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.

Give India, Give!

The book stimulated my brain for a while though! And you will not believe it, more than 5 companies are philanthropic. Education, microfinance, schools, advanced learning and giving! Yes, giving. There is a company called Give India which provides a platform for people to donate money to NGOs working in different areas. You really feel for this guy, I mean after graduating from IIMA, 20 years on, he has not amassed any wealth. The service charges levied by the company make sure it keeps running.

You have to give it to the founder of this company or rather institution, Venkat Raman (accolades from whatever!). He has worked hard all his life, so that he could make a difference in other people’s lives. You feel motivated while reading his story and the feeling for doing something yourself creeps in.

I went to the website and made a pledge myself. Believe me, I felt a lot better thinking that I am making a difference to some one else, even if it is a tiny bit, but the difference will be there.

If you want information about the company and what it does and the way it keeps all its services transparent and a lot of other stuff, please visit the below link.

http://www.giveindia.org/t-abtus_mission.aspx

It may be a small amount for us, 100 bucks goes for a cup of coffee in CCD or a couple of hundred for a movie, we don’t mind. So a hundred every month so that a kid somewhere can eat everyday should be worth spending.

Stay Hungry, Stay Foolish!

You got to read this one, it’s the stories of 25 IIM grads who quit lucrative jobs to do something of their own. The stories are amazing and showcase the triumph of passion and grit and the courage to hang in there against all odds (including government), but most of all it highlights the belief that they had in their ideas. You will observe throughout the stories the mavericks had taken a leap of faith at some point or the other and put everything on the line.

No wonder you get bit by the entrepreneurial bug and with each finishing story a new idea flashes in your head (and I mean literally, because by the next chapter is starting and a new idea is taking shape). And you try to picture yourself as an entrepreneur, making presentations, talking to big people and then making big money. I was half way through the book and asked Santosh if he had read the book, “boss, bahut kharab book hai”

what??

Then he gave me a little perspective J, first of all you have to have an idea - I can have ideas. Then you have to sell that idea to big people to get some money to start the business - well a little marketing wont harm in the longer run too. Then, these guys had to slog it out for the next 6-8 years of their lives continuously and even after that, most of the companies are, well, not big! Plus, you need to keep working hard to keep the company going. And we are talking IIM A grads here, the best management thing!

Hmm, I thought out loud, 6-8 years of very hard labour, and then a lifetime of moderately hard labour does not seem like my cup of tea, and we both agreed “Kharab book hai!”

But it does make a good reading though, especially if you feel bored on a hour long train journey everyday!

Local Call..

An American decided to write a book about famous churches around
the world.

So he bought a plane ticket and took a trip to china.

On his first day he was inside a church taking photographs when he
noticed a golden telephone mounted on the wall with a sign that
read "$10,000 per call".

The American, being intrigued, asked a priest who was strolling by
what the telephone was used for.

The priest replied that it was a direct line to heaven and that
for $10,000 you could talk to God.

The American thanked the priest and went along his way.

Next stop was in japan. There, at a very large
cathedral, he saw the same golden telephone with the same sign
under it.

He wondered if this was the same kind of telephone he saw in china
and he asked a nearby nun what its purpose was.

She told him that it was a direct line to heaven and that for
$10,000 he could talk to God.

"O.K., thank you," said the American.

He then traveled to pakistan, srilanka, russia, Germany and
France.

In every church he saw the same golden telephone
with the same "$10,000 per call" sign under it.

The American, upon leaving Vermont decided to travel to up to
India to see if Indians had the same phone.

He arrived in India, and again, in the first church he entered,
there was the same golden telephone, but this time the sign under
it read "One Rupee per call."

The American was surprised so he asked the priest about the sign.
"Father, I've traveled all over World and I've seen this same
golden telephone in many churches. I'm told that it is a direct
line to Heaven, but in the US the price was $10,000 per call.

Why is it so cheap here?"

The priest smiled and answered, "You're in India now, son - it's a
local call".

The Rice Caravan..

This one was told to me by my Dad when I was a kid and didnt understand its importance back then, its an eye opener with a bit of philosophy. Here goes....

Once Badshah Akbar was standing on his balcony with his Queen and the queen's brother. And the queen was nagging the king to make her brother (yeah right!) a minister in place of Birbal, the king all the while was listening to Tansen singing from a distance (huh??). But the queen kept on arguing about how good her brother was, till the point the king got fed up and said,

"Ok, but I will test him with Birbal first"

To which the queen agreed joyfully.

Just then a caravan was passing through the palace roads, the king saw it and was curious, he called the queens bro and asked him to check out where the caravan was headed.

The bro ran down and came back after 10 mins and told the king that the caravan was leaving the city and was headed west.

The king was keen on why they were leaving the city, so he asked the queens bro to check out why they were leaving the city.

The man again ran down and came back after 20 mins. He reported to the king that the caravan was selling rice in the city and did not get a proper response here and were therefore leaving the city for another market.

The king again asked him to check out the quality of rice they had got.

Now the queen's bro looked at the queen appealing as the Caravan had gone far out of his reach.

The king smiled at this. Just then Birbal happened to be there.

The king showed him the caravan at a distance and asked him to check it out. Birbal went down and came back after 2 hrs.

He reported to the king that the caravan was in the city selling rice and they did not get a proper response from the market here and were leaving the city for another market. He checked the quality of their rice and found it to be of the highest quality at a reasonable price and hence he brought it for the Royal palace. He had aslo asked them to return the next year with the same quality of rice.

The king was left with no further questions to ask.