Discovering Bhopal!

So me and my dad have been discovering the town and it has been great fun so far. This one evening we went discovering soup stalls. 

We went to this place called 'Cycle soup.' It is a typical road side stall with the yummiest food on earth. We savored our soups (sweet corn for me and the same ol' tomato for daddy.) and got thoroughly confused about the main course. This guy had the ultimate Indian road-side delicacies on his menu, chhole bhature, kulcha paneer makhani, pav-bhaji, sandwiches, burgers (Indian style, but of course) and loads of other pulaos and naans with sabzis to mix and match. As always, me and mom wanted the same thing for both of us. And this time it was pav-bhaji. 

When he brought the food, I was mad at the chotu for bringing our servings (mine and mom's) in the same plate - and then I see my mom with another plate of pav-bhaji and trying to figure out how will she ever finish it. So basically the food on 1 plate was more than enough for two. 

Dad's BURGER! Yeah, that steals the cake! It has the tastiest Dhaniya-pudina chutney of the world, a huge patty and loads of cheese and cucumber slices. Yes, the quintessential India burger was here! I swore on God, I will never ever spend money at McDonald for that little burger which even has VAT charged on it. The mighty cycle-soup wale ka burger was a meagre 20Rs!

There is more to come on my blog about Top 'N Town Ice-cream (The Naturals' version for Bhopal) Arya Bhavan (The North-Indian Udupi hotel) and Manohar Dairy! 

Why God why?!?

I get a scrap on Orkut which reads "I guess you like to do sweet friends like me."

Oh like what?! Do you even know what it means to 'do' friends?! damnit! I dont do friends man! Why can't people write straight English or scrap in Hindi? Google has given an option of Hindi scrapping and it is our national language. Use it man, but dont for God's sake ask me if I DO my friends! FYI - I DONT!

I want a 700 or I want to throw a tantrum.

Oh well, so predictable of a girl sitting at home dreaming of joining an MBA college - a 700+ GMAT score. Yes. That is what I want. Most of my friends (who ironically happen to be very very intelligent) think this is not a 'want' big enough to appear on a blog. This is a perfectly do-able task - is what they say. I am starting to believe I will get my Hummer before this score (which seems as humongous as a hummer itself.) By industry standards* I am not even preparing for 4 hours a day. What do you think I am doing industry? [industry responds - "panicking"] A quick background - they (industries) say 4 hrs a day for about 2 months is good enough to get you a 700+. You know I got those good grades in school. Now I am thinking does intelligence works on the diminishing values theory? Anyway that's besides the point.

The point being - I want to behave like one of those disgusting little toddlers who throw their hands around demanding toys/chocolates/clothes/balloons and such other stupid things. I want to sit at the ISB campus and throw my hands around and scream - I WANT!!! I WANT ADMISSION!

(Picture the conversation -

Admission council - "But lady, you got no scores and no degree to be proud of!"
Me - " I CARE A DAMN! I WANT! I WANT! I WANT!"
Admission council - "God what an irritating kid! Go child, here is your admission letter"
Me - "YAYYYYY!!!" Thanks!!! Mwaaaaah!"

Dreaming is free you see! )

*Industry standards refers to PaGalGuy and bretherin.
A special note of thanks to Sunny a.k.a Ritvik Mathur for listening to me in the midst of all the BRBs!

Diets bring you so close to reality! See what I want now

Well you cannot imagine how glad I am I have this blog to shout out and tell the world what I REALLY want! I want to eat dal-chawal, rabri, mal-pua, rajma, jeera-rice, pad-thai, maggi, aloo-paratha... basically anthing that is calorific, unhealthy - and thus very very tasty. No surprise, I am on a diet! And I think some spirituality can help here. I am telling myself - Sab Maya hai - it is all a farce. I am happy dieting, I feel light (starved) and healthy (un-greased.)

What I also want to do.. well 'want' is an understatement, it is more like what I am longing to do, is to ride around some town, sit at a coffee shop with my book, a hot fresh capuccino, a packet of milds to keep me company and just watch the world pass by. And then as the evening sets, make a few phone calls and meet my friends at the club that has ladies' night (read- free liquor) and is playing bollywood music! You say I am dreaming? I say I am longing to re-live that which I gave up for this. What a mortal soul I am, never being in the present and trying to re-live the past and build the future.

But hey wait! its cool, I think! At least I am not perpetually grieving! [or maybe I will, at this rate of blogging, reading and not studying, a 650 in GMAT is all I think I will get and will spend the rest of my life cursing this poor blog!]

The daily log:

1. Finish reading my books faster - well, this is a sad one :( I always boasted of finishing my books the fastest. 'If Jinu's got it, the book is finished' was how it was. And now, I barely read 10 pages a day. In fact this is not just a part of my daily log, it is something I want to retain all my life. No matter how busy I never want to be too busy to read.

2. The elusive 760 in GMAT - I started preparing for GMAT thinking its gotta be a 760. But here I am today, wondering if I will ever cross 700. My friends say I am a psycho to be freaking out at this rate. But I truly actually believe it is not half as easy as they say it is...

3. Oh well, just for future reference, it is 19th Aug today, less than a month to tame the beast called GMAT and I am busy blogging. The daily log for today is to finish all sentence correction Qs from OG :P

Places I want to visit -

1. The El-Che route - Yes, traveled by legendary Che Guevara. I want to feel what Che did en-route, on his bike. That would be Argentina-Chile-Peru-Ecuador-Colombia-Venezuela-Panama-Miami. Essentially, the entire South America. Does it not sound exciting? If there is any Alberto Granado that is anyone who would like to do this stretch with me, let me know and we can plan our travelogue. I definitely dont want to do this alone!

2. Naples - This place gave the world Ice-cream and Pizza! It is in the south of Italy and is home to beautiful instruments like the Mandolin.

3. Sicily - The rape victim of Italy. I want to go there just to believe there is beauty in breakdown.

4. Slovenia - No better place to see the Alps and Meditteranean in the same place. Also I ve heard they have good wine there.

The Long Terms - take your time but don't be late!

Wish-list date - Aug 10, 2008.

Ok, so the year 2012 is a bench-mark year of my life. I want to accomplish quite a bit by then. This is a precise list of all that I want to do by then or in that year.

1. Go to London to watch the inaugural event for Olympics - What they did in China was spectacular and what London can do is beyond my imagination. With that, my only option is to visit London and watch it live - and probably get goose bumps all over - like I always do with almost anything.

2. Go to Wimbledon to watch the Men's finals - I watched this year's Men's finals with my best friend, who taught me the nuances of Tennis. Gripping as the match was, we decided it is something to be watched live. Typical Indian that I am, I will miss the face-painting, loud T-shirt, banners etc that are an integral part of live Indian (read cricket) audiences. That said, sophistication is worth trying. I'll give it a shot. Why 2012? Well, honey, where is the money to go before that? ;-)

3. Speak to a VC to fund my mega book-store chain - Now THIS is not just a wish. It is a dream. An aim. Yes, I always wanted a book-store of mine. Actually I always wanted a private-library. A huge one. Then I realised a library will not be for everyone. The idea of getting hundreds of books at one place is not to pile them. I mean where is the point in collecting them if you can't spread the knowledge? Then I thought I will open a public library. (with the slogan - Read till you pass out. Bad?) But the public library won't happen till age 50 - to say the least.

So the current plan is to first sell books for a few years and then have community libraries (I was even thinking if the Govt will let me convert these old haunted forts into beautiful libraries...)

4. Buy mom and dad a swank new house in the city of their choice - My parents have been buying and selling (their own) houses like a real-estate agent. Ironically, at an age when they are about to retire, they do not have a house of their own...yes a middle-class Indian family that is badly hit by the booming real estate costs. The least I can do for them is gift a 2 bedroom apartment that they can proudly call theirs.

The next few, might take forever or might just happen in a few months - but either way, I am not complaining!

1. Europe trip - all alone.

Weird, isn't it? People like going to Europe with lovers/friends. That's the whole point. I want to be with myself (my best friend and the love of my life - me) for a few weeks and live the exotic world. Alone. I won't have to go back because 'X' is tired. I won't have to eat because 'X' is hungry. I won't have to wear warm clothes because 'X' thinks it is freezing. I won't have to stand near a fountain and smile for 'X's' camera because 'X' thinks it will look good on my foto-frame etc etc...

(Is it too difficult to figure out who all can replace the variable 'X' here?)

2. Vegas - with my girlies.

Totally! We gonna blow it up chic-style! Me and my girls have always wished since our college days that we will do a fancy trip somewhere someday. They do not know that I have already decided the place. My journo friend (perenially broke and a psycho) will hate the idea. My gujju friend (with loads of money) will go mad shopping before she goes and will again mad shop at Vegas and all the places en-route. I am glad she hasn't been to Singapore, else poor 'her dad'... My mallu babes - Dubai settled boss! They WILL come! My sweetest, quietest advertising chica, she will come to hell with me, what's Vegas?

3. A Black Hummer H2 - Damn! what a hottie! Yes that mighty black 4-wheel! I have loved it ever since I first saw it. Also, I eventually want to own a fleet of hummers and have drivers drive them around for desert safaris at Dubai! (Aaha! what a life that would be!) And yes, this one will sure take time!)

4. Meditate at the Osho Ashram - If home is where the heart is, then Poona no doubt is home for me. I spent the 6 best years of my life in Poona and 1 thing I did not, or rather could not, do was spend time at the Osho Ashram. I want to be a part of this cult and experience what it is like to lead an Osho life. It is definitely beyond wearing maroon chogas!

What wants?

Ok, so a point to note right now would be - This is my 'wordly' wishlist. Whether achieving salvation is in my wishlist or not is completely confidential information. So if you read my blog and stamp me as - Material girl from a material world - Too bad. You don't know me.

So what will my blog look like? I will have in here all my wants - Anything and everything I want to do. Be it where I want to go, what I want to accomplish, what I want to buy or even what I want to read!