total timepass...

I had been hearing for ages about the awesome food that you can eat at some place called BTC (Bhagat Tara Chand).. A friend used to go there every weekend apparently and raved about it all the time.. So I decided to check it out for myself if it was worth all the praise and what a worthy revelation it was!! BTC is located in Kalbadevi area in Mumbai and serves Sindhi food. However, there are five-six shops in that area all of which use the same name!! Its tough to find the original one now:). My guess is it used to be one famous eating place earlier and now after family feuds and splits, all the brothers use the same name for their own shops. Apparently all of them serve similar food, so you can try any of them. On the outside they don't seem impressive, but you just need to go in once to know what they offer!! Anyways, first of all, reaching this place is a nightmare! Its near the Mumba devi temple in Kalbadevi and is one of the most crowded areas in Mumbai. The cab driver may jus...

Its a first that am writing a review for an eating place, but this place surely deserves it!! Good tasty delicious North Indian food is a rarity in Mumbai, and this has really been a fortunate find for us. Located in Andheri (West), Urban Tadka is heaven for people who are looking for goooood food! I would surely recommend this restaurant to someone who wants to have a tasty meal; its even worth going halfway across town till Andheri to have this yummy fare:). The ambience of the place is rustic and rural, trying to portray something similar to villages in Punjab. And the food totally totally rocks, I don't really have too many words to say it. It was yummy, tasty, with lots and lots of butter and totally mindblowing food. I tried the Dal Makhani, Butter Naan, Aloo and Biryani there. They are surely pure heaven, other dishes can't really comment on, but given what I ate, the rest should also be comparable. A must frequent place.

A lot of us who were in Mumbai during the 26 November events will never forget what all happened. And the people who actually went through the events of course will be haunted by it all for years to come!! But I did not expect someone to be affected by those events in this way ! This is just ridiculous, for someone to be discriminated against for having been a witness to the Mumbai attacks??!! And that too from a prestigious institution like a school!

India is a land of festivals, we've all known that since ages. But the realization that these festivals are celebrated differently in different regions of the country is a completely separate discovery, as I did in my recent stay at Mumbai. Some interesting aspects of this, would like to share with you all.. Janamashtami During Janamashtami, the matkis setup everywhere in the city make for interesting viewing. Somehow I had never ever seen Janamashtami being celebrated before, so it was a new discovery for me anyways...Groups of matki-phods traverse the city in trucks, breaking matkis and pocketing the prize money. The earlier you start, the more matkis you can break and the more you earn:). Also during the day, the unconquered matkis are lowered as the day progresses so that breaking it becomes more achievable. The speed with which the matkis are broken is surprising too, you blink and the matki would be gone. Just as a warning, during the day, be careful of th...

IPL is over.. phew.. !! Though obviously the aftermath isn't yet:). Once the Shoaib-Sania daily updates finished, started the Modi saga, giving enough work to the Indian media.. This latest saga will continue to give us many more 'manu-ranjan ka baap' moments for sometime.. but we still need to wait and watch for the end to this.. Anyways, this article is more about the IPL stadium experience again. Most of the earlier IPL league matches that I saw were in Braborne stadium (of which I have already written before in detail ). They were fun to watch and so I kept going again and again to see those matches. Saw the IPL final in the DY Patil Stadium however and it was a different experience. Not sure if I would want to go there often though! The stadium is beautiful! Very well constructed: its huge and there are no columns blocking your view at any location. Any seat you sit on, you get a complete view of the ground (and this was quite different from Braborne). The sound a...

People who drive in Mumbai have certain reactions when they see a traffic policeman stopping them, a feeling of fear or wonder whether they would be fined today or not or an instinct to just reach for the purse:). The usual tips given by everyone on how to handle the traffic cops when you are stopped go like this: offer money asap (after negotiating on it a bit) and you will be able to get away very cheap that way. And to never argue with them irrespective of whether you committed any offense or not, as he can always book you under some vague rule if you anger him and that will prove costlier than just slipping some notes to him. When anyone sees a traffic policeman on the road, he wonders, is the cop going to pick on me to stop now (irrespective of whether I am breaking a traffic rule or not!) and how cheap will I get away with... Its a bit sad.. This isn't what thoughts a traffic policeman should stir up in anyone, right? It should just make you more aware about how y...

The Mumbai Marathon is a running facebook:). Seriously:)))) I woke up early morning this Sunday, to cheer some of my friends who were running this year in the Marathon.. The friend for whom I woke up so early, was the only one I missed. Rest, I met people after 10-15 years, friends from childhood, school, college, work and even people I never again wanted to see in my life:).. As I said a running facebook:) At one point, saw the Kenyans running.. They just swooshed past, and that too at the 33km mark. All of them in a group, running together, preceded by the media bus. What a sight! They are soo fit, and run soooo fast! Simply amazing.. Its also very inspiring to see the very old people running such distances. Makes you want to give it a shot too! Anyways was good to see so many people out in the streets cheering the others. Go Mumbai go!!

Wow, what a slogan!! Isn't it? Brilliant!! It was playing across tv channels all of yesterday.. Yesterday on the one-year anniversary of 26/11, we were in the Colaba area where the attacks had happened. The roads were all blocked due to huge traffic, of people going to Gateway and showing their support to all affected by the tragedy last year. We saw something like a rock concert happening at the Leopold Cafe, to show Mumbai's defiance to the brutal attack. A police rally at Nariman point. Students from many colleges collecting at the Gateway and shouting slogans, on how we will not take such attacks lying down and demanding our politicians to do something, anything. Abhishek Bachchan on TV, in some telecom ads proclaiming that we will not forget. Another telecom company announcing that a percentage of the proceeds from all calls made on XYZ date, between ABC time will go to the families of policemen affected by 26/11. And of course, all newspapers and tv channels re-discov...

I don't think there is any end to the continuous stream of news for which my only reaction can be, "Ridiculous !!" Here is another one... Taxpayers pay Rs 204 cr for bogus MCD staffers I wonder how they manage to come up with such ingenuous ways of siphoning off money, everytime! And also wonder what would happen if this ingenuity was channeled somewhere useful?

Ever wondered why Bombay Times is still "Bombay" Times? I did.. and then realised that it will always be so.. The honourable Mr. Raj Thackeray prefers to impose his passion for converting 'Bombay's to 'Mumbai's, only on the weak ones.. He would not dare to take on the might of a publishing house.. He prefers to just bully the taxi drivers and the restaurant owners and the Karan Johars (who have business reasons for keeping him happy).... But not anyone who can stand up to him.... Makes you wonder, does that mean that the powerful ones (like the media) can actually challenge him, and even control him? Would they? We never may know...