LLife

Visual Atyachaar

2009-03-13T05:25:00.000-07:00

sardar in goa cocktail recommendation

2009-01-03T10:40:00.000-08:00

For late afternoons on the beach, when its breezy
Name of the Cocktail: Chummi
Ingredients and Mixing:
A generous portion of Lime Cordial | About 60 ml says the Sardar
A Chummi* of Feni | Caju say the Sardar, and insists any random brand. Preferably some lable you have never seen before
Fill up the glass with soda | For this the glass needs to be tall, says the Sardar

Sit facing the setting sun, on the beach.
Perfrect!

Sardars Secret Formula:
* a chummi is around 25 ml, it is not a measure but a general guideline. A little less than a standard small of 30ml, but not too less.

Walking the River

2007-06-24T21:33:00.000-07:00

While it was raining like mad all through the weekend, a bunch of idiots woke up at 6 in the morning on a Sunday and wet to Tambdi Surla to walk the river.

Weekend Road Trip

2007-05-28T04:55:00.000-07:00

Goa Beach Sleeping

2007-05-21T09:34:00.000-07:00

This is the new thing that we have been trying out these days. Goa is just to hot to be going out in the day, but one cant sit in the office AC all weekend. The answer, my friend, is (blowin in the wind) beach sleeping!

Done this the second time over this weekend. Went out to eat at Saturday night at this nice place called Zeebop somewhere near Otorda beach. By the time we finished dinner (i don't drink anymore), it was almost 12:30. No body was in any shape to ride back 30kms. So, we just slept on the beach. Last time over when we went to Arambol, it was a li'l more planned, we has a bed sheet n shit. But this time, it was just the sand and us.

Surprisingly, you don't feel hot or cold and mosquitoes don't trouble you one bit. And you can claim that you woke up at 6 on a Sunday morning (actually, we get back and sleep for a few hours). Not to mention, you can do some romantic, relaxing star gazing before you doze of. We were lucky to have a nice moon on both nights. In Arambol, it was full and bring and at Zeebop it was a thin slice.

We are now planing to buy some gear for this. Apparently, you get some rubber/foam sheet which is very fold-able and very light.

All in all, a perfect way to enjoy Goa even when it's very very hot!

I f-ing Caught Fish

2007-04-02T10:33:00.000-07:00

Woo wooo, after 8 months of owning a fishing rod, which was my birthday gift by the way, I finally caught fish last week. Thanks to cheif Dean Gonsalves. Ok. I am not a fool;, I just did not know how big a hook to use and I was using a very big one.

Apartments in Goa

2006-10-06T03:50:00.000-07:00

Palm trees, sea view from your bedroom (or even from your loo), birds chirping as you laze out of your bed in the morning or friendly goan neighbours(cooking smelly prawn all the time). You will get everything of these in Goa, but Goa will make you sweat or make you pay!

I have been living in this beautiful apartment in Goa (Dona Paula), which has a sea view (one has to stretch from the balcony though) and a very nice general view. It's very quite, very serene, pretty girls in the neighborhood, but no peace of mind! Every 3 months, circumstances are such that we desperately start looking for a new house. Some one of the other in our office is always looking for a place. Sometimes it's competition between colleagues. Once 4 people from the same office landed up to look at a 1 BHK flat :)

And the amazing fact is that when you are walking through the streets, half of the flats are empty! Hot shots from Bombay and Delhi are buying property in Goa at insane prices (going by Goa rates) and have completely spoiled the market. And to spoil things further, we will now have international tourists coming and paying $100 per week for stupid apartments. I am seriously considering the purchase of a beach tent. Enjoy Goa to the fullest and still have loads of money in the bank!

Yeah baby...

2006-06-12T23:29:00.000-07:00

Ya to dosti bahut gehri hai...

2006-04-13T00:12:00.000-07:00

...ya fir yeh photo 3D hai!

Photography...

2006-03-12T06:08:00.000-08:00

Me n buddy Veer(in specs)

www.flickr.com/photos/gnurpreet

Quite a 1st Jan

2006-01-10T02:37:00.001-08:00

31st of Dec was approaching, all eyes were on me. All the friends were more excited about me being in Goa on the 31st, than I was myself. 31st was pretty toned down but. Just a small gathering at the boss’, a barbeque (or is it barbecue), some beer, some wine and lots of witty stories. It left me a little dissatisfied, but, and I decided that I have to go to, the much hyped, Palolem beach, which is the only place in Goa that I hadn’t been to earlier.

We started at 10am from Dona Paula (yes, I did get up. Yes, I know it was a Sunday) and reached by 12. I was under the impression that the place would be close to Margao, and was all set to wind up the journey when we crossed Margao city. But it was 35kms from there, no and not that I am complaining. Those were the best 35, had to cross a ghat or two. The best part of driving on the ghats is that the bike is never at straight up, it is always at a tilt. And then you have to keep shifting the direction of the tilt. Its so much of fun for the driver.

When I reach my beach, I like to see as much sand on the length, no red, blue, green disturbances, but only sand. That is why I somewhat don’t like Goa in December and prefer it so much in July. But, Palolem did make me happy in December.

The moment we reached, these boatmen thronged us. They wanted to take us into the sea to watch dolphins. We got a good bargain, I am sure the Firangs on the boat paid quite a bit. So we saw dolphins. Now one would think wow, but by the end of the day we didn’t even remember that we saw dolphins. It was nowhere close to ‘the high in the day’. Somehow, the chronology of highs in the day just kept going higher and higher till the day ended.

At this point, let me talk a bit about the beach. It is at the end of a bay; three sides covered by land and is almost like a huge lake which is quite calm, no big waves. From one end of the beach, a stream enters the sea. An island of sorts (which looks like the one you picture when confronted with the question “Whom would you like to deserted with on an uninhabited island) on one side which has a huge hill and a lot of palms. And lovely thick forest of palm, behind the beach.

We walked to one end of the beach (the end with the stream) and spread out our sheet and went off to sleep. It was so quite that we could hear the bird’s wings fluttering when they flew above us. Not that we were in deep slumber or something, but we were just relaxing there for about 2 hours. Many people come to Goa for the wrong reasons and especially so during the New Year-Christmas season, but Goa is an amazing place to relax, to unwind, to be with yourself.

After a beer and some eats, we went for a dip. Now Palolem is the place if you love going into the sea and swimming in there. At rest of the places, I fear drowning, but this sea was so calm and quite. Were just standing there in the middle and feeling the current gently nudge us, again and again.

The sun had set, it was time to go and it was a long way back. No one I knew was in the mood of going. We lingered for a coffee at a shack that played excellent Goa Trance. It was dark that night, very dark and since the waves didn’t make too much of a sound at Palolem, you didn’t really know what was in the dark. It was fascinating. Maybe it is the sand, or the sea or the palms or don’t know what. But I never feel like going back if I spend an hour on a good Goa beach.

Surprisingly, now started the best part; the drive back. It was dark, it was cold and the sky was very starry and clear. We had to do the ghats again, and they had no street lights. The tilting of the bike from one side to another, except this time it is not that bright and it’s colder. No horns are used, only dippers. Many places in Goa have this 500m space between two ghats where they have paddy fields (one such place is just before Calangute). These places are fun to be at night. You can see a dark outlines on the hills and the starry sky on the backdrop. The color difference is so subtle that I don’t think any camera can capture it.

Jagjit & Chitra

2005-11-29T08:16:00.000-08:00

This post comes after a very long time. People might think he's got a job in Goa so he'd be having a ball. But they did'nt notice that there was'nt a "high in the day" for very long.

The latest obsession is Jagjit Singh and Chitra Singh. Bought an MP3 CD of theirs for dad, ended up copying it on my own computer and listening to it over and over again for like half a week now. The favourite being "ahista ahista", I have 3 versions of it, with different shers. They are all live, and I have started to realize that these live performances are an experience of their own. I have'nt been in any. Thats next on the list.

I want to write about Chitra Singh, but the words are'nt coming...

A jaab in Goaaa

2005-09-06T22:24:00.000-07:00

Friends, fellowmen, wellwishers, an announcement - I got a new job in Goa...
I will be *working* in Goa soon. The company is called Synapse and I am gonna try and learn some Project Management, to start with. Special thanks to Jace(Yeah, you read about him in ToI), who got me introduced to the company. And the picture you see out there is gonna be ma noo office :)

And a few more Pics (Courtesy Jace)

Good Morning Mumbai

2005-09-01T01:47:00.001-07:00

The high in this day...
This happens to many days since I moved to Mumbai. The high in the day is 15 mins of a Radio Show called Good Morning Mumbai at Go 92.5 FM. Not that the music so good that it makes me tear my clothes apart with joy, but the whole punch are the RJs, by the names, Jaggu and Tarana.

Jaggu & Tarana are awesomely cool together, its the chemistry. There have been times when Tarana had been on a tour and Malini was doing it (the show) with Jaggu and when Jaggu has been away and Tarana does it alone, but thats not as good. It has to be Jaggu & Tarana both together and then the timing, the chemistry is just so cool.

Now what do they yap about? Its mostly happenings all around us, latest news etc. Like today they yapped about the Crorepati Bar girl Tarannum, who didnt go to KBC.

The Green Wall

2005-08-29T22:55:00.000-07:00

This is very to my office. From the day I joined here, I wanted to click this wall (and do it before the monsoon ends), but just couldnt get my hands on a camera. And as soon as I did, here it is.

Notice the 'hip movement'

2005-03-16T04:12:00.000-08:00

Was at the demo session of some Latin American Dance Classes at Koregoan Park this weekend. The instructor there, called Shelly (nice name na), was teaching us Rumba and ChaChaCha. She was so persistent that we should notice the 'hip movement'. She would shout every few minutes : "Guys notice the Hip Movement".

Yes Ma'am I am noticing the hip movement, and oh do I love it! At last I found one place where it is moral to notice hip movements :)

Long time no blog...

2005-03-16T04:07:00.000-08:00

Its been a long time since I have been planning to start blogging, so I'l start NOW!