Rajbogh at Rajdhani

I should admit, I'm not a fan of Vegetarian food, let alone go to a Vegetarian hotel, that too one that serves only thali-meals. But that exactly was the venue chosen by my friends for their treat. I was thinking why in the world should I have vegetarian food on a friends treat, but at the end, I did not have absolutely any regrets. This blog is about my experience in Hotel Rajdhani at the Forum Value mall, White Field, Bangalore.

It was a hot afternoon and 10 of us from office reached Rajdhani at 1:30PM, treading through the hot sun. Wonderful butter milk was served immediately after reaching the table. The plate with small katori's were laid already. A slice of lemon, followed by Green and Red sweet Chutney followed and then 2 vegetarian starters were placed on the plate. "Dal Bati Churma"(Not sure if I got the spelling correct !!!) was next in line, followed by a rich array of dals, Sabji and Khadi, each going into its own impressive katori. Excellent Phulka, puri and Bajra Roti were to served next. Bajra Roti was small in size, but tastefully served with Butter spread and jaggery sprinkled on top of it. I had never had that combination before and it was wonderfully excellent. The rich sweetness of the Jaggery combined well with the simple but well cooked roti was very well appealing to the pallet. Bajra Roti left me yearning for more and more. Then came the rice dishes. The kichdi was simple, but served piping hot with a spoon full of pure ghee topping. Divine taste indeed. Steamed rice and curd rice were also served. For the desert, we had the option to choose from Anguri Basundi, Fruit Custard and Halwa. I think the Basundi was the stand out of all 3 dishes. It had a rich thick milk flavored with elaichi and pista. It was wonderfully delicous that I cannot compare that with any other basundi I have had before. The whole experience of having food was simple, but carefully planned, tastefully prepared and elegantly laid out.

The hotel was simple yet very elegant. Since only thali was served, the process of choosing your item from the menu and waiting time were pleasantly missing. The waiters were very responsive. The food kept coming without asking for, and the waiters very patiently explained what each item was when asked for. The supervisors kept a hawk eye on the thali's and they had already summoned the next item even before the plate was empty. There was absolutely no waiting time for food. Very impressive indeed. Each waiter was serving exactly one set of dish, for example, rice dishes were served by exactly the same person, while the dal and sabji was effectively handled by another. The difference this system makes is, the supervisor does not have to shout each waiters name or dish across the hall, but they had a unique sign language that helped them summon exactly the right person they wanted. I had never seen this kind of effective communication exchanged between the supervisors and the waiters. Very very impressive indeed.

The cost of the food is also not high. Rs 235-/- per thali was very nominal, considering the wonderful experience of fine dining and the experience it had on your pallet. Rajdhani is a must go for any food connoisseur.

Assumptions in Work Place

I found this very interesting article in my computer. Frankly, I dont know where this was downloaded from or which friend had given it to me. But I found this immensely useful, especially in this cut-throat competition, where every Friend is an enemy waiting for his right opportunity. I thought this is a good article to share with the world.

Assumptions in WorkPlace

1. My job completes me - It's not your whole life, avoid the Work, Sleep, Repeat cycle or else your sense of self will erode any time your job disappoints you.

2. My boss reads my mind - Lobby for your promotion and take the initiative of talking to your boss about it. Many workers make the mistake of not engaging in any self-promotion at all - and then suffer the crushing disappointment of not receiving a pay raise, or a promotion.

3. Co-workers are friends - Although you may find friends at work, it's very important to draw boundaries. Unlike friendships or romances gone awry, you have no choice but to see your co-workers every single workday.

4. Salaries are set fairly - It's your responsibility to negotiate for a higher salary. Employers will pay what they feel they need to pay to hire and keep an employee, and nothing more.

5. H.R. is here to help me - They will help you, b7. ut their true job is to protect the organization. There are certain areas in which it may be best not to seek the H.R. department's assistance, such as using them as a shoulder to cry on for your every workplace woe.

6. You aren't indispensable - Millions of workers learned that their jobs are not as secure as they once thought. Being valuable is realistic, feeling irreplaceable is not.

7. My bosses are cool when i slack off - Do not take your job for granted. While you're accepting their pay, it's important to honor your end of the bargain, or expect them to reward your poor attitude by bestowing your job to someone who actually wants it.

Apr 2 has been a wonderful day for sports. There are 3 things that happened at sports I want to mention about. They are in the order of importance, one by one.

Today is the day when Indian cricket had finally proved itself. MS Dhoni had proved it once more why he is called India's best Captain. It is debatable if Ashwin should have played or Yuvraj should have come up in the batting order et al, but ultimately India kicked the behind of an undeserving Srilankan team that had its fair share of luck taking it to the finals.

My attention shifts to EPL, where Manchester United, came back from 2 goals down to beat West Ham United. I did not see the game as I was busy with cricket, but when I checked the scores, I thought I had missed one of the greatest comebacks in EPL. Manchester United were 2 down during the half time, but finished the game 2-4, thanks to a Wayne Rooney hatrick. I got to see the highlights of this wonderful game. Rooney scored first from a free kick with such a precision that was reserved for the Beckhams and Ronaldos. His second was a superbly taken goal, with t eh cross supplied by none other than Antonio Valencia. The duo is back and the team is peaking at the right time. The third is a penalty taken by Rooney after some wonderful play by Fabio. The fourth is a quality finish by Hernandez, supplied by the legendary Giggs. Even with limited resource, Fergie has forged a team which has an insatiable fire to win in heart. Fergie's team simply demonstrated to the world that great teams have to be built, rather than bought over the shelf.

The third game is between Arsenal and Blackburn. I'm happy to see the result as the mighty arsenal is held to a draw by the minnow team. Kudos.

Missing Pieces of Jigsaw

I learned something today. God operates in mysterious ways, which we may never be able to understand until the final pieces of the jigsaw are in the right place. This is a true incident that happened to me on the 26th July o9.

We had this problem in our borewell motor. We had spent a good amount of money on a submersible pump which was functioning perfectly well until 3 days back. I came all the way from Bangalore to assist my Mom in getting the problem sorted out. I came to Madurai on a Saturday morning. The plumbers who came to fix it were working on the pump and they were not able to get the motor out of the bore well. They put some urea into the well to get the sand loosened so that they can shake the motor out of the well. It didnt help at all. The plumbers were not able to lift the pump even one feet out of the well. The reason: there was a cave in and the submersible motor was stuck between sand and mud. The plan for the next day was to try and lift the pump using a chain block. A contraption was erected on Sunday and the attempt to lift the pump resumed. After some initial hope, I heard the ropes snap, and the motor along with with 150 feet of pipe fell into the bore well which was 230 feet deep.

I was always praying god, that the entire issue be sorted out on Sunday before I leave, because, once I leave, my Mom would have to handle things almost single handedly. So all my prayers were directed towards the completion of the work on Sunday. When I heard the ropes snapped, I was not able to believe it. I was speechless. The plumbers mentioned that the sunken pump had to be retrieved before anything can be done and it had to be done a different team of "experts", who were not available until Monday. So we had to wait till the next day to even assess the next step. Plumbers were mentioning that, if the motor was not retrievable, the well would have to be abandoned and a new one had to be dug. I was totally devastated. I was about to curse the gods, but I did not, the reason, I don't know.

With the intended plan for the motor going against my wish, I suggested my Mom that we visit my Grandma(achi) who lives 50 KM away from our place. She is 80 year old and she had fell down in her home 2 or 3 days earlier. My mom had brought her digital sugar meter along to test Achi's sugar level. When it was tested, we were all shocked to find that it was at 580. Remember that the safe limit for blood sugar in human body is around 120. She was just one step before she passed out into a life threatening Coma. Luckily, we were able to find this out and took her back to Madurai, where Amma was able to provide the medical support and restore her.

Here is the interesting observation. Had the plumbing work gone according to what I had prayed for, the work would have stretched way into the Sunday evening. We would not have gone to Virudhunagar in that case. God did not listen to my prayers because , if he had given what I had asked for, my Grandma would have suffered. He rejected my prayers, but helped me in a different way, which had brought me more happiness than what I would have got, had my prayers been answered.

Until that day, I did not believe that whatever happens always happen for a reason. We may be seeing only one part of the picture and may cry that something which we earned for did not happen. But when God places the final piece of the jigsaw is in place, and when we see the entire picture, we may realize why things happened in the way they did. Only then we may start appreciating the true intent of God. Some actions of God may happen against our will and our expectations, but everything has a meaning, something which we may never come to know until all the pieces of the jigsaw fit. Till then, the mortal mind is restless.

A friend of mine once told me, God gives you what you need, rather than what you want. What we may want, may ultimately turn out to be something poisonous. So dont try to cry over some situation which did not unfold in the way you wanted. Just wait till the time God fits in the pieces of the jigsaw.

How to restore show desktop icon

This is a very useful tip. The "Show Desktop" icon in Windows is one of the most frequently used. The following is the process to restore the icon back in case you have removed it.

Procedure
1. Open a text editor(Notepad) and enter the following code:
[Shell]
Command=2
IconFile=explorer.exe,3
[Taskbar]
Command=ToggleDesktop
2. Save the file with the following name "Desktop.scf". The saved file changes its appearance and functionality and will become your new "Show Desktop" icon.

MTR Hotel

This blog is on my visit to the famous MTR Hotel with my friends.

Mavali Tiffin Room - or MTR as it is famously called, is near the Lal Bagh at the Lal Bagh Main road. This hotel is unlike any other you may visit. It does not have any fancy construction or a modern day ambience. In fact, it does not boast anything fancy to "attract" people. While many hotels try new and innovative ways to bring in customers, MTR has a problem of plenty of customers to cater. The fact is, people wait in queues for upto 2 or 3 hours for a simple lunch on typical weekends. This blog is about my experience in the MTR, when I went there with my friends on a Sunday afternoon.

We decided to go there after a few friends recommended it as one of the traditional hotels in Bangalore and the food was fantastic. When we reached there, it was quite a surprise. There was a heavy crowd that was standing outside. Luckily, we were able to navigate through and get our tokens easily. We were then asked to "register" our token at the dining hall. An usher registered our token number in his pad. Our token number was 69, while the number which was let into the dining hall was 25. Hmmm, did not sound good. Finally, we had to wait for more than 2.5 hours to get our place in the dining hall.

The Food
Very sweet grape juice arrived in silver tumblers. It was extremely sweet. A series of side dishes followed. A salad of carrot and lintels, chutney, sagu, poriyal, pickes, Payasam, a milk sweet all arrived next. Bise bela bath - which was very good(only good thing)- poori, Rice, Sambar, Rasam were served, curd rice were served. Taste wise, except for the besi bela bath, nothing was appreciable. The sweets were ordinary, Sambar and Rasam were not kinda okay. There was only one poriyal that was served. Even in the Andhra mess, we would be served at least 2 curries. Curd rice was actually good, well, what is there to mess up with the curd rice anyway. Mini vada and mini papad were served along with the meal.

My View
MTR is a pioneer in the field of package masalas. Rava idly made its origin here. The hotel even featured in Discovery channel. The place was very clean and you can actually walk through the kitchens and look how clean the environment is. The waiters were also prompt and neat and I was told they dont accept any tip.

But frankly, I did not find any justification for the hype and hoopla that surrounded the big name. It was simply very normal food, branded and overpriced. If you are a true foodie who would want to visit the traditional place, and do not mind the 2-3 hour wait, or if you want to enjoy spending time in Lal Bagh followed by a meal with family, go visit MTR. For others, well, in Bangalore, there are lot may other options for food.

For those who want to visit MTR, the address is:
M.T.R, 14, Lal Bagh Main Road, Bangalore.