India in slow motion - By Mark Tully - Review

I recently read a book by Mark Tully, its called 'India in Slow Motion'. This is the first time I have read anything by Mark Tully, the famous BBC man and I am very impressed by the narration.

The book is about 'Poor Governance' and talks about social/political/cultural issues around governance. To me the book also sounded like a travel book and I picked a lesson or two in detailing things from Mark and am gradually applying them in my recent travel stories at Ghumakkar . There are about 14-16 chapters with chapter talking about a issue ranging from Carpet makers in Mirzapur to Gujrat rain harvesting solutions to Cyberabad and so on.

Mark and his partner Gilly have traveled extensively to capture the story at grass roots, the real reason behind the poor governance and even though it may appear that it would be a tough and a boring read, its not. Probably because the narration is super, the detailing amazing and most importantly its a real experience book and not a gyan by someone.

What greatly impressed me was this non-judgmental style of writing. Mark comes out as a great man of tact as writing against a particular government or person could get one into a problem but he handles it with so much of tact that its sounds convincing, true but yet very much un-biased.

I would recommend this book to anyone who wants to know about India. Its also a great read from travel point of view.

I have just picked up 'City of Djins' by William Dalyrymple and I hope to finish that in next 2 odd months. Yeah I am a very slow reader :)

The Asia Kitchen - Noida - Review

There was a time when everything would happen at Sector - 18, whether thats shopping, eating out or movies. Then over time, we had more malls and more development. I still remember that 10 years back, sector 62 used to appear so far. Over time the other side of NTPC has seen lot of growth with the mushrooming call centers and software development centers but one thing which was greatly lacking was good dining options. Shoprix Mall in Sector 61 has a food-court and there is this quickie joint called 'Pulse' but nothing impressive so when we heard about 'The Asia Kitchen' in Sector 63, we were pretty sure to check it out.

We went in a large office group. Its located on the road which connects Model Town Chowki (on NH24) to NTPC, sector 62 is on one side and 63 on the other. Close by milestone is Hospital Fortis.

The place is spread over two floors, basement and ground floor. I may have failed to notice it but may be there is first floor too. We went to basement. There is a private room which can host 16 people and then there is this rest of area which can host 40-45 people.

Ambiance is pleasing, well lit without being too bold and nice and clean setup. There are sofas and chairs as seating and the table is a little high so a more formal, fine-dining kind of place.

Food is nice, good preparation. I had Thai Chicken with green curry and that was nice. We had lots of starters and overall food was well praised.

Service is prompt and good. May be there weren't enough people on that day but we found that they have put at least 3 people to serve us, a group of 8.

Variety - This is one area where they greatly lack, there are hardly many choices, esp for vegetarians. I think they would need to work on this since no one goes to a restaurant to have Dal Makhani and Aaloo Jeera. For Non-Veg as well there are not too many choices. They claim to server Indian, Thai and Chinese but frankly I could not find more then a couple of Thai dishes.

Price - Its a bit pricey. Not too expensive but can hurt so watch out while you order.

Alcohol - They do not have permit so no alochol. Mock-tails were pretty ordinary.

So Overall here's my report card
Ambiance - 5/5 (not extraordinary but clean, appropriately lit, fresh, spacious setup)
Food - 4/5
Variety - 2.5/5
Service - 4.5/5

Since there are not too many great new options in Noida so if you have exhausted the usual list then you must try this place.

Aaj Pehlee tarikh hai

The charm of Pehlee Tarikh is gradually disappearing for me since I get my pay check on last day of a month. Also the money goes to bank and even though the e-mail alert from my bank is a pleasant mail to look at, the old world charm is sort of gone.

One of an old friend reminded me of this im-mortal song by Kishore, the number is called 'Din Hai Suhaana, Aaj Pehli Tarikh Hai'. And here a link of a site where you can listen this.

http://www.esnips.com/doc/f2358e14-e8a2-4456-a173-f65046065e82/Din-Hai-Suhana-Aaj-Pahli---Kishore-Kumar

I used to get cheque in my first company, that was in 1996. It was a small company being run out of a garage of a large bunglow in 'New Friends Colony'. Even though from my second job (which was at Newgen Software) the money used to go to Bank but it was always in first week so there used to be a little buzz around this. I think some part of it is also to do with the fact that back then the monthly salary was much more critical for minor day-to-day grocery expenses, now that sort of affects less.

Anyway, enjoy the song and let me know what you feel.

'In Xanadu' by William Dalrymple - Short Review

I recently read a book called 'In Xanadu'. Its by William Dalrymple and is one of his early works. WD now is a very famous author and has written the popular ones like 'The last Mughal', 'The city of Djinns' etc. I was given this book by a friend and I think I was really lucky because otherwise I dont see myself picking this book from books-shelfs and reading it.

'In Xanadu' is a travelogue of WD and his friend where he tries to re-trace the route which was taken by Marco Polo (an old merchant and traveler) on his visit to Xanadu. WD was in college and he managed to get just enough funds to sponsor this trip as a educational trip. Marco was going to Xanadu to meet the great emperor Kublai Khan who controlled most of west and east Asia, Xanadu is now in Mongolia. The idea was to get pally with Khan and sort of use his friendship and power to influence control over muslims.

The journey starts with Jerusalem and ends at Xanadu and it takes you to Turkey, Iran, Afghanistan, Pakistan, Karakoram, China and finally Xanadu. Its all real account and young WD expressed it so well that you feel like doing the journey with him. Its a modern book and you would be able to empathize with lots of things. The narration is splendid and journey is one hell mix of adventure and fun.

I wont spill too many beans here but anyone who loves travel writing must read this. Its also a great source of history and once you read this, you would come out as a more learned and traveled person. Its not too thick and should not take many months to finish.

I am currently reading 'India in Slow Motion' by Mark Tully and would try to write a short review once I am done.

Fill Passport form online

My passport is expiring, been 10 years and I needed to renew it. About 2 year back, I had really harrowing time dealing with things at Ghaziabad Regional Passport Office, getting things done. So I was expecting something similar but it seems that I had my share of passport office pains. So, while talking to a colleague, I came to know that one can now fill the passport form online. Wow. I still could not believe it but it worked for me, at least so far. So I thought that I would share this so that it might be helpful for other people.

The process is simple. Go to http://passport.nic.in. Not all passport offices have this facility so find out whether your passport office is covered or not. As of now 36 office are covered under this. Click here to see the complete list.

Fill the form. Choose 'Cash' as the option for fees. After you are done filling, you would be asked to choose a time for appointment. They do not give me many choices but its still much better then the past when you need to be in queue. After you are done, you would notice that a PDF filled form is opened in the browser. Take a print. Check it again to see if there are un-filled sections. Take supporting documents.

Go to passport office on the day/time as per your appointment and ask for the queue of 'online'. Submit and you are done.