Live-in Relationship- Curse or Boon:

Indian Supreme Court gave its “ultimate” decision last week, i.e., Live-in Relationships are legal in India now. This made many young people like me to have a healthy discussion over it and we did at a group on a social networking site.



This discussion is still going on (I think now the “flame” of argument has slowed down a bit). I saw one thing in this discussion; the whole group was divided in to 2 parts: supporters and opponents. Supporters were constantly trying to show the IMPORTANCE and positive side of Live-In where opponents were showing their tension for “Bharatiya Sanskriti” and “Bharatiya Rit-Rasm”.



But suddenly from all these people, a few of them created a new group: Neutral… They were ready to accept this “change” in society, but at the same time wanted to follow that typical Indian Mindset…



Well, this is just what I read on that group (of course, I too was a part of this discussion); now let me put my views on Live-In over here.



Before beginning, let me tell u about the culture from where this type of relationship has come, that is American Culture. Their society has quite free mind set. Free doesn’t mean that they allow their children to wear whatever they like, but free in the sense that they encourage their children to be independent. They respect independence of their children and allow them to do whatever they like, because they believe in them. Now again people will say that because of this independence the youth is this level’s worst, but while saying this they won’t think that not all of them are of this type, just like not whole India is made up of Slums or Basti…



Other thing, Live-In came in their life is because children in USA are not assets of their parents, hence as soon as a kid enters in his teen age or in some worse cases as soon as s/he becomes an adult his/her parents allow him/her to live the life in their own way & that’s why there are so many nuclear family in USA. Now being a social animal, living alone is not possible, hence they look for companion. Obviously if u love someone or u r committed to someone u like to be with that person, as we all do after that big big weddings and marriage. So, before getting married this is their way to decide whether they would be comfortable with the partner, because they don’t have their parents to decide their life. That’s why Living-In is so popular with them.



By now u must have understood that I’m in support side of Live-In relationship, but again let me tell u I am not, because Kahani main Twist is:

Live-In is a bit odd for Indian couple, not because of some “Bharatiya Sanskriti” bakwas, but just because even in 21st century children are assets of their parents in India, even though they are old enough to take care of themselves and we youth enjoy this. That’s why we believe that the partner they choose for us is the best for us as they know what is good for us. And that’s why India can never be a super power, because for being a super power we, young people of India have to take initiative to change the society, because having a better economy or a good GDP or annual growth rate is not enough. And where you can’t have same idea even after 5 years then culture having 5000+ yrs old history is not something to be proud of because to make this culture 10000 yr old, we have to make changes in that…. So either forget Live-in relationship or take initiative to change the mindset

The difference between Venus and Mars

Today I came across an amazing thought/one liner by a friend of mine. It said, Stri no Prem Ghughavta Mahasagar jevo hoy chhe jyare purush no prem Naigara Falls jevo hoy chhe( Translation, woman loves with all emotions in her, like an ocean where man loves with showing his emotions after a real long time). That remind me of Chandrakant Baxi, one of my favorite authors, he once said that for woman Love is something that starts from her heart and ends at her body, where for man it starts from his body and ends at heart.



That is how totally different Man and Woman are. Man or Male is a logical gender, they always think think & think… Even for loving someone of opposite sex, they’d like (I guess, u all r always welcome to correct me) “Why I like her?”, “Does she like me too?”, “Why is she so mad for me?”, “What is love?”, “How is that possible with me?” etc



We gals don’t understand all these 1s & 0s when it comes about feelings, for us it’s all illogical, we never ever think about such things like “whether that guy would be equally crazy for me” or “Why I love this ‘jerk’”. We just follow our heart in some matters. & that’s y it hurts us most when someone doesn’t stand true on our expectations.



Saw this in ‘F.R.I.E.N.D.S’, that a guy has three stages for recovery after a break up:

1) sweat pants stage, 2) Going to Strip club stage and 3) Imagine one’s self with other gal/s.



For us there is no such stage, we try to hide our tears from world & open up with close friends, she-friends. This is it, because guys have kept hurting us all the time during the relationship, by not understanding us and by not being mental support for us. Just read a real nice poem by Aesha Dadawala, suggesting same meaning, though it goes for both gender sometimes.



Just a request to all guys out there…. Please try to understand us, we use heart as thinking organ, we do things “direct dil se” & even ur small like atom mistake hurts us real bad.



& yea, don’t give false promise or false hope to any gal, coz she has dreams for her “life”, since she becomes “woman” and it feels too bad when dreams shattered….



No hard feelings for anyone….. Love ya all….





(P.S.: this doesn’t mean that Man doesn’t have feelings)

Women Freedom and Brahmkshatriya Mentality

Yesterday it was "International Women's Day", people celebrated it with all sorta "joy" (yea it includes pun & sarcasm). Some statements on Facebook/Orkut make me think that being Indian do they really respect women????????



Talking about women freedom, I never had any problem such as being career oriented or selecting course of my choice etc, which gals of my age are generally just "dream". I knew at somewhat level why I have such privileges, but yesterday I got confirmation from my father himself. He'd written on his Facebook status, something like this:

"Proud to be from a community which has incomparable women freedom since last 200yrs +"
Now u'd think what so great in this status message..well it's these 3 words what makes this status message special, "incomparable women freedom"



People who know me well, know that I'm bold enough to make people discuss on just 1 matter ,i.e. "Dress code for Women/gals @ pilgrim places" for like days & even participating in that so aggressively that people literally asked me if that thing happened to me in real.



Well,that's what I am,or should I say a Brahmkshatriya lady. Yeah, my relatives would understand the meaning of this phrase.



First of all, what are the basic attributes of Brahmkshatriya...
A Brahmkshatriya is generally calm, witty, having large appetite(in short foodie), having good administrative sense, Brahmkshatriya men generally do just two things, earn money & give the responsibility of that earned money to the respective head lady of the house(yes we have "head lady”, not "head man"). About his social liability, first of all, he's generally the most confused person regarding all kinda relations, special blood relations, & becoz of that he can't take any major social decisions like what he is supposed to do at some social function like marriage. In my dad’s words, “ ame loko lagan prasange khali 2 kaam karie, khavanu khaie ane varghodo/procession ma aagal chalie” (translation: we do only 2 things during a wedding, eating and being in front row during procession)



Well, I said, we r generally calm, but this generally has a very big hidden meaning. We can get angry even on a very small matter, arre, we can even get angry when two totally unknown for us persons are fighting. That’s y we claim, Hanuman was Brahmkshatriya (LOL).



Now about Brahmkshatriya Lady…
Well, she is well-read, usually career oriented, habituated of freedom & that’s why can’t tolerate a guy having “Bossing” attitude or in simple words (people who know me) someone exactly like me.



That’s why I had that debate regarding dress code @ pilgrim places, even though I’ve never faced that problem (rem Hanuman thing??? :D)



Oops… In whole this loooooong writing, I forgot to tell u what is Brahmkshatriya? Who are we? Don’t worry, I won’t bore u with that today, I’ll tell that in my next post soon… till then…bbye… 

Ramoji Film city: A magical World

“Anna Rasclaa…. Minddd itt…”
Remember this dialogue of “Om Shanti Om”?????? Yeah the movie was “not-more-than-2 time” watch, but still the sets of movie must have left the impression on your mind. That’s just because it’s a real Film City. Almost whole movie’s shooting was done here, in Ramoji Film City.
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If u r planning to go to Hyderabad via railway, then board off at Secunderabad and from there take Hyderabad-Vijaywada highway. After a “small” drive of approx. 20 kms, u’ll see a HUUUUUGGGGGEEEEEEEE gate with big words written on in “RAMOJI FILM CITY”. And when u enter there, u’d feel like u’ve entered in an entirely new city…..
This is just beginning of this place….

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Ramoji Film City is the world’s largest integrated film studio complex at over 2,000 acres of land. It is also a popular tourism and recreation centre, containing both natural and artificial attractions including an amusement park. The authorities have arranged few RED BUSES (just like we see in some movies that shows London city) that take visitors around the studio. The visit usually includes:
a Japanese garden, the ETV planet (a multi-purpose editing suit), a pool, artificial waterfalls, an airport terminal, hospital set, railway station, churches, mosques and temples, shopping plazas, palace interiors, chateaus, rural complexes, urban dwellings, and a winding highway. Shops include Parade, a prop-shop, where costumes of actors can be ordered and Shangrila, a nursery that sells exotic plants. This Film city has also 'Ramoji Film Magic' which shows about the behind-the-scene activities involved in movie making.
RFC has a five star hotel and a three star hotel with an attached restaurant, besides one coffee house.

DO NOT MISS IT:
The “WILD WILD WEST” show… It’s stunt performance… In the beginning u might feel like ‘what’s going on……’ but later it’ll get interesting… & specially the Telugu commentary of the show will definitely give u a RAJNIKANTH effect to the whole show, which u’ll definitely enjoy as at one point or other we all love him for his crazy stunts…. M I right???? ;)

A TIP:
Don’t make it one day picnic, unless u live in Hyderabad. Please stay in either of these two hotels “TARA-SITARA”, & if possible plan ur vacation such way that u can spend 2 WHOLE days in this studio..

Coffee with Buddha

Hey People…back with my wandering…

Now u will think that what’s the connection of title to the wandering? But there is some connection…..

Well… Let’s first talk about Buddha & then we’ll discuss the title (I promise I won’t bore u…. :P)

Hyderabad has a really nice lake, named ‘Hussain Sagar’. It is famous as largest manmade lake in India. In the middle of this lake there is a huge statue of Lord Buddha.

The 16 meter tall, 350 tonne (approx.) monolithic Buddha statue is situated in the middle of the Hussain Sagar Lake, silhouetted against the sunset. It is made of white granite and is the largest statues in all over the world.

Apart from this statue, which indeed a great thing, Hussain Sagar has lots of amazing places. Like Lumbini Park, from where u catch the ferry ride to the statue, a really nice food court, etc.

Lumbini Park is just like some amusement park. They have this really beautiful Laser show, which was not working when we visited that because of the bomb blast which took place just 2 months before our visit. From here they have regular ferries to the middle of the lake which u can catch to visit the Buddha Statue.

So this is the story of Buddha… Now let’s have some coffee with him…


The cafeteria a.k.a. food court on the side of Lake has some really good places like Pizza Hut, Subway & my most favoutire Amore… Amore is a Gelato parlor & just like any other Gelato parlor this one too has some really nice flavors like cookie & cream, Ferraro Rocher, Dark Chocolate & some usual Sorebeto. Apart from that, they also serve really nice coffee. We visited this place twice, first day I just tried my usual flavor of Gelato (which I tried first time then) and on second day FIRST TIME IN MY WHOLE LIFE TILL THAT DAY, I tried a pure Espresso coffee. Yes (to those who know how crazy I get for an espresso) me too find it ‘YUCK’ on first sip & thought to give up. But I don’t know what was going on in my mind or in my heart I did finished that cup & that was the time I really got crazy for Espresso, which I still am…. May at that time Buddha was there, telling me go on it’s gonna be ur most favorite type of coffee… ;)

Not Just Jazz by the Bay

Yope…. First time in the ‘history’ of this blog I am writing about something other than travelling…. It’s about my one more passion, i.e. food (yeah, I live for food & not have food to live).
Well… This Sunday we (me, Ankita & Piyush) visited Not Just Jazz by the Bay for our lunch. No, we generally do not spend so much money for lunch every weekend, but this weekend was special for all of us, we all got internship (in fact I’ve already got my 1st salary), so it was celebration time & we decided to treat ourselves in a classy way.
We selected their buffet plan, which include a drink (beer/cocktail/mocktail/iced tea), a soup (veg/non veg), a sandwich, salad bar, pasta bar and dessert. With all these, for beginning they give you bread basket & hummus with Pita breads. The drinks were okey (we took 1 lemon iced tea, 1 peach iced tea & 1 peach flavored mocktail), then we had soup, Ankita & Piyush had Cream of Tomato soup, which was quite thick, for a sec I thought it’s not soup but chowder & I tried Chicken & Potato soup, which was though bland, one could make it tasty by adding some pepper & drops of lemon juice.
Their salad range was quite good, starting from bean sprouts salad to Russian salad to chilly potato to pasta salad (pastas prepared in different kind of sauces) & even sandwiches were good (we tried classic veg, Mediterranean veg and NJ’s lover). I didn’t try pastas but Piyush said it was okey, not so great. And since we have kind of same choices in food, I think even I would not like it.
Now it’s the turn of Desserts… The best part of whole lunch was dessert as usual. Today they had Orange Mousse, Black current Mousse, Mixed Fruit gautex , Fruit Salad(which is cut fruits) and Chocolate Mousse.. I wrote Chocolate mousse in the end just because that was the best chocolate mousse I have ever tried. It was not sweet like other choco. Mousse, but it was a li’l bit bitter. May not everyone like this; especially those who think chocolate should be sweet & not bitter. But fans of dark chocolate would love the taste.
Over all we spent almost 2 hrs there, with just food & talks & photography (yeah I’ve attached the pic of Choco mousse)

(P.S. : ‘m new as food critic, do lemme know how’s it)

City of Nizams : Hyderabad

Well…. I am going to start a li’l kind of history class over here…. :P… As we all know India got her independence in 1947 A.D.,ofcourse with a li’l bit of trouble created by Nawab Mohammad Mahabat Khanji III of Junagadh(under the pressure of his prime minister, Shah Nawaz Bhutto) & Nizaam of Hyderabad… and we also know how Sardar Patel negotiated with them and ‘convinced’ them not to join Pakistan…
Well, History class is over now & now it’s time to go for a trip to that very Hyderabad… Hyderabad is NOW divided into three sub-cities-which fondly called “triplet” city: Hyderabad, Secundrabad and CYBERABAD….But today we’ll talk about just historical part of this city….
Though there are many places that have quite important role in Indian History, I would like to mention 3 major places, i.e. Golconda Fort, Salarjang Museum & Chomahala palace.


Golconda Fort:
In the 16th century, Golconda was the capital and fortress city of the Qutb Shahi kingdom, near Hyderabad. According to a legend, the fort derives its name from Golla Konda, which is a Telugu word for Shepherd's Hill. It is believed that a shepherd boy came across an idol on the hill. This led to the construction of a mud fort by the then Kakatiya dynasty ruler of the kingdom around the site….
Well I’m not going too dip in the architecture & stories for about this fort, for that check out the “Sound & Light” show (in English ofcourse), the commentary is given by the great BigB, so don’t forget to check it out…. :D

Salarjang Museum:
Salarjung Museum is an art museum & might be the largest collection of artistic things by one single person. The whole collection is divided in more than 25 rooms, 2 floors (i.e. ground floor + 2 floors) & collection from all around the world… Must check out all the floors, may be u might get bored with usual stuff of ground floor,but then also go to first & second floor, otherwise u’ll miss the chance to see the collection on Salarjang ( it was a post in Hyderabad during Nizam’s rule)

Chowmahla Palace:
Chowmahalla Palace was a palace belonging to the Nizams of Hyderabad state. All ceremonial functions including the accession of the Nizams and receptions for the Governor-General were held at this palace.
Well, about the grandeur of this place, just check out the pics attached….