The not-so-secret diary

I'm aware that I haven't been giving much love to my blog in the last few weeks.I hope to remedy that soon. In the meanwhile I couldn't help *rolling my eyes* when I read this article on a designer handbags. If only London's homeless people (yes in the 21st century, London has people who sleep on the streets- a discussion for another post!) had patented this design earlier they would be millionaires.... http://uk.lifestyle.yahoo.com/the-jil-sander-paper-bag-that-will-cost-you-%C2%A3185.html Source: The 'Vasari' bag © Jil Sander

I am now properly caught up in the pre-Olympic excitement in London as the growing dread of public transport chaos takes the backseat for a bit. Yesterday I found myself rushing back from work early to catch the Olympic Torch as it winded its way up hilly Wimbledon towards the Lawn Tennis Club. I managed to find a nice spot by the road about half a mile from the club just 15 minutes before the torch arrived. The ladies next to me (3 kids and 1 chihuahua in tow) seemed pretty excited and we even chatted a bit, momentarily forgetting we were supposed to be aloof Londoners.  The whizzing police on motorbikes caused a lot of cheering and shouting. Events unfolded thus: The yellow bus came first.   Then the white one.   Then the Samsung bus   Then the Coke bus  [ Yes, the sponsors are everywhere. Subtle they are not! Must admit that their peppy music and young dancers did add to the carniva...

Signposts, barriers, information desk, brightly decked shops selling tennis memorabilia and, err... half-price strawberries in M&S. Its got to be the Wimbledon Championships 2012 ! Its heartening to see a spruced up SW19 and the bustling Wimbledon Town Centre. Time to head to Wimbledon Village for some celeb spotting now :D  

I'm sure there are many scatter-brained Indians around (not more than the statistical average one likes to think). However, the title of this post, eye-catching though it may be, does not really refer to 'mad' Indians. For those of you unfamiliar with the Danish language (and for some bizarre reason about 5 adults and 2 youngsters in my non-Danish friend circle seem to be up to speed with this Nordic language!) the title 'Indisk mad' translates as 'Indian food'. I encountered the phrase, not long ago, in picturesque Copenhagen. It never ceases to amaze me that whichever city I visit, some South Asian dude seems to have been there long enough to have a booming curry place. Is there any major capital city left in the world that doesn't  have at least one 'Indian' restaurant?? In most towns these restaurant have adapted themselves to suit the local palette- offering a fusion of dishes from the Indian sub-continent along with flavours popular lo...

There is nothing more disconcerting than finishing a blog post to near-perfection, pressing 'publish' and then being met with 'ERROR'. This is exactly what happened to my post on Mr Pablo Picasso and other fascinating anecdotes from a visit to Tate Britain some time ago. A few weeks have passed since then and I feel somewhat recovered from this blow to start this post again. So here goes: One weekend in late April my friends and I lunched on a medley of Kati Rolls from Soho and headed for an exhibition of Piccaso's work in London at the Tate Britain.The delicious kati rolls deserve a separate blog post to themselves, so I focus here on food for the soul rather than food for the stomach. I hadn't been to Tate Britain for over 5 years. It is the first of the existing four Tate Galleries in UK, set up in 1897 to house a collection of art owned by Henry Tate who had made his fortunes as a sugar refiner. More history about the galleries can be found here . ...

Today afternoon one of the headlines on Times of India said:   Reserve Bank of India reaches out to NRIs (Non-Resident Indians) to lift rupee.    The   article was about the weakening rupee due to spooked investors and a high demand for dollars. A worrying article in general but the comments from readers were hilarious. Could not resist pasting the screenshot here !  The last comment in Hindi is probably familiar to anyone who grew up in India. As I recall it is based on an old Indian TV commercial  :-)  [Bahot intelligent baat boli, Khaate kya ho : Very intelligent thing you said...what do you eat]