there that day. I have been there three times and feel like going there every weekend.

    Chapter-5 Liquor oops…

    I would better not say anything about it but from all my experiences I will never drink beer or whiskey sort off drinks. Vodka suits me so that’s ok. No more on that.

    Anyway all these chapters close reminding me of DTC. Anyway I should better try to be a non-member now. Me living life now the Bangalorian way but I don’t think they must be eating such diverse food as me. Anyway now another career eludes me; a person writing Food Reviews. I mean I can earn money and eat too. Food has kept me involved in Bangalore, sometimes though my brain thinks that do I think from my belly???