Life as we know it and as we take it...

"Life is like a rainbow. You need both the sun and the rain to make its colors appear"

From past two months, weather condition in Bangalore is astoundingly stupefying and romantic. If you are tired and enervated, I suggest you to go for a stroll in Cubbon Park, Lal Bagh, or any other private park. Lush green leaves, vivid flowers, chirping of birds, dew drops falling on your cheek, light music coming from nowhere, etc., the feeling is just amazing. A month ago, in mid July I was walking on the street and there was a heavy shower of rain. (p.s.: Sometimes I become rain-maniac and love to get drenched or take a walk in heavy rain. I feel like eating Ice cream, especially my all time favorite hot chocolate fudge.) I saw a couple of kids playing football, and it was torn all around but nonetheless reasonably round. Ah!! What fun those two were having. For a moment I was petrified, as one kid baffled the other with his exceptional chicanery and his natural endowment of ball control. This thirteen or fourteen year old kid had the potential to give any defender serious nightmares.

I’m feeling very sad to state, he never WILL. He lives in a slum and soon he’ll be helping his father and start earning for his living. For 10hrs of arduous labor work, he’ll take home a paltry sum of 40 or 50 bucks. Some of us don’t know the value of money. Some of us, just for few minutes of enjoyment and fun, we spend hell lot of money without battling an eyelash. Suppose he works in a restaurant, we try to avoid him or make faces when he comes to clean our table. I believe it is unsound way of giving an alibi just to escape from reality. Some of us will be waiting to find guilt in him and we’ll become masters in ignoring our guilt. Few questions may arouse in your soul, like How can I help? What can I do? But the only question to the answer will be how many can we help? There are too many…….

Indeed there are too many, but we have to understand the basic fact that it’s LIFE. We just have to deal with it. I cannot see the light at the end of the tunnel for that boy. He is destined to get inured with his bucolic and penurious life. At a later stage of his life, his exceptional football skills languish and will never even bother to think about it. He gets acclimated to the poverty life.

Sometimes I feel that I’m wasting too much of time thinking about all these matters. If I could be more like other guys, enjoy time of my life in rain and dance as if no one sees me. Perhaps I need to learn the true and genuine meaning of Contentment. As the saying goes, “to get what you've never had, you have to do what you've never done”.

Thindi Beedi..(Burp!)

“VIVAHA BHOJANAVIDU HAHAHAHAHA” do you remember this song? Well I’m not writing this post to describe that song, but to introduce a place which is a paradise for food-o-holics! If you’ve already scrolled my blog, you must have got to know what I’m describing about. Its none other than the very famous, centrally located, THINDI BEEDI alias FOOD STREET alias BAKASURANA BEEDI. If you have already been there then you might have already started thinking about Dosas, bonda, bajji, vada pav, etc, control yourself, there’s lot more to come.

To begin with, this place lies parallel to V.V Puram Jain College road, or reach Sajjan Rao Circle and ask anyone, they’ll guide you. I’ve been frequent visitor of this place for 2yrs now, and let me guide you properly so that you can have best time or memorable evening over there(6.30pm to 10pm). Go in a gang of 5 or 6, make sure others aren’t in a diet and pass comments when you hog. If I’m not wrong, this street stretches for about 500m and the stalls are located adjacent to each other and aroma of different kind of food might drag you to the respective stall.

The golden rule is that, never give order for more than 2 or 3 plates for each dish. Share it among yourselves. This starts from VB bakery and ends at the corn shop. If you ask Connoisseur, i.e. Me, start off with Bisi Bisi masala Dosa. Walk down the street and find a stall which will be crowded ordering for Dosas. You can watch the person who is making dosas, he spreads out the batter in concentric circles and takes a packet of ghee and spreads it around. You’ll be delighted when you see the dosa turning into red which indicates its crispness. Once you bite into it, the ghee oozes out from every pore of this delicacy but tastes so heavenly, that you instantly pardon all the evil that this humble dish has been cursed with.

If you walk down further you can see BAJJI and BONDA stall. I bet you don’t want to miss that. It aint any ordinary Bonda, its made with Dodda Mensinkayi(capsicum) and Balekayi which makes its taste splendid. He cuts into 3 or 4 pieces and puts masala (onion, coriander leaves, sev, lemon, etc) so enjoy sharing this with your friends.

Now it’s time to have some desserts. I’m referring to Jamoon and Jilebies, without which your adventure here in Food Street is never complete. It doesn’t cost more than 5 or 6 bucks. It’s better to spend here rather than giving Rs.15 for parking in forum that to with time constraints.****, sorry for that. Many of my friends don’t try this amazing entremets like Obbattu. It’s fantabulous and I strongly advice you to taste it. It’s made on the spot itself, with lot of ghee on it and when he gives you, it will be hot just like the slag taken out of the furnace.

If you aren’t still filled, then try few Pav Bhaajis and Vada Pav. Believe me, its much much better than you find in some hotel where he charges you 30bucks.

Once you’re through with this, walk towards the corn cart. Close to that you will find your finale point. The last shop on your left. Order for a ‘Butter Gulkand Fruit Salad with Ice Cream’. And finish it all with a Masala Pepsi, a jaljeera of sorts, and probably the only new age offering on this side of the planet. If you are a Foodie, then go you wouldn't be in front of your comp by now. :P

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THIS CONTENT IS PURELY ORIGINAL.  ANY KIND OF PLAGIARISM OF THIS MATERIAL WILL NOT BE ACCEPTED.

Raksha Bandhan..True story behind it!

There is a little known side-story in the Ramayana that very few people are aware of. It happenned when Lord Rama was in exile, Living a placid life in the forest, with his lovely wife and devout brother away from cruel step-mothers and back bending maids. Just when everything was quiet and nice, there appeared a terrible distraction. Demon princess Surpanakhi was roaming around in the forest, looking for some action. And she saw Rama, and was smitten. “Wow, now that’s an ideal man”, she said to herself. So she changed form, and appeared before Rama as an irresistible beauty. She tried to voodoo Rama, but he was not impressed. He was a perfect man, and not bigamous(which firmly proves that the story is plain myth, but let’s not hurt religious sentiments here!).

Anyways, when Rama did not succumb to temptation, Surpanakhi turned to Lakshmana. Who turned out to be even more of a perfect man and refused her saying he was a married man. (I mean, Rama at least could have been thinking Sita might sulk, but Lakshmana knew that Urmila won’t even come to know). Anyways, to cut a long nose (oops, story) short, Surpanakhi was humiliated and sent back. And perfect men though they were, they forgot one little detail: “Hell hath no fury like a woman scorned!!!” So, Surpanakhi went back to Lanka, and cried her heart out to her dear brother, the almighty demon king Ravana. Ravana flew into a rage, and promised his little sister that he would make the people who did this to her pay dearly. Now, Ravana was an all powerful king, conqueror of the three worlds, but he had one little weakness. You see, Ravana had ten heads, but as is the case with divided responsibility, every head used to assume that the other would take care of the all the brain work. So, he was a forgetful person. So, to remind him of his promise, Surpanakhi did what all women do when they need men to remember things. She tied a thread around his hand. And in honour of that tradition, to this day, sisters tie a thread around their brothers’ hands. It is celebrated as Rakshas Bandhan, a symbol of bond between brother and a sister.