Happy New Year

Jr UBG
Originally uploaded by Vijay Basrur

The Engg college gang had planned to meet up at Durshet Forest Lodge for New Years. Durshet is about a 85 kms drive from Mumbai & just 15 kms from the first toll naka on the Expressway.

Snehal, MJ & me drove in my car. We were joined by 3 other families. To say we had a good time would be an understatement. The kids, even though they were only 2 girls, had a swell time too. Snehal & me even won a prize in the New Years eve function. It was crazy.

Our poison was a bottle of Glenlivet which was pretty good. Given the chill in the air, the single malt was perfect.

The place is very rustic but very homely. All the staff are very helpful and went out of the way to help us. The food was finger licking good. Though the main fare was mostly vegeterian we were more than pleased. Definitely a place we could go some other time.

Happy New Year everyone!

Bars in Goa

I am in Goa for a day on work (yeah..I know its a bad time to come here on work while half of the world comes to Goa this time of the year to party party..but lets get to that issue). On my drive from the airport one can't miss the hundreds of bars that line up the main road.

There are fancy bars (with lovely sit outs under coconut trees), average bars (which have some amount of food on the menu), mom & pop bars (with the owners house right behind the bar), cheap bars (the only food they serve is chips), wine shop bars (the retail sale of liquor is as good as that in the bar), grocery store bars (you can pick up biscuits, detergent etc. while you finish your drink) and god knows how many other types.

You will also spot numerous wine shops peppered along the road in addition to these bars. Going by sheer numbers its amusing to see how much liquor can help in generating employment and income for people not to forget the incentive to spend and get intoxicated.

Will try & drink to that later tonight. Cheers!

Train Travel

As children, train travel was always the most crucial aspect of our holidays. Thanks to Dad's LTA we would be nestled into the, long gone, first class coupes. My brother & me would enjoy ourselves thoroughly, playing cards being the main feature.

During Engg college, boarding the Sidheshwar Exp was a ritual we followed once every month in our first year and gradually once in the entire term towards the final year. Downing a couple of drinks before boarding at Solapur was a ritual we followed in the last 2 years.

My most memorable journey was in the 3rd AC compartment of the Kurla Bangalore Exp, sometime in Feb 96, for a site visit while working for Batliboi. In a journey that lasted 24 hours, I slept for 19. Pure bliss.

AC travel is the least stressful and most enjoyable as it forces you to relax. Look out of the window, read a bit, get tempted with the hordes of food vendors, fall for some of the temptations (I never miss the Soup) and the best of all... Sleep!

A ride on the Rajdhani is enough to convince you on the pleasures of train travel. A friend has highly recomended that I try the 1st AC on the Rajdhani. We plan to do so in Feb when we are hoping to visit the Mughal Gardens.

This is the first time I have blogged on the train. Remembering some of these train journey was indeed quite nostalgic.

KSRTC

Travel in and around Kumta usually happens in my father in laws Maruti 800. So went to Karwar for some amazing fish at Hotel Ankur and then to Gokarn to meet my aunt in the 800 with my father in law at the wheel.

So when I had to go to Shirali & Bailur, I decided to get there alone by bus. Shirali is where our Muth is located which houses our community's spiritual leader. It is about 50 kms from Kumta. My main purpose of going there was to meet my Dad's aunt who was very fond of me. She is 93 and lives in an old age home run by the Muth. The tears in her eyes upon seeing me, made my trip worth every bit.

From there I headed to Bailur where my mother's family temple Laxmi Narayan is located. I met my uncle, attended the puja and had an amazing lunch after which I headed back to Kumta.

Bailur is a lush green town nestled away from the highway and the approach road is dry and arid making the town a welcome change as the approach road end.

And this brings me to the subject of this post, KSRTC. I depended on the KSRTC buses to get me to & from Shirali. And eventhough they are rickety and all that (they are called Lal Dabbas in Maharashtra) but they run frightfully on time. The conductors are equipped with handhelds which dish out tickets printed on thermal paper. This must be an amazing efficieny move. Along with having a control on the money, it must be giving vital data to analyze traffic movements to add/remove buses on key routes.

Ironically I boarded the same bus both ways & was greeted by the conductor with a smile when I boarded the bus from Shirali.

So in all it was a nice trip. We ended the day with a stroll on Hedbunder beach with a few friends and had dinner at Kumta's only open air garden restaurant. I have never had such thick & juicy Surmai in a long time.

Holiday Woes

The week long break to Kumta started on a bad (disastrous) note. I forgot my laptop in the train while getting down at Kumta at 4 in the morning. I realised only after I woke up at 9 in the morning.

All efforts to get it back were in vain. My cousin even went to Mangalore station to see if anything could be done. And the loss was not only of the laptop. My haversack had my wallet with my driving licence, my credit cards and cash and my digital camera too.

Though I was a bit nervous initially but I cooled down after a while since there was nothing much we could do. Fortunately my office folks should be able to claim the insurance since we managed to file a FIR at the local police station.

My brother managed to block all my cards. So next week is going to be co-ordination & getting back to normalcy week.

Till then I am going to relax and try and make the best of the holiday. Thanks to my new phone and a blazing GPRS connection I am connected!

More later

Raipur Again!

Just a day's stopover at Raipur for some work. The city is just the same. You get a feel of an upmarket rural town. The only construction you see here is a few malls that are coming up. Quite a difference from cities where every available piece of real estate is being converted into a township or a housing complex.

Guess Raipur is a few years away from all of that.

My blogging has been lethargic. I am yet to update the Kerala travel.

We leave for Kumta on Saturday for a well deserved break. Snehal will stay back for a week more. AM really looking forward for some reading, walking and yeah eating some yummy fish!

Kerala Ahoy

So I leave for Kerala in a few hours. 4 days of fun & frolic. Agenda is some great kerala food, grog, a wedding, a day on the boat in the backwaters, sea food & REST. Will see if I can update the blog.

Indore

Did a overnight trip to Indore last week. After a late night at work we hit a local dhaba for some rustic food and a couple of drinks. Dhaba food is amazing. Its lip smacking good, cooked fresh and down right cheap. Most dhaba's have a wine shop right next door, where you are supposed to buy your own booze. So its as we call it "paisa vasool".

The last time I had dhaba food was in Raipur and it was great.

Must try and do this in the smaller cities I visit.

Nagpur

Was in Nagpur a few weeks back to check out our new site which should go live by the year end. There were 2 highlights of the trip. The first being hopeless flight timings leaving all my energies sapped and other was some excellent albeit late lunch. Lunch was our usual guest house food but we had ordered kheema kaleji & mutton rassa cooked in authentic "saoji style". Now if you want to eat saoji food, which is a cuisine Nagpur is popular for, you better be ready with some heavy duty fire dousers such as chilled water, curd or plain rice. Because the food is spicy as hell and not to mention finger licking good.

Don't ever miss it if you are in Nagpur, even if it means you miss your flight

Tunday Kababs

When I visited Lucknow in 1999, my friend recommended I have a  meal at Tundays in Aminabad, Lucknow. And I did. That meal left quite a lasting impression and I vowed that I would visit Tundays next time I land in Lucknow.

On Wednesday as soon as I landed I made plans to ensure we get to Tundays for lunch. Considering it was Ramzaan, the place was a hub of activity for during lunch time. Outside the hotel there are 3 main areas. One that is grilling tandoori chicken, one which makes beef kababs & the other mutton kababs.

We order kababs & parathas. Tunday parathas are somewhere midway between a roomali & roti. Freshly chopped onions & lime wedges are the only accompaniments which make this meal frugal yet delicious. The kababs are so soft, that you don't have to use your teeth to eat them. This is the main speciality of Tundays.

The place was a notch better than when I last saw it. It has a wide basement seating area whose walls have blown up photos of the 3rd generation owner & film stars. Anil Kapoor has posed in a ridiculous bathrobe.

4 of us gobble 5 plates of kababs & parathas. we also try the mutton biryani (average) and wash the meal with chilled Pepsi. One of the best meals I've had in the last few months.