Kash Kashmir!!!!

By Malvi & Bipasha

Unplanned and spontaneous trips have always been my cuppa of tea! So, one such spontaneous trip to ‘Paradise on Earth’ - Srinagar came as a breath of fresh air to my hubby and me who lead hectic 9-5 sorta lifestyles in Delhi. As opposed to serpentine traffic jams in the capital, we had a blissful flight over the snow clad mountains ranges to land in the beautiful valley of Kashmir. We got out to a very sunny morning with the temperature in its 20s.But believe me, it was much more magical (and romantic :)) than braving the smoggy cold in Delhi. So, for all u anti-winter kinds, Kashmir has a very endearing chill in the wind!

With the vast number of hotels available at Srinagar one can book at any of them depending upon your budget. We were booked at a hotel which was at the banks of river Jhelum and on the Bund Road. The Bund Road is known for the leisurely walks around the jhelum river and small tea stalls offering hot tea with double roti (bread pieces) .And though I am not big on street food, the magic in the air made me say ‘go to hell’ to all my weight management issues and hygiene concerns. We sipped chai and ate double roti with much fanfare!!!!! Of course, there are some pish-posh restaurants also in the city where they serve the traditional Kashmiri cuisines. One of the popular and old restaurants is ‘Ahdoos’ which offers exotic and mouth watering Kashmiri dishes like Gushtava, Kebabs, Kashmiri Yakhni, etc. The list is never ending with the more than 30 types of only-mutton dishes.

We were invited to a friend’s place for dinner where the food was so much that I couldn't eat all of it but whatever I tasted seemed heavenly.

After putting our stuff in the hotel, we went to the famous Dal Lake to enjoy a Shikara ride. Though the lake is not that clean as lakes in "Paradise" should be, the whole scenery of green mountains in the backdrop and the vast expanse of the water body surrounded by tall Chinar trees makes it really worthwhile.

A full hour's ride in the Dal Lake is a must to absorb the calm and quite into oneself and relax fully and prepare for this journey into the paradise. Believe me I was reminded of the famous ‘Kashmir ki kali’ song during the ride - and the experience made me feel like one too! An interesting sight is the group of four chinar trees growing serenely in the middle of the Dal lake, They are standing tall in the water itself..!! 

As the Shikara moves on prodded by the Shikara driver (don't know what else to call him) with his oars (heart shaped at the end), a small city of people living on house boasts greet us. These are actually hotels/houses on water in the shape of boats but they are stationary in the water. Some are really beautiful with wooden carvings on their exterior walls and chandeliers inside. The origin of houseboats seems to have begun in the 1800s when the king of Kashmir forbade outsiders from owning land in Kashmir.

The ride took us close to the lotuses blossoming in the lake and also the side where locals grow vegetables etc on the land protruding between the lake waters.

After experiencing the effervescent romance of the evergreen Shammi Kapoor movies in the 60s when all romantic songs were shot in the valley (and more so on the Dal Lake), I thought it was time for some 21st century adventure. After the Shikara, we went for the hot air balloon ride. This is actually a helium balloon which is tethered to the ground and is lifted up 350 feet to give a panoramic view of the Dal Lake and the entire Srinagar. Though a little scary due to the basket being dangled in the air, the view was amazing but it lasted only 5-8 mins as the balloon is pulled down in that time.

For nature lovers, there are remarkable mughal gardens in Srinagar namely -- Shalimar Garden, Nishat Bagh and Chashme Shahi. The array of colourful flowers in the gardens is amazing. The gardens are from the Mughal times and bear the mark of Mughal architecture including the waterfalls and fountains lining the length of the gardens. For enjoying these gardens you should have some time in hand to relax in the grass and take in the pure scents of the varied flowers.

Another must to see in Srinagar is the Sankaracharya temple for which one has to climb some 250 steps. The temple has a huge "Shivling" The view from the top is awesome with the entire Srinagar being laid out in front of you. You can only click a picture of the view in your minds as cameras and mobile are not allowed at the top. Another important destination in Srinagar is the Hazaratbal Shrine,it contains a relic, the Moi-e-Muqqadas, or a hair of the Islamic prophet Muhammad.

So, all in all, Srinagar gave me an eclectic mix of undisturbed romance, unparalled scenic beauty, spiritual awareness and amazing hospitality. Pocketing all of this, we landed back to our home in Delhi but with a difference - the fast city life suddenly held some meaning!

Shuddh Desi Hypocrisy

By Ambika 

It has got the right atmospherics – the bustling beauty of the Gulabi city and the street smart dialogues. A cast of brilliant actors, spontaneous, spunky Gayatri (Parineeti Chopra), confused hero, Raghu (Sushant Singh Rajput), lissome Tara (Vani Kapoor) and the delightful Goyal (Rishi Kapoor), set the screen on fire. But, mid-way the fire fizzles out.

It has been regarded as an effective snub to marriage, but frankly, the makers despite getting everything right, lose the plot. There's no effective, convincing stance on marriage versus non-marriage. When Raghu decides to get married on false premises – he boards a bus full of hired baratis – he really can't turn back at the end of the movie and say that the hypocrisy surrounding weddings has made him immune to the system. Oops! Spoiler moment! I revealed the end of the movie.

But, there is lot in between to keep you hooked; Goyal as the indulgent, stern and wise friend to Gayatri and Raghu. And, Gayatri herself, the no-nonsense, spirited and gutsy girl who carries hurt buried deep within herself. Raghu, as said earlier, is the confused hero, with no real issue against marriage and live-in relationship.

He gets both – a lover as well as a “wife” who cooks and clean for him. (He does share the duties with his girl, sometimes goaded into doing tasks and sometimes doing them willingly – just like husbands! Oops again! Remember marriage is a bad word here).

It's only when they head to the marriage pandal for phere that they escape via the bathroom. That becomes a momentous occasion, twice. You can guess the rest.

Oh yes! Vani Kapoor is refreshingly dewy faced and not a wallflower either. She is someone to watch out for!

- Ambika is a guest author for "HangoutwithCoffee" Blog 

How to spruce up your balcony?

-By Bipasha

In our busy urban lives, we hardly ever get time to sit relaxed on our porch or balcony to enjoy nature’s glory. Most of the times, our balconies (sometimes they are less spacious owing to our urban housing architectures) become places to dry clothes or hoard unwanted household items. So, here are a few tips to make your balcony look beautiful where you can hold your cozy drink get together or better still just sit and watch the world pass by!

Although my tips are for small-medium size balconies usually perched adjacent to bedrooms and sitting rooms in modern day high rises, but you can modify accordingly to suit the same for large balconies too!

First and foremost, if you really want to create a lounge effect, install blinds on the face of the balcony towards the road/other flats. Balcony blinds are easily available at reasonable prices these days. Alternatively, you can also use awnings to create a very ‘vintagey’ look. In this way, you not only protect your sitting area from sun and rains but also create a private space for yourself. Adorn the sides of the balcony with as many wind chimes as you want. Or, you can also hang small potted plants. Be careful that the hanging potted plants are not heavy so that they can support their weight. And if you are staying on higher floors, be sure to hang the potted plants on the inside of your balcony so that even they fall, they don’t prove to be fatal for someone walking or passing by below. Preferably, hanging potted plants should be those that flower so that it creates a kaleidoscope of colors!

 Next, create greenery around. Visit the nearest nursery and inquire about indoor plants. They help filter common volatile organic compounds apart from creating a beautiful atmosphere aesthetically. Palms and anthuriums are my personal favorites but you can explore with Pothos, Ferns and Bonsais. Creepers like Money Plant also add to the charm.

Now, buy good garden chairs or lounge chairs, if you please. My best bet is don’t crowd the sitting area too much and just buy a nice bamboo cane sofa. Adjust a small bamboo cane side table nearby. Use colorful and cheery colored bed sheets and lots of small cushions to deck up your sofa! Put a small sized book shelf on the other side of the sofa where you can house your favorite reads just a hand away!

Of course, based on the time that you have on your hand and the area of your balcony, you can try many things to spruce up this place. My suggestion is that keep it clutter free, easy to maintain (you don’t want to be moving too many things every morning and evening to clean up the balcony) and green!

Sports Bar - Game On “Nothing game about it!”

- By Bipasha

Sports bar, Game On (in Kharkhana Road, opposite Rickman Ventures, Secunderabad) has nothing much to rave about. Located in the heart of Secunderabad, I was really disheartened at seeing the entrance to the bar. It is on the floor above a jewellery store (the shopping complex or mini mall as you may want to call it) was itself in a dilapidated state. The stairs were dirty and the complex was quite ‘uninhabited’!

So after valet parking our vehicle, we proceed to the Sports Bar (which by the way is a stone’s throw away from another sports bar - Xtreme Sports). The decor inside is inundated with large billboard type pin ups of the Tendulkars (cricket dominated no doubt) and Rooneys on one side. There is a huge Man U emblem near the bar - got clickety click in front of this one!

JBL speakers all around and English music playing managed to break through the monotony. Oh, there is the bar - should have mentioned it first! The sitting arrangement was endearingly casual - a mix of sofas and bean bags. There was a bowling alley and a pool table (did not know that sports meant just these two!)- a huge disappointment considering the theme of the place.

Anyway, the menu card was eclectic - quick glance and you find pastas, Punjabi khana et al in the main course. Appetizers comprised a good collection too - I gorged on a bruschetta platter @ 179/- (which by the way was well prepared and served up with mayo and stir fried veggies on the side). My mocktail, Passion fruit on Ice (@199/-) was superbly prepared.

Amid hard drinks, there was a good collection of beers, wines, and scotch. But, but, but, the service was too relaxed. Euphemism aside, the service was so slow that we could not get past ordering the starters! It took almost 20-25 minutes for the drinks to arrive and another 10 minutes or so for the bruschetta platter to accompany the drinks - in my case, the mocktail was at its tail end when the appetizers came!

Anyway, it was a nice hangout for the young things - but if you are expecting an action filled sports bar experience, you can wait to get into this one on the nights that they have DJs playing. Maybe then, it would have been more fun!

Parks or Parking Areas??

 -by Malvi

The other day coming back from office in the evening I saw few kids playing in between the cars parked in the common space in front of our apartment in the DDA Society in which I live these days.

I called out to one of kids, my neighbour’s daughter, and asked her “why are you guys playing in the parking?? go to park you will have more space there..”

Her answer really sent me thinking. She said,” there is no park nearby, we play in this space between the cars or ride bicycles on the roads we don’t need much space.”

But is this right?? In my childhood I used to play my heart out in the big garden we had in our house or the huge open common playground of the society. I used to love the feel of the wind in my hair as I ran on the green grass and the leisurely after-dinner walks with my mom and dad.

But now, I realise that ‘shrinking parks and expanding parking areas’ have become a usual site to see in residential colonies of Delhi. With a four wheeler becoming a necessity for every middleclass household in Metro cities (may be even in tier I & Tier II cities) in the country the vehicular traffic seems to be rising faster than the human population.

 I live in a DDA residential society in Delhi which was built in the 80s and the architects in those times could not have envisaged the surge in four wheeler population in the next two decades. Thus, the garages provided with each apartment are for scooters and motorcycles only. With at least one car in each house today, the small parks and covered drains on roadsides are now being used as parking spaces. 

The small parks between every unit of apartments had been provided for children's recreation, walking and relaxing for adults. But now these small green patches (parks) are vanishing day by day to give way for parking of the four wheelers.

Even with visible crunch of parking space, car-crazy Indians don't stop at one vehicle per house. Look at me for example…buying a car was a top priority on my list and I feel like king once am behind the steering wheel of a four wheeler.

But this not a laughing matter!

Do I want my child to grow up playing between cars and running in the midst of a concrete jungle with no contact with the nature??

Stacker parking
Courtesy: carpakinglifts.in

While surfing on the net I came across a nice idea to save the fast diminishing free spaces in our colonies, that of a car stacker. It’s like double decker stacker with a hydraulic lift and two cars can be parked one on top of the other… so two cars in space of one.

This is my solution to this problem can you suggest some more solutions??

‘Waterrelief’ - Andaman Islands - (continued)

- by Bipasha

Day 3: We boarded the super luxury cruise Makruzz from Port Blair to proceed to Havelock islands - if the tragedies of the cellular jail haunt you, believe me the pristine waters and the modernistic tourist attractions of Havelock Islands will wash it all away. It was as if Kala Paani never existed! Scuba Diving, Speed Boat Rides, Snorkelling, Water Walking or just frolicking on the Havelock beach (known as Radha Nagar)under huge trees (yeah, the beach has rich plantations adding more romance to the waters) adds to the charm of the place. Also, for people who just want to enjoy the beach experience, my suggestion is you lodge at Havelock instead of Port Blair and spend the days there - you can find hotels, or just shacks brimming with tourists mostly foreigners. By the time we take the steamer (there is the service of a government steamer also available; we decided to try this one too!) back to Port Blair, the moon is already up and casting its light on the waters.

I’ll never forget the sharp sea winds brushing my hair, the salt in my face and the thrill of holding the railings of the steamer - things that I missed out on the luxury cruise! And all the time, the images of lovely corals (some as big as a house), and multi colored fish did not leave me. The day ended on a even higher note with a romantic dinner at Welcome Group’s Mandalay restaurant.

Day 4: The day was spent in a guided tour (again a steamer from Port Blair - there are limited number of guided tours on steamers so you don’t want to miss them!) to three islands Ross Island (the British era capital), North Bay Islands and Viper Island. Ross Island is out of a Dauphne Du Maurier book - the island is so small that you can take a walk and complete a tour on it! The island was the British capital so it still holds the ruins of the officers’ quarters, the mess, the club etc. You can see the cellular jail from the island and it seemed pretty near! North Bay Islands is a beach getaway (you can do a glass boat ride wherein you can see amazing corals and colorful fish from the glass at the bottom of the boat or you can snorkel. North Bay island’s beach and the corals were largely washed away in the Tsunami and the beach had to be recreated using the corals in the sea bed. Hence, the locals say, that a lot of beautiful corals were lost during that time. We proceed further on the steamer to Viper Islands - on the way, we see India’s only FDN1 or Navy’s floating dry dock which is used for repairing entire ships in the middle of the sea! Our last stop of the day, the Viper Island, had a macabre history - it was the house of the ‘hanging rod’ where several freedom fighters met their deadly fate - again you can see glimpses of British-time military establishments there.

Day 5: We took a steamer ride to Jolly Boy islands - this time, we could see mangroves all around. Both the islands were prettily placed in the mangroves. The waters were so clear that you can see shoals of fish swimming while you stand on the beach! Our guide told us that there is an island from where you can see the sky lights of Singapore!

Day 6: We took a taxi ride to Chatham Islands from Port Blair - it is the only island that you can reach via road. It boasts of the oldest saw mill from the British times - and what an amazing experience that was! You can get a tour of the museum there and the mill of course.

It was a short action packed trip - for lazy holidaymakers, you can laze around in Havelock Islands because it offers the entire package of snorkeling, scuba (Havelock is the only island offering scuba diving) and beach walking. But I wanted to explore everything in Andamans (of course I was not party to the human safari of the Jarawa tribes).

Rightly so, I absorbed the macabre history full of imprisonments, killings,and captures , the beautiful present (full of modern beach sports, pristine aqua green waters and lovely steamer rides) and a promising future! More than half of the islands of the Andaman archipelago are out of bounds. Locals say that some islands are 2-3 day rides on the waters and many are uninhabited. On the other hand, some islands are under the control of the Indian defense forces for security purposes.