[issigonis]

Originally Posted by MX6

Nice to see rains! I'm still waiting for them in Pune. Impressed to read about your home theater system. I have a small set up too. But what's impressive is my 800 dvd collection

A film buff?
What kind of films?
Favourites?

[StarVegabond]

Originally Posted by MX6

Nice to see rains! I'm still waiting for them in Pune. Impressed to read about your home theater system. I have a small set up too. But what's impressive is my 800 dvd collection

Wish you would get your rains quickly.

800 DVDs is a lot, hope you have cataloged them, i might have 50% of what you might have plus another 50-100 movies in the hard disk, i am not a collector, i have not done any cataloging etc.i might not have watched 50% of those movies/DVDs.

My wife keeps asking me once in a while that all those DVDs are thrown in the cupboard etc. and when am i going to catalog them, my answer is soon..

Originally Posted by jacs

Its very true, nice one .
Some nice pictures there Star. How much did the pocket projectors cost in Taiwan?
I really liked the Harley moped.

Generally i do not buy anything at airport as most of the time it is expensive, the only exception is chocolates (for my daughter) and couple of time i did buy the bottles (one can imagine what they are) as gifts for my hosts/colleagues in the foreign land.

I m not aware of the pricing of these micro projectors, i did not check it out as i was anyway not planning to buy.

Vintage vehicles invoke nostalgia and trigger memories for the comaprable things we had experienced in our life.

Moving with with the story..

Due to hectic week, i could only get the parents from my brother's place during weekend, spent a quiet weekend at home with them. I found their lifestyle has changed significantly over last 3 years since they started living in the native village.

Their typical day starts at 5 AM, both of them ready by 7.00 AM having completed morning chores, taken the bath, having washed their clothes (dispite having a fully automatic machine machine at home), having done their prayer (this is almost an hour long).

Food prepared by one's mother is always the favourite of everyone or anyone. in my view even a lavish 5 star buffet breakfast won't give the satisfaction of eating the food served by mother with love and affection.
Mother's have elephantine memory, they would remember what their kids liked when they were young including the portion size as well. Some time this results in undue pressure to eat more. My mother's favourite sentence still is " you keep travelling everywhere, i do not know whether you get enough time to have a good meal or not, so till i am here (or you are at our home) please eat well.

I got a scolding from the mother that the Tulsi plant had died in the last one month and i have not bothered to water it when thier daughter in law is not at home. So i was convicted for the murder of Tulsi plant amounting to culpable homicide. Sentence was to give a rebirth to the tulsiplant and sentence was suspended till their daughterin law returned to administer the sentence as the convict was not aware from where to get a Tulsi plant.

Breakfast is followed by a news paper reading, father would read his english newspaper and mother her kannada news paper, this is also an hour plus excersize, generally they are up-to-date with what has happened. Generally a debate with them would often prove that proverb "parents always know more than their kids"

This is follwed by some time listening to TV news etc followed by cooking. My father who never used to venture into the kitchen earlier, is often found helping mother with small things while cooking. I found this transformation to be amazing.

Post lunch, it is a compulsary nap for an hour or so, followed by some reading (religious, magazines, books etc)

Evening is spent in a short walk around followed by again another prayer session.

Dinner is a short and quiet affair, most of the time re-use of what has been cooked for lunch, havingg cooked fresh rice.

Then it is TV time for an hour and half, generally lights are switched off by 10 PM.

In all it is a clock work, simple life, i realized that everyone has to reach this stage in life one day despite how hectic or busy one is during his/her hey days.

One thing they want is to converse with people, thier kids, daughter in laws, relatives, grand children, Most of the time it is simple conversation but it is their way of knowing whether everything is okay with their kids/others.

But they do not want to be giving an impression that they are trying to poke their nose as the kids have now grown up. The concern is demonstrated in the form of discreet enquiries, indirect questions about the work, job, finances, loans, health,wellbeing. If they remotely suspect anything wrong then, some advice is given indirectly sighting some other person's example in a different context / time / occation.

Couple of days flew by very fast, when my time of sole ownership eneded, i dropped them back to my brother's home.

[StarVegabond]

I witness some unique signs or vehicles on the road, i can not take snaps of every vehicle.

here are three such vehicles which i could capture in last 2 months

# 204 - One has seen SOUND OK HORN behind the trucks, but the owner of this zen likes one's compliment of what is written behind the trucks.


# 205 have you ever seen a scorpio with horns ?, here is one..


in my own building i have seen one vintage vehicle, i think it s beetle (i am not sure)

#206/207: This uncle has new set of shoes, always spik and span, but goes no where

[StarVegabond]

I traveled to Delhi for a week on business as usual during may middle

This time i left my business suit behind for the first time in last 5-6 years.
the reason was simple Delhi was already in the mid 40s w.r.t temperature
I did want myself to be roasted even for a minute with my suit ON

The week I was there Delhi touched 44.8 deg C which was the peak during this summer, as well as highest in several previous summers as well.

I had a pleasant stay at Shangrila, had a comfortable commute to move arround. But the time duration when i was moving in and out of the vehicle was most difficult. It is so scorching and in few seconds one begin to start sweating.

I lived in Mumbai which is not only hot, but also humid, but my comfortable stay in Bangalore over last 3+ years have reduced my ability to co-up with heat and humidity.

I salute citizen of Delhi for living through the harsh summer as well as cold winters. for other seasons anyway there are politicians to be dealt with.

For that matter Bangaloreans are indeed nature's favourite children. except for the traffic and power cuts rest all is reasonably better here.

Second thing i experienced in delhi was Chole Bature. Just like when one is in Chenni, the must visit is Sharavana bhavan for the mini idly smabhar, or vada-pav in Pune or Mumbai, Chole bature in Delhi is a must have. It has been long time since i experienced chole buture in a road side eatary.

One of the days, i had to skip my lunch due to long meetings, so eventually landed at my ex-office at nehru place, while chatting with the ex-colleague gobbled up the mouth watering bature with chole, here is a picture of the same, i wish you could have it in reality.

#208 the famous chole bature from Delhi


The third key thing i noted was this story about Huawei which is self explanatory. This approach simplifies several things .

#209 Business ke liye kuch bhi karega: an example of being adaptive.

[StarVegabond]

One of my ex-colleague is a french guy, he also lives with his family in Bangalore north.

This guy is amazing, he had once traveled from Europe to Russia to Mangolia to Pakistan to India once on a vehicle during his younger times. He has worked in Pakistan for few years selling the products of his previous employer. He has worked for an NGO in Mumbai doing some social work, where he met his dream girl, both of them married each other and living now in Bangalore working for a hightech company. They have a son who is 1-2 years younger than my daughter.

I met this guy about 3 years ago after i moved to Bangalore, Our association increased slowly over the period of time, over three years we have moved from sharing an occational coffee at office once in a month/quarter to sharing periodic business information to occational joint business meetings and travel to periodic game of badmiton to discussing career dilemas.

Over the period of time, i have learnt to appreciate a different perspective about the happenings arround us through his views.

This year he was also on the mini MBA course as his wife and son were spending their time with relatives in chennai. So few of our week-end evenings were spent playing bandminton, sometimes having a meal together. He wanted to experience some authentic rural Karnataka food. So I decided to take him to Hallimane. We were joined by my brother in law (wife's cousin brother) who also works/lives in Bangalore who had come over during the week-end.

Halli Mane in Kannada means Village House. It is in the suburb of Malleshwarm. It is said to be famous and crowd does not disappoint you. Me and my family have been there few times.

#210 This is how the place lookslike during the day time (this picture is taken from www)


#211/212 This is how it looks like during late evenings



Their speciality as per their website (and from the crowd there) is

Ragi Mudde: Made of ragi flour is usually prepared by boiling the ragi flour in water. The resulting preparation is then rolled into a spherical form and consumed after applying ghee, with sambar in southern parts of India. Pediatricians recommend ragi for infants from 6 months onwards because of it's high nutrition content.

Kundapura Pathrode is prepared using 'colocasia' leaves usually grown in the monsoons.

Karavalli Kadabu: Also known as khotte, a popular Konkani dish and a festival preparation, gets a very distinguishing aroma from the jackfruit leaves in which it is wrapped.

Akki & Ragi Rotti: A karnataka speciality, Akki means rice in kannada. While one can make many kinds of akki rottis, the most common one is made with rice flour mixed with coconut, cumin seeds and salt. The Masala rotti is made using carrot, onion, coriander leaves, chilies and cumin seeds. One can also add methi leaves, dill leaves for specific flavor.

Apart from this i also like their Kerala Parota and Idiappam with coconut milk. They also serve south Indian / north Indian thali lunch as well.

#213 One can see the Akki roti and Ragi roti being made in front of us


#214 this is the Kerala Parota and Alu paratha counter


the below link will show how the place looks and all the other details.
Hallimane - Rural Restaurant Bangalore

My french ex-colleague simply liked the food. It was the first time he was eating there dispite being in Bangalore for over 4+ years. We tried the Akki Roti, Ragi Roti and Kerala Parota.

We could not try anything more as we were full already. the guy wanted the address, so we went to the cashier and got an address card. i am sure he will take his wife and kid there some day.

I have dined there i think 4-5 times till now, i do not like thier crowd management styles, service levels. hence i prefer to buy the token and follow the self service mode. That is faster for me. This is one place where one can taste the rural karnataka food, I can say "Truely south Indian food"

Three of us finished the day by having our chosen desert at Corner House in Yelahanka.

Corner House is the famous Ice Cream Parlour in Bangalore. I belive they have several branches.

I was first introduced to Corner House by my Boss some 4+ years ago. We had visited the Carlton towers branch at that time. since then i have been a fan of the place. I was very happy to discover Corner House in Yelahanka last year.

The place is in the new town of Yelahanka and has ample parking as well as seating arrangement with a green lawn. Only issue is mosquitos during the evening time.

Personally I like thier hot chocolate fudge, brown bomb, fruitsalad (without cream) with Icecream. My daughter loves everything they serve.
one can find more information at Corner House Ice Creams Pvt. Ltd. - Home

Portions are huge, but price is also above average to premium.

[ASHISHPALLOD]

Originally Posted by StarVegabond

I got a scolding from the mother that the Tulsi plant had died in the last one month and i have not bothered to water it when thier daughter in law is not at home. So i was convicted for the murder of Tulsi plant amounting to culpable homicide. Sentence was to give a rebirth to the tulsiplant and sentence was suspended till their daughterin law returned to administer the sentence as the convict was not aware from where to get a Tulsi plant.

@star,
good going with your home science thread.

tulsi plant story happened to me last year.
this year, every morning, there was a reminder call from wifey about watering the plants and i am happy that all plants at home are live in this summer.

pic of chhole-bhatura is mouth watering.
people should be banned for posting such types of pics, it makes people hungry at odd times, you know.:
now, its time for vada-pav for me.

[arindamray]

Originally Posted by StarVegabond

Three of us finished the day by having our chosen desert at Corner House in Yelahanka.

Corner House is the famous Ice Cream Parlour in Bangalore. I belive they have several branches.

I was first introduced to Corner House by my Boss some 4+ years ago. We had visited the Carlton towers branch at that time. since then i have been a fan of the place. I was very happy to discover Corner House in Yelahanka last year.

Personally I like thier hot chocolate fudge, brown bomb, fruitsalad (without cream) with Icecream. My daughter loves everything they serve.
one can find more information at Corner House Ice Creams Pvt. Ltd. - Home

Portions are huge, but price is also above average to premium.

Corner House - I just love them. In 97-98, there was only one of them in the corner of Nagarjuna restaurant in residency road. Now they have opened several branches. I have also been to Carlton tower branch, apart from ones in BTM, Marathalli and of course the original one.
My alltime favourite there is dew drop sundae - three scoops of fig and honey icecream, topped with roasted cashew and honey.

BTW, I don't think the vintage car is beetle.

And once again, really good to go through your experiences, so mundane yet so thought provoking. In the daily schedule, we may all get through this, but in the running, we don't pause and think, and that exactly your journal is making me do.

[StarVegabond]

Originally Posted by ASHISHPALLOD

@star,
this year, every morning, there was a reminder call from wifey about watering the plants and i am happy that all plants at home are live in this summer.
...
....
now, its time for vada-pav for me.

Great that you manage to keep all the plants alive, i felt very sorry when i realized that the Tulsi plant in fact two of them have died. Last year the plants were left with our neighbour, who used to water them. this year it appears both of us forgot.

It appears that someone at my home is reading this thread as guest.
your mentioning Vada-Pav seems to have triggered somebody.

When i reached home today, guess what...i had vada pav for dinner.
Even though the Vada is Kasabapeti style, Pav is very Bangalorean,
We miss Puneri authentic Joshi Vadapav, but i heard that Mr. Joshi has fanchised all his shops and quality is no longer what it used to be.

Originally Posted by arindamray

In 97-98, there was only one of them in the corner of Nagarjuna restaurant in residency road.
...
BTW, I don't think the vintage car is beetle.
....
And once again, really good to go through your experiences, so mundane yet so thought provoking. In the daily schedule, we may all get through this, but in the running, we don't pause and think, and that exactly your journal is making me do.

Thanks for the history of Corner house, i was not aware.
I also think the vintage car is not a beetle, hence i had written i am not sure.

Most of the time we feel that our life is very mundane and regular, nothing exciting etc.

There are people, communities, states and nations in the world where people wish they lead such a mundane and regular life. forget going too far, even celebrities in our land wish (secretly) that they lead a normal life.

From this perspective i consider myself (and several of us on this forum) very fortunate, we are able to enjoy a normal life. atleast we have the freedom to do what we want to do, freedom to be in the crowd and still retain our privacy, freedom to go anywhere, anytime without any escort, body gaurds, security and without drawing any attention.

There is fun being a common man, leading a so called mundane life

[khoj]

But the vintage car is indeed a Beetle.

[StarVegabond]

Before i cover details of my food experiments at home, i thought of shairng the audit findings of one more outsourcing destination for food (in simple words resturant).

There has been a new resturant opened Nandini Delux adjacent to Jakkur Flying club on the bellary road. me and my brother in law decided to check it out. so on one sunday afternoon we landed there.

#215 Nandini Delux : Artificial fountain, is an attraction for kids in the evening


#216 there are three lounges, this is one of them



#217 the area looks clean and well maintained


#219 Kurigalu Saar Kurigalu (Goats Sir Goat)..There is a very famous Kannada drama/play with this title, i have heard a lot about it, but yet to see it.


#220 this is what we eat .. Neer Dosa with Mutter Masala. I remember Karavali resturant was the only place were neer dosa used to be served, now i see it is every where.


The waiter goofed up the order, but manager quickly made ammends, and served us what we had ordered. We liked the food, we gobbled up 6 plates of neer dosa (24 dosas in all ) between two of us, most probably becasue we had skipped the breakfast that day morning.

I still feel the Nandini / Bhagini hotels are too spicy for my liking. Hence whenever i go there i add an extra instruction to keep the spice low-medium than regular.

#221 That day evening there was a huge hailstrom with thunder.


# Hailstones or Gara (in marathi) or Aalikallu (in kannada)


I still rememebr as a kids (along with my classmates) we used to run from our classes to catch the hailstones in our mouth or by hands, those precious moments have remained itched in the mind,

#222 water..water every where in few minutes


The rains brought down the temperature drastically
Summer seems to end prematurely.. but it was not over.

[arindamray]

Originally Posted by khoj

But the vintage car is indeed a Beetle.

I stand corrected. After Khoj's comment I did little more google search and found - VW 1963 beetle - vintage camera, vintage lens, classic car on Flickr - Photo Sharing!

[narry]

Originally Posted by StarVegabond

Before i cover details of my food experiments at home, i thought of shairng the audit findings of one more outsourcing destination for food (in simple words resturant).

There has been a new resturant opened Nandini Delux adjacent to Jakkur Flying club on the bellary road. me and my brother in law decided to check it out. so on one sunday afternoon we landed there.

#215 Nandini Delux : Artificial fountain, is an attraction for kids in the evening
Attachment 365285

#216 there are three lounges, this is one of them
Attachment 365286
Attachment 365288

#217 the area looks clean and well maintained
Attachment 365287

#219 Kurigalu Saar Kurigalu (Goats Sir Goat)..There is a very famous Kannada drama/play with this title, i have heard a lot about it, but yet to see it.
Attachment 365289

#220 this is what we eat .. Neer Dosa with Mutter Masala. I remember Karavali resturant was the only place were neer dosa used to be served, now i see it is every where.
Attachment 365290

The waiter goofed up the order, but manager quickly made ammends, and served us what we had ordered. We liked the food, we gobbled up 6 plates of neer dosa (24 dosas in all ) between two of us, most probably becasue we had skipped the breakfast that day morning.

I still feel the Nandini / Bhagini hotels are too spicy for my liking. Hence whenever i go there i add an extra instruction to keep the spice low-medium than regular.

#221 That day evening there was a huge hailstrom with thunder.
Attachment 365291

# Hailstones or Gara (in marathi) or Aalikallu (in kannada)
Attachment 365292

I still rememebr as a kids (along with my classmates) we used to run from our classes to catch the hailstones in our mouth or by hands, those precious moments have remained itched in the mind,

#222 water..water every where in few minutes
Attachment 365293

The rains brought down the temperature drastically
Summer seems to end prematurely.. but it was not over.

hi
all your travelogues are simply superb
if u ever visit hongkong and shenzen which is next to hongkong inform i would love to show u around
regards
narry

[StarVegabond]

Let me share the outcome of the first part of my summer project
I have prepared few slides here to present the project objectives, details, analysis, conclusions and recommendations. There are about 15 slides which are self explanatory. Please take it with a pinch of salt in a limbu paani.































I enjoyed putting together these 15 slides in last 1 hour. I hope readers will like it. Please let me know if you like it or otherwise.

The second part of the project is experiments in Home Labs. some of the outcomes will be shared shortly.

[ASHISHPALLOD]

Originally Posted by StarVegabond

The second part of the project is experiments in Home Labs. some of the outcomes will be shared shortly.

Slide show was theory in corporate style.
Waiting for practicals in home style.

Btw, i also prepared some dishes at home this summer.
Once, the menu chosen was from travel and living show.
It was disaster and i am still not able to figure out what food i prepared at that time.

[mjothi]

Star, a very good one. Taiwan food to Village food Probably, we should move this PPTs to the Directory section in here. Under Hotels. What say?