Vacation - Delhi

So once we took the Shatabdi from Jaipur to Delhi where we were plied with food non-stop [included in the price of the ticket]. There was (a) snack (b) drink (c) complimentary water (d) dinner (e) dessert. We landed at New Delhi station at 11 in the night where immediately we were surrounded by touts exacerbated by the 'Gora' with us. We finally got a cabbie who agreed to take us - the others having refused having realised we already had hotel reservations. This guy however kept plugging another hotel saying it's like a 5 star and dissing Hotel Grand Godwin - where I had made the bookings. As it its, with the hotel reservations off the net, I was a bit apprehensive of where we were going to land up so I was considering taking up the cabbie on his offer when the others said to at least check it out. The access route the cab took us through was suspect to say the least with hotels advertising rooms at Rs.250 for A/C Deluxe and worse when I realized they meant by the hour!
However, the hotel was excessively decent with nice clean bathrooms and a fridge as well. We were upgraded the first night to the suites and decided to keep them for the 2nd night as well. The rate was inclusive of breakfast which was a really good spread of eggs, sausages, French toast/pancakes, cereals, coffee/tea, indian options and toast and all of it unlimited. There was even laptops with free internet access in the lobby which was wi-fi enabled. The only drawback was the location is not that great in Paharganj but it's really central being not more than 10 minutes away from Connaught place or any other monument except for the Qutub Minar.

The first day we decided to go to the Red Fort by cycle rickshaw - where we wandered around for a bit admiring the architecture...
then we decided to go for lunch to Punjabi by Nature which everyone recommends for the food and the Vodka golgappa's so we did both. We spend an inordinate amount of time there but thoroughly enjoyed ourselves feeling the holiday mode finally sink in on us. The next morning before we departed for Agra, we did a tour of the Rashtrapati bhavan, India Gate and Connaught place where we went to Wenger's the bakery and I might have bought out the shop but their fruit tart is to die for! [P.S for Chocolate stuff, there is nothing to beat Cookie Jar in Kolkata].

All in all, I think Delhi is the place where we chilled out the most and enjoyed ourselves thoroughly.

Vacay - I

So we had gone for some R&R with R&R to the famed Golden triangle - being the brave souls we are, we arranged our own kinda tour where I booked hotels off the net and kept the inter city travel fluid. Praying to God that the hotels were not shadiness personified and not doing any research on the sites we wanted to visit,we had a very adhoc holiday which was just what the doctor ordered.

I really wanted to keep a travelogue sort of thing but it does not seem to be coming together so I will just review with pictures in brief:

Jan 2nd, Wednesday:

Depart Mumbai - on time, Air Deccan Zindabad! ok - maybe 20 mins late but that is practically on time in my world!

Reach Jaipur - check into Arya Niwas - heave sigh of relief that the many bags fit into one Tata Indigo - and before u people start saying how I can never travel light, R & R had mega bags since they the ones that had to go straight home post. The hotel was nice - tried and tested since the mother had stayed there in September

The difficult part was the finding of the food for lunch - since flight was at inconvenient time and AD is an LCC [Low Cost Carrier for those who did not know - no food served on the damn flights!!]. At the same time, trying to figure out an agendafor the evening since it was already 4 and every thing shuts in Jaipur by 5.30! Anyway, so we try our luck at this rooftop italian restaurant since it's the only one that's open and order the thali and pizza and let me tell you....this has to be the best Pizza in INDIA. It is wood smoked, with bacon, thin and crispy...I could go on and on...pizza being my favourite food!

We then decided to go Chokhi Dhaani which is an artisan village to spend the evening and soak in the Rajasthani culture. The highlight of that evening was the ghoda ghadi and camel ride...not because we took them..because they kept trying to kill R who was always in their way! There was always a Tyrannosaurus Rex who kept braying the whole night. The food was not that good tho I gorged on the roti, makhand and gur!

Back to the hotel , picked up alcohol and sat and chatted around. We had decided to hire car next day, do the sights and take the train to Delhi [original plan being J for 2 nghts and Delhi for one]

Jan 3rd, Thursday:

Woke up bright and early [read 8.30 am].Made arrangements with hotel in Delhi, so on and so forth and finally set off at 11 am for the wonderful sights of Jaipur

Started with the Hawa Mahal, the palace of wind..basically the house for the concubines which had a connecting door with the main city palace. The palace has some ridiculous number of apertures/windows thus the name. This was one of the first places to have a swimming pool/jacuzzi structure. I can just imagine the Maharaja with his 5000 concubines in the 'ickle' pool.

From there, we moved onto the City palace with the 4 season's courtyard and the 'Big' Maharaj who was 7 foot tall and 4 foot wide! He ated 5 kg jalebi and 5 litres of milk for breakfast per day...he died at age 40. Who would have thought? ;-)


At the Amber fort, where we cheated and took the car up instead of walking, we opted out of the guide and semi wandered around doing our own thing. Taking lots of funny pictures - finally ended up for lunch at a picturesque resto-cafe in the middle of the fort. The location was nice, the food left much to be desired but nice experience. Post which we came back to hotel to pack up and catch train for Dilli so that completes first installment of holiday. will do Dilli 'n Agra later.


P.S. me and the boy are holiday compatible - yay!

A Happy New Year to all!!

It's a new beginning & I hope the past year has been fun for everyone. I'm going to generally recap the year in terms of it's highs and lows and what it has brought to my life.

the year started with a shock

• in my old job when within the first week I moved teams with no warning
• this made me rearrange my entire holiday plans cutting it short by a week
• resulting in the fact that I spent one week in HongKong
• Straightened my hair to gorgeously flat!
• spent only 6 days in Auckland for the wedding [R will never forgive me for that]
• R got married
• I saw Samara
• Came back, changed jobs, Bye bye Mirchi!
• Went to Sri Lanka for the company conference b4 joining the company
• S came back from lands far away
• Finally broke with non-relationship
• Discovered Margarita's at Soul Fry
• Set up friends
• My wonderful mother turned 60 [previous post on that]
• Found a boyfriend [previously known as Semi Semi Thing Thing]
• Bought new old furniture for my room - glass cupboard and old school filing cabinet
• Achieved 110% of my target with a month left to go
• R & R came down
• 2nd Christmas dance of lifetime [please note: R conned me into last one also]

• Since lack of stress, put on so much weight, no longer fit any of my clothes!
• 6 more friends got married this year
• and to end the year on a good note, am completely flat broke.......but happy!!

I've had a very successful year, I think, I've learnt a lot of things, about myself, about life and about happiness. This is the second time I've absorbed this lesson in sales, you kill yourself in one direction and the money will come from another! If you want something, it can happen to you. and it's true, Love and Happiness does make you put on weight!

The Resolutions for this year are:

• Lose the weight!
• do one major holiday - The Vietnam, Cambodia Laos tour or France
• Save money [ for the holiday and in general]
• Start writing regularly
• Figure out a course to do in 2009 [preferably in an European country]

At 26, tho life is not sorted the way I imagined it at 16, it's doing a damn good job of making me happy!

So we were drunk and....

I don't know how it is but all good stories that have u rolling in the aisles hysterically with laughter always but always start with 'So I was pissed and....','So I was drunk and....', 'So we were drinking and...'; It kinda makes me wonder if we ever had lives before alcohol. I know I started drinking at around age 20 - I mean like drinking drinking [drinking 1 glass of wine between 3 girls bcoz u paid cover does not count!!]. I'm sure I must have had fun before that but you sure cannot tell now!

Last night was a prime example of this: 3 girls met up generally to catch up before one leaves for lands far away - across the kaala paani and the talk turned to [for once, not boys] but all the funny drunk stories one has encountered either through personal experience or someone u know. These are the only stories that I know of that are also never 'a friend of a friend' - u know the bad luck stories, the horror situations - those always happen to a friend of a friend where u've heard of it but u don't actually know the person.....to get back to the point, for drunk stories - either u're it or u're supporting it!!

So last night was Bring on the alcohol - demolished 2 bottles of Sula Blush Zinfandel and swapped these crazy stories, most of which we have heard before but never fail to bring a tear to the eye - for laughing like crazy. Most recent example - me sitting and whingeing to everyone - u're making funnome - and then getting vicious and telling everybody else what they do when they are drunk - bathroom stalls with married women and someone else is crying. I'm surprised I did not say '5 minish' which is a staple line of some people if they don't want to leave. One of the other girls ate chocolate, drank wine and then started hopping practice, followed by lots of moaning and pleading - go figure! One of the funniest in recent times is deciding to interuppt one couple we know and then saying in a very serious tone to be absolutely fair 'If her top is off, ur pants should be down' - and not seeing anything remotely suggestive in this statement at all. Another girl in an inebriated state decided if her boyfriend did not want to kiss her she would go find her non-lesbian friend who could definitely 'handle' her. The same one also liked to bite cheeks of said friend when high and then compare it to boti kebab since favourite food! Another girl I know decided that she could not have triplets because she had only 2 nipples so how would she feed the third child? and now she wants to have 4.......I tell u! and this is not even starting on the boy's stories which will have to have an appropriate PG-13 page to itself!

The list is endless - I want to start a blog dedicated to these stories which anyone can contribute to...and the title of that blog will be the title of this post. I know practically every single one of my acquaintance will have a story to tell!

I just saw this facebook and it's incredibly relevant also - please put up ur hand if u have done even one!!

When Girls Drink Too Much...

1. We have absolutely no idea where our purse is
2. We believe that dancing with our arms overhead and wiggling our butt while yelling "woohoo" is truly the sexiest dance move around
3. We've suddenly decided that we want to kick someone's ass and honestly believe we could do it too
4. In our last bathroom visit, we realize that we now look more like a homeless hooker than the goddess we were just four hours ago
5. We start crying and telling everyone we see that we love them sooooo much
6. We get extremely excited and jump up and down every time a new song plays because "oh my god! I love this song"
7. We've found a deeper/spiritual side to the geek sitting next to us
8. We've suddenly taken up smoking and become really good at it
9. We yell at the bartender, who we believe cheated us by giving us just lemonade but that's just because we can no longer taste the gin
10. We think we are in bed, but the pillow feels strangely like the kitchen floor (or the mop?)
11. We fail to notice that the toilet lid's down when we sit on it
12. We take our shoes off because we believe it's their fault that we're having problems walking straight.

My December

This is what the month of December looks like - very happy at being so busy!

• 1st - PG wedding ceremony
• 2nd - Friend's engagement
• 9th - BFF sister wedding; school friend 1st wedding anniversary
• 12th - BF friend budday day
• 14th - Wedding; Surprise potluck for BF's BFF
• 15th - School fried 1st wedding anniversary; catch up at Club IX
• 17th - Margarita's at Soul Fry
• 19th - BFF finally arrives
• 25th - Christmas
• 26th - Friend's sangeet
• 27th - Office Friend's Christmas party
• 28th - BFF brother wedding; Friend reception
• 30th - Friend Wedding in Kerala
• 31st - New Year's!

And this is not even counting the 4 days off immediately in Jan going to Jaipur, Agra and Delhi.
At last, finally I will be able to say I have seen the Taj Mahal!!

In other news, since Friend is going to Paris on secondment for 6 months, have option of going to France in Summer and staying for wedding as well. If Vietnam happens, then no money situation but the options for once seem like a win win situation!

How you doing?

I seem to have had a very busy life recently but I really could not tell you what I have been doing - not watched any movies, or any plays. Did manage to read 4 books tho - some of them quite interesting.

One was an Agatha Christie - 'Easy to Kill' - nice enough story about crime, drama etc. The really good one though was the Clive Cussler one - Trojan Odyssey - very interesting read because it introduced me to this thought that the Trojan war was not between the Greeks etc over Helen of Troy but was fought on the coasts of England for Tin. Apparently Homer wrote the Iliad a 1000 years later so it's a tale that was passed down from generation to generation and we all know how much can get lost in transalation. I always like books that open your mind to new perspectives - which is why I think the Da Vinci code is such a runaway success - the whole concept was so novel that it was eaten up immediately. I have not read Clive Cussler before but he seems to me to be on the lines of Alistair Maclean et all with the adventure story telling and the recurring protagonists much like Jack Higgins for that matter as well.

The other one of note was 'Leaving Eden' - about a girl's search for herself growing up without a mother to guide her - the hits and misses in her life and how painful the struggle is without someone to guide you.

The last book was 'Blood in the sky' which I think was a bit overdone. It was one of those I live in the country and I make friends with the natives and I help solve murder mysteries and I was an ex policemen and I think I ruined lives and I.. I..I..I.. so yeah you get the point!

I have also gone crazy trying to get a 3 column template for this blog. I like to put up pictures, lyrics, photo walls etc on the sides and one column on the left is not cutting it. The alignment of the posts and the side bar just dont match. So I trawled all these websites and found all these templates with the code and changed the code about a hundred times and de nada! nothing has changed - in one case the post column itself disappeared. So I'm thinking will stick with this format only coz minima stretch does not seem like an option anymore on blogger leaving me with minima where it becomes a 4 column blog with the columns on either side being like single colored pillars! If anyone can hand me a solution I would be eternally grateful!

How Well do you know me?

So.....I created this quiz on facebook - How Well do you know me? With trick answers...

To start at the very beginning, 'Supposed' BFF [After quiz one is not sure], created a quiz where she classified Noodles as a food group - now me knowing her so well had chosen Thai since Thai encompasses noodles as well - it turns out she was talking about Noodles from a Vietnamese restaurant - which means the option should have been vietnames no? no....not according to her - it's Noodles! to which my response does she want to eat Maggi? see see! my point exactly!!


So in a fit of pique, I decided to create a quiz with trick answers as well, except my answers are so tricky, only one person has crossed the first class mark [which those of us from Mumbai University will know is 60%!]. Anyhoo, not to be sidetracked, this post is supposed to be an explanation of the answers since 'some people' [read supposed best friends!] are complaining.

Q1. What is my favourite food? Ans.Pizza


Everybody knows I love Cheese and bread - so cheese toast could have been a viable choice since it was one of the options but Pav Bhaji?? this from another 'Supposed' BFF [humph!!]. Far from.... and everyone should know I'm majorly allergic to Soya so that rules out Chinese which I have never been excessively fond of!!


Q2. What brand of jeans refuses to suit me? Ans. Levi's


I keep complaining how Levi's is created for sporty bodies not curvy ones and how I only wear Lee since there is ass room in the jeans but nooo... people choose Wrangler! Tho to be fair, as pointed by out cheater in the quiz [also known as'Supposed' BFF ] , ex-favourite pair of Cord's was Levi's but bought from reject second's so does not count!


Q3. Who is the most stylish on TV? Ans. Summer Roberts from the O.C


This I think was the hardest question on the quiz along with Q9. The options given were also tought, Carrie from Sex and the City, Rachel of Friends and not even an option Betty from ugly betty. Kudos to The Charade for getting this one right so I'm thinking she really pays attention when we chat or she likes too!! which one is it? I think I like her tho coz it's just so put together and cutting edge in a yuppy way which is what I would like to dress like [one also needs the figure - which one no longer has but....]

Q4. Which is not one of my favourite TV shows? Ans. Desperate Housewives

My God!! BFF got this one wrong. My world is shook/shaken/ fallen apart!! She chose.. I can't say it! She chose 'Roswell' - I don't answer the phone during this one much less tell people I'll call them back! As most ppl know esp the escapist, TV watching is priority! Incidentally she got the highest score - yay!!


Q5. What Article do I never wear?


I don't even need to write the answer to this - I have not attempted to wear a watch since 1996! A certain nameless person chose underwear for this.....Grrrr!!


Q6. What is my favourite thing to do? Ans. Reading

The options here were Reading, Shopping, Sleeping and Eating. To be fair, all high up on my list of priorities! but here was the catch, I would sacrifice shopping and eating to sleep and I will be sacrifice sleeping to read esp if the book is good. Case in point Harry Potter, when book 7 came out cousin and baby were in town, no time to read during the day running after baby etc so after putting all to sleep in a very crowded house, I sat on kitchen ledge [only room in house with noone sleeping] and read the book!


Q7. What condition do I have? Ans. Kinetosis


This was a simple matter of elimination. do I have a fear of closed spaces? or open spaces? or an irrational fear of spiders? No right, so obviously I have to have kinetosis, which is a fancy term for Motion sickness - really people!!


Q8. A City I've visited that I like best. Ans Rome


I keep talking about this - I luurve Rome. The history, the culture, the people everything is just fantastic. If I had given Hong Kong and A city to live in then ok but this was really easy.


Q9. Who is my Godfather? Ans. Carl

Ok - the people who got it, got it by fluke I think since I don't really talk abt him much.I should have give who is my godmother? I think it would have improved the score of quite a few people and if you don't know this then u really don't know me at all and do we talk?

Q10. Which is my bible movie? Ans. How to marry a millionaire.


I want to BE Cher. A bible is something you follow - You can be born as clueless. I can be Cher by marrying a millionaire - thus....


So this is the logic - I think it's very sound! Now that you know all the answers go do the quiz - of course to be fair it won't count but still....knock yourself out!