Author: bindugopinath

Hello There , I started writing on Facebook out of sheer passion , a passion that was harboured within me from the time I learnt to write . I started with poems which rhymes :) , i made a journal and hid it with me over years until I reached my teens to only destroy them for I felt they were silly .. I still penned down all my dark secrets, my pain , my happiness from the terrace of my home . I loved to scribble despite the fact that I had the worst handwriting on this planet(in my opinion).. I will always say thank you for technology else how will I have communicated to the world what I wanted to? I finally created a hashtag #randomthoughts and started writing , later changed it to #mystory and realised people started liking them and began requesting me to write more .. So here I am only because of your love ,creating a blog to pen my thoughts .. I have been told by the super power that it is my purpose to keep others happy and that I have to do my bit to bring change and good. It is my personal responsibility and I hope I help one soul if not all and that will be happiness for me. Here on this blog you will find stories that pop up in my little brain , some reviews of food as I believe food is us as we are made of food and few random thoughts :) , that word doesn't go away from me however I try . While I am not writing or procrastinating to write I love to meditate, Enjoy learning about our body, cooking ,fitness and reading. I am a hopeless dreamer , love to eat and travel , believe music is life and love to laugh(giggle is appropriate) ..

We are mortal …

We are mortal. I keep reminding myself this so that I don’t waste time . Yesterday , on a lazy Sunday afternoon I happened to watch a movie in which a man gives up everything and toils for his family and then dies without living a life. No one recognised his efforts , he never told them what he went through , he suffered but never let anyone know , he was tired but didn’t let his family get a whiff of it. He sacrificed his life but his family never realised or acknowledged what he did for them . He died in his sleep and for everyone around it was a death and they lit the pyre as per custom and turned him into ashes . It made me think . My mind went whirling into some other space , I was thinking for whom do we all do things we do? Even if we do things do the ones for whom we do know about it? Is it not important to tell them that? Don’t they deserve to know it ? Why don’t we live life for ourselves ? Why do we exactly plan life for tomorrow and fail to see what we have now . Who assured us there is a tomorrow ? Is it over confidence or do we as humans forget that we are mortal . Will we respect people and value every minute if we realise the truth that life is not predictable , we don’t have a prefixed deadline , we don’t have an expiry date . We can be gone the next second . Yet we harbour so much hatred , ego and many more negative traits. Yet we don’t express our love for our loved ones , we keep it for another day . We fight with our siblings / partner / kids and go to sleep with the pain or by giving them pain without realising that there might not be a tomorrow either for them or us .

I started thinking very deeply , I had experienced a meditation a few months ago and had realised the importance of life yet in the daily cycle called life it was all forgotten . I realised life is not tomorrow but “now” . I realise postponing things is the most grave risk we take . We all believe we don’t take risk and thats an irony , because we take risk every second by postponing our life events 🙂 . I wish this awareness stays with me that I am mortal and we all have to leave this planet one day . With this thought my mind snapped back to “now “, the reality . I wish you “now” , the present(see why they call it present? its a gift indeed) . I wish you live life . I wish you awareness .

Fatty Bao

For some reason I wanted to eat food at Fatty Bao today despite the fact that I haven’t been there for years now(no particular reason) . Today a friend and me headed there . I was happy entering the place for its sheer colourful happy vibes and settled down almost near the window overseeing 12th main , Indiranagar .

It was then time to order and I was in Starve mode already before I entered the place so quickly decided on Mushroom & Bell pepper Bao, Minced vegetable and water chestnut dim sums . The food came quickly and vanished too 😛

The Bao was delicious, rightly spiced and very soft . The dim sum could have been even more lighter on the cover but it was delicious so we can over look that no? when the fire was doused in our tummies it was time to choose a main course . We debated between a stir fried dish and a ramen and finally zeroed in on the exotic mushroom ramen and split it into two. It came in the tall ceramic glass and was so light and delicious. We devoured it to the last spoon.

Finally we thought after all this amazing food how can we not order for a dessert , so first on the dessert list was fatty hill and their speciality so without battling our eye lids we asked for it . It was so yummy and light with no over powering favour. The clean plate was of the dessert and I think it speaks for itself . I would say its an aye! please go and enjoy the meal. Dinner will be nicer in that ambience .. 🙂

Address : 610,3rd Floor,12th A Main Road, off 80 feet Road, HAL 2nd Stage, Indira Nagar, Bengaluru, Karnataka 560008

Phone : 080 4411 4499

Social Media or Anti Social Media , My new year resolution.

Technology/digital / social media I always believed will help in bringing people together . I felt it’s about being social and not anti social . It’s about virtually meeting people across the globe and learning more . However yesterday I had this realisation that I was wrong!

Pic courtesy : Google

Technology is taking away from us the ability to be “human” . It s making us anti social . We are forgetting that taking action doesn’t mean a post or like or retweets. I have been unwell and been home yesterday and this thought dawned upon me (idle mind :)). When I go on whatsapp first thing unconsciously I see is what time was the other person online last , but why did I have to know that or even look at that? Is it my intent to know more or is it that we are insecure or is it plain curiosity? I don’t understand why we are blinded by these apps and platforms . Isn’t addiction the right word? So many thoughts occurred to me like,

Why we sit across a table with friends and stare at our phones . Why we can’t live without touching our phones for even an hour. What if we spent the phone time on people who is a part of our life . What if we hugged them more than fidgeting on the phone .

What if we said I love you in person than updating a status and professing love .

What if we expressed our gratitude in person , folding hands . How about stop envying the “social happy posts” we see and get real?

So i decided to take action and make this a resolution for this year , I will call people and wish them on their birthdays or special days , I already started this from November last year partially . I mean why not? I am human and I can speak and may be bray(read sing) once in a while .

I have decided to stay off phone completely even when am at traffic signals , I give 50% of my time to day dream and 50% to phone when am stalled at a signal , now 100% off phone 😉

I plan to keep my phone in my bag while am at lunch or dinner with family or friends as the world can wait while I eat my meal .

I have decided not to humiliate the person sitting across the table with me having a conversation by staring at the gadget which can’t emote .

I have decided not to take my phone out of my bag while I am In a meeting room .

I have decided to give my 100% to whatever I do . My time is precious so is the person’s who decided to spend it with me , time to get human and respect each other .. oh! Don’t you worry there are a zillion people on social media and they can survive with us .

PS: If there is an emergency needless to say we have to use our phones and that wont change , if I am found violating my above resolution I request you to bring it to my notice .

Love

Love, an emotion that causes pleasure and pain to a deeper level , I always wondered what is it .. Love surely is confused with attachment at most times , so what is Love ?

Is love the absence of hatred or is it all about balancing it out ,

Is love all about receiving or is it just about giving ,

Is love the first few months of courting or is it something that lasts a life time ,

Is love meant to fade or is it meant to remain ,

Does love end or is love living happily ever after ,

Is love being understanding or is love what we don’t understand ,

Is love what the mind says or is it what the heart feels ,

Is love all about hiding or is it about sharing ,

Is love only him and her or is it about everyone ,

Is love all about expectations or is it acceptance .

Light or darkness- its our choice

Until we open the doors the sun light can’t come in , until we put the lights on it will remain a dark night , until we allow good to happen it won’t happen . I have known this for a long time , I have experienced it at a very deeper level , I am a staunch believer of it . Something made this feeling even more stronger for me today . I have been under the weather from yesterday, I can’t handle cold weather by the way , am a sunshine soul 🙂 . If there is no Sun I will feel something is amiss in my life, Light plays such a key role for me and people who know me are aware of the importance of light in my life . Light is also positive energy for me . Sorry I digressed . Here is what I wanted to write , I have been down with cold , headache from yesterday and been home bound for the entire day . Popped in some med and slept last night to wake up feeling better today while not completely ok . I was wearing a sweater , a pair of socks and was under a quilt the whole morning and wondering how will I deal with the cold weather today . I hadn’t opened the windows assuming it will be cold outside obviously . I had to finally step out for lunch around 1 and I chose to wear a pull over so that I am warm and left home . The moment I stepped out of my building I realised how hot it was . I was regretting dressing up the way I have as I needed ac to remain alive with all this dressing . All sunny ,a bright day and instant boost of energy .

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pic courtesy : Google

While I was driving this thought occurred to me that I was inside my home , my comfort zone and just being there unwilling to explore what’s behind that door . It was an assumption , it was a choice I made . All I had to do was step out of my comfort zone , see what was happening to see the light , to feel better . In life isn’t that what we all do? Live in fear , live with assumptions while all we have to do is may be peek , take a leap of faith , just open that window or open the door to see what is in store outside . It is always better to experience than assume , I have always seen sunshine on the other side whenever I tried .. I have seen happiness , I hope you do too .

Prawns Fry

I simply love feasting on prawns . I happened to lay my hands some fresh prawns at the thippasandra market on a sunday morning and I wanted to eat a simple dish so here is what I did . Washed the prawns with salt water and deveined them . Please note it is very important to remove these black , slimy things from their lining to avoid infection and damage to our digestive system . Here goes the simplest recipe .

Ingredients :

Prawns

chilly powder

Turmeric powder

Oil to fry

Salt

Lemon

Method :

Marinate the prawns with all the above and keep it in the fridge for an hour .

Heat oil in a wok/tawa and add the prawns . I prefer less oil in my food so you are welcome to use as much as you want to

fry till the prawns curl up

squeeze lemon and devouver

Happy Eating!

New Modern Hotel

It was another sunday morning and another place . We stopped at the new modern hotel and I had heard rave reviews about the sambhar here . It was bustling with people and we didn’t find a table but the best part of these places is that we can share the table with others . When the agenda is gorging and walking out who cares really ;). So we shared our table with 2 others. We ordered for idli/Vada and there were loads of sambhar on the table in these utensils . Also extra sambhar was served very proactively .We also tried the kesari baath .

Idli /Vada was good, Sambhar was ok too. Nothing I fell for unfortunately . Some places have their legacy from years and may be people just love it. No reasons required .

The keshri baath was very sweet for my palette but good . Look at it, doesn’t it say it all ?

And of course this board there 😉 .I plan to visit for lunch sometime soon

Its an AYE from me , Go try!

Address :

#143,Dr A N Krishnarao Road, Near Minerva circle, Vishweshwarpuram,, Bengaluru, Karnataka 560004

Phone : 080 2661 2625

China Bistro

During my week long stay at Mumbai finalising a restaurant for dinner every evening was an adventure , we mostly retorted to google and went to the options those were closer . One such day we zeroed in on chinese as a cuisine and China Bistro screamed my phone . We decided to walk the 1.25 km distance considering it was Ganesh visarjan time and the roads were adorned with Ganesha’s and this was my first time during Ganpati in Mumbai 🙂

We reached this place wading through sea of people and was surprised to find a place tucked away and were unsure if this was the place we wanted to step into. We however walk in to check and realised it was a huge place bustling with activities . We happily settled in one of the sofas, we were 5 of us by the way .

Very friendly staff and they were very quick in helping us settle and choose the dish. I didn’t click most food pics as I was blown away by the pickles and sauce and was busy devouring it 😛 . I ordered for crab meat soup with wine and it was nice , My colleagues ordered for lemon chicken soup and it was one of the best . The lemon grass was used just perfectly in it (Don’t look for the picture )

We then ordered for some chicken starter and veg momos. The momos were done to perfection and the water chestnut in it was crispy and complemented the momos well . The main course was burnt garlic fried rice and mixed vegetable gravy . We were not that hungry and stuck to these only. The food was awesome , ambience good, staff very courteous , a great experience indeed . Its an AYE from me , if you are in Mumbai go try I say .

Website : chinabistro

Kalmane Koffees

I like sipping on black coffee once in a while and love the smell of coffee . While I was at VR mall,Bangalore last weekend , I noticed the brand new Kalmane outlet located in the minus 1 floor and didn’t think twice to visit them. Coffee has its way of attracting people , it has its way of calming nerves and of course it makes me happy , a satisfied feeling which only a coffee lover will understand 🙂 .

I didn’t want to waste my time sifting through the menu as my order was simple, however my friend wanted a madras coffee and that was the powder they sold so the guy at the counter suggested we try their premium coffee . I happily nodded and we sat at our tables . The coffee was ready in less than 5 minutes and was accompanied by badam biscotti . Rest is history . I loved it , it was a refreshing break for me . MY tag line for coffee would be “A lot can happen after coffee ” 🙂

Its an AYE from me . Go if you are around

Address : BLACK BOX, WHITEFIELD MAIN ROAD, MAHADEVPURA, Bengaluru, Karnataka 560048

Located next to pantaloon in minus 1 .

Bindu Gopinath

Food – Life – Travel