Memoirs of a Wandering Nomad

Spice Court Restaurant, Jaipur (This is a review of the Spice Court restaurant in Jaipur - which has appeared on TripAdvisor.com ) I remember the last time this happened to me was in year 2002, when I first tasted the mutton seekh kebabs at Karims in the old Delhi near Jama Masjid. Today, as I lick the last bits of Kulfi at Spice Court in Jaipur, I think I am in love again. Hua yun ki we were returning from a short trip to Bundi - near Kota. We had a lovely trip - about which I will write shortly - but food-wise the experience remained very ordinary. So we decided to hit Jaipur before 3pm, and try out one of their famous restaurants - maybe Copper Chimney or Niro's or Spice Court - about which we had only read - never been. So we drove and reached Jaipur in time. After some search and wrong turns and then right turns, we finally found Hari Bhawan Palace in Civil Lines - where you have the Spice Court. Spice court has the old British architecture, with large windows and walls painte...

I always thought that the questions were important. Not just questions, and of course not just the answers, ... but the whole journey from the questions till the answers (cliche, I know, can't help it. It's inevitable.) ... The process of going back and forth, back and forth -- like waves on the Hedvi beach that we camped on one night after a long ride. But these days I don't hear the waves, forget about seeing them, or wetting my feet in them. So who is doing it then? Who is thinking about the larger questions? I mean, is it not important that someone, somewhere -- some people, some group or some person -- is thinking about them? ... Evaluating various points, counterpoints, seeing all sides of the crystal, and yet at the same time seeing it as a whole. Who is doing that? I am getting increasingly dragged into lower levels of thought hierarchies. Sustenance. Suffering. Making LHS equal to RHS of all little equations. The jaggaurnaut of consumerism has numbed most of my oth...

Now that you are all set and ready for going to the passport office ... blah blah blah ... Abandon all hope, ye who enterth! PART II: Step 3: Going through the actual process: ------------------------------------------------------------------ 1. Now that you have got the forms, copies, shaved, taken bath etc. etc., you are all set for the big day. 2. This big day is not a particular day, but any working day for that matter. When you fill the online form, it will give you some date for an appointment. Note that this date is almost entirely utterly useless. You can go any day before, after ... the appointment is a sham. You still need to stand in the queue the whole day, no running away from that. 3. So you reach the regional office, which is near Siddhi Vinayak temple, Dadar. This used to be Bengal Chemicals factory some years ago, and is now converted as the new passport office. The old passport office is in what is called the Manish Buidling, which is further down the road, after the ...

Now this one post has nothing to do with Biking. I am writing this one to share with you some pearls of practical wisdom I collected last week when I went through the process of passport re-issue. Now why this is called re-issue and not renewal etc. are topics that will be covered subsequently. I hope this note is useful to those who will need to brave this new and inhospitable terrain invariably. All the discussion below is for Mumbai Regional Passport Office. I am not sure if the process is exactly the same for other offices, or if there is any process at all. ----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- - A passport normally gets issued for 10 years, which means that at the end of the 10th year, you will need to get it 're-issued'. There is no running away from this. It is like Death and taxes, only g...

This is one of my old writeups - from the archieves that is. I think I had first appeared in the March of 2005 on the 60kph site / bulletin board. Anyway, the reason I am posting this today again is to keep the momentum going. I cannot bang my head today and come up with some new stuff, so here is some old wine in -- well, old bottle. Cheers, S ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------ Speaking of time, I must also thank the ride to Rann of Kutch, for it provided me enough time with myself. Moreover, the settings of yellow sand and blue skies all around you are perfect for meditations on life, universe and other very essential questions like the nature of being, knight templers and cheese omlettes. Anyway, in all these and other random ponderings, I also rambled to myself about the name I should give my 500cc. It is more than a dozen times that people have aske...

I am increasingly getting inspired by the great mastermind of Scott Adams -- not with his political views about the American elections or his viewpoints on free will (and how he and Albert Einstein are in the same league when it comes to that) ... These are all incidental. What I am getting increasingly inspired by, is his ability to write a post every freaking day, over and over and over again. I mean, look at it, how does one find a topic to write on every day? I write only when I am back from a bike ride. But then, suddenly an alarming thought strikes me today. And the thought is this -- Am I getting limited by my physical and practical ability of bike rides and travels? If that is the case, then it is an influence I need to break. Else, what will soon happen is that if I need to think of anything new, I will need to hop onto the bike and start riding. Which is great, only may not be practical always. So here is a post for no particular reason really. I am not riding today, although...