Road Trips

Road trips in America are a lot of fun, especially in the summer time. I love driving on the wide open roads to long distance places, preferrably not alone. The most we have driven is to New York and back (about 12 hours each way). Someday we plan to drive west to the Grand Canyon or Las Vegas or Lake Tahoe or the Yosemite park (only if the gas prices drop significantly or after I get a new Prius hybrid :).

American highways are so driver-friendly and inviting that driving becomes a pleasure unlike in other developing countries. The road network is extensive and leads to every tiny town in even the most rural areas.

Eating on the road has its own exciting qualities. Stopping at local diners and sampling their specialties or trying a new food item at a service plaza or just munching on some snacks in the car is very comforting. The only thing better would be to have roadside Dhabas that serve spicy indian fast food.



The best time to go on a road trip is the fall season. It is almost like drifting through a color pallette consisting of various shades of yellow, orange and red. The setting sun also paints the sky in equally enchanting hues. You get the unbelievable feeling of having entered into an artist's renderings.


And finally, there is always the anticipation of arriving at the destination - whether it be a beach, a resort, an amusement park or a friend's house. But remember that it is always the journey to the destination that gives you time for yourself - to ponder life's infinite questions and possibly even come up with a few sensible answers.

Amitabh Bachchan

Yesterday I read a few blogs written by Amitabh Bachchan and I was moved. I had uncovered yet another dimension of his personality. He writes so well that not only is he the son of a great poet, but a poet himself. His words have a lyrical quality and it is hard to imagine that they have come from the mind of the most famous actor in India.

Very few people can show humility after achieving great stardom, much less strive toward the betterment of others. If we have a role model today in India, there is none greater than him. He has set an example not only for the people in his profession but for everyone else. After all, being a good human being should ideally be the goal of everyone.

I hope and pray that he is continually able to entertain us and enrich our lives at the same time.

Food :)

I love food. I love eating food, I love talking about food, I love watching the food network, I love making food (although I am not very good at it yet). It makes me happy and content from within when I think about food.

One of my ideal jobs is being a food critic. The other one is being a book critic. If I could eat and read all day and get paid for it, I would be set for life :)

I am a vegetarian. I once gave a speech in one of my classes about being a vegetarian. The research involved regarding cruelty to animals was quite saddening.


I enjoy various world cuisines. My favorite type of food, after Indian food of course, is Italian. I love the creamy flavors of Italian sauces, particularly the alfredo sauce and the muscarpone sauce. I also love Italian bread – the chiabatta and the fucassia drizzled with extra virgin olive oil. And how could I not mention Italian chesses - the ricotta, the mozzarella, the parmesan oregiano. Of course last, but not least, Italian Pizzas - especially Pizza Margharita...yummm!



I love Mexican cuisine for its spicy flavors. All the different peppers with varying levels of heat are so enticing – the jalapenos, the habaneros, the chile-relenos, the poblanos. The combination of hot sauces, cheeses and flour tortillas in several cooking styles like the enchiladas, the burritos, the quesadillas, make my mouth water anytime.



Coming close in terms of flavor is the Mediterranean cuisine. We never have any trouble finding delicious vegetarian food at a middle-eastern restaurant. They usually have an entire section dedicated to vegetarian dishes. The simplest and tastiest dish is the Hummus. I once made it and it turned out pretty good. My other favorite is the falafel in a pita sandwich with tahini sauce and other veggies. I also love the thin crust pizzas with baba ganoush and feta cheese topping and most mediterranean restaurants often have a great variety of fresh fruit juices that perfectly complement the food (my personal favorite – the guava juice).

I am going to have to devote an entire blog to Indian food, there is just so much there :)

BTW...did anybody watch the Next Food Network Star? The season finale was on Sunday Night and the winner was Aaron McCargo Jr.

So thats it for today, feel free to share your favorite foods/restaurants with me...

The Dark Knight

Hello again!
Maybe my first blog was a little too serious for a first blog. How about something fun and exciting? How was everyone's weekend?
We watched The Dark Knight and it was amazing! very very cool movie, and wouldn't have been so without the Joker!
Just makes you think what would have transpired in the last moments of Heath Ledger's life, was he affected by the Joker, even if just a little...

Anyways, getting back to something fun, I love amusement parks. Last saturday we had been to the Six flags Kentucky Kingdom. The water park was pretty cool, but the people who worked there couldn't have been more slow in letting people through the lines. A couple of the water park rides were completely worth the wait tho!
Well, I am signing off, gotta get back to work :)
Leave me a comment and don't forget to vote in my poll!

Hello Bloggers!

This is my first blog and the inspiration came from my brother Kartik, who has recently started blogging. I knew I was going to start blogging sooner or later; I'd always been tempted, but somehow did not get the time or the motivation before.

There is something exciting about putting yourself out there in the open, risking criticism from friends as well as perfect strangers. There is also the basic human instinct to know what other people think about what you have to say. Then there is also the point about some people just being more articulate in writing than in speech. And that probably constitutes most of the bloggers, because people who can say exactly what they want and how they want it just don't feel the need to write it down in words.

"We are living in a crazy world!" - is an expression you get to hear a lot these days. But it is a crazy world relative to what? When has the world not been crazy? Well, maybe now the issues and situations are just getting completely out of control and we are running out of time to fix them. And when we don't understand or know how to solve problems, we focus our attention on something else.

The reason that I get surprised or shocked when I read about political indifference or human ignorance that causes hate crimes or yet another terrorist attack on unsuspecting civilians, is that it completely defies the law of human nature. There is no sorrow compared to the sorrow of people who have lost their loved ones in violent and senseless killings. Let us all try to look towards the amazing realities of the life we live and not give in to hatred.

This blog is dedicated to the people who lost their lives in the Bangalore and Ahmedabad bombings recently.