Interesting Salad

Trying to lose the extra weight (in my case it's accumulated over a period of 5 years) requires dedication, self control and sabse jaruri hai guts. Technically it's my first month on my attempt to lose alot of weight and I have realized that I have very little self control when it comes to good food, when I pass the area of fast food stalls on my way back from office I feel they are all calling me...you knw how it was with the girl in the film "Confessions of a Shopaholic"...it's exactly like that. I literally have to calm myself down and tell myself that "CHILL LADY...THAT FOOD IS NOT FOR YOU" urghhhh me and food...janam,janam ka rishta hai.

The thing about eating "HEALTHY" is that...all "HEALTHY" food are the most boring in this world so I decided to take the take the boringness out of my "HEALTHY" food and make it interesting. I made myself a very yummy sprouts and rajma salad for dinner, I remember having it last year at Golconda Resorts-Hyderabad but my salad was a lil different, the main ingredients:

a) 1 Cup boiled rajma and kabuli chana.
b) 1 Cup chana and whole moong dal sprout.
c) 1 Tomato chopped.
d) 1 onion thinly chopped.
e) 1 medium size cucumber finely chopped.
f) Chaat masala
g) Salt to taste
h) Olive oil (optional)

I mixed all the ingredients and added some chaat masala on top. It tastes real good and it's super light on stomach. One may lighty fry the Chana and moong dal sprouts if you don't like the raw taste of sprouts.

On diet and diet food

I don't remember the last time I bought myself an "S" size t-shirt...for the past 5 years or since the time I started looking like winner of "Miss I am FAT Contest" I have been buying "L" or "XL" size cloths for myself. My mother gets a heart attack everytime I go home and demand to have all the good food...Ooti Thongba, Nga thongba, Chicken, Soibum Iromba, Singju, bora, Keli channa and the list goes on..its my mother who loses her cool and she thinks half of her gray hair is because of me... which of course is not true(mumma I knw you are not reading this so I can write watever I want lol).

About 4 yrs back I gained alot of weight and that gave my mom and everyone I knew a shock...so I decided to lose some weight and after serious dieting n some bit of exercise I lost 9 kgs in 2 months....but that was 4 yrs back and I am again back to being a potential candidate for "Miss I am FAT contest". I enjoy cooking and eating so much that whenever I see good food I just forget that I am fat and the worst is I don't even feel guilty of eating...oops over eating.

Now after enjoying all kinds of food at famous and not so famous places in the country I have decided to stop over eating and go on diet for two months. I realized "not eating" requires alot of disciple and dedication, to avoid the temptation and to say "NO" to food needs alot of guts...atleast for me. I feel funny writing about "NOT EATING" on my food and travel blog but I also know that if I do not control now, I will have to regret later. I am trying my best to eat healthy these days and I hope I will lose some weight with "THE KIND OF FOOD" m having. Its painful to avoid all the good food but lemme try once more and lose 9 kgs.

On Pav Bhaji, Wada Pav n Mirchi Bhajji

Wada Pav the Indian Answer to Burger is one of the best street food most Maharastrians love to eat and for that matter anyone in Maharastra will swear on Wada Pav, Pav Bhaji and Mirchi Bhajji. I happen to enjoy all three on the same day at Joshi Wada Center in Pune, its pocket friendly and very filling. I couldn't resist having another Wada Pav and ended up eating two full Wada Pav with loads of mirchi. I am sure no one in this world can beat the Indian Street Food and I have enjoyed street food in most metros in India.

Sun n Sand

Goa happens to be "THE PLACE" in India to visit. I always wanted to go to Goa esp. after watching "Dil Chahta Hai", DCH really glorified Goa as " THE MOST HAPPENING PLACE" in India and a place to chill, enjoy and all fun things. DCH was released when I was in college and even with all my desire to go to Goa it never happened. Even when I was in Mumbai for two years it never happened but finally this time I went to Goa and fulfilled my old wish...this was not the best of time to visit Goa but who cares, it was an all expenses paid trip and I stayed at "Taj Exotica", the best thing about Taj Exotica was its private beach, I normally do not like to visit very crowded beaches and the Taj Exotica beach was almost empty, it was much better than the Leela Kovalam beach and we had option of adventure sports.

The first day itself I tried Para sailing and it was awesome, I had to pay 1000 bucks for that but it was worth every single rupee. I didn't tried the water scooter...I was too scared to drive as I do not knw swimming, I guess I shd learn swimming if I have to come to Goa next time. I really enjoyed my stay at Goa despite the hectic whole day business review meeting we had time to enjoy and I rediscovered my cycling skills. After a long time I got to wear shorts...outside my room, I bought myself this this really nice and super expensive shorts from Lifestyle-Pune to wear and Goa and I was more than happy that I bought it.

After visiting Goa I must admit..Goa rocks and its a must visit again.

Floating at Hoogly

My recent trip to Kolkata was a good weekend break. It was a work trip and not a city exploring..wanderlusting trip but never the less I really enjoyed it. The stay was arranged at "Hotel Floatel" , India's first floating hotel and it was really a floating hotel on the banks of Hoogly river, the view from my room was really beautiful (I had a river view room) and I enjoyed watching ferrys carrying people from one river bank to another. The Howrah railway station was just across the bank and Hoogly sure was a busy river.

I also visited my fav. restaurant at Kolkata "Flurys" and had a yummy black forest pastry. It was followed by some money wasting shopping trip at Vardan Market. The trip to Kolkata will never be complete without the streetfood and I gorged on Puchkas and a Kolkata style of Uttapam and Dosa...I have never had such yummy streetfood. My knowledge about Kolkata has increased lil. bit and I plan to do increase it more.

Around Guwahati- Bihu and Brahmaputra

Guwahati the gateway of North East India and a city where I have spent many, many uncomfortable and few confortable nights @ Hotels, frens places and yeah at Bus stations and Rly stations.My first memory of Guwahati dates way back to 1987, that was the year when the whole family went on a vacation together to North Delhi. I was 6 yrs old and my elder sister 9, we went to Delhi via Guwahati and what I remember about Guwahati is....the dirty Rly Platform and the Bus station when we came back from Delhi. Guwahati was my transit city to travel to Delhi when I was studying in Delhi, the bumpy bus ride from Imphal to Guwahati followed by the torturous train journey till Delhi by NE Express or Brahmaputra...the train journeys were good when we travelled by Rajdhani...but that was rare. I have been to Guwahati with many sets of people...my sister, frens,dad, mom and many time all alone.

Guwahati as a city has lot more to offer then be just a transit city, like Kolkata which is my current transit city I have always wanted to see the real Guwahati,minus the bus stations and rly station. This happened on my way back from Shillong, me and "E" had planned a day stay at Guwahati...I called up frens to ask the "Must See" places in Guwahati and sadly they had no clue...I guess I will say the same if someone ask me abt Imphal..so I used my google searching skills and found out few places...the no.1 in list was a Boat Ride at Brahmaputra River and we were at Guwahati on a very good day, it was Bihu Celebration day and the whole city State was celebrating Bihu, a fren of mine "M" had suggested us to visit the Bihu Festival ground at the "Shantilata Ground". I had never seen live Bihu celebration and seeing it for the first time was awesome though I do not understand Assamese but it was fun watching people and listening to sweet assamese songs. Bihu is like the "ThabalChongba" for Meitei everyone was having a good time and I really enjoyed my first Live Bihu experience.

The leisure boat ride at Brahmaputra was really awesome...the only mood spoiler was the boat guy cheating us with 300 bucks.I could have just bargained (which I am very good at) and refused to pay more but then the boat guy looked very shaady and weird. We had an entire boat to ourself (one way) and went upto a Shiva Temple ghat....the best thing about the river ride was the sunset view from Brahmaputra...which I think is one of the best sunset I have seen till now. The mighty Brahmaputra river has much more to offer I am sure, me and "E" wanted to visit "Majuli" the river Island in Brahmaputra but it was far from Guwahati. After a long time..tt was nice to stay at a comfortable place and explore Guwahati as a "TOURIST" and not worry about about my next train or bus.