The Free Fall.......

I tied my shades with a rubber thread. They were Tommy Hilfiger and expensive.

My legs were tied so tight that I had to hop to reach the small enclosure attached to the hulk of the crane.

Suddenly with a jerk I started gaining height.

At the top I checked my harness again. As I turned around I could see the eagles flying in pure harmony. It was as if they were waiting for me to showcase my flying prowess. I spread my hands like an eagle and leaned forward into thin air. 3, 2, 1...........

Time stood still, the wind gushed around my face. I will never forget that feeling. I started enjoying the fall. It was pure bliss. Soon the bungee rope recoiled and I started moving up. I was catapulted up and I lost the sense of direction, the sky turned upside down. I was going up and then down again. The eelastic energy finally got converted into heat and I stopped oscillating like a YO –YO.

My first free fall made me feel strong yet weak, carefree yet concerned, but most of all it gave me an amazing rush that I had never experienced. The thrill came as much from the free-fall as from the rebounds

Bungee Jumping though is a sport that involves risks and people have died beacuse of inadequate precautions / faulty equipments . One should inspect the harness, the rope and undertake all other safety procedures before attempting a jump.

The Foodie’s escapades............

Apart from exploring different parts of Delhi for food, I make it a point to explore the by lanes of all my destinations for the best of food. This post is dedicated to two of the best places to have food across the world.

Lahore
If I have to single out a street / place that I would want to have food at if I knew that it would be the last day of my life it would be the food street in Lahore. Situated in Gawalmandi, Lahore this street is the centre of traditional food. Open to traffic in the day time the street starts to metamorphose as the darkness begins to fall. Out come the tables, and the street-side pots and pans, and on go the flames. The good thing about this street is no matter where you are sitting ,you can order food from any of the 20 odd shops that line the street .Coming to the food - The mutton chop,seekh kebab, chicken tikka and Sardar di Macchi are a must have for starters. In the main course you should not miss the, nihari siri pai and biryani .The lassi (buttermilk) goes well with the food and is served in a huge (and I mean huge) glass and should not be missed at any cost. To end the meal there are deserts like gulab jamuns, gajjar halwas, cold milk with pistachio, kulfi faluda and ice creams to chose from. Whatever you order you will be left craving for more even if your stomach has already raised the white flag. And to top it all off there is the famous Lahore pan. The downside to this place however is the fact that there is not much that caters to the vegetarians. For most locals vegetarianism is something that is inconceivable…Pakistani's are devout carnivores. A gentleman I met on my trip had been on a diet in which he ate only red meat for 40 days to reduce weight J

Amritsar/Ambarsar
If there is one place in the world where vegetarians should flock to for the best North Indian food it is Amritsar. The dhabas here are out of the world. I haven’t had a better dal makhani ,shahi panner , sarson da saag , rajma chawal or a bhindi masala elsewhere. My strong recommendations are Bhrawan dhaba situated in the town hall and Kesar da dhaba at Chowk Passian.
But the buck does not stop here; Amritsar serves the best Kulcha chola in the world. You would never have had anything better in breakfast. They are fantabulous .One of the best places to have this delicious snack is at the Chungi Maqbool Road. You would think that Amritsar has a lot to offer , but wait I have not yet talked about the Jalebis and the Lassis.Just by mentioning them my mouth starts watering. The jalebis at Khubi Halwaai Katra Ahluwalia near Golden Temple are the best I have ever had( some people would say that the Jalebis at chandni chowk near Sheeshganj Gurudwara in Delhi are better but frankly nothing beats the Jalebis at Amritsar ). I can say the same for the Lassi at Gian Halwaai opp. Regent Cinema, Hall Gate. The size of the lassi glass in both Lahore and Amritsar can be daunting for a foreigner (Punjabis like me though are used to drinking a litre of lassi with their meal J)
If you are a non-vegetarian and thinking that Amritsar does not offer much to you, you are mistaken. No trip to Amritsar can be complete without a visit to Makhan's Fish at Lawrence Road. It serves the world famous Amritsari fish at its best. I went to this shop on each day of my stay in this city. Occasionally I used to be disappointed because the stock of fish would finish before I reached (and I used to reach the shop pretty early). If you like mutton chops then Amritsar is the place for you to be. A small shop near Adarsh Cinema serves Mutton chops and tikkas with hot kulchas.The only issue though is that the place is a bit shady and goes even more shadier in the night( with the sight of huge sardars drinking neat alcohol from their bottles while devouring the mutton chops).

Lahore and Amritsar are two places that one can visit just because of the quality of food served there. But the fact is that both places boast of great cultural heritage , monuments and religious temples that add to the charm of the places. The golden temple at Amritsar is one my favourite places in the world. The calmness and the serenity of the place takes one to another plane altogether. Lahore on the other hand boasts of forts/mosques that have amazing architecture and history attached to them.

All in all both Lahore and Amritsar are places that everyone should visit at least once in their lifetime

The foodie’s hometown….

When I am travelling to different parts of the world, my foodie instincts are at their peak. Right from my childhood I have been fascinated by food. I like experimenting with my food. From the Thukpa of Ladakh to the Gatte ki sabzi of Jaisalmer.From the Kulchas of Amritsar to the Kebabs of Lahore and the list goes on …..

But today I will limit myself to my foodie escapades in Delhi. Being born and brought up in Delhi, my connection with the food here is at another level. I have explored each and every by lane of Delhi for good food. Today I am sharing with you my personal favorites -

1. Karims – If you like mutton then Karim’s is the place to be .The mutton lovers swear by this eating joint situated near Jama Masjid. My personal favorites – Burra Kebab , Keema Nan and Phirni .The vegetarian fare is avoidable though

2. Khan Chacha – Situated in a small by lane of Khan Market, Khan Chacha dishes out the best Chicken and Mutton Rolls in Delhi. The paneer rolls are good too.

3. Chicken Planet –If you are looking for having a great chicken curry, then Chicken Planet situated at Filmistan serves is the place to be. The curry (a gravy dish prepared in a huge utensil) has optimum amount of spices and leaves you asking for more. The service is poor though

4. Big chill –Italian food never tasted better. Though the place dishes out a spicier version of Italian cusine, but that does not mean that the dishes are not lip smacking. Must Haves – “Arabiatta sauce Pastas” , “Oreo shakes” and “Mud Pie”

5. Bukhara – From Bill Clinton to Bill Gates, all the big guns of the world swear by the Kebabs and the Dal Bukhara served at arguably the best restaurant in Delhi( situated in the Maurya Sheraton hotel). Bukhara simply deserves 5 out of 5. Downside – Meal for 2 can leave a big hole in your pocket and the reservation is difficult to get on weekends

6. Dum Pukht – The less known cousin of Bukhara, serves Hyderabad cuisine prepared in a very unique style(It’s called “DUM” style of cooking) .I have been to this place countless number of times but I still yearn for the food served here. It serves arguably the best biryani in Delhi.

7. Paramjit Machhi Waala – Winters is the season to have fish in Delhi. During winters huge crowds assemble at a small shop in Moti Nagar ( West Delhi ).The Fish tikka at this place is out of the world. The downside – everything gets over by 10PM J

8. Dakshin – The best south Indian restaurant in Delhi (situated at the ITC hotel in Saket). The uppams are so fresh and hot that I loose count of them when relishing them with a Mangalorian Fish curry.The vegetarian fare is amazing too.The Dosas are great too.A must visit for any South Indian food lover

9. Nirula’s –If you feel like having an ice cream to the beat the hot summer in Delhi then nothing beats the Hot Chocolate Fudge at Nirula’s.The other ice cream flavors are great too.

10. Haldiram’s – If you are a hardcore vegetarian and you crave for chaats and poori sabzi , then don’t look further.Haldiram’s is the place for you to be in . The Raj Kachori is my personal favourite.

11. Momo’s point – If you are shopping in rajouri garden , a great place to have a snack is Momo’s point in the main market.The Momo’s are served hot and with an extremely chilly sauce ( and the stress is on extremely J) and go best with a good old Thumbs Up

12. Moti Mahal – The butter chicken originated from this restaurant situated in Daryaganj in Old Delhi. I have not had better butter chicken elsewhere. The downside – The rest of dishes can be a bit disappointing

13. Annapurna Sweets in Chandni Chowk –The Sondesh and Roshogullas here leave you asking for more even when you are conscious of that bulging belly J

14. Paranthe Waali Gali – Have you ever had Banana Parantha or a Rabri parantha? The combination sounds strange .but it won’t when you visit this small by lane in Chandni Chowk . The lassi and the aloo sabzi that they serve go well with the lip smacking paranthas.Arguably, the best paranthas in Delhi are served here.

15. Bhalle Papri at Bharat Nagar near Ashok Vihar Naala – This small shop serves arguably the best bhala papri in Delhi.

16.Shwarma corner in New Friends Colony - My four years of college were spent gorging on this delicious lebanese snack.No other snack comes close.My personal favorite.Downside - Do not order any other dish.Just stick to the good old Shwarma

Just limiting myself to the 16 places was difficult, but i did'nt want to flood everyone with the different foods of Delhi in one go.I will cover some of the rest in a future post. Till then make it a point to visit all of the places that I mentioned and you will not be disappointed.

Also i ill try to capture a similar list of my favorite food items from across the world. Till then happy fooding J……………

PS: Do mention your favorite food hangouts in Delhi too :)

The fire burns....

As a child when I used to go to the railway station in winters I used to see very old people, the age of my grandparents lying on the platform without a blanket, their body shivering

In my school I used to see a scantily clad kid of my age working in a tea stall, washing utensils all day. Why was he being deprived of participating in the sports day, the annual picnic or the visit to the zoo? Why was that kid not studying with us in the school?

I used to ask my parents as to why there was inequality between us and the others. Even as a child I knew that the answers that I got were not convincing. My civic books said otherwise .The constitution of India has given everyone the right to equality

I used to get so overwhelmed with the feeling of helplessness of not being able to do anything about the prevalent poverty, lack of education and basic amenities a lot of times. There were occasions when a tear used to roll down my eye.

Our society measures success with the money that one earns and the designation that one holds. As long as we can get a well paying job everything is fine. Social responsibilities and duties do not count for much."Why should I do something for people who are not even related to me?", "Why should I care about these underprivileged people?", "I would rather earn more money than toil in a village in summers to teach the underprivileged the importance of hygiene". These have been some of the reactions that I have got from people when discussions about our social responsibilities have ensued.

Don’t we have any social responsibility towards others?

Sparsh-Ek Prayatna was formed almost 5 years back when some of my friends and I were trying to answer the same question. If I look back at the last 5 years , we have come a long way – fully operational schools at construction sites in Gurgaon and Bangalore, a team of street play theatre artists , candle making vocational programs , legal aid camps , clothes distribution drives and donation drives for Kashmiri migrants. But is that enough? The answer is pretty simple – By no means.

I feel on the top of the moon when I play with the kids of Prayas / Garv. There is no baggage. I don’t think about anything. Complete Bliss!!! I somehow feel complete.

I can’t forget my last 2 birthdays. 2 years ago my friends had planned a surprise birthday party for me .They had taught the children of construction workers to sing songs, arranged a cake and chocolates . I got the best ever gift that day when i saw happiness on those children's faces .

My last birthday was very special too. I was woken up in the morning at 8 AM (i hate my friends for that), taken to a construction site . When I reached there I saw a huge banner outside a school. The banner read – "Garv – A child education programme centre of Sparsh – Ek prayatna started on 23rd April". My eyes were moist. I was speechless. Incidentally Garv happens to be the name of my nephew.

Through Sparsh I have met some very special people in my life. These people are responsible for whatever little Sparsh has been able to contribute to the society. I have never said this to them before, but it’s just because of them that Sparsh has given happiness and joy to so many underprivileged people.

The enthusiasm of the volunteers of Sparsh has not died down over the years and all of us keep striving to do more for the society .I hope this fire to do sometrhing constructive for society as a whole burns forever........

PS: You can visit http://www.sparsh-ekprayatna.org/ to know more about Sparsh / to contribute in your own way to the society

On the top of the world!!!!!

I was dumbstruck!!!!
For a moment I thought I was on another planet. It was eerie!!!!

In the last 4 hours I had experienced chilly winds, snowfall, rainfall, dust storms and the excess heat of the desert.

It was my journey through the highest motorable pass (at 18380 ft) in the world – Khardungla in Ladakh

Ladakh has a moon like landscape. I think it is the closest one can get that to being on the moon. Buddhist chants fill the airs of this land which surprisingly has been devoid of terrorism despite being so close to the Pakistan border.

You will find motorists from all around the world with their Harleys trying to scale the highest peaks of the Himalayas. The landscape is filled with small villages and each one having its own monastery, unique in architecture and having a different story to tell.Budhism and Hinduism almost intermingle as you find idols of the Buddha and Hindu deities inside these magnificent structures .If you are fortunate enough you might even spot a snow leopards feeding on the mountain goats on these high peaks near the monasteries.

The people of Ladakh add to the beauty of the place. The locals are very friendly and helpful. The Tibetan food is healthy and keeps you in good shape in these almost harsh and extreme conditions. The capital – Leh is essentially cut off from the rest of the world for 6 months in the winters and the food supplies have to be stored in the summers to brace for the harsh winters.

No trip to Ladakh can be complete without a visit to one of the most beautiful place in the world in my view. Around 200 kms from Leh surrounded by huge mountains on all sides, the Pangong Tso Lake sits on the border of India and China. The first view of the lake takes your breath away. The water is ice cold and the rapids touch your feet, as if angels welcoming you to heaven. Even after hours and hours I did not want to go away from this heaven on earth .

Though the beauty of Pangong cannot be compared, the spectacle of Nubra is not far behind. It is one of the very few cold deserts on earth. The two humped camels roam in these cold deserts .The tributaries of Indus flow through the deserts and their muddy waters give you an illusion where you can’t differentiate between the river and the desert. The snow capped mountains add to the wonder of the place. The desert, river, mountains in the same place !!!! I will leave the rest to your imagination

Driving in our bikes we felt like flying on the mountains. We saw small children near the monasteries preparing to become monks, old ladies trying to sell vegetables and earn their livelihood in this harsh terrain, army trucks going towards the border posts of Kargil and Drass and farmers trying to grow something in the harsh terrain

On more than one occasion the beauty of the place overwhelmed me. I used to just sit for hours and tried to soak in the beauty of that place. Words lost relevance. I used to be speechless!!!

I was on the top of the world both figuratively and literally!!!!

Waiting to be born again!!!!!!!

Get up!!!!!!!!!!
Yawn!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! Let me sleep
I was flying in the clouds, far away from any sense of reality.

Get up!!!!!!!
I saw the time. It was 5 am .

Get up!!!!!!!! You have to go to Lahore. You will miss the bus
Lahore?
Lahore?????????
How could i forget , I had to catch a bus to Pakistan.

"Are you out of your senses?"
That was the reaction of most of my friends and family members when i expressed the desire to go to Lahore and represent my country in a technical festival and more so be an ambassador of peace.
There is a saying in Lahore in punjabi - "Jinne Lahore nahi dekhya o jamya e nayi " which literally translated into english means - "One who has not seen Lahore has not yet been born"
My persistence and conviction finally paid off. After a lot of deliberation i convinced my family and friends and hence I was finaly going to be born at the age of 21.

Not in the weirdest of my dreams had I ever imagined travelling to Lahore. Lahore - the land of my forefathers who had migrated along with a million of other people when the brutal civil war broke out at the time of partition in 1947.Life had come a full circle.
Since then India and Pakistan have fought each other in the battlefield 3 times.
The relationship between the two countries after independence has for most of times been full of uncertainty and suspicion. Most of it can be attributed to the hardcore religious fanatics on both sides.
The journey from Delhi to Wagah border was very smooth. We had armed jeeps surrounding our bus, which incidentally did not stop at any traffic signal throughout the journey.(All the traffic used was stopped for us to pass through which was made us feel like big shots )
The reality had not sunk in until I reached the border. Lahore was just 30 miles away.
I looked out of my window as we crossed over from one side of Punjab to the other.
Pakistan’s side of Punjab was no different from our side. On both sides of Punjab i could see small children playing cricket in the lush green fields near the highway and the farmers diligently tending to their crops .

The highlight of the trip was the visit to "Lahore Food Street" . Never in my life have I had better food ( And i ave had food at a lot of places , from Ladakh to Kerala , from Jiasalmer to Bhubhaneswar , from London to Ludhiana ). The concept is unique. There are about 40 small shops churning out choicest kebabs , biryanis , sweets and curries . You can sit anywhere and order the best of food from anywhere in the street. My personal favourites - Chicken tikka , fried fish , sardar di machhi , seekh kabab and lassi(sweet curd) .The lassi deserves a special mention. Many a competition were fought between the Indian and Pakistani students on who could drink the huge glass of lassi first , and yours truly came out on top ( being a Punjabi and being a lover of any type of lassi surely helped ;)

Other highlights of the trip -
1. Playing an Indo - Pak cricket match with all the passion and sledging ;)
2. Being linked with Fatima . We were called the Veer Zaara Jodi( the movie had just released) because we kept the 40 odd students waiting for an hour in the bus while both of us roamed around the Anarkali Bazaar in Lahore. Let me clarify it - The allegations were baseless , we had just lost our way !!!!!
3. Being offered "Palak paneer" and "moong ki dal" at a Pakistani home. I never thought that I could get home cooked vegetarian food in Pakistan
4. Playing night golf in Lahore and having hukkah for the first time in my life :)
5. Being one of the first Indians to hear Atif Aslam and the band - Jal. They had just come up with their album "Aadat" in pakistan , which later became a rage in India. I liked another band called E.P (incidentally people behind both these bands had been ex-students of the college that was hosting us) ,though it did not become very popular in India.

It has been around 4 years since we came back from Pakistan feeling like Kings.
Years have gone by , both of our countries are once again at loggerheads.Massacres like Mumbai have happened .War #4 does not seem to be far away. Taliban adds a whole new dimension to the current scenario. But something that gives me hope is the educated middle class in Pakistan. The students that i met there had a vision , they were not religious fanatics , they were like us . They thought like us , they wanted freedom too , they wanted democracy .They fought for democracy in Pakistan when Musharaf was committing atrocities against the judiciary. They used mediums like blogs to promote the need for democracy in their country.
I believe the hope rests on their shoulders .

Till then i wait to be born again..............................

Numb!!!!!!!

I had done rafting, rappelling, trekking but I yearned for more.My hunger for more adventure lead me to a sport called paragliding.It was the winter of 2007. Thinking that it will be a fun outing, and a chance to experiment with my canon, I was grossly mistaken. What followed in the next few days was gruelling in terms of the physical rigour required. We had to learn the technique of hopping over slopes, the right way of communication on the radio, the basics of aerodynamics(Bernoulli’s principle being the most important(being an engineer surely helped)) and the art of controlling your glider before we could actually fly solo.It was awful, I kept committing mistakes, fell down, got entangled in my glider, but never gave up. Till the time I perfected the right hopping technique I kept mushrooming my glider and carried it to the heights from where I could run and be in air for about 30 seconds.

My First Solo Flight

Much has been written about the first solo flight of a pilot. Many say that they are completely awestruck ; others say that it is difficult to put the feeling in words. People have researched that paragliding is the closest a man has come to feeling like a bird. My experience is slightly different. I don’t recollect being happy or being sad on my first solo flight.
We reached our camp. My instructor asked me to climb up the mountain.It was not a big hill (250 ft) and I managed to climb all the way up in about 30 minutes. I got myself harnessed, checked my radio and put on my helmet. I checked the wind direction and just when I was about to run for my take off tragedy struck....My instructor’s assistant came running all the way up the mountain with my cell phone and said that my father was on the line and it was an emergency.
With huge reluctance i took the phone and put it next to my ear. My father's voice was sombre. I knew something bad was coming. He told me that my grandfather was critically ill and I should come back home as soon as possible. I knew it was worse; he was hiding something from me. I tried to confirm the state of my grandfather’s health. He did not want to tell me directly that he had already died. But I knew (I can’t explain why, but there are certain things that you get to know without there being any communication)

Harnessed up, with a glider on my back in a remote village in Maharashtra, I was stranded in no man’s land. I was more than 2000 kms away from my home in Delhi.
I have always loved my grandparents as much as my parents if not more. They shielded me from my parents even after my countless mischiefs as a child, taught me the importance of respecting others and most importantly the importance of standing on one's own feet. They made me feel like the most important person on the earth as a child. No harm could come to me in their company, I was the KING. I can claim to have had 4 parents instead of 2. When they grew old and vulnerable and as I became conscious of life I tried to give my utmost love and care back to them.

I was numb. The only thought in my mind was to reach flat land as quickly as possible and rush back to the airport in Pune and the board the first flight to Delhi.I could reach flat land either by walking down the mountain which could have taken me 30 mins or or by going through with my first solo flight and touching ground in about 10 minutes. Without more thought I ran towards the edge of the mountain into the wind and was airborne. I had no feelings while in air. There was only one goal and that was to reach the landing area and rush to the airport.

I opened the gate of my house. Around 50 people were gathered there. The mood was sombre. There was an eerie silence. As if the time had stood still. The darkness of the night made the mood of the place gloomier.Intuitively I entered the room I was supposed to enter and I saw the dead body of my grandfather lying on ice.I saw my grandmother close to the body. Tears rolled down from my eyes. I moved forward, hugged my grandmother and cried.It was a long and tiring journey for me, but I volunteered to look after the dead body, to check if the ice was not melting and the holy fire was burning properly before we cremated his body in the morning

After the cremation of my grandfather, my aunt (grandfather’s daughter) came up to me and told me in my ears that before they took my grandfather to the hospital, my grandfather called her in his private room and said – “I am praying to god that please allow me to live a few more days more so that I can die after seeing my grandson”

Tears Rolled Down...............