Weekend Redux ..

Thought would try something different this weekend .. sleep for a change ..

Saturday started well enough with me and two of my quasi Malyalee friends (are but arent Malu's). Got the first row tickets to "Being Cyrus" the 11:00 p.m. show, that left us with almost 4 hours to kill .. kill we did .. first some bugs in our tummy with beer at the good ole Mondy's (Cafe Mondegar to the uninitiated), some decent chilly beef and fries. Walk down to the quaint little New Martin's for some fantastic Pork Sorpotel and Onion Steak. Freak out on desserts at Theobroma .. Chocolate Overkill.

Stuffed to the brim and a movie to watch and the ride back home .. couldnt be fun post us being our gluttonous best.

Sunday was a different story, got up at seven and hit the mat back at 7:30. Get up again at 10:30 and finish off the lunch at Chakra and get back home to sleep yet again !!

And dont get up till 7 today morning .. didnt really know I could sleep that much !!

Another weekend ...

Another late lunch and getting yet another shirt dirty .. this time by paan stains, and no I would spend on another shirt again (do not have office on sundays !). With a red-ish patch on my white kurti get onto a bus to go to Huma Adlab, back to back movies - "Crash" an involving Oscar nominated flick about racial discrimination and the effects it has on the individual intertwined stories and "Malamal Weekly" mindless fun .. thank god I left my brains behind. Paresh Rawal at his best, bad teeth and the works ..

Ate food at "The food factory" decent pasta without the frills .. if all you want is cheesy pasta cooked Indiyan Shtyle you have it here .. Also slices of pizza .. wish they had thin crust !!

Cant wait for the next back to back movies next week ... NOT !!

Travel time ..

.. onto Chennai .. the day I was born .. ages ago. Couple of meetings .. and then onto Pune. The night was eventful just as my birthdays alwasy are, this time it was Zara, Tapas and Cocktails all the way. Next day on the flight was eventful too .. upgraded myself (the day next to my bday .. ofcourse I deserve the upgrade :)) .. Ranjeet Anand, in the same row as mine .. and we caught up after a year almost. He was coming back from Sri Lanka, with some Aviva goras. Post work and a long drawn painful meeting at Piaggio it was dinner at Nisorg .. new discovery .. one of those joints that I so like .. frquented by locals and tourists dont know they exist. Seafood at its best. Wish I knew Marathi to catch most of the jokes floating around.

Ever been without a single rupee and felt happy .. I did today. All ATM's in Pune suddenly thought of going kaput I check the last one at the Pune railway station but got the same blank screen there. Wishing that the ticket back to Mumbai is not more than the money I have in my pocket, I trudge to the ticket counter to find out (happily) that the ticket is rupees two hundred and not two fifty .. my wallet has two crisp hundred rupee notes and I get the ticket. I dig in deeper and get a tenner and two coins. Ask the nearest vendor for the water bottle and he quotes thirteen bucks, I look at him with disdain and walk off .. go to the nearest stall and he is selling it for the twelve that I have in my pocket. Okay, the waters taken care of .. the munching part .. taken care of by the Chiwada that I picked from my hotel room. My wallet is absolutely empty and I am happy ... nice ride .. nice person on the seat next to me .. water to drink and something to munch on .. what else could I ask for !! And the moment I get down at Mumbai, go to the ATM get some money out and order myself a Pizza, I splash mustard all over my shirt !! buy a cheap new shirt and move on to the office ... money sucks !!! :))

Leopold without the crowd ...

... succelent prawns, quite surrondings, woody loungy feel .. clean .. and open .. thats Cafe Universal for you. Couldnt find it listed on any web page though .. could spend hours at the joint. And beat this .. the most expensive item - item :) - is just 300 bucks ..

and cheese pieces for 10 bucks .. hehehe !

Saturday night was Taxi No. 9211 interesting movie .. a little bit of was it "collateral" .. the story line was a little familiar though ... and then the drive to Versova and a pep talk .. doing my good deed for the day .. night :))

Truckers Wit ..

Have seen a lot of wit on the roadside .. but never thought about the fuel tank (Bhojanalaya - Restaurant) the way this dude did .. on the LBS Marg .. in the terrific traffic jam which is more a norm than a rarity :)) Mumbai you have made me more patient (at least on the roads !!)

k .. am waiting for a table at Gajalee with Jaideep .. (reverse brain drain .. CPA and CS and heads back home from Toronto ... economy is rocking .. how long .. hmm .. remember the meltdown in south east asia a decade back ??!) .. ok back to the story .. out walks Nana Patekar .. gets into an Auto Rick .. with was-tha-this-wife-? .. guess he was practicing for his next movie "Cabbie in a Rick No.911"

MCP on Mumbai Roads ..

Mumbai is full of life .. driving down from Worli back to office get to see Jawed Akhtar reclining in his silver Sonata in a Pink Kurta .. A combination of Beamers / Mercs / the regular B segment cars and the rusty but trusty Black and Yellow Padmini Cabbies .. good licence plate though ... I am sure none of the liberated womem would be sitting in this particluar cab ... :))

Tommorow I tell you about my kitchen ... !