Another Christmas

Last Christmas was spent holed up in Cincinnati/Apartment in the midst of the winter storm. That lead to start of this log. A year has passed and I am holed up again inside a compartment of the train from Hyderabad to Delhi. It is almost surprising that not too long ago spending 24+ hours in travel was perfectly normal and acceptable. Now - I am thinking - what was I thinking!!

Brings to my mind the story that explains the difference between a man and a cow in the middle of a beautiful and green meadow. The cow is blissfully grazing whereas the man is eager to cross to the other side. I guess, sometimes the journey is more enjoyable than the destination itself.

The picture you see is how Delhi fog is during winters.
I am actually penning down these thoughts using a pencil and a pen. I will post them later.

Find the pictures at flickr

Filed under Travelogues

HYD-Goa-HYD

Early this year (Mar '05) made a qick dash to Goa. The season was almost over, I was told, and it will get hotter by the day. We stayed in Holiday Inn in southern Goa - A hotel with huge reputation, dirty rooms and lousy service. Only saving grace was nice pool and landscaping.

Find the pictures at flickr

We stayed in southern Goa and avoided crowded beaches and shopping. The beach from our hotel was quite and you could almost be by yourself if you wanted to. The season getting over may have something to do with it but we loved it this way. It was our first time to Goa. The picture on the side is of the fishing boat on the beach during the early morning walk.

Old Goa is a town that has decided to leave time and stay right where it is. It is like pictures from old history book has come alive in front of you. Churches and old cars parked in front of the old houses are typical of Goa's charm. I wonder when if ever the telecom and cola comapnies will be ashamed of their act and stop scarring our hill stations and beach towns. Goans should oppose the ghastly scarring of their heritage. Advertising is necessary but then there are ways of of doing so - anyone listening in the creative department!?!.

Churchs are everywhere! Small and big they are all so beautful.

For those who have read Da Vinci code by Dan Brown (and who has not read it!!) here is another interesting bit not covered by Dan. Below are the pictures of The Last Supper group as painted in the Old Goa Church. See the proof?

Out of the pool - in to the beach chair - and then back in the pool - perrrrfect!

No expert on Goa yet (unlike my good friend Gurrprriet Singh) yet I will answer any questions you may have to help plan your trip. Drop me a note. Find the pictures at flickr

Filed under Travelogues

HYD-Pune-HYD

We travelled by road to Pune from Hyderabad recently. The drive is 550 Km
one way not including the quick trip to Lonanvala.

Find the pictures at flickr

Day 1:
We started at 7:30 in the morning by getting on to NH-9 on what turned out to be 9 hours day drive to Pune. One after another we crossed small towns of AP, then Karnatka before entering Maharashtra state. Solapur is about mid way and we decided to take the bypass to Pune.

There is a good break at about 180 Kms from Hyderabad. Owner is Mr. Mishra - very friendly. The place is clean and food is good too. Clean restrooms are scarce on the Indian highways :) For the uninitiated, here are few tips - keep plenty of munches and water for the way. Pack for drinking as well as wash. I like to throw in two large PET bottles, a hand towel and a bottle of liquid soap in the boot.

The highway is good (by Indian standards) mostly single lane, without median and occasional streches ridden with pot holes. If you drive reasonably well you can expect to average 55 to 60 kms per hour - that means touching 100s occasionally. The highway is lined by sunflower farms and small hills around Solapur.

You can also cath the magnificent view of Naldurg fort just before Solapur from the NH-9. We hit Pune at about 4:30 pm. First stop - Magarpatta IT park where I met old friend of mine - Anurag. We stayed with Anurag and family for first night.

Day 2 and 3:

Next two days we spent exploring the city - Deccan Gymkhana, MG Road and Lonavala. We moved to Deepak's house on Karve Rd. We also met Deepak Joshi, who recently got married. It was simply wonderful. Also met Arun and Ravi. Arun is my college professor, first mentor and first boss too (not in the pictures). I also made a quick trip to my college.

Poona city was a bit of a let down. It is no longer the sleepy town it used to be. It is almost a big city with lot of traffic and crowd. Some of the old haunts are, surprisingly, still intact :). It took some time to get to them but they are there. Even the good-old JAWS is there - but I think it is closed down now and building is up for sale. Alaka talkies, Marzorin Café, Boocha Electricals, The Place for sizzlers, Dorabjee's which has now turned into a magnificent store.

A pleasant surprise was Bombay Poona Expressway and Magarpatta IT Park. We reached Lonavala in less than an hour. A tip when on the road and ordering tea or coffee - ask for sugar to be served separately :)

Day 4:

We started the journey back on the morning of the fourth day a little late packed with vada paos and kanda bhajji!! The highways are begining to get lined by Reliance gas stations attached with amneties and there was one just outside Pune. But it was filthy and coffe was yuck too. I hope these are just teething troubles and they will get better in coming days.

I caught several magnificent pictures of rural India. Hope you like them too. Send me a note.

Find the pictures at flickr

Indexed under Travelogues.

Chicken in minutes

OK, the email publishing does work. Just need to be little careful
about the line length and format of the email(has to be plain text
format).

As I perfect the art of blogging via email here is a little recipe I
perfected during my stay here in Cincinnati. It is easy and it takes five
minutes - OK fifteen - the point is - it is quick.

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Content:
1) Ingredients
2) Preparation
3) Cooking Instructions
4) Other suggestions

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Ingredients for Chicken in minutes
o Chicken two pieces
o Salt, pepper, paprika, clove, cumin and any other spice
you care for (all as per taste)
o Lemon juice (two tea spoons)
o Butter (preferred yellow) one tea spoon

PLEASE USE COMMON SENSE WHILE COOKING AND IF YOU HAVE
NEVER HANDLED PANS ON STOVE TOPS SEEK HELP.

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Preparation is easy
You will need a bowl to mix ingredients and a pressure
cooker.

Skin and clean the chicken pieces. You may leave the skin
on if you prefer it that way. Rub all the spices
vigorously on chicken. Puncture the chicken in few place
to allow the spices to sink in - no time for marinating :)
Sprinkle lemon juice on it.

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Cooking Instructions
Place the rubbed pieces of chicken in the pressure cooker
and put the butter and couple of cloves on it with few
cumin seeds. Use any other whole spice too if you like.
Close the lid and fire it up. DO NOT USE ANY OIL OR WATER.
IT IS NOT REQUIRED.

After first whistle reduce the flame to half and after two
more whistles it will be done. The chicken gets cooked in
its own juices and gets the flavor from butter and spices.

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Other Suggestions
If you have time and would like some curry use the chicken
prepared above in tomato and onion gravy. Serve with
boiled rice.

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If you like it or come up with variations send me an email! :)

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Indexed under Recipes

Push-Button Publishing (contd.)

Hmmm didn't go as smooth as expected. Post appeared (though not immediately) but it messed up the page format. I think the email should not have been in the HTML format. I went in edit mode after the post appeared on the page and removed the unnecessary HTML tags which fixed it.

But, the idea of posting via email is too tempting so I am going to try couple more times.



This time I am trying the text mode. Let us see if it works. Even the picture above is sent via email. The picture is that of my family who are missing me terribly as I travel.