If I called Trivandrum the Land of coconuts, Bangalore or even the entire South India can easily be called the land of bath.
I found it very interesting to see ‘Rice bath’ in the menu items of all the Udupi hotels here. Yes, they are called Udupi hotels and are more like small vegetarian snacks/meals hotels you will find near Bus Stands in Maharashtra. But these hotels are very well maintained, clean and provide quite hygienic food as compared to what you can expect a hotel of that size to. Coming back to Rice Bath, my first and obvious reaction to the name was a big LOL as the two words are synonyms in Marathi. I would rather spell it ‘Bhaat’ as that’s the way it is pronounced. I tried to ask a couple of people what that means, the answers I got ranged from ‘bath’ means mixture to “Its called bath because they bathe the rice with different substances!!”
For people who have never had Rice bath, it means some item of rice either Lemon Rice, Puleogre(Tamarind Rice), Curd rice, Bisebile Bath(Spicy dal-rice much like amti-bhaat), Pongal (plain dal and rice with mainly coconuts and ginger – much like modified sadhavaran bhaat), Tomato rice and even Palav (They call Pulav that way). They could go on to make many more varieties!!
The other things you get plenty and good in these hotels is Dosa. Now there is Plain Dosa, Masala Dosa and Set Dosa. Set Dosa looks like a small thick dosa and usually served in a set of 3(quite filling for a meal)
Then there is of course the famous Idly and Vada. Mind you, all these things are made from Rice!
If that’s not all, you also get ‘Kesari Bath’ and ‘Khara Bath’. Simply put, Kesari bath is what we call Shira but this one is yellowish-orange in color with supposed to be Kesar in it, and Khara Bath is …? Any guess? it’s Upama!
Want to have some more of bath? I bet not. But if you are still hungry, there’s Avalaki bath (that’s our tasty Pohe which aren’t that tasty here) and also Sevgai Bath (something made of sevaya)
These Udupi hotels are everywhere and always packed with people. One very peculiar thing about these joints is that you can have ample amount of sambar & chatni with anything you take here and you won’t be charged extra for that. All of them will have similar looking wash hand basins, similar aquaguards, same token system and self service and similar broom to clean the dosa tava (it’s a kharata!)
So come on in to the land of Bath, a ‘bath’ treat from me awaits you!
Friday, June 24, 2005
Monday, June 06, 2005
A Dream Come True
Friendship day poem ... August 3, 2003
I had a dream, a dream of wealth
a dream i never thought would suffice so well.
No, I didn't get a pot filled of gold,
instead i got hearts which are wealthier than gold.
I had a dream, a dream of health
mental well being I thought, was difficult to attain
but as i met you my opinions changed,
the jingles of life have come again.
I had a dream, a dream of being loved.
Lovey-dovey friends, i always hankered for,
and then a time came when the right chords struck,
today i am the happiest, in a midst of bliss.
Now that the dreams have come true,
now that the tunes are so much through,
let me say to thee
let us march forward, all the way completely.
Let us today take a oath,
of clasping together for eternal growth,
even when the situ's are grim,
we swear to the heart, we will never quit.
Friday, June 03, 2005
Graffiti out of frustration
“Do not use paper cups for drinking water, it cost 60 paisa per cup” – so stands a notice in the refreshment room on my floor. Well, the room contains water and coffee vending machine for ‘refreshments’. To make for some exquisite graffiti, somebody in a typical school’s toilet style has scribbled on its side, “yeah.. I know it’s a big deal for a $2 Billion Company”.
Right from the day I joined here in Bangalore, I have been largely unimpressed by the facilities provided. You will find people complaining about salary here, but nothing irritates you more when you have to eat food of the most pathetic variety and stand at the BMTC bus stops for a long time while you see loads of busses from different companies going past
There are some very good benefits provided by the company, excellent work environment, variety of technologies and domains, fast career path, onsite opportunities, decent work load and ample holidays but I fail to understand the priorities of the management. Don’t know how the company manages to keep lowest attrition rates in the industry.
Anyway, I thought about for a while whether to post this on the blog or not, but then may be I thought, there is nothing you and me can do about it so there is nothing to lose!
Right from the day I joined here in Bangalore, I have been largely unimpressed by the facilities provided. You will find people complaining about salary here, but nothing irritates you more when you have to eat food of the most pathetic variety and stand at the BMTC bus stops for a long time while you see loads of busses from different companies going past
There are some very good benefits provided by the company, excellent work environment, variety of technologies and domains, fast career path, onsite opportunities, decent work load and ample holidays but I fail to understand the priorities of the management. Don’t know how the company manages to keep lowest attrition rates in the industry.
Anyway, I thought about for a while whether to post this on the blog or not, but then may be I thought, there is nothing you and me can do about it so there is nothing to lose!
Wednesday, June 01, 2005
Storms galore in Ban-galore
Saturday Evening, after Ajay Devgan, it was Rain God’s turn to say, “Main Aisa Hi Hoon!!” What I experienced that day was my worst ever fight with nature and today when I am safe at home, I can think of the adventure to be something thrilling. But this adventure could have been a misadventure pretty easily.
It was a sunny Saturday evening when I and one of my friends went out for a Movie in Bangalore’s famous PVR Cinema. As we started for home on my bike, we were sure the rain is going to come down heavily. As I tried to race against time to reach home quickly, there it poured, and how!
The wind left us caught in a leaves-storm and then in a hail-storm of the worst kind I have experienced myself. As I tried to take my bike closer to home, the hail-stones were hitting us like bullets; thank God that day I picked up the helmet at the last moment.
There was water gushing in from everywhere, winds trying to blow me away and initially there were no living objects in sight while later there were so many that Bangalore also managed to have a traffic jam at that juncture. It was really an experience, to be caught in a traffic jam with knee deep water and getting hit left and right with hail-stones!
We somehow stopped at one joint for 5 minutes and then daringly took the bike over muddled roads, footpaths, dark alleys, and even overflowing potholes. It was a thriller in the end so surely the movie was paisa vasool! We were soaked to the bones and had experienced the real power of nature, cold and raw.
The next day’s newspapers were obviously overflowing with reports of Deaths, of people, of trees, of traffic, of roads and the government looking in equal awe as I was! For the statistics, there were 130 electricity poles which went down in south Bangalore alone and innumerable no. of trees which bit the dust (or may be mud). Bangalore is long demanding a metro status from the Indian Government but until it has a disaster management policy in place for this fury of nature which it experiences more often than anywhere else, that dream may well be - a dream.
It was a sunny Saturday evening when I and one of my friends went out for a Movie in Bangalore’s famous PVR Cinema. As we started for home on my bike, we were sure the rain is going to come down heavily. As I tried to race against time to reach home quickly, there it poured, and how!
The wind left us caught in a leaves-storm and then in a hail-storm of the worst kind I have experienced myself. As I tried to take my bike closer to home, the hail-stones were hitting us like bullets; thank God that day I picked up the helmet at the last moment.
There was water gushing in from everywhere, winds trying to blow me away and initially there were no living objects in sight while later there were so many that Bangalore also managed to have a traffic jam at that juncture. It was really an experience, to be caught in a traffic jam with knee deep water and getting hit left and right with hail-stones!
We somehow stopped at one joint for 5 minutes and then daringly took the bike over muddled roads, footpaths, dark alleys, and even overflowing potholes. It was a thriller in the end so surely the movie was paisa vasool! We were soaked to the bones and had experienced the real power of nature, cold and raw.
The next day’s newspapers were obviously overflowing with reports of Deaths, of people, of trees, of traffic, of roads and the government looking in equal awe as I was! For the statistics, there were 130 electricity poles which went down in south Bangalore alone and innumerable no. of trees which bit the dust (or may be mud). Bangalore is long demanding a metro status from the Indian Government but until it has a disaster management policy in place for this fury of nature which it experiences more often than anywhere else, that dream may well be - a dream.
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