Myriad thoughts on a million things
Anmol
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Posts by Anmol
Indigo Deli, Colaba – a slice of breakfast heaven!
4When a friend suggested that I get up early one Sunday morning and drive down to ‘Indigo Deli’ in Colaba for breakfast, I was skeptical. Giving up my much needed shut eye on a Sunday needed a reason worth the sacrifice… but after a little persuasion I was ready to give it a shot. So early one Sunday morning (after many a ‘another 5 minutes’ from me and a lot of blanket yanking from the husband) we managed to get on our way.
Indigo Deli is a place much known for its breakfast and its ambience lived up to the expectation. Warm deep wooden interiors, the smell of fresh coffee and heavenly eggs floating in the air. I instantly knew that my sacrifice was going to be worth it. We were quickly shown to our seats (though I imagine not getting there early enough would see you waiting for a table) and were offered our menus.
The menu read like one can expect in a fancy european joint and I would have needed Vir Sanghavi’s (still to come out) ‘Guide to reading fancy menus’ in order to understand some of the names and dishes. But since we were doing breakfast, the choice was quite simple… eggs! I ordered the ‘Eggs Florentine’ (Florentine by the way means ‘with spinach’) and everyone else opted for their version of ‘3 eggs anyways’, which was basically that they could choose to go the omelet, boiled or scrambled way. We choose the eggs to be made without any yellows and were happy that we were choosing the healthy way, until we got to the list of side dishes. Unable to resist the temptation, we landed up ordering almost all the side dishes on offer – Chicken Sausages, Beef and Pork Strips. We also ordered a pot of fresh Assam Tea to go with our newspapers and settled down to a comfortable wait.
When the food arrived, we were not disappointed. The Eggs were brilliant, tasty and light and the sides were flavored just right. The hash potatoes were perfect and for a potato lover like me, just not enough! Here what the food looked like. (Pics below – click on them to see larger versions) The joint sees its share of visiting white population and I felt the food was adjusted for their palette.
The place also had a little shop where one could pick up exotic breads, jams, jellies, cheese and other food ingredients not available in your local supermarket. With a bill of Rs 500 per head, I thought it was a brilliant find. A definite ‘to-do’ for Mumbaikars! It also seemed like a good place to spend an evening, with a spread of cheese and wines that could challenge any 5 star joint. (See the wine wall in the pic below)
Things to do in Mumbai – Synopsis of my Fun Plan! (PART I)
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This is going to be a touristy kind of post. So this is not for those who live and work in Mumbai… because I’m sure they’d have seen and done these things every time an out of town relative or friend popped by. This is for those who come to Mumbai for a holiday or for those who like me needed to put together a touristy plan for visiting relatives.
I had friends and family from abroad visiting Mumbai for 4 days. In order to make the most of those days I got on to Google, Facebook, and Twitter and got a ton of suggestions on what to do in Mumbai. Below are the some of the highlights of the ‘Fun Plan’ that I put in place!
Gateway of India and the Taj Mahal Hotel
Built in 1911 to commemorate the visit of King George V and Queen Mary, the Gateway is like the Statue of liberty… the first sign of Mumbai for travelers coming from afar. It’s a beautiful structure and the usual melee of tourists, pigeons, hawkers and the majestic view of the famous Taj Mahal Hotel makes it a nice starting spot for a Mumbai Darshan. Also the whole angle of 26/11 shootings adds to the touristy value and now guides there will tell you where they saw the terrorists, how the gunshots reverberated through the air, how the Taj burned on that fateful day etc. Worth one visit for all non Mumbaikars.
Walk to Flora Fountain and CST station (And Shopping at Causeway)
The whole allure of South Mumbai is this old world charm that exudes from the buildings there. Just walking down from the Gateway towards the CST station is a pleasure. On the way are street vendors selling everything from paintings on a leaf/ bus tickets/ rice grain to collages, handmade jewelry and all kinds of other artsy stuff. Flora fountain itself is a little bit of a disappointment, with all the algae stuck over it and without water it just looks like a lonely warrior in a sea of human traffic. The CST building is impressive with its stain glass windows and impressive architecture. A must photo op for the visiting folks.
Dhobi Ghats
So this is where ‘Munna Bhai’ is supposedly shot…. But after I saw the place, I wasn’t sure there was enough place for the cast and crew to even stand. The place is a bunch or rectangles filled with water and half naked men beating the hell out of clothes. The clothes line where the clothes dried was interesting… it seems as if the clothes were clubbed according to their shades!
More tips on what to do in Mumbai coming up in Part II of this post!
Librarywala.com – a Great way to Read!
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The minute I read about libraraywala.com, I knew that it was the perfect answer to my ‘buy- read – and then do what?’ problem. Every time I am in a bookstore, I’m not worrying about my credit card bill, but about where I will find storage for my new books. Also while I am an avid reader, I don’t have to own a kazillion book since I don’t re-read books too often (there are so many books to read… how does one finds time to re-read something?).
So having an online library with hundreds of titles, queing my books and keeping them for as long as I want was Awesome! I got a free trial membership for a month and tried my hand at the model and totally loved it! I even found a ready to que copy of a ‘difficult to find’ book (Haroun and the Sea of Tales by Salman Rushdie). The pick up and drop is hassle free and the delivery boy is courteous and calls before the pick up 
The membership plans are probably a little pricey compared to your local physical library (the cheapest plan will see you putting out Rs 499 as registration, Rs 499 as a refundable security deposit and a monthly charge of Rs 139 = Rs 1137), but having the convenience of getting the books at your doorstep is worth the extra cost.
Librarywala currently operates in Mumbai, Pune and Bangalore and has plans to grow to other cities soon. So if you are in these cities and are a book lover… try it!
The Lost Symbol…or the Lost End?
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I picked up ‘The Lost Symbol’ with high expectations of it being another racy educational unexpected narrative from an exceptional Author. The book opens with all the usual interesting tidbits from secret depths of masonic history. The books’ in-depth architectural tour of Washington was fascinating and street view from Google maps made it all the more interesting. The 3-D view of the monuments that Google offers is almost like being there!
The book’s references to the ancient mysteries and the possibilities of human ‘apotheosis’ struck a note with me. I’ve always been intrigued with the power of the mind and the influence of thoughts on shaping our reality. The book’s references to the possibilities of emergence of new super human abilities through the expansion of the human mind resonated with the principles of some of my favorite books like ‘The Secret’ and the ‘Travelers of the Universe’. I was especially intrigued with the part on noetic sciences and even checked out the website for the Institute of Noetic Sciences (Yes, it is an actual institute!). Their website has some interesting online psi games on telepathic healing, strength of intuition and the power of collective thought. Check out the games at http://www.noetic.org/research/psi.cfm
In his usual style, Dan Brown pits the narrative as a race against time. The multi layered unfolding of the secrets of the pyramid kept me glued to the book and the crazy super tattooed villain added to the mystery. But somewhere in the middle, I started to suspect the identity of the villain and as the book unfolded, it became quite predictable. When the twist in the tale came, it wasn’t such a twist after all. And when the final end came, saying I was disappointed doesn’t even begin to cover it! After all the build up to the historic moment of human transformation, the end was like ending up with a gift voucher for ‘tea for two’ when you were expecting your annual bonus.
‘Angels and Demons’ was most definitely Dan Brown’s highlight. Fast paced, unveiling of secrets that felt worth unveiling, the big bang magnificent end… now that’s a good book. This one probably will sell on the expectations set from the previous book. Dan brown will definitely lose some of his fan flowing for letting them down with such a lack luster closure to this book.
Only other good things that might come out of this are that tourism in Washington might increase and institute of noetic sciences website will get more hits!
Hot Vampires and Cute Werewolves
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‘Hot’ Vampires and ‘Cute’ Werewolves sound like oxymorons, but that is exactly what Stephanie Meyer’s ‘Twilight’ series is about. The first book, ‘Twilight’ introduces the reader to the world of Vampires in the cloudy town of Forkes. It starts like a regular book on teenage issues…moving to a new town, the scariness of a new high school, blah… blah. But it quickly turns interesting with the entry of the intriguing ‘Cullen’ family.
Into the narrative steps the ‘Hot’ ‘Mr. Perfect as Adonis’ Edward Cullen. I was having difficulty imagining someone as good looking as the author describes Edward. So I picked up the movie ‘Twilight’ to give the characters in my imagination some shape. (To start with, I only saw the beginning of the movie…just up to the point I had read since I did not want the movie to spoil the fun of the book!)
Robert Pattinson (who btw was Cedric in Harry Porter movies) plays Edward. My first reaction to that was ‘uh huh…not that good looking’. But once you sit through the movie, he sort of grows on you. Interestingly, some info on the net says that the millions of ‘Twilight’ fans were initially disappointed with the casting of Robert as Edward. Stephanie Meyer’s official site says that Hayden Christensen (the actor who plays Aniken Skywalker in the newer Star Wars series) was the first choice for ‘Edward’. I am not sure if he might have been able to carry off the cool marble skinned hot vampire look.
Anyways, back to the book. The story line of a vampire who falls in love with a mortal girl and his internal conflict of wanting to drink her blood vs loving her and wanting her to live, keeps the story edgy and interesting. The book pulls the reader in with the slow unfolding of the mystery of the Vampires, the unraveling of Edward’s character, his unique family and his unique confusions with respect to Bella. To the author’s credit, she has managed to create an epic love story of sorts. Bella’s emotions of being in love for the first time, the breathlessness and euphoria of first physical contact, the indescribable feeling on a invisible connection are quite well portrayed. The anticipation of ‘what next’, kept me hooked. The book is fast paced and I found myself sitting through late nights to just read one more page.
What I wasn’t ecstatic about that the slight whiny edge that Bella has sometimes. Her continuous internal dialogue on how she is unworthy of the love and attention of ‘Adonis’ Edward can sometime get to your nerves. But I guess, having the plainness of the Bella reiterated so often, even the reader is left wondering the same. As the author says, she supposedly plain and as the reader can make out isn’t exceptional witty. The character as described in the book would have still been ok…but when one starts to visualize her as Kristen Stewart (the actress who plays Bella in the movie) is when the disappointment happens. She definitely needs acting lessons and her blinky, unsure, lack lusture portrayal of Bella was really a dampener.
I was quick to pick up the next book in the series -‘The New Moon’. But was as quickly disappointed. The lack of Edward, itself was a downer. The first half of the book is all about how Bella is dealing with the loss. Her whiny self effacing feelings really got to me after a bit. The books picks up with the introduction of the werewolf angle. The twists and turns toward the end are interesting but really not worth the wait. Even the Werewolf vs Vampire angle was not dealt with in an in-depth manner and with the re – entry of Edward in the narrative, Jacob was dropped like a hot potato. The whole first part that built up to the werewolf transformation falls flat ineffectively and it’s sad to see Jacob dismissed with a twist of the pen.
There are two more books in the series – ‘The Eclipse’ and ‘Break of Dawn’. I’m looking forward to laying my hands on them and finally seeing how Bella’s transformation happens.
The series really falls into the ‘Fantasy Chick Lit’ category. I don’t think men would find the detailed introspections into the emotions of a teenage girl all that engrossing… even with a little vampire and werewolf action thrown in. The series are actually hugely popular with the women. There is even a FB test on how much you know about Twilight. I got a 100% on it! J
Life‘ville’ !
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‘Farmville’ is the new thing on Facebook with tons of people playing the game. I’ve been on it for some time now. I am currently at the level 15! (That’s like the mid stage of the game). The more one plays the game, the more hooked one gets to it. It got me thinking that the designers of the game must know the human psychology quite well. How else can a game about repetitive planting, ploughing and harvesting become the new fad with almost everyone on Facebook?
Come to think of it, the game is very much like life itself. You have to start from scratch with basic stuff (Level 1 with basic seeds and land). You have to gain experience to get to the next levels. The little incentives that keep you going on (and get through the repetitive planting, ploughing & harvesting parts) are the new things that you can plant and buy with each new level that you gain. Isn’t that very much like life, where one keeps at the regular routines just to get to the next level in life so that one can get the little incentives it offers(like the bigger house, bigger car, bigger TV, etc)?
And that’s just not it, in ‘Farmville’ you have neighbours and neighbours’ neighbours whose farms you can visit. ‘Farmvillers’ can usually be seen checking out everyone’s farms (and of course helping them out) and wondering how some of them have pets, trees and decorations that their levels don’t offer! Very much akin to life, people with neighbours / friends at a higher experience level (or higher station in life) are recipients to special gifts that are only available to the people with the higher levels of experience.
Well, like life the game definitely is… and I guess that’s what keeps people hooked to it. Oh, gotta go now… my ‘super berries’ are ready for harvesting! J
Your Internet Presence
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I was reading an interesting update from silicon India. It said that 42% people in offices spy on their colleagues! Here is the link for the article
It got me thinking about how we leave a very personal imprint on the internet that is just waiting for anyone and everyone to look up. Social & professional networking profiles, blogs, tweets… there is so much out there about you that people have access to in order to know you better (if not spy!)
It made me also think about the impact of personal opinions that one expresses on the net on the way potential employers view you. I know of some recruiters who look up networking profiles to get a better understanding of the candidates that they shortlist. I’m not sure it’s a widespread trend now, but I’m sure it is catching up fast. Some people may blog/ comment about work that they are doing in an unflattering manner (maybe in jest)… does that mean they could be overlooked by recruiters? How careful should one be with their personal content, comments and profiles on the net? Sometime ago I read about a teenage girl in UK who got fired because she made a FB status update that said she was bored at work! There’s even a ‘youtube’ video about ‘how your FB profile could get you fired’.
These examples may be a little extreme, but I can’t help wondering if this explosion of online action with networking, tweeting, blogging is slowly and steadily blurring the lines between who we really are and who we pretend to be at work.
Random Musings
51010 days
by Anmol
in Random Thoughts
This is not really a post about anything in particular…Just some random stuff I was wondering about.
Staring at People
I wonder what really is the science behind being able to ‘feel’ it when someone stares at you. How does that work? How can you ‘feel’ someone’s eyes on you? Stare at someone for a bit (even their back) and without fail they will ‘feel’ it and turn around and look at you. It’s just strange isn’t it?
The collective consciousness of City Traffic
I’m not much into driving…It’s just tough for me to focus on so many things together. The pedals, the gear, the car, the traffic….So sometimes when I’m being driven around; I often think about how it seems that the traffic has a collective consciousness. It feels like every driver on the road is tuned into a collective consciousness system and subconsciously knows what the other drivers are thinking … a little turn here and subconsciously the driver behind turns/brakes a little. They don’t even have to think about doing it. Packed roads…with less than a few inches of space between vehicles…and everybody moving like some smooth flowing river. It’s like watching a well coordinated show…. Most of the time that it. Sometime, maybe the collective consciousness misses a few beats and there are scrapes and accidents.