A unique way

This happened two days ago. I had completely forgotten to stop and smell the flowers that day. It had been a particularly taxing day. I had been thinking about office even in my sleep. This window pops up with not the usual "hi" or "wassup?" but this.

A unique way of telling me that my blog is appreciated.

comedy on my way home

This happened yesterday. It was such a funny incident that it became the highlight of the day. Where else but on the taxi-ride home? Mumbai taxi drivers believe in giving the customer choice. The choice of route. So far so good.

The catch is that he is not necessarily aiming for customer satisfaction. What he is actually doing is testing your knowledge of the roads. One wrong choice and he knows that he has found a scapegoat. He can now take you for a ride. Literally.

And boy! do i make a good scape-goat. What with my chronic day-dreaming tendencies. My mind has a mind of its own. It simply drifts away without any warning at all. On a taxi, my reveries are often rudely broken by a "madam? upar se ya neeche se?" (over or under?). Back to reality, I would find myself racing towards a flyover with barely 5 seconds to make the decision. And as much as I wish to tell him "Listen my dear taxi driver, I don't know the roads ok? I don't know! That's what you want to hear right? Fine! please yourself! I DON"T know!" I simply purse my lips and look helplessly at the rather familiar flyover and try to conjure up all the dormant brain parts to help me with this. The 'directional sense' department is the laziest. The 'intuition' department comes more handy.

Usually, once I've used a route continuously around 5 times, I get the hang of the route. However, it is taking me longer to understand my way home from office to our new apartment in Worli. The reason being, it seems that there are a 100 ways to get to my house in Worli from my office in lower-parel. I never find my taxi-driver taking the same route on two consective days. And the choices I get are of a different league altogether. It makes my intuitions run for cover. The directional sense department faint. The laughter department on the other hand excitedly wakes up and urges me to write a post on it.

Yesterday, I was asked "right se ya left se". (right or left?)

It was late in the evening, I couldn't see his face in the rear view mirror, so I moved closer to the front seat and asked him to repeat the question just to confirm what I had heard. I found that he was not making a joke. He indeed wanted to know "whether i wanted to go to worli taking the left or taking the right"

I said in Hindi " b..but those are two opposite directions...."

He still continued, sounding very sincere "ya..but you can take either to get there..."

I wanted to tell him " yes. I know. The earth is round"

But I simply said "you decide...i am sure you know best". He took the right and reached in 5 mins flat. He had certainly taken the shorter route and I was grateful for the act of mercy on his part.

Colour lights

My room looks so enchanting with these on! Viva Odel!

My first ice sculpture

The best way to beat the heat without increasing your carbon emisions in the bargain is to switch off the AC and defrost your refrigerator. Manually. So, you have to physically carry all the breaking ice and melting snow to the sink.

Some cold water may drip on the floor but is anyone complaining?

Also, you can do interesting stuff like try your hand at ice sculpting. Check out what I made!

Don't you think it's cool? ;)

Sauvignon Blanc

I learnt, amongst other things, that my current favourite wine is made of Sauvignon Blanc at a wine appreciation session organized by Four Seasons at my office on Thursday.

By the way, when i had finished the wine you see in this picture, I was buzzed beyond repair for 3-4 hours hence. Talk about low capacity!

poochaa!

Yesterday, I was walking down from the charming Ray's Cafe and Pizzeria towards home along with MM and N after a sumptuous dinner. We met this little group on the way. I invited them home but they politely declined. sigh! :)

Pinochchio

It has been a fortnight since I last posted. But that does not mean I did not have my moments. I flew to Bangalore the day after I wrote that last post to attend L's wedding.

I had been looking for a nice key-chain for my house key and i found it at Cauvery. Isn't it cute? Don't lie! ;)

Curd Rice

My office cafeteria had this sumptuous curd-rice on its lunch-menu for the day. y-u-m-m-y! :)

Sunset

This is yesterday's highlight:

I reached my home just in time to see the sun dipping into the horizon. A beautiful sunset it was! Its interesting how the sun seems so eager to set quickly the minute it is sunset time. Just like the enthusiasm of school-children, when the last bell rings, to rush out of school.

I got internet

This is Satur-night's highlight.

My laptop detected Tikona wi-fi. For a few moments, I felt exhilarated wrongly thinking that I had free wifi access. I did have internet connection but only one website opened no matter what url I typed. This was the Tikona website. It flashed a toll-free number which I called. The clock read 8 pm.

Hats off to the Tikona executives, within the next 2 hours, I had my own wireless internet connection in my little nest. All I had to pay was Rs.500 for installation.

Man, was I impressed by their service standards and eagerness to help me out. As a bonus, the executives pointed out to me that I could see a corner of Salman Khan's residence from my window. You have to look out and bend sideways. The effort is hardly worth it. It's not the same as seeing a corner of Salman Khan himself. :p

shifted to my new place

Saturday's highlight:

I shifted into my new humble abode in a not-so humble building. Well, I get just a room with attached toilet. No kitchen. But the building has a swimming pool which I can access anytime I like. And that I like. :)

My stapled credit card

This is yesterday's highlight:

I saw in practice what I had learnt in school (and forgotten): Information stored on a magnatic strip does not get damaged by scratches or even cracks. It could only get damaged by things such direct exposure to heat/sunlight etc.

I was worried as to whether my credit card would work after it had accidently been stapled. One end of he staple went right through the magnetic strip.

At Gloria Jeans cafe, Pali road, last night, I handed out my card with my fingers crossed. It worked just fine - just as my dad and my husband had assured me.

Knowing this sure added to my enjoyment of the slim-waisted tall glass of mocha-shake.

Spiral note-book with black pages!

This is wednesday's highlight. Found this note-book, most unexpectedly in an ill-stocked, rickety, old stationery shop on Hill Road, Bandra.

I was delighted! A note-book specially desgined for my favourite glitter gel pens. Now, I look forward to occasions that need quick noting down of things. :) Good fun!

Bought a box of strawberries :)

This is Monday's highlight.

When I expressed concern about the faded redness of the strawberries, the fruit-vendor started throwing jargon at me:

"these are Pink Charlie strawberries and not Ruby Mary" (can't recall the name exactly but it was something like that)

I ofcourse was interested and puzzled at the same time. He then went on:

"Pink Charlie is sweeter while Ruby Mary is deep red, like the toungue (he briefly stuck out his toungue and pointed to it with this finger when he said this) but sour to taste"

I thought to myself that this was an interesting snippet and that I would google it later. Which is precisely what i did only to realise that I had been had. And no, the strawberries were not any sweeter than the deep-red strawberries i have had before.

But, just the sight of a box of strawberries no matter if its pink or red, makes me happy. I bought the box for Rs 50 and gorged on them that evening. yum!

Got a new laptop bag and how!

I should ideally post here at the end of everyday, but for a couple of days, I will not have access to the internet in the nights. Untill then, I shall post whenever i get a chance

So, here's Friday's highlight.

I was recognized by the shop-keepers at a shop I last went to some 3 years back.

The shop-keepers at Sayonara, Linking Road have watched me grow-up in Mumbai. From the time I was a starry-eyed intern at TBWA in April 2004 (when i first walked in to this shop to do some Paco Underhill style observations of shopper behaviour) to today when i am, well no longer an intern :)

Made me happy.

The bag I bought is a funky green and yellow, back-pack style one that magically makes my laptop turn to card-board! Doesn't feel heavy atall! What joy! Now, I can effortlessly carry my laptop anywhere.