My life rating..

This Is My Life, Rated
Life:	6.2
Mind:	6.2
Body:	7.8
Spirit:	6.7
Friends/Family:	3
Love:	2.1
Finance:	6.5
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The Average ratings ..

Life	: 6.4
Mind	: 6.4
Body	: 7.0
Sprit	: 6.3
Friends & Family	: 4.8
Love	: 4.0
Finance	: 6.0

Idli House venture...

It was another venue for the konquerors (Myself, Nagesh, Abhijit and the new entrant Ganesh) to meet again, and the location was Idli house at King circle Mumbai on 27th February 2006 at 4:00 PM. Even this meet was not planned before hand and the sutradhar was Nagesh, we were to have a offline meeting there with Deepak whom I didn’t know.

As usual I had classes at Ghatkopar till 3:00 PM, and knew that the train lines were blocked at kurla due to some work and the fast trains will not stop at matunga. I called up Nagesh and my brother and we decided to get together at Ghatkopar and we’ll go together from there. Luckily we got the bus which was going to Tardeo, meanwhile Deepak had reached the venue before 4:00 PM itself, and we had a journey of half an hour to cover. Luckily the traffic was not much. We reached king circle and after getting down Nagesh told that the girls group that were in the bus were having a stare at Ananth (that’s me) and I was like “Why in the world would they stare at me I’m not that good or smart for such looks, probably they were eying you buddy”.

We reached Idli house and we had Deepak waiting for us there. Ganesh was on his way and we decide to wait for him to come, there came the person again and we were describing about the person to Deepak. We decided to have tea at the stall there and we were contemplating about the Idli house. After 20 minutes Ganesh had come there. Even he had a cup of tea, after a session of photography we went into Idli house our new venture, as everybody had heard of it but no one had tried it. Abhijit, Deepak and Ganesh ordered for Khotto (The batter of Idli is steamed in a jackfruit leaf shaped like a cup and can), Nagesh went for Oondi (Ground rice is semi- cooked and to that a tadaka of sesame seeds and kadi patta is added and the whole is made into a mixture and it is made into round shape with a depression at the centre and cooked) and I took Mysore Idli. Well one thing special was that the coconut chutney (a favorite of mine) was not served in a bowl of ½ cm in depth and 4 cm in diameter as it is customary with Mumbaia hotels, the depth varies from ½ cm to 2 cm . The waiter brought a big tumbler like container and “Poured” chutney with a big spoon, the quantity was for us to decide. There was pudi chutney with coconut oil over it. Everybody loved the cuisine, it was like we were eating a typical home made Konkani cuisine and eventually everybody ordered for a second round. There has to be a coffee or tea after such a cuisine and on knowing that there is filter coffee everybody went for that. Deepak liked the filter coffee and ordered another without sugar. There was a small dialogue between Nagesh and Deepak and I’ll write it that way to preserve the originality.

Nagesh: Deepak why didn’t you ask for sugar in your coffee ?

Deepak: The coffee is like godda pank (sweet syrup)!!!

Nagesh: Tu tamilian se hi shaadi karega!!!

Nagesh: They require a truck load of coffee and even a little of sugar (literally showing with his fingers) and still it’s sweet for them. Are kidney mar jayega, aisa strong coffee piya to.

We came out, and interestingly the bill came at Rs. 30 per head. Nagesh had a small chit chat with the person who was at the cash counter (son on the owner), and we had a formal introduction of the owner. Deepak wanted to go as he had a meeting with another group of his. We were waiting for Pravin Da whom I had heard about from the other people and had to meet him face to face, he a very active member on Orkut and known as Phatka master. Actually he wanted to join in with us but since he had upavas of Mahashivaratri, so he didn’t join us for the Idli house venture. He arrived in about 20 min, we had an informal introduction of all again. He came in with a plan of going walking to Shivaji Park and coming back so it would be a good 2 km evening walk. Everybody was ready for it, Nagesh told that he would be leaving us from the matunga station as he had to meet somebody. We started our walk he started to tell about his old day stories and how he and his friends would go walking around this stretch. He even showed the place where we can get Kulfi's even at 12 in the night. We went over the Z Bridge from king circle to matunga, we could see the railway workshop adjoining the bridge and even got a sneak view of the interiors. Nagesh separated from us at the matunga station and we moved on further. Meanwhile Pravin Da asked that there is a mall called Magnet there and his friend was telling him about visiting it atleast once, everybody agreed to it, I said “Neki aur puch puch “. He started to search Karnataka sangha hall and we saw it atlast after a big roam around here and there. Form there on we went into the magnet mall. It’s a good place to do shopping and especially ladies would love it, its got all from groceries to clothes to utensils et all but one thing is that you’ll have to look for is the cost, if the cost is ok with you then you can go and have a nice weekend shopping. They are not too high but maybe a bit (I didn’t went into details of the cost much but rather I was doing window shopping and accompanying Pravin Da in his new venture). We split into two groups me and Ganesh and Praivn Da and Abhijit. We both went on to explore the whole mall and later even went on to contemplate some ideas of marketing, Ganesh was sharing his lessons he had learnt at his company and I was sharing my own observations, but it was fun and most importantly we both wee enjoying it. I was looking at some of the items that are used for house decoration and was making plans to get some of those types for my new house. We moved out and Pravin Da broke his upavas with Britannia cheese over biscuit, which they were giving for marketing the product. Pravin Da was to go by bus as he was used of that but we were used of trains in Mumbai and it was the first choice over bus. He asked us whether we were interested in going to Shivaji Park, but since it was around 8 Pm in the evening we rejected that idea and Pravin Da also came with us till matunga station with us. The discussion on the same person came here too as even Pravin Da knows about the person. We crossed the Z Bridge again and we were at the matunga station and Pravin Da said goodbye to us and we were in the next available train. I split from them at kurla station as I have to change my train.

Traveling towards my house with the memories of the flavor of the Konkani delicacies we had at Idli house and also meeting two new personalities. One thing for sure is that after 2 years in Mumbai I can take somebody to this place to have this Konkani delicacies, and atleast nobody will tell me that you know nothing in Mumbai even after staying for 2 years. I would recommend the readers, who stay in Mumbai and persons visiting Mumbai to have a taste of the delicacies of Idli house. It will be open from evening 4 Pm to 8 Pm. Mornings are to be avoided as there will be a lot of rush at this very place. It would be a best thing to club a small time at Idli house and have a walk till Shivaji Park.

Images Courtesy Nagesh. Click here

The evening with Spirituality

The plan to go to this event was organized in a hurried manner. On Friday 3rd march night, my cousin brother calls me and tells that there is an event or rather a musical evening at Bhavans college Andheri of Shri Upendra Bhat. He said that he will go via ghatkopar so I could meet him there and we could go together to the venue. I told him that you can call nagesh also as he stays there only and even he could join us, to which he said “Is plan ka sutradhar to wohi hai”( The main organizer of this event is nagesh). I said ok and the next day on a conference we decided that I would come to andheri station directly and these people will be coming together from ghatkopar. The target time was 5:30 PM as the show was to start at 6:00 PM. I reached andheri at around 5:20 PM but the these people hadn’t reached there. On calling them I came to know they were at chakala and it would take another 20 min to reach there. So instead of waiting I decided to do some window shopping. The items that were there tempted me to buy some but I decided not to go for them. In the meanwhile they had reached andheri and were standing near the McDonalds. I joined them leaving my window shopping halfway. The Konqueror group meet again but this time only the three base members were there and a new entry to the group of Konquerors it was me, nagesh, abhijit and the new entry of ganesh. My bro introduced ganesh saying that even he’s from mangalore (my home town) and you people can chat about yourself. There on we moved to have sugarcane juice, and we thought of walking the distance rather than taking bus or rick, as we would reach there earlier than those.It was about 10 to 15 min walk and we enjoyed chatting with each other it was like abhi and nagesh were in their own world and me and ganesh in ours. We reached Bhavans college at around 6:10 PM and we noticed that there was a board saying that the program will start at 6:30 PM. Further moving on we say another board with the event timing 7:00 PM. The venue was good one and the place where Shri Upendra Bhat was to perform was next to a shiva temple and the next day being Mahashivaratri. It was a perfect thing to have a bhajana sahdya the evening before Mahashivaratri. The show only began after 7:20 PM. How could we forget one person we three share in common and I feel this persons venture surfaces when we meet together. The surrounding was too good for such an event with trees around, and birds had come to their nests after a long days work.

One person came on stage to introduce Shri Upendra Bhat who is a disciple of Pt. Bhimsen Joshi, a vocalist. His voice was like our famous radio personality Ameen Sayani. He went on to tell about this show and when it came to introduce Shri Upendra Bhat he was reading a manuscript (along with mistakes). When the show started the birds started to fly around and it looked like they were encircling the shiva temple and offering their prayers to him. The flock of birds looked like white waves in a sea. The whole environment had something spiritual and it had a soothing effect, all I had to do was close my eyes and feel it.
After a few songs we went out to have something and nagesh told that we could try vadapav as he had already certified it as good. We all had vadapav and returned back to the venue but our seat were occupied by somebody else, so we had to sit behind. After one bhajan the organizer thought of taking a break and everybody had gone for filling their stomach so did Shri Upendra Bhat. We had the opportunity to meet Bhatji as nagesh’s father knew him and he was there on the stage accompanying him. We had already filled our stomach and we had to wait there till other’s had finished their break. Meanwhile we got our seat back. After about 20 minutes the show resumed and Bhatji told that he has got a lot of request of songs from the people gathered. In the second half of the show he began with explaining the details of various ragas and how and when they are used. He went on to say that nowadays the Bollywood music industry takes music from classical background and those songs go on for a super duper hit.

The song Saa ni pa … Tu cheez badi hai mast ( from mohra) “Ye saab to hame pahile sikhaya jata hai, agar koyi naya vidhyarhti aata hai to haam usse yehi dete hai aur che mahina yahi seekhane ke liye batate hai” ( We are taught the same thing when we join to learn classical music, and when any new person joins we give him the same thing to learn for 6 months)

“I had asked a person what is the next line of Dhoom macha le dhoom and interestingly they couldn’t answer that, today’s music are not like the olden days music which can be remembered”

Continuing this he went on to sing bhajans that were requested Baje muraliya and even one kannada bhajan of “Namamma sharade..”

Finally the event came to an end at around 10:45 pm. We moved from there, all of the other people had to take a bus but I had to take a train. I stood in the line for the ticket and in the mean while this incident happened there.

There was foreigner lady standing there and probably waiting for somebody, and a local lady comes there and starts to talk with her, initially I thought it was something casual but it was something different, as the foreigner was using worse words with her. The local lady looked rather an illiterate lady and with some screws loose probably. The worst part was the area got crowded there and everybody was there enjoying the treat instead of saying the local lady to stop, somebody even took snaps of the verbal fight. Later a lady ventured to sort out the fight and yelled at the people saying “Yahan kya tamasha ho raha hai kya, Dusara kaam nahi hai kya aap logo ko ?” Is there a play going on, you people don’t have any other work or what? She came back as her husband was standing there in the line and narrated about the incident. The funniest part was a person who was totally drunk got the ticket and while moving went on to praise “You are correct madam” literally swaying here and there.

Amidst all these I had been calculating about the time of the last train to panvel from kurla, whether I’ll get a train or not. Finally I got a train from Andheri to Dadar and from there to Kurla reaching just in time to catch the last train to panvel that night at 12:15 am. I reached home at around 1:30 am.
All this time while traveling I was thinking about the two contrasting thing happened that night one was a splendid performance of Shri Upendra Bhat and the fight that happened at the railway station which was rather useless altogether and over that the public stand there having fun at the verbal fight.