Life Unpacked

Hanging out with pals in likes of Mocha or Cafe Coffee Day, I always found myself stuck with the coffee section in the menu, particularly because even though I am a passionate foodie I have no knowledge beyond the famous cappuccinos and easy-to-get instant varieties. But I knew this would change the moment I came across the invitation for a Coffee tasting session to be hosted by Kalyan Karmakar (I have been an ardent follower of his blog since past two years, so yeah, I was super excited at this prospect).... The first thing on the agenda was a coffee quiz which introduced me to the a bunch of coffee facts, one of which is that the most expensive coffee bean is the one eaten and excreted by Sumatran Cats (yikes!). Later after learning coffee 101 from Kalyan Karmakar, the attending bloggers were sorted into groups based on a question that interrogated how they drink coffee, which intended to reveal their food personality. I chose an option which hinted that I am interested in gourme...

Looking back, I simply fail to understand how in the world could I miss two live gigs of this band when I was there both the times! The band I'm talking about is The Supersonics. I caught them live a few days ago, last Saturday to be precise, and all I could do was be all ears with my face beaming with awe. Yes, they are that good; classic rock and roll riffs married beautifully with Lynyrd Skynyrd-esque vibe is how I can describe this band. Honestly, I highly recommend you folks to check out them out. Awesome music teamed with a beautiful location (Bandra Ampitheater), what else can I ask for! Prior to The Supersonics, Bombay Bassment, an another great band performed. Their music type leans more towards hip-hop meets drums n' bass; giving rise to an eclectic sound which is indeed amazing and definitely a crowd-pleaser. The tropical hints in their music is what drew me in. Do try listening "Never be the same" by Bombay Bassment. All in all, it was a hot yet gre...

Morning of Day 3 was the craziest and sickest thing that happened to me. I understand that after constantly working day-in-and-out and being sleep-deprived one is bound to get frustrated, but how dumb is it lashing out at an another individual? It is horrible, you know, being constantly humiliate; for trying to help others, for trying to co-operate, and heck even for demanding rights for self! Well, that's a precise summary of the scene that forenoon. And after spending three lovely days there, occurrence of something like this did ensure a bitter aftertaste. There isn't much to talk about the performances of Day 3 because I couldn't watch bands other than Sky Rabbit, Pentagram and Karsh Kale + NH7 All Stars, although I did end up listening to a bit of Party Scribe in between as the stage on which they performed was diagonally opposite the Bacardi Stage. Pentagram's act was top-notch and a rare one too, as they rarely perform early evening! The crowd that had gathere...

After an undeniably chilled out Day 1, this day was an ultimate test of patience. From getting into conflicts to standing at one place for hours, everything was done. And in its amidst, I was being constantly reminded- "The real work has just begun, kiddo". Skipping out on the details of the day, let me take you directly to the evening which boasted of two headlining acts in its kitty. The bands which I wanted to watch (Devoid, Scribe, Skindred and Textures) were all playing at my stage i.e. Bacardi Rock Arena. So yeah, I managed to listen all of them and watch the latter two. Devoid's act signified the Barcadi stage coming into action and then the stage witnessed Scribe taking over it after Devoid. Unfortunately, I couldn't see  these two Mumbai metal scene legends but the excitement from the audience did manage to seep past the barricades and reach me backstage. The mosh-pit, according to the people who were in it, was legendary as almost no one in the pit escape...

Staying in a housing colony comes with its own share of pros and cons. One of such said cons is having to hear an earful from an aunty when you football misses the goal and accidently ends up landing on spoiling the rangoli she had painstakingly laid down at the entrance- and that, my folks, is my earliest surviving memory of a ‘rangoli’. An Indian artform which has successfully managed to survive the turn of the centuries, rangoli, in its true literal sense, translates into a festive celebration of colours. Although rangoli is known by a different name and made using varied mediums in every geographical area, the main thought behind it remains the same, that is, to attract good luck. Traditionally, rangoli is made by women on auspicious days using mediums ranging from coloured powders to flower petals. Rice too is innovatively used to make rangoli. Coloured rice rangolis and rice paste rangolis are proofs to that. Types Of Rangoli Pookalam from Karnataka The t...

Getting up at six in the morning after a sleep deprived Day 0 was a bit of a pain but all the tiredness vanished as I entered the venue- Laxmi Lawns, the cold winds that blew across was partly responsible and they were the thing which made me blame myself for not carrying my cardigan (Which I had packed but later excluded thinking that Pune would be hot enough to rule out the possibility of needing a cardigan). The day was indeed filled with some buzz as I worked right from the morning uptil the afternoon at Bacardi Rock Arena (I love my stage!). Skindred had their sound check during that time frame and boy! the sound check sounded so awesome that made most of us speculate how epic their performance scheduled for the next day would be. Later, as there wasn't any act or sound check pending on my stage, I was free from work and caught the bands and artists playing on the other stages. As only three stages out of six were active on Day 1, of which I was interested in two i.e. Dewar...

It was a Thursday morning, the clock showed the time of 4'o clock (approximately), after barely getting a three hours long sleep, a reluctant yet excited me dragged myself out of the bed and got ready to face the adventure ahead. The streets were empty and I struggled to find a rickshaw to the station, after a lot of waiting I did get one and from there it was a smooth commute to the office. The problems started arising once we hit Pune; the driver of the bus we were in was detained for about an hour by the traffic police without any solid reason and then later on, after reaching a certain road the driver had no clue about the direction to the location! It was a real test of patience as the drive to Pune from Mumbai which generally takes four hours at maximum took a bit more than six hours! Finally we arrived at the venue at around 12.30pm and then the rest of the day saw us touring the venue and getting segregated into our departments. Honestly speaking, the venue was done up b...