The Good Life

Nike and I went to the Balkan Food Festival at the Chancery Pavilion for dinner yesterday, and it was THE BEST dinner buffet spread I remember having ever! We both wanted to go some place nice for dinner, and I was keen on a dinner buffet, since I had had nothing but soup for lunch. I remembered that the Chancery Pavilion was having a Balkan Food Festival, but we demurred at the cost of the buffet – it was Rs.850 for just the dinner buffet, and Rs.1100 for dinner buffet with unlimited drinks (beer, house wine, rum (Bacardi), whiskey (Blenders Pride)) – turned out to be completely worth it.

The buffet was at ‘Ithaca’ in the Chancery Pavilion. The restaurant is right next to the pool, with glass walls on one side so you can look out into the pool. We got a cosy table for two right next to the wall, so we had a rather pleasant view. I opted for just the dinner buffet on account of a sore throat, while Nike took the drinks package also. He had the red wine, and says it was quite good.

The Balkan Food Festival had on offer Bulgarian, Macedonian, Slavic and Turkish dishes – the dishes were typically accompanied by a little flag to indicate which region they were from. They also had a fair spread of Indian dishes for those who weren’t keen on experimenting. The spread was HUGE.

I was especially delighted with the range of breads on offer, and headed their first. They had soft cheese rolls, pesto rolls, country bread, French loaves, Ciabatta and Focaccia, along with herbed butter, paprika butter and garlic butter. I absolutely loved the soft cheese rolls as well as the Ciabatta, while Nike fell for the pesto rolls. For soup, they had Ribena Chorba, a fish based soup and Spanachena Chorba, a spinach based soup. Of course, we didn’t try either of the soups – that would mean we couldn’t make the most of the buffet.

For starters they had chicken, fish, lamb and vegetarian, which could be cooked in the Bulgarian (kebap) style or the Tandoori style. We chose the Bulgarian style. The vegetable starters were uninteresting - a skewer of grilled vegetables, vegetable patties, and stuffed potato. Nike didn’t enjoy the lamb starter either. The fish was served in cubes on a skewer, along with paneer cubes – we couldn’t figure out what was fish and what was paneer till we tasted it, since it looked the same! But the fish was sublime – soft and very well done. The highlight of the starters though was undoubtedly the chicken. It was some sort of a chicken patty made with chicken crumbs and lots of herbs. It was absolutely melt in the mouth yummy.

Their salad counter was absolutely mind-blowing. I think they had over 30 types of salads. Nike was of course thrilled with this. I am not a salad person at all but the salads here looked so different that I simply had to try a little of most of them. I especially enjoyed the Moroccan Olives, the Curried Egg Salad (egg with mustard sauce), Oeuf Marci (egg again), Zeleva Salata (which I think was beetroot with sweet corn), Macaronena Salata (macaroni based), Hummus and Havoc with pita bread and pita crisp and the Olive Salata (black olives). They also had Romania Salata, Kadambri, Titti Shrimp with Disco Papaya, Tuna Salad, Marinated Aubergines, Ruga Salata, Lamb and Summer Vegetable Salad and a couple of others. Phew! Apart from a ‘make you own chat’ counter!!

I bet that makes you hungry. I’m going to do a follow up post where I will write about the main course and the dessert. I think this is enough fodder (pun unintended) for one post.

The Men That Don't Fit In

The Men That Don't Fit In

Robert Service

There's a race of men that don't fit in,
A race that can't stay still;
So they break the hearts of kith and kin,
And they roam the world at will.
They range the field and they rove the flood,
And they climb the mountain's crest;
Theirs is the curse of the gypsy blood,
And they don't know how to rest.

If they just went straight they might go far;
They are strong and brave and true;
But they're always tired of the things that are,
And they want the strange and new.
They say: "Could I find my proper groove,
What a deep mark I would make!"
So they chop and change, and each fresh move
Is only a fresh mistake.

And each forgets, as he strips and runs
With a brilliant, fitful pace,
It's the steady, quiet, plodding ones
Who win in the lifelong race.
And each forgets that his youth has fled,
Forgets that his prime is past,
Till he stands one day, with a hope that's dead,
In the glare of the truth at last.

He has failed, he has failed; he has missed his chance;
He has just done things by half.
Life's been a jolly good joke on him,
And now is the time to laugh.
Ha, ha! He is one of the Legion Lost;
He was never meant to win;
He's a rolling stone, and it's bred in the bone;

He's a man who won't fit in.

Random Notes of Music

Last week I saw a Wong Kar Wai movie called the Chung King Express. I quite liked the movie, though I can’t say I will be revisting it anytime soon, if at all. It’s just that I was expecting so much more from Wong Kar Wai, so I guess I felt a little disappointed at the end of it all….when I realised that the movie had ended, that is. I mean, I was watching, and suddenly I was like ‘Huh!! It’s over???’. When a movie does that to me, I feel very cheated - because here I am spending all this time and thought into your movie, and then when I don’t even realise that you have brought it to an end, out of the blue, I feel like you have pulled a rug off from under my feet – from under my feet, the feet of your rapt audience.

Anyway I digress. So there is this song that one of the characters in the movie is listening to ALL THE TIME. And the song is sooooo insanely addictive that now I am at listening to it all the time too. In fact, I’m listening to it right now, and it makes me disgustingly cheerful on a Monday morning – a Monday morning on the heels of a blurred weekend and a night out of work. So this song is California Dreamin’ by Mamas and Papas. Go listen to it here.

About the addictiveness of songs, its like that for me all the time. I guess it’s the same for many people I guess. Once I love a song, I listen to it in continuous loop, on and on and on, keeping at it for days, till I finally tire of it. People would say my taste in music is err…lets call it unconventional. Which is why the last song I was addicted to was ‘Love Mera Hit Hit’. I think I’m finally over it now…..thanks to California Dreamin’.

Can PMS explain.....

my inexplicable inclination to listen to the cheesy, made for music vidoes, item number 'Love Mera Hit Hit' in continuous loop, when the brilliant Delhi 6 and Dev D are around?

Bits of This and That

I was going through a lot of Facebook pictures the other day, and what struck me was that what almost everyone was uploading were pictures of their travels. One reason for this could be that we do take most pictures when we go to a new place, and not really when we are sitting around at home on a lazy weekend or just going about with our daily lives. But there is a deeper reason behind this – that one of the charms of travelling comes from sharing your experiences and stories with other people.

That is why there are so many blogs dedicated to people writing about their weekend trips and putting up random travel pictures. That is why there are so many online forums which provide people with the space to share their travel stories and experiences. That is why most pictures on social networking sites have people uploading their trip pictures.

A large part of the pleasure of travelling, I guess, comes from sharing what one learns and experiences during such travels. You go to a new place, you see and experience so many new and exciting things – and it makes enough of an impact on you to want to share it with other people, maybe family and friends or even complete strangers. It’s like when you make a discovery, small or big, you want to share it with others – not exactly an appropriate example, or even close, but you do get what I mean.

But sometimes, this can lead to a little trouble. When avid travellers exchange stories and experiences, the unsaid rule that travelling means sharing is understood. But when there is an avid traveller and a person who isn’t really interested in travel, then it becomes awkward. For example, we may be having a conversation about traffic jams and I come up with ‘When I was in Jakarta…..’ This is fine once in a while to make a point, but when one does it very often (as an avid traveller is wont to do, since it is second nature for him to want to share his stories and experiences), the other person, if not interested in travel, can feel like this person is a show off, always taking about this place and that.

One of my dreams, one of the things on my long list of things to do, is to become a travel writer. Today, I was telling my manager that someday I hope to become as effective a public speaker as the partner leading the project we are working on. The manager pointed out to me that I have to take the opportunity to start practising from NOW in order to be able to reach that level sometime in the future. That I just sit back and wait for the opportunity to come, instead of taking it up myself. He was so right – and not just about this but a lot of other things. Like how I want to be a travel writer but do nothing in that direction. I could start by writing travel stories or articles on blogs or online forums, and that would be a great way to start off! But then, I’ve always been big on ideas and low on implementation.

Leaving on a Jet Plane

I love being on international flights. I really can’t pin down the reason for it. I like entering the airport and looking at the list of exciting destinations to which people are flying out today. I look at passengers and wonder where they are flying and why. Maybe they came down here on business and are going back home. They must be NRI’s returning abroad – I can make out they are NRI’s by their kids accents and the way they dress. Oh, some backpackers too. They must be from Israel.

I peer discreetly (or so I think) at passports, to figure out which country they belong to. The dark blue Indian one usually doesn’t interest me – I hold one too so it’s not really of much special interest. But I look at other passports and wonder what they are doing here in India, and where are they going next and why. I look at airlines from across the world, flying to places across the world, places I’ve dreamt of sometimes but never been too, and I feel a thrill run through me, just because I am here.

And then I enjoy checking out airport facilities, especially when I am in transit. And for this reason, I specially love the Singapore airport. Free internet portals, okay. Lots of coffee shops, books stores and unfamiliar eateries. Free massage chairs and even a free cinema theatre. Oh, and a swimming pool! I feel sometimes like a child let loose in a candy shop, I enjoy exploring airports so much. I walk by these exclusive designer stores where I can never afford anything, gasp at the prices and wonder who these people are and what they do to spend money like this on a name – I don’t think I would swear by the brands of the world, however rich I may become.

I am unreasonably curious about the uniform and seating colours if I am flying a new airline. My love of airline cuisine is legendary, and if it’s a well known airline, I start wondering about what they serve on board from the day I book my flight! (There have been occasions when I have paid a lot of extra money for an airline which served food on broad, whereas a low cost airline plus a full fledged meal would have worked out much cheaper – but then, I have an absurd love of airline food).

Well, my love for airline food actually deserves a post in itself so I’ll leave it at that. If I am flying an international flight and know that the flight has an international entertainment system, I plan ahead about how many movies I would watch, how many television shows and how much I would sleep. In the end, it all depends on what’s on offer once I’m on board but I do love the planning. I even open the airline website before I fly, just to see what they have to say for themselves.

Earlier, this intense charm that flying held for me was for all flights, international or domestic. However, over the past few years, as domestic flying became affordable and I came to a point where I was flying about once or twice a month, the charm of flying in general lost out. I still enjoy the meals and look forward to them, but that’s about it. However, I am hardly a frequent international travel – these trips happen once or twice a year at most so I still have a great fancy for international flights – my delight is almost childlike and I hope I can retain it over the years, because its good that such simple things give me so much pleasure.

Guess Where

I am?

Australia!!! More specifically, Sydney! Yay, I am so excited!

Will try to update regularly about my trip but looks like I am going to be fairly busy.