I guest blogged!

A big Thanks to Anand for inviting me to guest blog on his blog Andyspeak. I call the post The Night.

Do let us know how you liked it :-)

Bobby da dhaba

 

Bangalore loves all the good things - Technology, Food and Travel, Photography, Cultural Events, everything! That is the spirit that got me to Bobby da dhaba. This is one place where you can find good Punjabi food in Bangalore.

[ For those who are not aware, a dhaba is Punjabi for an eatery. The food is normally awesome. In older days a manji or khaat would be placed in the open air while the food was cooked in the dhaba kitchen. Now tables and chairs have taken the place of a manji but food is still eaten in open air. Btw, manji or khaat a is a bed with coir tied tightly to a bed structure typically found all over India. ]

The ambience - typical dhaba. No frills and fancies!! The food - amazing. The queues - long :-) People wait in the hot afternoon sun to have their lunch.

Bobby da dhaba is strategically placed; right next to the Alsur Gurudwara. Looks like a run down place [ this will change as they will be shifting to the opposite side near Photo Flash ]. Take left from the Gurudwara and you will find a shanty which [ of course ] you will not believe is the dhaba.

You place the initial order with the person at the counter and wait for your turn to sit. They call out your name and offer you a table which you will be sharing with some strangers unless you are atleast four people in your group. What I absolutely liked about the place is that while you are waiting, your initial order is being taken care of. There is none of the waiting time that fancier restaurants take.

Our methi ke paranthe just melted in our mouth!! I couldn't help eating another piece the moment the first was tasted. Lassi was good too, spicy. And paneer ke paranthe actually had lots of paneer [ which many restaurants fail to understand should be the main ingredient to have in paneer ke paranthe ]. Two people whom we shared our table with had ordered kheer as well and one of them said that he preferred the kheer in Bobby da dhaba to the one made at home!!

We ordered:

Methi ke paranthe - 4
Paneer ke pranthe - 2
Lassi - 1
Shahi Paneer - 1

Total cost -- Rs. 110/-. Pretty good for a whole meal for two people right here in Bangalore!! [ btw, the lassi is served in a tall glass so please ensure you can drink it all, I did :-) ]

This is my entry to my first online event - Latest eat-out in B'lore

Latest eat-out in B'lore

I am hosting an event called Latest eat-out in B'lore. This will be hosted under the umbrella - Edibles [ Edibles is where I will post all the lovely places I visit to eat :-) ].

This is the first time I am hosting an event [am absolutely nervous!! This is going to be fun!!!].

Links to this post:

• Bobby da dhaba
  Bangalore loves all the good things - Technology, Food and Travel, Photography, Cultural Events, everything! That is the spirit that got me to Bobby da dhaba. This is one place where you can find good Punjabi food in Bangalore... by me :-)


• Silver Metro
  Apart from being the famous face of the IT industry, Bangalore is soon gaining a lot of ground as a foodie's paradise. Thanks to the potpourri of cultures in the IT industry, there is a prevalent practice amongst the techies to eat out as a group. And a buffet is an arrangement that works to everyone's advantage, both in terms of variety as well as price... by Andyspeak
  


• Veena Stores
  Veena Stores is strategically located for good business. Right at the junction of 15th cross and Margosa road in Malleshwaram, very next to a bus stop. There are multiple reasons why this place is so much crowded... by The Speaking Mind
  

Update on Dizwell

For those of us who woke up late...Dizwell.com is back and doing fine!! Hurrah!! However, the treatment of the site is very different from what it used to be. [ Honestly speaking, I liked the old site better ]. Whatever reasons resulted in this new format, the new format is welcome. I'm just glad that the site that taught me a lot about Oracle is back. Just check http://www.dizwell.com. This is what I would like to say to the website owner:

Sir,

If you ever chance to visit this blog, I would like to say -- Thank you for opening the site again. To me your earlier site was like a library that I could walk into, pickup an article and take notes. I have done this quite often. Though the new format does not seem to host the older articles, I find the new articles like Automatically emailing Excel spreadsheets from Oracle insightful.

I just hope that you would again, someday, post the older articles in some section of your website.

The engine that pushes

This is first of a two part series on a trip to Ooty (Udhagamandalam) in Tamil Nadu.

From my place to the Satellite bus stand is going over to another corner of the city. My bus broke down in the middle of nowhere after starting from Shivaji Nagar bus stand. On top of it, we [Mother and I] had boarded the wrong bus!! The bus conductor, however, was the best I have ever met. Had it not been for his presence of mind the Ooty trip might not as well have happened. He stopped a bus passing by and requested the driver to drop us at a particular signal [he didn't give us the name of the signal]. From the signal we finally [after over 45 mins since the bus broke down] got an autorickshaw.

Poor Vish was in as much jitters as we were. I kept praying that other members of our team should not have to suffer on my account and requested Vish to carry on if we did not make it on time to the bus stand. But we did!! :-) Just 5 mins before the bus was to leave we reached. Vish had the presence of mind [everyone except me seems to have had tons of it!!] to get coupons for two cups of coffee for Mamma and I [We so badly needed that coffee!! Thank you Vish]. All of us boarded the bus and settled in.


Coimbatur

The stopover in Coimbatur was a very short one. We just walked over to the central bus stand to catch the bus for Mettupalayam. There are buses to Mettupalayam every 5 to 10 mins. The buses are in decent condition and the bus driver and conductor were very helpful people. The journey was completed in 1 hour 30 mins. It was some festival that day and lots of women dressed in red saree were seen everywhere. But they got down much before Mettupalayam.


Mettupalayam

From Mettupalayam bus stand to the railway station is a 5 mins walk. You just follow the straight road. Sights and smells of the morning could be seen and felt everywhere.

Our tickets were still waitlisted. We pleaded that we be let in the train. After all we had come to Mettupalayam for the Toy Train experience. The railway police and the guard were very helpful. They suggested that we wait for sometime till the other passengers are all seated. After a 15 [ loooooooooooong ] minute wait they suggested they can accomodate us but it would be in the compartment right next to the engine. Which is just what we wanted!! We couldn't wait to see the smoke billowing out of the engine and hear the whistle of the engine and of course all the whoosh that goes with it!!! A British couple were already seated in the compartment [ we later found that they had come packed for a long trek in Ooty ].

The engine that pushes the train

This is the engine that pushes the train! As most of the journey is uphill the engine is situated at the end of the train instead of the usual front of the train. The rythemic khat-khata-khat--khat-khata-khat--khat-khata-khat is mesmerising. Starting at 7:00 a.m. from Mettupalayam, the train reaches Ooty around 12:00 p.m. The cost of 8 people for a 5 hour [one of a lifetime journeys ride] works out to a whopping Rs.264!!!! [Yes, that is right ;-) ].

The "Toy Train" [as the Nilgiri Passenger is fondly known] stops every 45 mins to fill water for the steam engine. We had started clicking in the moving train. Some of the photos are proof to that :-) Every time the train stopped people came out and started taking photos. Often times, we had to be chided into the train by the guard who threatened smilingly he would leave us there if we did not scoot for the train. Half-heartely we moved into the train and started clicking rightaway!!

Twice the train stops near a bridge. Once, there is a brook flowing down below. The scenery here is amazing. Very dramatic. Our British couple decided to get some romantic advantage of the surroundings [ That which we Indians are willing to see in a movie, we are not ready to see in real life!! ].

There are hills, brooks, flowers, trees growing in the strangest of manners, bridges, tunnels and tons of smoke all through the way!! It is a journey of a life time. Don't miss it. Whatever your age do take the toy train once. Experience the ethereal moments that cannot be explained in words. The moments have to be felt, lived.


Toy train Bio-data




Till the moment we touched Ooty it was heaven... and then we were thrust down on earth to face the brutalities of a popular hill station.

Mothers of sons

Headlines proclaimed -- Mumbai terror ends. I had thought once this gets over I will be more composed and will be able to put my thoughts in proper order. I had thought words will come out more naturally, easily.

So I decided to wait till the terrorists were rounded up. The day came and the wait got over.

But the terror just does not end. Television and the internet have been blaring the gory details. Children crying having lost parents, parents crying having lost children.

That moved me to other thoughts. What about the mothers of the boys [they were between 21 and 25] who held seige in Mumbai landmarks. Do these women cry on losing their sons? Do these women know where their sons are going to [and what for in the first place?]?

Is it money or religion or something else that prompts these women to not object. Why do these women not pull back their sons and save them from a fate that is not taking them to either life or glory.

Are these mothers of 21 year olds not mature enough to know that their sons are leaving home never to return again. It can't be poverty. That can be taken care of in other ways. Is it religion. Can a religion make a mother so insensitive as to look the other way when her son leaves never to return. Does not seem like that. Mothers don't have religions.

It is just plain a terror that will not end. But more so for the mother who knowingly sent her son never to return.

P.S.: Apologies if my thoughts are not coherent.

A very common cold

After a lovely trip to Coorg, I was hoping to write about its beauty and the time I had enjoyed [that will be the next post]. Instead I'm forced to write about the cold I've caught!!

I know, I don't really have to write about the not-so-uncommon common cold. But what can I do - kismat! Even my boss gives me the you-poor-thing,-you-are-so-done-for looks. [I've managed to contribute the germs to a poor colleague sitting in the US of A. All that the poor soul did was attend the same conference call with me and look what has happened to her].

Everyone is very kind, sympathetic. Cold makes everyone bring out their favourite remedies. "Take some ginger and add honey to it" [my fav actually, tastes good]. "Take about four cloves, put them in boiling water and catch the steam [catch steam ?!!]". "Put 3 or 4 leaves of tulsi in your tea" [tastes good too]. "Gargle with hot water and put some salt into it."

Then there are any number of medicines available in the market. The television advices me to take at least half-a-dozen different ones in a span of 3 mins.

The point here is that people who wouldn't give me a nod on an ordinary day give me recipes, advice and looks that make me feel like I've caught the common cold for the first time in my life. And this happens every time :-)