Realization with a stiff neck...

Every part of our body if not in proper working condition makes us realise the value of it...This I realised very recently when I had a stiff neck due to a muscle pull cpomlimented handsomely by sitting for hours in front of the computer.It was so bad that I could only lie down straight on my back and stare at the ceiling.Some people even told me that this particular positon is infact good for the back and is actaually called "shav assan" ...I was wondering lying down that if the pain aggrevates I may actually turn into a shav waiting for my room mate to discover when he returns back from work..Fortunately am still alive to be writing my experience and enlightenment about certain things in life after the stiff neck...

First the free movement of the neck is of what importance can only be quantified when you cant move it freely any longer.Your vission is restricted only to seeing staright and nothing beyond that.This actually restricts you to see and appreciate certain beautiful objects on the streets of delhi and with this untimely arrival of summer these objects have become absolutely necessary to be seen and appreciated.

Also the second thing that I immediately realised was that its very difficult to hold your head upright for very long when you have a stiff neck. This meant that the idealistic few that we have in our society who always believe to portray holding their head high will find it difficult to do without the free movement of the neck.

Most importantly you should never be a pedestrian on the road in that condition. The probabality of you being turned into a squeezed tomato is much higher.Reason being you really can't see what's heading your way while crossing the road.I narrowly escaped being run over.Thankfully it was only a ricky and nothing heavier or bigger.

I also now respect those who tie a strap around their neck.Earlier I used to laugh at the thought that how patehtic it looked with their attire.Now I sympathise with thier communtiy.Also the pain in my neck made me give a little attention to my favourite food item- yes the chicken.Some of my sympathies goes for it as well when I think how cruelly it's neck gets twisted so that it can come up cooked in my dish.No don't get the impression that I have turned a veggie.It was a momentary thought suprned by rising emotions due to the stiffness of my neck.Last night I had chicken as a mark of respect.

Now that I am ok and the movement is significantly free I still think we all need such situations to sometimes understand the underlying importance of each body part of ours.

Thankfully I can now move my neck freely again and can still appreciate the beautiful objects in the street.....

Thank you Sridevi!!

I was reading a blog by a friend where one of the comments reminded me of the kind of opression a child has to go in a family.No these are not physical opression but its sometimes taxing the child's carefree mind so much that he doubts if he was your child or a puppet to entertain others...Yes entertain sometimes by dancing, or singing and not to mention by getting good grades.Good grades are something that the parents think is their birth right to demand from the child where else they forget that they themselves might have not been able to go to a regular college to get their degree.Add to all these a few classes of swimming or salsa or even rock climbing....Lets make the child a better human rather than try and make him/her a superhuman or a machine who is ready to functionally work on commands without the slightest display of emotions.Don't blame the child if he does not emote-you just robbed him of that quintessential part of his.

Whenever there's a party or a get together invariably the child comes under the scanner...All his skills are on display that day and judged by fools who only comment either for the sake of doing it or just to prove their expertise in each subject.I am sure as you read you too would be reminded of your childhood when you were asked to recite the poem or show the latest dance moves that you just learnt-often in front of complete strangers and worse sometimes at equally unknown households on your very first visit.

I remember one of such incident where I was the scape goat. My dad always believed that I had to showcase my talent to everyone.Not that I was born talented but he somehow thought I was better in displaying certain things. Those days I used to do quiet a few moves of break dance.A form made popular in India by the combination of Mithun's pelvic moves and Bappi Lahiri's stolen music.We were on a visit to the place where my dad was posted.That day he had called few of his collegues and their family for dinner as its was their demand to have food cooked by my mom when she was there.

I had got a scolding earlier in the evening over my choice of dress and was in a bad mood which became even more evident from my cheeks which swelled to unequal proportion.Just when the guests were seated and having the initial round of tea my dad summoned for me.I knew what was in store for me next.He proudly declared in front of the gathering that now I will dispaly my break dance much to their delight.What I did next is something I will never forget the rest of my life.I am still laughing at the thought of it when it happened almost 22 years back.What I did as a result of my mood was no where near to describing it as a break dance. I almost ended up doing a Sridevi like naagin dance the only difference was that Sridevi was on the floor gyrating like a snake and I was standing but doing the same.Eventually my dad made me stop on some pretext but the poor audience had no option but to clap to show their encouragement.

Well they left after dinner and so did my further public dispaly of talent.That night it also left through my dads mind out of the door and I was at peace in future whenever such gatherings happened. I still thank Sridevi for those moves or else I would have been doing break dance in front of every tom dick and harry....

The Kapoor Household...

Disclaimer: "This piece of my creativity is not meant to offend any particular community but dedicated to the happy go lucky nature of my neighbours-The kapoors"!!

The Kapoors have been my neighbour for almost 4 years now and now as I am ready to shift to a new house I will miss the Kapoor household the most if not for anything but atleast for the wholesome entertainment that they provided to someone like me...It is a typical punjabi household with lots of noise and gungho about everything.The decibell level of each member of the house was enough to serve as an alarm clock in the morning.But they have always been very warm and cordial sometimes even asking me for sharing the lunch with them on sundays.

Mrs. Kapoor was totally into herself and quiet boisterous about everything.Showing off was her passion and she will not miss any oppurtunity to let you know about any of thier newest possesion. Now she had a particular way of doing it and it was not directly said or showed but the way she projected it that was enough for even a chicken headed person to understand. I remember the day when Mr. Kapoor got her the latest model of 230L double door refregirator. It was placed nowhere but in the living room such strategically that anyone passing by would have surely got a glance of it. This made the other ladies ask her and her mission was accomplished.

I had over the years also observed that they used to go out when their kids had summer vaccation. Even after returning back and that too a good 3-4days later her hand bag still carried the baggage tag. This bag was taken everywhere for the next 10 days only to attract questions about her air travel and vaccation.

Mr. Kapoor was forced to make his youngest son sit on the car hood while he was coaxed to have his dinner.No not because the kid wanted it but because the new i10 cannot be shown off otherwise to the neighbour who was still struggling with his maruti 800..

Thats Mrs.Kapoor and her ways of leading life but I was always welcomed in their sunday lunch specially since it offered me to have chole which was Mrs.Kapoors speciality.That day the entire household wore a festive look.Kids would get up early with the aroma of the spices moving around their nostrils, Mr.Kapoor would be dressed in his sunday best having got his shave done at the saloon.They even had relatives coming from other parts of the NCR just to get a taste of Mrs.Kapoor's famed chole...

The lastest possession of theirs is a pug influnced by the vodafone ad.Now every evening Mrs.Kapoor takes it out for a stroll wearing her nike shoes horribly complimented with heavy silver anklets.

Just another week to go and then the Kapoor household will remain only in the figment of my memory...

Asking the obvious...

How much I hate those who ask the obvious is inexplicable and I really cannot quantify the hatred for such people.Now this hatred of mine if I recollect started way back during my school days and got fortified over the years once poeple started getting more interested in knowing my future than me or my family. I blame our social system for this and too some extent ourselves for letting people trespass our privacy and taking the liberty to dig deep into our personal lives...Boss why can't you lead your own and let me lead mine???

It all started with bumping into people on the road while going to school...On one hand you are rushing down the road to catch your school bus and on the other you find the so called neighbourhood uncle with a wicked pan stained smile asking you "so going to school"? Now this question is asked inspite of seeing me in the school uniform and having himself dropped his son to the bus stop for school...I felt like replying "no uncle am just going to the fancy dress competiton dressed as a school student" but the forced respect that our social and family system taught us made me refrain from answering him this way..

Then when you would have just reached 12th standard you will have a host of people visting your house and then asking "so thinking of a career now"?...Obvious yet they ask it so that the moment you say yes they have their advice ready for you on how to choose a career although their own son had to ultimately open up a shop failing to make a career for himself...This is not all though as at every step of life you will encounter such persons and the stupidity of their questions is direclty proportional to your moving forward in life..The moment you finish your higher education comes the inevitable question "now must be looking for a good job"? At this point you feel like replying back "no I only got this degree so that I could ask your daughters hand in marriage instead"...Offcourse someone who has invested time and money both to get his higher education would definately have a career goal in mind and its nothing to be asked but no we cannot stop poking our nose into others asses...

How I wish these people would change but no they have their clones everywhere and I suppose all of us have to tolerate them at some point in our life as they are thick skinned and would probably never change...What an irony!!

Hum Bhaat Khata!!!!

Our national language is one which is not spoken with ease in most parts of our vast country baring the hindi speaking belt..Its an irony that its significance as a national language is marginalised in most parts specially the south.Elsewhere it has been adapted in a unique fashion often getting blended with the local dilect in the process making it amazingly hilarious..

The bongs for example have their own way of conversing in hindi whereby the gender of a person gets invariably misinterpreted (using "thi" in place of "tha" etc..)..My hometown Shillong is packed away in the far most corner of north east India.Sometimes in our growing up days we often felt secluded from the civilized and modern world.Just an example to highlight this would be getting any national daily a day later than the actual print date..Although it had a cosmopolitan diospora of citizens the national language was quite beautifully customized to suit the khasi speaking tribe. "Aap kutta hum khaya" meant the dog having bitten the person and not other wise...And the innocent souls never understood what they actually were saying but tried their best to be at par with others who were slightly better in comparison to them while speaking in hindi.

I remember the Kong Rani (kong being sister in khasi)who's hindi was nothing less than a postmortem of the language. (Munshi Prem Chnad would have died a thousand deaths more hearing her or her fraternity speak hindi).She had opend up a provision store in our locality....The store was well stocked up and had everything that you may require in day to day life...Right from maggi to nails and hammer it was all available with her.She later even diversified a bit by stocking up cement and selling it to local building contractors..Inspite of such a variety of goodies being available in her shop we (a bunch of young lads) were frequent vistor to her shop (not to catch a glipmse of her)but to get our cricket balls as it didnot require going too far to get them sometimes even in between games.

It was not always a pleasant experience buying things from her shop partly because of her attitude.At one point of time I was forced to think that the shop was a mere way for her to pass her time looking at the street that went past her shop.I dont blame her totally for this as most of the businessmen in the east and north east are more particular about the timings of their lunch and afternoon siesta than maximising profits.She was rude at times but in her worst self if you by chance happened to visit her while she was having her lunch(cold rice cakes and few pieces of fried meat)...I relate this with her hindi speaking ability because at this very precise moments you could find her hurling a few abuses for stepping into her shop.I casually went to get a ball not knowing she was taking an early lunch that day.What greeted me was both shocking and hilarious, shocking because you will never find a shopkeeper shooing away a customer like this anywhwre else and hilarious because of what she uttered in hindi. What she said goes like this- " hum bhaat khata".Now this will need some bit of expalnation and translation into actual hindi. Bhaat is basically rice as its called in that part of the country.So what she actually meant was "go and let me have my rice in peace" where as most of it remained in her heart only because she must not have known how to say the rest of the words (go and peace and placing everything together to form a sentence thereby).

I bet if you can find such characters anywhere else but in the tiny city of Shillong. Each street, each person, each corner has a tale to tell and I will try my best to bring them out in front of the readers as and when they hit my memory and makes me nostalgic.... Till then happy reading!!

My Very Own Casper-The Friendly Ghost..

Living alone for most part of my life so far has given me chance to experience a plethora of situations and events. If some day I decide to jot them down it may well take up a form of a book.Each time I recollect the experiences I wonder in amazement at the sheer variety that they have offered.

A swiltering hot afternoon of July in Delhi. The sky started getting overcast and in no time it felt as if a blanket of darkness was slowly engulfing everything. The window started banging so fiercely that I had the fear that my glass pane may come crashing down anytime.Within ten minutes the first monsoon showers started pouring heavily drenching every corner of the perched up earth beneath.Naked kids could be seen dancing on the terrace and the women of the household's welcomed the season by partly letting the rain run through their shapeless contours.The smell of the wet earth that rose slowly was a refreshing change to the senses from the loo that was blowing even 4 hours earlier.

I decided it was a day to have nothing but hot watery Kichidi with a huge omlette to compliment my satanic taste buds...A good hour and a half past by the time I prepared and had it to the contenment of my hungry soul, the temperature dropped by atleast a couple of degrees and just the fan revolving over my head was enough to keep the room cool.I laid down with a book and began turning its pages often peeping outside to see the kids still playing in the rain which by now had become a drizzle. Within five minutes my eyes started feeling heavy and trying to keep awake was a herculean task to me. I had to blame the lunch that I devoured fifteen minutes back for forcing me to take a quick nap and the weather was too good to even resist and I ultimately gave in to the temptation.

I woke up in between to pull a sheet over me as the temperature further decreased.I had no idea how long I was in my slumber but when I woke up I had cold sweat running down my spine.I dismissed it as a bad dream that I must have seen.But repeated encounters of it and even when I was awake made me believe that it is something that cannot be ignored or brushed aside jokingly.

I will just narrate my first days experience instead of telling you what I went through every day

as that will make this too long.While I kept sleeping I suddenly felt the mattress of my bed slightly sinking the way it sinks when someone comes over and sits.I did not bother much and thought I was dreaming.Slowly I found my sheet being slowly pulled and I was being pushed as if someone was trying to make room for himself in the bed.My left side got considerably heavy and I was unable to move. I kept sending silent prayers not knowing what to do or how to react.After few minutes everything was back to normalcy.I woke up my throat dried up and goose bumps all over.It took quite a while to get back to my own self.I thought of what had happened but could only relate it to some bad dream sequence and nothing else.

But that was not all as from then on I started encountering this sequence every now and then some times as frequent as once in two days.I slowly stared feeling that it cant be a dream or a mere figment of my imagination but had something to do with the beings of other world.Later my belief got fortified when one night a steel bowl was thrown twice from the kitchen to my living room even after I had picked it up and kept it away.

I had got myself no harm done from the so called spirit and hence from that day whenever I narrate my this patrticular experience to anyone I call him my very "Own Casper-The friendly Ghost"...

An evening down memory lane....

"Memories behave in a crazy way...they leave you alone when you are in a crowd.But when you are alone they stand around you like a crowd"......

Last evening I was lost in my own thoughts.....Yes the unusual tranquility that my otherwise noisy sorroundings gave me was hugely responsible for me going into a state of deep trance for how long I cannot recollect. Memories came flashing past the eyes as if I was an anudience to some 3-D flick going around.Memories of childhood, the first crush, the growing up days, the final days of school, the first heart break and then the struggle to establish oneself......

With these were also some unpleasant memories related to death of near ones the sufferings of some from ailments and the struggle of existence that life kept doling out on a dish from time to time..it was retrospection at its best.I was wondering at the same time how many people we used to get influenced in the growing up years.Just because someone cleared the NDA made me look for excuses to convince my family to let me join the decorated service.Or just because someones son was having a lavish lifestyle in the west made me dream of taking up something as a career that will ensure the same for me, not realising or even bothering what did I actually want to do....Now when I think it sounds insane but that's actually what most of us did.

The first crush on someone or even a faint smile from the girl next door made us architects of our fairytale love story even committing to ourselves of a journey of lifetime with her later realising she was actually smilling seeing the unzipped trouser.The amount of chivilary that was on display would always put the knights of the 17th century at shame.You could just do anything right from shooing away the stray dog to directing the visitor to her house just about anything and everything that would ensure you of a place in her good books.

Memories of the sudden urge for social responsibility also came in front of the eyes and brought a smile to the otherwise dry lips.Remembered the day when our club decided to pay a visit to the elderly and sick in the locality with a bag full of fruits...The innocent souls never got to know till date that the fruits were plucked and stolen from their very own and fiercely gaurded gardens.I hope they will pardon us at this age even if they come to know.

I went back a good 17-18 years back on time and had a rollacoaster ride with my memories and the emotions attached with each incident that was dancing in front of my eyes.

I now hate the neighbours even more as its was their pressure cooker and its noisy whistle that made me wake up from my trance and come back to reality.And the reality was I had two blood sucking mosquitoes feasting on me while I was oblivious to the loss of the few drops of precious blood of mine ...

Social Recluse...

An unknown city an unknown world, new faces staring at you everywhere, just the safety of your one room accomadation and only your bed and the pillow with the pillow cover made by mom your only comfort....Wondering what am I trying to say? Well thats how eaxctly people feel when they are dying every day lonely deaths at a distant city away from home chasing a dream...Not always the dream comes true but many also burst like the bubbles we used to blow out as a child...

So many aspirations, many more expectations to live upto of those who have given their everything to make sure you reach here to chase your dreams..You too are prepared to fight the battle but soon a thought ponders-were we not better off in our small town lives? May be the moolhas we would have taken back home would have been less and insignificant but at the same time would'nt it have given a good nights sleep...

We get up every day not to live the day but yes more to survive it. Jostling for our space amongst the millions of unknown faces, some look friendly others dont even bother your existence. We try hard to call some acquintences our friend just to prove that we too know people in the mad mad city..Some turn out to be just oppurtunistic being your friend more so for what your designation is or how good your lifestyle is...But even then you will find the odd one who cares for you, becomes your admirer at the same time your worst critic, your guide and philosopher at the same time also confides their deepest secrets with you.I have been lucky to have met someone exactly like what I just described.This kind of a relation that you encounter in an unknown place with a person whom you never knew-you just cant give a name to it.You find glimpses of every human relation in such person..caring as a mom, loving as a soulmate, critic as a friend to name a few...

Others treat you as if you have been banished from some other planet to lead the rest of your life in earth...Families in the neighbourhood think you are the biggest threat to all members of the fairer sex in their household..the landlord invariably has the impression that you always have a wild weekend night although nothing beyond a bottle of beer and few drags of ciggrette was your only companion.The maid shows that you are at her mercy to get your sweaty wardrobe washed and the distant relative finds your one room accomadation nothing less than a suite of the Taj whenever on a visit just to save the hotel bills...

This goes on year after year and the only respite that this lonely heart gets, when the annual homeward journey is undertaken.Days are counted right from the day when the flight ticket gets booked, shopping spree happens almost every weekend prior to the visit and sometimes when the mind is tipsy after few bottles of beer a rebel takes birth inside pledging not to come back ever and do whatever possible to stay back home and lead a happy life...

The next morning is a monday morning all the previous nights hangover quickly disappears over a steaming cup of tea and in half an hours time you get ready again to fight the battle for existence and mental bliss!!!

Welcome to the life of a career pursuing social recluse!!!

Coffee with a celeb!!!

It was a bright and windy day of March just after the Holi...I had butterflies in my stomach the entire day and not without any reason.I was suppose to meet a famous celebrity, who was a chat show hostess in Zoom Television and a model.God how many times I have seen her talking to other celebrities from the B-Town and today I was to meet her at a coffee shop in south delhi.I was super excited about the whole thing and quiet nervous too.It was actually a meeting to discuss a new business venture of theirs as I am a good friend of her sister and they wanted me to take on board.

The entire day we kept changing the meeting time over sms as they were pre occupied with aligning things and making the transition as smooth as possible for their existing employees.Finally decided to meet at 7pm at Barista in Satyaniketan.It was yet another wait for alomost half an hour before we ultimately sat down to discuss things.I was forced to think, is it the same celebrity syndrome of coming late that I was getting a first hand experience today??

But on meeting her this pre concieved notion of mine dissappeared into thin air as she turned out to be unexceptionally down to earth..I took the chance making her come out with some aspects of her life in the glamour world while her sister was busy ordering coffee for all three of us.

We discussed at length the issues related to their new venture and the potential obstacles that may arise and finally concluded that it was a fruitfull meeting as our thoughts were guided on the same lines and not otherwise which was the very purpose of the meeting.

Finally at close to 9pm we decided to call it a day and after exchanging pleasantaries parted our ways..

Everything said and done it was a lovely experience over a steaming cup of coffee having spent the evening with a gorgeous lady:-)

The Sunset that never got captured....

Aaksham was a romantic at heart and he liked travelling and photography was his passion....Although he had stayed out of the country getting his education from UK he still came back to his roots as he once sayed "that what this country of our's has to offer to a traveller, no other country in the world can match it and a single lifetime is not enough to explore it".I could say nothing but agree with Aaksham.He recently joined an ad agency as the creative head and his skills as an photographer was an added advantage to him at his work.Although he was staying in Delhi now, but he found enough reasons to escape to explore places that many of us would think twice before embarking on a journey .The basic things that people check out like the kind of hotels available or the quality of food did not bother him much and probbaly thats the reason that he could carry a ruksack and a camera and move out.

I came to know Aaksham when we met while I too was spending my vacation in Darjeeling. I had just started photography as an hobby and brought a Cannon EOS1000D in the hope of someday mastering the art.But its not that easy and Aaksham guessed I was an ammature when he saw me struggling to get the right angles while capturing the sunrise from Tiger Hill...Thats how we got talking and are still in touch.

He's not the same person anymore and there's a strong reason for it...The currents of emotions that he has supressed in his heart has changed the once happy go luck traveller into a loner oblivious of his sorroundings and happenings.I will quickly try to describe what made this change happen without getting too much into the details as I strongly feel it a personal domain that I may be trespassing.

Aaksham came to Darjeeling three dyas before me but I checked in the same hotel as his "Mount View".The hotel carried this name as almost every window of its gave a brethtaking view of the snow capped peaks of the Kunchenjunga and with the first rays of sun kissing them the view is something that could even inspire the most unromantic person to admire nature at its best.

From the very first day when I went down to the hotel restaurant for dinner I saw Aaksham sharing the table with a girl.I thought just another newly wed couple on their honemoon maybe but soon came to know that they just met on the way while taking the jeep ride from Siliguri.Later Aaksham told me that they started talking and luckily for both of them the girls parents checkd in the same hotel as his-now ours.The girl was called Chhaya and was beauty personified.It was obvious that sparks were flying from both sides as the excitement in thier eyes was visible whenevr both of them met either in the hotel or walking down the Mall road..

Aaksham later told me that he was teaching Chhaya some tips on photography and they both planned to vist the nearby hills to capture some shots of the excellent scenic beauty that Drajeeling offered.It was almost three days that I arrived in Darjeeling but I could not have enough of it having stayed in Delhi getting myself roasted in 44 degrees. For Aaksham it was close to a week now but he had no intention of leaving any soon as he told me over dinner that he plans to go to Gangtok from there.He persued me to accompany him but I had a job to save back in Delhi.I told him to get in touch and after exchanging our e-mail id and phone numbers I retired for the night to be able to catch my flight from Bagdogra the next morning.

I later came to know what he went through when we met in Delhi once at an photography exhibition at the Ashoka.I charged him straight away for not keeping in touch and not even bothering to reply to my mails which finally made him come out with this shcoking revelation.

The day I had my flight to Delhi Aaksham and Chhaya had planned to spend the day together and later capture the sunset from Tiger Hill.He waited all day to hear from her and soon came to know from the hotel that Chhaya along with her family had gone in early morning to a temple 30kms away and should be back by 12pm as they had availed the transportation from the hotel.He was disapponted as it meant half of the day was a waste but still cheered himself up with the thought that he still has the other half to spend.He had a qucik bite as since morning he had not had anything waiting for her.After spending some time in the hotel he moved out again with the camera swinging on his shoulders.He started towards Tiger Hill to capture the view and wait for Chaaya.Soon evening feel and the sun started slowly dissappering in the distant horizon.Chhaya had not yet come and his wish to capture the sunset slowly started sinking.It was quiet dark now and finally he diecide to go to the hotel not knowing what made Chhaya ditch him this way.

Aaksham saw small group of people discussing something in a huddle almost in every corner that he passed on his way to the hotel.It made him curious to know what has happend.He went staright to the reception and asked if anything was wrong.What he heard changed him and his persona completely from that moment.It seemed as if he froze and everything happening around him was unreal and fake.

Finally the recptionist offered him a glass of water and said that "the jeep Mr. gupta and his family were travelling collided with an army truck the driver having lost control while returning back to Drajeeling....Not a soul survived"...

From that day he never saw another sunset or wished to capture it as for him the sun had set forever taking along it his Chhaya...

Teasing the taste buds..

Delhi the city has always carried the tag of being a foodies paradise.The various kind of foods available in this diverse and hugely cosmopolitan city is just unimaginable.Just not the food but the degree of innovation that has gone into each dish and recipie has a tale to tell of its own...Where on earth can you get paneer momos (churned out specially for the veggeies of delhi who cant resist the tibetian dish which traditionally is a non veg cuisine)...This is not all, the amount of chaat walas and other junk food joints in every street corner only goes to explain the insatiable taste buds of the people of Delhi...I specially enjoy seeing those hugely decorated woman coming out of flashy cars and ordering street side burgers (stressing on the "R" making it burgerrrr) in such a fashion as if those disgusting burgers with a slice of raw paneer was their staple diet although nothing beyond rajma or chole is permitted at home...(I take here the liberty to express myself without offending anyone).Also on such ocassions you will find them trying their best to converse in the queens language in the process sometime biting their tounge instead of the burger:-)

I could never figure out how an entire family can feed on those two burgers and declare "Ji aaj toh hum dinner bahar kar aaye" partly because I have always been a foodie and dinner for me means atleast a three course meal if not anything else...

Being a bachelor I have been lucky to live in a part of Delhi (Lajpat Nagar) which is famous for its various food joints which offer anything from the so called Chinese to the more preffered punjabi dishes..The Chinese would themselves have been happy to see their cuisines becoming our staple diet just like everything else you find these days are made in China..Almost every dhaba and restaurant in the vicinity knows our address and we even customize the dishes as per our wish sometimes asking them to add an extra egg in the fried rice or too keep the chilli sauce to the bare minimum in the noodles...And for many like "Chinese Food Corner" we have been their most valued customer sometimes the delivery boy even getting us a kg of potato from the local vendor..Where else can you exercise such rights if not Delhi??

The only business that gurantees you of assured returns from the first day is to open up an eating joint in Delhi and people find various innovative ideas to attract the same customers and keep competition at bay...Just the other day in one of the street corner saw a guy selling tandoori momos...Just that the same old momo being baked slowly over the charcoal fire thus leading to curosity in the mind of psserbys thereby leading to some quick bucks...

Salutations to this city and its people for their love for food and more so for the ways of innovating each dish to such an extent that their originality is sometimes forgotten!!!!