Book Review: When Dimple met Rishi

Sweet, Touching, Realistic, Inspiring, Thought Provoking, Nerdy, Sanskari and definitely Oh So Romantic.

When "Dimple met Rishi" is a FULL BLOWN Bollywood masala movie in prose format (only an actual song is missing though the running around the trees does happen).
There's the burdensome cultural centric parents, a mother who believes that make up is more important for a child than education, the lead protagonists who want to break free from the clutches of tradition and expectation, the bad dudes, teenage crisis, some dishoom dishoom, a sibling twist and some song & dance thrown in (not in the way you would imagine).
And a whole lot of Sanskar.
Does it have a happy ending? Will love triumph over ambition? Will two 18 year olds find love amidst their inner turmoil?
For that you need to read the book!

There is something exciting, about reading a good love story and Sandya Menon has penned a perfect version of that. It will send tingling feelings down your spine and if you have ever felt young love this would certainly take you down memory lane.
That first touch, that first kiss, the giddy feeling in your head when you see your crush. The first time you ever held someone in your arms and experienced the feeling that all is well in this world.
The story will not only resonate with the young ones but also adults who have been there in their own time.

Full Jacket Cover

The story revolves around Dimple and Rishi whose parents are already playing match makers to their 18 year old children.

In today's day and age while one might find this unthinkable, the situation depicted is definitely a reality owing to India's culture and is a reflection of reality.

The back drop of the story is around the Web Development Summer program that Dimple is very keen to attend as she is extremely passionate about Web Development and has strong ideas around developing apps.
Rishi on the other hand is an extremely talented Artist and comic creator but believes he needs to give it up because he needs to follow in the Corporate footsteps of this father as tradition demands that the older son do what the parents wish even if he doesn't.

Read this story for a trip down memory lane. For the sweetness of innocent love.

For the selflessness that true love should be.

The Incredible V 2.0

Have you heard about it?

I was blown away when I did!

Yes I am talking about the new Asus ZenFone 2

Click here if you have not yet seen how Incredible it really is:
http://www.asus.com/Phones/ZenFone_2_ZE551ML/

The ZenFone 2 - Image courtesy the Asus website

What excites me about this phone?

Well I currently use a ZenFone 5 and find it amazingly fast with a very good batter life and I think this is the best value for money mobile phone in the market today.

How good my current phone is and how much more Incredible the ZenFone 2 is listed below:

1 - 4 GB RAM - I think this is the world’s FIRST Phone - yes WORLDS FIRST to have 4 GB of RAM. With 2 GB I get superior performance with absolutely no lag at all. Imagine playing games with 4GB. It would smoother than butter on a hot pan.

Combine that with a Quad core processor and we have a true winner especially given the excellent value pricing.

2 - Longer battery life and faster charging - This is a no-brainer. Every smart phone is critically evaluated based on batter life and having used smart phones for ages, I can tell you is that my Asus gives me the longest battery life of all phones I have tried. The fact that the ZenFone 2 has fast charging makes it all the more sweeter to buy

3 - Camera - the next most important criteria – Considering that I click pics of food, my family and surroundings almost on a daily basis, I am quite happy and impressed with what I get at that price. The new ZenFone 2 has more features, better low light photography, something which I can use to click better food pictures with enhancing my blogs experience. The enhanced 5MP front camera will be a nice touch to click selfies with my little boy, who is all of 2 years but loves to click selfies J

4 – Screen size and form factor – I am a sucker for large screens and every time I move to a new phone, I ensure it’s bigger than the previous one. The fact that ZenFone 2 is a 5.5 inch with the same physical size as the ZenFone 5 is superb as it means more screen space without the phone becoming difficult to hold and handle. The fact that it’s extremely thin and light, something rare for phones in this price range makes it truly incredible.

5 - 5 – Look and feel – Today mobile phones are beyond utility devices and have become a style statement and style accessory. People love to show off their devices and many use custom back panels, crystal back panels, covers etc to enhance the look of their phone. Ever since I got the ZenFone 5 I have not bought a single back cover and I think the ZenFone 5 takes that to the next level in terms of style and personality. All you need to see is the below image to know how cool, sexy and designer these phones look.

Image courtesy - Asus Website

In conclusion - Asus has out done itself with the ZenFone 2.

It looks incredible, has incredible features with industry first technology and specs and will be available for a jaw dropping price of only around Rs.17,999 (this is what I have heard)

In short - a MUST BUY. I will certainly look to upgrade my 4 month old device to this very soon.

Chili's - The American way of eating... 

Like all good things, generally associated with America, Chili's is also a larger than life sort of experience.

One only needs to see their serving potions of  food to know how really larger than life they can be...

A good ambience, large screens to watch sports, and excellent service makes this a great place to dine out with family and friends and having visited the place twice over the past week I am in no doubt I will be going there often with friends.

A view from the floor above (the place is across 3 levels)

There are times when a place you visit often gives you great memories to retain.

It's then tough to re-associate that with something new (referring to the venue) 

Chili's is now also in Indiranagar.
For a guy who loves food as much as I do, one can't help but feel nostalgia when you visit an erstwhile place.

What Chili's managed to do was to trump that experience with great food and excellent service. Their cocktails are made to such perfection that one can't help but over indulge.

The bar on the top - excellent liquor collection

Over the week i headed out there with some friends which turned out to be a rather great strategy. What this helped us do is to not only try a great variety of their dishes which one can't resist but also do justice to the quantity.

Their portions are extremely large and if you go in as a couple you may struggle to finish your meal. The thing about eating out here is that you need to plan yourself a little.

As one friend suggested  its a great place to taste 2 dishes at a time of any combination as a couple and keep visiting frequently to try out their entire menu and i can tell you the menu is worth trying out indeed.

Being a group of 8 with large appetites we managed to try a lot but not enough. 

My fav dish was the boneless chicken wings. A great blend of spice and good taste, best part is it's boneless chicken.

Here is a variety of cocktails we tried with my favourites being the Mud Slide and the Spicy Mango custom made mocktail which my wife favours.  

The MUDSLIDE is the best I ever had and takes absolute skill to get it right. You will not be able to get this cocktail anywhere else that tastes as goo here. It was so good, I had to take a sip before I could take a click.

Mudslide

Spicy Mango mocktail - custom made for us

The Tripple sipper with Chicken wings, boneless wings and cheese balls. The 3 different sauces add a good flavour


What I missed is that they dint have a pizza on the menu but they do make up for it with this nacho and cheese based starter - also known as Classic Nachos.

We stuck to Pasta and Burger bites for main courses although I did try the Blackened Salmon which I was advise was extra salty and it indeed was and hence dint suit my palette.  Again the portion of the pasta was immense for 1 person to complete. 

No GOOD meal can be rounded off without dessert and hence we tried the Molten Chocolate cake and the ChocolateChip Paradise Pie. 

FINAL VERDICT - This is a must visit place not just once but multiple times over if you looking at having great food and a good dining experience.

Re-visiting Cup O’ Joe. With MORE FOOD involved

Serene. Idyllic. Quite. Peaceful.

Now adding – Great FOOD.

For those of you who read my earlier blog about how great my first experience was and what a lovey place this is would realize I dint get into the food details too much so we decided to go back to try out their fare and help complete the experience.

(for the ones who missed it – read it here - http://kunalgwalani.blogspot.in/2014/09/a-perfect-evening-my-visit-to-cup-o-joe.html )

It’ s rare for a place to get almost everything right but I think in time to come, most people will agree that Cup O’ Joe is almost there. Not just a great relaxing ambience and the right place to hang out with friends and loved ones but their food and pricing will add the icing on the cake.

This time we were 2 couples and had an opportunity to try out their drinks, starters and most importantly had our share of their heavenly mousse which has always left me spell bound. So much so that I threatened to kidnap the chef who makes the mousse.

The place is not overly priced and gives great value for money.

Because this is a first time initiative for the owners, the food is getting better with time, experience and feedback.

What I like about the food – HIGHLY CUSTOMISEABLE to your taste buds. They are very flexible to making the dish as you like it, more or less spicy and hence be sure to specify how you like your food. In today’s dining experience it is not common for a chef to cater to individual tastes buds but they do it here with ease.

Here are some pictures of the dishes we tried with our experiences.

We started off with some tasty chillers:

Oreo Chocolate Smoothie on the left and the Lemon, Orange and Pear on the right

I had the Oreo Chocolate cookie whiles the others ordered a Lemon, Orange and Pear smoothie.

As promised they customise food here for you and the missus wanted a spicy mocktail so the chef concocted one for her right here with the salt rimmed glass et al. 

Not in the menu but you can ask for it.

The customised spicy mocktail. Every sip set the taste buds on overdrive but delicious indeed.

For starters we went for their house special, the nachos with cheese sauce which is a must have here. It is supremely tasty and cheesy and 1 is not enough on a table for 4. Only because we liked it sooo much.

The other starters we had was the panner tikka and chicken wings.

The flavours were great but the chicken wings were not as spicy as one would hope so do remember to ask for it to be spiced up if that' s what you like.

Main course was a pasta which had the flavours just right.

Paneer on the top and the chicken wings at the bottom

And to top it all is the Chocolate Mousse. You will never believe that is eggless.

YES eggless. And because it is possibly the best I even enlarged the picture so we can all crave for it even more. 

I look forward to going back there again soon.

Do invite me if you go, I would love to have their desserts again and again!

My Experience with Honda and the #AmazeLongestDrive

Imagine a car built, not just for its Looks or its Styling.

Not just for Endurance or Performance.

 Not for Speed or Mileage.

But a car built to do what a car must do. DELIGHT you while you travel, yet not burn a hole in your pocket.

 A car made to take the hits and bumps. A car made to take the heat that’s India’s Summer. Yet enjoy the cool winter’s breeze that’s sweeps across our beautiful country.

As a friend of mine who drove the Amaze said, it is so smooth a car and so easy to drive and navigate on narrow and crowded Indian streets, it felt like I was controlling it with my mind more than my hands.

Yes folks, that indeed is how the Honda Amaze really is. The name does not let you look for adjectives beyond itself. A drive in this car, will truly leave you AMAZED.

To take their point further – Honda is Driving the Amaze across the length and breadth of India to showcase its superiority in every aspect.

1 Amaze car. 250 towns in India. Over 23000 kms.

Yes, the #AmazeLongestDrive.

What more does one need to fully appreciate how well this car has been designed and built.

The Amaze Longest drive is an initiative by Honda to showcase not just the performance and quality of the car but also help bring into focus the amazing experience one will get when they traverse across the roads India.
 Yes it also highlights the infrastructure problems we have but what it does most is inspire you to get in your car and plan that road trip you are always thinking about but have never done.

Go see India in a way you never imagined, all in the comfort and safety of the high performing Amaze.

Click here for details on the Amaze Longest drive - http://amazelongestdrive.com/ 

Bunny Punia taking us through his experiences

I had the opportunity to interact with Bunny Punia, the man behind the wheel for this amazing journey and he had nothing but praise for the Amaze and its capabilities. This past weekend the #AmazeLongestDrive reached Bangalore and we were invited not just to meet and greet Bunny’s team as well as some happy customers but we also got a chance to drive around the Amaze in Bangalore and feel for ourselves first hand, the sheer comfort of driving this car.

Driving the Amaze

As a car enthusiast who has driven cars of almost every make, including automatic gear shifts, I can tell you, that the ease of driving this on Indian roads is uncomparable. We took it for a long drive through Bangalore traffic to simulate as real life conditions as possible and the feeling at the end was that nobody wanted to get out of car and wanted the drive to just go on and on and on to maybe another 23000 kms.

#AmazeLongestDrive

One set of interesting stats – The Amaze is Honda’s fastest car to reach over 1 lakh units and has more awards then one can count on your fingers.

Click here to see some stunning pictures of India as taken by the Amaze team on the 

#AmazeLongestDrive  https://www.facebook.com/HondaCarIndia/photos_stream?ref=page_internal

There are also some pictures from our meet that show cases how much fun we had at the event and look forward to more interactions with Bunny and his team.

The audience having a good time

RJ Rapid Rashmi waiting to engage the audience 

Bunny in the Amaze

The Amaze being flagged off

And lastly, waiting to send more time in the drivers seat in the Amaze J

A Perfect Evening - My visit to Cup O' Joe 

Serene. Idyllic. Quite. Peaceful.

Some of the words that come to mind when I think of my experience at Cup O Joe, a new restaurant in Koramangala, Bangalore.

Watched 2 groups a friends play board games, there were about 20 more on standby and a book cabinet to keep you company when alone.

Like to play the guitar and have your friends sing along with you, no problem. They have that too.

The origin of the name is interesting in itself and can be found here - http://blog.dictionary.com/cup-o%E2%80%99-joe-starbucks/

A new place opened in Sep 2014 is a great place to go to unwind after a long hard day. Whether its with some friends, or looking at spending some quite time with that someone special, there is something for every one here.

The food has a good variety of light eats, coffees and shakes ranging to mocktails and main courses of European nature.  So if you are looking for a quite coffee shop experience (unlike the noisy chains) in the evening or a romantic candle light dinner at night, there is enough fare to keep you hooked.

Click here for a full set of very realistic pictures -  http://on.fb.me/1m8jaSm

I personally dint get to eat a lot, but I did love the Nachos in cheese sauce and their chocolate mouse is out of this world. One of the best I ever had and believe me I have had a lot. The Red Thai curry we had was not as spicy as we hoped but presented really well.

The good thing about going to new places is that the food will only evolve and get better with time and the Chef here is very attentive and customer friendly.

A meal for two should cost you around 800 bucks for good eaters which is well worth the money. This includes mocktails too which was quite good.

The place is owned by 4 partners from the software world, who got a new calling in life.

It’s a must visit place and I will surely be spotted there on weekends gorging on their Chocolate Mousse.

Check them out here: https://www.facebook.com/cupojoe.cafe

P.S. – They currently don’t serve liquor but don’t let that deter you from going there.

P.P.S  - Very friendly management who are all set to provide you a very pleasant experience.