FOODiepedia

FoodStop: Golkonda chimney

Well, it is Marthahalli’s Leela palace, Taj Vivanta, Hyatt and everything. A small area has been cleverly utilized to provide 3 varieties of seating arrangement. Normal arrangement on the ground floor in dingy light, bright area on top for families and my favorite  open air area adjacent to it where pretty candle shimmers on the table and stars in the sky. The place is frequented by chicken lovers often.

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Food is yummy! We find more options than the usual lollipop, chilly chicken and kebabs in starters as well as main course. Amazing chicken dishes with fancy names tempt more than the usual. Price is as good as the quality. A normal chicken item costs around Rs 180.

 Funnily, bringing the bill takes more time than bringing the dishes. 

Shining stars: Chimney Kebab, Chicken Chatpat, Mint Roti.

Tip: Carry your own water if possible. Mineral water is for 45 damn bucks.

FoodStop: Meghana Foods, M G Road

The place is simple, bright and clean with real banana leaves as plate and own hands as spoon J. Generally, it is hoarded by decent people with serious love for good food.

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The biryanis here are amazingly magnetic to our tastebuds. The staff is friendly and their recommendations are worth ordering. So, relax your brain, loosen the buttons, wash hands and get mesmerized in one of the precious gifts of Hyderabad.

Food is reasonably priced with biryanis priced around Rs 160. One bowl is enough for 2 not-so-hungry souls.

If food comes fast, bill comes faster. It gets a lil annoying when the bill is brought even before the food finishes.

Shining stars: Meghana Special Biryani, Present day’s special starter.

FoodStop: Chandni Chowk, Kormangala

If Chandni Chowk is anywhere on earth, it is not just in Delhi. A part of it glitters in the heart of Bangalore as well. Located at a 5 minute walkable distance from Oasis mall, its first glimpse reminds of a happy wedding party with string of tiny bulbs adorning the entire building. Lucky ones like me may get to enter into a beautiful bollywood like setup with booming live dhol and Punjabi music setting up the mood.

The classy granite has been ditched for pebbles on the floor. The menu card is a unique silk dhapli. Walls are ethnic and curtains are shiny sitaaras. You admire and eat on the faces of bollywood divas simultaneously who pose on the wall as well as the table mats :D

The place screams “Happy Punjabi Happy Punjabi” with its infectious loudness in decoration, filmy music and periodic bursts of dhol.

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Food is brand Punjabi. The hidden Punjabi foodster awakens amidst traditional varieties of chicken. Having Lassi is not a choice, it is a compulsion thanks to its awesomeness.

Shining stars: ta ta ta ta tandoori nights for starters and go gaga over Rara chicken for main course.

Everybody grows a sweet tooth by default after licking chicken off their plate. 

Tip: Control your emotions while ordering or next day some may see loose motions.

FoodStop: Egg Factory, St Marks Road

It is one of those weird places where food comes first, cutlery comes second and plates come last. The place needs a makeover even more than Sonakshi  Sinha’s forehead. The walls are old and scratched and 6^th sense screams that tables are unclean. String with broken egg shells around each bulb is simply tacky. The only innovation in the miserly setup ambience is probably the blackboards with some deadly PJs scribbled on them.

Eggxample: URINE: Opposite of  You are out!! 

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 Egg Factory is surely worth a visit. But just one visit. Some of the dishes are actually very good and new. Do enquire about the curry of dishes with hi-fi names. Dishes in tomato curry are sweeter than they should be.

All in all, Food is heavy, not the cost. Most expensive dish is for Rs 145. 

Shining stars: Pink Lady, Roasted Chillies Frittata, Pasts Al Burj, Choco Sin :* 

Tip: The eggy dishes may disappoint incase you go with too much eggspectation. Also, original French toast is actually sweet. Avoid drinking in their egg kissed glasses.

My tiny lil joys in Bangalore *-*

So, finally I have settled down in my new nest and with every passing day, I and Bangalore are getting to know each other, eating and swinging.

I say eating because besides being an IT hub, it’s an awesome food land. Bangalore is sprinkled with eating joints every 10 steps and all I can say is “I’m loving it!”. I am discovering this city through its food and may be its my primary source of motivation to avert inertia on weekends.

But swinging in bus at every possible angle, twice a day breaks my soul and body. Listening to the weird kannada songs every morning while some Aunty standing like Sholay's‘Viru’ starts using me as an armrest, it all auto forwards me into an intellectual introspection mode.

Still, everyday there are numerous tiny sparks which can make my hour of the day.I will share a few random ones:

*Strategically waking up at a time when some ‘flabmate’ of mine has already made breakfast for me.  

*Knowing the answer to the toughest question in this world-“What am I gonna wear today!”

*Taking less than 10 minutes to cross the road.

*Hovering over the head of an angel who will be vacating her seat just 2 stops later.

*Seeing the 1st sign of motion in that 1 hour routine traffic jam.

*Escaping my manager’s eyes till the time I sink in my chair and pretend to have been there for hours when I am actually late(usually)

*Catching my team’s attention if I am ever on time.

*Getting free food.

*Getting a chance to lay my hands on the foosball table.

*Playing Table Tennis like Saina Nehwal instead of Virendar Sehwag

*Finding bugs in Bugzilla

*Reliving a non spicy episode of Saas-Bahu serial with my flabmates!

*Sleeping on a high laughter note after talking to my favorite people. Even I want them to be taller, stronger and sharper and I take care of the first part atleast by pulling their leg well.

  

  All we need to remember is:

“It’s a new day. It’s a new life.  Embrace it and you shall survive =)”

Why do I want a dog!

I will soon be moving to the silicon valley and am pretty psyched about the experiences in store. Be it my quest to find that perfect abode or wanting to enroll myself for guitar lessons, salsa classes or the hidden butterfly in me planning to shine in the nightlife of the city, mind is glittering with excitement. But, most of all, I am riveted to the idea of getting a little dog.

I am no Paris Hilton desperate for a lap candy. So, I don’t want my ‘StudMax’ to be a shallow boy toy. Yeah right.. I named him that. His existence will have a deeper purpose in my life.

To begin with, I know he will take me for a walk daily thanks to his nature calls and my nature to stay in a hygienic house. I already see myself turning into a bundle of 50 pages from the current 100.

I will not have to push myself beyond the point where even Chicken Chilly starts to get on the nerves just because I don’t have the heart to waste it. I know there will be a man right next to me salivating for the chicken more than I ever do. So, overeating gets off the chart as well.

This sourpuss world must be wondering if my weight is all I worry about. It couldn’t be more wrong because I care about peace of mind too!

After a daylong bickering with computer, all I would want is a quiet evening with an understanding person, X and talk about trivial things, go for a walk, talk, eat panipuri and talk. Even before this hypothetical X comes to life, I know X will talk back, preach me. Somehow I will simply be shut up. Hopefully with an icecream. ;)

But, once I finish it off I will be reminded of how I just wanted someone to listen to my cribbing without being judgemental. ‘StudMax’ is the answer to this need of mine.    

Besides, I will be thrilled to improvise on my ‘Sad puppy face’, ‘Curious puppy eyes’ and ‘Innocent puppy look’ weapons under the master himself.  

Before anyone brands me sexist for overlooking a bitch for the aforesaid privileges, I hereby reveal that it is because I won’t let anyone replace the lovely bitches in my life. :D

             3 cheers to my powerpuff girls and my dog-of-the-hour, my ‘StudMax’! :D     

Arz Kia Hai...(2)

Sabhi darwaaze hain band dekhoSabhi raastey hain tang dekhoPar raahi ke hausley ke saamneSabhi uske saathi hain dang dekho
 Hawaa ko kaun door rok paaya haiPaani ko kaun floor rok paaya haiBas isi ummeed me ki manzil milegiAaj sab log hain uske sang dekho
 Na chaal dekho, na dhaal dekhoNa hi uska kya hai haal dekhoKya paana hai usko bhi kya pataPar sirf uske jeeney ka dhang dekho
 Dil me lekar armaan kayiDene ko hain farmaan kayiChoomne ko khula aasaman koiUdi hai aaj ye patang dekho

Arz Kia Hai... (1)

Har chehre ke peechey ek aur chehra hai
Har muskuraahat pe shikan ka pehra hai
Upar se to lagti hai ye sirf ek kharonch
Par asal me ye zakhm utna hi gehra hai

Kehte hain samay ko koi bhi rok na paaya
Par haqueekat me waqt yahin pe thehra hai
Yun to sunne waale hain kayi yahan pe
Par gaur se dekho to har koi behra hai

Not the Right way. Not the wrong way. It’s the Indian way

1.       I want my kid to be independent

 Except handling trivial things like social behavior, career and choice of life partner, an average Indian parent has always pushed for independent thinking among kids.

2.       I am painting the town red

Implies I am a paan lover and every corner of the staircase is my basin.

3.       Our rivers are magical

Not just because of religious reasons, we believe that even the garbage that is dumped in vanishes miraculously.

4.       Growth in GDP hurts

Because GDP stands for Gas, Diesel and Petrol

  

5.       Government is sports friendly

Money shower follows success. Vice versa may not be true.

6.       We care about ‘Balika Vadhu’

Those 30 minutes of daily attention may be greater than what many Balikas and Vadhus will ever get.

7.       Our Education system is rich

Students pay well to be given an opportunity to mug well even in not-so-well institutions.

8.       Production rate is very high

Yeah, we are talking about babies here.

9.       As You Like It

All the world's a loo,
And all the men and women merely roadside poopers:
They have their exits and their entrances;
And one man in his time will pee at many parts…..

Worst shit

My mindboggling attempt at writing crap.

Akash, a 5 pointer at BYTES college was in severe depression. He had been prohibited from sitting for placements till now. His understanding neighbor and buddy of 4 years, Sameer, a 9.89 pointer, tried to console “ what man! Being ‘CGist’ is the new ‘sexist’ for companies nowadays. You deserve a good placement. So what if you don’t mug well in your electrical stream, you are the Elvis Presley of campus.”      

A few days later, Akash was bursting with joy after cracking the 1^st company he sat for, Infosys. His neighbor Sameer took charge of unleashing incessant congratulatory bumps and proudly reminded Akash of his well deserved treat at a posh 3 star hotel for this feat, for which Akash readily agreed while he was still numb with both joy and pain in the butt.

Later in the evening, sitting on a cushion in Sanjay’s room, Akash cribbed: “Dude,I am going in a bus company with salary at par with a conductor’s and .. “ as Sameer interrupted him and gave a virtual ppt on how good Infosys was for a starter and how even he would have sat for it had he not planned to chillax for an year in Microsoft, which he claimed to have got  into by fluke.

Next day, Akash woke up to a noisy afternoon with severe hangover. Curiously, he peeped out to find pink faced Sameer breaking his chair like a bull  and ranting “ What was the point of working my ass off, not dating, buttering professors if I get overlooked for that noob, Raman with a lower cgpa even though I am the most tech savvy person around”. Soon he and chair both broke down as he fumbled ” Stanford was my dream!”.

In the meanwhile,  Raman announced “Sambhar and intelligence run in my blood re. Though I feel sorry for that ghissu re.”

In dilemma if he should  feel bad about his bestfriend never even letting him sniff his MS plans  or his rejection that followed, Akash couldn’t handle the brain teaser and decided to go back to sleep.

P.S.: While still recovering from their respective shocks, CAT results were announced today. Akash got a call from the inferior  siblings of IIMs, the new IIMs. In the next room, Sameer has been prattling away to glory about his managerial bent of mind since childhood and how his dreams have come true on KabTak, Sabse Haze channel, thanks to his cent percentile.