There is new bakery in town i.e. around our living place. It has got variety as well as quality which we like the most about it.

Not to dangle from the main topic, the discussion here is about what has it got to offer that we have had so far – just for sake of sharing, for information to others living in and around Sector 23, Gurgaon!

Thanks to our maid who hasn’t been coming for last 2 weeks that I got change to visit this bakery. Chunks, Vinny and Poo had been there for few times in past when I was at home on vacations…yeah our dear maid hadn’t shown up in those days as well. Me and Chunks are the fellows who are at home over weekends. And we have got company of each other only. We enjoy it the way it can best be enjoyed…watching movies, listening songs, roaming outside, eating and not to forget, sleeping.

Last weekend was my first visit to Bakery thinking that this might be the only time I might be visiting it. We had Chhole Kulche the very first time on the guarantee of Chunks for good quality as he already had them once. And then as soon as it started, it didn’t stop for every other weekend day when it was meal time.Since then we have tasted Pav-Bhajee, Chhole Bhature, Jumbo Sandwich and Shahi Paneer with Butter Naan.

No need to say, we have enjoyed every single of these soooooo much…yummy. Definitely recommended. BTW, its name is Samrat Bakery (Chunk thinks that it is one branch of big chain and no comments from my side).

PS: This post was written in first week of October 2009 but couldn’t be posted.

A typical vegetable meal which I have come to know and started liking after coming to US is – Tofu. It is also called and served here as Vegetarian Chicken.

In India, it is known as Soya Paneer.

Another meal which I like to have on the move out here is Veggie Patty from Subway.

I am trying to continue the trend started by me when 2006 was ending. To summarize the things in the way that you can recall them later, more easily than ever.

Here is the first series of that kind (you can also find same list for last year) -

1. What did you do in 2007 that you’d never done before?
   1. Continued my job for 2 years (of course that is an achievement when it is for first in 3 years of career)
   2. Completed NetAmp application – an app to play music over network
   3. Found my love
   4. Traveled abroad / US (Writing from there only)
   5. Visited Disneyland and Universal Studios
   6. Watched lot and lot of movies (I still can’t believe that I managed to watch 50 movies in 2 months!)
   7. Visited Historical Monuments in Capital nearby
   8. Met with old time mate (Happy)
2. Did you keep your New Years’ resolutions, and will you make more for next year?

   Oh yes I kept it. I don’t have habit of leaving impossible things like that. If it couldn’t be done in 2006, it was kept in 2007. Hey Krishna, are you listening? Of course, making another one for year 2008 and this time, again it is next to impossible for a person like me!

3. Did anyone close to you give birth?

   Luckily NO.

4. Did anyone close to you die?

   No.

5. What countries did you visit?

   US

6. What would you like to have in 2008 that you lacked in 2007?

   Remembrance (I think it isn’t about resolution)

7. What date from 2007 will remain etched upon your memory?

   27/07/2007, 04/12/2007 and 13/12/2007 (all sum up to mah lucky number as I have realized just now)

8. What was your biggest achievement of the year?

   Discovered Love

9. What was your biggest failure?

   Umm…None.

10. Did you suffer illness or injury?

    Yes. Cough and Cold for quite long time during Cricket World Cup

11. What was the best thing you bought?

    I never buy things rather I present them to myself – 2 GFs / Laptops (dv9502 and dv6500t CTO NB) and 2 External HDDs (160 GB LACIE and 1 TB Western Digital)

12. Whose behavior merited celebration?
    1. Jo
    2. Ritu
    3. Puneet’s laughs
    4. Pankaj’s company during celebrations
    5. Nitesh Gupta for wonderful rides
    6. My Brother
    7. Archana for wonderful compliment
    8. Happy
13. Whose behavior made you appalled and depressed?

    Three of mah colleagues

14. Where did most of your money go?
    1. Laptops
    2. External HDDs
    3. Clothes
    4. Movies
    5. Coffee
    6. Food
    7. Discotheques
    8. Shelter
15. What did you get really, really, really excited about?
    1. Love

Presently I am residing here in US of A as Hema called it out! I am here for official trip from my firm and had reached here on December 4. Right now staying somewhere in San Jose and working at nearby location in Sunnyvale. Lucky to have company of two mates here – Amit Gupta and Nitesh Gupta (Nits). We all are colleagues. Nits is here since Nov and I have reached here with Amit. We go to office together, almost staying together and cooking together too. I am liking this place because of its beautiful infra and VTS service. Moreover there are lot of people from other races here as they say that more than 40% people are Indians in this city and it is also known as Gandhi Nagar. It feels like mini India. People are quite friendly and one can easily get hooked up with the ones of their interest. I had my tryst with locals and I am feeling good being here after meeting with them.

Whole week I was busy in settling down at office and at the apartments. Things were so messed up at both places. For first time, I realized that even a girl can mess up an apartment too much to clean up properly. Eh.

This was the first weekend and went out to Mccarthy Ranch. There first went to Best Buy and looked at the electronics goods primarily. But I found that all those which I wanted were more cheaper when purchased online than from store provided you know where to look out over Internet. Then it was Wallmart to get other stuff for living. Interestingly I happened to meet and talk with 2 Indian guys (Harsh and Sri) at Best Buy and one at Wallmart (Srinivas) which was surprising for me provided my nature of… At the end of day, we had something going inside our stomachs (I am not able to recall the name of outlet) but I must say, it is very hard for a veggie to survive on fast-food here specially when you get to eat ultra-cold burgers and that too, not much tasty . India is much better in that way. Also, here McDonald’s doesn’t serve any vegetable items…huh. Also bus service is till 0830 only on weekend. So you better get into last bus otherwise you will be left thinking of almost no other alternative.

Weather here is quite cold and you can’t be out from home without any jacket even when it is a sunny day. And purchase of a jacket was the costliest part of my shopping . I chose Raiders to save myself from deadly cold outside. It was quite expensive shopping for me out of we 3 at the end of day but I had something to feel good for sleeping soundly. Nits is still busy with issues …poor guy. I don’t know when will he get to sleep.

When you don’t have any roommate around you, nowhere to roam around and it is all time in your hands for nothing or nowhere, you know it can be as much lonely as it never had. Then if you have your SWH with you all the time at your home, movies for most of the time, and not to forget, the final ODI of Netwest series between India and England, a well cleaned & organized home at your stake, you know, it can be as much lovely too!!

Transformers is a big crap.

If the director Michael Bay thinks that by making joke of rest of the world and showing US people at their best can make a movie work, at least for me, it wouldn’t. If you belong to any other region of the world than US, be ready to face useless critics and listen lot of nonsense about your country. The concept behind movie is good but then all praise for your nation at the cost of others is mere foolishness. It shows the low maturity level of director. The only other movie which I had liked from MB is Armageddon but it is for sure, I am not gonna watch any other flick from him.

Indian team was at its all time low performance in any final this year when it was all out at 183 leaving an easily achievable target for England and giving a bitter taste to viewers. But the results can also be blamed on the wrong umpiring throughout the tournament which remained on the side of England. Despite the crucial final, it didn’t matter to umpires to take help from third umpire in few doubtful decisions which ended up making top players like Sachin Tendulkar and Rahul Dravid falling prey to wrong decisions.

Times Of India had published comprehensive list of wrong decisions which went against Sachin across tournament  (Tests and ODIs) – seemed like umpires had decided to take revenge from Sachin for all his good behavior who never stands against any decision given by umpires!!

1ST INNINGS, 1ST TEST, LORD’S
lbw b Anderson 37
Full delivery, caught on the crease, inswinger still moving when it hits him in front of leg stump — iffy Umpire: Steve Bucknor (West Indies)

2ND INNINGS, 1ST TEST, LORD’S
lbw b Panesar 16
Arm ball, struck in line of off stump but he was well forward — iffy Umpire: Steve Bucknor (West Indies)

1ST INNINGS, 2ND TEST, TRENT BRIDGE
lbw Paul Collingwood 91 Ball clearly missing off stump — shocking Umpire: Simon Taufel (Australia)

2ND ODI, BRISTOL
c Matt Prior b Andrew Flintoff 99
Rising delivery brushes arm guard, no contact with bat — shocking Umpire: Ian Gould (England)

7TH ODI, LORD’S
c Matt Prior b Andrew Flintoff 30
Missed intended drive, air between bat and ball, no edge — shocking Umpire: Aleem Dar (Pakistan)

GOD, GIVE ME A BREAK