Pani Puri Anyone?

Pani Puri at a Mall in Noida, India

You know what? When you have lot of work to do, meet some deadline, you want the most irrational things. I have a deadline of 15th Jan and here I am craving for some Pani Puri. If you have never tried it before, you have to try it once. I had gone there in December with my sis and would head there again at the first opportunity. There is a road side version of this too but because of the suspect water quality, I can now stomach the stuff only at the mall, where they use bottled water. What a pity.

Space for Everyone- From Bullock Carts to Cars

Bullock Cart and Cars on Noida Roads

I was with my sister in Noida when we were walking by this place. It was on her insistence I took this picture and now I am glad that I did. With a lot of construction taking place due to the Metro project the roads are in a mess. I hope Gurgaon and Noida get linked with Metro soon, so that I do not need to take my car to go to my sister's place. I just do not like driving on congested roads with a thousand diversions.

Not at Office!

Work, Work and Work

This is how my work table looks like these days. So, I dragged myself out of the bed in the morning (I hate Monday mornings and I wake up like a dead wish) got ready and turned the key in the car. It sputtered and coughed but refused to start. The place I live in Gurgaon has almost no public transport! Had to call office to say I would not come today! I hardly ever do it. It feels so strange to sit at home on a Monday morning when I have so much work piled up. The car has gone for repair, apparently the battery is dead.

Jaigarh Fort, Jaipur- A View from the Fort

View from the Jaigarh Fort, Jaipur, Rajasthan

Our first stop at Jaipur was Jaigarh Fort. There were a lot of monkeys around and at one point both Sunil (also referred to as Brat 2 many a times on this blog, I wonder if he too has a blog somewhere :D) and I were not sure who should cross first the monekys or us. Have a look at the video.

Maybe I will sit down on Sunday and write the Jaipur account in detail. Tomorrow is a working day for me and I have a date with lot of grading!

Nokia N96 on a Trip to Jaipur

With Nokia N96 to Jaipur

No, I have not forgotten Mumbai but if people are willing to travel to India and Mumbai, I am willing to blog about travel.

I have to say that it was the offer of using the Nokia N96 by Blogger's Mind that spurred me to go to Jaipur. Now all I was asked to do a review of it. So in this post, I am posting my experience against the features of the phone.

1. Keeps you connected with the world, take calls, send messages, check mails, browse the internet, geotag pictures.

My Experience- Yes, of course I could make calls on my Jaipur trip, take calls and use internet partially. I posted a few lines on my blog using N96 from Delhi-Jaipur Shatabdi Express train. For email, whenever I tired, the Vodaphone connection would ask me if they should open a secure connection and somehow most if the time it would say could not find a secure connection. Now I am not most tech savvy person, but I wonder what a more informed person like Shrinidhi would find the experience?

2. Want to travel light and not carry too many equipments. Can substitute Digi cams with its 5 MP camera and Carl Zeiss Lens for great pictures.

My experience- For people like me who travel with multiple cameras, yes a 5 MP camera and video recording in the same equipment is a great help. If this phone was mine, I would have traveled just with my SLR and this phone. As of now I carry a Nikon point and shoot, Canon SLR and if I wish I can carry a Sony handycam apart from a cell phone! That way in future I think I can invest in a good phone.

Ipods, walkman, with so much of storage content, 100 english and 100 hindi music videos and space to store more and more for all the long journey trains rides.

My experience- Not really for me, I prefer to look out of the window rather than listen to music. But my nephew was really interested in loading songs if we take it on another trip.

Plethora of Cd’s with FM Transmitter that can blare out your favorite playlists in mobile through your car speakers and woofers, for those long car drives on open highways.

Once again I can think of Shrinidi and his rental cars and long drives!

Laptops with access to internet and mailbox, if in case you want to shoot out an important mail while on your trip.

This definitely is possible and of great help, but depends on your connection and getting used to it.

Sportstracker or Lifevine to share your travel stories live with the world.

I have to try this feature. One has to go to the Nokia site to post it but it definitely feels interesting.

3. Watch a whole movie Om Shanti Om, and other 50 preloaded music videos, for a long boring flight in an offline mode. With 24 GB of memory space, you can also download and have the latest bolly and holly flicks on the handset. What’s more if u happen to be traveling at a time of a really important India Pakistan cricket match, you can catch it with Mobile TV available in N96. (Currently it gets only Doordarshan but wondering how cool will it be to have other channels coming in)

My experience- Umm once again I like to look outside the window, even on a plane at night but I have seen one person using that N96 stand and watching something on his handset in the Shatabdi while coming back from Jaipur.

Incase one is traveller who likes to stay connected with the nature and not with the world so much. There is a application for that too Wavesecure helps you to access Emails, documents, camera and call logs, even if u r 10,000 miles away from your phone. So you can leave your phone at home and still be carefree of connecting with the outside world in a time of emergency. This is also a great application for a wildlife photographer. If u want to see a lion in action and get him in your lens. No hassles just place your phone as near as possible to the animal and then sit back in your room to enjoy live action from the animal world.

No idea how this one works.

Lazy Sunday Video- Gaitore Ki Chhatariyan, Jaipur

Gaitore Ki Chhatariyan, Jaipur, Rajasthan

In all my previous visits to Jaipur I never heard of Gaitore Ki Chhatariyan. It is a beautiful structure, our auto driver said it is popular with tourists but when we went there in the afternoon we had it almost entirely to our self.

PS. No, I have not forgotten Mumbai but if people are willing to travel to India and Mumbai, I am willing to blog about travel.

The Story of Dal Bati Churma- Rajasthani Food

The Dal Bati Churma Thali Shop, Jaipur Rajasthan

Before I say anything else, once upon a time I have studied for five years near Jaipur (my graduation and post graduation). But at that time I hardly explored Rajasthan. But the Rajasthani Thali (plate) of Dal Bati Churma was not new for me. We asked Gopi (the auto driver) to take us to a place for lunch, Brat 2 (my younger nephew) wanted to remain with Punjabi Thali whereas I wished to sample Dal Bati Churma again. So Gopi took us to a shop near the station and we ordered our stuff. You can see a picture of my plate below.

The Delicious Dal Bati Churma, Rajasthani Dish

For a while I was left wondering what the hell had I ordered, there was nothing to eat apart from the side dishes. I said so aloud to Brat2 and the people at the next seat laughed. So I searched more closely and found the missing Bati, it is the round ball in the right hand corner. It had been that long since I had been to Jaipur, I had almost forgotten what Bati looks like. And yes, once you have finished your first Bati, they will bring you more till you tell them that you had enough.

You have to break it, dip it in the Dal or Kadhi (the two Yellow gravies in the center, Kadhi in the larger bowl, Dal in the center of the plate) and eat it. I find it delicious. The thali concept is that for a certain amount of price (60 rupees in this case) you can eat as much as you desire but subject to certain rules. The rules were displayed on a board and those of you who can read Hindi, would find the way they are expressed hilarious! For those who can't read Hindi, I will try translating it, but much will be lost in translation.

The House Rules for Thali Meals in Jaipur

*For children of over six years of age should please take separate token (what is implied here is that a child of less than 6 can eat with the parents, remember you pay for the plate and not the dishes)
*One person per thali please
*Please take food according to your need
*There is only one bowl of churma (sweet dish in the smaller bowl in the picture) per plate, no extras please
*Please take care of your belongings
*After 11 at night only Rajasthani Thali is available please
*Please do not wash your hands in your plate
*Please do not waste food
*Drinking Liqueur is strictly prohibited please

No doubt, Brat 2 and I had a good meal. In fact the Rajasthani thali is the background image on the Nokia N96 as of now.

Jal Mahal, Jaipur, A Small Video Captured on Nokia N96

Jal Mahal, Jaipur

I have to say that Jal Mahal is actually much more scenic rather than my video but I think I get better videos on Nokia N96, rather than my Nikon Coolpix 3200. The only thing is, the Nikon will remain with me whereas the Nokia N96 will go back after a while :D

The Puppet Show at Jaigarh Fort Captured on Nokia N96

A Puppet Show at Jaigarh Fort, Jaipur, Rajasthan

I watched this puppet show through the lens of the Nokia N96 camera. The Rajasthani music is so catchy. But we were so hard presseed for time that I really did not linger around for long. Steve this one is for you. You have in the past enjoyed my videos, what do you say about this one?

Weekend Traveling with Nokia N96

Nokia N96- Spurring me for Weekend Travel

No, I have not bought a new handset again and that too a Nokia N96 which is priced at Rupees 35,500 or thereabout. I was offered to make use of this cell phone till end of the month by Bloggers' Mind. In return I could blog about my experiences!

Now I have been cribbing and cribbing about lack of travel in 2008 and I took this offer of N96 as an excuse to travel this weekend with my younger nephew. Sesha is about to take his grade 8 violin exam so he can't miss his weekend violin class. And Brat 2 has almost finished his first semester college exams (only one paper remains and he has ample time to prepare for that) so he made it very clear to me that he could come only on this weekend. So this weekend it is and about time too.

First we thought of Agra but ruled it out as they do not let you carry a cell phone inside the Taj Mahal premises. And I would not like to leave such an expensive phone in the custody of the Taj Mahal lockers particularly when it doesn't belong to me. In fact, I was asking the good lady, Prerna, from the Bloggers' Mind about their liability clause this evening when she came to hand over he phone to me! She just laughed it off.