I have finally started understanding some parts of delhi. I can reach Vasant Vihar, Saket, gurgaon etc. without much help. Tull knows the areas broadly and defying the girls reputation of being bad with directions she is pretty okay with directions.

We went to Punjabi by Nature at PVR Priyaon Wednesday. I liked the ambience. I also liked the food. Service was decent. They levy 10% service charge by default. The naan at PBN was so huge that one of them would be sufficient (or more) for a normal adult. Again only the costly side. I would give it 4 stars (* * * *).

One of the disadvantages of having both of your sisters in the same town is that when you visit one, you have to automatically balance it with a prompt visit to the second sibling. Specially on festivals like Rakhi that are all about brother-sister relation.

I had to take a leave because my Pune company has holidays only in two cases:

1. There is some festival that is not celebrated in my home but almost all of Pune is on roads thus making it more difficult to utilize the holiday in any other way.

2. It is festival totally unknown to me and falls in the middle of the week hence thwarting all hopes of getting a long weekend.

I digress, we got ready early in the morning on this holiday to go to Gurgaon and have chole bhature as breakfast with my sis and her family. We also had my favorite sivaiyon wali kheer. All in all we had a good time.

Now we had the daunting task of crossing delhi and going to Gaziabad on a day when all brothers of the city (and it looked like some of them were from neighbouring states too) are on the road to meet and greet their sisters. Of course there were some brothers sitting at home while their sisters negotiated the unusually heavy traffic.

Nearly 70 kms were covered in three and a half hours. There was a round of laughter when my other sis also prepared chole bhature for us. I actually took a small nap to replenish my energies.

We set out for a nearby colony Ram Prastha where one of Tull's buaji lives. Tull's younger cousin's made sure that I had lots of sweets/namkin and of course there was sivaiyon wali kheer. I can write another post about the jija-sali vibe I felt for the first time, now I understand why there are so many songs and anecdotes about this special chemistry.

Next stop was Mayur Vihar where buaji had also prepared Chole Bhature. Thankfully we were spared this time.

It was nearly 10 when we reached Tull's place. Before I forget, I got the best directions from Tull's fufaji for coming back. Very detailed, very accurate, we didn't have to ask anyone for confirmation. He should probably open an equivalent of google maps.

Attended my first b'day party on phone today. It was actually GS Lab's 4th anniversary and I was attending it remotely.

Attending meetings, technical lectures and company update meetings on phone has become normal for me now. I certainly miss "the normal" way to attend these events but I definitely like being close to Jaipur.

I drove to Jaipur and back on weekend. I was rather disappointed by the NH 8 highway. Bangalore highway in Pune and Pune-Bombay Express way were much better. Roads in Jaipur were at their worst I have seen in last 10 years. I rememberd a much better NH8 and Jaipur roads when I last travelled on them.

Eureka !

A long time ago we used small plastic tubs at home. As kids we could fill the tub completely and sit in them.

I have used bath tubs and read about bath tubs in novels (including H2G2) and have seen numerous bath tub scenes in movies or TV serials.

Why I am talking about plastic tubs and bath tubs? I don't know how it happened but just now a thought came to my mind. There was a time when the phrase "bath in tub" would be related to a kid in plastic tub. I was not using these tubs then. But I had not seen the actual tubs either.

Anyway, the thought that came to my mind was that Archimedes was not sitting in a plastic tub when he made the great discovery related to "volume of water displaced". I always imagined a grown (with whiskers) up using the kiddish plastic bathtub and found the whole incident hilarious. Of course others found it hilarious too but they were probably thinking about the guy coming out of the bath tub and running around in that state, I never reached there.

So Archimedes, sorry dood. I agree that you were using a normal bath tub and not plastic one that I had imagined till a couple of minutes ago. Were you using plastic toy ducks by any chance? Because they also featured in my imagination.. infact they were the "object" that displaced water.

We* saw Chak De India yesterday. National Anthem before the movie.. and in the movie too. Friends had already told me that the full song is not played. Now this put me in a fix. I wanted to stand to pay respect to the anthem but I knew it would get over quickly. Felt good that 3-4 people actually stood up. Felt bad that not many did.

In all this just when I put my feet on the ground to get up, the song got over. I liked the movie. :-)

In our attempt to try all good restaurants in Delhi we have tried 4 mentionable restaurants so far.

1. Moti Mahal - Dwarka - * * *1/2 - Enemy Tull is a big fan of Moti Mahal, Janakpuri, we haven't gone to the Janakpuri outlet but I liked the food an ambience in Dwarka. If not for the long queue, wait and overtly spicey masala papad it would have got better ratings.

2. Swagat, Defence Colony - * * * - We went there for lunch on Enemy Tull's b'day. Again long queue outside the hotel and slight liquor smell. I liked the food. Might go there again.

3. Alka, Connaught Place - 1/2 - It seems the restaurant is very popular. So popular that they had to open and annex in CP. But I would define it as Cramped space, Steel cutlery, slow service, no garlic/onion in dishes and all dishes tasted same. Enemy Tulls's b'day dinner was spoiled thanks to Oonchi dukaan, feeke pakwaan.

I agree with following quote:

"Tomatoes & Oregano make it Italian; Wine & Tarragon make it French. Sour cream makes it Russian; Lemon and Cinnamon make it Greek. Soy sauce makes it Chinese. Garlic makes it good..."

Owners of Alka: If you want to stay in business for long, put garlic or cater to jain community in Gujrat.

4. Baabu ji ka dhaba, Metropolitan Mall, Gurgaon: * * * * 1/2 - We went there yesterday. The food was good, service was super fast. Ambience would make us go there again and again. I liked the pickles too. I guess it was homemade. It was slightly costlier than normal restaurants and they add 10% service charge in the bill by default.

5. Salsa, Sahara Mall, Gurgaon: * * * - Its a good imitation of mexican restaurants. But its an imitation. We tried Nachos, Salsa, Quesadillas and took an extra dip of Salsa but guacomole/avocado were missing.

* Most of the time "We/we" would represent Enemy Tull and me.

We went to see Buddha mar gaya yesterday. The movie is really gross.

What caught my attention was Indian National Anthem being played in cinema hall. I have seen INA in Pune/Mumbai cinema halls but this was the first time I saw it in Delhi. Beautifully sung by masters of music. Lata mangeshkar started the song and I was surprised to see a locket of national flag on her neck (is it allowed now? I had read that you are now allowed to wear things related to the fla above waist so this should qualify :P). First change of singer took me by surprise and to my surprise second one too :-). But after that I expected singers to change. It was a pleasure to recognize individual 'styles' of vocalists for one single song. I was rather happy to hear it.

We came back home and I did something I don't do very often. I switched on the TV. And there was another version of the INA but sung by one singer. I saw the INA and changed the channel to see INA again (this time the multiple singer edition).

It is sponsered by Airtel and I don't think it's such a good idea to broadcast INA so many times on TV channels. I think that respect for the anthem will go away if I hear it 20 times a day, I wouls stop standing still and I would stop paying attention to the song. I don't know what can be done about it.

PS: I finished reading five point someone. I liked the informal style of writing. Next up is "Great Expectations".

I liked Deathly Hallows :-), I now plan to watch rest of the Harry Potter movies. At the end of the book I felt that it got over very quickly.

Anyways, weekend was spent in family mode. Both my niece (and their parents :p)came to our place for lunch.

Next up is Five Point Someone.

I started reading the latest Harry Potter book Deathly Hallows. I like the book so far. I also started reading Chetan Bhagat's Five Point Someone. A friend left a copy with me so I decided to read the book anyway.

I will get my car back today. We plan to go for shopping and I am already thiking of outings :-)

Pune had some really good places where we went again and again without getting bored. Hopefully Delhi will have similar weekend getaways. I should buy a guidebook and map soon.

I finished reading HBP and will now read the latest Harry Potter book. :-) I and Tull went for dinner at SoMan's place. This is a latest addition in superhero(ine) league. SoMan had hidden her culinary skills from us for long. I must say the dinner was really good and I took two helpings of dessert :-)

After dinner we decided to go to a pub/disc called Buzz in Gurgaon. Wiseguy and SoMan's lightweight friend were also invited for dinner. 5 of us were there till 12 when we decided to call it a day. Buzz had a female DJ who was going mad after every 10 minutes. There was good music for 10 minutes and suddenly the DJ went beserk and played some unrelated track as remix and then got back to normal likeable music. As usual I stood on the dance floor not doing much but looking from Wiseguy to Tull and back. Nobody said anything, I assume they took this as a dance step where I was roating 180% clockwise and counter-clockwise again and again without giving much bhaav to the beats.

I and Tull also went shopping and were very unfortunate to get movie tickets for a recent release. I am glad I didn't pay for the movie in Cash. I have a good capacity to enjoy bad movies, I can make comedies out of worst of the movies but this one gave me a headache. Tull got a headache too. I bet aunty next to us was also feeling heavy in her head.

After the movie we met some people who took more than 45 minutes to find out that PVR Anupam, Saket is different from PVR Priya, Vasant Vihar. They can harldly be blamed, they also had the task of choosing right and wrong between numerous boards saying they are standing in Saket but 2 people telling them they were in Vasant Vihar. I am still trying to figure out the motivation for the 2 people mentioned above, I hope it is not part of an international controversy to misguide youth of India.

At that, I will press the "publish post" button. Hope you had a great weekend too.