Angels in my Kitchen is one of my favourite places to eat out. It is situated in the Defence colony market of Delhi and houses the most sumptuous cakes, buns, croissants, veg platter (please stop me!) , chocolate brownie, coffee, eggs platter , smoked vegetables, salads …

hmmmm and what not !

I have already recommended it to everyone i know and more than happily taken them there and waited for their gushing reviews about the place, while i smile my ya-i-know smile

The decor of the place is very simple and practical, there are no flowing curtains, no cushy sofas, not even a jazzy wall paint. The place does not pretend to be a lounge (like every second place in Delhi is doing) and is a we-serve-food-here kinda place, with no frills attached.

I discovered it, a year back and since then i have had numerous breakfasts, lunches and coffees at Angels.

I again had the good fortune to share this place with two people last weekend … S and D. Now S and D are insane. Insane is not even close to how insanely insane they are. We had planned to meet for breakfast and S and D obviously turned up late, for a change i wasnt fuming as i had my yum yum hot chocolate to keep me company. 

Conversation with these two just flows … its smooth, no pretence kind of a conversation that is speckled with funny anecdotes and insane ideas. Craziness started with me clicking a picture of these guys and then showing it to them. That was the start of an insane debate called ‘My shoulders are broader than yours’. We then went on to measure each shoulder length with the available cutlery. Then there was the boob story that will be another post. I probably havent laughed that hard at breakfast.

Top it all at my favourite place - Angles in my Kitchen. That was probably the best breakfast that i have had in a while.

The coffee at Costa Coffee is nothing less than an addiction. It creeps up on you as the Winter Rain and rakes havoc in your brain dead existence. Once had, the coffee not only becomes a constant craving but a propeller of sorts.

 You start to associate success with Costa Coffee and if you don’t have it in the morning … you know its going to be a bad day, full not only of disappointments but also more craving and of-course more distractions.

Its a fuel which has to be taken every morning and in the right quantity (mine being primo). The cups of-course are a pleasure to hold and the cookies have the feel of, home made mommy goodness. 

Other coffee machines look like cheap imitations and even the thought of coffee from some other place is repulsive. Costa is my current mistress and I am very happy burning money on her, every morning 365 days in a year.

Is this how addictions are born? Well i am knee deep into it.

I love tennis.

And now I love it more and MORE !! It is because of my latest sweety.. Jo-Wilfried Tsonga !! YEY Jo-Wilfried Tsonga !! Go Tsonga !! Hey you hot stuff!!!

He is the cutest most adorable most understated 22 year old tennis player…

Why cant we have yummy things like him in my neighbourhood? !!

So what if he is two years younger than me ?!

Go Tsonga !! Boy i am rooting for you !! You are going to win it ! 

You can ogle at Tsonga boy here  - http://frenchballs.loco-web.com/tsonga/page_photos.htm 

Just dont drool too much … You will wet your keyboard.

Life is good!!

One of THE most interesting book stores that i have come across. It does not boast of the wooden floor (Full Circle in Khan Market), the Chai Bar (Oxford in Connaught Place), the easy in and out of the Bahari Sons (In khan Market) or comforts like air conditioning, benches, sofas, nice wall paintings or even the tinkling of a wind chime when you enter the shop.

This bookstore does not try to make you comfortable nor does it want to. Its just business here, name your book and if they have it - they tell you the price, or you keep moving and do not loiter around too much cause you might just get hit by a car.

Yes hit by a car . This book store my friend is on the corner of a street and its no uncommon street its a very common street with heavy traffic flow. You have to dodge traffic to figure while looking for your book. Dont get too enamored by the stock of books, dont get too in awe.

All this book store has is arrays and arrays of books stacked from the floor to the ceiling, with three people manning it.

Why i like this bookstore?

Its different! Its on the street! and all the books that i have asked for are available!! From fiction to non fiction to long forgotten books. I like the openness that this bookstore has. The all are invited feel. The absolutely crazy location it has.

Have a look your self and if you are in Delhi then drop by! Its right next to PVR Plaza, CP, Delhi.

 Few pictures below…..

Cars zoom by as you look at the pile of books. Cross the road and you can have a better look !!

 Indian man (touching himself) next to the book store. No i had no intentions of clicking that particualr pose, but this man just at that moment had to check if all was okay down there….

Ghosh Indian Men! … anyway thats another post !!

What is an earthquake?… but a little nudge from god… to say your prayers.

Delhi was hit by an earthquake at 4:43 am (by my watch), November 26, 2007. It was bang in the middle of my sleep regime and an hour before I would have got up to shut my alarm and gone back to sleep.

It was scary, to start with. I got up with a jolt and said “oh god” and then repeatedly oh gods followed ….

I sat on my bed and the dog that I have been dog sitting for the weekend, hid under the bed startled and didn’t respond to me after calling him repeatedly. I think he thought I had kicked him of the bed or something. Poor baby.

Few “key” points to note when the earthquake stuck

• Out of the ten friends that i smsed, to find out if they were doing all-right, only one actually bothered to run outside her house, the rest of them, including me … overcame our fear of being buried alive and snuggled back in our blankets.

• I prayed in English?! What happened to Hindi, my mother tongue? I am quite surprised…

• I could hear the approaching of the earthquake, the rumbling before it actually hit and the bed started shaking

• Our house didn’t collapse, (surprising and thank you god…love u! loads) though it is a British bungalow, built some 60 years back or more !

• I snuggled back in my blanket after doing the oh my gods and waited for the roof to fall on me. (How lazy can I get)

• For some freaky reason I had a picture of the rescue operation that would go on after the roof fell on me and of course I was being pulled out of the rubble, unscrathched

• My dog became angry with me and went under the bed and didn’t speak to me all morning… (what did I do?)

For the last 4 months i have not been working. I had quit my job on a whimp and chose to stay at home. Trying to figure out what i want and how i want it. I was unsure of how to take my life forward and in which direction.

I did not do all the things like travel, join a hobby class, learn pottery or learn a language. Instead what i did was sit at home, flip channels, cook once in a while, bake cakes and cookies, write on wordpress, go jogging, meet friends over lunch/ dinner, travel (not extensively though) and think. Think a lot and THE most important one - just be.

The first month after my job quit was spent meeting, going out etc etc and i was for some reason restless, nothing was making me happy and i was at my sarci best!
i felt that there was not a substantial reason for me to do anything, yes my worth as a person was in the pits!
The world was a dark dark place… it was unhappy and it was empty also the best time for my writing.
I started my volunteering job again and taught … the thing that did get me out of the rut was internalising all the blame that i was putting on everyone else. The unhappiness and depression that i was going through seemed so BIG!
Over time and with a ton of introspection, everything seemed trivial

I thought over all the things that were staring at my face and the ones that i was refusing to acknowledge as my faults. Once i accepted them as my own faults and short comings, they were out of my system and not my worry anymore. Yes i was the incompetent nincompoop and i was trying to deal with it. I didnt have to shoulder anything. Damn it ! i am too young!!

And as my god works in magical ways, things started looking up!!! ya ya now it all sounds easy … but it was hell trust me !
And surprise surprise … i got a call two days back and i have THE job, that i wanted, the one that i was lusting after for a while !!

All i can do right now is thank the one above (God and the CEO of the company) and try to do my best the second time around.
And hopefully do this job without groaning about the work or falling hopelessly for some guy ( ya that happened the last time i started working)
So a newer improved version of me goes out in the corporate world once again, to take few punches and a lot more bouquets!
yeyy!!
yeyy!!

 “Twenty years from now you will be more disappointed by the things that you didn’t do than by the ones you did do. So throw off the bowlines. Sail away from the safe harbor. Catch the trade winds in your sails. Explore. Dream. Discover.” 

And thus spoke the great Mark Twain. I had read this quote a few years back in the prospectus of the Indian School of Business (ISB). It was inspiring and a tad bit depressing at the same time. Depressing? Yes! Cause if i look back, i see all the risks that i did not take and they come glaring back at me.

The ones when i did not let go, just to be on the safer side and did not throw away my bowlines

But then i say to myself … oh come on that was in the past … now will be different and i shall take all those risks that come looking me up. This lasts for about 2-3 days MAXIMUM ! and well then hum-drum takes over

Isn’t there an ever inspiring stimulus which just keeps inspiring day in and day out? Like a cup of coffee (a cup of chai in my case) in the morning, the one that gives you a kick and jolts you out of your humdi-dumdi existence.

What is it that gets these “great” people going? Take Azim Premji for instance, the Wipro guy. He took over leadership of Wipro at 21 and transformed a USD 2 million company from a hydrogenated cooking fat company to a USD 1.76 billion IT services organisation serving customers across the globe.

What about Bill Gates? Steve Jobs? Were they born with it? Or was it their surroundings, that somehow moulded them into who they are now.

So with that logic now that i am already moulded into a slob queen, who lives for chocolates and occasionally watches TV, the other time she reads and fritters away time with her family/ friends and other random people, is extremely moody and commitment phobic, an occasional liar and a huge foodie.

So am i doomed for mediocrity? Or do i have to learn to look at the brighter side?

Or hell do i just have to get off my lazy ass and start doing something about this pathetic state of existence??!!!

Hmmmm well … where is that damn remote and my box of chocolate!!!! I need it ASAP!