The Road Taken

We moved to a new house recently. The main reason for moving was to get some peace in the house. Our earlier house, though small and sweet, had serious problems of neighbors. They used to be up the entire night watching TV and talking loudly over the phone. Request and arguments did not make any difference. That is when we decided to move to the adjacent block and this time our requirement was simple. Forest facing, corner flat. If you are wondering what this forest is, it is a ‘mini-forest’ as it is famously called. You can get a glimpse of it on Google Earth. Finally we did find a flat that met our requirements and additionally, it also has a beautiful view of the forest from the hall and the balcony. Though the rent is on the higher side than we wished for, we took the plunge.

Since it is a corner flat, there is abundant light and air. It has three balconies, so I can increase my stock of plants. We have reserved one balcony as the hobby balcony. This is where I do most of my knitting these days. The view of the forest from this balcony is lovely. There is total peace here, except for the crows, sparrows, cuckoos and squirrels. No, squirrels don’t make noise, but they visit us often to see if I have kept some nuts for them, you know, just in case. I had put out some dates in the sun to dry and after a few days, there was not even one left! I keep a diya for the tulasi and one squirrel promptly comes every day and sucks out the oil in it. It has a schedule - every single day it comes at the same time. I wonder how these animals keep track of time. Advanced biological clock?

Thanks to the light and air, my plants are doing very well here. We bought this plant 3 years back hoping to see lovely flowers on it. No such luck until we moved to this house. It has a beautiful pink flower now and the plant looks much healthier.

And this is the beautiful view from our hall balcony. It is all green as far as you can see. With yesterday’s rain and today’s cloudy weather, the view is breath taking.

I know, this post is too personal for my taste. I have been staying at home since a week now (that is fodder for another post) and have been enjoying every single moment and I wanted to gloat! This bliss is partly because of the isolation and the peace that this house provides. And did I mention the view?

We had a tiff with our parking lot neighbor the other day. We moved to a different house in the same apartment and hence we have been allotted a new parking space. We parked our car and two wheelers in our allotted space only to wake up the next day to a knock from the security guy saying the neighbor has complained that we are parking in her area. That was a shock, because we were very sure we weren’t doing any such thing.

We went to the parking area to get the matter sorted out. The lady walked in after a few minutes and started explaining to us that our two wheeler blocks her way. She ‘requested’ that we park it the other side, so that she can enter her parking area through OUR parking area. That is when it became clear to me that the lady went and ‘complained’ to the security because she wanted to make a ‘request’. Hmmm. I lost my cool and before my husband could say ‘Ok, we can park it that side’, I said ‘No, won’t do’. The lady, arrogant as she was, walked away with her nose high up in the air.

Later, I thought about the incident, and though I felt guilty for not helping her, I felt the lady deserved it. She wanted a help from us, she should have come to us and made a request. Instead, she goes to the security, shouts at him, creates a scene and then doesn’t even say PLEASE! Her mom definitely left out the lesson on politeness in her childhood. I could have helped her if I wanted to. If she hadn’t rubbed the wrong way, I would have definitely helped.

Then I read today’s Speaking Tree. After reading this I felt I lost an opportunity to follow ‘Be good to others even if they are bad to you’.

When I think about that snotty lady, I feel what I did was right. When I think ponder over it when I face myself in the mirror, I feel I should help her. To help or not to help? Just one of the many dilemmas that I face in this journey called life.

We all have heard enough about how banks come up with creative ways to cheat customers. Be it hiding the annual fee clause from the customer or sending an unasked for, unwanted credit card to a customer AND charge an annual fee over it! Yeah, these banks put any artist to shame. I am just adding two more things to the never ending list of Citibank’s tricks.

1. Suvidha account points redemption

I had accrued quite a few Suvidha usage points in the last year. Before I could redeem those, they lapsed in March. When I called the customer service, I was given a prompt answer that points lapse in March. Why wasn’t I informed about it before hand? No answer. I pledged to take revenge by redeeming the points next year. So, this year, promptly in March, I redeemed those points and was left with a few ‘chillar’ of 20 points. I was expecting these to lapse by the end of the month, but guess what, they didn’t lapse. Another phone to their customer service and I am informed that the leftover points after redemption are carried forward. This is insane! Unredeemed points lapse but left over points are carried forward? Who made this rule? What is the logic behind this?

2. Debit card renewal fee

We have all heard about lifetime free credit cards, but did you know that Citibank will charge an annual fee of Rs. 99 on your debit card from July 2008 onwards? I was given this wonderful news when I called to order a debit card. I asked the customer care executive what is the logic behind offering free credit cards and not free debit cards? He obviously did not have an answer so I answered for him. Customers can survive without a credit card, but they cannot access their account or use the ATM without a debit card. Citibank knows this well and hence can take advantage of this by charging an annual fee on debit cards. The customer care executive was really shaken by this and asked me to complain “if I am not satisfied with this situation” by sending a mail to indiaservice@citicorp.com.

My mail may not result in the wakening of the Citibank executive’s conscience and the eventual cancellation of the debit card annual fee, but I surely will send a mail. If you care about your 99 bucks which Citibank is snatching right under your nose, then you too send a mail. Remember, it is not about the money.

If I want to describe French Open 2008 in one word, then it has to be ‘Disappointing’. While Australian Open had nerve-wrecking matches like Nadal vs. Tsonga, Djokovic vs. Federer and of course the finals Djokovic vs. Tsonga, French Open had very little to offer to the viewers.

Most of us expected a Nadal vs. Federer finals, but I was hoping Djokovic will give a tough fight to Nadal. I thought this match will be better than the finals, but I was so wrong. Djokovic was nowhere as aggressive as he was in Australian Open and ATP Masters series. Nadal made almost no mistakes and he had an easy win. The finals was another disappointment altogether. Since when has Federer begun to lose a set 6-0? So all those rumours about Federer losing his steam is true? He did look tired and dejected in the finals. And where oh where is Tsonga? I was hoping he will play in the French Open atleast. After treating the viewers with the amazing semi and finals in Australian Open, he can’t just disappear!

The women’s front was disappointing even before the series began because of Henin’s retirement. She was my favorite among women and her retirement came as a surprise for me. She was so light footed on court and played her match so strategically. I was hoping to see her in action again this year, but she disappointed us all by pulling out. Surprisingly though, the women’s series was much better than the men’s, thanks to Dinara Safina. Her match against Sharapova has to be the best match of the series. When she was down by a match point in the second set, I almost knew she will lose. I didn’t wait till the match ended and switched to some other channel. I come back after a few minutes and what do I see? Safina actually went on to win! She tried hard in the finals but Ivanovic was too good for her. Ana Ivanovic has improved her game so much. There is a marked difference in her since the Australian Open against Sharapova. Talking about the latter, her game was floppy in French Open, to say the least.

The whole series was a huge disappointment. Let’s hope Wimbledon will be better. I have a feeling Federer will not retain his title. Any bets?

Punjabi Times has been around for some time now and everybody in the south of Bangalore knows about it and has been there at least once. For those who don’t, Punjabi Times is a Punjabi restaurant on Bannerghatta Road, opposite Shoppers Stop.

I had heard a lot about this restaurant and went there to try it out myself. For starters, we ordered Tandoori vegetables - assorted vegetables cooked in tandoor. It was delicious - the vegetables just melted in my mouth! The main course had to be Paratha. They offer a wide variety - aloo, gobi, matar, methi, pyaaz etc. Pyaaz paratha with a cup of curd and pickles was too good. I didn’t like the gobi paratha that much.

The best part of the meal has to be Paan ice cream. I didn’t know what to expect when I ordered it. It is a pista colored ice cream with pieces of brown supari in it. It was yummy, it was as if I was eating an actual paan. I don’t think it was ‘flaovred’, there were actual paan ingredients in it. After you eat this, you don’t need to eat paan. The taste stays in your mouth for a long time.

This is not a review of Punjabi Times. This is a post for those people who don’t know about the Paan icecream offered there. Even if you don’t eat a meal there, do eat the icecream. It is a rarity and an absolute must.

We all know how government offices work. But have you ever called a government call center? I did. For the past two weeks, I and my husband have been calling the BSNL call center every day. Yeah, you read that right. Every Single Day.

We have BSNL broadband connection which was working just fine. Except for the frequent outage on weekends, it was fine. One fine morning, it refused to connect. Authentication failure, apparently. There was no reason why it should just stop working.

We called their call center the first day. It took us around 15 minutes to get through the terrible music and speak to a human. He made us go through the standard procedure - reenter all data and reboot the modem. When that didn’t work, he promptly told us that the server is down. The same thing repeated the next few days. Thus started the saga of get back home from work, dial the number, listen to the wonderful music, finally get through the call, explain the problem, do the standard procedure and realize the server is down and then hang up.

I gave up and almost decided to dump BSNL and go for Airtel. My husband has a lot of patience than me and kept trying. Two days back, may be it was my husband’s luckiest day, our call was answered by a person who knew what he was talking about. He told us that all usernames which have underscores and hyphens in them have been disabled. That made sense because there was no reason why the connection should stop working one fine day. He said he has to create a new username for us, but couldn’t do so now because the server was down. He asked us to call the next day.

So… we called yesterday and our luck apparently ran out and our call was answered by some moron. We told him about this username thing and he had no clue what we were talking about. No matter how we tried to explain, he just refused to create a new username and even said that usernames can be created only at the local exchange. My husband asked him to handover the call to the person who answered our call the previous day. That guy gave some lame excuse that the other person was not available or some such thing and we hung up.

We sulked and sighed and finally decided that we are going to say bye-bye to BSNL. That’s when our phone rang. Guess what? It was the same guy who told us about this username problem. He took the trouble of looking up our number and calling us. He even created a username and again guess what? It worked! Ecstatic is not the word, but I will use it anyway. We couldn’t thank him enough and asked him if there is any way we can let his supervisor know about this wonderful deed. He gave us an email id where we can send a thank you mail, but I don’t think anyone is going to read that. So here I am, thanking our angel and our saviour from the bottom of my heart and my husband’s heart.

This post is not about how BSNL just decided to change all usernames without informing the customers or the customer care staff. It is not about how incompetent most of the call center staff are. This post is about that one person who stands out from the rest of the crowd because he cares about his customers, takes his work seriously and thus made a difference in someone’s life.  Vinod Kumar B R, if you are reading this, you retained a BSNL customer. More importantly, you taught us what is the meaning of ‘work is worship’ and made us realize that we should apply the same thing at our work place, and also that we can leave a mark in this world and make a difference no matter who you are. Thank You.

A few weeks back, my maid decided to go on a vacation. She would be gone for a week so I asked her to find a replacement. She found a lady who was part of the housekeeping staff  who was willing to do so.

The lady religiously came to work for the next few days. She wasn’t great with her work, but I had to put up with what I had. She was talkative and very rude. I didn’t bother much about her behavior since she would be gone after a few days anyway. On the last day of her work I paid her for her services. I didn’t have change, so gave her a big note and asked her to return the change of Rs.20. I told her to hand it over to my maid. She nodded and left.

I informed my maid about this money business and asked her to collect it from the lady. For 3 weeks there was no sign of this housekeeping lady. The manager informed me she was on leave. I was almost sure I will never get my money back. Meanwhile, my maid happened to spot the lady somewhere and asked her about the money. The lady flatly refused! When my maid told me about this, I was furious. I had decided to let go of my money, but when I heard this from my maid, I pledged to get every penny that the lady owed me.

I searched for this lady high and low and finally found her one day. I asked her for the money and she had the audacity to ask me, “Why should I give you money?” I was shocked. That was MY money, isn’t that a reason enough? I wanted to tell her that we don’t grow money on trees, but before I could give her a piece of my mind, the manager interfered. He asked the lady to return the money and she did.

As I was walking back with the money clutched in my hand, I heard this lady mutter, “So much of drama for just 20 Rs.?” I wanted to tell her “It is not about the money”, but I have a feeling she wouldn’t understand.

A darshini in J.P.Nagar. Friday Evening. Around 8.30.

It was a long, tiring day. No mood to cook and no patience to wait at restaurants waiting for food. “Dinner at a darshini?”, asks my husband. Sounds good.

We ordered dinner, as in we paid for it and collected it from the counter. A young man is relishing his noodles. A couple is busy stuffing the kid with idli. The road is almost deserted - 9 is late in Bangalore. An empty table at the far end, almost touching the road. That will do.

As I am gulping down my meal, my eyes lock with another pair of hungry eyes. I look away embarrassed. The other pair continues to stare alternately at me and my plate. A tug at my heart, a wrench in my stomach and my mind made up itself to face the situation.

I walk up to the owner of those hungry eyes.

“What’s your name?”

“Asif.”

“Do you know Kannada?”

He shakes his head.

“English?”

Shakes again.

“Which language?”

“Urdu.”

“Kya khaoge?”

No answer. I can see he is embarassed, ashamed.

“Idli khaoge?”

His eyes light up. He is almost inaudible. “Bhel Puri.”

“Idhar hi ruko.”

After five minutes, the darshini-wala calls out, “One plate bhel puri.”

I look around to spot the eyes. They are no where to be seen.

Darshini-wala says, “Is this for that boy?”

I nod.

He and his colleagues start searching for that boy. He is hiding behind a car. They call him. He shakes his head.

One guy shows the parceled bhel puri to the boy. “This is for you”, he says.

The boy is still not sure. Reluctantly he comes to collect it. He collects the parcel, and walks out, not even once looking at me.

Darshini-wala says, “He comes here everyday. Some four-five times. He will come back again after some time.”

I ask myself, “Did I do the right thing?”

Reasons for trying out this recipe were many:

1. The photo looked so delicious and tempting. Sprouted matki and rice sounded like a yummy combination.
2. I had all the ingredients that the recipe called for. I didn’t have cinnamon, so I used pepper instead. It was not meant to be a replacement, but an extension.
3. My list of rice items is limited and I wanted to try some new rice item.
4. The recipe was simple and nutritious.

The only downside of this recipe is it needs preparation the previous day if you want to use sprouted matki. The dish turned out really well. The rice which I thought would be bland was the best part of all. The fragrance of basmati rice mixed with spices like cardamom, pepper and cloves was heavenly. I made the gravy a bit spicy to satisfy my husband’s taste glands.

This dish has such a wholesome taste - it feels as if the dish is satisfying every taste bud on your tongue. It gives you a satisfying feeling in your mouth and in your stomach. A simple recipe which gives you a delicious and nutritious rice item. This item will be a frequent visitor in my kitchen.

This weekend, the cook in me was on a high and I tried my hand at three new food items. No disappointments, all of them turned out well.

I was bored with the usual rice items I make and wanted to try out something different. A quick search on the net revealed this mouth watering Sanjeev Kapoor’s recipe of Baoli Handi. I made a few changes to the original recipe. I didn’t use beans, peas and cauliflower - because I didn’t have them. I put a pinch of garam masala along with the chilli powder. The result was an all new, delicious and nutritious rice item. For once, my husband liked a new recipe!

The next item was not really a recipe, but a new dish. MTR’s Spicy Idly instant mix. This is a newer and improved version of MTR’s Rava Idly mix. The method is the same. Add curd and coriander and steam. All done in 15 minutes. Idlys were yummy. They were not really spicy, but had a mild taste of their own.

Snacks time. I tried out Nupur’s recipe of Suralichi Vadi. It is a Maharashtrian delicacy and fairly easy to make. It doesn’t take long - max 20 minutes, so a perfect snack when you have unexpected guests. Her recipe is so well explained, I couldn’t have goofed up anywhere. The microwave version is a savior, it is so easy to cook in the microwave oven. The Vadi turned out really well. Some of the vadis didn’t roll off the plate well. I am guessing I didn’t spread the mixture evenly on the plate. I will keep this in mind for next time.