What are your Hobbies?

I had been to an interview recently, and one of the points in the questionnaire was Mention your Hobbies. At that moment I really didn't have an answer. I am a voracious reader and love music but thats not a hobby. Although my 200 plus unique stamps collection is definitely something to brag about, I found it too childish to be mentioned. It was then that I realized, I never had a new hobby after school. Maybe I was too busy studying or learning a new technology, as my work demands. Maybe the tide of busy life took me too far to realize what actually makes me happy.

So I have made up my mind to go ahead and engage myself into something that is fulfilling. Life is not all about work is it?

p.s. What is that new hobby, you ask? Well I will mention about it in my upcoming posts.

Food & Wine

Another batch of my dad's finest wines, was out last evening and I got to taste it first. The taste and aroma of the wine only seems to get better. My dad, I believe, is one of the finest chefs (only for a privileged few) in the world and he only gets better day by day. His experiments with various dishes and the red wine are unbeatable. Lucky for me, my wife too is a good cook and is almost getting there. Surprisingly I'm not that fat for the food fanatic that I am. But I do know this, the ability to cook good food, is a god-given gift.
I cant cook. But I'm blessed with a lot of fine dining. Some might say it comes with practice, but then anyone could practice KFC and be a millionaire right? The taste of the food lies in the hands of the cook.
So here's to all who know their cooking well, and put a smile on the face of those who relish it. Cheers!

Butcher Island

My wife and I made a New Year resolution to visit all the famous places in Mumbai. Its strange that people live their entire life in a city and still know little about it. Although I have been to almost all the tourist / historic places in Mumbai, I was surprised to hear about Butcher Island. No it is not a fictitious island straight from a horror movie, it is off the coast of Mumbai, completely restricted to public, and only used as an oil terminal. The local fishermen will cruise you from a distance near the island and even tell you scary stories about the place, for a few hundreds. But what amuses me, is that I never thought there could ever be an island of this name around my favorite city. How many surprises do you have in store for me Mumbai?

Controversial Reading

I just started reading this new book by Ashwin Sanghi, called the Rozabal Line. The author desperately tries to mimick Dan Brown's success, by trying to prove that Jesus never died on the cross, but survived and eventually came to India. He stayed there for the rest of his life and died in a place in Kashmir, marked by a tomb, now worshiped by the Muslims. A little research on this book, and I found that this tomb suddenly became a tourist attraction and Lonely Planet even made a documentary on it. The Indian government later sealed this location and stopped further tourist activity. Although the book cannot keep up with any of Dan Brown's novels (Da Vinci Code being my favorite), it makes me wonder, do authors need a controversy to sell their books. Is this hype more important than the quality of the writing? Sadly this is how books are sold these days, either mention something that hurts religious sentiments, or blemish a famous public/historic figure, thereby creating a certain interest to read it. I mean thats why I got this novel, right?