Oh Bangalore!

Just a few hours back, I came back to Aamchi Mumbai from a 15 days stay in Bangalore. What a city, guys!!! I just love it... if there is any city that I love after My Mumbai, it is Bangalore... I have been to Bangalore at least 7-8 times in the last 4 years and I have enjoyed each of those visits just as much as the previous one, or even more sometimes.

There are many reasons why I love Bangalore. I am a big time foodie so most of those reasons are the many restaurants in Bangalore that I love. There are so many I have decided to narrow it down to a few and list them here.

1. Little Italy: I am a big fan of Italian Cuisine. I can never get bored of Pastas and Pizzas. That is pretty much the reason why I absolutely love Little Italy. Now some of you might be wondering why I am mentioning this place exclusively under Bangalore even when it is very much present in Mumbai. Well, to be honest, I have never been to any of the "Little Italy"s in Bombay. It was in Bangalore that I first tried Little Italy and absolutely loved it. And of course kept going there again and again. They have a very wide variety of Pasta dishes to choose from. Each one of them is unique in its own way and that's what sets Little Italy apart from other Spaghetti places in town.
2. Infinitea: Infinitea was India's first authentic tea bar which made tea their primary business. There is a large variety of teas to choose from. You can go for a cup of steaming hot tea or quench your thirst with an assortment of Iced teas. You can choose your tea with Milk or without Milk. In Iced Tea alone, Infinitea offers close to 30 different kinds of flavors. Not just your usual Lemon or Peach. Along with the wide variety of Teas, Infinitea also has a number of side-snacks on its menu. This is an ideal place for a Breakfast/Brunch on a Sunday morning or for a quick evening snack with a cuppa any day of the week. I personally loved the steamed Chicken Momos and Corn on Toast... Pair it up with a cup of green tea and ah... Heaven!!!
3. Koshy's: Talking about Breakfast, what better place than the famous Koshy's? No place else like Koshy's when it comes to Breakfast. Their breakfast menu offers most of the globally accepted Breakfast dishes such as Scrambled Eggs, Egg Omelet, Bacon, Pancakes etc. You can choose from a number of beverages (hot/cold). I personally would recommend the Pot Tea.
4. Taste of Tibet: If you are out shopping on Brigade Road and feel an urge to indulge in some hot and steamy Momos, just head to the Taste of Tibet. This place will give you a variety of authentic Momos (Steamed and Fried). Other than Momos, this place also offers a variety of Tibetan food. It is one of the moderately priced restaurants on Brigade Road. This place is usually packed with young shoppers and Tibetans, looking for Home away from Home.
5. Kentucky Fried Chicken (KFC): Okay... KFC is not just limited to Bangalore. So why mention it here??? Simply because the first time I had the yummy Chicken Zinger Burger in KFC, it hadn't even been launhed in Bombay. I went to the KFC in Forum Mall in Bangalore a couple of times before it opened on Linking Road, Bandra in Mumbai. By then, I was already in love with the Zinger Burger coupled with a piece of fried chicken. So strong has been my bond with KFC in Forum that even today when I see a KFC in Bombay or in Pune , it reminds me of Bangalore.
6. Green Onion: Chinese being one of my most favorite cuisines, it brings me to Green Onion. This place is nothing like the expensive Chinese Restaurants like Mainland China. This place is pretty modest and offers the Indianized version of Chinese which all of us have grown to love. I love the Chicken Lollipops they offer and I haven't tasted such delicious chicken lollipop anywhere else. They have a sweetish tang to them and that's why I love them so.
7. Kabab Studio, Hotel Goldfinch: I visited this place only a couple of days ago. It is located on the rooftop of Hotel Goldfinch. We were very lucky as the day we went there, it rained a bit. So the climate was amazing, just perfect to sit on the top floor enjoying hot and sizzling Kebabs. This place offers a buffet system for its main-course. You can either choose a Vegetarian or a Non-vegetarian buffet. They start off with piping hot soup, or Shorba, as it is called. The next in line is a wide variety of Kebabs. If you enjoy meat-diet, you must visit this place once. In non-vegetarian, they serve a number of Kebabs including Chicken, Prawns, Mutton and even Fish at times. You can have as many Kebabs as you wish and I would recommend you to stuff yourself with these Kebabs as they are simply delicious. They are served on a barbecue right on your table so they remain sizzling hot at all times. After this, comes the main course which is a Buffet. Since I was so completely stuffed with the Kebabs, I barely ate all of the main course dishes. But the Biryani was good. And then, you can finish off your meal with a choice of desserts. When I went there, they had around 5-6 Dessert dishes including Cake, three different flavors of Ice-Cream, Jalebi, Dry Fruit Laddoo, some Bengali Sweet and a chocolate fudge. Well, I am not too into sweets, yet I absolutely relished the Cake with Ice Cream... Yum! :-)

Oh well... the list could go on and on! But I don't want to sound like the lady avtar of Bakasur so I will stop the list of my favorite restaurants. Anyways, the food is not the only thing that makes me keep going back to Bangalore. The city has amazing greenery and gardens. I remember the first time I went to Bangalore. I was amazed at the greenery surrounding all the roads. I was never used to seeing sooooooo many trees on the road here in Mumbai. I took so many pictures of roads with heavy traffic and an arch of tree branches on the top. It looked simply gorgeous to me.

And the beauty of Bangalore is not just limited to nature. It has a wonderful blend of Nature and Modern Buildings. The recently started UB City at Cubbon Park is one such example of the modernism existing hand in hand with the natural beauty.

Well... As I said, I came back from Bangalore only today. Yet I wouldn't mind going back there tomorrow! :-) Personally, I can never have enough of Bangalore...

My Music

I have always been big time into music, but my phone has now made my access to music even easier. I can listen to my favorite songs anytime, anywhere. I don't have to switch on my laptop anymore every time I want to listen to music.

I believe all of us go through phases when it comes to our Music-listening habits. At least I have been going through phases. When I was in second or third year of my graduation, I went through the "English Phase" as I like to call it! :-P During that time, I mainly listened to only English songs and most of them were Pop. Now I believe I am going through the "Hindi Phase" where I mostly listen to Hindi songs with a couple of English songs here and there.

Here are some of the songs I absolutely love these days:

• Kahan Ho Tum - Bombay Vikings: This is my most favorite song these days. I have never exactly been a fan of Bombay Vikings songs. But this song, without a doubt, is pretty different from their trademark, popular songs. What I love the most about this song is its lyrics. Simply amazing. The music is also really good, very much in tune with the lyrics.
  
• Jhonka Hawa Ka - Hum Dil De Chuke Sanam: This song is absolutely brilliant. The music by Ismail Darbar is beyond words. And the lyrics is just wonderful. This song sort of takes me to a different world every time I hear it.
• Tum Bin - Tum Bin: This song has been my favorite ever since the movie released. Though the movie was hardly noticed by anyone, I am sure that many people loved this song for its music and lyrics. I even like the video of the song to an extent.
• Luka Chhupi - Rang De Basanti: A. R. Rehman at his best. This song has absolutely awesome music. Rehman has composed this song brilliantly and the music, on its own, can give you an idea about the mood of the song. Of course, hats off to Prasoon Joshi for the lyrics which is equally superb. One of those songs which can actually make you feel the emotions that the song depicts.
• Kitni Baatein - Lakshya: This I feel is one of the most melodious sad (though ironic at times) songs that you can come across. Music and lyrics is good. And if you have its video, its like an added advantage. The video is also well taken to suit the mood of the song.
• The Hardest Thing - 98 Degrees: I don't think that I need to say much about this song as I am sure there must be so many who love this song. Great lyrics and good music.
• Tum Yaad Aaye - Alka Yagnik: I don't know how many of you actually know this song. It is from the album "Tum Yaad Aaye" sung by Alka Yagnik and lyrics by Javed Akhtar. I think the names are enough to give you an idea of how beautifully the songs have been composed and sung. This song has beautiful lyrics and Alka Yagnik has done justice to the same. If you haven't heard this song, I would strongly urge you to listen to not just this song, but all the songs from the album. Assuming that not many people know about this album, I am adding a link for the same.

"Tum Yaad Aaye - Alka Yagnik"

• Against All Odds - Mariah Carey and Westlife: I have always been a fan of Westlife. I love many of their songs. I especially love their take of the Phil Collins' classic 'Against All Odds' and I prefer it over the original, simply because I can associate with this version better than the classic.
• Kuch Kum - Dostana: By now you must have guessed that I usually tend to like those songs which have good lyrics. This song is one such example. The lyrics is wonderful, the music is good... but nothing out of the ordinary. But yet, the beautiful lyrics pretty much makes up for it.
• Aaoge Jab Tum - Jab We Met: Another one of my all-time favorites. Lyrics is a perfect 10. The music is simply marvelous and has been sung just perfect.

Well, the list of my favorites could go on and on, but I have kept it limited to the songs that I listen to most these days. Another post about my other favorites some other time. I don't want to bore you right now! ;-)

Sony Ericsson F305 - Review

So... after months of hard-work and persuasion, I finally compelled my brother-in -law to buy me a new phone. In these many months that I spent trying to persuade him to buy me a new cell, I was constantly researching various phones on the sites of Nokia, Sony Ericsson, Motorola and even Samsung. I even visited a number of shops to shortlist a few handsets. One of the most important requirements I had was a clamshell phone, other than of course MP3, Camera and Bluetooth. So after an extensive research, I narrowed down three handsets.

1. Sony Ericsson's W380i - The main reason I liked this phone was simply because it is a clamshell phone! :-) But I read a lot of bad reviews about this one and even many shopkeepers told me not to go for this one. So it was finally eliminated from my list.
   
2. Sony Ericsson's W350i - Again... the flap was the biggest selling point for me. Though the guy in the shop told me that the flap is often too delicate and breaks, I was still ready to go for this one.
   
3. Samsung J700 - The only reason I liked this phone was because it had everything I wanted, minus the flap and looked decent enough. But I was never too keen on Samsung. And I especially wanted to go for a Sony because of its awesome sound quality.
   

So with these three in mind I went out to buy a new phone. While I was busy checking out W350i, my sister and brother-in-law were looking at some other phone as they were not very happy with Sony W350i. And that other phone was Sony's F305. I was impressed the moment I saw the phone. After carefully analyzing the phone, I finally decided on this one, made my brother-in-law buy it right away and came out of the shop all happy. :-)

Features:

• Dual Speaker: My main intention of getting a new phone was to listen to music. So the guy in the shop suggested this phone as it has dual speakers. The quality of the speakers is simply amazing. So listening to songs on loud speaker whenever I am home has become my favorite past time. I am completely satisfied with the dual speakers and so I would give it 9/10
• Motion Gaming: The USP of this phone is the motion gaming. It has a built-in motion sensor. It takes mobile gaming to a whole new level. Its fun to swing your arm as if you are actually bowling. However if you are not very keen on motion gaming, the phone also has a number of other games where you don't need to swing your cell phone, so you have a choice. I have always been a big fan of games, be it on computer or cellphone. But it was never the main thing I was looking for in my cell. It was like an added bonus none the less. 8.5/10
• 2 MP Camera: The phone has a 2 MP camera. It also supports video recording. However, there's no flash in the camera. It supports digital zoom of upto 2.5x however you can only use this feature if you reduce the picture quality to VGA. All in all, as far as the camera goes, I would say 6.5/10
  
• FM Radio: The phone also has a built-in FM Radio. A standard feature in almost all the phones nowadays. But the one good thing is you can store 20 different FM Channels. But nothing negative about it so I would give it 8/10
• Screen Resolution: It has a 2-inch large TFT display with resolution of 176x220 pixels. Maybe it is made for 3D games. or something like that. I don't really know as I am not too aware about the technicalities that go behind it. However when you view camera pictures on the screen you can somewhat see pixels. But when you transfer those pictures to a PC, they look just fine. So (maybe due to lack of technical knowledge) I have assumed that the screen resolution is not that great. 5.5/10
• Size and weight: The dimensions of the phone are 96 x 47 x 14.6 mm which doesn't make it very sleek. It isn't as light as you would like it to be with a weight of 97.5 grams. But still, no complaints! :-) 7/10
• Battery: This is my first Sony Ericsson phone so I am not sure how well they fare in this particular area. But the battery Life isn't as good as my earlier phones. I would suggest a 7/10
  

All-in-all, I am more than satisfied with my 2-month long experience with the phone and I am glad that I decided to go for this one instead of the W350i. And as far as the overall rating of the phone goes, I would say 8.5/10. I could have given it 9/10 but I had to reduce 0.5 for not having a flap ;-).

Russell Peters... Just when I needed to laugh :-)

Till a couple of months back I had no idea who Russell Peters was! I had seen him in an advertisement on Facebook on more than one occasions and on each of them, I couldn't help but wonder who the clown was showing his index finger and giving the weirdest expression you could ever imagine. I googled him out of curiosity and read some stuff about him on Wikipedia. But never really thought about going any further in the research.

And then I heard his name again from two of my friends who have this freaky habit of mouthing dialogues from movies (not always keeping in tune with the situation :-P). So anyways, they would utter some dialogues every now and then and laugh out loud. I heard 2-3 such dialogues quite often but since I had no idea what they were, there wouldn't be any reaction from me. After some time I got sorta tired of sitting without an expression on my face while the two laughed their hearts out. So I finally asked them from where were they reciting these. And so, I was introduced to the Stand-Up Comedian Russell Peters. And one thing I can say after having watched only 4 of his shows is that; may god bless those two friends of mine for having that habit of dialogue-repeating (even though at times I just wish to beat them up for that very habit! :-P)

As I mentioned earlier, I have seen four of Russell Peters' shows and have already become an admirer. One important reason could be that I watched him just when I really needed to laugh. And boy, did I laugh!!!

Now some of the things I really like about him:
1. I love the way he mocks any accent. Amazing Talent!
2. He really has a global reach. Since he cracks jokes about all the races (evenly, as he says! :-P), it attracts people from all races!
3. The Dude has an amazing presence of mind. Imagine cracking an actually-funny joke about a woman heading towards the restroom in the middle of the show!
4. I especially love his jokes about Indians and Asians. They are always so funny without being offensive!
5. Oh... how can I forget to mention his world-famous "Somebody gonna get a hurt real bad" joke. Simply hilarious!
6. And last but not the least, now I can finally sit and laugh with my friends about Russell Peters' jokes rather than sitting with a plain face! :-P

Back again!

And so, there has been another gap in my blogging. A rather short one... but the most painful one indeed.

I have been going through the toughest phase of my life so far. For over a month, I didn't feel like doing anything. During this period, Internet had become an alien to me. I stopped coming online, which was like water to me earlier. I stopped chatting with my friends which was air to me. The only reason I used internet was to download movies. Movies became my only source of entertainment. In spite of numerous attempts on my friends' part to bring me out of this condition, I just wasn't ready. I only realized that until and unless I felt like it from inside, I won't be able to.

Now, I have decided to at least make a conscious effort. Because I have realized that all those who care/cared about me want to see me happy. And so, going back to blogging is just one of the things to come back to life as I knew it.

So I will soon be returning with a few more posts. I have so much to write about so many movies that I have watched in the past one and a half month! :-)

My (unedited) thoughts!

So, I am finally writing my first real post here. And to be honest, I have no idea what this post is going to be about. I am just simply going to write whatever comes to my mind, without any modifications. Hence the name.

As I said earlier, it has been close to 2 years since I last wrote something on my blog. So now, I am kind of out of touch with blogging. And at the moment, a little clueless as to what should I write and how should I start. So excuse me if I am a little unclear!

These 2 years have been quite eventful indeed. The last time I posted on the blog, I think I had recently finished my graduation and was preparing for MBA entrance exams. At that time, I had no idea where I was headed. In the month of July 2007 I took admission in MIT School of Management (MITSOM), Pune for their MBA course. I shifted to Pune in August. Before actually shifting here I had barely been to Pune a couple of times, for a single day. I entered MITSOM not quite knowing what to expect. The first year turned out to be pretty good. I became the Ladies Representative of the class, participated in a fashion show for the inter-collegiate festival by ISBM, scored respectable percentages in both the sememsters of MBA and stood first among the girls in my class.

And then came the second year. I had, well in advance, decided to specialize in Finance. Our so called specialization began in August 2008. Just as we were embarking upon entering the wonderous world of finance (indeed), we read about one of the largest bankruptcies declared by Lehman Brothers, a leading investment bank. It became one of the hottest topics of discussion in our classes. Though now I wish we had had something positive to discuss. Now, we have landed in a situation where the entire world is facing recession and us poor souls, MBA Freshers specializing in finance, are desperately looking for jobs (unsuccessfully so far). We often find ourselves cursing for choosing to specialize in Finance of all the streams. But I prefer to maintain a positive outlook since it is highly required at this time. So I will try not to focus on this subject at the moment.

Another major change in my life in these two years was shifting from Mumbai to Pune. I had always been a loyal admirer of Mumbai. But more than that, Pune had always been the last place on my list to shift to. But then at that time, MBA was more important, so I convinced myself to shift here. My first impression of Pune: bad roads, unfriendly people, terrible traffic and even more terrible traffic sense, too much of pollution, no public transport and the list could go on and on. I would always have arguements with my Mom and Dad as to which city is better. And like the loyal Bombayiite that I am, I always defended Mumbai in every aspect of the argument. My mom and dad would keep telling me, "its only a matter of a year from now till you start praising Pune and hating Mumbai". But now it has been close to a year and a half in Pune. And now, I love Mumbai even more if that's possible! I love the roads, I love the BEST Buses, I love the Fiat Taxis, I love the Local Trains, I love the people, I love the chowpatties; however dirty they might be, I love Worli Sea Face, I love Shivaji Park, I love the traffic signals and how people actually follow them, I love how even late into the night the city looks lively. Oh well, I could go on and on about this too. So I'd rather stop.

Anyways, I can't say that I totally hate my life in Pune. There are a number of things that I do here and enjoy. Now I am in my last semester of MBA and that realization sort of makes me review my life here. And that review makes me think of all the things and places I will truly miss at the end of my college. More about that in another post. I don't want to make this post too lengthy lest it should bore you! :-)

Anyways, to sum up, these two years have been wonderfully weird. I complain about choosing a specialization where at this very moment, there are no interesting jobs, I complain about leaving the best city in the world and going to one which I had always hated, I complain about not getting to stay with my Mom and Dad as much as I would like. But, in spite of all these complaints, I cannot say that I do not enjoy my life right now. I sort of love discussing with friends where we all will get placed or if at all we will get placed. I love bitching about Pune with my roommate who is also a loyal Bombayiite.

So all in all, in these two years I have sort of learned to love the things I normally would have hated and I think I have come out just a little bit stronger.