Infinitea

No I did not spell that wrong. Thats the name of this place we went for lunch to. Very sweet place with more than half the menu dedicated to teas from around the world- flavoured teas, hot and cold teas, aged teas, exotic teas... hence the name Infinitea. The main course portion of the menu is almost an afterthought. As if the place is saying to you "eat, if you absolutely MUST". So eat, we did and we also pigged out on a pot of masala chai. Now instead of having such things off the streets, you can get mala chai in nice places as well. Su-weet-ah!! Though I am wondering if it really makes sense to pay Rs. 50 for something that can be found on the streets for Rs. 2 only. Hmm... sounds like the kanjoos is me is trying hard to make a comeback.

The reason for that I think is the recent receipt of bank balance papers from my bank. Turns out that in the last year, apart from spending on rent and food I have spent enough on phone bills (thanks to long distance relationships), travel fares, partying etc, I have also invested in a really bad choice of mutual fund type thingie - which leaves me with a mere number in the form of savings that shall not be disclosed on this blog (for fear that the mother will read it and prepare to throw me out the window of any high-rise building she finds). Its possible that statisticians upon seeing such a bank balance may have to categorise me as "severely poor" (though not yet under the poverty line). However, until then, we shall pretend we are rich. So there! Readers of my blog, please learn that supply of money is not infinite(a). Try not to buy tea for 30 bucks when you are sure to get the same thing for 2 bucks elsewhere... Meanwhile, I shall continue to ignore my own advice.

Cool Thang

Oooh ooh.. I am going to have a VPN connection soon. This means I will be able to access all my network drives from home. My computer is doing all these exciting things and I have this cool THANG they sent me all the way from across the seas in the US which keeps changing the numbers in its display, which will be my ever changing password. I feel like I am in one of those hi-tech movies where they try to break the password:

Login: Nidhi
Password: ******

*Blink* *Blink* Access Denied

In hushed conspiratorial tones... "lets try this again"

Login: Nidhi
Password: ******

*Blink* *Blink* Access Denied

Bad Guys: Oh no... we can never access her account because the password keeps changing. Aaaargh! *Painful death from screaming and acting in bad movies like this one*

Meanwhile I just realised that now I never have any excuse for not doing any work. I can now take my laptop home and if any files have been forgotten at work, I can access them from home. Dammit! The upside? I can work from home... I can wake up at 11am and consider maybe doing some work.. hee haa haa *evil laugh*!! Boss is away on some work this whole week. Perhaps I should take this opportunity to check out how this new THANG works. What say?

So much to say

I have so much to say and so little time. Ever since I have returned to Bangalore, work has taken up every waking moment (except for the weekend when the boyfriend was here- that time all attention was slightly diverted towards him - 600,000 brownie points). Waiting for more than 2 days to blog does the following things:

1) Give you too many ideas to write about stuff
2) Make you forget about all the things you wanted to write about (if you are as absent-mined as me)

As a result I wanted to write about the last movie I saw - Lakshya with Hottie Hrithik but I forgot what the damn movie was about. It obviously did not leave a lasting impression. I wanted to write about the Pakistani gentleman (with gray hair) who kept referring to "our generation" indicating that his and my generation were somehow similar. Most offensive I say. It could also mean he was referring to our generationS only I didnt hear the "s" at the end. I seriously doubt it though. I cant remember much else about that amusing event either. And then I want to write about my boss and unfortunately (extremely fortunately for my dear readers in fact) he is away in Bangkok therefore leaving me with nothing to complain about.

But wait, before we give up, there is something I can complain about and that is Bangalore weather. Its absolutely lovely. And I HATE it. The cool breeze and some people's (those that author this blog) preference to string tops as opposed to sweatshirts has led to a most severe cold and sore throat. The condition refuses to better itself despite repeated steam inhalation (yuck!) and gargles (joy... NOT) simply because its raining and chilly in this city.

Once again, I would like to take this space and thank Sarah for reminding me to blog (almost scolding me in fact) and Neil for demanding a post, and yes Fido - you are being thanked as well for calling me up and demanding a post. It brings a tear to my eye (a solitary tear to my left eye, because due to a congenital condition the tear glands are blocked in my right eye - of course, I kid you, but you knew that already right?) to see that people are demanding to read the things I write about. Whatever...

Su-weeet!

Aphrodite/Eros


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"Suck"ara and Set Airlines

So given my experience traveling with various airlines to satiate my hunger for better butter chicken every now and then, I have decided to write a scathing (yes you read it right) post about "Suck"ara Airlines. The names of the airlines have been changed for obvious reasons (besides, I really do like these names better).

So on reaching the airport, heres the difference between "Suck"ara and Set airlines. You will glide through baggage screening and check in with even a person to help you out with your baggage in case you struggle with it openly (as is usually the case with me). "Suck"ara believes in harrowing its passengers from the moment they enter the airport. As a result, post baggage screening, all the baggage is tossed to one side and you must run around with your trolley and hand baggage to find your bags and then get into serpentine queues. If you dont have enough luggage already, they will hand you a large packet of candies. This will also help you put on weight for the flight so you can fit into the seats more snugly. Rather nice of them, no?

Oh well, so you ignore that and get on to the flight with "Suck"ara and realise that if you fall asleep even by mistake they will wake you up to feed you juice, or just for the fun of it by saying "excuse me, would you like anything?" Nice work. Set airlines is different in this aspect. Their airhostesses only wake you up to feed you. Bleddy damn I say, we need service even when we are asleep dammit and I am glad "Suck"ara is there to see it.

However, the most glorious bit about "Suck"ara is the way its pilots land. Its almost a different religion. They make you believe in God, in fact. As soon as the pilot announces descent into the city, he also decides (though he does not anounce it) that its time everyone woke up from their dreams and came right back into the harsh reality that they are in fact thousands of miles above earth in a tin instrument with wings. So he bounces all way down for some 15 mimnutes. Yes, my dear readers, he BOUNCES all the way to his landing. Fortunately though when the wheels touch the runway the plane itself does not bounce off it. Its really a work of art! Set airlines is rather boring on the other hand. The pilot announces the descent into a city and allows you to sleep. He obviously has no interest in your religious beliefs. He obviously has no interest in waking you up either because you wake up only when the flight lands then... good lord. How boring I say.

Delhi Times

I am back! Its been ages and I think I may have forgotten how to blog altogether. My half-dozen adoring fans may have stuck around faithfully and I would like to take this opportunity to thank them from the bottom of my heart (as well as God, my parents and our dog.. err.. or the dog I wish we had). Thank you Neil, Fido and Sarah for demanding a post. Its very flattering to see that perhaps my writing does, in fact, entertain a few people (that too in far away places like Dubai and Germany.. Bombay is IN India Fido.. stop expecting a mention ALL the time)
Meanwhile, I am back from Delhi and have been meaning to write about a whole bunch of things. Expect a bonanza with multiple posts in a single day! Woohoo! Err yeah… As the title of the post suggests, this one is going to be about Delhi. My last weekend in Delhi was absolutely lovely because I met up with a whole bunch of friends and even managed to go out a bit. Now that chicken pox had been safely eradicated and everyone was safe around me, I was suddenly popular again. Joy!
Went to a pub on Friday night and realised how much I miss hindi music. Suddenly, I was surrounded by a pub full of drunken, sexy (we dress impeccably well in Delhi) people who were singing hindi songs from movies on the top of their voices. Lack of a dance floor made no difference because everyone was standing around their tables and bouncing. Gosh I miss that… I miss people getting excited at the first sense of a punjabi song (instead of being abused on the mic for requesting any bhangra/hindi number) and the dj stopping the music suddenly just so she can hear the entire pub scream the song (really badly, might I add). Suddenly I missed speaking hindi.. I missed listening to people speak hindi (who cares if most them are swearing in hindi.. Delhi-ites arent known for their politeness you know).
So anyway, after partying one night I spent the next day shopping for shoes and generally chilling out in Delhi. I love iced tea and oddly, nobody in Bangalore seems to be able to get it right. I mean, how tough can it be? Pour the tea, lemon essence and sugar syrup… but its just too tough for our dear Bangaloreans. Therefore I devoured the foods that I miss here in Bangalore and spent some money to generally revive the economy of our capital city b y buying 3 pairs of shoes- 1 of which is impossible to wear if one plans to do any walking in them. Such in Delhi though – we buy stuff that looks good, comfort be damned, fashion is the mantra of the hour. You geddit?
Enough for one post now… thanks for sticking around. Mwah mwah (motions to send flying kisses in the general direction of her half-dozen or less adoring fans)..

Check me out!!

I am cool I think... maybe I should take the test again just to be sure but aaargh! Who has the patience? So here goes- my results from MBTI etc..:

ESTP - "Promotor". Action! When present, things begin to happen. Fiercely competitive. Entrepreneur. Often uses shock effect to get attention. Negotiator par excellence. 4.3% of total population.

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Conscious self	Overall self

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Enneagram Test Results Type 1 Perfectionism |||||||||||| 50% Type 2 Helpfulness |||||||||||| 50% Type 3 Image Awareness |||||||||||||||| 70% Type 4 Sensitivity |||||||||| 40% Type 5 Detachment |||||||||| 33% Type 6 Anxiety |||||||||||| 43% Type 7 Adventurousness |||||||||||||| 56% Type 8 Aggressiveness |||||||||||||||| 66% Type 9 Calmness |||||||||||||| 53% Your Conscious-Surface type is 3w2 Your Unconscious-Overall type is 9w1

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Beautiful People

I feel like a woman again. If you are really interested in gory details (and even if you are not, I am going to share them with you here), I finally went to a beaty salon (we dont call them "parlours" in south delhi, unlike the rest of the country) to beautify myself - as if that is required. No no, dont bother responding to that one please. But as I walked in, I realised that people in Delhi, well "South Delhi" actually, are just a lot more beautiful than people elsewhere in the country. Bangalore does not compare to us.. them.. err Delhiites.

So I walk into the beauty salon and already I feel ugly because the damn receptionist there looks like she stepped out of Femina magazine (the Indian Cosmo). And she leads me into the place I used to visit quite often while I lived here only to realise that unlike Bangalore, where walking into a beauty salon an a weekday evening would not mean horrendous crowds, Delhi has tons of people who want to look extra beautiful on a Monday night. Go figure! The lady then exclaims that I look like a mess (thus doing wonders for my already ruined ego) and proceeds to make me look prettier and charge an unproportionately pretty packet for the same in what seemed like 12 nanoseconds. Painful but quick is how I like my beauty treatments. I would have added cheap to that list of adjectives, but lets not be unrealistic here.

More on peculiarities of South Delhi, which in my mind is whole different world in itself (separated from the rest of Delhi) and its its people in future posts. Watch this space, I say!

Joy!

Chicken pox is gone. Wiped out from my body in fact (the sores still remain but I am not "contagious" anymore)! And to celebrate I was quite the popular child yesterday with visits for almost a half-dozen friends yesterday evening. I am now down with another infection caused by the very medication used to banish the chicken pox virus from my frail (right) body. This time I am puking everything that is fed to me (and also things that have not been fed to me). The sight of food, for those of you who really want to know about my life, makes me sick. Good news though is that I ate kheer today and even some dinner. Joy!

I have now decided that I truly LOVE Sarah for asking me to post since it has been a week since I posted last. Has it really been that long? I cant imagine it... being unwell obviously does not agree with me. Thank you Sarah for following my life (or lack of it, as the case may be) and just for that I am sending you a slobbery e-kiss. Ah yes, and you wonder why I never had a relationship that lasted more than a year - until I met Fido of course, where I restrained the slobbery kisses for a year before drowning him in those as we completed a year.

In other news, I cant begin to tell you how much it depresses me that I have to return to work in a week. The very idea of seeing those people who have been torturing me on the phone as I tried not to itch, is killing me softly. I think the tension of it may also have something to do with the lack of ability to eat food. But given that I am feeling better now, I may even step out of the house tomorrow. Imagine that! Life just could not get better I think. Given that my interactions with Delhi are expected to be on the rise now, you may expect more frequent posts you lucky readers you...

But Seriously

I wanted to post something sad and melancholy today to match my mood but it seems I am incapable of writing stuff like that. Many attempts later I decided instead to write about the absolutely gorgeous weather in Delhi right now. There is no joy in Delhi like that of impending rain. It gets so hot that even the idea that it might possibly rain brings smiles of joy on people's faces. They would be walking along on the road and the slightest hint of a breeze would make them want to call their best friend and scream for joy - "its the best weather possible here, wish you could be with me to enjoy it..." cackle... phone dies. This is also the time that nothing works. Phone lines die (for the sheer joy of it I think) and cable tv stops transmitting

I remember the time we would step out in the rain and get drenched (right up till the time it became "indecent" to do so - growing up time is measured by what you are allowed to do) and play football (soccer for the uninitiates). For those who know that I pride myself on being the most unathletic person ever, this was a joy of athletics even I couldnt resist. Splattering wed mud in the hopes of kicking someone while doing so (the ball was inconsequential) was immense.

Given this bit of nostalgia, I have now depressed myself enough to last the night. Thanks for listening...