Outside the Puri

So here’s how it all started a few weeks ago … all on Facebook !  I kept seeing the words ‘pani puri’ and it got me craving to eat some Bombay style chaats !

Translation of ‘paani puri paane ke liey kuch khona padtha hai ..’ 

To get a ‘pani puri’ then you must give up something (precious / meaningful)  to you

 

I told you that I’d known Sabu for a long time and I’ve always associated Pani Puri with good memories and crazy cravings !

And that’s the secret folks ! My very good friend and new  client – Rish Oberoi – has just launched his own line of very funky out-of-the-box style urban t-shirts called ‘Paani Puri Clothing’ !

You can also catch up dates about Paani Puri on their Twitter page as well as their Face Book Fan Page and the Official Paani Puri Group Page …. oh and if that’s not incentive enough – I will be a Featured Guest Writer (drum rolls for me please !!) on the Paani Puri BLOG as well !

Pani Puri Cravings

For those of you that don’t know what Paani Puri is – then here’s a bit of a filler for you … and I just realised I don’t quite know to describe it to you … hence I’m gonna cheat and give you a Wikipedia description

Pani Puri or Golgappa is a popular street snack in the Indian subcontinent.  It comprises a round, hollow "puri", fried crisp and filled with a watery mixture of tamarind, chili, chaat masala, potato, onion and chickpeas.  Its size is small enough to fit in the mouth.

The term golgappa refers to the fact that crisp sphere ("gol") is placed in the mouth and eaten ("gappa") at one time, without biting. Pani comes from the Hindi word for water and puri (or poori), an Indian bread made by frying dough in oil.

At this point you must be wondering why am I providing you all with a description about Pani Puris ?  Whenever I think about Pani Puri’s I have tended to associate them with some really fond memories whilst I was growing up.

I’m somewhere around 10-4 years old, standing in front of one of the most popular Pani Puri restaurant snack counter – practically gulping down ‘teekhah mitha’ pani puris … In fact a very old school friend, SH (known her since ‘93) sent me a message on FaceBook the other day and we were recapping our Pani Puri experiences !

I’ve got some serious Pani Puri cravings at this point and can’t wait to get my hands on some from Kailash Parbath near my house !

But there’s more to the story – so keep reading my upcoming posts to discover my secret :P

Diwali Greetings !

Today happens to be Diwali – which is the Indian new year.  We had a Diwali puja (prayer) at our office yesterday which was quite sweet. and probably the only ‘group’ thing we do as an office.

Diwali comes from the Sanskrit word Deepavali which means garland of lights.  Quite literally Diwali is known to many as the ‘festival of lights’.

My mum has been on a frantic cleaning spree the last 2-3 days because Diwali is an occasion for cleaning; sprucing up the home; painting walls and decorating the floor with attractive rangoli designs.   Rangoli is another Sanskrit word which signifying a creative expression of art by means of colours.

It’s been said that Rangoli is done outside the front door of the house so as to attract the Goddess Laxmi who brings wealth.

We’ve got our Diwali puja that’s going to start in a few minutes and I’ve just finished getting ready … Diwali is also quite an auspicious day to start any new ventures – so here’s some good wishes towards the start of my new consultancy as well – DMN Consultants =)

Before I leave you all and head for the puja, I’d like you to check out a previously written a post – Festival of Lights or Endangering the Environment which takes a look at the other side of the festivities that the majority of Indians partake in.  As much as Diwali is a great celebration to start of a new year – we should consider the effects of our actions on the globe as a whole.

Wishing you all a Very Happy Diwali and a Prosperous New Year with lots of health, wealth and happiness coming your way !

Schiller - Nachtflug

This has got to be one of my newest all time favourite tracks.   It’s a perfect blend of soulful beats.  The acoustics – guitar, drums, and percussion – seem like they were made to complement each other to create the background score to the story of my life !  That’s how strongly I connect to the music.  It is a deep, dynamic and utterly magical as far as I’m concerned !

The first time I heard this track was a couple of weeks ago and it was over the surround sound system in my living room and all I heard was this amazingly clear, crisp and warm vocal chord which sent shivers down my spine. 

The acoustics more or less take over your senses and it feels like the beats are running through my veins.  I can get lost in this tune … maybe I should try meditating to it … should help actually !

‘Nachtflug’ is a single released by Schiller - the main project of Christopher von Deylen – a German electronic music composer who produces music which can be considered trance and ambient.

This single was released in Germany in 2005 and is a part of the the album ‘Tag Und Nacht’ – which means Day & Night.

I realised that two other tracks that I’ve really enjoyed after a long time have been Schillers’; the most recent being ‘You’ which was a collaboration with singer Colbie Caillat and another with Wolfsheim titled Dream Of You – both are MUST HEAR tracks :)

Happy Listening and don’t forget to let me know what you thought of the track !

 

Mumbai Moments Captured : It’s a Sign

As some of you know, I have been inspired by Al Pitcher (a comedian who uses day-to-day photographs as a part of his comedy act) to come up with the Mumbai Moments Captured series (the first post being The Motorbiker Series)  as I too have quite a few ad hoc images that I feel can only be seen in Mumbai (and around India) .. Now it’s time for the next instalment …

Drum Rolls …. Raising Curtains ….

It’s A Sign

I’ve come across quite a few funny signs and notices and thought it would be cool to share them with you all …

Earlier in January this year, I got a group together and headed off to Lonavala for my birthday.  We were 3 cars who drove out together and we had so much alcohol between the cars, that honestly if there had been a road check at any point – we would have been stopped and questioned for hours on end !

On reaching Lonavala, we realised that we’re gonna need ICE for the drinks – and started asking around where we could find some …. An old man on the road pointed us into an alley / side street and we saw this sign ….

All of us must have pissed ourselves laughing … we could see the sign board for ice but there was NO ICE to be found anywhere ! Eventually, we found some men who were sitting by the first telephone pole behind the red cart who told us that they could send the ice over to the bungalow where the party was …

After receiving the ice, we were a bit too  scared to actually use it for any sort of drinks as it arrived on this ratty truck on some tarp and had black bits all over it …. So ended up using it for chilling the drinks and spent more money & petrol sending my driver to the nearest hotel and taking coolers full of ice to use for the drinks.

The next few months were spent attending birthdays and weddings – so I didn’t focus too much on random photography however one sunny afternoon in May – I was hanging out in the Bandra area with my mate SG and we went for a walk on Bandstand.  I’ve been in Bombay for 2 years now – and never realized that ‘dog parks’ exist in the city … Considering there are ‘barely’ any parks in the city – this one was a total surprise for me … and as a dog lover my curiosity got peaked and I had to check it out …

Aww doesn’t that look nice … a park for the doggies to play in :) Typically anywhere in the world – it’s quite common for pet owners to have to clean up after their pets when in a public area.  I wasn’t quite sure how this would work in Mumbai considering that there is never a garbage bin when you need one !

Indians being the way they are – probably would never pick up after their pets because 1) the house-help is likely to be walking the dog 2) they are used to throwing garbage on the streets and with so many stray animals on the roads – what difference would it make if THEY cleaned up after their pets ?

So the dog parks came up with these nifty signs which I think should spread the word and make the message quite clear !

Then a couple of weeks ago, I ended up going for a drive to Khandala (which is on the way to Lonavala) with a mate of mine and came across these two very interesting signs on some passing trucks … I wonder who does the artwork and text copy for these sort of signs and why the hell they don’t bother with a spell or grammar check before sending their vehicles out …

This is of course of a milk truck … not the milk man van but a container or sorts …. I’m guessing the milk is getting sold to somebody since it’s being transported around – so why on earth does it say ‘MILK NOT FOR SELL’ …. Grammar check … ‘Milk Not For Sale’ …. I did have visions of how milk must be splashing around inside the container … and what if the inside had not been cleaned properly ??? I don’t even want to think about what happens to the milk in there …. Doesn’t milk have to be kept at a certain temperature ?  That particular truck doesn’t exactly look like it has internal temperature control or nice fridges inside to store the milk ! Ewwwwwwwww

Soon after passing the Milk truck – we got caught in a slight traffic jam … actually more like a truck jam … and I came across this at the back of a truck … when I first took the photo I couldn’t really tell what was written on the sign …. A little bit of zooming and hanging out the window of the car and I finally got what I wanted to see …

Can you believe what you are reading ??? ‘Too many partners will take you to sorrowful life’ … now that’s just way too funny considering that the Indian society is all about monogamy and the sign on the truck in one way implies that ‘from experience – too many partners make life difficult’ thereby crossing out the notion that the Indian society is about monogamy !

That’s all from me folks – I’m working on the next piece for Mumbai Moments Captured – probably on animals and will share that with you very soon !

Have a great Sunday !

New Age Taxi

Whilst on my way to work on Wednesday, I ended up in a totally funky taxi !  He even had a radio in the car (seriously it’s a bonus if you ever find a cab with a radio!); and Red & Black Leather / Pleather covers on the seats … I felt like I was riding in a mate’s car !

To top it off – the radio turned out to be a CD player AND had a pretty neat sound system at the back … I had to take some pics of the taxi …

 

 

Here’s to hoping that all of Mumbai taxis are converted to be as funky as this one :)

Time Just Seems To Fly !

I can’t believe we’re already in the first week of October !  In some ways I feel like the year has literally flown by .. and the past 2 weeks … I don’t know where they went !

In India there have have been 2 long weekends; 26th – 28th September and 1st-3rd October .. and I was working through BOTH of them …. Highly productive for me, but draining at the same time.

I also feel like I’ve been on a bit of a roller coaster the last few weeks … It’s been incident after incident that’s been hitting me in the face and on some level it has obviously  affected me.

My colleague AA – who I have mentioned a few times before -  left the company on 23rd September.  I knew for months that he was looking at a change in jobs and when he finally made the decision to move – as much as I was expecting it – it was a surprise and upsetting.  Not only would I lose a great colleague to work with – but also one of the first ‘friends’ I had made within my office.  I have worked with him for exactly 2 years and the office feels weird without him sitting behind me.  

24th September was the mark of 2 years of me having worked with my current employer … Normally such things are celebratory for me – but it actually slipped my mind … till the end of the day … I realised that over the years I have made an effort to remember any significant dates that hold meaning to those close to me … and funnily enough – other than my birthday – I can’t say that anyone has gone out of their way to remember something significant to me.

6th October was emotionally numbing ! My boss, mentor, and friend – HA – announced his departure from the company (ok he didn’t but our CEO said it on his behalf) ! I was in shock – so much so that I had to excuse myself, grab some tissue and dab away at my eyes … and then of course got on the phone with HA who was laughing at my reaction.

I spent a great deal of time with him in his cabin and we were just generally talking about what his plans were and how he is going to take things forward in his life.  It’s a new beginning for him and I’m very happy for him because I know that he has the Midas Touch :)

Taking these two departures into consideration, I am left wondering ‘so what now for me’ …