Repair Existing Air Conditioner or buy new Air Conditioner?

So, when we had this awesome heatwave in October, it was time to search for the AC remote and wipe the dust off the filters!

And lo behold, as soon as I switched on the AC it threw even more hotter air in the already sealed and hot room!

I waited patiently in silent prayer for few minutes for the air to turn cool as my wife had started to have THAT look on her face! And my little fairy like daughter was turning into a hot and sweaty demon!

As it turned out, the AC was out of gas (literally and figuratively) for it to throw cool air. So I called up the service center of the company and THE GUY checked out the AC vents and declared what I already knew, the AC was out of gas (literally and figuratively).

So the next day two more technicians come to check and immediately after checking the outdoor unit declared that the outdoor unit has been chewed off by some rodent, most likely a squirrel.

Now, imagine a furry little insecure animal the size of your palm, chewing through the metal of your 25K gadget................................... exactly! Even I refused to believe that a squirrel could have chewed through metal.

So THE GUYS (both of them, taking turns) explained that the AC that I had bought was aluminium coil AC and Aluminium being a soft metal can be chewed by anyone! Just to make sure he was telling the truth, I chewed off a part of an aluminium cloth hanger we had, and unfortunately, I was able to!

So to cut a long story short, if you are buying an AC, buy an expensive one having copper coils and condenser, because apparently no one can chew through Copper. And even if a mutant rodent does manage to chew through your Copper AC, it can be repaired with minimal cost.

The above advise is mandated by the bill of Rs. 11300 (~$220) which is half the cost of a new AC, albeit an Aluminium one.

So, if you are looking for a new AC, buy one with Copper everything. If you are already stupid and have bought an Aluminium one, repair it if you don't have the money to buy a copper one.

If you do feel that the cost of repair is too high and you have extracted as much gas (literally and figuratively) from the AC as you could have, then I would suggest you buy a new one for the following factors:

1.  New AC, better air and instant cooling (plus all the advertising gimmicks that you have fallen for)
2. Better energy savings, as newer ACs have a lot of technological advancements than the writer is aware of. (There is even talk of AC turning into a fridge and vice-versa)
3. Longer warranty! Once you have repaired your old unit, good chance you might have to repair it again for some or the other thing. A newer one would have warranty on most parts and you would have to pay only for the visits of THE GUY! Or in my case THE GUYS!
4. No looks or comments from family members, especially the female kind for being cheap.
5. I couldn't think of a fifth benefit, but have added number 5 just for the sake of rounding off my points.

Happy Mother's Day Mom!

Me and wife were discussing the next topic for my blog after she taunted me for my prolonged absence of thoughts, and I taunted her to mind her own business and get the dinner ready. Yes, we speak like this at home!

The discussion lead to one thing and then another and I told her that authors (blush! :-) ) are creative people and that words don't appear just like that, and that the subject has to be something which makes an instant connection between the heart and the brain, upon which there is a communication of untold nature between the two organs resulting in art through the utilization of remaining organs. To which, I was informed that there were people who would write pages together at a stretch every day, some of them without a few organs.

The discussion of topics brought the topic of working women to light. Well, what about it? Lots of women work, and then they come home and work. She was adamant that it was a subject that all authors need to take a note of and all of them need to spend at least 20% of their time writing an article on it. There was a rhetoric of laughter and the usual banter on the fairer sex.

To move on, this was a discussion when we had just moved to our own place and I was just beginning to appreciate the lighter things of handling affairs at home. Over the course of next 10 months, I realized what an arduous task it was to manage our modest 1 BHK apartment with 2 people! Well, first there was the cleaning, then there was the cooking, then there was the washing of clothes, then there was the eating of dinner and then there was some more of the cleaning and then there was the realization that more than 2 Hrs have passed after you have reached home from work.

This is the same state of affairs every day, and you would have thought that the weekends would be your savior.

But alas! On weekends, there was the groceries, there was the additional cleaning that you had postponed during the weekdays, there was the additional laundry, there was the tallying of bills, there was the repairing of things and there was ....

You had to appreciate the spirit shown by the female folk when you yourself go through all the wonderful feelings of managing a house. Especially, if the female in your house is working and completes 9 Hr shifts and commutes 3 Hrs every day through crowded buses, absent rickshaws, overflowing local trains and faces other perils while commuting in Mumbai.

The physical and mental resources required to carry on day on day everyday would drain a man, if not immediately, definitely in nine months (This is intended)!

This enlightening realization made me wear two hats and take them off for my wife and all the working women in Mumbai and around the world.

Now, I pondered over this thought as I wished my Mom as well a Happy Women's Day, and a feeling of different kind overwhelmed me.

For, nearly 30 years, 29 years with two kids, both of them being masculine, my Mom had managed it all.

Happy Mother's Day Aai!  

The Hungry Tide!

As I finish my morning journey on the 10.25 local from Kalyan Station to Thane, I am about to complete reading the Hungry Tide..a couple of pages more and I would have finished it. As it happened, I had to get down without completing the book. A sea of people, almost like a tidal wave, is gathered at the narrow opening of the bridge, and I am swept in the flood. Couldn't help but draw parallels between the tide country and the people country.

As with the people of the Sunderbans’ delta, the people of Mumbai are swept with hazards caused not by nature, but by people. Not to comment here on that.

The Hungry Tide is a simple, lucid yet intricate in choice of words and an artistic book where Amitav Ghosh creates the images and scenes of the beautiful, yet dangerous tide country of the Sunderbans in West Bengal. The book has few simple characters and a few complicated characters; in fact the story is about six and a half characters and a couple of storms and a massacre. I had picked the book based on the write up behind the cover and had passed it for a mystery and deep feelings, emotions, drama write up. The book didn’t disappoint me, as it had everything of all..but at a much artistic level. Mr. Ghosh has provided explicit details about the Sunderbans and if you have seen a documentary on NGC about it, you will find that he has done a wonderful job in bringing the flora and fauna in the region to life.

Also, do read the book for the wonderful and yet simple J story..

4 types of Samosas

Me and my wife were at Thane and before starting a brief(!) shopping stint decided to visit Kunjavihar. Now people who have not visited Thane, Kunjavihar is a two storey vada pav ki tapri at Thane railway station. After the regular load of a vada pav, I sunk my teeth on a steaming hot samosa, and my wife quickly noticed the odd red color of the stuffing.

Now that was an amateur gazing at a Ghati samosa for the occasional time and noticing the difference.

I elaborated to her that there are 4 different types of Samosas in Mumbai and around and she wouldn’t agree. So let me elaborate a bit more..

There are 4 different types of Samosas

1.  The Punjabi Samosa
2. The Gujju or Kacchi Samosa
3. The Ghati Samosa
4. The Madrasi Samosa

Now the chutney that goes with the samosa is also a distinctive identifier of the type of samosa you are eating and the experience you are having. So I have added a special note at the end of each description.

Locating the right store for the right experience is also important and hence I have provided a few landmarks to spot a samosa you are looking for.

The Punjabi Samosa

The Punjabi samosa crust is crispy and smooth. And when I say smooth, when you hold it a bit firmly, the crust will crumble. It’s the oil that they add in the flour to make it like that. Now I don’t know how they do it, but it tastes simply amazing. When you get your teeth and tongue through the crust to the stuffing, you will find the occasional coriander seed sticking in your teeth. The garam masala is very evident, but is optimum to make the samosa delectable. The stuffing will be potatoes and peas veggie with a twist of chaat and garam masala. The size will be medium and you will often find it smoking on a big tawa. The Punjabi samosa is the best in the category of samosas and can be had any time of the day.

Chutney: The chutney will always be imli ki chutney with overpowering sweetness of jaggery. Some of the vendors will try to tell you that it is khajur ki chutney, but a look at the shack and you will understand that it is good ol’ imli boiled with a kilo of gud.

How to Locate: A sardarji will be sitting at the counter. And the samosa will be simmering on a big tawa. There would be red colored jalebis available as well at the store even though it is selling only snacks. If you are frequenting the store you are bound to see a motherly looking Punjabi aunty at the counter sometimes while her son or husband toils away serving.  

When you see all the above indicators, immediately deduce that you are in for a Punjabi samosa treat J

Special Note: Notice the jalebis at the store and have them please, awesome combination with the samosa. The samosa chat is also good to have occasionally, it has the ragda and sev added to it.

The Gujju or the Kacchi Samosa

The Guuju samosa will have a slightly firmer crust than the Punjabi samosa. The stuffing will not have peas, but a gooey paste of potatoes and sweet, sour, spicy and different kind of taste. Combined with the different kind of crust, the taste is simply amazing. It will not be spicy, it will be chatpata. The sourness and sweetness will be optimum and you will barely feel it. The samosa forms crispy and gooey mixture when a large portion is eaten. This is particularly dangerous if the samosa is hot as it will burn your tongue and any skin inside your mouth the paste comes in contact with. So please be patient with your samosa and please blow a little before biting each morsel and enjoy a slow heaven inside your mouth.

Chutney: The chutney will always be tomato ki chutney with some kind of semi-solid substance. I have never been able to decode the semi-solid substance but I bet it is the left over dhokla added in mixture of tomatoes, gud and a little bit of chilies as you will feel a bit of a tinge on your tongue. Often, the chutney is much more tastier than the samosa and can be had with a variety of other snacks.

How to Locate: The person giving the samosa will always be in a dirty, if not torn baniyan. The person sitting at the counter will always ask for 1 rupee or 2 rupee change, after that exasperated will ask for 5 rupee change. The area around the store will be sticky and there will be a water ki taki with a leaking tap. If you visit the store often, you are bound to find gujju aunties asking for snacks other than samosa

When you see all the above indicators, you can be assured that you have come to the right place for a perfect gujju samosaJ

Special Note: Please ask for extra chutney and you will have a large portion of it. The store is very liberal in serving the chutney. You can even ask for 2 packs of chutney with one parcel samosa. The samosa also tastes good with fried chilies.

The Ghati Samosa

The Ghati Samosa will have a tough outer crust and if not bitten carefully can hurt the top of your mouth to the point where the skin comes off. The stuffing will be peas and potato bhaji with red masala and will be extremely spicy. The common belief in the maker’s mind is that the samosa is a hot item and the eater should have a holistic experience from being served hot to the stuffing being made fiery hot. The lal masala is what gives the stuffing in ghati samosa the red color. It will invariably have a few coriander leaves. The size of the samosa will be slightly bigger than the Punjabi or the gujju samosa. The peas will be semi cooked and sometimes overcooked. It will give you an altogether different taste from the above 2 types of samosas and you will enjoy it if you have a palate for spicy stuff.

Chutney: The chutney will be the same that is provided along with the delicious vada pav served at the same gaadi. It will be cripy, sand dry and red in color, but less fiery than expected. Sometimes, if the gaadi or tapri is famous in the area then you will find a degraded version of the Punjabi imli ki chutney and green coriander chutney. Both the liquid chutneys are watery and have a faint hint of respective tastes.

How to Locate: The famous vada pav ki gaadi or tapri are best places for finding the ghati samosa. The word “famous” is very important because the simple vada pav ki gaadi will not sell samosas, they will stick to the pav and vada. The famous gaadi or tapri will add samosa as a second option.

When you smell vadas from a distance before reaching the gaadi, and when after having gone half way through your samosa you realize you are going to need a cold drink or lime juice to cool your insides, know that you have been overwhelmed by a ghati samosaJ

Special Note: The samosas can also be had with fried chilies available at the gaadi. Please note the color of the chilies, the dark greener the color, the more hot is the chily.

The Madrasi Samosa

The Madrasi Samosa will have a tougher outer crust as if to emphasize the extreme softness of the idli and the medu vada in comparison. You will find the flour sticking in your teeth as the samosa is not fresh, it does not stand competition in comparison with idli, vada and coconut chutney. The stuffing will be a mixture of red and yellow color, more biased towards yellow. It will be shallow tasting with occasional mustard seeds and a distant glimpse of the garam masala used in the sambur. Someone with a flair for north Indian stuff might add a few peas. Special importance is given to the shape of the samosa and it will never resemble the Punjabi samosa.

Chutney: The chutney will always be green coconut chutney that you would have eaten with the idlis. The tomato chutney served with vada sambur will also be there but will not be served with the samosa.

How to Locate:  The Madrasi category consists of Udupi, Chettinad, Decan and Mallu restaurants. So if you are at any of these restaurants and want to have a different taste from the regular masala dosa, uttapa, idli and vada, please have an item called Neer dosa if it is available with coconut and tomato chutney and potato masala. Please try items called as idly fry or idly chilly if you want to try something different.

The types of restaurants mentioned above will have the samosa, but they will also have 20 other items that can be snacked upon J

Special Note: The samosas will always be stale, because nobody goes to a madrasi restaurant to have a samosa. Madras is best known for filter coffee.

125 CC - 7.2 MP - Khidkaleshwar Mahadev Mandir - Dombivli

So it was my long time thing to go out on my bike and visit all the places that I can alone or with a bit of company and I decided no matter what, I will comb through atleast a 50 Km radius around Kalyan (inspiration: The Motorcycle Diaries).

So after thinking (read: day dreaming) for a lot of weekends and sleeping through sundays due to late night saturday parties, I finally decided one Sunday that this was the day.

So I took out my 125 CC Honda, forgot my 7.2 MP cyber shot and rode on to the place where I had been meaning to go for more than a year since I heard about it. The Khidkaleshwar Mahadev Mandir on the Manpada road. The temple was supposedly built by the Pandavas when Yudishthir wanted to worship the lord Mahadev. The association of the pandavas gave the temple a mystic aura in my head, along with beautiful architecture and scenic location. The presence of a pond around the lake added to the majesty of the temple.

So in anticipation, there I was cruising on my sturdy (!) Shine, riding at a screaming pace of 60 kmph and reached the temple in 30 mins. The scorching April sun was as radiant as it is always in India and I had to pay tribute of my burnt skin to the Sun god. I had come prepared for the face though and a bandana on your head and a face mask is always adviseable when you are riding in any kind of weather if your helmet does not have a visor. Plus the glares to make your vision clear and to prevent any bugs from the attractive sticky surface of your eyes.

So, there I was in my complete biker's attire, at the big arch proclaiming the entrance of the Khidkaleshwar Mahadev Mandir, Khidkali. There was parking space for buses and cars, meaning frequent visitors, good. Then there was a two way line of vendor stalls with all the pooja stuff, meaning daily business, good. To avoid the agressive marketing, I chose another path to enter the premises and got lost in a maze of smaller temples of other dieties and couple of saints who had taken samadhi there. Finally, I was able to make my way to the mahadev mandir and paid my respects to the lord.

So, ok, it was not grand a temple and did not have too much space, or a big hall for the devotees. And, it did not have major resemblance to the association with Pandavas baring a few stone pillars with ancient carvings on them.

So, ok I thought, no one knew when the Pandavas built the temple and it obviously needed renovation and the temple was made of concrete and marble flooring. The lake was in a sorry state and the bridge connecting one side to the other needed construction from scratch. I was a little disappointed at not being able to witness anything mythical and wandered around the temple to catch something.

So, I came back and sat in the in the small hall of the temple and my closed and for a moment the serenity and the calmness of the environment got to me. The immense peace, the quiet rippling of the pond had their effect and I knew why people flocked to the temple.

So, if you are going to this place for the mystic association and the architectural grandness, you will be disappointed, but if you are going to the temple for the reason why people go to shrines, you will not be disappointed. There is a big fair during Mahashivratri here and the temple obviously has great importance among locals and people from faraway.

So, I felt like an idiot expecting something and getting much more in return.

So, dont go any where expecting anything unless you are going to a resort, keep your mind open and the let the world sink in..

No Reservations!! Please Eat....

As I wound down on my easy chair after a dinner of jam and chapatis (upset stomach you see, cant even have mom's daal) on a Thursday night, the same old hysteric dilemma hit me....what to watch on TV?

I surf through the channels and come accross what used to be my favorite for a while, and saw one of my many gurus do what he did best, eat food.

Anthony Bourdain was in full glory in Chile for the next 60 mins travelling in a Jaguar with a friend and having the eating of his life. There was a meat sandwich burger to start with, then sausages, then fried meat, then a platter of sea food, then some more meat and then some more sea food. My gastronomical demons had sent a war cry in the tummy as I saw Tony go through lanes after lanes of delicious looking food. The warm cheese melt burgers, the foot long hot dogs with guacamole layers and a plate full of golden brown french fries, and I cursed myself for having a dinner of chapati and jam.

You watch people like Anthony Bourdain eat, and you feel the joy they feel for the food. Great people have said that food is for life and life is not for food, but they have apparently never had a meal at the end of which the eyes close, there is a smug smile on your face and the stomach feels as if being caressed by the gods. Its not as much gluttony as it is searching god through food. I have always admired Anthony Bourdain because of the way he brings respect to the food that is being eaten any where on the earth, as if bringing truth to the fact that it is a sacred thing.

The more you watch his show, you start feeling the respect that is gestured to the people who make the food, the local flavours, the spices, the fruits, the vineyards, the bakeries and the small little shacks who take you to heaven. I have watched him in episodes where he has eaten the $1000 pizza in a swank restaurant in Manhattan, to the free evening snacks with the tribes in central Africa, its the same humble approach to food as it were and you feel obliged to appreaciate the good things in life you normally would not care. 

It is one of the reasons why I am famous for my love of food of any kind. If food is there to be eaten, please EAT!! J  

If you want to catch the show and discover your love of food, it is on TLC (Earlier Discovery Travel and Living) at 11 PM every Thursday.

The pics shown above are authentic Chilean and are from our reliable resource, The Google!

Comedy Express..

If you people have seen Whose Line is it Anyway on Star World and a string a cheap comic shots of so called comedy shows (reminisce Archana Pooran Singh and Navjot Siddhu as judges), Comedy Express scores more on TRP, and I believe it.

A everyday stand up show setting where you have a hot host, a band and then the actors performing, but with a difference. First of all, the host is so-so hot, not very hot, then the band has only 2 guys, rest are girls. Yes, you read it right, 4 girls, playing drums, a guitar, a tabla and some other instrument ( I watch the show, not the instruments).

I have been watching this show since the initial days, when Sunil Tawade (hes not a part of the show anymore) used to dress up as a Marathi Kavi and kill a soul with his charolis. The simplicity and the skill with which he delivered was simple and yet it left the audience dying of laughter. Till the most recent skits of Master and bandu, where bandu along with his pal moru drive the master crazy.

Stage kind of performances, a unique band and an hour ful of madness make this show a relief on the weekend. Its aired on E Tv on Fridays and Saturdays at 9.30 PM. So, if you want to go crazy after a hard days work and you are too much of a sloth to go out and be crazy, just watch the show and feel it.