Merry christmas and a Happy New Year.

Well, it was that time of the year again. Christmas shopping, cold weather, lights all arounds, holiday food, .... and the list keeps going on. For this Christmas, I had my in laws over and we went over to my wife's cousin's place in Bournemouth. It was a better than expected get together as we had amazing food and on Christmas day decided to spontaneously pack seven adults and a child in a Ford Mondeo and go to a place on the Jurassic coast called Lulworth Cover. For those of you more interested in the details of location, history, go here.

Needless to say, it was beautiful. Driving was lovely as barely anyone was on the road. The most interesting part of the journey was passing through a military firing range. The signs gave me a good scare as I expected tanks and soldiers to come out of nowhere and start firing across the road. Fortunately or unfortunately, that didn't happen. We were also fortunate to reach the top by sunset, which gave us a fantastic view.

I highly recommend anyone going down to Bournemouth to take a drive to this place and check it out. The only problem was the hike upto the top of the hill. It's really not that bad but if you are pushing a pram with a 21 month old child in the cold, it's not the best experience. Fortunately since so many of us went, there were many helpful hands helping out. I can just imagine how beautiful and packed this place would be in the summer.

Missing good ol Bangalore

While I was busy working away, I suddenly felt nostalgic and started missing Bangalore and it's slow paced life (as it used to be). The warm sunny days, the tree lined streets, the markets filled with colorful flowers, fruits and vegetables. Here are a few snaps showing some parts of Bangalore.

Indiranagar

Basaveshwaranagar market

Rickshaw bumper stickers

While in Bangalore, it's common sight to see rickshaws or autorickshaws with ornate decorations, stickers, etc... However there are always a few of them that just catch your attention, even among the colorful streets of Bangalore. Here is one such rickshaw I saw, which had a picture of a well known movie star (in India) and two stickers which say 'OK' and '2005'. I wasn't sure if that meant the rickshaw was OK in 2005 or what. Just seemed silly to have an OK sticker but you do see sillier things here.

Back from vacation

Well after a nice break, finally back to the UK. I thought I'd put some pics of the Maldives which I took from the plane. Looks beautiful and I think I'll put it on my list of places to see.

Pie anyone?

Myself and some of my colleagues went out for lunch last friday to a pie shop as it was a little reward for the hard work done on one of the client implementations currently ongoing. Pie shops are quite common in UK and Australia and don't refer to pie's such as apple pies, lemon meringue pies which are deserts. These pies are traditionally meat pies and in my opinion not too different from a pasty.

I guess you know where I'm going with this but these things are deeelicious. However, I'm not writing this to rave about how good these things are (and trust me they are good), but to describe my pie experience at this particular pie shop. The place is called 'Sweeney and Todd'. It's not 'Sweeney Todd' who was the well known (possibly fictitious) barber and serial killer appearing in various stories in the mid 19th century, but a pie shop located on Castle Street in Reading.



The best part about this pie shop is the old lady who reads out the menu. (Although they provide a menu at the table, it's pretty much useless because they might not have whatever is listed there.) It's almost like you're at a speed reading contest, when you hear her start off on the menu. This time I made sure I listened carefully so I could actually say 'Cheese and vegetable with chips(fries) on the side'. I felt redeemed as the last time I went there, everybody said exactly what they wanted apart from me. I had to ask her what the vegetarian option was because she was too damn fast. It's almost like a game and the best part comes when somebody (there is always somebody) who will ask her to repeat it with the hope of understanding what's on the menu.

The place is quite decent, however it seems quite old (probably over 50 or 60 years old). If you go downstairs, it feels like a bomb shelter of some sort redone, but it's the coolest part because it keeps opening up to these areas which act as nice little niches giving you a private but 19th century-ish feel.

Afternoon delight....

I love pastys. No, not pastries, pastys. To those of you who are unfamiliar with this, it's a wonderful british delicacy originally from Cornwall (a county in the southwest of UK). It's a type of pie if you can call it that but filled with various things. For those of you interested in details, history, etc... go here.

I have to be honest, I wasn't very fond of these things when I first tried them about ten months ago. I used to think who the hell would eat this. About a month ago, on our way back home from the station, I bought my wife a cheese and tomato basil pasty from Cornwalls (A pasty shop in the train station). I had refrained from taking a bite for the most part but after hearing the ranting and raving from my wife, I decided I'll humor (humour - UK) her and take a bite. I took a bite and my taste buds were exploding with action. I couldn't believe it was the same thing that had made me stay away from it for so long. I realised the first pasty I had tried was cheese and vegetable, which in my opinion sucked. I have since then become a huge fan of the cheese and tomato basil pasty (thanks to my wife). I really can't believe I've written more than two sentences on this but it really is delicious and most probably because I just had one today and the taste is still lingering in my mouth. :)


This picture is not that of the shop at the station but on the high street. Same chain, different location.

India takes the cup

Wow is all I can say. Unfortunately, I was at work and couldn't watch the match live which is a shame, however watching the highlights online made up for it a little. Once India finished their innings, I was skeptical about their win given Pakistan also has a good team.

I was quite sure it would be a close match, however I did almost give up hope half way through Pakistan's innings thinking India might lose. Once I saw Malik and Afridi go down one right after another, I thought India had a decent shot.

I'm sure for those of you who saw this, you could have cut the tension with a butterknife. It was equivalently thrilling for me, albeit without the live tv. My colleagues were probably wondering why I kept hitting the F5 button frantically. It probably didn't dawn on them I was refreshing the match scorecard on BBC hoping to see the number of wickets go up. Unforunately for me I had to go to a meeting at this crucial point but was quite pleased when I got back to find out Arafat and Tanvir were bowled out. Yes you heard me right Arafat, Yasir Arafat not Yasser Arafat. The former is a cricket player for Pakistan and the latter is the well known chairman of the PLO. I'm sure if this guy 'Yasir Arafat' grew up in NYC, kids would have had a field day with him. :D

When I saw Pakistan was at 152 for 9 in 19 overs, I could hardly contain myself. The suspense was killing me. Fortunately I didn't have to wait long as my next refresh showed Pakistan 152 all out. I have to say these intense rivalries do make for very good finals. I think the last sporting event I saw with such enthusiasm was the 2000 World Series between the Yankees and the Mets. Both New York teams where the Yankees were my favorite baseball team since I started watching the sport.

All in all, I felt both sides played quite well and it was a thrilling, tantalising match for fans. Just the way the first Twenty20 world cup should finish.

And it's down to...

For those cricket fans out there (especially those from India and Pakistan), it's going to be a very interesting final for the Twenty20. As I'm writing this, I just saw Australia surprisingly fall to India and that too in the last five overs of the semi-finals. After Hayden went down, it was all downhill for Australia. An amazing match and I'm really looking forward to the finals between the two biggest rivals in cricket.

Well done India.

The beginning...

Well, I've finally caved into starting my own blog. As much as I enjoy reading other people's blogs, I realized the time was ripe for me to start.

A bit about me now...

I was born in what used to be the beautiful garden city of India, Bangalore but was raised in good ol NYC (Queens, Astoria to be specific) since I was seven years old. Two and a half years ago, I took a huge leap and moved back to Bangalore, got married, had an adorable daughter. To make things a bit more exciting, I moved to the UK last year and live fairly close to London.

My interests and likings are far too wide for me to list here but suffice it to say it's eclectic.
I've studied Computer/Electrical Engineering and work in the wide world of Information Technology. Fortunately I work with two things I really love, product development and finance. I'll probably end up somewhere in management as that's the path I seem to be headed in currently, but let's see. I wouldn't mind retiring from formal work and devoting my time on things I've always wanted to do, but have to do something else I like to pay the bills. In the meantime, I'm going to enjoy doing what I do as much as possible.