Category: Books

Himachal, State of a Mind!

It’s a state where, I have had quite a few childhood memories.
Starting From Solan, there have been Memories of Playing cricket with a bunch of my cousin friends for days, whenever we visited, plucking of Apples & Peaches from the Trees, Watching Films at Laxmi theatre a family owned Cinema theatre the first & only one in the town.
To enjoying fresh fruit Jams from now popular Bhuria Jams ( Gauva, Apple, Orange and many more flavours) and then having the HPMC fresh Squashes.
While this would be Solan!
Shimla not being far away and the cousins studying there, we would frequently visit the Hill Station’s too!


A lot of times the spiral roads from Chandigarh to Solan to Shimla would make me feel dizzy’s and a lot of mints and breaks later, We would reach our destination. In Shimla The Toy Trains would be our favourite spot, on many visits would we only like to go there.
The Combermere Pizza’s would be a treat for us, since they would be the most cheezy and the only hot food, we enjoyed in the winters at the Hill station.


We would also like trying out the Bakes from Trishool, the Cream Roll would be the Favourite.


A tiny little Restuarant style place in the lanes of Shimla also served the Best Momo’s and Soups that we couldn’t get enough of!
The Maggi noodles from the Highway near the Waterfalls, where we would Enjoy the shower and witness the sight of Monkey’s jumping and Hopping from the trees.


One time, When we visited Wildflower the Oberoi hotel, one of the most beautiful hotels with a view. There were snow leopards spotted just a couple of days earlier than we had visited.
Wildflower is also the same hotel, where The movie Black was shot starring Amitabh Bachchan and Rani Mukerji


When we would visit Himachal in snowy winters we would slide down the hills and throw snow balls on each other.
The memories with Himachal, Solan, Shimla are so fresh that all these Himanchal memories seem like yesterday, but indeed it has been over 3 Decades and Multiple visits of memories.
Now too, though it’s been about six Years. Since the last visit, Shimla hasn’t changed a bit.
The CeCecil Oberoi: Has its own old-world charm that brings you back to the hotel again.


We also went a little further ahead to Theog and experienced the Hills from the Top overlooking all the Pine Trees, or snow trees from the Taj Theog.

Information:

Travel to Shimla from Chandigarh.

3-hour drive from Chandigarh.

Stay:

Chillaru

Taj Theog

The Wildflower by Oberoi

The Cecil by Oberoi

Cafes:

Cafe Sol

Shimla Times for Pizza and Sunset View.

Combermere for Italian Food.

Trishool Bakery For Cream Rolls & Eclairs

Best Books on Food!

Taste by @stanleytucci.
A book, that you would enjoy reading not just if you like eating, but if you like cooking too! The tone used in the book, the way it has been written, takes us back to his childhood days and memories! This book has Taste on every page, while some pages are sweet, some are Bitter. The whole read is a meal! You wouldn’t like to miss it!

The Food Mood Connection by @drumanaidoo
Haven’t you always said or heard? I am in the mood to eat this meal today for lunch, Breakfast or Dinner.
Well! Food and Mood does have a connection and this book highlights how it affects us. An interesting book on focusing correlation between Mental Health, Food and Diet.
Research and written by Uma Naidoo who has studied nutritional & lifestyle psychiatry at Harvard.

Pancake in Paris by @craigcarlsonauthor
A story of an American who lived his American dream in Paris!
By starting a cafe – Pancake in Paris!
This story is about how he succeeded in living his dream and the challenges he faced in getting the right ingredients and introducing a Breakfast meal that wasn’t part of the French culture.
A good American breakfast.

How I Quit Google to Sell Samosas @munafkapadia
The Story about Borhi Kitchen – A home experience of cultural cuisine, that started a decade ago and gained popularity for the food and the experience it, it later also grew with food experience as a delivery service and for Catering at events! With a simple idea of bringing in local cultural food. This is an inspirational story set in India, Mumbai since it’s also a challenge to diversify from well-paid jobs to starting something of your own. This book also highlights the challenges one faces in the Food & Beverages and Hospitality business.

Forgotten Foods @taranahusainkhan
A book on looking back at some of the food specialities that aren’t very popular these days and are well known only in certain parts of the country.

UK Flashback 2023!

The Memories, come flashing back!

The vivid details, the signages, The bustling streets, the hop on and hop off buses,

The Lego store, Leicester Square and Times Square coming together in my memory!

The M&M World! Piccadilly Circle written faintly!

And the huge square, Trafalgar Square with the lion roaring.

The London Bridge! All that meets the London eye!

The erratic weather changing, like mood swings for humans in the city!

Brexit has happened from the last time we visited,

Still trying to figure things out here! 

UK! LONDON! Seems …

Can’t get over it it’s been a decade since I visited London!

The memories seem crystal clear, walking up the bridge and witnessing the Thames…

Felt like a Lord! After taking them through the cricket ring that has so much history in the sport and St.John Woods Brownish, Beige rooftops and homes with a little redness never felt the same again!

Walking through the dining room and changing room of the Lord’s Stadium was a Kodak tour in so many ways! The sport that I couldn’t breathe & sleep without in childhood is a distant reality in my adulthood!

The Marketspace CAMDEN! IN Yellowish brown BOLD Font, was an interesting space of shops and cafes!

The London Tube and the Big Red Bus! Through Westminster Abbey, Buckingham Palace and Notting Hill!

The Tourist’s ness was rubbing on our shoulders, Afternoon tea and scones at Claridge’s was one splurge we did on our trip!

Oh! The now famous Pret A Manager that has India sipping and eating was one of our hangout spots after we strolled through Oxford Street!

Oh! We passed through Covent Garden which years later became a hub for Contemporary interiors and places to eat! Like the BKC In Mumbai.

London, The UK! Hadn’t seemed to have changed much! But, what had changed was it had become expensive to live and holiday here! Transport fares had doubled, and the pricing of basic goods & services too had doubled. And on the other side, Ireland was thriving with tourism, and had seemed a better bet for the UK Locals to move there! Irish Cream was a nice country with beautiful bookstores and odd-looking people with colourful hair. The Vibe & energy in Ireland felt more for youngsters and youth. With Good food options and not just 90 minutes by Air from London City Ireland indeed became a good option for UK residents to shift.

Galway & Cork were two small towns, each having their charm & differences.

The Bars were hangout spots to enjoy the Guinness Beer or have a cup of Irish coffee.

A pizzeria in Galway was also not just in Ireland but had been accoladed with the 16th best pizzeria in Europe in 2022 and 37th best in the world in 2022.

Well! Ireland is also well known for Bailey’s liqueur – A popular coffee-based alcohol and Butlers chocolates. A bar of chocolate that melts away!

And last but not least the Jameson whiskey outlet – The Secret ingredient behind the Irish Coffee.

The last highlight, An 18th-century Century Church that was restored over seven years in the late nineties until mid two thousands was opened in 2005 and still has the rustiness and architecture of the 18th Century.
Information:

Ireland 

Cities: Galway, Cork, Dublin and Belfast. 

Enter through Dublin and travel through trains to the other cities.

 Stay: 

Ashkings Hotel Dublin

Buy a leap card from the station. You could use this across public transport (Trams, Trains, Buses)

The Rise of Disability stories.

In the Year 2023, I read a few books on Disability characters, And all of them have been written around in the last decade They all have had a personal connection with the author and the story.

The disability ranging from intellectual to physical disabilities. Have only made it more human to have a sense of fulfilment of how fortunate they are those who haven’t gone through any of these experiences, that challenges ones existence for a small task that seem simple to the ones who are completely mobile or have all their senses functioning to the fullest.

Whether it was The housekeeper and the professor. A story about a professor who has only 80 minutes of memory in a day and he likes to associate with numbers. To Elena a story about a missing daughter and a mothers struggle to find her daughter while the mother is suffering from Parkinson’s.

To the injustice the disabled have to deal with in the “disability visibility by Alice Wong.”

To a child who suffers from autism is being curious about a dogs death and how he associates certain daily activities for his day or week to go by.

“True Biz about Deafness “in a world that can see. Through sign language one could learn to communicate with another deaf person.

“Tomorrow Tomorrow Tomorrow “protagonist who has been physically hurt by an accident. And how he has to bring certain changes into his life.

These stories have been pushing the acceptance of what these disabilities are and why one shouldn’t take advantage and be more considerate to the ones who have to deal with so much from the ones around them.

These stories aren’t just about children, but also about Adults who have more challenges to face than the younger ones.

While these are the books! The question that comes to mind is Films and television.

What controls them & stops them from adapting these stories, that could have a wider reach and be more influential in accepting disabilities?

These books out there only have pushed the boundaries of acceptance of the existence of disabilities that we haven’t made any arrangements for.

Best Books on Disability: I have Read 

  • Disability Visibility by Alice Wong
  • Elena Knows by Claudia Pinerio
  • The Curious Incident of the Dog in the night-time by Mark Haddon
  • Tomorrow Tomorrow Tomorrow by Gabriell Zevin
  • True Biz by Sara Novic
  • The Housekeeper and the Professor by Ogawa
  • The Diary of Murder by Kim Young-ha

Hampiness – An adventure in the waiting!

Virupaksha Temple

A journey that had been on the bucket list for the last few years.

And having explored India from the north and west.

South had a been little unexplored and was waiting to be explored.

Hampi is a city full of temples that have references not just mythology ( Ramayan) Hanuman’s Birthplace. But, also with Shiva- A single monolith statue that’s one of the most visited sights of the city. To the Dynasties battles Kilji, Chanayaka and later the British coming to existence.

No Wonder a city filled with so much history and mythology feels like one place with many world heritage references that the The Ministry of Tourism, on 29th September, declared Karnataka’s iconic destination as the Best Tourism Village of India-2023.

Hampi was selected one among the 795 applications received from 31 states and UTs.

Some bits of Hampi feel like you are in Macchi- Picchu to some feel like you are in Greece. While some truly belong to India.

The city has many world heritage sites.Think your ₹50 currency and you will observe the chariot stone. Hampi is also referred to as India’s Rome with so many ruins and history to the sights.

The historians at Hampi, also mentioned to explore the whole of Hampi that has 80 monuments worth exploring would take you an ideal 45 days here! So much history!

And if you would like to travel to Hampi some of the most important sites are Vitthala temple, that’s full of interpretations of history and the home to the stone Chariot. To the Virupaksha temple an active temple that has rituals performed daily including feeding of elephants as an experience of lifetime.

Elephant Stables a monument that was built for the kings elephant many centuries ago is another site worth visiting.

At times Hampi makes you believe you are In Stonehenge with the rocks here beautifully placed naturally or makes you believe you are In Grand Canyon with trekking around on rocks that are placed with boulders for support.

The sunset and sunrise view points of the city, give you an overview of the lush green landscapes covered with sugarcane’s and Banana plantations.

With so much to offer for history & nature buffs.Hampi still has the rawness and beauty of India.

Hampi is still not considered a tourist destination, with only one flight to Mumbai! And limited advertising for tourism in Hampi.

Stay: Evolve Back Resort

Did You Know?

Karnataka once served as the capital of one of the largest kingdoms of India the Vijayanagara Empire around the 1500 AD. And during that time it was known to be one of the largest and wealthiest cities in the world.

The Virupaksha temple dates back to 7th-century, which makes it one of the oldest functional temple in the country is dedicated to Virupaksha, an incarnation of Lord Shiva, built with a pillared hall, three.

One of the must things to do before you leave the temple take blessings from Lakshmi elephant

The pillars in the Vittahla temple would also be used as musical instruments by the locals. Each pillar would have a different sound and rhythm.

Elephant Stables
Vitthala temple