Bliss, Salem, Tricks

Bliss
Its raining in kerala. With occasional thunderstorms. Its not normal to rain so much at this time of the year. But this doesn’t affect me as i am home. Fully  pampered by mom. She has prepared my favorite dishes, pullisserry and chakka kuru maanga. Yesterday while surfing the channel saw a cookery show where they were preparing chicken 65. And by dinner time she had prepared it.  When i am not eating and sleeping, i sit on the arm chair in the sit out facing periyar(the mighty river) reading the newspaper or some old magazine. Its bliss.

Salem Fruits
On the way from bangalore to kerala, we stopped at Salem for dinner. I called up home to ask if i should buy anything from there.
Salem is famous for their mangoes. Salem Mangoes. Mom tells me.
Ok, anything else?
Fruits must be cheap there, since the fruits we get in kerala comes from tamilnadu. Buy some Musambi also(sweet orange).
So after the phone call, i bought 2 kilos of mangoes and 1 kilo of musambi. Both were 40 bucks per kilo.
Next day we reached home with the fruits. What was the price she asks. i tell her the price. She started to laugh. You guys have been cheated. Musambi is only 20 rupees per kilo here. We had been fooled. On top of that, the mangoes were not at all sweet. Prince have decided to give the shop keeper a piece of his mind on his way back.

Little Tricks
I dont like vegetables. But they are more healthy. So what does mom do? She makes fried rice and cutlets with lots of vegetables in it. And i like those, provided they dont taste like vegetables. Win win.

Road Trip

Tomorrow is my friend’s(Mickey) marriage in Kerala. Myself and prince are going for it. 650+ kilometers. In a 5 year old Maruti 800. Have to drive 16 hours straight to reach on time. All night driving. On national highway, the play ground of heavy trucks and buses, with their blinding headlights and crazy driving. Sleepless for approximately 40 hours. Both Prince and car doesn’t have any insurance. Police already likes the car very much as it has been pulled over twice in the last 3 days we have been using it. I will have to drive 90% of the distance as Prince has just learned to drive. The guys who have already made such trips and know the above facts, tells us that it is a risk. I am all excited.

MTR

Mavalli Tiffin Room. Mother of all darshini’s and shiv/sukh/shanti/* sagar’s. I have an yearning desire to cover all the restaurants and pubs in bangalore. Although i have visited many restaurants, it was a shame that even after staying in bangalore for more than two years i haven’t gone to MTR. So today we(Amit and myself) decided to check this place out. Reached there at 1.45. The front door was closed. We tried to enter through the kitchen. Sorry, the watchman said, meals are over. We were not ready to take no for an answer. We approached the cashier. When asked for a table, he smiled and told us that we have to make reservation one or two days in advance on weekends. There was also a couple standing next to us. The girl was actually begging to get a table. It seems they had come from far away to have MTR meals. But the cashier showed no mercy. So we asked him, what time does it open next. 3.30 to 6.30 for snacks. Any reservations required? No.
We are back at MTR by 4.45. Headed straight to the cashier to know what should one do around here to get fed. If you need coffee, sit downstairs or if you want snacks, go upstairs. Up we go. We see two rooms and lots of people waiting in anticipation. Some sitting, some standing. The board on top announces them as ‘Waiting Room’. Two big rooms, just for waiting people. You have to get your name written on the list carried by the waiter/sentry at entrance to the eating section. 30 to 45 minutes waiting, he declares after writing down the name. When i told this to Amit, he was dumbstruck for a moment. So much waiting for a f**king dosa? He wanted to leave immediately. It took all my persuasive skills to calm him down. Luckily we got the table after 20 minutes.
There were only few items on the menu(there is no menu card), and we ordered most of them. Masala dosa, Kara Bath, Vada, Gulab Jamun, Coffee and some pumpkin based sweet. The food was excellent. I didn’t like the sambar though. And the masala dosa was full of ghee which can be either good(for me) or bad(for Amit). Also, there is some time of waiting for the stuff like dosa and coffee to reach your table. The bill was only 128. And that’s the end of another gastronomic adventure.

Choosy Beggar

Now, i never thought it actually happens. But it did. Today, in the morning while i was leaving for the office, a beggar was passing by our house asking for alms. The elderly woman who is staying in the ground floor of our building gave him a one rupee coin. The beggar first looked at the coin and then returned it saying he will only accept notes!!! Even though i have heard plenty of jokes like this, its the first time i am actually seeing one. Now is it the inflation, high cost of living, microeconomic strength or just plain greed at work here? Whatever, in here beggars are choosers.

Training Day

Last two days i was in training. Training days are good. Because you get to leave office on time or even better, before time. Training days are bad. Because you have to come to office on time. And you have to fight falling into deep slumber.
Its war. You and sleep. Especially after lunch. The monotonous blabbering of your trainer is like a soothing voice that magically makes your eyelids to sink with gravity. Its like some voice in your head saying “you are going to sleep now, you are going to sleep now”. And like a hypnotized body we obey to its commands. Then Bang!. Either you suddenly remembers that you are supposed to learn all the invaluable lessons the kind trainer is trying to teach you or the trainer catches you on the act. You wake up, determined not to drowse again. But alas, like a new year resolution, your brains doesn’t take itself seriously. It becomes a cycle. Nap, wake up, nap, wake up. And all the waking seconds you will be longingly looking at the watch hoping that it would magically go faster.

Doesn’t this bring back memories of our school/college life? There is a small difference, though. There we could have done any buffoonery to avoid sleeping. But here you are supposed to act all matured. Bull!