Yesterday night we had a get together at my friend Saritha's place at Cambridge layout. One of her childhood friends Bhaskar, who is working with the Indian Navy had come with his wife Kajal.

We heard about lots of interesting things that happened in their lives.

1. The cycle trip that Bhaskar and Saritha did 10 years back. Bhaskar had come from Bombay to Bangalore cycling for 7 days. En route to Chennai he stayed at Saritha's place. When he was leaving next day morning, Saritha also decided that she will cycle along with him to Chennai. They took 2.5 days to reach Chennai cycling almost 120 Kms per day! What was discussed in our conversation was how it changed both their lives. Bhaskar was calling it a crazy adventure, but I think it shows their endurance and willpower. Hats off!

2. Kajal is a mother of two kids. She was proffessional choreographer and had a break when their kids were born. Now their second son is almost two and she has got back to work. One thing about her which made me admire her is that she took up scuba diving training when her son was 4 months old and got her license for 21 ft diving in two months time. She was telling that she used to come to the room to feed her son between every dive for the test. Amazing.

We also talked lots about the country - economy, military strategies, politics etc., etc.,

One thought provoking thread was - why do dignitaries who visit India also visit Pakistan? Is Pakistan looked at as a threat or is it to set the perception that India does not mean anymore than Pakistan to them? What if our dignitaries who visit China visit Japan or May be Taiwan also? Will India take that position to send these varied perceptions to other countries anytime in future? I doubt it. What about you?

I've been eating out a lot here. My comments on some of the places.
Indi Joe: Bang opposite to my office and hence most of the group lunches happen here. Their buffet costs Rs.425 and heard that the menu remains almost constant. Not worth the money, especially if you are vegetarian. I enjoyed the Fig pudding though..

Royal orchid park plaza's limelight: this again is close to my office, but landed up there with couple of our friends from US for dinner. It is also buffet costing Rs 500 (inclusive of taxes.). Spread was excellent. South indian karela fried, koottu, poriyal, salad spread are worth mentioning. The rasamalai was really yummmmmmyyyyy.

Parika, Indiranagar: Had ordered food from there for dinner at a friends place. Pretty decent food.

Merry X'Mas and a very happy new year 2007 to all of you.

Its a long time since I wrote anything. Arrived at Bangalore on 27th November. Started coming to office from 6th December.

I've come to Bangalore after almost two years and the changes in the part of the city where I live is unbelievable. the stretch of CMH road starting from CMH hospital till 100 ft road junction used to be a peaceful one. Now I see that it is filled with shops of varied kinds. I went to Urbanite (a family shop) where I bought lots of stuff for Kimaya. MK Ahmed's (they used to have a shop near Viveks further down CMH road) 4 floor shopping mall is really good. I have seen only the first two floors and am pretty impressed. Nice experience!

Traffic is maddening. Unlike Chennai, the number of cyclists are less and you need not fight with the autowallahs for fare. I'm currently pretty close to my brothers place and office and hence have not been on road for more than an hour yet. Touch wood!

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Kimaya seems to have adjusted to me not being there at home during office hours. I dont worry about her too much because we have left her with my parents. The moment I enter the house she wants to be with me - I feel great about it now, but soon it may become a problem!