Postcards From J

Birthdays, I tell you. They creep up on you. Just like that. But hey! I'm actually not feeling anything about getting older this year. :)  CPK's Red Velvet Cake. Delish. As for my day yesterday, it was the usual. But we (family) did go to California Pizza Kitchen in BKC for dinner. I've been there a few times before, and the menu's just about alright. The only reason we went there was we didn't want to travel all the way to Bandra West or Andheri West during the peak traffic hours. And of course, for the red velvet cake. It is delicious. For a pizza place to be excelling in something else... haha! But you have to try it out. I quite love it. So, another year goes by. Kris assured me, "you aren't getting older, you're just getting better".  And then when I was being silly, RB reminded me, " oye champ! sometimes i get inspired by you to live the "good life". age is just a number, remember? ;)" Phone...

So @MissMalini ran a Twitter contest for Tigre Blanc Vodka sometime ago where she tweeted: Today is a day for #OpenLove ! Tell me what occasion you would crack open a bottle of Tigre Blanc to celebrate and win a whole case! — MissMalini (@MissMalini) March 22, 2013 As with most things on the internet, I tweeted my reply to her and forgot all about it. Imagine my surprise when she announced me as one of the winners. :) My 1st #OpenLove Tigre Blanc hamper goes to.. *drumroll please* obviously @ vodkaholic :) enjoy your parents 37th anniversary & bros 6 month! — MissMalini (@MissMalini) March 23, 2013 I received the hamper a few days ago and you know what? Hands down, this has got to be the most awesome-looking prize I have ever won. Thanks, Malini and Tigre Blanc! Pictures: Cheers! ~j~

The city has been pounded by relentless rain since Monday bringing life to a pathetic crawl. Imagine Goregaon to Andheri by car on the Western Express Highway taking three hours! Yes, three hours. And we were supposedly in the non-traffic direction. But when there's water-logging, it just doesn't matter which direction you're in. It's the famous Bombay monsoon. Hard. Cruel. Unforgiving. Not romantic, these rains at all. (#note2self: sue the movies for making us believe it's so wonderful to get soaked). And it continues to rain as I tap at my keyboard now. Monday was also THE day for an important decision that had to be made. More on that in time to come. Ironically, I had tweeted late Sunday night about wanting to give up something and that I was open to suggestions. Replies ranged from Twitter (hahaha, not yet!) to rickshaws (one day, someday...), from maida to sugar (totally doable, but needs motivation) and from swearing (which I don't do anyway but tha...

Friday. That's when most corporate rats rejoice at the prospect of the end of a work week, or rather at the lure of a two-day weekend. Sadly though, that was not even on my mind. I was upset about something at work that's just refusing to come together. And then all of a sudden I happened to glance at a retweet (i.e., a tweet that's been 'forwarded' to you. You may or may not follow the original tweeter in this case.) by @manimeow which caught my attention. It said "14. And yes, don't forget to giggle ;) #MyNotesOnWorldSaving". Intrigued by the hashtagged phrase, I clicked on it, and it turned out to be 14 points by @NilimDutta with his thoughts on how to save the world. Some very pertinent notes. They made me think, made me smile, and more importantly, made me want to focus. Here they are... 1. When you have this unstoppable urge one fine day, just begin. #MyNotesOnWorldSaving — NILIM DUTTA (@NilimDutta) March 2, 2012 2. Soon enough, ...

"Technology addictions can lead to increased stress-levels, shorter attention spans (especially in kids), irregular sleep-patterns and poor sleep, to name but a few." EEEEEKKKKKKKS! The article from where the above line came from actually made me shudder. Looks like I have way too much dopamine in my brain. Now that explains my poor sleep patterns and wavering attention span. It goes on to say... "To give a real-world example: when your phone receives a text, it beeps loudly, and we suddenly feel the urge to check the message. Dopamine (which is especially wired to cues like message alerts) is the cause of that urge." "And so we enter the ‘dopamine cycle.’ Want to know what the capital of Chile is? It’s just a Google search away. Want to know if your friend has sent you that funny e-mail he told you about? Refresh your inbox. Want to see what your friends are saying about the new Harry Potter movie? Just hop onto Facebook, Google +, Twitter, Rotten To...

If you read my last post, you'd recall I mentioned I was going to stuff myself at Mohammad Ali Road - the haven for Mumbai's Ramadhan feast. Last evening, a bunch of us (met/introduced on Twitter) managed to brave the crazy rains, a bus strike that eventually got called off by evening, and a train motormen's threat to strike that was withdrawn before it even began and actually made it to this massive food orgy. Now I didn't carry my camera along, but seeing the enthusiasm of @ghaatidancer with her camera, I tried clicking some on my phone just for kicks. Even though they are really sad, I'm still going to post them here because, well, it's my blog and I'll do whatever I want. :P On a serious note, I don't want to write too much today. So, amidst much talk about people going on a fast, here I am talking about a feast...   Presenting some snapshots from my Thursday night-out: Minara Masjid - the epicentre of the food extravaganza at Mohammad Ali Ro...

Twitter has given me the opportunity to interact with people from all walks of life. It's interesting - and inspiring - to see how some people have been able to pursue their passions with so much enthusiasm. For instance, food blogger Kalyan Karmakar . I don't recall when I first started following him on the 140-character platform, but I'm pretty sure his food tweets and pictures that got retweeted were enough to make me want to.  One of my most memorable interactions with him was when I went to Dhaka on work. A packed 4-day trip, and I was super stressed out with everything going on. Everyone around me was excited that I was in another country, and more so for the fact that I was going to watch the first World Cup match live (It's a different matter altogether that I hardly watched any cricket). There I was, probably moping on Twitter because of the stress one late night in Bangla land, and Kalyan asked if I had tried any local food favourites. Obviously not. So he re...

This is the tweet and the ensuing responses that made me write that previous post: http://twitter.com/vodkaholic/status/30205186785939457 The responses: @rohanbabu: remember, your career is in YOUR hands. you decide what YOU want to do with it. take some time off and think :) @RachitaVaid: u need ice cream! Breathe gal! This shall pass too... @cyber_junkie: should expand areas of expertise and explore And my favourites of them all, @shawnlewis: come paint with me :) @the_realale: it's not work pressure! Maybe the universe is conspiring to make you a travel writer. Thanks, guys. You really cheered me up a little on a miserable day. And finally, a big thank you to @girishmallya who has been my guardian angel, punching bag, sounding board and friend all rolled into one. Twitter rocks because of people like you.