Where is Jaspal?

Amidst piles of work Jaspal Sawhney [a.k.a the Victim in this blog entry] was last seen boarding a thai airways flight on 9'th March 2007 to Australia via bangkok on the flight the victim(victim of loads of work, coffee and wine) reportedly did a new blog entry called the 'Buddha's Flight' - Details of the blog entry are being withheld. On the bangkok airport he was seen with a manager species who goes by the name RK. The victim looked a lil distressed at the airport.

The duo were then seen at Melbourne Airport, Australia where under tight security they were transported quickly to the high profile prison [Crowne Plaza] where reportedly all the FINA [Swimming champions] are also being kept. Since that day the victim has been seen regularly having wine and trying out non Indian dishes likes Oysters, Veal, Spicy Pumpkin Juice, Sushi etc.

According to the bar tender at the hotel lobby bar - the victim has started finding solace in eating vegemite and cheese lately and was last seen giving finishing touches to the brand new global study - 'Comparison on Airlines industry in the Northern and Southern Hemisphere'.

I'm Reporting for Reuters from Melbourne. Stay tuned for more information as try to get in touch with the victim and bring you the real news.

India Unbound

Monday, 05 March, 2007
I have been regularly summoned by people for expressing my feelings which can be termed as Anti-Indian. Their point being that when i downplay the current state of affairs in urban India I'm being plain stupid because that leads to the people abroad form an opinion about India which is not right. I disagree but i don't want to argue also.

Presenting Rural India which is kicking ass of urban India on all accounts. I Chanced to watch the Science Safari - Think Beyond program on National Geographic. The program supported by the ministry of science and information technology (not sure about this - forgot to note down) is designed to bring the technological advancements making foray into rural India - btw Rural India stands for 700 million Indians live in 600,000 villages. Read here.

Starting from use of solar energy in form of Solar Bowl at auroville for cooking to cooperating with Daimler Chrysler to derive Bio Fuel from a widely growing type of weed which manifests on the most of the low quality Indian soils to using Sagar Kanya - the shipping vessel which is currently being used to research ocean beds which are rich sources of nodules (rocks high in metallic constituents)

The Program talked about LCA being currently tested for induction in the Indian Air Force to replace the aging Mig's (Bloody Russians ;-)) then shifting the focus on to the GPMT which has been credited with the last two known discoveries associated to Pulsars (FYI: pulsars are remnants of the stars having undergone supernova) the ironic part being the foray of internet in the villages used for education (Project: Ashwini) and its wireless which i'm talking about and here i'm sitting without an internet connection in my house just because the internet company still have not wired the area.

Seeing the program made me secretly wish that i would want to move to one to one of these projects and be a part of the new urbanization of rural India and rush away from the ruralization of the urban India.

Can't Beat This Meat

Thursday, 01 March, 2007

The day starts at night, there's no fright
The roads narrower than sidewalks, filled with loads of talks
Tales for sure running into googles, You my friend are in the land of the mughal's

The air's pleasant, the moon's turning into a crescent
The smell of succulence descending all around you, dogs going boo
Its not a Dream, You my friend are at Jama Masjid Karim

This Thursday a 6 member archaeological team compromising of Canadian national - Jaspal :-) and 5 other punters went about to uncover the secrets of the mughal kitchen at Karim's (Spank my Ass for not getting the pictures). There area of interest being to find some lamb bones.

Anyone coming from abroad who has a fondness for non veg and wants to see the real Delhi away from the swanky high rises or the IT companies @ Gurgaon or the clubs(more on these later) should go and see old Delhi, the Delhi which bears the marks of the centuries of reigns of kings from Genghis Khan to Mughals.

From the kitchen of the mughals - the chief cook - Haji Karimuddin bought the delicacies which were served to emperors only to the masses following the collapse of the mughal empire. Started in 1913 karim has been quoted all across. U may read the reviews here.

The menu for the night for us was
- Chicken Soup
- Chicken Burra
- Mutton Kebabs
- Mutton Rann
- Mutton Stew
- Brain Curry
- Chicken Jaisalmeri
- Mutton Korma
- Chicken Korma
- Phirnee (4 per person)

The Bill - 1700 INR (incl tip) = 42.5 CAD for 6 people
The Experience - Awesome

I have been to only one branch of Karim's i.e. the Jama Masjid one and i go there 2-3 times a year - its my annual haj as per say. The service excellent the servers courteous. In case you are a vegetarian this might just be your original sin. Think abt it.

All in All - U Just Cant Beat This Meat