MOMO'S RULE

As the name suggest i am going to be telling you all about an evening we spent with friends eating nothing but momos. We were invited by Piyushbhai to his inlaws place.
As doma his wife hails from Sikkim, they are masters at the art of making momos.
We were very warmly welcomed by the whole family of Doma including her elder brother Agya Gamzo (agya=brother). After a bit of chatting we were served these delicious momos in a big tub, the actul size you will see in the pics.
The garnishing that was served which included MOMO soup and a local delicacy called churpi chutney and some other chutneys were served and trust me guys they were out of this world. The soup was made by Agya Gamzo, and he has promised us the next time he shall make Thukpa for us.
My brother Nizar along with Parveen, Ashraf, Zohaib and your good self were invited.
The great thing about the whole evening was not just the MOMOs but also the time spent chatting during dinner about the various places to see in Sikkim, which included some familiar names like Yumthang, Pelling, Ra bangla, and the not so famous but beatiful Gurudongmar lake which is situated at a height of 17400 feet almost the same height as the base camp of Mt Kanchenjonga.
After almost 45 minutes of gorging on the momos we finally stopped as our heart as well as stomach had given up.
At the last count the 4 of us together must have had around 80 momos. I am sure even domas family would not have expected us to eat so many. all this while zohaib was being taken good care of by Ragini ayla (ayla=sister) and Popop ayla.
finally we decided to call it a day. I can still feel the taste of the momos in my mouth and am waiting for the next inviation. I am sure everyone out there must be wanting to have momos by now, people in kolkata if you want to have good momos in a restaurant do go to Sikkim house, i think commercially they make the best momos in kolkata.
Till the next time Happy Momoing.

Eid and Diwali 2008....Days to remember

This Eid and Diwali are really special to me cos i got to spend them with my son Zohaib who is now a very naughty seven months old...Eid was celebrated on the 2nd, and like always we got up early including Zohaib and got dressed in our Kurta pyjamas, along with the caps which we wear for the namaaz. Thou Zohaib couldnt go to the mosque for his prayers he sure did reap all the benefits, which is mainly the eidi that you get from all the elders, specially from his Dada and Dadi.My brother Nizar and my sisterinlaw Parveen who he identifies as Mummy and Daddy and his Bha which is Ayaan also gave him eidi. The afternoon was the customary biryani which was yumm as usual iam waiting for the day when Zohaib can also start eating biryani, trust me all you non vegetarians out there the Biryani on Eid is extra special.In the evening we took our friends out for coffee to this place called aqua java on loudon street its a very nice coffee joint, and then they all came over to our house to wish my parents.
The same way Diwali was celebrated with the full festive spirit, thou Zohaib was down with a bad cold and cough he was still excited about the fact that he was getting ready to go to out in the evening, this time too he had a cap on...but it was more like the Tapori cap that one wears, and was looking just like a tapori, we went over to piyush bhais house and burst some crackers. Zohaib was there for a few minutes as the smoke was getting too much. Unfortunately Zohaib had to be dropped home, as this being his first diwali he was not really happy with the sound and smoke. On reaching home, we got a pleasant surprise as our good friends Rahul & Jyoti along with their kids Vidhi & Vikram dropped in to wish us Happy Diwali, Jyoti gave us a beautiful Diya decoration which she had made herself. Now the next big festival iam looking forward to is Christmas and New Years. Till then take care.

Bandhavgarh...The land of Bacchi

As i had mentioned that this blog was a place where i wanted to share my experiences...and Bandhavgarh the land of Tigers (bachi) is one which everyone should experience once in their life. Bandhavgarh for everyones info has the highest density of tigers in the world, and there is a popular saying that you have to be really unlucky not to spot a tiger here.
A couple of years back i had gone to bandhavgarh for my puja vacations, i was accompanied by my wife Ashraf, my elder brother Nizar his family my cousin Akbar and a family friend Piyush Bhai.
We started of from howrah and reached this place called katni, we stayed there overnight and left for bandhavgarh the next morning,it was a 3 hour journey and finally we arrived at our destination. We checked into our jungle resort which was a very nice one and was called Tiger Trail and as the name suggests it used to be an actual trail of a tigress, and there had been times when the same tigress had made a kill and had her meal in the parking area of this resort... this was all we wanted to know from the authorities to get our adrenalin pumping.
We couldnt wait and headed out for our first safari, the safari is done in an open gypsy with a guide who takes you around the park, the guide or the driver carry no guns or anything else and you are entirely at the mercy of the animals, as it is their land and you will see the same in the pics that i have put up.
10 mins into our drive not knowing what to expect...we were there right in front of a tiger he was a 2 year old cub and trust me these 2 year olds are big enough, it was the most magical sight i had ever seen..to see gods magnificient creation walk right in front of me was a sight i shall never forget, we have seen tigers in cages but to see one in the wild is something only one can experience. we stayed and took a lot of pics of the cub. and after some time he disapppeared in the thicket.
We roamed the park and saw a lot of wild animals like the wild boar, deers the sambhar deer.
The evening was spent in the resort, where the hotel authorities had organised a bon fire and had called over the local tribal people to perform it was great experience and even we joined them in their dance.
We had to break early aswehad an early morning safari the next day.
The next day had us all real excited and ready for the safari, and as luck would have it we were accopanied by the best driver and the best guide JP of bandhavgarh, which was a blessing as it turned out.
We were 30 mins into the safari and had seen nothing apart from the usual deers and wild boars, we followed calls of the monkeys but did not get lucky, and then suddenly our guide JP and the driver discussed something amongst themselves after looking at some pug marks, after driving a few meters ahead they again got real excited and this time our driver picked up the pace and was driving in the middle of the jungle as if he was on an f1 track, and on enquiring we were told that the pug marks they had seen had confirmed that a tiger had just passed by, this is what is called experience. The track that we were on had a slight ascent and as soon as we reached the top of the ascent our driver braked suddenly and we all looked towards our left and just a few metres away was Bacchi (chakradhara female) she stopped turned her head and looked at us, and trust me guys for that couple of seconds when she looked at us we had all gone into a state of shock there was pin drop silence as we all stood lifeless as we were overtaken by the joy and also fear of having a tigress just a couple of metres away. If anyone of you has ever seen the documentary shown on discovery or national geography on the tigers of bandhavgarh would have come across the name bacchi. Again having the two best people accompany us was a blessing, Bacchi was walking away after hearing a few monkey calls as she wanted to hunt, but our guide started making the same sound as that of the monkeys, this distracted Bacchi and she stopped and started walking towards the same track that we were on. And the next 45 mins were pure heaven there was Bacchi walking in front of us and our jeep following here, it was just her and us. She went and sat on a dried river bed giving us the rare opportunity to click her pics to our hearts content. Later we came to know that our group was the only one who had spotted a tiger that day.
We came back very happy, and spent the evening watching a documentary which was yet to be released, i pesonally spent time discussing and finding out more about the tigers from the hotel people.
Well as they say that you cant be lucky all the time, the next safari that we took which was our last we didnt see any tigers. But were all happy to have spent so much time following bacchi and taking her pics. Well apart from the animals there are few more things to see there, there is a lying down Shiva statue from where starts the Charan Ganga, also a very frequented place by the tigers during summer time and an ancient fort of the Maharja who ruled over that land.
We finally checked out and left for katni again to catch our train back.
Trust me friends wherever you travel do make sure that once in your life you do visit Bandhavgarh ( The Land of Bacchi )

Diwali Greetings

Hello Everybody,
Wish you all a Very Happy Diwali..and a Prosperous New Year...

Stock Markets Doom

well as i write this post, i can see the stock markets take a tumble...the sensex which had reached a peak of 21000 in january, is today below 8000...and many investors like me have burnt our fingers really bad....well hopefully this bad time shall end soon, and maybe the markets shall Boom and not Doom once again...cheers to sensex and nifty....

The First Step

Hi everyone,
well let me begin by saying a big thank you to my friend rohit..cos it was his blog that really inspired me to give this a shot....i hope i can convey thru this blog all that i have learnt and learn every day from life and world around me...and maybe share new and interesting things with you......well this is all for now...so lets begin this new journey...where hopefully you shall all also be a part of...and as morrision said..."break on thru to the other side"...maybe i shall do the same....