| I moved to the US on the 29th December, and hadn't done much travelling since then. There were a few trips to San Francisco and San Jose, but they qualify as local now. Napa Valley was the only far off place that I'd been to. Most of my time was spent searching for houses and getting settled in. Jan passed, and it was only in Feb that I moved into my own place. I had nothing though, and my shipment from India wasn't due to arrive until late Feb, which meant that I had to stay put until then.
In the mean time, I had to give up the rental car, which also cut off all my local travel options. I was basically stuck in Sunnyvale with no option to get out.
My stuff finally arrived on the 23rd, and I had the house completely set up on the 24th. I could finally look at leaving town.
On the 29th, I packed my brand new backpack and headed off to Myrtle Beach, South Carolina for a couple of days. Good fun, and I shall write about it soon. I then flew to New York and got onto a flight to Mumbai. Spent a couple of days in Mumbai and then yesterday I flew to Delhi where ![[info]](http://l-stat.livejournal.com/img/userinfo.gif) code_martial and nadircruise met me at the airport and we drove to Chandigarh for bhavanar's wedding. Had a look around Chandigarh today and now I'm back in Mumbai. More about that later.
Will be heading to Bangalore tomorrow for a bunch of work, and then I'll be back on my way to SFO via Newark on Wednesday.
It's been short, but good. | comments: 5 comments or Leave a comment   |
| In a couple of hours, I'll get onto a flight to Mumbai. I'll spend Christmas at home with the family and be back in Bangalore for a day and a half before I leave this country on a more or less permanent basis. On December 29th, I'll be shifting base to California. Duration, unknown at this point.
Yesterday was my last day at the Bangalore office. Not officially though. I just don't think I'll be going there to work when I get back next week. The shipping company sent a surveyor to my place yesterday, and they'll be back on the 27th to pack and ship my stuff. I now have to figure out sleeping arrangements for the 27th night. That's later though. For now, off to Mumbai, and hope to meet mannu.
Anyone else wanna meet up, post here. | | comments: 28 comments or Leave a comment |
| I'm going through a strange period. There are days when I feel elated and completely free, and there are days when I feel terribly depressed and easily annoyed. People at work probably see the effects on the internal lists.
Last night I came in to the office after dinner for a bit. Left in a seesaw mood, and then decided to go for a long ride. I headed home, put on a sweatshirt, and then headed onto Airport road, and just kept going east until there were no more streetlights. I ended up at a place called Vartur Road, somewhere in Marathahalli, then turned around and came back home.
Total distance about 28Km. This is the longest cycle ride I've done in Bangalore, and my pedals need oiling.
Started off in a seesaw mood, and ended up in a heehaw mood with mud in my hair. It was midnight when I left, and about 1:40 when I got back home.
Ya, whatever. | | comments: 22 comments or Leave a comment |
| As a follow up to my last post about pub standards, this here's an announcement.
How does Wednesday, the 26th September work for most people? That's one week from today. Also suggest possible venues.
FYI, Thermal and a Quarter are playing on that day at On Da Roxx - which is above Pizza Corner on Brigade Road. The only other place that I can think of where there will be enough place is the Tavern at the Inn, on Museum Road, and that place in the basement of some building on Residency Road - between Crossword and Nagarjuna, but the music there sucks.
If you think you'll make it, post a reply here. Also post alternate locations... we could always hop after some time ;)
Let's meet at around 7pm so that we get some amount of happy hour.
Update: If you're attending, add yourself here
Update 2: We'll meet on the terrace of Pecos at 7pm. | | comments: 7 comments or Leave a comment |
| The announcement is now public. Yahoo! Bangalore's open hack day will happen on the 5th and 6th of October in Bangalore. If you're interested in working with APIs, making mashups and showing them off to an audience of your peers, then you ought to show up there.
Register online for the event, and list any special requirements that you may need. You can also chat with us on #hackday.
Also, feel free to blog about the event. Get your geek friends to attend. You can hack alone or you can hack in a team. There's no limit to how many hacks you can come up with or how many teams you can be a part of. Hope to see you there. | | comments: 3 comments or Leave a comment |
| The Cauvery River verdict was announced today. Karnataka gets less (270 Tmc Ft) water than Tamil Nadu (419 Tmc Ft). The office administration sent us home for fear of riots in the city.
Unfortunately, the 'rioters' were held up by a major traffic jam on MG Road, and have decided to postpone their rioting until the Bangalore Metro is ready.
In the meanwhile, I bought a load of fruit, and teemus, his roomie, and I are having BarCampCambridgeLayout. | | comments: 2 comments or Leave a comment |
| Today I lunched at Indira Darshini on Brigade Road. It's the shop just before Café Coffee Day, in the basement of the building. Had idli wada sambar there. It was not good. I won't say it was bad, but it was not good. Did satisfy my hunger for the time being. The wada had coconut - the way I like it - and very little oil, but was also quite small. The sambar and chutney were okay.
Went back there in the evening, this time for coffee. First choice was Barrista - full, then Coffee Day - also full. Decided to give Indira Darshini another shot. mannu and I ordered a coffee a piece. mannu also had a masala dosa. I had a taste of his dosa, and it was much better than the lunch I'd had, but the potato was all stuck in one corner. Not sure if it's normal here to have triangular masala dosas. In bombay all masala dosas are rolled up, and only mysore masala is triangular.
Anyway, back to the coffee. It was great. Better than what I've had at CCD or Barrista. I ordered for a second glass while mannu finished his dosa. Then ordered a sev puri - which again was a dissappointment. After having lived on sev puri for so many years in bombay, this was nothing. Come to think of it, I have yet to have a good plate of bhel/sev in Bangalore.
In the meanwhile rashmiprasad called to say that she was close by and would drop in. Hmm, three lj'ers. An LJ meet in the offing. True to jace's conjecture, LJ meets do happen in coffee houses - he just didn't make the scope broad enough.
Mannu and I both ordered another round of coffees. Rashmi said she wouldn't have any. A short while later aivalli turned up. This was now an lj meet by anyone (except sweta_mogra's) standards.
We hung around at ID a little while longer - really dragging that last coffee on. Finally left, and hung out outside Pizza Hut. I'm collecting take away menus from pizza places to store at the office for when we're next on a late night mission. We sat on the railing outside PH. irq2 turned up while on a shopping trip, and then rishikesh turned up too - he was actually heading into Pizza Hut.
At around 9:30 the 4 of us decided it was time for dinner, and on nerdy's recommendation, we headed into Pizza Corner - across the road. I don't think I'll be going there again. Too pricey for what they serve.
Recommendation for Indira Darshini:
Go there for the coffee/tea.
Try the Masala Dosa
Try the rice dishes (people there seemed to relish that)
Stay away from too much sambar.
Rating:
Price - leave your wallet at home. Pocket change will do.
Decor - dude?
Food - pick smart and you'll be happy - as much as they show it off, chaat prolly isn't what they're good at
Service - prompt and friendly | | comments: 7 comments or Leave a comment |
| Jace, mannu, balaji and myself dined at Earthen Oven tonight (see ![[info]](http://l-stat.livejournal.com/img/community.gif) bangalore for why). This post is going to be about the restaurant itself.
Located near the Brigade road junction on the left side (moving away from MG Road) of Residency road, Earthen Oven is partially hidden behind a tree. It's easily missed, and of the four of us, only manish and myself had noticed it before. The outside has pictures of fast food and icecreams leading one to believe that it's more of a takeaway place than a restaurant.
Once inside, perspectives changed. The place looked good. No fancy decor or theme or anything. This was just a simple down to earth place to get mass produced food. We were greeted by a gentleman who seemed to be the proprietor, but was just as happy taking note of an order. He saw to it that we were comfortably seated. The windows on the wall across from manish and me, and behind jace and balaji aren't really windows, but cleverly designed mirrors. I guess it's hard to have real windows on a wall you share with your neighbours - shows some amount of imagination.
The waiter was prompt at our table. We asked for soup - the first item on the menu. He listened to us decide how much we wanted and when we communicated the same to him, declined us saying that there was no soup. Okay.
We then ordered starters - Baby corn manchurian dry. It arrived shortly, and was quite tasty. We'd decided by then on the main course - Mushroom Masala and Paneer Adraki. The Paneer was supposed to be spicy, so we asked for a lot of water - which we had to ask for again. Jace and Balaji had rumali rotis while Mannu and I had plain rotis each. Both dishes were good. I can safely say that this has been one of the better meals I've had out in Bangalore. Jace and Balaji however complained that the rumali rotis were a tad too thick. They were visibly so.
Two dishes weren't sufficient for the four of us, so we ordered another - Gobi Manchurian gravy. This too arrived quickly. Manish ordered a butter naan, and I a plain naan. Jace and Balaji shared a butter naan between them. I've never had Gobi Manchurian before, and I quite liked the way it was prepared.
We left Earthen Oven full and completely satiated.
I have just one complaint - they really should be checking whether our glasses of water are empty or not and refilling them when they are.
My rating:
Food - good
Service - not bad/good
Price - decent
Decor - functional
Recommendadtion - go there | | comments: 19 comments or Leave a comment |
| Is there any place in bangalore where I can get good non-veg food? Kheema Paav and stuf like that.
Went to Pizza Fort the other day, and ordered a fried chicken meal. Tip - don't have the chicken there. If it had any taste it would have been overpriced, but it didn't, so let's not even talk about the price.
Saturday's lunch was at this place at Brigade road called Kohinoor. I had veg kofta and Kerala paratha. Couldn't see the difference between that and other parathas. The Koftas were filling, but that's about it. Price wise, you get what you pay for. Recommendation - unless you're starving, walk on by (and if you're not on foot, well why the heck are you looking that way?)
Sunday dinner was at Hyderabadi Biryani on Richmond Road. Had Egg biryani there. Would have preferred trying Chicken or Mutton, but since I was the only person eating, I thought it would be too much. I think I should go there and try it out again. This place isn't for you if you're vegetarian, or if you're easily turned off by unhygienic looking places. I would also not recommend the water there, but YMMV.
Sometime last week, we visited a place called suntrupti or something like that. It's just off MG Road, take a left from Trinity Circle. Food was pretty good. A couple of the guys had thalis, I had a kind of Pulao, don't remember what I ordered for, but I think I got a Kashmiri pulao. yathin had a chole batura... and the batura was huuuuge. Food was good IMO. The pulao would have fed two persons, and it was cheap. Recommended.
Swadistha is an Andhra place at Mittal Tower. Relatively cheap Andhra thali, reasonably spicy, so keep the curd rice for the end. Um, eat there, don't eat there. No loss.
Ullas - first floor, utility building, MG Road. Good south indian food, and only good food is south indian. Don't order anything north indian there. Masala dosa was good, but they're inconsistent with where they put the butter. Wada sambar was good too. Worth a try. Go there. Not too expensive. View from the window's not that great though.
The only other time I ate out was Thursday night at the office. We ordered parathas. I had two gobi (since I'd already had methi, and aloo on the two days before, and was going to have daal on the following sunday).
Umm, well, if anyone knows where I can get kheema paav, let me know. | | comments: 22 comments or Leave a comment |
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