Aloha!

Written on 5:18 AM by Tushar

Yesterday I had gone to a restaurant called Aloha on Senapati Bapat road to have dinner with my pals.

'Aloha' is used as a traditional greeting or farewell in Hawaii (Google rocks!). What a nice word to say hello!

The food was great and the ambience was nice. I noticed a very interesting line on the menu card...

"I will never eat anything that runs, skips or crawls. God knows that I have crawled on occasions and nobody ate me"

Rock da party!

Written on 4:58 AM by Tushar

All good things come to an end...

Dance show of my Shiamak Davar class is scheduled on 6th of Dec at 7pm at Yashwant Rao Chavan Natyagruha at Kothrud.

I am really enjoying this dance class. I hate going to a gym though people say that I need to join one:( . Dancing a good exercise in itself besides my instructor make us do a rigorous workout.
I learnt Bollywood Jazz, rock and roll and western style of dancing. We are gonna perform on a 3 min song called Rock da party by Bombay Rockers. The outfit designed for the show is really cool or should I say funny:P... I will upload the pics of the show soon.

So folks,
I will appreciate if you can make it to the show. The ticket cost is 100 Rs per head. Even I am supposed to buy a ticket for myself (What a pity!) so don’t expect free passes for you:D . I am sure you don’t want to miss this ‘once in a millennium’ opportunity of watching me dancing on the stage to the tunes of “Rock da party”.

Let me know!!

My French liaison!

Written on 3:43 AM by Tushar

Yesterday night I took some time out of my office work (which is sucking most of my time nowadays), my dance class:) and other household responsibilities (I know you will wonder since when did I start bothering about that!) to have dinner with my close pal Kunal.

Kunal was throwing a party since he was leaving for Taiwan the next day. The venue we chose was a hotel called Arthur’s theme in Koregaon Park. I had heard of this place before which is famous for its French cuisine and nice ambiance. I almost dragged KK to it.

Since it was the first time I was trying French cuisine I was very cautious while choosing the menu (Sam, I hope you remember our Thai experiment!) and we bugged the waiter every now and then.

Interior of this place is really impressive. As the name goes, they have made the place look like the one of the times of King Arthur. They have used wood wherever they could and usage of cast iron gives the place an antic look. Even the music being played in the background was western classical (Must be some symphony…I really cannot fathom that genre).

The menu card is the best I’ve ever seen. They have written a story about King Arthur which continues on the footer of every page and they have placed a miniature sword replica on the front page! The names of all dishes are based on the characters of King Auther’s generation. It is really hard to recollect those wired names but let me try…

‘Helen of troy’ the veg clear soup! The starter we ordered was called James. The main menu comprised of Humbert, Mirabelle and Pompadour. Can you guess that ‘marquise De Sade’ is a dessert? The food was next to the best.

Maybe it was the effect of the company I was in, everything seemed so perfect and it was one of the most memorable dinners.

KK, I wish you luck and hope you have lots of fun in your Taiwanese venture!

Donkey talk!

Written on 6:47 AM by Tushar

The name of this post goes by the name of a very interesting party game. Here one is supposed to talk “sensible” nonsense for the allotted time slot.

By “sensible” nonsense I mean, every sentence uttered by the person should independently make sense but it should not be related (at least!) semantically with the previous sentence. You can copy one or two words from the previous sentence to base the next one.

Here goes my entry after what I read in today’s Pune times (Times of India’s supplement for Pune city)

“Indians lose virginity at the average age of 19.3 years.

I am 23 years old.”

Makes sense:)

Redloop!

Written on 11:16 AM by Tushar

Levi’s has launched a new collection of their denim apparels called redloop. Nowadays as I have become a lil brand savvy so I went to their showroom on FC road just to discover that this range starts from 2.5k ! That’s a lot of money for just a pair of jeans!

I don’t think I will have any money left to buy anything else. It turns out to be the reality if you look at models in “redloop” advt:)..What say?

http://redloop.indiatimes.com/

P.S. Have patience till the link loads completely..Let me assure you that it's really worth a watch:)

Diwali Blast

Written on 6:50 AM by Tushar

My company had arranged a small party to welcome Diwali in style (!). There were games ranging from good old dumb charades to mimicry, fish ponds, mad ads and 1 minute games. A few people were forced (!) to sing. I was the host of two games namely dumb charades and mad Ads. The party (read the food!) was great. It took place on Friday afternoon when most of the folks were planning to leave early. Even though not many people participated it was nice revival of college days.

I left for Aurangabad on Sunday morning along with my family in our car. I was driving after a long hiatus. I like driving immensely and I crave speed. Actually I am highly influenced by the way Vin Diesel drove in “The fast and the furious”. But I could not let go off my Pulsar which kept me away from car driving for almost a year! Thanks a billion to Maharashtra state government or whosoever concerned for amazing roads. I drove at a stretch for almost 200 kms and we reached a’bad in the noon.

In the evening we left for Kachner, a small village near a’bad, which is famous for the old Jain temple. Scuds of Jain devotees come here every year because of its religious importance. I was having a discussion with my dr. uncle about whether it is worthwhile to pursue a master’s degree in the land of Uncle Sam. It did sweat me out but in the end I was happy that I could convince him.

On Monday I passed most of my time playing with my niece Laado (Ain’t that a really sweet name!). While talking to my cousin Mayur, he mentioned about some dhaba in the outskirts of a’bad which serves amazing baigan handi! It was enough to fuel my appetite and I took all my cousins to that hotel for dinner.

Laxmi Poojan carries a lot of importance in the Jain community as most of them are businessmen. Jains go to the temple nearby to celebrate the Nirvana Day of Bhagwan Mahavir. We got up really early (5.30 am!!!!) in the morning and left for our village SajjanpoorJ. It has been our family tradition, ever since I gained my wits, to celebrate Diwali in our village which is just 4 kms away from Ellora which has the world famous caves. After the religious ceremony in mandir we headed towards another Jain mandir in Ellora called as Pahad mandir in tractors. It was really a bumpy ride but it was fun!

Soon we came back all weary and everybody took an opportunity to take a nap after glutting the food. By the time I woke up in the evening all gals were busy in drawing rangoli. Rangoli assumes a lot of importance in the Hindu culture. It welcomes good spirits. We put up the lighting on the house and were ready to welcome guests. My village has this tradition wherein everybody goes to each others’ house to perform Laxmi Poojan unlike other places where people perform Pooja in their houses on their own. After Laxmi Poojan, we danced to the local band’s beats. I did shake a leg and learnt a few tips about garba.

The next morning was Padva which marks the beginning of Hindu New Year, when we go to everybody’s house to convey regards to elders and not to mention to eat sweets especially made for Diwali!

In the afternoon I accompanied my uncle to our farm house where I grabbed the opportunity to explore our fields, survey the crop and eat the sugarcane. As a kid, I used to spend my entire vacation in my village and this short trip to the fields evoked a feeling of nostalgia in my mind.

In the evening I came back to a’bad with my cousins as I had to leave for Pune at night. Just to complete the perfect picture I convinced my entire family (14 members including my 2 uncles and their families!) to go for a Hindi movie. Thank god that the movie (Garam Masala) was good and it didn’t ruin my happiness. After a nightlong journey I came back to Pune to mark the end of yet another memorable Diwali celebration.

This is a feeble attempt to capture the fun and joy I share with my family members every Diwali. Wish you a very happy Diwali!

Dirty (!) dancing

Written on 4:39 AM by Tushar


Read the following chat conversation between me and one of my friends…

xyz: am doing all kinds of tp these days.. learning car driving and all

tusharnthole: hehe

tusharnthole: i have joined shamak dawar's dance class

tusharnthole: can u beat that?


Needless to say my friend was speechless! I couldn’t have believed it myself if somebody would have told me that I would be joining a dance class in near future.

I cannot digest the weird feeling that I get when I imagine myself dancing in front of a sizeable audience. The memories of the fiasco in Tina jiji’s marriage are crystal clear in my mind. I was supposed to dance on some old Hindi song along with Sweety and we had rehearsed the whole dance sequence many times. My cousins knew my impeccable ability to dance so they had kept my steps to a minimum. After practicing for long hours the outcome was the same; when I went on the stage along with Sweety, I completely forgot my steps and just stood there watching awkwardly at the audience. It wasn’t something I had not expected. I still remember me standing in a corner not getting what to do and Sweety desperately trying to prompt me the steps!

Anyways that was the past; today I am a proud member of SDIPA Winter Funk. There will be western, jazz and Salsa training for 18 sessions. The authorities told me that there will be a huge stage show on Dec 5th which will be attended by Shamak Dawar himself. He is told to pick up his dance troupe from these dance classes. So don’t be surprised if you spot me dancing in some Hindi movie to the tunes of A. R. Raheman!

Keep watching this space in near future…J

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