Hippy Bogus - ness

For those of you who could not get through the lines on that notice, they say "Kindly take care of your belongings. The management will not be responsible for any loss of THEFT (sic!)"  

I'm a true blue foodie. The owner of Malacca Spice, here in Pune, treats me like his goti-ayaar (Not even going to explain that). I personally know most of the waiters at Flags and La Pizzeria. I would rate the above 3 restaurants 2897/ 100, for the awesome food and service they dish out.

Besides the above addas where I'm pretty much of a regular, I've checked out most of the other popular places here, like Bounty, The Place, Chinese Room, Kamlings, Yanas, Silk Route, Vaishali, Prems, Toons(not really a restaurant, but I'm there so often), Carnival, 1000 oaks (The best part here is the music ;)), Bombay Brasserie (How wrong is that name? Hippy Bogus to Jane : "I ate at Bombay Bra today, and the food was spicy"), besides the names of a host of other places that I have positively forgotten about, and need to go back to eat, to remember again.

But I haven't checked out enough of the hole-in-the-wall, non-descript, type single speciality addas (read as Restaurants/Khanawadis/Dhabas/..... ). So I have compiled a list of all the single/super speciality addas that I need to eat at, before I move out of Pune. The list below has been compiled from a variety of online sources, and I will need to throughly verify if the directions noted below are accurate. Will update you all about my personal experience at each of these addas. (blue italics are my personal additions to some one else's description of the adda)

Kolhapur Darbar - (apparently) spicy kolhapuri non-veg thalis - the lane opposite JnanaPrabodhini (wherever that is) - one chowk down

Hotel Kaveri no 2 - (yes that is the name) - near marketyard main entrance - Great non-veg thalis with spicy rassa, bhakris etc.

Fountain - Shivaji Putala near JMRoad (V precise directions)

Kaveri bhel - Tilak road (V precise directions again!)

Small bakery type shop - USP = Bread pattice (sic!) - symbiosis road - in the middle of the road, as you turn in the direction opposite to Janwadi and on the right of the road (There son! That's the way you direct someone to a non-descipt adda)

Appa's canteen - Deccan Gymkhana

George - Biryani - behind where Naaz was (sadly no more)

Lateef - East street - Butter chicken

So will spend the next few weeks picking addas off this list. That is not to say that I will cut down on my almost weekly Malacca Spice trips, but will be more open to trying out addas on the newly compiled list.

Today has been one of the most different days I've had in Pune. My team had a 11.30 a.m. meeting at 3D (a local gaming zone here, with Pune's only bowling lanes, and a bunch of other sad assed games, save for Air hockey which I think I have a good shot at turning pro).

By 11.30 a.m. meeting, I meant we were supposed to meet at that time, to exclusively hang out, behave like asses, and waste time for the whole day. the underlying reason was to apparently "celebrate" the release of a product we have been working on. (Whatever happened to being taken on a cruise, flown down to Bangkok, or being sponsored massages at Ayurvedic spas?)

Taking your valuable resources out to a local bowling alley is a really cheap way to get off rewarding them for their "earnest" efforts on a project, but that's just what happened so I just decided to bowl my heart out.

This was only the second time in my life that I have bowled, and for the first 6 tries I bowled into the gutter like a seasoned "gutter penchant having"alcoholic. (We were 17 of us pitted against each other, playing in groups of 5 odd, in 3 lanes)

However, the competetive streak in me was rekindled, and watching the scoreboards display my pathetic score was ignominy I could do without. So I decided to head to play a small game of "Shoot-the-Hoop" (sad assed game #n where you shoot into a basket ball hoop, from 4 ft out, and the digital scoreboard updates your score, with background sound effects that go like "You make Micheal Jordan look like an Amateur, That would have almost gone in, and You got it going there"

I returned to the bowling lane, convinced another gutter ball was coming up, but bowled nevertheless. And Voila! My first career strike. I felt like Kolo Toure, after his first champions league goal. And the next 2 attempts were consecutive strikes. It had to be something the bowling lane people were doing, because I was bowling the same-old-damned way, save for using the same ball (Orange Number 10 - will never forget it)!

I never won the game, but had put up a respecful score after 20 odd tries, so left feeling like some pride had been regained.

We headed to lunch at the same gaming complex (BAD MOVE!!). After bowling, and showing up at an ad hoc mid-day dancing session in a gaming complex, the last thing you want is have lunch in a closed restaurant without an AC. And that is exactly what happened. We could have whacked the restaurant manager (if "it" did show up that is, but "it" never did). And the gentleman who took us out to dinner (read as Bill Footer), needed to leave, to take the visitor (in whose honour the play-for-the-whole-day session was organized) to the airport.

So we were 15 idiots left at a restaurant with the freedom to use one of our credit cards, to be fully compensated later. The lunch was strictly OK, and the ice-creams that arrived later were ravishingly devoured. So some of us were left with time to kill, in between finishing dessert, designating a "Bill Footer", and deciding whether or not we wanted to continue Bowling/playing ice hockey.

So I came up with a "Guess the bill game". The rules were simple. You needed to guess the standalone lunch bill, and you needed to pay Rs 10 to avail of the opportunity. The guess with minimum distance (positive or negative) from the actual bill amount wins the "game entry fee" collected from everyone. None of us had seen the right hand side of the menu (none of us had even seen the menu), because the lunch was was pre-ordered by the original "Bill Footer", so none of us could possibily have known the total amount spent on lunch.

For some wierd reason, all the "game stakeholders" at the table were very excited about the game, and I became the hustler who went around collecting 10 bucks each of the 11 other people (I DID not pay up. Watching Don King hustling is standing me in good stead).

On the back of one of my used ATM account mini-statements, I went around writing the guess each person was hazarding. Hustling also involves avoiding potential conflict, and that would have been a distinct possibility going foward, because a few people were bidding the same amount. So a few quick rounds of convincing people to change their bid amounts/equally split potential windfall of Rs 110 ensued.

Hippy-Bogus also got a chance to bid, and his guess was Rs 4100 (underlying logic = company would not have spent more than 5K on lunch). And the bid amounts ranged from Rs 2000 to Rs 5434.80. (Don't ask me why. And hustlers are only supposed to collect money, which I did with a vengance). And we waited anxiously for the bill to arrive.

And arrive it did in style, with this stamp et all! For a grand amount of Rs 7435!!

And just when Mr Rs 5434.80. thought he had won, we realized the bill included bowling and "dance floor" (sic!) charges. So after few rounds of subtracting from the grotesque main bill, the lunch bill was isolated, and found to add up to Rs 4325. And Hippy-Bogus promptly declared himself winner!!

And a worthy hustling winner he was. Holding 11 of those slightly soiled and very crumpled Rs 10 notes was the best feeling he had since almost beating the mechanical Rodeo at the Flea market in Goa!

And he promptly decamped with his windfall, lest he be designated as the "Bill Footer" on account of his newly acquired windfall.

~Sunsets in Goa are magical. There is quiet sense of calm that comes upon me, and I reconnect with myself. Watching the sun going down reminds me of all that I have left to do~

Going to be in Goa for 5 days~!

Sun, Beer, Sand, Fish, Beef, CHICKEN!!!!

Will come back with a tan I could avoid, but what the heck!

This picture captures all I have to say about what Ehsaas is trying to do in Pune. Bringing a few moments of joy to the lives of underprivilaged children, in and around Pune.

However the writer in me has this compulsive need to document details surrounding the trip, so that the broader perspective surrounding this trip comes through.

This trip started out as a "bike ride and a visit to a tribal hostel" all rolled into one. It ended up being an extremely educating experience for me, and my friends from "Ehsaas", which is the community service group we have got together to form in Pune.

We started out at the CYDA office, located at the centre of Pune (CYDA is one of the NGOs Ehsaas is working with) with 8 folks from Ehsaas and 4 bikes. Madhura from CYDA volunteered to be our guide on this trip, and helped us find the ashram shala (interchangably referred to as the Vagholi centre for the dumb and deaf or the Mukh Badhir Vidyalaya - Vagholi) , located about 30 kms away from the centre of the city. What struck me about Madhura was the patient manner in which she allowed us to spend time at the ashram shala, without interfering in the long drawn discussions we had after tour of the ashram. She waited patiently for us to finish talking, to provide us with insightful information.

We had a car and a bike join us midway on the trip (and one car after we reached there), so were a happy group of 5 bikes and a car, on a very hot day in Pune. The mid-day sun in Pune burns your skin, and the dry heat has your eyes feeling sauna-esque. On the way to Vagholi, Sonika, my friend who was riding pillion and I swapped stories about our respective social and love lives. This considerably helped to beat the heat. We also passed this beautiful old temple, on the banks of a lake, but had overshot the ashram shala, and had the other bikes waiting for us, so had to turn back ASAP!

We finally got to the ahsram shala an hour later. It consists of 4 ad hoc buildings, with a central courtyard. It was evident that these structures were erected on a need basis, and not with any planned perspective. It houses 300 kids (including 50 dumb and deaf children), who study in standards 1-10. A lot of these kids have spent over 5 years at the ashram shala, and there were no visible signs of being ill-treated (I had to being this up. I don't have the most positive impression of residential schools run by charitable trusts) but the kids here were extremely happy, and showed no fear of the authorities (they seemed to be able to interact with us in an extremely unencumbered fashion)

The visit kicked off with Mr. Motilal (who is the son of the man who set up the NGO many years ago with 8 kids) explaining to us what they did at the ashram shala. He brought up how they pick up kids from various places in Pune, and the yawning gap that exists between funds that are provided to take care of the kids to the funds required to actually provide them with basic amenities.

Mr Arthur Linfield was then introduced to us. He has spent time doing charitable work in many places in the world, and the last 7 years have been spent in Pune (Family Care - Pune initiative). He came there with 2 of his daughters (Amaris and Leilani) and along with his wife and 5 other children, spends time doing similar charitable work at a slum in Pune. He spoke passionately about helping people, and his experiences helping people in India over the past decade.

An extremely articulate speaker, the message I got from his little talk was that "even the smallest act of reaching out to other people is useful (and it could mean giving 1 kilo of rice or a 100). However, while having long term action plans is a good thing, putting those plans into action in the present is equally important.

After Arthur left (and he has one very cute daughter), Motilal took us on a guided tour of the ahsram shala. The first "classroom" we visited was a concrete structure with a tin roof with holes (now serving as a classroom for the 9 & 10th standard kids). We were in that room for about 15 mins, and I could have roasted popcorn till it popped. I don't think I would have got through schooling those conditions, and you had kids here who were just excited about being able to study. We were taken on a tour of the girls hostel, the school for the dumb and deaf, the computer room, and finally to the hall, where we walked to a rousing applause from the children. I was stunned at the discipline inculcated in them. They were neatly sitting in rows, girls on one side and boys on the other (and I think each row consisted of kids from the same year - not sure about that though). We were officially the chief guests, and there were more than 11 chairs lined up at the head of the room for us to take (we were 11 Ehsaas volunteers who made it on the trip). We were introduced to this kid who said the most heart rendering prayer for us. She must've been about 3 years old, and was living with a beggar on of of the roads in Pune City. The organizationconvinced the beggar to allow them to take her away, and brought her to vagholi. The beggar later died. She is too young to go to school, so is in the balwadi (rudimentary playschool).

We also met Sachin, who is the son of a prostitute, and who was dropped at the ashram 5 years ago. I was very impressed with how intelligent some of these kids were.

Ehsaas volunteers at the end of the trip decided to do a realistic rethink about what we could do at this ashram shala. The location might pose a problem for us to come down every week, but we tentatively decided to come back here on the 30th of April and organise a talk for the kids about what career paths they could opt for, after giving their board exams. This is more of a morale building exercise for kids currently studying in the 10th and the other younger kids, that they have hope! It would also help the other kids understand what they could do with their lives and lend some direction to them.

I was personally very humbled by my interaction with the children. They had torn clothes, scrabby faces, and no slippers, but were so un-encumbered and full of life!

And to the Stadio Delle Alpi marched our men,
Under Arsene Wenger's tutelage,
Fearless and brave,
They played the beautiful game,
And had the Italians on their way home wondering,
How their tails ended up,
Between their legs.

This was a match I did not end up watching, courtesy of some numbtwits at the reception desk of the Pride Hotel in Pune (more about this later)

This post is about the beautiful game that Arsenal played with Juventus ( I gleaned from the highlights) and drew 0 - 0, thus progressing to the semi-finals of the Champions League for the first time in their illustrious history.

The 11 Gunners at the Stadio Delle Alpi (did you know that's a shortform of Stadio Giovanni Agnelli) produced some of the finest football Europe has seen for a while, and though the display back at Highbury yielded 2 goals, this display was about the clinical precision with which Arsenal could kill off a tie.

As I said before, I did not watch the game live, but was forced to listen to some parts of live commentary of the game over a phone (Thank you Sheez). A kind friend messaged me the result at final whistle, and so I went to sleep at 2 am, safe in the knowledge that a final with Barca on the 17th of May is a real possibility.

Only Villareal (or Riquelme) stand between us and the Stade-de-France on the 17th of May. And I would take going to the El Madrigal on the 25th of April over going to the Nou Camp or San Siro!

Go Gunners, and remind Viera of what he could have been a part of!

I have a lot to say to the numbtiwts at Hotel Pride(according to their parent group Dicklets Inc, it's the finest hotel in Pune). The Kigfisher crew having a good fight with the duty manager at the reception desk, a group of 20 football fans waiting expectantly for the football game to be shown on the flat TV screen of the coffee shop, and I would have a lot to say about the Pune's finest hotel bit! And to think all it actually would have taken to keep us happy was changing the channel on the TV, and having some pest control done to their ground floor kitchen to prevent cockroaches from having an orgy and mosquitoes from binge drinking our blood!

But then a limit on stupidity has'nt really been placed and the staff at Hotel Pride are living examples of limitless stupidity. So I guess there is purpose to their existence. I've written a few stinker e-mails to their director, and placed a few "seriously distressed by your service" type calls, but don't really expect too much out of them.

Dicklets beget numbtwits, and Hotel Pride (Pune's finest hotel) provides the meeting ground!