Delhi's autowallahs

Driving is a very essential skill to survive in Delhi. Unfortunately, I quit driving after mastering that skill, a few years back. Driving in Delhi is a pain, it exhausts you to the extent that you are demotivated enough. That does not change the fact that it remains a very important skill ...
Now me being one of the unskilled ones, falls back on autos or someone to drive me to places. The thought of travelling in buses is scary and the reach of metro is limited. The thought of travelling by autos is also stressful with the general perception of autowallahs to be mean, dishonest, impolite and opportunists.
Today was an exception as the two auto drivers I happen to travel with were really nice. They charged me per the meter. The chap who took us back saw that my mother and I were tired of the heat and crowd so he immediately agreed to take us home on meter charges. He also noticed that I was thirsty and was trying to drink the last few drops in my bottle, so he stopped on the way and offered us some cold water from the rediwalla. Though we refused, he got two glasses for us and refused money. His small gesture really touched my heart and I realised that we should never extrapolate our experiences..

Coffee times

Why are we all so stuck up with meeting over coffee? Tea is the common person's beverage. Then why do we all end up in a coffee shop buying expensive cuppas more than we can afford or would like to spend? Maybe because we do not have tea shops? I do not have an answer to this question. All I can recall is a list of long exotic names and most of us have no clue how to differentiate one from another. Here is a small attempt to give you an overview

Black coffee: As the name suggests, is drip brew, percolated or French press style coffee served neat. ( no milk). It is bitter and you really need to cultivate a taste for it to relish it

Espresso: basic standard espresso with a shot of whipped cream on top. Caffè, espresso, is a concentrated coffee beverage brewed by forcing hot water under pressure through finely ground coffee

Americano: A single shot of espresso with about 7 ounces of hot water added

Caffe Latte: A single shot of espresso in steamed (not frothed) milk. The ratio of milk to coffee should be about 3:1, but you should be aware that latte in Italian means ‘milk’

Cafe Macchiato: A shot of espresso with steamed milk added. The ratio of coffee to milk is approximately 4:1.

Cappuccino: Usually equal parts espresso, steamed milk, and frothed milk

frappe: cold coffee

Irish coffee: A coffee spiked with Irish whiskey, with cream on top.

Mocha: This popular drink is basically a Cappuccino or Latte with chocolate syrup added to the mix.

Turkish Coffee (also known as Greek Coffee): Made by boiling finely ground coffee and water together to form a muddy, thick coffee mix.

growing out....

We all grow out.. grow out of things, of people and of jobs.. I've experienced this all my life. What I liked 2 years back is different from what I like today. People whom I left long back do not evoke much interest when they are back after a long gap. Work, whatsoever it may be, becomes monotonous after a time. Rare are the things, people, etc that keep your interest alive forever

Essentials to beat the heat

1. A pair of sunglasses.. a must

2. umbrella

3. A good sunscreen

4. An air conditioner

5. A pair of capris... cool during summers

6. Cool summer t shirts

7. A nice television set to spend the time all at home

8. Nimbu paani, roohafza and chilled coke

9. Lots of ice cream

keep ur head cool ;)

michael jackson

I was shocked to see the sms i received this morning... death of the pop star michael jackson...My memories went back to my childhood days when I used to listen to his songs.. specially black or white....Bad and dangerous... The one cassette I used to own had all songs of this legend. And I used to hear it over and over again trying to imitate his voice and steps...And slowly with time his charm and memories faded away . Still cannot believe that he is no more ...

disagreements

what are disagreements and why do they happen? I feel disagreements are a part of my daily life and move on. I really find it difficult to manage relationships with people who cannot live with disagreements.

I get turned off by people who always like agreements and withdraw when they experience disagreements.

I think arguments are healthy and its good to be with people who are a little different from you..

Tea harvesting

fine plucking: When plucking the leaves for a high quality tea, they pluck the bud and the second and third leaves only. If more leaves are taken with the bud it is said to be a coarse plucking and produces a lower quality tea.

A typical tea bush will generally produce about three thousand tea leaves a year. this makes only one pound of tea.

Tea is graded by size. A whole leaf has better quality than broken leaf

Tea times

One of my friends brought some packets of cherry tea today. I wondered what cherry tea is as I never tried it before. It was a little fruity. This made me wonder at the types of tea that are available. After some study, I found that there are 4 kinds of tea:

• Black Tea : fully-oxidized: It is the most consumed and it is made with the leaves of the tea plant camellia sinensis. The leaves after being plucked are left to dry for 24 hours. They are then crushed and left to be oxidized to turn black
• Green Tea : non-oxidized: The leaves after being plucked are left to dry for 24 hours. Then they are pan fried to prevent oxidation
• White Tea : non-oxidized:In order to prevent oxidation, white tea is immediately fired or steamed after letting them air dry for a period of time. There is no rolling, breaking, or bruising of any kind
• Oolong Tea : semi-oxidized: he processing of oolong tea requires only a partial oxidation of the leaves. After the leaves are plucked, they are laid out to wither for about 8 to 24 hours. the leaves are tossed in baskets in order to bruise the edges of the leaves. This bruising only causes the leaves to partially oxidize

Travel or Vacation

What do you like to do? I loveeee to travel... I have heard this so many times and I find that the entire world loves travelling. It makes me wonder what is so special about travelling. Is it seeing new things and places? well ,... And if I really cherish travel that much. If you ask me, I do not remember the last trip I really enjoyed.

I think I am so used to some routine comforts that any thing that takes me away is painful. And travel definitely involves a lot of uncertainties. The few trips I enjoyed were the ones where I had little to do..... But there are some learning from my travel experiences

1. Travel with like minded people, preferably... There are times when you are stuck in a group whose tastes and interests are entirely different. When you wish to visit a monument, they wish to sit in the room or sleep..that becomes a very tricky situation. I had gone to a trip to central india with a group of office colleagues who were so tired during the journey that they refused to move out of the room. It was a strict dampener. Moreover, they had no interest in sight seeing. I had to force them to stop so that at least I could do some sight seeing to get back some value for my money...

2. A similar thing happened when we went to corbett with a group of colleagues long back. The group had many smaller groups on a cold war... While coming back, we decided to halt at Nainital. There was this girl who refused to get down of the car because of her ego.It was such a stressful experience for the rest of the group.

3. Summer travel: Kids get vactions during summers, however, travel during summers could become a pain. The recent trip to Agra was a live example where I had to walk barefoot on burning marble inside the Taj at 43 degrees in the afternoon. We were scalded and drenched..Summer heat can get really oppressive and I would any day prefer to sit in the AC room with a book, laptop or TV.

4. Food: Sometimes there are uncertainties about the kind of food you may get during travel. There are times when we ended up hungry due to hygiene issues in places on road travel. The need to eat out is so high in some places that I find people lined up outside substandard eateries to get a bite. I mean why would I queue up to get a bite in the heat.. not me....High prices and poor quality

5. In some places, you are also duped by localites as they easily guess that you are a tourist and take advantage of the ignorance. In one of the religious palces, we were harassed and surrounded by people selling stuff at exorbitant prices. Due to our ignorance, we bought them and later got to know that they were not worth the money. Also, Autowallahs take you for a ride, i mean literally .... in new places. They take you round and round and end up making a lot of money. This is not just about money but about the mental harassment

6.In one of the trips to haridwar-rishikesh, we did not get a place to stay and had to go round and round to shady guest houses...

7. Hygience and loos: Indian public toilets are rarely clean and it becomes a nightmare to use them. Bathrooms at home are your own however basic they are.. but outside, even some really good places have not so maintained ones and the worst part is to share..

Review: Bikanerwala, Punjabi Bagh

I relish the food at Bikanerwala. In fact, having tried so many vegetarian restaurants around the city, I feel the food here is most pleasing to the senses.

I am an ardent fan of the lovely chhola bhaturas here. All preparations in ghee, the bhaturas are made with soft pure maida and are extremely delicious and yummy. The preparation of chhola is also super. I love the vegetarian thali where the preparations are rich, creamy and soft. The other delicacies are the malai laddoos, the rasmalai, dhoklas, pav bhaji... A definite paradise for the vegetarian lot