Not that diary

I realised a few days ago that I hardly ever post experiences of my favourite city in the world - London.  As autumn slowly unfurls, the sun occasionally peeks through, and the dark winter is still some while away, I can confidently share my affection for my adopted home. At least this month I love it, knowing full well I shall be moaning about the grey skies all too soon! Here is a selection of one-liners spotted across the cityscape as I visited my regular haunts in the last few weeks. The first was at London Waterloo, a station I've seen change over a decade. This was at the Northern Line platform going into Central London. One weekday in early September, I was walking briskly along the South Bank to meet a friend for lunch. My destination was The River Wharf (great food, awfully slow service, also the venue of my first ever  work Xmas lunch yearssss ago). Enroute I saw this at the Wahaca market stall. It made me chuckle. At Clapham Junction (below), I've alw...

"Pune is a village" "Pune is the Oxford of India" It has often been said of India: Whatever is true, the opposite is also true.  This holds goods for Pune just as well as any other place in the country. Today a seasoned Punekar (resident of Pune) stated that his city is a village, i.e. everyone knows everyone. He was instantly proved right. Ten minutes into my first conversation with him, we worked out that he knew the son of the owner of my serviced apartment block - one of many such buildings in town.  Half an hour later he was waving to someone in the cafe who lives right at the other end of town. Maybe a village in terms of connections but with nearly 6 million residents Pune is almost the same size at London. Pune has a whole host of coveted universities that attract the brightest minds from across India. It also has a booming IT sector, a growing automobile industry and bio-medical science hubs. There should be no dearth of ignited minds. However in th...

It's not the first time I have written about them and it won't be the last. Sigh! Shopping Malls - do I love them, do I detest them, am I just relieved they exist? I don't know. But I'm certainly not indifferent to them. Somewhere between the nostalgia of my childhood street markets in Delhi and the recently discovered awesomeness of an air-conditioned shopping mall in humidity-laden Mumbai lie my true feelings about this commercial edifice. Like all things American the idea of concentrated shopping has been branded, packaged and sold well to the world. India is no exception. It works because, you know what, it's practical. So what has changed since my very first post on this blog. Not much in theory. A new mall opens in an Indian city. Residents are attracted like moths to fire. They burn money and time and everyone goes home happy and content. I'm surprised yoga still exists. Surely nirvana is achieved in a post-mall trip. As half of India continues...

For someone who is not a beer-drinker and unlikely to convert, I have spent an awful lot of time in the last four months posing next to a beer bottle or being in the company of friends who are happily glugging away pitcher after pitcher. This is not, however, just any beer. This is Bira. So what makes it so special, you ask? Persuaded by the raving feedback from friends and colleagues I decided to do some internet digging. Bira is in fact Bira 91, an Indian craft beer launched just over a year ago in March 2015. Fun fact: The 91 is India’s international dial code. The story goes that the founder (and probably his start-up mates) went on a road-trip around Europe. They found the perfect blend in Belgium. I n went a lot of passion, market research, hard-work and the vision for a trendy new beer. Out came Bira   White and Bira Blond with a cheeky monkey logo.   It grew by word of mouth. The latest news shows they can’t keep up...

The title of this post says it all. Is it every decade that you end up in a work environment that provides daily moments of utter panic interspersed with colleagues deciding on an impromptu ‘Bollywood singathon’ and serious discussions about the best mango farms in a 100 km radius? I think it’s probably once a lifetime thing. Therefore fortunate are ye all who have experienced the pinnacle of whacky working in this western city of India :D A far cry from the very ‘propah’ British office, each day it is a mystery whether I will be greeted by a new bespoke song, a breakfast order of “omelette pao”, or everyone suddenly clapping as you enter. You guessed it - my local colleagues were winding me up with the clapping. There was raucous laughter as I looked totally confused. I looked over my shoulder to check if someone important had come in. Then rolled my eyes and grinned. I had picked the short straw that day. I have woefully accepted that it can’t be a “jalebi day” every day. I...

A few weeks after rambling around Patagonia and Puerto Natales I found myself more than 10,000 miles away in Pune, a city in western India. With utter self-control I have decided not to write about the traffic and cityscape that characterise a bustling Indian city. Well at least not in this post! I usually start with food but this time it's worth describing the sights. My first ever visit and an extended stay in Pune city, located about 150 km east of Mumbai, has thrown up interesting surprises. There is history aplenty associated with this medium-sized town. As with hundreds of other places in India that are jostling their way up the economic ladder, the past seems largely forgotten. Joined by a couple more intrepid souls from across India and overseas, I have managed to see several landmarks. One of my favourite places in the city is the Aga Khan Palace and grounds. Reminiscent of any old ‘haveli’-style palace, Gandhi was imprisoned here for some time before independen...

Pray contain those gasps. I haven't suddenly lowered my culinary standards. However, exceptional circumstances call for exceptions. It so transpired, that a few weeks ago, I was surrounded by the striking landscape of Patagonia in southern Chile. Having spent most of the day walking and 'tour bus-ing' across the National Reserve, Torres del Paine , I had exhausted my full quota of cereal bars and almonds. Any stored calories were taken up by me battling the strong gusts of wind that kept throwing me off the path as our group walked up to the breathtaking Salto Grande waterfalls. Needless to say I survived the walk, albeit with a growling stomach.  When we reached the next rest point, my joy knew no bounds as I spotted a little shop selling instant Veggie pot noodles at this very southern latitude. They even provided free hot water. It was here that I savoured every bite of my 'saviour' pot noodles. Yum, yum - both for the noodles and the view! ...

Officially known as the ‘Ruta del Fin del Mundo’, the Road to the End of the World lies in Chile’s southernmost region, Magallanes y de la Antártica Chilena . This was indeed the path I travelled on my recent, awe-inspiring visit to this narrow but very, very long country. With so much to see I only touched the tip of the iceberg, literally, being only a few kilometers away from floating icebergs near the town of Punta Arenas. The summer landscape in Patagonia (Torres del Paine) threw new surprises at every turn. The clouds changed shape at the blink of an eye. At one point I looked up to the sky and saw castle-like structures morph into conch shells and then into a stack of perfectly-formed discs. My iphone camera could not do full justice to this cumulus art, but here is a taster. We admired the  ñandú  bird and the guanacos that grazed peacefully in the distance, as if they had no care in the world. That was just before we saw a puma run across th...