Postcards From J

It's been about four days since I returned from Milan, Italy. While being back home and at work has already swamped me, I can't help thinking of this Italian adventure I got to embark on. 17 days across cities that breathe history, art, architecture, culture, religion and so much more! 17 days of fun (and exhaustion) accompanied by two women who kept me on my toes, literally and otherwise. In a nutshell, my itinerary read like this eventually: Rome-Vatican City-Naples-Florence-Pisa-Milan-Nice-Monaco-Cannes-Milan-Verona-Milan. It seems whirlwind but I think we managed a good pace and never really had to worry about missing something - even if we did.  Of course, the full credit goes to Fi, who planned the entire itinerary right down to the places we should eat at. And because she had already been living in Italy for a year and knew the language and her way around Italians, it was a massive help. Lo and I just followed instructions. I whined about the walking. Got mad a few time...

Two and a half years ago, I took off with friends to a resort in Khopoli for an overnight trip. While we were there, we decided to explore the nearby Morbhe Dam (not accessible to public) and the surrounding villages. It was rainy but definitely not depressing. Carpets of lush green grass, a little hilly terrain, the occasional tiny waterfall, grey skies, cool breeze and droplets from the sky marked that evening's drive. I came across this idol placed near some rocks. No clue who it is (and I couldn't get closer because we had to rush back), but it reminded me of Arun Kolatkar and his famous work of poetry entitled Jejuri . A collection of poems focused on the temple town of Jejuri (which is still on my travel list) in Maharashtra, the lines from "Scratch" are my favourite. And here's one that has always stayed with me. scratch a rock and a legend springs Look it up if you like! Found this post lying in my drafts and thought it's necessary to ki...

Wake me up when September... oh wait, even October has ended! Wow... time really flies. Two months to 2015! Imagine that. I have spent the better part of 2014 drowning in work. Most of it, in just one project. ONE massive project culminating in December. When I look back at this year, I feel so many emotions. Love. Hatred. Frustration. Dejection. Pride. Happiness. Sadness. Depression. At so many different levels. But I also feel blessed in many ways. Some power above me has looked after me in moments of despair and need. Things clicked when they weren't supposed to. And of course, I am truly grateful for my family and friends who made my life a little easier. While I continue being busy over the next seven weeks, I do have a few interesting non-work things to look forward to. For starters, Dilip D'Souza - amazing writer and a friend - releases his latest book, ' Final Test: Exit Sachin Tendulkar ' this weekend. I hope to make it to the event. In any case, don...

I've always loved Bombay/Mumbai. Being born and brought up here, it's part of my identity, my DNA. But of late, this city has made me question everything around me. I am forced to throw away any rose-tinted glasses I may have put on. Let's face it. Mumbai is extremely burdened. And it pains me a great deal. And this realisation only hit me last year. My folks have now moved to our native place, South Canara (or Dakshin Kannad). Mangalore, as it's normally referred to even though it's technically not Mangalore city. Anyway, back to my point. I visit at least once or twice a year. Usually, I can't take more than four days of being 'home'. I would miss the Bombay pace and feel like something is missing. Socialising there meant attending five weddings, two funerals, a house-warming lunch, and going to church. Electricity could sometimes be a pain and one would struggle to get a few bars of connectivity on the phone. I'd feel trapped and wait for th...

2012. That was the year I had earmarked for a trip to Sri Lanka with a couple of my friends. But fate intervened. My brother met a lovely girl in April that year and decided to get married. That same year. In December! The same month I was to be off to the island nation. A bittersweet feeling ensued with having to abandon travel plans but a celebration in the family was  a very valid reason. Cut to 2014. And Sri Lanka has still not happened. Work and other priorities took over since the last few months. I wasn't even planning any travel even though at the back of my mind, the thought remained. You know one of my favourite past-times is to browse travel-related websites and blogs. I've always enjoyed reading up about a particular place and dreaming of what it would be like to be there. Of course, that would then mean running searches on some of the trustworthy websites for airline fares, accommodation options and general information regarding any paperwork like vis...

Wow, I haven't posted in over two months and I'm wondering if there has been anything interesting to blog about since that last post. Well, I had a lovely Diwali weekend (three days!) in Pune visiting a close friend who's in the family way. And a mad cousin accompanied me, so it was just fun-fun-fun. Aside from lining up outside Kayani Bakery at 7.30 AM for mawa cakes/Shrewsbury biscuits (and some more goodies) and battling a Diwali crowd at Chitale Bandhu for their famed bakharwadi , I had the opportunity to visit Fort Jadhavgadh . An erstwhile Maratha fort now converted into a heritage hotel, this almost-impromptu trip turned out to be a super break from the urban landscape of Pune and of course, Mumbai. The steps leading up to the fort's main entrance The story in short Shahu, the grandson of Chhatrapati Shivaji (the great Maratha warrior king) was imprisoned for 21 years by the Mughals and later released. One of his prominent army commanders, Pila...

Hi there! Happy New Year! I know I am three days late with the wishing, but you see I had to travel on an urgent work assignment at very short notice. In fact, I returned on 31st December from a whirlwind 4-day trip of Mangalore - two of which were spent in the train to and fro - and flew out for the assignment on New Year's Day. While I can't disclose where I am at the moment, here's a picture postcard for you. :) This is a little moment I captured for myself today. Hope you had a wonderful Christmas and New Year celebration. December 2012 vanished in a blur for me thanks to all the weddings I had to attend. I am feeling a bit jaded and am currently battling a sore throat. Hope to be alright soon and also to get back to blogging about a couple of exciting experiences.  Catch you later, ~j~ PS: I quite like the place I am staying in right now. More importantly, I am enjoying this living-out-of-a-suitcase business. Let's see for how long though. ...

The last weekend was super exciting. For one, I signed up for the first ever Bohri Mohalla Food Walk on Saturday, 1st December 2012 organised by prolific food blogger Kalyan Karmakar, a.k.a. @finelychopped on Twitter. Kalyan's blog is a veritable resource of food, glorious food. So, go look it up till I put together my thoughts on the walk itself. The other reason for my joy was a package that arrived from moo.com  - a cool printing service that prints business cards, minicards, postcards and more. I ordered a set of 60 postcards from them which had 60 photographs from my travels printed on them. Cool, na? Here are some pictures of the package and its contents: This is what the package looked like inside the bubble-wrap envelope. "Moo Postcards - helping keep mail alive" - Love the tagline! Slide off the outer cover and there's a plain white box with slits to add your business card. Moo gives you this option in case you're re-selling the car...

Hi there! This evening, I'm off to Mohammad Ali Road and its environs for the annual food extravaganza during Ramadhan. Here are a couple of old posts I had done on the experience in the past: My first trip ever:  Fasting, Feasting .  Last year's iftaar tweet-up: Eat Street . And Fast Food - a favourite photo of mine (not from a technical perspective, but for how it eventually turned out with its limitations). Today, I'm accompanying a new group - most of them known via Twitter - to the southern corner of the city. It's Friday night, and I'm expecting it to be a bit crazy with the crowds. So, let's see how it goes. Will try and update this post on Monday or so. Not tonight or the weekend because I'm off to Kolad for an  overnight   'adventure' trip tomorrow. I was supposed to take it easy this week, but the social engagements have just been piling up one after the other since Monday. I really need to learn the art of saying NO...

At the cemetery of St. Peter's Church, Bandra

April is already here! Just imagine... three months of the so-called "new year" are already done and dusted with. Time just doesn't seem to like us human beings, no? So little time, so much to do.  Anyway, in another attempt of making the most of the little free time I get, @culturelites and I decided to go rambling around random lanes of Bandra. Our route was short, but the Saturday turned out to be extremely enlightening and fun.  What our day was like in a nutshell: Visited a cemetery, plucked mulberries at a transit camp, almost walked into a celeb's home, prank-called someone, and learnt math today!!! — vodkaholic (@vodkaholic) March 31, 2012 Watch out for some notes and photos in the next post. This is a crazy week! *goes back to email wars*

Among my co-travellers, one was flying in from Bombay with me and the other was coming in from Bangalore. The three of us were joining more friends - some already in Goa and some on their way by road. Sneha and I walked out of Goa Airport, and were received by Sharon whose flight had arrived a couple of hours earlier. One look at us lugging our trolley bags, and a fit of laughter ensued. Why? Well, the three of us had identical trolley bags - right down to the size, colour and make. That moment jogged our collective memories to four years ago when we embarked on our first trip as a trio to Thailand. Those bags were purchased from a shop in Pratunam Centre in bustling Bangkok to accommodate all the shopping we had done there. I had left Bombay with a regular bag for my personal things and a small sling bag for money and travel documents. The return journey, however, saw us bring back those now-famous-black-suitcases-on-wheels bursting at the seams with bags, shoes, souvenirs and...

I'll post a few photographs of Goa soon. Till then, here's a sample of the food orgy this sunny state has to offer. Sigh! I want to go back for the food alone.

Time flies. Last week at this time, SV and I were making a mad dash to the airport. We were heading to Goa! And boy, were we late!  I had had a crazy three days prior to that Thursday at work, and didn't have much time to pack. Heck, I didn't even have time to get my eyebrows done. And that day also marked the civic elections in Mumbai, so I had to exercise my franchise amidst getting a zillion things done. I was busy on my laptop sorting out work email from home (I was officially out of office on 16th and 17th + the ensuing weekend) and trying to ensure I could leave with my sanity intact. Finally, just after noon, I rushed to vote, and silently started panicking seeing the long queue at my polling booth. Just before my turn, I received a text from DD telling me to have a good break... How thoughtful!  The finger inked, I rushed to the one place I hate but can't avoid - a 'beauty' parlour - to get my eyebrows done. More rushing. Lunch was a blur. And gues...

In a few hours from now, I - with a bunch of mad friends - will be in sunny Goa. This is my first trip there as an adult, hence a lot of excitement. Unfortunately, this has been a crazy week with sudden stress. And now we hear that a friend who was supposed to join us can't as his grandma passed away today (Rest In Peace!). Anyway, we can't do much to change this now as tickets were already booked. We'll miss you, J. Really. See you on the other side.

" Kolkata for Durga Pujo . Shantiniketan. Eden Gardens. Mother Teresa. Puchkas and roshogullas. " Just striking off one teeny tiny thing off my very brief bucket list . I would have really liked to actually go inside the Eden but... next time, maybe. This post will be revised. Watch out.

Just realised I've never really had a bucket list. But then again, I'm not the kind to go about making and ultimately sticking to resolutions. (Horrible, I know!) It probably stems from my lack of serious ambition. So, I thought of listing down all that I must do, experience, see, eat, drink, make, travel to before I, errr, kick the bucket... 1. Learn to code.  Nothing elaborate, just one line of something. Any language. I never liked studying 'computers'; neither did I ever take up programming at any point in school or college. The only reason I did opt for the subject in school was because it was a choice between that and needlework (ugh!). Maybe I should ask Dan to help me with this. She's the smartest coder I know. 2. Travel the world. More realistically, India. Some places to explore in the immediate future include: Old Delhi for its history. And the food. Hyderabad for biryani. Kolkata for Durga Pujo. Shantiniketan. Eden Gardens. Mother Teresa. Puchkas a...

I had started on a post last night, but got distracted for a few minutes and the brother shut down the laptop without telling me. Grrr.  Anyway, there's no time to really write a proper post today, and this week is going to be super hectic. I can already feel it. Add to it, I've just been told that I might have to come in to work on Sunday 14th August because we are short-staffed that day (we work in the 'live' sports space so we're pretty much 24x7). Usually, I don't have a problem with pitching in. But this upcoming weekend also happens to be one of the rare 3-day weekends on account of our Independence Day holiday on Monday, 15th August. I was planning to run off to Pune, visit a temple town called Wai which has been on the cards since forever, and basically just chill out.  Sigh! All plans under a cloud now. On that note, happy Monday to you. #ABC POSTCARD 06/31

For those who didn't know, work took me to Dhaka, Bangladesh just in time to kick off the 2011 Cricket World Cup! Here are some (backdated) notes from that 4-day whirlwind trip... (16-20 Feb 2011)   Koffee with me! My first day in Dhaka was spent mostly on absorbing the chaos of this city and then meeting the team I had put together. We met at Coffee World, and once there it felt just like a coffee shop back home. In the midst of introductions, pleasantries and finally work-related briefing, I ordered for a cappuccino. Not bad. But I told the guy to make it a strong one as I intended to get back to my hotel and work for some time. As it turns out, here I am... replying to a barrage of emails and having multiple conversations on IM. To make matters worse, I had managed only 2.5 hours of sleep before leaving home. And now, I'm wide awake because of that #$%&;*@! coffee. Good luck to me! Back at the hotel, the staff kindly brought me some dinner even though it was we...

For those who didn't know, work took me to Dhaka, Bangladesh just in time to kick off the 2011 Cricket World Cup! Here are some (backdated) notes from that 4-day whirlwind trip... Flight or Fight My flight was on time and I arrived in Dhaka safe and sound. Except for the guy seated next to me who decided to blare a Bollywood duet on his mobile before take-off (had to tell him to shut it) and being welcomed by big fat mosquitoes at the conveyor belt, everything was well. But then, I had to remind myself that I was a foreigner in this country even if I didn't look like one ;) and needed to keep my fearless "Bombay girl" instincts aside. Dhaka is all decked up for the 2011 Cricket World Cup (CWC). Everywhere you'll see signs bearing the CWC logo, and brands welcoming one and all to the big event. When I told one of the airport officials (who stopped me before I exited the airport) that I was here for the World Cup, he just let me go without a word. My counterpart ...