My Culinary Marathon

I came across a post where in 50 must eat dishes of Delhi were mentioned.  Post was:
50 DISHES YOU MUST HAVE IN DELHI BEFORE YOU DIE

STREETSIDE CLASSICS
1. Peeli Dal at Shakahari, Chawri Bazar
2. Fish Fry at Ganesh, Karol Bagh ( Gurudwara Chowk)
3. Bedmi Aloo near Naugarha, Chandni Chowk:
4. Aloo Tikki at Natraj Cafe, Chandni Chowk:
5. Papri Chaat outside UPSC Building, Shahjahan Road:
6. Kakori Kebabs at Aap Ki Khatir, Khan Market
7. Cream Chicken Kebabs at Salim’s, Khan Market
8. Chicken Tikka Rolls at Khan Chacha, Khan Market
9. Chicken Changezi at Chicken Planet, Tyre Market, Near Filmistan:
10. Poori Aloo of Ramchand, Chhota Bazar, Shahdara
11. Chhole Bhature at Odeon Sweets, Bhagat Singh Marg, Gole Market
12. Mutton Dish at Ashok Meat Dhaba, Shop No. 42, Subhash Chowk, Sadar Bazar.
13. CP Chicken Pepper Steak at United Coffee House, E- Block, Inner Circle.
14. Dal Meat at Embassy, D- Block, Inner Circle: must also have the Pindi Chana and the scrumptious Embassy Pudding.
15. Tomato Fish at Kwality, Regal Building: also has the best caramel custard.
16. Double Egg Single Mutton Kathi at Nizam’s Kathi Kabab, Plaza Building

SOUTHERN SIRENS
17. Set Dosa at Sagar, Defence Colony Market
18. Bombay Duck at Swagath, Defence Colony Market
19. Rice with Gunpowder & Ghee, Andhra Bhawan
20. Bisi Bele Bhath, Karnataka Food Centre, Karnataka Sangha, Rao Tula Ram marg

ALL- TIME STARS
21. Chicken Pakodas at Moti Mahal Delux, Greater Kailash- I, M- Block
22. Butter Chicken at Havemore, Pandara Road Market: If you’re vegetarian, dig into the soya chaamp ki sabzi .
23. Kashmiri/Galouti Kebabs at Gulati, Pandara Road Market.
24. Dab Chingri at Fire, The Park, CP: prawn in coconut milk and mustard curry that comes in a green coconut shell.
25. Gushtaba at Chor Bizarre, Hotel Broadway, Asaf Ali Road:  Veggies must have the Tamatar Chaman ( tomato paneer).

26. Chicken Haldighati at Colonel’s Kebabs, Defence Colony Market
27. Nargisi Kofta at Karim’s, Jama Masjid.
28. Veggie Cutlets at Coffee Home, Baba Kharak Singh Marg.
29. Pakistani Biryani at DeeZ Biryani & Kababs.
30 Mutton Mince at St Stephen’s, Delhi University:
31. Kosha Mansho at Oh Calcutta, Nehru Place: Kolkata’s favourite mutton dish . Have it with loochis , or pooris made with maida .
32. Mutton Barra at Bukhara, ITC Maurya, Diplomatic Enclave: People love the ones at Moti Mahal or Karim’s,

EXOTIC FLAVOURS
33. Pizzas at Flavors, Under Moolchand Flyover: Flavors manages to deliver impeccable pizzas from its wood- fired oven at any time of the day. Our favourite is the Vegetarian Piri Piri.
34. Khao Suey at The Kitchen, Khan Market.
35. Patrani Mekong Basa, Indian Accent ( The Manor, Friends Colony West): It feels like the fish has just popped out of the river — it melts in the mouth and the masala isn’t allowed to overpower it. Veggies must go for the paneer pinwheels.
36. Black Cod with Miso at 360 Degrees, The Oberoi.
37. Stalin’s Beard at Nanking, Vasant Kunj ( opp. DPS Vasant Kunj): Potato has never tasted better. Even among their brilliantly innovative dim sum, this one stands out.
38. Peking Duck at China Kitchen, Hyatt Regency: slivers of duck melt in the mouth, for the chefs prepare the bird by pumping air into it.
39. Hunanese Braised Prawns at The Chinese, Middle Circle, CP: There’s something about the sauce that stays in your edible memory.
40. Green Tea Noodles at The Monk, Galaxy Hotel, Sec. 15, Gurgaon
41. Dim Sum at Tea House of the August Moon, Taj Palace: Best for Sunday afternoons. Ask for bok choy in garlic sauce for a change of taste.

SWEET SOMETHINGS
42. Kadha Prasad at Gurudwara Bangla Sahib
43. Badam Halwa at Saravana Bhawan, Janpath, CP
44. Kancha Golla at Annapurna Mishtanna Bhandar, Chandni Chowk:
45. Saffron Lassi at Kaleva, Bangla Sahib Road, Gole market
46. Chocolate Pudding at Angels in My Kitchen, Defence Colony:
47. Jalebis at Old & Famous Jalebiwala, Dariba, Chandni Chowk:
48. Karachi Halwa at Chaina Ram, Next to Fatehpuri Masjid.
49. Hot Butter Scotch at Nirula’s.

50. Neembu Soda and Pan at Prince Pan, Greater Kailash- I, M- Block Market

So as i was in Delhi I thought why not go for it !!

Day 1 : Sunday , July 27, 2014 : Gulati Restaurant , 6 Pandara Road , N.Delhi

Gulati wasn't very far from my home in East of Kailash and i and my wify didnt have breakfast so that we could have early lunch. We reached there at 1Pm and got a place to sit immediately which turned out to be good for us asl ater when we were leaving there was a queue of ppl w8ing outside.

I was on a dish specific mission so I ordered ala carte and my wife who is a pure veggie went for a veg buffet.

I ordered "Galouti Kebabs" as i researched a lot b4 goin der and heard lot many ppl suggested the same. Also came across a tale that this dish originally was developed for mughal emperor who had no teeth. Also ordered for Half butter chicken and tandoori rotis.

While i was w8ing for my food to arrive , I snapped up and quickly gulped ( afraid they might charge me for another veg buffet :P ) a shot of jaljeera which my wife got for herself from the buffet area. Had 2-3 of them .

Then the Galouti's arrived , I guess there were 6 pcs. The power of stroke I used to cut the kebabs turned out to be too much as it was as soft as 'Halwa' . The taste was amazing and royal. Reminded me of my time in Rajasthan. It was mildly spicy and flavor of the meat was tingling my taste buds as the kebab melted in my mouth. It was the best so far for me ( I am still to try colonel's kebabs, Def Col. yet) . The generous quantity of kebabs (6 pcs) made me feel full and I had to tell the curious waiter to take some time before bringing in the butter chicken.

My wife usually takes buffet and buffets are not that great in quality of food but she said that every item which was there on buffet menu was good. She specially appreciated the veg biryani.

The butter chicken gravy was thick and chicken was soft.  No unnecessary oil was floating above the dish as it usually does at hotels. According to half , quantity was again generous. Had to get it packed for dinner.

Then again had a spoon of phirni from my wife's plate and this sweet dish was just OK.

Total bill amount was under Rs 2000 and thats decent enough !!

So point no 26 has been crossed from this list . Many more coming .........

BIRD WATCHING, but no bird !!!

Today was a nice day... Mohil suggested this outing which 'prakrati club' guys were planning.. Went for it..they charged us 50 bucks each for that( which later turned out to be a profitable deal :P )

To start off , I ws pretty sure that if I wud sleep a night b4 i'll never b able to wake up on time.. So i decided not to sleep. We were to leave at 5'o clock in the morning. Woke up mohil and some-how saurabh and we were good to go by 5.15 .At 5.30am the bus left campus, with around 30 ppl onboard approx. It ws dark,still. I tried to sleep in the bus, but cudnt.

We reached the place, which ws 90 km away in less then 2hrs. We were supposed to be taken to a bird sanctuary..yeah bird watching was the theme..I imagined that der myt b birds in cages n we cud c diff types of em in der, n offcourse some cud b seen flying around.

But it didnt turn out to be the same, not even closer.. It ws a not so clean lake with minimal birds flying around. Der were villgers taking the nature's call, who were surprised to c so many visitors out of nowhere n had to wind up der businesses in a rush. So obv der ws a foul smell.. There were a couple of so called professional bird-watchers, one had a big camera( Canon EOS) with a long protuding lense, Other had a book with details.

Well e ws pretty clear to us that we wudnt b able to c a lot of birds here..as offcourse without a binocular,all birds look the same...n v had just a couple... I ws actually not much interested, anywaz.

Girls were busy getting der pictures clicked in evry possible place n posture ,, not to my surprise... I guess it ws not such a bad idea afterall..Der were a few good spots out der... so we (guys) also got a few pictures clikd... Some of thoses poses were risky..but who cares man !!

Hungry as we were , they told they wud take us to a paddy field where we cud hav our snacks and roam around take pictures. So here is the profitablity part comes each lunch pack we got ws worth atleast rs 40 ...and i sneaked 1 more :) ... n that included the travelling xpense...so this trip ws worth each penny, may b more.

The paddy wasnt a paddy from ny angle.. Few small hills.. I guess granite...Der were huge transmission lines ,makking a lot of humming and sparkling noise. Got a few jumping snaps, saurabh was all squared on the ground when mohil jumped on his spot and he has no place to land...and hence the crash..

Then we headed back and were back ny 1 pm.. I didnt sleep last nyt I crashed on bed n took 4 hrs of peaceful sleep which ws enuf to recharge me for the evening workout !!

HDFC bank Sordid Saga

Today is one of the most frustrating day in my life. The opportunity was so close and its gone now.I wudnt say that I wasnt at my best, I tried hard and tried everything. Starting from initial apti test, GD and following JCP (involving tests, class participation, roleplays, ppts etc spanning 30 hrs of classroom sessions) and final interview ,everything went well.But I guess the saying which goes "God help those who help themselves" is bullshit and pure crap and only thing which matters is luck...Guys who've been selected are surprised that they're in and some very potential candidates who performed consistently thru the sessions were turned down..God knows what kind of criterion they had set, I guess no criterion !!

15 days back I got selected for the third and final round of hdfc bank, was among the last 36 students selected out of initial 300. Going by last years stats 44 students were called for JCP and 31 were selected,I think out of them 3-4 backed out of jcp. During the initial ppt the company ppl said that they wud be taking fewer ppl this time. But the which we had thought was atleast 25. 15 ppl which they selected was a shocker to many( specially 4 those who didnt gt selected).

Now there's just one day left for the end sem exams to start. Bcoz of this JCP thing ,I cudnt study for the exams at all and after this result am not even feeling the desire to try. Someone had quoted v correctly "Life sucks and then U die"..Totally feel like the same currently. The hype created by peers in clg has also added to the embarrassment. Ppl had expected that there was no way out now and almost all were selected. Dreams were brutally shattered today.. For the first time in my life I thought I wud be having something to write home about...something which I cud call an achievement..all that was so close and now its gone !!

Wearing suits and roaming like jokers in the college has got all the eyeballs rolling on us. Evrybody knew about this, and now its gone. This was the best chance that i had to make it. Package ws gud and so ws the post. All the efforts, all the sleep aversion, all the studies done during this period has gone down the drain. Again on ground zero,,back where I had started the journey... Thinking that such opportunities will knock on your door every other day wud b foolishness..But sure more opportunies wil come...

I am just satisfied with myself on one front.. I gave it my best shot..I cant say today that I could have done it better...I can say one thing though " Its their loss ,, not mine "

40 nights@call center

Well Well Well..sip is over....The 3 n a half month brk I got after an yr of MBA ws quite interesting. I had to do my interns in Philips, lighting division. The project which I got ws "Mapping of cfl in gurgaon", wherein I ws supposed to visit perhaps thousands of retailers in gurgaon, who sell philips cfl. I went into the market for 2 days and realised, it wasn't my piece of cake. Roaming around like salesman in a very very hot weather wasnt at all my dream job or anything I ever imagined I would ever do. So I became reluctant to go to the distributor. Distributor himself didnt want me to come, neither his staff. Well the reason may be that they would have to tell all the schemes to the retailers and their extra profits may dwindle. So I had a pact with my distributor that I wouldnt visit his place, on the condition if he doesnt tell it to my boss. He did so and then I was free so I went in for a job which I never thought I would do...ever....A job at the call center.

I had heard of ppl sayin that bpos are hiring people big time. I thought I have a lotta tym and bpo training would definitely help me with my personality development. So I searched the net for finding addresses of bpos in gurgaon and vicinity. I reached "CONVERGYS" and there the told me to have a seat as the interviews were already going on. I was accompanied with a brother of mine, who was also in search for a job. Soon we were called by an angel ( her name was himani,,how can I forget the name of my recruiter), She was very sweet and I instantly fell in love with her :P... jus kiddin

After going thru numerous rounds like telephonic interview by an HR (who gave me a random topic and I had to speak over it for 3 min I suppose. Then I had to pronounce few words also). This was followed by another computerised telephonic interview ( Himani congratulated me after that round telling me that I had scored highest in that round amongst the candidates who appeared that day.
Soon after a few more ol tests I had the first 'offer letter'of my life in my hands.It was 10th of march 2010. I must say I was feeling good that time but I was taking it easy.

Then we were called on 15th of March for joining. I told about it to almost all family members and good friends. When I reached convergys on 15th, all the people who were engineers were asked to sit into another room. For almost whole day we sat in that room hoping that someone would come and tell us when and how to start. No one came till evening... Then again gud-lukin lady came that she was sory for d inconv n crap...She told us that they didnt gt updates from their clients and we'll have to wait for joining till further notice. I and evry1 was totally pissed off but no one said anything and left the building. I had no hopes and also tried giving interviews at other places like IBM daksh n Wipro. I got an offer letter from wipro....same package...technical job desc......but the problem was this comp was located very far from my place and they were askin me to relocate.....which obv wasnt possible.

So Again out of the blue I got a call from convergys that I should come n join the company on 22nd. So I went there again...The scene was like a mela over there...The document submission was going on in the cafeteria. After doc sub , they gave us a temp card..

After few hours 'Induction' started. This time another beautiful angel eyed girl 'Radhika' took us thru induction.She was with the HR deptt...I tel u this deptt is a beautiful deptt......They gave us a few convergys material like pens and booklets and a lot of documents were to be signed as well. The building where we were called next day is called "Agora". Its located adjacent to the famous 'Sahara mall' in gurgaon. On Day 2 of induction we were taken to a classroom cum cafeteria on 4th floor of the building and were made aware of convergys policies, about the comp, salary and blah blah blah......

We were served snacks, which was a humble gesture indeed. Many people came from various deptts that day and had a word with us. One cant forget Ashwini from transport deptt, a big time #$^&

On Day 3 we started with our CCT (cultural) training, also called voice and accent training where we wud be trained about the UK culture and way the britons speak english and pronounce it. This trainig was real fun and I wud say it was the best part of the complete 6 weeks of training. Our trainer here was Akash Piplani. Good guy..... Helped us a lot and was real good with his command over the language. We did a lotta fun activities during CCT. We used to play games like " DUCKY FUZZ-FUZZY DUCK-DOES HE" n act on plays like "sholay theme", "Rmayana, Mahabharat theme". ( Who can forget the famous pot smoking Jatayu act by Imty).

About the people I met there, specially my batchmates. Met some real good people and made good friends in a short time, I must say. Just to name a few,gaurav,bharat,richa,tamdin,vaibhav are the top of my mind recall. Before this stint,I never had an opportunity to interact people from the north east( like darjeeling,nagaland,manipur etc). Here at convergys a lotta ppl are from the north east and even in our batch we had 6 ppl from there.All of them were talented..singing, playing guitar etc.

It was a great opportunity to meet them and I made real good friends with some of them. Tamdin was a cute girl,she was very introvert initially and hardly spoke a word. By the end of 5th week I think she made frnds with evry1.I wish she would really soon turn out to be a very confident individual,,,rocking the floor wherever she goes. Lima was a good singer and she had a good intellectual level. Kabuana was a serious lookin beautiful lady and played awesome guitar but ppl who know her are aware she aint as serious as looks. Aki looked like " Hero Nakamura" of "heroes" and gave an impression of a damn damn stern person on day 1, but as time passed by everybody saw the other side of this guy. Great guitar player, good at drums and had good sense of humour. Gaurav chopra was one of the good friends I made at convergys, another engg like me, into the bpo industry just for a stopover period. Then there was vaibhav ,who claimed he had 6 girlfrnds. These are the ppl I envy (just kiddin), coz he closed 5 potential openings for other guys. He was a helpful and good at heart person as well. Bharat was a matured, simplified person was like a big brother as he was agewise sr to most of us. He had a 1 yr daughter.

Every one there was an interesting individual and I must say I developed an attachment with the batch and it was really hard to say goodbye forever. So I decided not to tell any1 that i was leavin. I ended my last day@convergys just like any other day and then never returned.

Good news was I got my first salary 16.5k, though not much, but the excitement of earning it was great. I attended 40-50 calls from the uk and I must say initially in some cases it becomes really difficult to understand what the hell that person is saying. I mean what the hell....But they say as u spend more time taking calls u start picking up the keywords. The longest call I took was of some reena begum from bermingham who ate up my head for 45 mins. But one never realises how time flies by when u r takin calls.

I wish my frnds back there in convergys , a very best of luck for their future endeavours. Hope they will keep rocking the floor..........

LIfe@SIP

Well i m doin my summer interns in gurgaon@philips. First day i visited philips office in gurgaon, i was fascinated and was kind of excited that i wud be working in such a place, all glassy,shiny, stuff like that. But to my dismay, i got a project with title 'mapping of CFL i in gurgaon'. It involves me visiting hundreds of retail counters across gurgaon and finding the market share of philips cfl. Frankly telling its crappy business. First day i visited the distributor,who sees me as an unwanted obligation,which aint a big deal and is natural. Then i was sent with the salesman to go and take a look at the market. As it was first day (on 16th of feb ) i had no clue what to talk to with the retailers and mostly kept quiet and observed the salesman with his modus operandi. One day was enough for me and then i ran off to home for weekend. This week also i went there for just two days i.e tues n thursday(today). I went to various retailers, all having different kind of behaviours. Some very friendly, open to discussion ,feedback. They shared their problems with me and thought telling me wud change things. Some were very hostile, not even willing to talk. I think that also i gonna help me with my PR skills, maybe. But this thing isnt very interesting and after visiting 10-15 counters i kind off get bored coz repeating same sentences again n again is actually boring. I max do this for 3 hours. I think salesmen could tel much betr about the market share than me. Well here i feel like Rocket singh. Today a shopkeeper reminded me of an incident which though i had heard of before, but was good to hear again. It was how colgate increased its sale by 20% just by increasing the diameter of their tube. So i've had enuf for the week and am on my way back home for the holi holidays. Plan is to celebrate holi goin to hillstations like dalhousie and other places with family and papa's friends' and their families. HAPPY HOLI TO ALL

How can I forget 21st JAN

This date cant be forgotten...ever....
On a positive note it is my best friend's (langotia) birthdate.
On the other hand, on the very same day 2 yrs back my beloved grandma (whom we kids lovingly used to call MAJI) left us and moved on to the next world. That was a day which shook me from within and I understood how trivial a man is. Maji lying in front of me, as if she would speak any moment. But something was missing. They call it the soul. Earlier it was hard to imagine life without her, but now I realise life's still moving on. She still is and will always remain alive in our hearts forever. We pray for peacefullness of her soul,wherever she is. We know her blessings would be with us. Love u Maji !

" UNITED WE STAND, DIVIDED WE FALL"

2day is thurs & it ws a holiday coz der ws sum tnsion goin on in the city on the "telangana issue".
One dumbheaded politician followed by several dick headed follwers are crying for a new state outta A.P. This dumb guy is fasting(as is claimed) since past few days. As his health deteriorates by the day his followers show their rage by thrashing shopping malls and public places(shows how impotent the police and govt is).
If my opinion ws 2 b taken I wud recommend to take 3rd degree action against the students who r creating agitation and kick the shit outta their asses.What have they thought of themselves ,they attack as mob and escape without being caught hold of. And also let this politician continue the so-called till death fast. Such cheapos are not req in this contry nymore,nywaz. But govt has given in to these sick guys and has nodded for the formation of Telangana. This shows its impotency and status of law and order in this country. Many ministers have resigned in resp to this.I support their view.

We Indians are so proud of our culture thruout the world. But "our" is a relative term. It has become so subjective that it blinds us to the fact that some of us behave irrationally and selfishly. Like spoilt children their demands must be met at any cost irresp of fact whether they cause harm to whole nation. Spiltting up more states is immature and cowardly. Our nation builders have worked hard to unite the country whereas those demanding splits are mere puppets of their selfish desires in the name of serving their people. So I see there is no rationale in splitting up the states as it aint gonna help ppl get rid of poverty and their grievances.

One comment of mine ws published by times of India editor today regarding this issue.

Why dont they understand:
" UNITED WE STAND, DIVIDED WE FALL"