Getting Drunk and Modelling!

Point number 1. The headline doesn't exactly mean what you are thinking.

Point number 2. Read the rest of the story to know what it means! :-)

I have had a great time this weekend. Yes, I was working but it was real hard work, not the usual pace of weekend stuff. The Coffee Board of India had organised India International Coffee Festival over the weekend. It was coffee all the way. And I was in heaven!

In office, it is always a given that I cover everything coffee-related event. Since I have a personal connection too, having come from a coffee growing family myself, it is all the more personal for me. And of course, there is my addiction to coffee.

I was naturally in my element there. It was largely a business event with delegates from various countries, seminars, workshops and the like. There was also an expo with several coffee chains and players of the industry putting up stalls AND giving free samples of coffee. And that is how I got drunk....on coffee. Most were the usual cappuchino and filter and cold coffee but at one place, I was given this authentic espresso from Italy. It was in a tiny cup and I thought, oh ok, just a sip. I take the sip and whoa! it hits me right in the head! I have been known to drink quite strong coffee but this beat everything I had had before. Must say it was good, though I will think twice before drinking something like that again. By then, I had had so much coffee that I was feeling quite high. I got back to office and made the mistake of telling someone this. Ended up getting my legs pulled the entire day and the next; my obsession with coffee is well known.

Before this, I modelled for a friend at the venue there. I am not sure I want to give out details. This friend is a photographer with an international news agency and the picture was picked up and circulated all over the world! Ah well, all in a day's work!!!!!!!!!

Anyway, I thoroughly enjoyed the weekend. Smelt the coffee, drank a lot of it, carried some home to get drunk again, met some great people, wrote some nice stories, met a fellow blogger......

Life was good.............

The Good Things in Life

I was supposed to go meet John Nash, the mathematician, today. Or rather, he was to come to Bangalore and I thought I would just go and be content if I could at least see him from a distance. I had watched 'A Beautiful Mind' recently and was simply awed by his story.

Anyway, he didn't turn up, his visit got cancelled and here I am in the office with no work. So just a quick post.

The pic that you see is of a traditional meal served on a plantain leaf. The smell and taste of food multiplies hundred fold when you eat it on the leaf. It is also hygienic as you just eat and throw them away, eco-friendly and inexpensive too. I talk here about the food, not the plate.

There is a restaurant in Bangalore called Vidyarthi Bhavan, I think. I was introduced to the place by an uncle. For Rs 60, you get to have unlimited jollada rotti and rice and yummy curries and mouth watering sweets.

I also write here about my new-found interest in food. I have never been a foodie and I eat only because I have to survive. Lately, this very very dear friend, someone whom I have adopted as a brother (I don't have any of my own), has been introducing me to amazing food every other day. I almost feel like my taste buds are waking up after a long slumber.

In just over a week, we had Mexican Nachos, spiced tomato slices, bhel puri, cheese masala dosa, all washed down with Coke and Pepsi. I love that combo, having something spicy and drinking Pepsi later. There is a "symphony orchestra" on the tongue, my brother calls it. I agree, I just love it.

Even made me realise that joy and success in life is in the smaller things, be it a good movie, street food, poetry, music or just a beautiful smile. Life is made up of these little wonders and I recognise that now. My only problem about starting to like food is that I have to actually take the trouble to cook everyday at home. Can no longer make do with instant noodles and take away :-(

But ah well...... As for the success that I was talking about, I don't know, maybe I am being naive or just presumptuous, but in my eyes I have succeeded. I have a beautiful family, the most amazing friends, all of whom pamper me to the heights, a great job that I absolutely love.... As of now, at this very moment in the vast expanse of time, I am happy.

My New Job

A very unimaginative title, I am afraid. Time and again, I keep writing about how much I love my job. The only thing I regret is how I never get the time to write. My job, Bangalore, life gives me so many ideas that if I got down to writing them all, nothing except the constraints of time could stop me.

I got myself a new job, well I am still with the same newspaper. I just got a transfer from the general reporting bureau to the business bureau, for a number of personal reasons. I will henceforth be reporting on business, all the while writing features for other sections of the newspaper.

It has been a couple of days since I shifted. I already love the job. It comes with a great deal of perks, nothing material ;-(, but things that are more important to me. I now get Sundays off, lesser working hours and more chance to travel, on work of course. Plus, my boss is the sweetest man ever.

Hmmm.... life is strange, come to think of it. Some years ago, I decided commerce and business was not my scene and pursued journalism. I couldn't be happier that I rebelled against the entire set of conventional behaviour laid out by my extended family and society for the rest of my cousins. I was deemed to be the crazy one, for rejecting science and engineering studies. But here I am today, living a dream, with a little place for myself under the sun. The country may not know me yet :-) but I am happy, with love around me, the best people pampering me, a great job, a good life. To m family and to conventional society, I say....HA! I WIN!