Quote of the Day

My iGoogle says :

At the age of eleven or thereabouts women acquire a poise and an ability to handle difficult situations which a man, if he is lucky, manages to achieve somewhere in the later seventies.
- PG Wodehouse

Happy Birthday to DEAR ANIRUDH !!!

Spicy Talk

Spice Garden ,Goa was quite an interesting place to see.Though initially we were reluctant to go there , we enjoyed it at the end of the day.

So where do our most common spices come from :


Betel Nuts (Supari) come from the yellow fruit above


Pepper and white pepper are here.The red fruit is dried for black pepper and boiled for white pepper.


Cardamom appears at the bottom of this herb.



Cinnamon(DalChini) and Bay leaves(Tej Patta) come from one tree


Those green buds are cloves(laung)


All your herbal tea from this lemon grass

Nutmeg(jaiphal) and Mace (javitri) come from this fruit.

Some chillis known to be 800 times stronger than usual ones. I forgot the name.

Cashew Tree

Cashew in all its colours

Earth Hour .. March 29. 2008 8 pm to 9 pm

Dear All
On March 31 2007, for one hour, Sydney made a powerful statement about the greatest contributor to global warming – coal-fired electricity – by turning off its lights. Over 2.2 million Sydney residents and over 2,100 businesses switched off, leading to a 10.2% energy reduction across the city. What began as one city taking a stand against global warming caught the attention of the world.

In 2008, 24 global cities will participate in Earth Hour at 8pm on March 29. Earth Hour is the highlight of a major campaign to encourage businesses, communities and individuals to take the simple steps needed to cut their emissions on an ongoing basis. It is about simple changes that will collectively make a difference – from businesses turning off their lights when their offices are empty, to households turning off appliances rather than leaving them on standby.

This mail is to request each and every one  to take part in the Earth Hour on March 29. 2008 and switch off lights for one hour from 8 pm to 9 pm and be part of this movement against global warming. You can also spread the word around to your friends , family ,neighbourhood etc and get them to participate too.

P.S : The above information is from an email I got from a friend , who inturn got it from the higher management of his company. So I assume this to be authentic and I am spreading the word.

How would you feel ?

There is a little thing that pinched me twice during the Goa trip. You may find it funny too, here is what happened.

We ate at a shack and the dish had a typical odour. Anupam told the guy and he replies , "No Sir, it cannot be. We have foriegners coming here , how can we serve them if its bad."

Does that mean that its okay to serve bad to Indians ?

At another place , there was a 10 feet broad pathway and I was standing on one side. The host of the place comes with a foriegner and tells me to give the way.

I was also a guest in that place and I bet, I am not THAT FAT.


How would you feel , if you were me ?

Goa Fun - A Lttle in Detail

We started off to Goa on 21st afternoon. That day we had little time for the beach. So we decided to go for a sunset cruise. Though there was no sun (it was cloudy) , we thought cruise would still be fun. And it was ! Breeze was nice and so was the view. Aryan enjoyed the music and clapped along. He even went to dance on the floor , though he was feeling a little scared due to too many people on the floor.He was not interested in returning from the ship at all. Aryan slept on way back. (For my personal records , the ship was called Santa Monica). The day was completed with nice food at the guest house.

On 22nd morning, Aryan opened his eyes and started dancing.It was good enough to prove the fun he had previous night.We started off the day , to see the dolphins in Arabian Sea. It was a 45 minutes boat ride. On the way we saw central jail and the prisioners waved to us. And Mallaya's private ship and a diamond merchants house were also among the tourist attraction. Dolphins did appear but only for a short while. I guess they were scared of the boats chasing them. Aryan had good fun watching the birds though , while we clicked the nature.

After the boat ride we went to agoda fort and beach. Aryan ran above the water tank. He was amused to see such a open play ground may be :) Agoda beach was not much of attraction for us.

Then we headed for Bagah Beach and started off with great food at a shack. Soon it started raining. Aryan wanted to run around in rain. He made a friend and walked around with her in rain. Weather got cold and we decided to call off the day , and postponed the beach fun for Sunday.


Sunday , 23rd was whole lot of fun. Morning we went to Anjuna Beach. The water was blue and clean and it was such a peaceful heaven.After spending soemtime in a shack we moved on to Bagah Tod beach. We all enjoyed a bath there. Aryan had a blast and did not plan to come out of water. Later part of the day was spent at Calangute , with good food , lazying around the beach and getting wet time to time. The day was closed by watching Chake De on TV in our room :)


We had our flight on 24th at 4.00 pm and so we decided to checkout after breakfast and spend the rest of the time in South Goa , which was still unexplored. We saw Bom Jesus church , Mangesh Mangal Temple and Shanta Durga Temple. The day was closed at spice garden with a tour to the farm and a buffet.



There could not have been a better vacation :)

Goa Fun

I took monday off for a long weekend in Goa. Here are a few pics :


In the cruise


Cruise Driver :-)


Aryan is style


From the Boat


Another view


They called it "Queen of Hearts"


Agoda fort -Spot me :)


Aryan Smiles


Happy to be drenched


Lovely water


Splash :)


More Fun


Food time


Sea at its best


I love this pic

I thought of doing a detailed post..but I think pics say all. Look forward for more beach pics on Times of Aryan. And for spice garden and Church pics here.

Happy Holi!

Wishing everyone a colourful long weekend. Have a good time !! See you on Tuesday.

Why not on Monday…coz ..will tell you on Tuesday ;-)