Mumbai Life Diaries

This Saturday was one of the better days in my life. It started off with me roaming around in Crossword for a while, figuring out which book to get for one of my bibliophile friend, who was coming to Mumbai for work purposes.

The lady at the payment counter was interested in showing me a new E-reader which was launched at the shop. Was kind of similar to Kindle. I told her that I was not much of a E-reader, and still preferred to read my books the old fashioned way. Yeah, portability and all is all fine, but I like the smell of the pages, and the feel of the book in my hand. No Reader can replace that(yet, anyways).

Oh, and yeah, my membership was still valid(I had registered over 2 years ago, and that too at Durgapur). Got a meagre 7.5% discount, but that’s still better than nothing. Speaking of discounts, Flipkart is now offering a discount of 60% on selected books, including the Luminaries(which I got at 30% discount). Get it while it lasts.

Anyways, coming back to the point, I left for Bandra in the evening. Luckily,got an AC bus which goes from Vashi to Bandra, just in the nick of time. It was empty, save for one couple getting cosy in the corner. Yeah, PDA is pretty much common and accepted in Mumbai(at least in many places). The traffic was still insane though.

I haven’t really roamed around the Bandra side much. And the station was big and over-crowded big time. I had to talk the skywalk towards Bandra east side. After meeting up with my friend(and handing over the gift and yes, got one from her too), we decided to head over to Candies for snacks munching. I settled for a Veg Burger, and a curious looking Chocolate dessert which I had never eaten before in my life(it turned out to be reasonably good). After that, we headed out to the Linking road market, as my friend wanted to check out some Shoe stores.

Post the shopping, we headed out to a CCD. I stuck with my favourite drink, Choco Frappe. She tried the Strawberry Lemonade and hated it. The place was being set up with speakers and mikes put in. Soon, we came to know that Siddharth Malhotra(Student of the Year) and Parineeti Chopra were supposed to come there for a mini interactive session. Soon enough they arrived. I have to admit that I didn’t really look at Siddharth, but Parineeti was really looking pretty(maybe even prettier than she does in the movies).

But we left before they did. Roamed around some more across the streets, did some random chit chat, had maggi, and finally I left for home. Oh, and yeah, I did see a policeman trying to round up the street peddlers with his stick, but they all returned as soon as he left. Was quite a funny scene though.
Yes, am slowly getting used to Mumbai life. The last seven months have been good. And I have to get to second gear fast.

For now, adios.

I love that Taste.

Well, its festive season. So wonder, everyone wants to enjoy and celebrate. So let us focus on a light topic for now. What about say, food? Oh, well, no need to start smacking your lips yet. Am not writing an article on food, but on a far more specific topic related to it. So let’s begin.

Ever asked yourself this question, some point of your life, ‘Why is it that oily and unhealthy food tastes so good, and healthy, nutritious food tastes like crap?’ I am sure, that many of you must have. I, personally keep wondering this almost every day. Now, please let us refrain from make a biological analysis, mainly because I dislike(okay I abhor, happy?) that subject. Who cares, if its related to hormones, cells, nerves, enzymes, platelets, or whatever the heck it is responsible for the sensation of taste. What I want is a layman explanation. If anybody of you reading my blog has a concrete answer, do leave a reply. I will be quite grateful.

Let us take a few examples, shall we? Imagine that you have entered a marriage party, and are about to take your dinner. Look at the items served. Most of them come under the junk food, or harmful food category. Almost definitely, majority of the items will be deep fried in gallons of oil. Maida is surely to be present. Whether it be in the form of puris, or the scrumptious naans, maida items are simply irresistible. Especially when they are deeply fried in oil. Say bhaturas. A doubly deadly combo of maida plus deeply fried. Enough to give a heart-attack. Yet, we hardly, if ever, bother about our health, whilst greedily devouring down such food items.Add to that some Chilli Chicken, Ice cream, fried rice, fried fish, and tons of sweets, and we get a perfect recipe for a health disaster. But why should we bother, as long as we get that awesome flavor of food in our mouth.

Take any good tasting food, and examine its nutrition value. Most of them will be loaded with unhealthy fat, and gargantuan amounts of calories. From simple Samosas, to Vadas, Bhajis, Pakoras, Dosas, and any other tasty desi dish you can take off. Go western, and you will find even more junk(I mean food of course). Pizzas, burgers, French fries, Red meat, honestly do you need any further reason as to why obesity is on such a roll in the developed countries? This is the prime reason. But all these food items have one thing in common. They taste real good. At least for majority of the people. That’s the reason people keep eating them incessantly. At the cost of their own health.

Now, do just the opposite. Take any healthy food, and comment on its taste. You’d rather not say? I don’t blame you. There are many people who do eat healthy food, and even like it, but most agree that the taste is nothing when compared to junk food. Take green leafy vegetables. What about gourd? Highly beneficial. But at the same time, highly bitter. Food when boiled, doesn’t even come close to the taste of fried food. Take a very simple example. A boiled potato versus a fried one. Most people know that a potato loses almost all its nutritional value when fried, yet its taste multiplies a 100 times. Is it magic? Or is it simply because our taste buds response more quickly and effectively towards fried food? Who knows.

Wouldn’t it be simply wonderful, if we could obtain food that was both healthy as well as delicious? That’s an ideal gourmet’s dream. There are certain food items like that, though. Like idlis. Both healthy and tasty(at least for me, I know many people don’t like them). Some amounts of dhoklas, chaat, and bhelpuris are also good, if made properly. But it’s quite unhygienic to buy them from roadside vendors. Best would be , to prepare them at home itself. Keep experimenting with food. But to stay fit, try to avoid oily stuff, and stuff which has maida in it. Go for whole wheat, and brown bread instead. After all, we can’t have the cake and eat it too(No, cake is NOT healthy. Especially the chocolate one). Health or taste? Your choice. Pick any one.

Adios amigos. And keep reading. Gracias.