A soupy bowl of cheese!

My latest junction where my ship has landed is Bangalore.

Well, I suffer from this disease of food craving! I mean it’s almost like a pregnant lady craving for food and I am trying hard to get over it. And I could possibly do anything to eat what I crave for by which I mean I could bake the cake myself if no option. And for me that a good option!

So just last night I had this huge craving for Thai food which was bottled up for almost a weeks time. Usually it’s difficult for me to control that long but well in a new place with little pennies in my pocket, nothing can be done. Well I guess there are not too many options of Thai eatery joints in Bangalore. And I would love to be corrected, if wrong. So with very options and a huge distance to travel to and with a good ambience and a lively eating joint, well those are my criteria’s I settled for an Italian cum Continental cuisine fine dining restaurant called Spiga, located at St. Marks Road in Bangalore. Well the tension was building up in my stomach and believe me it’s a weeks craving. Terrible isn’t it?

So finally after my friend KVG suggested this place, we drove down to Spiga, one of the few good Continental Restaurants. So Spiga, Good ambience and for a couple it would work even better with the lighting's and the candle lights it would do great for quixotic couples. For me it’s more of the food that makes the place rather than the opposite! Without wasting much time we scan through the menu and in my mind I was trying hard to imagine what the taste would be like given the range of items in each dish to a point I called for some help. Good service, almost as soon as we raised our heads above the menu card we had our butler in place. We asked for a second opinion and placed the order.

Our first dish was fresh Seer fish cooked to perfection with herbs and mint green sauce. Deep fried fish is utter waste of fish. To me fishes are delicate and need a shallow fry and the moment you deep fry it,you kill the taste and that’s exactly what they did. Deep fry and that’s where it all started. Well I kept sipping on my white rum, my saving grace for the day! Our next dish was the main course and I ordered pasta i.e. screwed penne, with white sauce, basil herbs with rubbery prawns tossed with tasteless sun dried tomatoes. To which I asked for my favorite veggies, broccoli and mushrooms to be added. And there I was pretty much upset and quite disappointed. Set out to have pasta and ended up with a soupy bowl filled with loads cheese!

I learn't to swim.

Well, back in my childhood I remember my mother words “stay in a hostel, it will set you right” and I would brush it off. For me, the thought of staying in a hostel like every other tender feet cub was stirringly adventurous. The autonomy I would acquire was something that I was really looking forward to. And well the background that I come from was no way close to that of a silver spooned kid. So I always patted myself knowing the fact that I can rough it and get though. Callow and stupid, guess I was!

Bombay lured me with its thrilling lifestyle, in- numerous people, mixed culture, fast and furious trains and funnily its dirty beaches appealed to me. I hopped skipped and jumped almost three places in a quickie to finally park myself in a savaged, old fashioned Cottage. Well that’s the exteriors! Ten times of the length would probably get me fit that was the interiors with several antique furniture, sash windows resembling the ones in Goa, a well manicured garden, huge and spacious rooms, olden days swing and a shrewd old cougar who was the land lady.

Get familiar but not friendly, that’s the principle I tried to follow. But I couldn’t keep up to it for too long knowing the person I am. Well outgoing and friendly and a gossip mouth know I am. As usual I got very friendly with my housemate, seemed to almost love her company. An innocent and amicable with an extensive vocab and quite a generous girl she was and I almost got glued to her very soon. And she thought me to treat myself with beer. Till then I didn’t get the whole point of someone gulping down a liquid which tasted bitter. We cheered to beer and freshly fried fish and soon she fled the house because of her creeping ailments and I was again left to cheer with the old cougar of the house.

Then came a very shrewd, craft and astute young college girl and again a year or two younger to me. My privacy was halved right from the draws of the table to the cupboard and to the small table which was converted to a dressing table. My luggage needed to be compressed or we didn’t have space. As usual I soon got acquainted and warmed up to her. She almost seemed like an angel who got me out of most of my worries but she had another side to her which was extremely slick in manipulation. My mind, plans and thoughts since then were my own. Anyways we had a very cordial relation from then on but I never knew I could or would be cornered.

Well till then I thought I was the smartest little one but when you stay in place like Bombay, you tend to meet a lot of slick and foxy whales. Once you do, you need to stay away. Well I thought that but I didn’t know I was gullible. Well guess what to no ones surprise except myself got into untangled and squirmy quarrels. And well at home people I was known to be an argumentative kid full of tantrums who seemed to get her way out of most quarrels victoriously. But here I was in between whales, one worst than the other and I couldn’t help but be a prey to all of them. Severely rebuked and slandered by the old cougar (who I thought was reliable) and my housemates. I was the gossip and the most bitched about topic ever. Decided to quit the forest of carnivores one night. But almost the next night decided not to succumb and take this lying down. From then on I opened my eyes to see the skeletons hidden in closets. Kept numb for a few days and then played the same tricks and outcome temperature rising heated arguments but this I came to be victorious and then on I was never cornered and definitely learn t the tricks of the game.

Between all the heated arguments, itchy and audacious behavior of my roommates and friends I not only learn t to swim but thrive as well. I grew to deal with some of the toughest situation one could be in (tough because it’s a whole new world at work and at home).I grew to love them for the person they are and not their activities. Grew to enjoy and share moments, right from making some of the most delicious and scrumptious food to sharing it with them, to sharing whacky, electrifying moments, and thoughts I grew mentally stronger. With each day knowing the possibilities of somebody backstabbing or belittling you, I grew having the capability to fight the thoughts and people who don’t matter to me. Shed all the frills that I was brought up with to a world where anything is a possibility. A world where everyday is a new day and that’s when my mom s words hit me and I knew where to draw the line, where to pay a deaf hear and where I need to open my trap.

P.S.I stayed in house of whales for four long years having to deal with a lot many new whales.

Cute little suprise!

My elder sister got this small little package after 9 months that’s around forty weeks of sweet pain and joy but for her, her baby was already out in this world a few months back. Her innocent talks to her unborn baby,who was cozying up in her stomach initially cracked me up quite a few times but slowly I too got used this game.

Well, about me I m never a baby person and seem to run away from almost anything that doesn’t respond and is not entertaining. Well I may seem selfish and selfless to most people but well that’s me! I remember this time when I had visited my friends place and she happened to have some friends and family babies at home and it almost drove me crazy to play with a baby that doesn’t respond, and these girls kept on cooing with the baby who is fast asleep, gosh it drove me haywire. To an extent that all I wanted was to run and run far away from babies. But hey, in my defense I would just like to add that I do enjoy the company of bigger babies who can respond back to me.

But for unexplainable and different reason all of a sudden and I can’t explain why I seem to be missing out and quite anxious about my absence on such an auspicious day and moment in my sister’s life.I want to be able to touch those cute little eatable fingers and toes. Gosh so small and tender that thought frets me again. But I want to be there And I will remorse not being apart of this moment!

The Superwoman of Britan!

After long yearning I finally watched the movie Iron Lady with Meryl Steep’s splendid & magnificent performance played to utter perfection and sophistication and was definitely worth the watch, last night and got so thrilled and charged up that I not only watched it the next day again and enjoyed it even more but also researched about Margaret Thatcher even further. Meryl Streep undoubtedly has captured her fans hearts yet again with her flawless performance. And I say flawless because she was an absolute replica of Maggie which I found out with the documentary on youtube.

Well, most important I really want to highlight and touch upon is the ‘Iron Lady’. Perfectly apt was the word ‘Iron’ attached to this Lady as it described her character in a true sense. Fiercely ambitious and passionate with authoritarian views and no nonsense person she seemed to me. Sophisticated and intelligent were her looks and with a voice full of authority and that of a leader was not only inspiring but probably anybody would get on their toes. The decisions were finally hers with no opinions heard. She drew her lines as and when required and was highly criticized by her peers. Yes in the movie, the depiction of her character is said to be brutally touch upon but I guess the good is accompanied with bad and that’s true for her as well and what’s the point in having a movie on a contentious topic like Margaret Thatcher when the reality is amended. The true depiction of her with her insecurities and vulnerabilities, appealed to me because nobody is perfect at the end of the day!