Lifestyle,Food,Travel...and More

Remembering Lofoten It has indeed been a long and extended break from writing. I have been thinking for some time to get back to writing and pushed by my wife and dear friends too repeatedly. So finally after a strong enough hibernation I decided to write about Lofoten. Once a place I could only dream of, to actually visiting it last year. I also took a lot of feedback from folks to simplify my writing as I often got entangled in a web of poetic prose. Also took some cues from my friend Sai who always has his sleeves up when it comes to reading and also writing a blog with no purpose. Scandinavia/Nordic (Finland, Iceland, Faroes are Nordic but not Scandinavian phew) are dream destinations for most travel enthusiasts. Though nowadays everyone is a travel aficionado and so am I but it is more of an asset allocation (Sorry for being a finance geek ☹ ) decision for me rather than thinking of an annual budget. There is no wanderlust flowing down my veins, it's just cu

The sudden screech of the tyres got me up from my faintly knitted sleep. There was a roar of thunder with a hint of momentary rains. Adding to this, the treble touched brake of the car with a bus moving ahead added a fearful clip to the surrounding. The past 5 days moved like an unfolding screenplay in the mind as I saw raindrops cuddling the car. It was 3 days that we were waiting for the monsoon, but it came at a time where we couldn't embrace it. The journey back to Coimbatore airport was a one with the feeling of an end to a wonderful trip. Alongwith the pot pie which we had for lunch at The Culinary while departing, the flashes of the Taj blinked rapidly in the mind which refused yet again to skid to the mechanics of Mumbai. Tripping back to the past 5 days while gazing at the Ghats around, it felt like an end of a visual and emotional symphony. A condign escapade had just faded. When we departed from Bangalore after a fast paced two day trip which included a multitude of

Paneeeer.. Chandan said the Paneer was stir fried a bit before it was mixed with veggies and flavors, and it was the reason why the Paneer wasnt soft to chew. Well he did have a point that Pan Asian cooking doesn't have a softer Paneer to it always, but sitting there I did not wish to be the over critical food connoisseur. Sitting at that beautiful restaurant named Sky Lounge in Bangalore what I knew was that my next task as a food lover was to explore the greatest of Paneers in Mumbai. So, with all my tummy might I have been sniffing around Paneers to find those handful of gourmand dishes.  Although, I am still not done with finding more Paneer dishes, here are some of the ones which I liked- Paneer Lifafa, The Ziya - The service and presentation at this place is undoubtedly top notch, but the paneer lifafa is filled with immense Paneer love. Served with rice and Dal Makhani, it does give you a resounding vegetarian fill up! I would want to eat this up more often!

This one I wrote with a dream to write as many poems as I could, and with a thought that nothing is more important than the things happening in the present. Past present future Glimpse of the past was making Me walk so fast, The cry from the past was making me agonizingly aghast, More oblivious i wanted to be,the more delirious i ended up being, Present tried to knock the door and state that there was so much more in store, I was trying to find my way, past was drifting  me away with dismay, Beam of the future too then came with a euphony, expecting me to ignore the melancholy, Present was so pleasant,future too was ought to nurture, Past i did run away from at last, hoping for a life that would last, In the past of the future was dreaming to have a present poised to be a teacher....

Just as we were eating the four cheese pasta at the roof top Italian restaurant Don Giovanni , the jubilant Mr. Max was busy narrating his two decade experience in Pondicherry. To our shock, the different types of cheese in the Pasta were made within the restaurant and one of the cheese  was called in from the blissful Auroville. Every thing that we ate that day- Focaccia, Gnocchi, Pasta and Pizza were part of one of the best Italian meals that I have ever had with everything from the bread, cheese and the sauce being made in house. The Pondy escapade which was meant to be a jovial and neat bachelor's trip, turned out to be a trip of exotic food, delightful walks, rampant dance, cheesy talks and joyous gyration. It all began on day one when I was mesmerized by the beauty of the eastern coast road from Chennai to Pondy. The moment we arrived at our hotel The Promenade, the glee on the face just got brighter as I saw coconut trees right across the street, with clean water and

Blissful Boulevard The day had begun to end with darkness all around the room. By now we knew that this night we would have no ray of electricity to help us light our rooms. Although this place had already lightened our deepest inner senses. This time the darkness brought an emphatic glow of bewilderment. The merriment in that wooden cottage was one that we would remember forever. We had to wake up early morning around 4 am to depart for Chandigarh to catch an evening flight for Mumbai, but the mind was startled at the idea of moving away from this gleeful utopia and moving on to the insipid dystopia of a metro.  As I was stashing up all my belongings into my bag, the last two days flashed coherently before my eyes. Maybe something tried to stop me from leaving but as always, the sudden drift to a reality of dire straits is what happens to us. Raju's Cottage was not just mirthful or limpid, it was a joyous transcendence to the real world where we belong. It was a wond