Dinosaurs in my Mind.

I first time I saw the movie version of Jurassic Park...I got hooked onto it. I can still remember that nite. I was around 11-12 years old, my mom had gone out to see off sumone at the Railway Station. The local cable provider used to put up new Hollywood movies late at nite and I was trying to see what was on for the day. The movie was already a few minutes into it when I finally got to it. But I was hooked on forever. I stayed up till the end of the movie. And went to bed a with a complete new look on the world around me.

The concept of the movie totally blew my mind. The fact that someone could come up with a story like this was mind-boggling. It was then that I actually started acknowledging the fact that the human mind is the most dangerous weapon  in the world...as well as the most underestimated part of the human body.

The more I thought about it, the more interested I got. I asked my dad to get me a video cassette of the movie. He got me the book as a bonus. That was when I knew that the movie was based on a book and that the movie was nothing compared to the book. I mean, the movie was a first of its kind....it ushered in a new era in movie-making. But the book is what helped achieve that. If not for the book, the movie wouldn't have been made at all. And the mind that thought up the concept is definitely that of a genius.

I've read all of Michael Crichton's books since then, the ones he wrote before JP as well as the ones that came after it. And apart from 2-3, I loved them all. But Jurassic Park remains my favorite. I take it with me everywhere I go. And every time I'm really bored and want to do something offbeat, I read the book again. Over the years, I've got really thorough with the book, so I usually skip to the interesting parts. But every time I read it, I find something new, something that I've missed out during my earlier readings, something that perks my interest all over again.

Michael Crichton is my all-time favorite author and Jurassic Park, my all-time favorite book. And I know, no matter how many books I read, this will always be my favorite book.

Towards a new direction....

Going through my blog the other day, I realized that I'm straying off the main content. I actually started this blog hoping it to be a review on the many restaurants I go to in the capital and the places I visit whenever I can. But seems like I've been adding other things too in to the mainstream blog.

No..no...I'm not running out of restaurants to write about. It's just that I've been to so many restaurants now, I've just found the ones that appeal to my palate and haunt it a lot more often than go around looking for a new ones. As for visiting places....work is getting so hectic off-late, I find it difficult taking out time planning and then going somewhere.

Hmmm....maybe I am running out of things to blog on now. Or maybe other things are taking precedence in life. Actually, I do have a lot of things going on right now. Nothing on the job front, but quite a few things on the personal front. Not to mention, my never-ending quest for personal satisfaction. To find what I actually want to do in life and what direction to take.

So, keeping everything in mind...I've decided to revamp my blog. Start adding more topics, but, only on the ones that pertain to my life and experience in the capital city. And as a part of the revamping process....I was planning to change the name of my blog too. Actually, doing a Google search on my blog brought up with a list of links that didn't please me too much.Unfortunately blogspot doesn't allow any linking of the old blog with the new one. So, if I have any returning readers...it won't show up at all. Guess I'm stuck with the old name itself. Might as well make the best of it.

Do keep dropping by for more boring stuff from this part of the world.

Till then,

Signing off with lots of luv,

The Spicy Senorita.

Much Ado about Nothing.

One of my favorite past-time on the Delhi Metro is to watch other people and try to guess as much as I can about them. Last night as I was getting into the mode, I saw a middle-aged man take out a book and dig right in. The topic of the book piqued my interest and I definitely din't want to miss the chance of discussing it. The book was the much controversial "Jinnah: India-Partition-Independence" by Mr. Jaswant Singh, a very prominent face of Indian politics during the recent years.

For those who are not familiar with the book and the controversy surrounding it... the book is about Muhammad Ali Jinnah, generally regarded as the Founding Father of Pakistan, and his  role in the partition of India-Pakistan. According to Mr. Singh, Jinnah was against the partition while Jawaharlal Nehru, was for it. The book, not only is a contradiction to the general beliefs of the partition, it also is against the fundamental beliefs of the BJP, the party to which Mr. Singh belongs to. In fact, Mr. Singh was unceremoniously dropped from the party with a mere phone call as a result of this book. The hype and controversy over the subject has definitely been interesting quite a lot of people, me being one among them, even though I personally find politics boring. 

Now, I usually don't go around talking to complete strangers, especially in India. And I usually stay off the topics of politics and religions even with people I'm very close to. These two are the most disputable topics known to humankind. And you can never be sure what may actually trigger off a heated conversation. But this was an opportunity I couldn't pass by and surprisingly, it turned out to be the most intellectually stimulating conversation I've had in a very long time.

I started a conversation with the gentleman, ignoring the look of annoyance on his face at my interruption. I wouldn't blame him for it though, I personally hate being disturbed while reading something interesting. But the more questions I asked about the book and his views on it, the more he started opening up. One question led to another and we ended up talking for almost 30 mins. We talked about the book, about popular beliefs about the partition, about what happened to Mr. Singh, about the general politics in India and the lack of literary freedom in the country. Surprising how much you can learn from someone by asking one, simple  question.

We did have a difference of opinions on the way politics is being played out in the country now, him being a supporter of the oppositional party and me, being a supporter of the ruling party. Actually, him being an old school political fan and me being a young look political fan. But we did agree on quite a few things:

-- That India does have a hard-lined view on political and religious arts, be it books, paintings, or anything else for that matter.
-- The whole controversy of dismissing a seasoned politician over a book seemed a lil' too harsh to both of us.
-- The lack of literary freedom seems a lil' too much for a democratic country like India.
-- We also did agree on the fact that the political leaders of the country should quit trying to make a mountain out of a molehill over a book and maybe pay more attention to the security of the country, especially in the North-Eastern parts.

The conversation was so engrossing, we didn't even have the time to exchange any personal information. As I got ready to disembark at my destination, I asked him whether the book was worth the hype and controversy that it was churning up. His opinion, like all books, read the book like a book, with a pinch of salt and a huge helping of literary license. The book happens to be good reading and actually sets people thinking on an off-beat track.

His actual parting shot "It's much ado about nothing".

Signing offffff......

Angels & Demons

This has nothing to do with Dan Brown's novel or the movie based on it. It's about what the title says...Angels and Demons. Must be wondering why I'm blogging about something like this. The supernatural has always fascinated me. The call of the unknown always interests me. But this blog is an aftermath of watching an episode of the series "Supernatual" on AXN. The series basically deals with battle between the good and evil....angels and demons being key players in the battle. Hence the deep contemplation on the subject.

Angels and Demons....I guess every religion in the world have their own version of angels and demons, the good beings and the bad ones. The Hindus have their Devas and Rakshashas, the triune religions of Christianity, Judaism and Islam which have a common origin, have their angels and demons and hence forth. I don't know much about the other religions, but I do know a lil' bit about what my religion, Christianity, has to say about them. And this blog will be mostly penned on the basis of it.

Before I start off, I'd like to clear a few things. I wouldn't call myself a religious person. In fact, I think it'd be more apt to say that  I'm more spiritual than religious. I actually follow a mixture of all religions that I have come in contact with in my short life. I believe in a Supreme Power, a Higher Being that reigns over everything in the Universe. The rest of the deities are a manifestation of this Power and are called differently in each religion.

I also believe that there are other beings existing along with us on a different level. Entities that we cannot see but can sense and feel in subtle ways. Angels, demons, spirits.... these are all I know....but I guess you could say that there are a whole variety of beings out there. Quite a lot of literature does exist about them, if you do go looking for them. And the knowledge would surprise and scare you in some ways.

I also believe that each one of us has a personal Guardian Angel looking over us 24/7. An angel that the Almighty allotted to us since He couldn't be there all the time. One that guards and guides us along life's path, who takes each step with us, no matter which path we take. One that stands by us even when the whole world has forsaken us. One that talks to us in that inner voice which we attribute to the consciousness. I'd like to say that my Guardian Angel has a full-time job taking care of me, since I'm always getting into trouble either thru' my words or thru' my actions.

I know, I know...I think waaaay too much, especially on stuff that half the people around me don't even understand. But what to do .... this is the way I am.




On a personal note, I think there is an angel and a demon inside us. What we do ultimately decides whether we are an angel or a demon and whether we're making a heaven on earth or a hell on earth.

Signing offf.....

QashQai - Certainly a place not to be.

We finally got to go to QashQai last nite. Ever since I got to read about the place on a website I've been dying to go to the place. But every time we decide to eat out, we forget about QashQai. So, I was really excited to go there at last.

After walking around half the blocks in CP, we got to the place. The ambience is really nice, with a lot of low lighting. They had a low style of seating, with really comfortable sofa style chairs. But we opted for the dining style since we were looking for a bit of quiet and romance for our celebration dinner date.

The menu was a lil' disappointing since we were expecting a lot of Arabian dishes and they had very few of that. But the food we finally did settle down for was very well made and tasty. The stewards are really helpful, they try not to disturb the customers unless absolutely necessary. So we pretty much had our privacy intact and the place pretty much to ourselves since we were the only occupied table in the dining area.

The experience would have been an enjoyable one had they not had a busboy mop the place while we were dining. I felt like I was back in my college canteen for a very late lunch. That along with the lack of Arabian food in an Arabian restaurant helped us finally decide that this would be the last time we'd be anywhere near QashQai.

Lansdowne

Been planning to go on a short vacation for a long time. But something or the other always came up and took precedence over it. We actually were planning to go during the Independence day long weekend, but found all the nearby places all tightly. We finally decided on the weekend after that. and zeroed the place down to Lansdowne, which is an obscure hillstation 5-6 hrs away from Delhi.

We set off early Thusday morning to beat the morning traffic. Other than the cities of Meerut and Najibabad, we hardly metame across anything that slowed us down. We actually reached our destination in 5 1/2 hrs which was a record by itself. Since we had already booked our room beforehand, we only had to call and let them know when we'd reach, to have a sumptuous lunch waiting for us when we reached there.

Our main purpose of this trip was to relax and loosen up from all the tensions of the city life. And Lansdowne turned out to be the perfect place to do that.

Lansdowne is a regimental area with nothing much to offer in terms of sight-seeing. Apart from a few temples, a century-old church and a military-made lake, there is nothing worth visiting. I almost forgot... the one place I actually enjoyed visiting was the Regimental museum that has a lot of information about the place, its flora and its fauna.

St. Mary's Church, a century old church which is now a regimental museum. 

But it abounds in natural beauty. Right from the sun rising atop the hill, to the sun gracefully setting behind the mountain, the view is a treat to the eyes. Not to mention the greenery that one can see for miles around. On a very clear day, u might also be able to see a part of the Himalayas. It is also an excellent place to go hiking, with paths for the casual hiker to paths for the seasoned ones. And if you're lucky, you might even get to see a few animals at their natural best. Ohh....for the romantic at heart, there's a Lover's Lane to go hiking with your beloved.

The place we stayed at, The Oak Grove Inn, is a family run inn which doesn't have the commercial benefits of room service, but it does serve home-made food which made the trip even more enjoyable.

Spirit - Laying the Spirit of Valentine.

The place we finally decided to go to on the Big Luver's Day is Spirit which is in the Inner Circle in the C Block in CP.

I got impressed with the service of Spirit before I even entered the place. They called me 5 mins after the reserved time to know whether I'd be on time. The first any restaurant has done so far after I've landed in Delhi.

I was even more impressed with the place after I entered it. The place was dimly-lit with only candles with lots of red balloons floating around the place. And we got a very private table.

They first started out with serving us with sparkling wine which was really fine to the palate. Not to strong, nor to light. Just right for the occasion.

The second course was a platter of Lebanese appetizers consisting of hummus, baklava and two other things whose names I'm yet to find out. And it was really good. It's been a long time since I've tasted Arabic Food and this was definitely worth the wait.

The next course was a  chicken-rice based dish whose name now eludes me. I, for the life of me, can't seem to remember the name. I should've written it down somewhere. Anyway....it was also really appetizing, something I hadn't tasted in my whole life. The meat, succulent and juicy had a lil' gravy to it. The rice well made. The rice-chicken combination complemented each other well. The serving was just right, not too much to overeat nor too little to be left wanting for more.

The third and last course was dessert which consisted of a slice of chocolate cake and a slice of cream pie. The chocolate cake was a lil' too high on the chocolate, but worth a bite. The pie was excellent though....smooth and creamy. That was one thing I was left wanting for more. I've always had a soft corner for cream pies, especially the creamcheese pies. And this was really good.

Spirit was worth every penny I spent. The ambience romantic, the service excellent, the food out of the world. I'm definitely looking forward to coming back for a regular dinner someday.

Won't u be my Valentines???

Valentine's Day is round the corner. I'm getting confused trying to figure out how to make this year memorable. It's not that I don't have any plans at all, it's just that I'm being bombarded by ideas from all sides, I actually donno what to go for. Every where I look, there are ads and articles on celebrating the day.

Actually on a side note: isn't it funny that there has to be a day to celebrate ur luv?? Personally I think luv can be celebrated whenever u want.  Isn't that the best part of being in luv...the ability to profess luv whenever, wherever u want??  Does it require a special day to let sumone know how much u luv them? How much u value them?? How much u care for them???

For that matter, why do u need a special day to cherish anything in life?? Dad, mom, sister, a friend....why can't we just let them how much they mean to us instead of waiting for that one day to come by to let them know our true feelings?? Will time always wait for that day to come by for us to do things?? Something to really think about, na??

Anyway...back to my original topic. Wondering what to do on Valentine's Day.

Every business is advertising special offers for the day. Restaurants, special packages consisting of 3-4 courses including drinks and live music. Florists, special prices for bouquets, starting from a single rose to a big bunch of flowers.  Retail stores, buy one, get one free. And not to mention the wide selection of cards out on the market, both online and offline. Man, one does get confused trying to figure out what to do on the day. And even more confused trying to figure out how to make utmost use of the offers out on the market.

After quite a lot of pondering and quite a lot of discussions, we finally decided to go for a quite dinner. And after quite a lil' calling up and enquiring we got the perfect place suiting our budget and adhering to all our conditions.

Now, waiting for the countdown to begin....10.....9....8.....

Phase III

We left for our third and last destination on the itinerary, Gangtok, after breakfast next morning. We reached Gangtok early evening. After some light going around we got back to the hotel.

Early next morning we left for the Tsongo Pass which lies at the border of India and China. The Indian Army has a regiment based at the place for obvious reasons and hence we could see barracks placed in strategic places around the side of the mountain. We also had to provide a photo id and a permission slip to enter the area which we most willingly obliged.

The drive to the place is long and arduous. As we went higher up we saw melted snow here and there. Apparently it had snowed in the area 3 days back. The path dangerous and slippery at places. We actually needed help getting our vehicle out of the snow a couple of times. 

Unfortunately for us, a light snow started falling and the Army declared it dangerous to go any further along the path. So, we stopped on the way to enjoy the beauty of the place and enjoy the light snow falling on our faces.  We din't feel like leaving the place but ultimately had to else the path would be blocked and we'd be stuck in the area till the Army could clear out the snow and the path could be accessible again.

I really did want to see the pass though and the nearby Jaswant Baba's temple. They say Jaswant was a soldier who kept the Chinese away for 3 days all by himself until reinforcement could come and take over. He did die in the battle but tradition has it that he still lives in the area and protects the area from any kind of infiltration. The Army has a shrine built for him there and take care of it very faithfully.

We came back to the hotel early evening and then decided to go have a look around the place. We walked down to the center of the city for lunch and then spent some time looking at the stores around.

We came back late in the evening and spent some time repacking our stuff since we had to leave the next day for Delhi.

We left for Bagdogra airport the next morning after breakfast and reached Delhi late in the evening.

Phase II

Our next destination on the agenda was Kalimpong which is like 5 hrs away from Darjeeling. I spent half the journey catching up on my sleep and woke up when we stopped at a Cacti garden on the way. The  Cacti garden has a huge collection if cacti, sum of which I havn't even seen so far. I had a blast taking photos of the varied sizes of cacti and entirely loved the whole experience.

We reached Kalimpong early afternoon. We freshened up and then left for sight-seeing immediately since we had only that one day to look Luckily Kalimpong doesn't have much too offer to look around. Just a few monasteries and in my opinion, you see one monastery and u've seen them all. So, we opted to come back to the hotel and take some much needed rest.

Phase I

Ok...I'm back from my short vacation. Back to the maddening city and even maddening life in the city. I wish I still were on my vacation. It was an awesome experience, tiring yes, but reallllllly good.

We flew out of  Delhi in the morning. After a quick layaway at Guwahati, we reached Bagdogra Airport around noon. Efficient that the travel agent was, we had a Tata Sumo waiting for us at the airport to take us to our destination, Darjeeling, which is like 5-6 hrs away. The weather down in the plains was a lil' more warmer than what it was in Delhi. We actually had to take off our jackets in the jeep.

The drive to Darjeeling is a scenic one. We stopped at a couple of scenic areas to take photos, but we din't dally around much since we wanted to reach Darjeeling way before it got dark. The winding roads up the hills were kinda scary to take in the rickety jeep that we were travelling along with the slow fog that was seemingly getting heavier as we ascended each bend. Even then we reached our hotel late in the night. Thankfully, the hotel had a hot dinner waiting for us when we reached which we had and fell asleep before our heads could even hit the pillows.

We had an early morning tryst with the sun the next day. So, at the break of dawn we were at the Tiger Hill to get a view of the Kanchenjunga breaking out of the dawn. The view was absolutely fantastic. Worth waking up early and standing in the early morning chilly weather.

The rest of the day was spent visiting the various tourist spots of the area... Buddhist monasteries, the Rock Garden, the Zoo, the Mountaineering Institute. We also took a trip to the nearby market and looked around the place.

We spent the next morning going around the Tea estates and then to the War Memorial. Unfortunately we din't get time to take a ride in the Toy Train since we had to leave for our next destination with wasting any more time.

I would be doing a great injustice if I din't spend a few lines describing the hotel and the service it gave us.
The hotel we stayed at is a small stone-wood establishment consisting of around 12 rooms. The rooms are small and cozy. The food even better. They actually served us food in our room including getting us extra helpings if necessary. The only problem with the place is that they do not have any in-room heating system. However they do provide an small room heater at extra cost.