But this is a note, for posterity. To look back and smile at how these days were made unforgettable by two special people in my life :)

More of all that later. Just recalled the musical events that I was fortunate enough to catch in the past year:

Kailash Kher: Live in Concert. What a voice, and what an attitude. “People ask me why I do not have extras and dancers in my concerts. I’m here for my music, I just want my music to do the talking. And that will get me my fans and admirers.” Touche!

Dream Theatre: The doyens of Progressive Metal. With the best drummer in the world (No one handles double bass better than Portnoy) and one of the best guitarist (Petrucci) and bassist (Myung), this band that has its genesis in Berklee College of Music is an experience, live. (I hate the lead singer though. Sounds like the bastard child of a tom-cat and a banshee. Anyhew.)

Mandolin U Srinivas: Boy oh boy! The god of Carnatic Mandolin was here. And he was divine. Period. The ragams are a part of him now, they run in his veins. And his fingers do more than his bidding, to say the least. Never heard Carnatic ragams jump out and tease my ears as I did that evening.

Shubha Mudgal: Whatay voice! And this wasn’t even her belting out raags. Just plain old Surdas and Meera Bhajans. But splendidly delectable, every one of her songs.

Harini: A regular concert, nothing too impressive. But good, nevertheless.

Hyderabad Brothers: Enna tavam (Kapi) still gives me goosebumps.

We Will Rock You: Have already written about this mother of all concerts here. ‘Nuf said :)

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Let me put things in perspective. A week of ok-ish food, and a very early and miniscule dinner on Friday evening left me with a craving for a good meal, desi-style on Saturday morning. (North-Indian, South-Indian, whatever-Indian. Doesn’t matter). And when two of my friends made a plan to go restaurant-hopping in Little India in search for a good meal, I was already smacking my lips and heading right to nearest taxi stand.

After a mistaken try at a shabby restaurant named Gokul (not worth going into details, let me jump to the more important parts here), we sauntered into this quiet south Indian place named Madras Woodlands. Not too much of a groundbreaking name, I’d say, but the food was oh-my-gawd awesome! All of us hungry souls straightaway went for the unlimited meals, and we were in session.

A tangy start with a vettha-kozhambu (spicy and hot sambar variety), with veggies, appalams (popadams) and steaming rice to boot, followed by the mullangi (radish) sambar cooked to the right tenderness; then came the fragrant rasam and more mounds of rice. The grand finale was when after a nice bowl of payasam I was just digging into my curd rice, and the waiter came and dropped mor-moloagais (chilli peppers soaked in buttermilk, dried and then fried). By god, that was a stroke of genius! and I’m totally sold on the restaurant.

After the humongous lunch, we all had to go back and rest for the afternoon. The food had gotten the better of us, and we all woke up and decided to meet for, wait for it, here it comes, a dinner meal :D

This time it was Gult food at Sankranti. The restaurant had opened only two weeks before, and since the four of us were in mood for experimentation, we repeated the sauntering and ordering of four unlimited meals. And this time, it was full steam, hot and spicy Andhra fare, no holds barred. Each one of us topped about seven courses: Masala rice, followed by Gongura, Allam, Podi (Gunpowder plus ghee), Pappu (dal), Charu (Andhra rasam), Perugannam (curd rice). After stacking empty plates and cups, we polished the meal off with a mango and left the poor waiter and manager in wide eyed bewilderment. (I’m lovin it!)

Even though none of us had the energy nor the inclination to even move after that meal, the experience was worth every morsel of rice that we demolished. To those who planned to have pizza / noodles / chinese indian / naan sabji on that day, can please go sit on their respective thumbs and watch us dig into another mound of rice. Or join in.

Next weekend, destination Mumbai Makaan and its steaming vadapavs. Yum!

p.s: Also caught a gult movie after the double meal ordeal (just for the heck of it), which was called Vivaha Bhojanam (Marriage Food) and hence the title of this post. Quite a befitting end to the day, I say!

[image source: www.sailusfood.com]

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Six months is not a big stretch of time, by any standards. But I know this is only going to increase. Money and success, in their varied avatars, will continue giving me reasons to run the rat race. But is it going to mean letting go of the past, its million wonders, the magic of memories and naive nostalgia? I hate it when people become memories, and memories become nonchalance. And I hate to live with single serving friends and relationships and having to search for those special moments in my everyday.

Anyhoo. I will be in Bombay from 25th December to 5th January. Landing on 24th midnight, ekdum Santa Claus ishtyle. Hope to catch up with everyone.

Not bad, I’d say…

And this is when all the fun begins.

Me: Hello JiaJia. Nice to meet you. Please show me around the office, and help me set up my desk.
JJ: Hello Harrissh. Let me get your name right, I have to mail back India about your arrival. So you are Harrissh Nawa.. Nawana.. Nawaya… Nawayaa..Nawayananana…Norain…
Me: (Panicking) Just call me Harish, JiaJia. That’s like Harry, you know, with a ’sh’ at the end.
JJ: Aah. Ok OK.

One should hear the Chinese speak in Singapore. This variant of English is called ‘Singlish’ (just the way we have a Bambaiya English). JJ is one of the well-spoken Singaporeans I have met. But usually what gives it away is ‘Yaaeeesss la! caaan’.  Anything remotely related to yes is ‘can’ and anything else is ‘cannot’. Pretty logical, and pretty binary, I must say. Also representative of the simple minded straight-forwardness of most people.

The ‘caaaan’ beats most hindustani classical singers in raag and tal. I am reminded of Russel Peters and ‘Theitee four feeftee’ when i went to Chinatown. This is a fun place, I have to give it that. Small but fun. Just like the people :)

Will write about the coolest Singaporean I met, later.

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Here I was,  happily vela in good ol? Bombay, minding my own business and wasting my own sweet time. And one fine day, out of the blue, was informed that my posting’s gonna be far away from the beloved land of local trains and hot vadapavs, in a country that was smaller than the city I came from.

Brought to my head images of clean roads and rules and fines, but then didn’t know much else about the city-nation. Had to wait until I finally packed my bags and landed in Singapore, or Singapura, the Lion City.
Will not give the usual tourist guide perspective. But there are so many small details that amaze me everyday, because I never believed that cultures and the nations that are born out of them can be so different from each other.

First thing that hits you about the island is that it is very very organised. As Suketu Mehta writes about NY, you can go a whole day, take a bus, go to a movie, go in the metro, buy a card, issue books, without ever talking to another human. Infrastructure is very good, and everything in general, works. And yea, junta follows rules like crazy.

P&G treats us like expats (which we actually are), puts us up in one of the posh localities in Singapore (Scotts Road) in Far East Serviced Apartments. But the catch is, the honeymoon lasts only two months. Then we pack our bags from this place (the weekly rent here is rumored to be more than my monthly pay!) and drudge along until we find a place to live within sane budgets. The fact that the land rates have gone up like crazy in the last five months doesn’t help either. Apparently some new construction has been taken up by the govt (Integrated Resorts) and so everyone who has too many greenbacks is investing here like there’s no tomorrow.

Food is an issue for vegetarians like your truly. Until I discover Little India and the food courts near my office,that is. Let me illustrate the gravity of the situation here. Most people around here don’t understand the concept of being a vegetarian. They have heard the term many times, and they tried to make sense by defining it as people who don’t like to eat beef, pork, chicken and the works. But the issue is, ‘the works’ doesn’t sometimes include fish and eggs. So the first day when I went down to this chain called Hans, I was foolishly delighted to find a ‘vegetarian’ section in the menu card. Little did I know that the dish I so hungrily ordered would come with ultra bland noodles and a fresh cut egg on top. Life’s gotten better after I discovered the Indian veggie food stall in the nearby food court.

Had a Singapore guided tour in the first week. Guide was a Singaporean lady named Shamla Nathan. Is 52 years old, has a Tamil name, is the daughter of a Srilankan man and a Chinese woman, speaks only English and french. Mom is Catholic, and this lady is Buddhist

Lots more interesting events and places and people to reminisce about. Lots of new experiences to commit to my digital memory…