Arya Nivas... A gourmet's delight

yup... i love to talk about anything related to the culinary art.. i like good food and would like to call myself a connoisseur in that..

we have been to Arya Nivas, a popular veggie joint in the heart of the city.. it is at aristo junction near thampanoor.. the place is always crowded, taxies, autos, ksrtc buses, long distance tourist services etc... you are lucky if you get some place in front of the restaurant to park your vehicle. luck was with us yesterday, got enough space there to squeeze in my Zen there.. we were six altogether.. me, my wife, our two kids, our kunjamma and her daughter, who came from london for a short visit to their ancestral home..

raveena, kunjamma's daughter and my wife's cousin, was all excited to be there.. she wanted something simple and kerala like in a pretty neat ambience.. kunjamma was thinking in the same line too.. i ran to the upstair's A/C restaurant to make sure that we get seats to be together.. luck being at my side, we got a comfortable eight seater to the side..and devi, our daughter got a baby chair, for which she was so grateful to the waiter, giggling all the way...nandu was enjoying himself, in his own way.. smiling at strangers sitting across, tossing the salt and pepper sets... it was all fun...

well.. me and wife ordered masala dosa.. devi went for ghee roast, she doesn’t like the masala stuffed inside.. kunjamma preferred onion oothappam and raveena decided to go for masala dosa... the food arrived in time.. the dosas were neatly done, crispy at the ends, with fresh hot masala stuffed in.. the accompaniments were finger licking good.. the coconut chutney, sambar and cumin chutney were real great.. enough to tickle our taste buds.. kunjamma decided to wash off the stuff with a glass of badam milk, raveena and devi went for plain orange juice.. coffee being my favorite beverage always, me didn’t have to make another choice.. and my wife gave me company there... except that i opted for a perfect blackie... the coffee was awesome... we said adieu at 10:00PM...

hey.. arya nivas.. here we come again....we love the place and the food too...

so long
roy

Devi got hurt in a fall...

Devapriya is my daughter.. She has been to play school last year and is all set to move to KG this year.. Come june and she will be a KG Kid, hehe.. I call her Devi, my wife prefers Deva.. differing tastes eh.. Devi loves to dance.. She watches almost all music channels, dancing to the tunes, mimmicking the steps.. Sometimes, she comes out with her own steps too... It is fun when she demonstrates a step which is mere clapping of hands and moving the left leg a bit forward... LOL.. so much for dancing.. I love Devi.. she is cute... This is not to ignore my son Ananthapadmanabhan... It is not yet time for his actions.. I am looking forward to meet another Tom (Mark Twain...) in the making.. duh!

Devi got hurt yesterday.. She was kinda mimmicking a dance step, standing beside the window on our bed.. She lost balance and fell to the ground... Her head collided onto the sharp edge of the wall projection near the ground.. The cut was not deep but was enough to throw her off balance.. Deepthy (my wife) called at my office soon.. I was kinda tensed up. We took her to the casualty wing at SUT.. Needed two stitches.. Anyways, it is all okay now.. She is recuperating fast... Maybe, the effect of couple of those ice creams I offered her for keeping a cool face while the doctors inspected her wound..:-)

She is at home, glued to the TV, watching her favorite cartoon network... I love Devi, Nandu and my beloved wife Deepthy... so much.. so much..

so long
roy

Working out is no fun...

Me, being a fitness freak, love to talk about the pleasures of working out regularly.. Been doing that for almost three years. Getting up at 5:00AM regularly is no fun.. People know this would appreciate..

Well, the Gym I work out is about two km from my home.. It is at Palayam, behind the market.. Of course, it is not affected by the buzling activities there. The Gym is aptly named Power.. My session starts at 6:00 AM and continues till 7:15AM.. Me into the fitness stream, so no weight training there. One thing I love about Gymming is the good network of friends I have made there... Students, working professionals, business men, pensioners.. the list goes on.. Being physically fit bolsters your confidence level quite a bit.. Power is a place worth a visit.. Take a look at the facilities there.. Complete with a spa.. boy, it it gotta be cool! The place is well maintained, parking lots galore.. The instructors are very much friendly and you develop kinda personal relation with them.. And what do you gain? A shapy structure indeed..

so long
roy

Elections and after....

I am not the right person to comment on India Elections 2004. But, at the end, the results have come out in favour of the common man I would say.. They have echoed their feelings in more ways than one.. The results of the Loksabha polls in Kerala is a point in case... The LDF hogged the show by bagging all the seats, barring one... And this shows how fedup the people of Kerala were with the anarchy, rampant corruption and the group fights in the Congress party.... The leaders were so shamelessly bold, in defending their stands.... The leader and his kids were defeated by huge margins, again showing the way out for legacy politics..

Well... The Manmohan Singh led givernment at the center has a plethora of tasks at hand.. Getting the allies together and moving ahead is a task under hand.. And Mr. Manmohan Singh seems to be good at that.. The first list of ministers and the portfolio allocation justifies this.. I am looking forward to see how he carries forward the dreams of millions of people living under the poverty line by giving them an opportunity to live, learn and work for their bread... All this upholding our secular tradition... We should never see another Gujarat like carnage..

Hehe.. I missed a point there.. I really hope that the new ministry will not interfere with higher educations of international satature such as IIMs and IITs...Allowing them to grow unfettered... Food for thought!!

So long..
Roy

Monday comes again...!

The Weekend passed in a jiffy..

We have been to my wife's family home at Varkala.. It is hardly an hrs drive from the city. Kids love the place.. It is an old, tiled, wooden house in a serene and tranquil atmosphere.. Far from the madding crowds! The nearest neighbour is well beyond a full throated shout, I would say.. Rice fields dot the eastern side and there is a narrow stream flowing beside the rice fields.. It was fun playing with my kids there.. They were busy throwing large round leaves into the water; and these were supposedly their huge warships..: Fighting each other to lead the way.. My daughter burst into tears when her Ship was stuck onto a bulging rock in the midst of the steam.. The row ended there and it was time for lunch.... We packed off on Sunday evening and reached here at about 7:30 PM... Quick dinner and back to bed...

Well, it's Monday again.. Yet another week of hectic schedule at office.. Same for my wife, albeit having different timings.. She starts at 7:30 AM and back at home at about 4:00 PM... Well, the kids go wild during the day... It is tough for them...

Coming back to my Monday sickness... I share the same lousy feeling as Tom Sawyer had for Mondays... The mere thought of a Monday is enough to give me a head ache... The long list of mails to sift through... Project meetings... The late stay at office... It is sickening indeed... But again, this is part of life... I hope to grow up sometime to bid farewell to this Monday syndrome....

with love
roy

My Blog unfolds...

Hi...

This is going to be my first blog... Hell.. no.. I used to host one on rediff till a few months ago.. That got abandoned, scrapped... or whatever way you could look at it.. Poor maintenance, never got a chance to look at my blog after creating it with such an enthu.. And to add to the woes, I lost the password.. Tried my veins out to recollect, it never worked. Wondering which of my usual stocks did I provide their..

Now it's time to start another blog on the wall.. And this time on blogspot. On a serious note, I dont want to see this as yet another blog on the wall. This should look different in content... It should be articulate enough to catch the attention of the readers...may be a bit sexed up in content:-).. Well... I have decided.. It gotta be candid enough, no showing offs here..

Probably, I will start off with my favourite online forum.. pagalguy.com..The most comprehensive online resources for CAT preparation.. For the uninitiated, CAT is the common admission test for admission to the prestigious management programmes of Indian Institute of Managements.. I wrote CAT last year and was a fiasco.. And trying again this time.. And I am determined to crack it.. Pagalguy.com (everybody calls it pg..) is part of my soul now.. I have already changed my default home page in my browser to pagalguy.com.. Thats the kinda attachment I've got with this online redezvous of like minded people from all over india.. Students, working people, people in the twenties to people in the early thirties (me belong to the latter group.. hehe..)

So long...

More tomorrow...
roy