Some more restaurants

I tried a few more in Bangalore!

Flambe - Around the corner from our place on outer ring road. Food was decent. We went with a big group so more on the conversation, less on the food, our focus I mean. They had good Pita bread with falafel.

Via Milano - An Italian place in Koramangala. Pizza was soft and Pasta was nice and spicy. The service was lousy, but I heard that was more an exception than the norm. We took 3 hours to finish dinner what with their mega serving times.

Golconda Chimney - Middle land between a Dhaba and a proper restaurant. On Whitefield road. Food was decent. Appetizers were good except the Veg kheema thingy. Lassi was way to sweet and artificial to be anything Mango.

Bharateeyam - A "no nonsense" place in HSR Layout. Your all cuisines in one olace. Chinese, Indian, snacks, chat, ice creams and what not. First time we went we had Dosa, Idli and the likes. Second time we went I had some Veg Fried Rice which was just made and piping hot. But the crown of this place is undoubtedly their "Mango Kulfi". I was simply amazed when I ordered it and the guy was taking it out to "serve" it. They actually hollow out mangoes and fill it with Mango kulfi and freeze it. When you order one, he cuts the mango and lays the pieces neatly on a plate and voila! you not only have the most sumptuous kulfi but also a deadly looking one. Mango slices topped with nice frozen kulfi. It was one too many slices for me to eat but when 3-4 people share it amongst themselves, its a winner all the way!

Beijing Bites - A good Chinese restaurant in HSR layout. Place was decent and clean. Appetizers were yumm although a little more on the salty side. Egg Fried Rice was amazing and the Hakka Noodles were nice! We didn't try any dessert since we were already too full.

Inspirational

Everytime I have to throw a plastic bag out, I feel a knot in my stomach. Thinking where it might end up. In what ocean and what sea.

I found this very heartening article today. I must say I was quite unaware of this. This seems a rather devilishly genius idea. Mix plastic with tar while laying roads and they not only end up stronger but you also have en effective way of disposing off plastic.

Although it seems too good to be true, I really hope it is. I think they are still studying if this is completely safe for the environment or not. I hope they go on to find that it is. That would be simply fabulous don't you think?

What pains me acutely is that I haven't known about this at all thus far. That is the problem with the god-damned media. Focus on glamour, stupid reality shows, and chase celebrities. Cry hoarse over violence, inflation and god knows what else. Why not cover something productive like this. If they repeatedly aired this story 4 times in a day instead of updating the public on every small move that Harman Baweja is trying to make to save his film from Jaane Tu Ya Jaane na, I am sure a lot more people will take notice. Apparently these guys are having a tough time collecting all the plastic waste that Bengaluru generates, CNN and TV9 could surely help by airing this. I am sure a lot of the citizens are out looking for some substantial and serious news.
Sigh!

R2I: Self help is still best help?

A lot of people ask me if I have adjusted well and settled down. And I usually tell them, I haven't "adjusted" to anything. I never felt like I was changing something or adjusting to a new environment. I left a Cisco building on Friday, I flew out and I started working in another Cisco building on a Tuesday, to me my move was just a long weekend ;) Other than that taking up a house etc, didn't feel much different than anywhere else. More importantly, now that we are back, we both never felt like we ever left. The US and California and everything else seems like a distant memory that happened a long long time ago!

Ok I am digressing. So the point is, have I adjusted yet? Though I claim to have completely settled in, I realized (actually I keep realizing these days) that I haven't adjusted/gotten used to some things, yet. Like not doing everything myself. In the US, you do everything yourself. You have to, you got no other option. I am so used to it, that I don't take help where I can. Nor do I realize I can delegate certain things which I would have had to do otherwise. Some people even find it very amusing that I do certain things.

Like for example, I had to go to my land-lady's place (they live in the same apartments) and hand over a month's electricity bill and receipt to her for something she needed to do. I was all set to go when my maid arrived. So I called A and said I'd come over after the maid left. Then Subhash came home. I told him I had to go to A's place and he simply said "Why don't you give it to the maid and ask her to give it there on her way out?" I was like whoa! dumb dumb me! So I wrote her a note, gave her both pieces of paper and she dropped them off on her way out. It was so simple really.

There was this other time in the gym when I was cleaning up after me picking up used papers etc, the attendant standing there was saying that she would take care of it and that I should leave it. I said its quite alright and did it anyway, so I must have looked like some weird person to her ;)

There is an attendant at work who switches on all the lights daily in the morning at work. Back in San Jose, I used to do it myself (on days when I was early enough, of course) ;)

Still got to get "adjusted" to these things I guess.