my first favourite dish: sorpatel!

I'm not one to usually follow a recipe, let alone remember it, so this post is quite likely a one-off.

First, some back-story: growing up, sorpatel was my numero uno favourite dish. I wasn't given much agency as a kid in terms of food - I ate what was presented to me, although my parents were quite aware of my preferences. Once I finished school I did get to eat out a bit, but it was mostly snacks. I do remember the first time I was ever asked what I'd like to eat though. I was about 19, and my parents were going to be away on a pilgrimage for 10 days. It was going to be the first time by brother and I were going to be left alone at home for more than a few hours. They asked us what we'd like them to cook and refrigerate for the time they were away (we had never cooked independently, other than frying eggs for breakfast - I don't think I had even ever made instant noodles!). I don't remember what Kevin said, but I do remember saying that I want 10 days worth of sorpatel. And the end result was us eating sorpatel for 9 days (we loved it so much it didn't last 10 days, and I remember we cooked a very terrible chicken curry for day 10!).

So yes - sorpatel, my favourite by a long margin, made even more desirable by the fact that it was only made a couple of times every year - Christmas or Easter, birthdays if we were lucky.

And then, when I was in Bangalore last month, Neena gave me sorpatel for dinner. Two days in a row. It was so good that on day 1 I told mom she had ordered it from someplace, not even stopping to consider that such good sorpatel could be made at home (sorry, Neena!). When she told me she had made it herself, and it was our grand-aunt's recipe, I was mind-blown. It was the comfort food of my childhood, only better! I had to have the recipe!

Couple of weeks later, back in Belfast, Neena sent me the recipe. It wasn't in the usual format, more of a flow-of-concsiousness style, which works great for me except when I'm out shopping for ingredients (and my brain-fog does make things worse when I need to approach unstructured things too)

So, one Friday I decided that was the weekend for Sorpatel. Friday night was spent first transcribing the recipe, then restructuring it so I have ingredients first and then the process.

I woke up at noon-ish on Saturday (as has been the case for a few weeks now - long sotry that probably needs its own blog post) with only one objective: I will not go to bed without having made sorpatel.

And so, here is Aunty Flo (yes, that's what we called her!)'s sorpatel recipe:

1.5kg pork (can include liver)

6-8 onions

15 garlic flakes

1.5" ginger

5 big green chillies, halved and slit

3-4 bay leaves

1 teaspoon sugar (optional)

tamarind juice (optional)

pork blood (optional)

for spice paste:

20-24 kashmiri chillies

2 rounded teaspoons jeera

10 whole peppercorns

1/2 teaspoon mustard

2/3 teaspoon haldi

15 garlic flakes

2" ginger

9 cloves

3" cinnamon

5 elaichi

vinegar to make paste

salt to taste

2 teaspoons oil

grind spices with vinegar to make a paste

if using liver, boil with salt and discard water

parboil remaining meat with salt. retain water.

chop meat small.

fry small quantities of meat lightly in oil till lightly browned and fat renders. fry liver last. retain rendered fat.

fry onions lightly till soft in rendered fat

add garlic, ginger, chillies

when onions begin to brown add the spice paste

add meat water to make a thick masala gravy

add sugar if desired

add bay leaves

simmer for 10-15 minutes for spices to cook

add tamarind juice if not sour enough

add meat and cook till tender ensuring gravy reduces till it's thick

optionally add pork blood for the last 5 minutes of cooking

Of course, I didn't fully follow the recipe. Here's my modifications:

• 1kg pork loin and also 600gm of sweet and spicy pork belly that happened to be in the freezer
• double the garlic flakes
• balsamic vinegar instead of normal vinegar
• some random type of chillies that were in the supermarket - not green, but fleshy and red. less spicy than the green chillies the recipe called for
• more than 2 teaspoons sugar (basically just finished the last bit of sugar in the house!)
• I did use tamarnid juice but no portk blood
• I forgot the bay leaves (ironically, I have way too many bay leaves in my spice stash! I really need to use them more!)
• 4 tablespoons homemade mustard paste instead of whole mustard - it's been lying in the fridge for 3 months so I was hoping the flavoud had mellowed a bit
• did not have whole kashmiri chillies but had a mix ofcrushed kashmiri and guntur chillies (that we basically use for our everyday cooking). I have no idea how much I put. basically just topped up the mixer bowl, adding more as it ground until it was a bowl full of paste.
• did not boil the pork. chopped it raw. did two rounds of lightly frying the pork before adding to the main pot before I decided to not bother and tossed the last half kg of chopped pork straight in.
• since the pork wasn't boiled I rinsed the mixer bowl and used that water instead.
• simmered for about an hour after it was gently boiling to compensate for not boiling or frying the pork.

End result: the pot was off the stove at midnight. It smelled so good I decided I had to make rice to go with it. So I boiled some long-grain white rice. Also, the end result looked too monotonous for a photo so I chopped some chives and sprinkled on top (just for the photo - the sorpatel completely overpowered it!).

A meal made in heaven. Think I ate sorpatel for 10 days, with some breaks in between.

Yep, still my favourite dish.

BTW, for all the chilli I put in (which I have a feeling was way more than the recipe called for) it still wasn't overpoweringly "hot" spicy - but it was off the charts in terms of "aromatic" spicy. it ws so spicy that when I ran the pot (my cast-iron dutch oven) under hot water, I started coughing! I think the copious amounts of sugar (as well as the slight sweetness of balsamic vinegar) offset the spice.

I have a feeling that just like how 2025 was the year I got comfortable with biryani, 2026 might be the same for sorpatel!

bring back search engines!

Today, while poking fun at a friend (hinting that he his assets are hard to find because he is rich and well connected). I mentioned Parkinson's Law, a book I must have read about 30 years ago - I read a copy that belonged to my dad, which has probably been disposed of by now and definitely not read since I finished school.

I tried various searches before giving up and assuming I remembered wrong. I even managed to find hte lsit of chapters of Parkinson's law, but nothing jumped at me (I did skim it pretty quickly though!).

The friend had his curiousity piqued though and requested a link to the ebook... which I found, trangely enough, as a PDF that looked like it was typed out in Microsoft Word. Not sure if it's legal to share now (the book was written in the '50s!) But anywy, I'll let you be the judge of it - here's the copy of Parkinson's Law I skimmed.

And then, as I was about to close the tab a few hours later (after telling the friend that's not the book but it's a good enough read anyway!) I started reading the book backwards. It was chapter 11! "Palm thatch to Packard or a formula for success"

My search tab was still open, so I decided to follow up a bit.

Call me a skeptic (which I most certainly am - probably irrationally so!) but the search engine's AI definitely worked much worse than I think same the search engine would have, a decade ago.

Anyway, to summarize my "conversation" with the search engine:

1. Me: "flunkey puzzle book rich chinese"
   
   Search engine (I'm paraphrasing): "The search results do not mention a "flunkey puzzle book" or any direct connection between the term "flunkey" and a puzzle book related to a rich Chinese character or story. It's possible there may be a misunderstanding or misremembering of the title." Followed it up with a few unrelated books.
   
   
2. Me: "it's a chapter of a humourous book"
   
   Search engine (direct quote this time): "The term "flunkey puzzle book" does not appear in the search results, and no humorous book chapter by that name is identified. However, The Chinese Puzzle by Ernest Bramah features humorous and satirical stories centered on Kai Lung, a fictional Chinese storyteller, blending wit and parody of Chinese philosophy and culture.
   One chapter, "The Story of the Man Who Was Thrifty," exemplifies the book’s whimsical tone, where a man’s extreme frugality leads to absurd consequences, told in an exaggerated, tongue-in-cheek style."
   
   
3. Me: "the chapter refers to the tendency of rich people to stay under the radar until they get so tich they are beyond danger"
   
   Search engine (direct quote again): "There is no evidence in the search results of a "flunkey puzzle book" chapter describing rich individuals staying under the radar until they are financially secure. The term appears to be a misremembering or confusion with titles like The Chinese Puzzle by Ernest Bramah, which features humorous tales of Kai Lung, or other books with "Chinese Puzzle" in the title that focus on culture, mystery, or religion rather than wealth evasion.
   None of the chapters in these works address the behavior of wealthy people avoiding attention for safety or strategic reasons."
   
   
4. Me: "Why do wealthy individuals avoid public attention?"
   
   Search engine (direct quote, as before): "The search results do not directly explain why wealthy individuals avoid public attention, nor do they confirm the existence of a "flunkey puzzle book" chapter on this topic. However, based on general understanding reflected in cultural and literary themes (such as in The Chinese Maze Murders and The Chinese Puzzle), wealthy or powerful figures may stay under the radar to avoid scrutiny, protect assets, prevent extortion, or maintain strategic advantage—especially in environments with political instability or social tension."
   
   
5. Me: "is there a chapter of a humorous book refering to this phenomenon"
   
   Search engine (direct quote): "Yes, the novel Long Island Compromise by Taffy Brodesser-Akner features a satirical chapter-like narrative about an "extraordinarily, absurdly, kidnappably rich" Jewish family on Long Island who live with constant anxiety despite their wealth. The story humorously explores how the patriarch, Zelig Fletcher, amasses a fortune as a protective "amulet" against historical trauma, believing money can shield his family from disaster. His children grow up under this shadow—ostentatiously wealthy yet emotionally stunted—highlighting the absurdity and psychological cost of wealth used as a defense mechanism.
   The book satirizes how the rich, despite appearing powerful, often live in fear and go to extreme lengths to stay safe, not necessarily under the radar, but in a state of hyper-vigilance shaped by inherited trauma."
   
   
6. Me: "I have found it. It's chapter 11 of the book Parkinson's law, titled "Palm thatch to packard or a formula for success""
   
   Search engine (first para of the response): "Yes, Chapter 11 of Parkinson's Law by C. Northcote Parkinson—titled "Palm Thatch to Packard, or A Formula for Success"—does address the phenomenon you described. In this chapter, Parkinson humorously observes that Chinese businessmen historically practiced evasion and modesty until their wealth became so substantial that ostentation became safer and more advantageous."
   
   
7. Me: "Why was this chapter so hard to find using my previous queries?"
   
   Search engine (direct quote): "Your earlier queries were difficult to match because they used inexact or misremembered terms like "flunkey puzzle book" instead of the actual chapter title, "Palm Thatch to Packard", and did not mention Parkinson's Law or author C. Northcote Parkinson. Search engines rely on precise keywords—without them, results drift toward unrelated books with similar phrases (e.g., "Chinese Puzzle")."
   
   
8. Me: "the phrase flunkey puzzle is not very common and is used in this chapter"
   
   Search engine (direct quote): "The term "flunkey puzzle" appears in Chapter 11 of Parkinson's Law by C. Northcote Parkinson, titled "Palm Thatch to Packard, or A Formula for Success." It is a rare and distinctive phrase used humorously to describe how wealthy individuals—particularly in historical Chinese society—deliberately concealed their success ("flunkey" implying servility or low status) until their wealth made them secure from threat or envy.
   This obscurity explains why earlier searches failed: "flunkey puzzle" is an unusual, context-specific term not widely indexed outside direct references to this chapter."
   
   
9. Me: "are there other cited works of literature that talks about something called a flunkey puzzle?"
   
   Search engine (direct quote): "No, there are no other cited works of literature that mention the term "flunkey puzzle" besides Chapter 11 of Parkinson's Law by C. Northcote Parkinson.

   The term is highly unusual and appears to be unique to this chapter, where it describes the strategic modesty of wealthy individuals—particularly in historical Chinese society—who conceal their status ("palm thatch") until they accumulate enough wealth to safely display it ("Packard").

   Search results confirm that "flunkey puzzle" does not appear in other literary, academic, or cultural contexts. References to "flunkey" alone relate to characters (e.g., Flunkey the baboon in The Jungle Book) or synonyms for a servant, while "puzzle" appears in unrelated titles like crossword clues or educational exercises."

So, there you have it. I used a unique phrase in an indexed work of literature, with some (perhaps initially vague but increasingly refined and accurate) terms and context and it couldn't be found. A few questions spring to mind:

1. Have people been so bad at using traditional search engines prior to the introduction of AI/LLM based search engines that what seems like a step backward to me is a step forward to them?
2. Has the AI hype bubble driven this direction despite its ineffectiveness?
3. Is my search style so tuned to text search engines that LLMs can't work with it?
4. Is this all simply my confirmation bias?

Either way, I'm increasingly annoyed at not being able to find what I'm looking for.

ps: it's only a couple of days ago that I was looking for a BT song that I happened to be listening to, and the search engine couldn't find it despite me typing the lyrics of THE WHOLE FIRST VERSE into it! I should have asked why it cou;dn't find the song, but hey. I did take a screenshot though! Hopefully something to laugh at 10 years from now, assuming things get better by then 😁

my experiments with food

TL;DR: If you want the short story, scroll to lists at the bottom :D

I've always loved to experiment with myself, and while I'm not very systematic/scientific about it, I have found certain experiments "just work" without sweating the details.

I've also always been fascinated with "paleo" - mostly just because it seemed instinctively right to me. My attempts at following it haven't been the great success others have made them out to be. It's hard to say why - I know that I've never maanged to sustain the activity level and type a paleo diet recommends. I did try it half-heartedly for years though.

I've also experimented with exercise and diet - that was for a much shorter time, becasue, for me, exercise seems to require external motivation (i.e. company) and company is a very difficult thing to have consistently.

And then, lockdown happened.

Coincidentally, just before March, we were going through a rather bad comfort-eating spell ourselves. Packaged microwave TV dinners and the like. So when we were locked indoors, the time was perfect.

Shruti had great experiences with keto, although I wasn't fully convinced going without fruit and other carbs was good for me, I thought I'd give it a go with her. We started sometime in March (or was it April? I'm so unscientific I don't even know the month, forget the date we started!), but I do remember it took us 3 weeks of eating through our stockpiled supplies (we didn't go crazy munching on all the junk at home in one go :D) from the day we decided, before we actually started in earnest.

The first few days were weird. Figuring how to cook the stuff we were to eat, how to make it satisfying, how to control the cravings. And damn... what cravings! We were already down to just one slice of bread a day (with our breakfast), but breakfast without bread was weird. And then there was the matter of portion control. We had absolutely no idea how much food we'd need. And we were aiming to only do groceries once a week. We started running out of eggs pretty quickly. And everything else seemed to slow down. Suddenly, we were only eating two meals a day - breakfast and dinner. Shruti decided she won't eat after 8pm. I decided I'd only eat when I'm hungry, mealtimes be damned.

We controlled our cravings.

Made sure we don't slip up.

We had 0 cheat meals for the first two weeks.

Two weeks later, Shruti wanter her first "cheat meal". I don't remember what it was, but I don't think I enjoyed it as much as she did.

I had stopped craving the stuff I decided I won't eat.

Two weeks in, we were already losing weight.

About one kg a week!

I decided I had to go back to having fruits. It just felt wrong to me.

I loaded up on fruits. Whenever I was hungry, I'd have a fruit. Breakfast, fruit, dinner.

About 6kg or so in, I was looking visibly thinner. People were beginning to notice (in photos - we were still not meeting people). I gradually started onions, spinach, and then tomatoes. So far, so good. Shruti also found food more palatable with these few additions, so it worked for both of us. We started eating more common meals.

At some point, Shruti plateaued. I pushed a bit by upping my activity levels (also, since it was summer and bright till late, I was happy to go cycling when it was dry).

At my lightest, I reached 65 kg. I felt on top of the world. I purchased two tees to try at home, as clothes stores weren't allowing trials in store. Size XS. The cashier was unconvinced. I was unconvinced too. But 21 days' free returns, so why not.

The tees fit.

I fit into the smallest size an adult male could wear in the UK.

I was the same weight as I was when I was 13.

I was 13 24 years ago!

At this point, I declared my experiment a success.

Also, at this point, Shruti's motivation began to give way. Cheat meals got more frequent. The cravings were back. I realized how tricky paleo is for me - after every cheat day, I had to voluntarily control myself very carefully for the next couple of days or there'd be no turning back. And there were a couple of weeks where most of the days were "cheat days".

Surprisingly, my weight stayed put. I couldn't believe it. I was hovering around 66 without following any diet! How was that even possible?

Turns out, it wasn't possible. I'm now back to 68. And I can see the momentum. About half a kg every week.

Looks like it's time to "reset". But before I embark on the next phase, let's put things down for posterity.

So, here's what worked for me:

1. Control what you eat, not how much you eat. If (and that's a big IF!) you eat right, you'll know when you're full, and won't feel hungry until it's time to eat again.
2. (For me, not for Shruti - although I don't know how much was due to her body and how much was forced control - she's very good at control!) Don't control when you eat. If you wake up at 8am feeling hungry, go for it. If you thought you're full at 8pm so skipped dinner, but are suddenly hungry at midnight, don't go to bed hungry. MAYBE if you wake up in the middle of the night, just eat a few nuts and drink some water.
3. Don't buy stuff you don't want to eat, until the day you want to eat it. This worked well since we do our groceries on weekends, and that's also when we have the time to savour our "cheat meals".
4. Food is overrated. Cheat meals are overrated. They are merely gateways to happy memories associated with the food involved.
5. Alcohol is overrated. But it's hard to diffrentiate between alcohol and the junk that goes with it, so it's still hard to say. A double of good quality alcohol on ice at home is the sweet spot (no puns intended) for me. More than that, and I start craving junk. And if there's junk on hand, I'm out of control.

Here's what didn't work for me:

1. The 80-20 rule. Lots of places online said if you stick to your diet 80% of the time, you don't need to worry about the remaining 20%. Didn't work. Remember that one slice of bread? If I had my breakfast with one slice of bread daily, the rest of my day was inevitably out of control. As simple as that. IF the 80-20 rule worked for anyone, it was probably because they were using external control.
2. Socializing over alcohol. It's just impossible to stick to reasonable amounts of alcohol in social situations. While that worked well in lockdown, it didn't work when lockdown was lifted.
3. Watching my weight. It took 3 months of kinda-not-following the diet before I started gaining weight. But when I started, it seems like I can't stop. There were no warning signs - once I started piling the pounds back on, it was already too late.
4. Socializing in general. When there are other people involved, it's very hard to stick to your diet without feeling weird. If it wasn't for lockdown, I'd probably never have pulled this off!
5. Vacations are difficult. It's either processed food, or breaking my rules. Very hard to have a good time (since my vacations also involve eating and drinking local!) and stick to my diet.
6. Buying cheat snacks "for later". NEVER EVER WORKED.
7. Portion control when it comes to "cheat snacks"/meals. Once the bag of crisps is open, it's going in. Ditto for cake (serves 6? I'll have all 6 slices in one go!)

And finally, for those who don't know what paleo is, here's my interpretation of it:

• Only eat unprocessed food
• Only eat food that's sold raw
• NO sugar, NO grains, NO lentils. NO anything that can't be eaten raw or roasted.
• Plenty of protein (but not obsessive amounts of it) - 3 whole eggs for breakfast is usually adequate, the rest is in my dinner. I enjoyed egg bhurji the most (especially boiled egg bhurji!), but it was good no matter what. As long as there were 3 eggs in it. More on that in another blog post!
• Plenty of fruit and nuts.
• As much vegetables as desired, with one caveat: too much salad made me full but low on energy.
• For meals, I switched between red/white/oily fish and the occasional shellfish. On days I wasn't too hungry, it was just veggies.
• Rendered fat > oil. However generous you are with fat, if things are being roasted, you'll be consuming minimal quantities of it anyway. The air fryer made it easy to render fat and roast.
• Minimal salt, generous spices. NO sauces.
• The one thing I didn't follow as well as I should have: Hydrate!
• Technically I should have stopped dairy, but I didn't.
• I also didn't bother with much exercise, although I made it a point to be active. Walking and cycling, when weather suited. About twice a week. Not even half as active as I was, when I was cycling to work daily but not following any diet!

life after a pandemic

the last few months have involved more than a few revelations, as far as my relationship with "life" is concerned. it started with re-evaluating the obvious stuff: work, private open spaces, friends, food, health, my couch (oh yeah, I'm sure a lot of people feel very differently about their sitting arrangements now). but beyond the obvious stuff, there's a lot more that I've had the opportunity and time to evaluate.

my marriage, for example. being with the same person 24x7 has changed us. we have covered in 3 months what we would have been lucky to cover in 3 years in more ordinary circumstances.

but the biggest revelation of all, one that I think I have observed for the first time today, is that travel has something to it that cannot be explained by anything else. I used to think it was just about new experiences, a break from the normal, pushing myself, planning (just kidding, my travel does not involve anything more than very superficial planning), or maybe just time with my two wheels... but no, it's not any of those. because travel is not the only way to experience anything I could think of. and in these 3+ months that I couldn't travel (in the way I would like to), I think I gave all of the alternatives a shot. and they all worked, up to a point. but then they didn't.

I still can't explain it. but all lack of rationalisation notwithstanding, I will sleep in a strange (hopefully well sanitized) bed tonight, exhausted, but fulfilled. a feeling I have missed for these months.

a feeling I've felt every time I've travelled. 

the other side of the 30s

i turned 35 earlier this week. the celebration was a quiet, relaxed time with shruti at home - and for the first time in my life, i also went to work on my birthday! felt weird, but did also fit in with the low key mood.

and so, at around 12:30am, after cutting homemade cake and downing a "wee glass" of traditional irish ginger wine, i opened my blog to last year's birthday, just to remind myself of what my last birthday was like. yes, i actually couldn't remember!

and then i realized that by many measures, this birthday wasn't quite different from the previous one.

the only main difference (besides going to work and the yummy goodies by shruti, of course) was the absence of family and old friends. i guess that's part of moving to a new country. but the similarity was that my birthday was once again a day for looking back and introspection - and also about living a "normal" day, but with more self-awareness than usual.

because, i've realized, that age is just a number. days, months and years mean nothing. it's what you do with them that counts. and if you feel you're living the way you want to, you don't need anything different to celebrate.

and i guess, that's my resolution for this year of my life, as much as it was for the last: to live each day to the fullest. with no room for regrets.

happy birthday to me!

finding old music

i have an obsession with old music. not just any old music, but specifically stuff i grew up listening to, and now can't, either because my turntable isn't working, i don't have an audio cassette player, the cassettes weren't labeled properly (yeah, pirated cassettes, lol), or some other randomness. and then of course, there's stuff i can identify but can't find, either because it's not online, or because there's new and popular stuff with the same name, and i get tired after clicking through 10 pages of youtube results (especially since there's also a chance i may have been mistaken to begin with).

i still keep searching randomly though, and as google gets better, more media gets uploaded, and maybe i get lucky enough through dogged determination, i sometimes meet with success.

it's hard to describe the feeling when i finally find what i've been looking for.

it's hard to explain why i'm such a memory junkie.

i think i've mentioned before, that my present somehow revolves in a loop of past music.

i don't know why i don't really care for new music any more.

someone told me recently, that you only get old when you stop looking for new things.

maybe, in the musical sense, i'm already old.

my new favourite summer activity: night treks

this year has been good. a month to go before we even have a hint of rain, and i've already gotten started with the treks. with the weather, the only manageable way to pull that off has been through night treks.

a lot of people get taken aback when i say i'm doing a night trek, but really, it isn't as scary as most people would assume. and of course, night treks are best restricted to summer/early winter - night trekking in the rain is a different ballgame altogether!

lucky for me, i have a few enthusiastic friends who have gotten me into this awesome summer activity, and it's mostly thanks to them that i'm now an enthusiastic night trekker. a few thoughts to put things into perspective:

pros:

1. nothing better to do: night treks are a welcome break from lazing around at home when it's ordinarily too hot to be traveling.
2. the vagaries of weather are relatively under control: it's gonna be hot and dry, with a slight chill at higher altitude. that's it.
3. camping: camping in dry weather is infinitely easier.
4. cooking while camping is a good idea: fun, and the abundance of dry wood means no need to carry fuel.
5. the night sky: time your trek right, and there'll be millions of stars and a clear sky to keep you occupied.

cons:

1. safety: easier to get lost. i wouldn't recommend trekking without a guide, unless you have reliable GPS maps or something as good. i've been GPS recording my treks for this reason. two out of the three night treks we did this year have been with paid guides from a nearby village.
2. heat: although the trek up happens at night, travel to the base, the trek down, and travel home can get pretty uncomfortable, if not worse (thankfully, never worse so far!)
3. water: water is dead weight to carry, extremely problematic if in short supply, and natural sources are usually dry or unpotable in summer.
4. the morning after: after a long trek, a nice night out under the stars with a campfile and bbq for company, i usually find myself wishing i could sleep a couple of hours more - but the burning sun precludes that.
5. choice of location: since day treks are the norm, any trekkable place is typically a day trek. night treks have a lot more factors to be considered, so the number of feasible destinations is far fewer.

all in all, night trekking in summer is an awesome experience nevertheless! since there's barely a month before monsoon pre-showers make their appearance, i'm hoping to get atleast one more done this month before the rains get me back into day trek mode.

twilight atop peb fort (this was one epic night trek!)

resting at siddhagad village before locating our camping spot

getting ready to cook dinner atop korigad

my favourite camping spots

i started camping way back in 2005, when i was still a student. it was thanks to my friend dhruva (a.k.a. "fatak") who gave me his tent, saying he didn't expect to use it ever again. it was a biggish 4-man tent, which could hold upto 6 in a pinch. back then, i only knew of one camping spot, and that's actually how it stayed for over 5 years! thankfully, with my trekking and riding, i've had a chance to explore a few more spots - and i have a few more that i'd love to try.

kashid beach

kashid is the aforementioned first camping spot. it's still one of my favourites, thanks to the sea (i *LOVE* the sea!) and the proximity of facilities (washrooms/shops). besides, familiarity does *not* breed contempt. i must have camped there at least 15 times!

directions: this spot on the beach is near kashid village, not the other end (the other end is overrun by cheap tourists and overpriced stalls - no way i'd camp there!). to find the spot, look for a bridge over a small stream, after kashid village. take the first narrow lane towards the beach, after the bridge.

kolad

this is the second camping spot i discovered, and probably had the biggest adventure to get to, and i'm not sure if it's camp-able any more: we had gone there by car, and managed to get to the river only because a couple of fences were broken. the car also got stuck and had a flat tire, but isn't that what fun is all about? our camping spot was also on private property (a partially fenced-in farm), so we kinda hid and camped. not for the faint hearted. but the river is worth it: it's wide and calm, and the water is a little over waist deep until quite far in. perfect.

directions: this is next to where the river rafting ends. about 200 metres downriver from the rafting end spot. the left side of the river, when facing seaward. gps coordinates: 18.440665, 73.260625

bhandardara

an accessible camping spot, but not all that great because the mtdc resort is barely 100 feet away, and literally overlooks our spot.

directions: follow your gps to mtdc bhandardara. the way to the camping spot is through the village (or if on foot, down the steps from the restaurant towards the lake)

purushwadi

one of our most inaccessible camping spots. getting there involves a fair bit of off-roading on two wheelers, and a 2 km walk through fields if on four wheeler. the beauty of this spot is the chilly climate and the isolation (the nearest shop is in the 2-km-away adivasi village, and it's the only shop in a 10 km radius - don't even expect bottled water to be available there!).

directions: get to purushwadi from rajur (it's a right turn at rajur off the road going to akole). there's no mobile network for the last few kms, so your best bet is to ask passers-by for directions if you're lost. and don't even think of attempting it after sunset. the spot overlooks kurkundi dam.

malshej

a recent discovery, this is the perfect camping spot: accessible by road, 1 km from the national highway, 2 km from the nearest shops. the nearby village has plenty of hay, even though firewood is slightly harder to come by. only possible drawback: you might find random people hanging out for a clandestine drink by the lake. but that's a matter of luck, and we've been lucky so far.

directions: get to mtdc malshej, and continue along the national highway for about (i think) two curves, after which you'll find a narrow tar road branching off to the left. at that spot on the highway, on your right, you'll see the aforementioned last shop. the spot overlooks pimpalgaon joga dam.

naneghat

right next to malshej (you can see the pinnacle of naneghat from the malshej camping spot!), this spot is slightly less accessible by road, but can also be trekked to. there are caves at naneghat, which is why i've never actually camped there (despite having lugged my camping gear all the way till there), but camping remains an equally attractive possibility.

directions: continue along the highway past mtdc malshej, until the right turn off the highway that goes to junnar. there are no clearly mapped roads (most of them are barely dirt tracks!), and mobile network is mostly non-existent, so you'll need to ask villagers for directions to ghatgarh/naneghat.

tungarli

close to lonavla, accessible by good road, this camping spot is quite popular now, and hence comes with the usual pitfalls - including unruly drinkers in the day. the perfect camping spot requires a walk on the dam wall to the other side. you need to inform the caretaker of your intention to camp, else you might be rudely chucked out post-sunset. tungarli dam has a reputation for people attempting to swim and drowning, so it's under a bit of scrutiny, but nothing that should spoil the experience if you take permission from the caretaker.

directions: the camping spot is tungarli lake, which is slightly further away from tungarli village. pass through the lonavla market, and take the left to tungarli, go under the expressway (there's no direct connection to the expressway itself!) and get to the lake. the spot on the other side of the dam wall is better for camping, but there's a clearing on the road side of the dam wall where vehicles can be parked.

khandala

the one's far from perfect, for two reasons: no nearby water source, and the expressway is near enough for you to hear vehicles honk and trucks howl through the night. it's still a good 1 km or so of an actual walk from the nearest parkable spot though. also, i've been warned about snakes (the grass was about 2 feet high in jan when i went, so that's a rather scary prospect!). best for camping at night, as there are bound to be curious (and possibly interfering) authorities in the day, thanks to its proximity to lonavla and khandala, the associated unruly crowd, and the fact that you're passing through church-owned private property to get to the spot.

directions: at the first expressway exit (khandala), take a left towards st. mary's villa. cut across the compound, down to the next hill, and up to the next, until you get to the cliff.

repeat

after listening to one song on loop for 2 weeks, I decided to give it a break, switched from "repeat track" to "repeat album". looped the album for a day, now back to looping the track.

I have some 5000 more songs on my phone, and my ipod hasn't been touched for a month.

I'm not sure why I'm even doing this. I think i have looped the song over 1000 times. I stopped estimating at about 450.

song: "memories from the future" by Robert Gitelman, on trance energy 2007.

mr know-it-all

most of my school years are a blurry memory now. and today i realized why.

i wasn't living in the world around me. i was living in another world.

i was living inside books. a lot of books, in fact.

i remember, when i was about 6, dad brought the whole "childcraft" collection. a big box of hardbound, glossy, full colour encyclopedia volumes. he paid a bomb for it, because he probably knew it would cost even more by the time i was old enough to start reading them.

he didn't have to wait too long. once i started, there was no stopping me. i read them once. i read them twice. i read the parents guide on how to get the child to read them. and then read them again.

when i was 8, i was hospitalized for a week, for appendicitis.

the evening before we went to the hospital, dad took me to the local library, and signed me up. "king's video library". the deposit was 30 bucks. my membership number was 1530. each book cost about 50p to 1re to borrow.

i don't remember what was the first book i borrowed, but i remember finishing every book i was "allowed" to in the next two years. luckily, i turned 10 by then, and was allowed access to my school's library. i still don't understand why you had to be in the 4th grade to be allowed to read, but that's how it was.

my school library had two sides, the fiction side, and the non-fiction side. fiction had about 8 racks, non-fiction, about 10. about 200 books in each rack on the fiction side. the fiction and non-fiction racks were arranged in ascending order of appropriateness for age.

in the 4th grade, i finished the first rack.

in the 5th, i finished two more.

in the 6th, i finished another two racks, and all the ones i had missed from the previous two.

in the 7th, i finished fiction.

that's when dad handed me three cardboard boxes from the loft. it was filled with packages, wrapped in yellowing (browning, in fact!) newspaper, with years written on them.

30 years of reader's digest. 1972 to 1992. i finished them in the summer vacation.

that's when things came to a head. i was out of reading material. my only option was non-fiction.

i started at the 4th grade end. and worked my way to the top.

around that time, i started cycling to school as well, so i wasn't restricted by school bus timings. i would reach school 5 minutes before the library would open, and leave after it shut. since it was full-day school, we had two breaks. i would eat my tiffin walking to and from the library. while reading.

i would also read in class. at home. in bed. over breakfast. i would have probably read in the shower if i could. i would read a paperback in about an hour and a half.

during the vacations, the school library was supposed to be closed. but it wasn't.

before school shut for the vacations, i made my arrangements. i took the librarian's number, and since she lived near school, i'd call and let her know my ETA. she'd lock me in the library for as long as i told her i wanted to read. i was allowed to take expensive encyclopedias (that students had to take permission to unlock the case, even!) home.

by the time i finished my 10th standard board exams, i had pretty much finished reading most of the library. my dad's college textbooks. all the manuals at home. and heaven knows what else.

it sounds unbelievable. but it's true, and i know it. i don't have many other memories of my school years.

i don't know whether it was because i overdid things, or whether i found more interesting things to do, or that college opened my eyes to the world around me, but everything changed. by the time i was 18, i had practically stopped reading for pleasure (and it's surprising how little i had to read to pass exams!)

most of my present-day best friends probably don't know about my reading story. most of them won't even suspect that i've probably read over 4000 books in 25 years, 3000 of which were in the last 5 years of my school years.

but they probably still find me an irritating mr-know-it-all.

my favourite stories

there are some (true) stories that i love to tell everyone i know. some people are (un)lucky enough to even hear them multiple times :D

like once when we were kids. We were playing cricket in the building compound, and our aging neighbour walked by, forcing us to temporarily halt our game.

my friend said to him: "uncle you must die!"

after a long enough pause for everyone to be suitably shocked, he made an action of brushing his hair and continued: "your hair, your hair! you must dye your hair!"

luckily for us, he took it sportingly, smiled and walked on :)

trance

i was just randomly clicking around trance videos on youtube (more like songs with a still image in the video box, actually), when i chanced upon this beautiful track, and a comment below it that summed it all up for me:

ive thought about this alot, and posted comments about it, and the true listeners of trance music, a beautiful bunch, seem to be more in tune with their emotions, more receptive to the emotional quality of trance tracks. if all you hear is bass kick bass kick, of course youre not gonna like it. if you hear the deep, hidden emotional meaning in the subtle melodies and chord progressions, only then can you appreciate trance for what it really is! trance is the ultimate form of emotional expression
- anjundoobies89

that's the thing about trance. it's deeply rhythmic, and its melodies touch the heart and soul, but if you aren't in the mood to appreciate it you will just be carried away by the superficialities like the repetition and beats. i hope you all get to see beyond that someday.

ps: i also agree that like every genre of music, trance has its share of crappy tunes. what makes a song awesome? nobody knows. but there are tracks that take you to another level, and that's the truth.

the polar bear song

to the casual observer of my facebook/twitter, i may appear to be obsessed with polar bears. i'm not.

it's just that a certain track that i really really really love happens to have a sleeping polar bear in my favourite part of its (unofficial) youtube video.

btw, my description of the entire video is:

"trippy lights. polar bear. polar bear. cool sunset."

yesh, arctic wildlife will never be the same again.

Mini interview for Metrotwin Mumbai

(cross posted from metrotwin mumbai's blog post)

Kris was born in Mumbai, and has lived in the city for most of his 26 years. He's a software engineer five days a week, a nomad on weekends, and a foodie-cum-geek all the time. A dedicated twitterer and follower of Metrotwin Mumbai, we thought we would pick his brains about his beloved city.

What are your favourite places  in Mumbai?

Restaurants: Pop Tate's and Five Spice are the best in terms of chain restaurants in Mumbai, but I also like Britannia, Paradise and Baghdadi in Colaba.

Pubs: For a good atmosphere, I recommend Toto's and Temptations in Bandra , but anyone visiting Mumbai should check out Leopold's and Mondegar in Colaba too.

Clubs: Boat Club and the Hawaiian Shack in Bandra are the best places to go for a big night out, and El Grotto in Malad is pretty cool too.

Hangout: Inorbit is great for shopping and chilling out , there is always loads going on on Marine Drive, and Carter Road has really come alive in the last few years with lots of good shops and restaurants opening.

When you are going to a new city -- and assuming you have some time to explore -- where do you go for advice on what to see and do?

I use social media basically - mainly Twitter, but I also contact my networks of friends/ex-colleagues/ex-classmates via Facebook.

What was your best urban discovery (restaurant, venue, etc) in 2009?

Maharashtra Nature Park in Dharavi  definitely - it's huge, and has amazing variety of trees, and despite its size, no one seems to know it exists.

In terms of restaurants, definitely the Britannia and Paradise, as I mentioned earlier - the latter made me fall in love with Parsi food!

Mohammed Ali Street during Ramadan was another amazing discovery -  I always wanted to go there for the amazing food, and finally made it last year.

Tell us somewhere you've never been in Mumbai and want to go.

The slums in Dharavi - I have heard so much about them, but have never had the courage to go and see for myself.

What is your favourite city smell?

The scent of the sea breeze on Marine Drive.

What is the one thing you miss most about Mumbai when you are away?

The city never sleeps!

If you had to sum up Mumbai in a sentence, what would you say?

Mumbai is the melting pot of India, greater than the sum of its parts - it's everything for everyone.

What is your favourite film/book set in Mumbai?

I'm not a big fan of local films. I love to read blogs about day to day life in Mumbai. I will probably read some books eventually, but haven't selected any yet.

DeeSee invites you to check out DeeSee

lesson to be learned: never title your blog with just your own name. or if you do, don't send out blogger's automated invitation mails. unless you want people to check you out, that is :D

---

Date: Thu, Sep 3, 2009 at 3:38 PM
Subject: DeeSee invites you to check out DeeSee

I'm following DeeSee and think you'll be interested in it as well. To check it out, follow the link below:
http://dennis-castello.blogspot.com

-----
Google Friend Connect helps people with common interests discover interesting sites and interesting people. To learn more, visit http://www.google.com/friendconnect

---

ps: DeeSee's blog is *nice*. after you're done with your giggles, do check it out!!!

baby, baby!!!

i found myself gazing fondly while the screen faded into brightness, and tinkled to remind me that i just got a new message.

i found myself thinking: what a beauty! how sweet she looks! i am so lucky! i wonder what awesome twist of fate brought her into my life!

and i then reminded myself: it's just a phone.

ps: it's true, this just happened. i had to post it somewhere because i'm so freaked out by the thought!

questions...and answers

much as i'm indifferent to these tags, i'm also bored and searching for excuses to be late for work. so here i go again :P

first, the rules:
post this list on your facebook Notes/blog replacing my answers with yours.
Tag 25 people to do the same thing.

If I tagged YOU, it's because I want to know more about YOU!

1. WERE YOU NAMED AFTER ANYONE?
   Nope. My middle name is my grandfather's though.


2. WHEN WAS THE LAST TIME YOU CRIED?
   Don't remember. Years ago.


3. DO YOU LIKE YOUR HANDWRITING?
   My handwriting changes depending on my mood. I like my happy/energetic handwriting :)


4. WHAT IS YOUR FAVORITE LUNCH?
   Ahhh there are too many to choose from!!! but mom's food is always up there with the rest of 'em.


5. DO YOU HAVE KIDS?
   Nope, gladly.


6. IF YOU WERE ANOTHER PERSON, WOULD YOU BE FRIENDS WITH YOU?
   Yeah, of course. I make friends easily.


7. DO YOU USE SARCASM?
   Occasionally. most people don't get it...which means either i suck or they do.


8. DO YOU STILL HAVE YOUR TONSILS?
   Yeah, last time i checked :D


9. WOULD YOU BUNGEE JUMP?
   Always wanted to. just waiting for the opportunity.


10. WHAT IS YOUR FAVORITE CEREAL?
    I'm not sure. definitely not oats and stuff. can't stand that shit!!!


11. DO YOU UNTIE YOUR SHOES WHEN YOU TAKE THEM OFF?
    Nope. my shoes remain tied or untied for as long as i see fit (and with no connection to whether i'm wearing them or not)


12. WHAT IS YOUR FAVORITE ICE CREAM?
    Anything fruity, also dark chocolatey, also nutty. I love ice cream :P


13. WHAT IS THE FIRST THING YOU NOTICE ABOUT PEOPLE?
    How comfortable they are with me.


14. RED OR PINK?
    Definitely red.


15. WHAT IS YOUR LEAST FAVORITE THING ABOUT YOURSELF?
    My laziness.


16. WHO DO YOU MISS THE MOST?
    Sonu!!!


17. DO YOU WANT EVERYONE TO COMPLETE THIS LIST?
    Of course...why else would i tag you??!!!


18. WHAT COLOR PANTS AND SHOES ARE YOU WEARING?
    Pants: brown. Shoes: none (just got out of bed :P)


19. WHAT ARE YOU LISTENING TO RIGHT NOW?
    Nothing...got out of bed because iPod ran out of charge. The last song was superfabulous by BT. Been listening to it all night while i slept :D


20. IF YOU WERE A CRAYON, WHAT COLOR WOULD YOU BE?
    Green. The brightest green. But i'd want to change colours 5 minutes later too :D


21. FAVORITE SMELLS?
    Good food cooking. Actually, good food. Period.


22. WHO WAS THE LAST PERSON YOU TALKED TO ON THE PHONE?
    Saurabh. He's coming to bbay tomorrow!!!


23. DO YOU LIKE THE PERSON WHO SENT THIS TO YOU?
    Yeah, she's kool. I'd like to know her better though :)


24. FAVORITE SPORTS TO WATCH?
    Not into sports at all.


25. HAIR COLOR?
    Ummm...i don't have hair. unless you're talking about my beard :D


26. EYE COLOR?
    Dark brown.


27. DO YOU WEAR CONTACTS?
    Nope.


28. FAVORITE FOOD?
    Too many to name. Total foodie. Will eat almost anything when hungry. Will eat anything other than vegetables when i'm not. :P


29. SCARY MOVIES OR HAPPY ENDINGS?
    Both...depends on the company. Don't quite like watching movies alone though.

and now i tag everyone who reads this, since i'm too lazy to type out 25 names here. yesh, i'm talking to you!!!

the president is coming

2 hours ago, my facebook status read:

Kristopher is rolling on the floor laughing at "the president is coming" :D

comment #1 read:

too much furor, no?

guess what. i wasn't talking about mr obama. i was talking about a movie that i was watching. and it was about...mr george w bush!!! my friend on the other hand thought i was laughing at obama's swearing in, which was also happening at the same time!!!

the movie was insanely funny. it's one of those urban indian comedies, the sort that are more english than hindi, and that typically use no more than 1 largish house (in this case, the basement of the american embassy in mumbai) as a set, but still are funnier than blockbuster comedies with budgets that threaten to touch billions of ruppees. it was so funny that my friend laughed through the interval and all the way out of the theater *and* inorbit at the end. he laughed so much that he could only communicate using sign language. the rest of us tried hard to control ourselves, but didn't quite succeed either.

what cracked me up though, was what i said to a friend of mine after the movie.

the (shortened) story:

i wanted to watch this movie for a long time. didn't have anybody to watch it with. till last weekend, when @wanderblah offered to watch it with me. and then today evening, i was forced to ditch that plan, because couple of my friends actually brought an extra ticket for me without asking.

so after the movie, (let's make up a name for @wanderblah: from now on i'll call her shirley) shirley tweeted that she actually was under the impression that i was gonna ditch them to watch the movie with her one of these days.

my reply got me so cracked up that i almost walked into a bush:

@wanderblah a movie ticket in hand is worth two in the bush...no puns intended :P

i think the word bush is gonna be instant laughter medicine for the rest of this week, if not more :D

taking a bow

i've recently been awarded by winnie the poohi of "catawampus me" fame. while my french is not very good, i shall do my bit to spread the joy to the part of the blogosphere i know and love...but first off, a big thanks for this award!!! i quote winnie (meena in real life :P) verbatim:

Kris : Again, met over the blogosphere. What I really love about your blog is its apparent simplicity! and the honesty with which you blog :)

oh and the award:

This blog invests and believes the PROXIMITY- nearness in space, time and relationships. These blogs are exceedingly charming. These kind bloggers aim to find and be friends. They are not interested in prizes or self-aggrandizement. Our hope is that when the ribbons of these prizes are cut, even more friendships are propagated. Please give more attention to these writers.

and now i shall present this award to some of my most "connecting" blogs:

"ideasyncrasies" by weirdisgood - the blog that inspired me to start. she posts once in a month, but straight from the heart. if i'm truthful, she's brutal :)

"makes no difference" by joylyn - i just love her wit and sense of humour. i used to almost be afraid of her in real life, till she told me she's pissed off with the world because it's the most satisfying thing to be.

"insight out" by the shmoo - another old favourite. talks about everything from her life to the world around her, to the front page of today's newspapers. never fails to make me laugh. or smile. or want to both at the same time.

"a story a day" and "poetry" by nothingman - both raw, uncut and unblurred expressions of a mind that may seem crazy, but is secretly buried inside all of us. not for the faint hearted. or the weak of imagination.

"just pazz" by paras - a recent discovery. this guy has a great sense of humour, and is a great storyteller. love his stuff.

happy music

a couple of days ago, i was in a terrible mood. i was just pissed and feeling like fighting/making others want to fight with me. i rode like a madman, cursed people on the road, was super nasty with my friends, to the point when i realised the only way i could prevent any further damage was to simply stop talking to people till this phase blew over.

i also realised that the songs that were playing in my head were megadeth and marilyn manson. and the only songs on my mp3 player were by eminem (i'm listening to my music collection alphabetically - it's taken me 7 months to get to halfway-through-e :D)

at the end of a long, sickening, aggravated day of training at work, i went back to my desk. as i unlocked my computer, a song started playing in my head. walking on clouds by dj tiesto. it wasn't in my phone/player, so i googled it, found it on youtube and listened to the audio over my office headset.

after listening to it 3 times, i had an almost 180 degree change of mood.

i just realised, there are no angry trance numbers - and there are way more happy trance tracks than in any other genre of music.

dj tiesto saved my day - again!!! :)