The Reserve Bank of India has increased the repo rate to 7.5% now, a move that most financial analysts say they have been expecting. This is now the highest repo rate for the past 4 years. The reverse repo however is still at 6%. A move that is meant to curb inflation that seems to be increasing exponentially, I am glad they have finally started to try and curb the credit growth.
The most hit by inflation this year have been the poor and middle-class, the prices of foodstuff - raw and processed has an increase of almost 30% now which means that basic needs of people have begun to get affected.
GDP growth rate expected is around 9 - 9.5% and if inflation is not controlled, this is going to be tough to achieve.
On another front, import duties are being reduced to tackle price rise here. Hopefully, we should see some sense coming in.
S & P has finally finally finally (finally repeated nth times, you get the idea) increased the rating of India to investment grade (BBB/A-3) which has been long due.
The things deterring S & P have been fiscal deficit (which is one of the highest in the world, we must conceed that) and regulations.
However, with India becoming a more open market, capital markets booming, its the in thing now to invest here. Fingers crossed for a great year for the capital markets and a slight dip in real estate prices so that I can afford that flat I want to buy soon.
Wednesday, January 31
Tuesday, January 30
Appraisal time
Its that time of the year when the noisiest folk tend to lower their voices, the work-shy people start turning up at the office on time and the nerds begin to work on their communication skills - its appraisal time in short.
Since our firm became a part of this MNC, the yearly appraisals are done based on Jan - Dec performances and the bonuses are paid with your January salary. However, any salary raise will be effective only from April, the start of the Indian financial year.
Being the only person in my division to work away from Mumbai, I knew that my appraisal would be last and thankfully, just when I thought of ditching patience and calling my boss and demanding an appraisal immediately, he called me to check if I was available for a 30 minute discussion. Was I ever???
So the head of my sub-division (product development and implementation) and the director of my division logged into conference calls and after a long introduction to the appraisal system at the office, time that I used to jot down important points that I should remember to bring out during the call, we got down to business and all I can say is, it was beautiful!!!
My director called me a "role model" which was flattering, though they would not tell me what that meant in commercial terms (aka salary raise) which I tried to wriggle out of them.
They agreed with my points and I got a great appraisal, so April, come soon and shower me with some good news. Only thing is, you do not know the hike they are going to give you till March end, so thats something that I need to watch out for.
On the visa front, I finally got the call that my courier has reached Mumbai safe and sound, which means that my passport is safe now.
Since our firm became a part of this MNC, the yearly appraisals are done based on Jan - Dec performances and the bonuses are paid with your January salary. However, any salary raise will be effective only from April, the start of the Indian financial year.
Being the only person in my division to work away from Mumbai, I knew that my appraisal would be last and thankfully, just when I thought of ditching patience and calling my boss and demanding an appraisal immediately, he called me to check if I was available for a 30 minute discussion. Was I ever???
So the head of my sub-division (product development and implementation) and the director of my division logged into conference calls and after a long introduction to the appraisal system at the office, time that I used to jot down important points that I should remember to bring out during the call, we got down to business and all I can say is, it was beautiful!!!
My director called me a "role model" which was flattering, though they would not tell me what that meant in commercial terms (aka salary raise) which I tried to wriggle out of them.
They agreed with my points and I got a great appraisal, so April, come soon and shower me with some good news. Only thing is, you do not know the hike they are going to give you till March end, so thats something that I need to watch out for.
On the visa front, I finally got the call that my courier has reached Mumbai safe and sound, which means that my passport is safe now.
Monday, January 29
D - for a dreadful and dreary day
I got the news on Friday evening that I needed to get to South Korea by 6th Feb for a meeting. Now the visa process takes about four working days and since I need to start on the 5th from here to reach Seoul on the 6th, I was beginning to get a tad worried.
To top it, the administrative staff at the Chennai office refuses to get involved in the process- “Oh madam, that is all Bombay work. If you want we can arrange for forex for you”.
So after frantic calls to my Mumbai office, I finally sweet talked an old acquaintance in the admin department into handling the process for me. Getting the documents to the Mumbai office however would be cutting it too close, so I decided to check if I could not do it from Chennai itself.
The required documentation also included an original bank statement for the past six months and this stumped me. For some time now, I have been relying just on emails sent by my bank to my account and so called up to confirm if I could just take a print out of these statements and submit them. Unfortunately, the person replying was not too enthusiastic about the idea and asked me to go to the nearest branch and get the statements from them. I called up customer service of my bank and put in a request for my statements, which I was told would cost me about Rs 28 per page, so the total of 10 pages would cost me 280 bucks and of course that was exclusive of the service taxes they would charge! Being an emergency, I asked them to go ahead and after registering, the agent confirmed delivery of the statements would be in 8 working days!!!
No arguments about it being a life or death emergency would sway them and I decided to go to the branch directly.
I logged on to the net and the Tamil Nadu government website provided a list of consulates in Chennai and their addresses and I was happy to read that there was a South Korean Consulate in Chennai and that was on Kothari road in Nungambakkam, which is pretty close to my office.
I called Harry and asked him to help me out and he, being my knight in shining armour for perhaps the zillionth time, came to my office by around 12 in the afternoon. We first went into the bank for the statement, waited there for about 30 minutes while I enjoyed the novel experience of actually entering a bank for business, all my contact with the bank being through ATMs, telephone calls and the internet. The statement was printed at the same cost, Rs 28 per page and I was wondering whether they did that to try and get back the depreciation cost of the printer, paper definitely does not cost that much!!!
Once I got the statement, I called up the customer service to cancel the request I had made earlier and was refused on the grounds that they had already started processing the request!!!
(So now I pay twice for the same information and that is information on the cash flows in my account!!! No wonder the private banks are showing such neat profits, they make their money in all these small ways.)
We then proceeded to Kothari road and started to search for the consulate. The odd thing about Chennai is that you keep coming across house/plot numbers that seem to change, when you ask for number 28, they ask you – the old number or the new one? and its impossible to find out the place you need unless you have a contact number.
Since we did not find any number, we went ahead asking security guards of different buildings and not surprisingly, we came up with zilch. This meant that I needed to get things done from Mumbai then.
It was 3 by then and I still needed to track my tax returns. I came home and began to rummage through my files and they had disappeared too….finally had to call human resources and ask them to fax me the copy they had.
Then returned to office at around 5:30 and then sent my courier to Mumbai with my original passport in it…keeping my fingers crossed since I know that is like the worst thing to do, but desperate times call for desperate measures!!
.
To top it, the administrative staff at the Chennai office refuses to get involved in the process- “Oh madam, that is all Bombay work. If you want we can arrange for forex for you”.
So after frantic calls to my Mumbai office, I finally sweet talked an old acquaintance in the admin department into handling the process for me. Getting the documents to the Mumbai office however would be cutting it too close, so I decided to check if I could not do it from Chennai itself.
The required documentation also included an original bank statement for the past six months and this stumped me. For some time now, I have been relying just on emails sent by my bank to my account and so called up to confirm if I could just take a print out of these statements and submit them. Unfortunately, the person replying was not too enthusiastic about the idea and asked me to go to the nearest branch and get the statements from them. I called up customer service of my bank and put in a request for my statements, which I was told would cost me about Rs 28 per page, so the total of 10 pages would cost me 280 bucks and of course that was exclusive of the service taxes they would charge! Being an emergency, I asked them to go ahead and after registering, the agent confirmed delivery of the statements would be in 8 working days!!!
No arguments about it being a life or death emergency would sway them and I decided to go to the branch directly.
I logged on to the net and the Tamil Nadu government website provided a list of consulates in Chennai and their addresses and I was happy to read that there was a South Korean Consulate in Chennai and that was on Kothari road in Nungambakkam, which is pretty close to my office.
I called Harry and asked him to help me out and he, being my knight in shining armour for perhaps the zillionth time, came to my office by around 12 in the afternoon. We first went into the bank for the statement, waited there for about 30 minutes while I enjoyed the novel experience of actually entering a bank for business, all my contact with the bank being through ATMs, telephone calls and the internet. The statement was printed at the same cost, Rs 28 per page and I was wondering whether they did that to try and get back the depreciation cost of the printer, paper definitely does not cost that much!!!
Once I got the statement, I called up the customer service to cancel the request I had made earlier and was refused on the grounds that they had already started processing the request!!!
(So now I pay twice for the same information and that is information on the cash flows in my account!!! No wonder the private banks are showing such neat profits, they make their money in all these small ways.)
We then proceeded to Kothari road and started to search for the consulate. The odd thing about Chennai is that you keep coming across house/plot numbers that seem to change, when you ask for number 28, they ask you – the old number or the new one? and its impossible to find out the place you need unless you have a contact number.
Since we did not find any number, we went ahead asking security guards of different buildings and not surprisingly, we came up with zilch. This meant that I needed to get things done from Mumbai then.
It was 3 by then and I still needed to track my tax returns. I came home and began to rummage through my files and they had disappeared too….finally had to call human resources and ask them to fax me the copy they had.
Then returned to office at around 5:30 and then sent my courier to Mumbai with my original passport in it…keeping my fingers crossed since I know that is like the worst thing to do, but desperate times call for desperate measures!!
.
Tuesday, January 16
The Book Quest
The entire day today was spent on what I call the "Quest for the Holy Book".
My sister had asked us to send across a book on Shirdi Sai Baba called Satcharita and we thought that would be fairly easy to track down. So went to Landmark at Spencer Plaza in the morning around 11:45 only to be told that they do not stock it.
We then went to this shop called "Giri Brothers" in Mylapore, which is supposedly well-known for all articles connected with prayers - they stock all the Pooja CDs, books, items such as the Agarbati (the incense stick), unfortunately they only had the book in Tamil.
From there, to R A Puram to Sundaram, which is the temple for Satya Sai Baba, but they informed us that they would be opening their book stall only when Bhajans took place (usually on Thursdays and Sundays).
We then went to the Ramakrishna Mutt in Mylapore and I decided to check the Universal Temple that they have built there. The architecture is great and we entered the temple and sat down to meditate the way the others in the temple were. Its calm and peaceful and you can feel your worries being washed away in that atmosphere.
Unfortunately they too do not stock the book and we heard about the book fair that was being held at Poonamalee High Road, about an hour's drive from there, so went ahead to that place. It was packed like the entire Chennai crowd was there, I never knew there were such avid booklovers in Chennai.
Unfortunately most of the books were in Tamil and the English ones were not worth a glance, moreover, the crowd was beginning to psyche us out, so we decided to call it a day and got back home at around 9 PM. By then, mum, dad and myself were all too bushed to be able to move even an inch, so we called up a few people and thankfully a family friend had the book, so we finally got that.
Seriously, I never thought a book could ever bring such agony and frustration in a single day!!!
My sister had asked us to send across a book on Shirdi Sai Baba called Satcharita and we thought that would be fairly easy to track down. So went to Landmark at Spencer Plaza in the morning around 11:45 only to be told that they do not stock it.
We then went to this shop called "Giri Brothers" in Mylapore, which is supposedly well-known for all articles connected with prayers - they stock all the Pooja CDs, books, items such as the Agarbati (the incense stick), unfortunately they only had the book in Tamil.
From there, to R A Puram to Sundaram, which is the temple for Satya Sai Baba, but they informed us that they would be opening their book stall only when Bhajans took place (usually on Thursdays and Sundays).
We then went to the Ramakrishna Mutt in Mylapore and I decided to check the Universal Temple that they have built there. The architecture is great and we entered the temple and sat down to meditate the way the others in the temple were. Its calm and peaceful and you can feel your worries being washed away in that atmosphere.
Unfortunately they too do not stock the book and we heard about the book fair that was being held at Poonamalee High Road, about an hour's drive from there, so went ahead to that place. It was packed like the entire Chennai crowd was there, I never knew there were such avid booklovers in Chennai.
Unfortunately most of the books were in Tamil and the English ones were not worth a glance, moreover, the crowd was beginning to psyche us out, so we decided to call it a day and got back home at around 9 PM. By then, mum, dad and myself were all too bushed to be able to move even an inch, so we called up a few people and thankfully a family friend had the book, so we finally got that.
Seriously, I never thought a book could ever bring such agony and frustration in a single day!!!
Pongal
Its the beginning of the harvest season in Tamil Nadu and this is celebrated with the four day festival of Pongal.
Which means offices are closed for atleast two days and I get some time off!!!
Yay!!!
Which means offices are closed for atleast two days and I get some time off!!!
Yay!!!
Sunday, January 14
Kudos to Rain Forest
Rain Forest is a restaurant in Adyar that has been open for about two years now. I met two friends there for lunch today.
The first thing noticable is the theme that they have adopted,discernible from the name. The opening was designed like a cave,you enter through a door that has been resembles a few rocks and walk down five steps which seem carved out of stone.
To the left is a small waterfall and the foliage is green though plastic. I can understand the logic behind leaving out the real greenery as there is no sunlight here. The waiters sport shirts that have leopard spots and seem to be from the north-eastern part of India, who look better suited to be natives of said rain forests. The walls have been adorned with wood that resembles bamboo shoots. And the food is pretty decent too. The only thing that marred the entire effect was when they had to settle to provide Xerox copies of the menu since they seemed to have too few of them to give around.
The ratings for Rain Forest, Adyar are:
Decor: ♥♥♥♥♥
Service: ♥♥♥
Food: ♥♥♥♥
Ambience: ♥♥♥♥♥
Price: ♥♥♥♥♥
Overall rating: ♥♥♥♥
However, it is advised that only small groups (four to five members) go here since loud volumes definitely would clash with the ambience that they strive to achieve here. A rain forest is where you prefer to listen to nature around you, not loud laughter and words. The place is open from 12 to 3 for lunch and 7 to 11 for dinner. They are pretty strict about timings here, and discourage patrons from entering after closing times, unlike other Indian restaurants that continue to allow entry upto atleast an hour after closing time.
The first thing noticable is the theme that they have adopted,discernible from the name. The opening was designed like a cave,you enter through a door that has been resembles a few rocks and walk down five steps which seem carved out of stone.
To the left is a small waterfall and the foliage is green though plastic. I can understand the logic behind leaving out the real greenery as there is no sunlight here. The waiters sport shirts that have leopard spots and seem to be from the north-eastern part of India, who look better suited to be natives of said rain forests. The walls have been adorned with wood that resembles bamboo shoots. And the food is pretty decent too. The only thing that marred the entire effect was when they had to settle to provide Xerox copies of the menu since they seemed to have too few of them to give around.
The ratings for Rain Forest, Adyar are:
Decor: ♥♥♥♥♥
Service: ♥♥♥
Food: ♥♥♥♥
Ambience: ♥♥♥♥♥
Price: ♥♥♥♥♥
Overall rating: ♥♥♥♥
However, it is advised that only small groups (four to five members) go here since loud volumes definitely would clash with the ambience that they strive to achieve here. A rain forest is where you prefer to listen to nature around you, not loud laughter and words. The place is open from 12 to 3 for lunch and 7 to 11 for dinner. They are pretty strict about timings here, and discourage patrons from entering after closing times, unlike other Indian restaurants that continue to allow entry upto atleast an hour after closing time.
Saturday, January 13
Two and a half left feet
I have been conned by a friend of mine to sign up for dance classes at O2, since I owed him quite a bit and I haven't had any kind of exercise of late, I agreed and signed up.
When the guy helping us to sign in our registration forms said we were starting with "Paso doble" form, that was my cue to up and out - I didn't even know that term.
All my kind of dancing has been wild steps involving close resemblances to the jumps taken by chimps and turns executed by a few drunk chickens, and this was way out of my league.
I decided the hell with it, surely not all are good here and entered the class. The instructor took a look at my shoes and said: "Please, not such high heels here. You cannot dance in those" and I tried pacifying him by saying I dance in those at the clubs normally. He just shook his head and asked to me bring something else tomorrow.
To my unfortunate luck, I discovered why he wanted me to wear something else, this dance required me to move more than in the clubs where just a few taps and a bit of a hip wiggle was called dancing..and I don't have two left feet , it felt more like there were more of them to me. My poor partner (Harry) was in jitters because I refused to let him lead me, mucked up the steps and also stopped half-way through when the steps were too ladylike for me to follow, some of them involved "drops" with elegance and I have never been one to fall elegantly!!!
For those who do not know what style the Paso doble is, information is available on these sites:
http://www.learntodance.com/Paso-doble.htm
http://http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Paso_Doble.htm
The instructor also informed us that this dance is meant only for the ballroom and not for any other social gatherings, since the probability of me entering a ballroom is one-billionth of a percent, I was wondering what I was doing. The end of the one-hour session found me gasping for breath, a pull on one of my hip muscles and a slight limp thanks to the pain in my calves beginning to niggle at me.
And I have to subject myself to this torture for eleven more classes!!! After this, the gym gets my vote for forms of exercise, my instructors there atleast do not tear at their hair seeing me trying to be ladylike, a notion that I have been informed is a bit more out of my reach than the solar system getting into orbit in a galaxy other than the Milky Way
When the guy helping us to sign in our registration forms said we were starting with "Paso doble" form, that was my cue to up and out - I didn't even know that term.
All my kind of dancing has been wild steps involving close resemblances to the jumps taken by chimps and turns executed by a few drunk chickens, and this was way out of my league.
I decided the hell with it, surely not all are good here and entered the class. The instructor took a look at my shoes and said: "Please, not such high heels here. You cannot dance in those" and I tried pacifying him by saying I dance in those at the clubs normally. He just shook his head and asked to me bring something else tomorrow.
To my unfortunate luck, I discovered why he wanted me to wear something else, this dance required me to move more than in the clubs where just a few taps and a bit of a hip wiggle was called dancing..and I don't have two left feet , it felt more like there were more of them to me. My poor partner (Harry) was in jitters because I refused to let him lead me, mucked up the steps and also stopped half-way through when the steps were too ladylike for me to follow, some of them involved "drops" with elegance and I have never been one to fall elegantly!!!
For those who do not know what style the Paso doble is, information is available on these sites:
http://www.learntodance.com/Paso-doble.htm
http://http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Paso_Doble.htm
The instructor also informed us that this dance is meant only for the ballroom and not for any other social gatherings, since the probability of me entering a ballroom is one-billionth of a percent, I was wondering what I was doing. The end of the one-hour session found me gasping for breath, a pull on one of my hip muscles and a slight limp thanks to the pain in my calves beginning to niggle at me.
And I have to subject myself to this torture for eleven more classes!!! After this, the gym gets my vote for forms of exercise, my instructors there atleast do not tear at their hair seeing me trying to be ladylike, a notion that I have been informed is a bit more out of my reach than the solar system getting into orbit in a galaxy other than the Milky Way
Friday, January 12
Goldfinger - Movietime
I decided to catch up on an old Bond movie today, the only Bond movies I have ever seen before are those with Pierce Brosnan and of course the latest one starring Daniel Craig.
I decided to check how Sean Connery performed in these movies, there have been fanatics who refuse to accept a Bond other than Sean, so decided to check out Goldfinger, a Bond flick released in 1964.
Used to the Bond movies with a lot of action, this movie comes as a welcome treat where even the villains seem to have some sense of manners and culture.
Comparing the three stars, Sean gets the vote for charm - somehow the way his wit is displayed in the movie can never be replicated by either Pierce or Daniel.
Pierce Brosnan is suave and sophisticated while Daniel Craig is a hunk embodying raw strength and stamina. Maybe a collusion of the three men will provide a perfect Bond!!!!
Ofcourse Bond has his women in this movie and the typical woman on the wrong side turns around to support him. The gadgets are there - an Aston Martin provided to Bond by Q has a tracker, bullet-proof shields, a seat ejector, machine guns forward etc.
The scene that really stood out for me was one where on spraying of the "nerve gas", the military around swoon, that's right, they swoon - an honest lady-like faint, the likes of which I used to imagine women in the 18th century indulged in while reading all those Jane Austen and other classic books. Where you would have thought that the men would just drop as they are, the way they fall is a graceful drop to the ground, in the most comfortable way possible. Ofcourse arguments can be made that since the military was faking, there was no need for them to unnecessarily hurt themselves, the elegance of the falls made me remember the numerous times I have tripped and fallen into an ungainly heap on the roads. Maybe practice will help me too to fall gracefully, I am definitely going to try this.
I have the next four days off - the weekend and then Monday and Tuesday, since its Pongal and am hoping to catch a few more movies and maybe read up a bit. Anyway its the weekend and here's to it!!
Sunday, January 7
Mocha Sunday
The weekends are a time when the party animals break out of their dodgy exteriors on exiting the offices on friday evenings and the quieter ones think of blessed solitude in which to pursue their hobbies, the workaholics lug huge cases of work home and the lazy ones, including me, consider it the best time to catch up on well-deserved sleep.
This sunday was an exception, decided to meet up with a few friends of mine to indicate that I was alive and hoping to find them in a similar state of being, I called up Arjun and Harry and we fixed to meet at Spencer's, a mall in Chennai.
I also had to pick up a book for a cousin of mine and since my gran was going to stay at the said cousin's place at Delhi, I was asked to pick up a few delectable snacks from a well known food chain - "Sri Krishna Sweets" in Chennai.
I went into Landmarks, a bookstore chain, and picked up Matthew Reilly's Seven Ancient Wonders. I already have a copy of this and knew my cousin would enjoy it, and Harry picked up a few more books for himself, seeing as to how I was refusing to spend too much money then.
But I did bully him into letting me read the books first and then giving them across to him.
We then met Arjun and I was startled to find him half his size almost, he was recovering from a viral fever that had laid him low for almost a month and we decided he needed feeding up a bit. So regardless of his protests about having finished lunch, we entered Subway and forced a salad down his throat, I do believe in the power of green leafy vegetables when someone else is having them.
There used to be a bowling point in Spencer's about two years back, but I was disappointed to learn that they had closed it down. Since I had this urge to go bowling, we went to a place called "Snow Bowling" at Nungambakkam. My advice - dont ever go to that place. The wait was about two hours (the excuse given was that it was a sunday, but when I asked why only two out of four lanes were being used, we were told that they were not all right), the balls when gripped felt like they had been greased totally and the lanes themselves are not worth mention.
We decided to then meet another fren at Mocha and went there. I was by then tired and so was Arjun so we propped ourselves up on the cushions there and ordered for some gud tea. The place is designed in a completely different manner than other coffee hangouts and is way cleaner than the Mumbai joint.
We went to the upper room which is furnished to look like a scene out of Arabian noghts, atleast the seats and the red and black curtains added to the allure of the place. The people nearby enjoyed their hookahs, a habit which I am sure I dont want to pick up and we finally met Ramki, who joined us for about twenty minutes, since that poor guy had to work even on Sundays!
Ratings for Mocha are as follows:
Decor: ♥♥♥♥♥
Service : ♥♥♥♥
Food: ♥♥♥♥
Music/Ambience : ♥♥♥
Price : ♥♥
Overall rating of Mocha's : ♥♥♥
Their Chocolate Temptations (Junior and Senior are available, be warned the Junior alone requires two people to finish)are worth a definite rave!!
We finally left the place and I reached home to hand over all the stuff I had bought to gran, we had been carrying those bags around for sometime now, and they felt like body parts that I had sprouted during the day, but losing them definitely did not feel like any amputation of limbs.
The end of a long sunday and the beginning of a week that promises to be a busy one, with my endless procastination of work, the deadlines seem closer this side of the weekend!!!
This sunday was an exception, decided to meet up with a few friends of mine to indicate that I was alive and hoping to find them in a similar state of being, I called up Arjun and Harry and we fixed to meet at Spencer's, a mall in Chennai.
I also had to pick up a book for a cousin of mine and since my gran was going to stay at the said cousin's place at Delhi, I was asked to pick up a few delectable snacks from a well known food chain - "Sri Krishna Sweets" in Chennai.
I went into Landmarks, a bookstore chain, and picked up Matthew Reilly's Seven Ancient Wonders. I already have a copy of this and knew my cousin would enjoy it, and Harry picked up a few more books for himself, seeing as to how I was refusing to spend too much money then.
But I did bully him into letting me read the books first and then giving them across to him.
We then met Arjun and I was startled to find him half his size almost, he was recovering from a viral fever that had laid him low for almost a month and we decided he needed feeding up a bit. So regardless of his protests about having finished lunch, we entered Subway and forced a salad down his throat, I do believe in the power of green leafy vegetables when someone else is having them.
There used to be a bowling point in Spencer's about two years back, but I was disappointed to learn that they had closed it down. Since I had this urge to go bowling, we went to a place called "Snow Bowling" at Nungambakkam. My advice - dont ever go to that place. The wait was about two hours (the excuse given was that it was a sunday, but when I asked why only two out of four lanes were being used, we were told that they were not all right), the balls when gripped felt like they had been greased totally and the lanes themselves are not worth mention.
We decided to then meet another fren at Mocha and went there. I was by then tired and so was Arjun so we propped ourselves up on the cushions there and ordered for some gud tea. The place is designed in a completely different manner than other coffee hangouts and is way cleaner than the Mumbai joint.
We went to the upper room which is furnished to look like a scene out of Arabian noghts, atleast the seats and the red and black curtains added to the allure of the place. The people nearby enjoyed their hookahs, a habit which I am sure I dont want to pick up and we finally met Ramki, who joined us for about twenty minutes, since that poor guy had to work even on Sundays!
Ratings for Mocha are as follows:
Decor: ♥♥♥♥♥
Service : ♥♥♥♥
Food: ♥♥♥♥
Music/Ambience : ♥♥♥
Price : ♥♥
Overall rating of Mocha's : ♥♥♥
Their Chocolate Temptations (Junior and Senior are available, be warned the Junior alone requires two people to finish)are worth a definite rave!!
We finally left the place and I reached home to hand over all the stuff I had bought to gran, we had been carrying those bags around for sometime now, and they felt like body parts that I had sprouted during the day, but losing them definitely did not feel like any amputation of limbs.
The end of a long sunday and the beginning of a week that promises to be a busy one, with my endless procastination of work, the deadlines seem closer this side of the weekend!!!
Friday, January 5
City of Joy - First Impressions
I actually made it to the 5:00 AM flight, thankfully I had obtained the boarding pass the previous day and so had ample time to stroll in and board the flight without any hassle.
We reached Calcutta at around 7:15 AM and I waited at the airport for my colleague flying in from Mumbai. He finally made it at around 9:00.
Since our first meeting was at 11:30, we decided to stop for a coffee, the elixir of life for some of us who are not too used to seeing daylight before 7:00.
The surprising thing about Calcutta is that everyone seems to be abed even at 10:00 in the morning. I have been informed that reporting for work before 11:00 AM for Bengalis is a rarity!
We were dropped at a quaint coffee-shop called Flury's at Park Street by our driver who, wonder of wonders, spoke both Hindi and English!
Ratings for Flury's are as follows:
Decor: ♥♥♥
Service : ♥♥♥♥
Food: ♥♥♥
Music/Ambience : ♥♥
Price : ♥♥♥♥♥
Overall rating of Flury's : ♥♥♥
The Cafe Mocha that they serve is pretty good, but my colleague refused to follow my advice and ordered for their Viennese coffee. His facial expressions were worth the early morning flight, his contortions definitely made my day!!
We finished with the first meeting and decided to break for lunch.
Lunch was at Sourav's, which I believe is a place that belongs to Saurav Ganguly, the ex-captain of the Indian cricket team (and who is back on the team for the current South- Africa Series). The food was great as also the decor.
Ratings for Sourav's are as follows:
Decor: ♥♥♥♥♥
Service : ♥♥♥♥
Food: ♥♥♥♥
Music/Ambience : ♥♥♥
Price : ♥♥♥
Overall rating for Sourav's : ♥♥♥♥
After a wonderful lunch, we needed to go in for two meetings and needless to say, I drooped most of the time.
My return flight to Chennai was at 6:10 PM and since it was Indian Airlines, we were pretty cool thinking that it would be delayed.
My colleague had got the news that his return flight to Chennai was delayed by 1 and a half hours. Unfortunately the meeting went on till 5:15 PM and by the time I called the Indian Airlines number, I was informed that my flight was on time and our driver took sadistic pleasure in telling us that the airport was an hour's drive from there.
I did a tele-check in and we reached the airport at around 6:00 PM.
I rushed to the Indian Airlines terminal and was told that we would be boarding so just about managed to get through security check on time and surprise, surprise ...after the boarding announcement, they did not bother to open the gates till 6:30 PM and the flight finally took off at around 7:15 PM. Thank You Indian Airlines for your consistent delays!!
Finally landed at Chennai around 9:15 PM and reached home at 10:00.
We reached Calcutta at around 7:15 AM and I waited at the airport for my colleague flying in from Mumbai. He finally made it at around 9:00.
Since our first meeting was at 11:30, we decided to stop for a coffee, the elixir of life for some of us who are not too used to seeing daylight before 7:00.
The surprising thing about Calcutta is that everyone seems to be abed even at 10:00 in the morning. I have been informed that reporting for work before 11:00 AM for Bengalis is a rarity!
We were dropped at a quaint coffee-shop called Flury's at Park Street by our driver who, wonder of wonders, spoke both Hindi and English!
Ratings for Flury's are as follows:
Decor: ♥♥♥
Service : ♥♥♥♥
Food: ♥♥♥
Music/Ambience : ♥♥
Price : ♥♥♥♥♥
Overall rating of Flury's : ♥♥♥
The Cafe Mocha that they serve is pretty good, but my colleague refused to follow my advice and ordered for their Viennese coffee. His facial expressions were worth the early morning flight, his contortions definitely made my day!!
We finished with the first meeting and decided to break for lunch.
Lunch was at Sourav's, which I believe is a place that belongs to Saurav Ganguly, the ex-captain of the Indian cricket team (and who is back on the team for the current South- Africa Series). The food was great as also the decor.
Ratings for Sourav's are as follows:
Decor: ♥♥♥♥♥
Service : ♥♥♥♥
Food: ♥♥♥♥
Music/Ambience : ♥♥♥
Price : ♥♥♥
Overall rating for Sourav's : ♥♥♥♥
After a wonderful lunch, we needed to go in for two meetings and needless to say, I drooped most of the time.
My return flight to Chennai was at 6:10 PM and since it was Indian Airlines, we were pretty cool thinking that it would be delayed.
My colleague had got the news that his return flight to Chennai was delayed by 1 and a half hours. Unfortunately the meeting went on till 5:15 PM and by the time I called the Indian Airlines number, I was informed that my flight was on time and our driver took sadistic pleasure in telling us that the airport was an hour's drive from there.
I did a tele-check in and we reached the airport at around 6:00 PM.
I rushed to the Indian Airlines terminal and was told that we would be boarding so just about managed to get through security check on time and surprise, surprise ...after the boarding announcement, they did not bother to open the gates till 6:30 PM and the flight finally took off at around 7:15 PM. Thank You Indian Airlines for your consistent delays!!
Finally landed at Chennai around 9:15 PM and reached home at 10:00.
Thursday, January 4
Death by Chocolate - a disappointment
I am a chocolate addict, any shape or form of chocolate, I will gorge myself on thst.
Ever since shifting to Chennai, I had heard a lot about a dessert called "Death by chocolate" available at Tangerine, a restaurant in the Alwarpet area of Chennai.
Having got raving reviews of this, I decided to bully a fren of mine into taking me to Tangerine for lunch.
I ordered the vegetable lasagne while he ordered the paneer tikka sizzler.
Both of them were way below par and after getting through a quarter of my lasagne, I decided to instead go in for the dessert which had led me to the place.
When it came, all I could do was to stare at it in disappointment.
All that I saw was some custard immersed in chocolate sauce....needless to say, it was a waste of time and effort going there.
We usually rate a restaurant based on decor, service, food, music/ambience and price
We rated Tangerine as follows:
Decor : ♥♥
Service: ♥♥
Food : ♥
Music/Ambience: ♥
Price : ♥
Overall rating: ♥
I returned to my office, picked up my stuff and tickets since I am travelling to Calcutta tomorrow and returned home quite disappointed...and I need to catch the 5 AM flight tomorrow
Ever since shifting to Chennai, I had heard a lot about a dessert called "Death by chocolate" available at Tangerine, a restaurant in the Alwarpet area of Chennai.
Having got raving reviews of this, I decided to bully a fren of mine into taking me to Tangerine for lunch.
I ordered the vegetable lasagne while he ordered the paneer tikka sizzler.
Both of them were way below par and after getting through a quarter of my lasagne, I decided to instead go in for the dessert which had led me to the place.
When it came, all I could do was to stare at it in disappointment.
All that I saw was some custard immersed in chocolate sauce....needless to say, it was a waste of time and effort going there.
We usually rate a restaurant based on decor, service, food, music/ambience and price
We rated Tangerine as follows:
Decor : ♥♥
Service: ♥♥
Food : ♥
Music/Ambience: ♥
Price : ♥
Overall rating: ♥
I returned to my office, picked up my stuff and tickets since I am travelling to Calcutta tomorrow and returned home quite disappointed...and I need to catch the 5 AM flight tomorrow
Monday, January 1
New Year Update
31st Dec – An update
It’s the New Year and I have spent this New Year eve in front of my PC. The usual plans of partying were bandied about for a while and then I had this revelation in the form of my mum holding my credit card bills in her hand and that steely glint in her eyes, which has caused me excruciating mental agony in all my previous encounters with it. And the verdict reached unanimously by my family – my parents and grandma still gives me the shivers – grounded!!!
How can a 26 year old be grounded??? – easily if you are surrounded by people who are bent on laying the guilt trip on you. And when in Chennai, it’s the norm and not the exception.
Conversation was stilted and the one concession given to me – “You may order for some Pizza for the evening if you want”.
And I pathetically grabbed at it, some how the picture of me eating some rasam sadam my mum was suggesting before rendered me quite incapable of eating anything for that evening and the Pizza acted as the best stimulant for my shattered brain – all those pictures I had of guzzling some good Old Monk after a long period of asceticism were pricking my nerves in a painful way!
The verdict from some of my so-called pals was the same – time to come up with those famous whoppers of mine and after having laid it on thick with my mater, I got an appeal in – go out once a week and come back before 11 PM. Since this was the situation before I got grounded, I decided not to push it and consoled myself with reports on the traffic jams clogging the place at 2:00 AM.
And I actually have to work on 1st, reason, the Chennai office will be open since we get two days off for Pongal. Some non-well-meaning colleagues of mine from the Mumbai office decided to get back at me for some previous antics of mine, none of which I reiterate were as painful, called me at 1:00 AM to give me a jist of all their activities and then dumped some work on me so that when they start work on Tuesday, their loads would be reduced!
Ha!
Like I am going to do any such thing!!
It’s the New Year and I have spent this New Year eve in front of my PC. The usual plans of partying were bandied about for a while and then I had this revelation in the form of my mum holding my credit card bills in her hand and that steely glint in her eyes, which has caused me excruciating mental agony in all my previous encounters with it. And the verdict reached unanimously by my family – my parents and grandma still gives me the shivers – grounded!!!
How can a 26 year old be grounded??? – easily if you are surrounded by people who are bent on laying the guilt trip on you. And when in Chennai, it’s the norm and not the exception.
Conversation was stilted and the one concession given to me – “You may order for some Pizza for the evening if you want”.
And I pathetically grabbed at it, some how the picture of me eating some rasam sadam my mum was suggesting before rendered me quite incapable of eating anything for that evening and the Pizza acted as the best stimulant for my shattered brain – all those pictures I had of guzzling some good Old Monk after a long period of asceticism were pricking my nerves in a painful way!
The verdict from some of my so-called pals was the same – time to come up with those famous whoppers of mine and after having laid it on thick with my mater, I got an appeal in – go out once a week and come back before 11 PM. Since this was the situation before I got grounded, I decided not to push it and consoled myself with reports on the traffic jams clogging the place at 2:00 AM.
And I actually have to work on 1st, reason, the Chennai office will be open since we get two days off for Pongal. Some non-well-meaning colleagues of mine from the Mumbai office decided to get back at me for some previous antics of mine, none of which I reiterate were as painful, called me at 1:00 AM to give me a jist of all their activities and then dumped some work on me so that when they start work on Tuesday, their loads would be reduced!
Ha!
Like I am going to do any such thing!!
Adieu 2006
The last day of the year, when people decide to start wrapping up the old times and get ready for the new times ahead – the passing of a year that has brought laughter and tears and yes, loads of drama!!!
I shifted from Mumbai to Chennai this year (transferred in October) and so-far it has been quite a ride.
Of course the transfer meant me getting back to my roots and living again with my parents – which at that time I thought were very do-able.
I am not yet climbing up the walls in a desperate attempt to escape, but it does become slightly suffocating at times. No person who is not an Indian girl living in Chennai will understand this feeling, when every step you take, every breath you take etc etc etc will be dictated by the elders of the family.
Curfews to adhere to during the weekends and force-feeding marathons at meals have helped me in gaining two things:
a) The fascinating art of making the most fantastic stories which, when heard by my friends, send them into tears as my family swallows them whole
b) About 20 pounds excess weight thanks to the aforesaid force-feeding!
A couple of people have been bugging me about the resolutions that I propose to take and for their benefit, I have listed them here:
a) Lose those 20 pounds!!!!! And of course the other extra stuff I already had
b) Try and cut down the booze
c) Become a mean performing machine at the workplace (and for the wise-cracks out there, I do work you know!)
I think I already know exactly in what order I am going to be breaking these unfortunately!
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