Travel Anecdotes

Just too hot to handle

by Tina Basu
written by Tina Basu
One of the best part of work is traveling. I visited quite a few cities which were new for me. I was in Vizag for a few days for some work. 
 
Vizag or Vishakhapattanam is a port city in Andhra Pradesh, South Eastern India, best known for its wonderful beaches and Naval activities. 
 
On this particular day, the team suggested a place for our lunch – according to them it was the best Biriyani place there! I think I was there in 2014. It was the month of June or July – it was hot, humid, sultry. The kind of weather which I completely hate! And biriyani in that weather was not on my mind. I still said yes because three hungry men were all enthusiastic about it. 
 
They ordered this pot biryani for themselves. I asked the waiter to suggest me something less spicy. Andhra food in anyway is super spicy. He suggested biriyani invariably. I thought of trying a coastal curry with steamed rice. The waiter suggested there’s hardly any spice – it’s prawn cooked in coconut milk and tempered with red chili. 
 
I was happy with the description and promptly ordered that. 
 
“Special se banana madam ke liye, pehli baar ayi hai humare yahan”, instructed one of the TSI. [Make it specially well for madam, she is visiting our city for the first time]
 
These guys surely wanted to impress their madam with their hospitality.
 
Our food was served in sometime. The three hungry men dived into their pot biriyanis and I tasted my coastal curry.
 
The rice was steaming hot, the curry was hot. 
 
My tongue was on fire, ears turning warm and red…. 
 
I was trying very hard to hold the tears in my eyes… 
 
But not for two long…
 
Eyes, nose everything started running in moments!
 
The supposedly mild coastal curry probably had only one thing – guntur chili!!!!
That’s supposed to be very very hot chili. And I am not a chili person at all.
 
All I wanted to do that time was run in any direction possible and stick my tongue in ice.
 
I gulped down water – it didn’t help.
 
There was a ketchup bottle – I had a spoonful of it – it didn’t help either.
 
The men in front thought their madam must have gone mad! One of them tasted the curry and said – “isme kahan mirchi hai?” [where is the chili in this?]
 
I was like :O don’t you guys open your mouth. 
 
Finally it was a big ice cream sundae that came to the rescue and my only lunch!
 
I probably should have stuck to the biriyani!
 
My savior to control the damage!
 
Meanwhile check out a refreshing drink
  in my Food Blog


 ***
This post is written for the A to Z Challenge 2016 for Day 10 Letter J. Visit A to Z, BlogChatter to read other beautiful bloggers!
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Life, Musing & Anecdotes

#AtoZChallenge 2016 Day 9 – I say happy Halloween

by Tina Basu
written by Tina Basu
In India we hardly celebrate Halloween. It’s only now that I see kids in my apartment complex come for a treat or trick session in groups! Well I am not sure what tricks they have ready. LOL.

Halloween was not there in my childhood either! But I was always kind of interested in it specially after these Hollywood movies. I was also lucky to witness the Halloween parade when I went to Disney Land, Paris in the month of October. Instead of the regular Disney parade at the end of the day they have this Halloween parade throughout the week. It was pretty cool to see that for the first time.

A year back I had a sleepover at my house. My besties V and R were visiting Bangalore and we had quite a nice time. It was incidentally also Halloween that day. Now, Halloween is never complete without some great make-up.

For last few years I have been trying my hands at make-up. You may say, new found creativity interest of mine. So I thought let’s get painted! We all are a crazy bunch in anyway and any crazy idea always clicks with us!

Kohls and lipsticks were out of the make-up box in a flash. And we had some quick crazy make up session! See for yourself and hey Happy Halloween for your next Halloween!

Pouting on Halloween!
Meanwhile check out a refreshing drink
  in my Food Blog


 ***
This post is written for the A to Z Challenge 2016 for Day 9 Letter I. Visit A to Z, BlogChatter to read other beautiful bloggers!
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TravelTravel Anecdotes

#AtoZChallenge 2016 Day 8 – Hair Pin Bends

by Tina Basu
written by Tina Basu
I have this weird problem of feeling nauseous while travelling in the hills. This has been with me for as long as I can remember. My mom tells me in my childhood I used to throw up in every darn trip in the hills and she had to bear the brunt of taking me and washing me up! She had hoped it will be okay with time as I grow up. But that isn’t the case. I still feel the same but thankfully in a little lesser intensity!

But I have noticed this has never happened to me abroad, like I have visited the Swiss Alps, the French Alps, Salsburg and some more heights but never faced such a problem. Thankfully, I can’t imagine myself throwing up at Titlis or Jungfraujoch and then invite some awkward glances from people!


This one time, me and Indro were visiting Connoor, and Ooty to celebrate our anniversary – our third if I am not wrong. It was a road trip, a pretty long one when you are in the hills. We had hired a driver because both of us are not comfortable in driving through the hills.

Ooty is a beautiful place. It was cold in December but bustling with people. After the mandatory Botanical Garden and Lake visit we were driving back to Bangalore. I was already feeling dizzy with all the driving for three days. We had a quick lunch at a restaurant before our descend.

Next day we were joining on work, all I wanted was to reach home little early and have a good sleep. I asked the driver if there is a fast but safe route to which he promptly said yes.

He drove slow, we at the back seat. The window on my side is rolled down as I wanted to breathe in the fresh air. But gradually my head started becoming heavy. With every turn, which were quite frequent, I was sliding on my husband’s side. Things inside head and stomach were swirling like as if a washing machine is on!

This driver was driving through bends – the dreaded hairpin bends!!!

I was prepared with a sickness bag and a lemon! [Ohh, this is a good tip, if you feel sick while travelling in the hills, feel nauseous any time, keep a lemon/lime handy. The aroma of it keeps you better. This is tried and tested, it helped even during pregnancy!!]

There were moments when I wanted to shout STOP THE CAR. But I stayed calm breathing through the lemon. Indro understood I was sick, he offered water like a good husband and asked if I wanted to halt for sometime. But halting on a hilly road means problem for drivers of both the sides. So I continued.

There was moment, when I thought I’ll tell them you go ahead in the car, I’ll walk down!

But somehow the lemon kept helping. I was distracting my mind to various things – people at work, cricket, blah blah. When nothing was working I thought of sleeping, but that didn’t work out too.

I was praying inside this darn winding road should just end.

Guess what – I SURVIVED. I survived 36 hairpin bends while coming down from the hill!!!! For me it’s like I have scaled the Everest! By the time I was in plain lands I was much better.

But I have vowed never to visit Ooty again!


Do you get nauseous in the hills? Or have a similar experience?

Until next time, Cheers!!

Source


Meanwhile check out a yum Stew Recipe
  in my Food Blog


 ***
This post is written for the A to Z Challenge 2016 for Day 8 Letter H. Visit A to Z, BlogChatter to read other beautiful bloggers!
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TravelTravel Anecdotes

Genting Highlands and the Chinese Couple

by Tina Basu
written by Tina Basu
A to Z challenge is definitely doing good to my memory and giving me a heartfelt grin every time I am writing a post. Thank god I chose to write anecdotes from my life. LOL. In 2004 we were visiting Malaysia – me and my parents. I was a freshman at college that time. Malaysia is definitely a shopper’s paradise if you know where to shop from. Actually, Bangkok takes the cake in shopping in these Asian countries.

Anyways, we were visiting Genting Highlands on this particular day. The ride through the cable car was awesome. We were staying within the theme park. After a sumptuous dinner at one of the restaurants we were hanging around and talking a long walk to our hotel.


I was walking ahead followed by my parents at some distance. An elderly Chinese couple were walking up from the other side. They quickly came towards me and started talking in Chinese all of a sudden! I could hardly understand anything and only thing I kept repeating was – I don’t speak Chinese!

I guess they didn’t understand me either.

But I could understand they were asking for some help.

Only Chinese word I knew at that time (or even now, I guess) was ‘ni hao’!!

The more I tried to explain them neither was I understanding anything, nor can I speak, they kept on asking in Chinese.

And seriously when two people are speaking so fluently and you don’t understand anything it feels funny to be the spectator.

What I could understand from all the gestures was they were lost and they wanted to get back to their hotel!

If you have visited Genting you will know the four hotels are color coded and you have to follow the colored lines along the walls to reach to your destination. 

I don’t know if things have changed now, though.

They were carrying the yellow card, with the hotel’s name in English. With some effort I could make them understand that if they followed the yellow line on the wall they’ll reach. Really hand gestures are a savior!

They said xie xie and left.

And guess what my parents did when they reached me – simply laughed at me!

This is a constant problem in my life. According to my parents and a lot of people I have quite a few Asian features on my face! I have small eyes, flatter nose etc etc. I used to be called Japanese when I was a kid because I looked like them! I don’t really believe in that, maybe I have little eyes but that doesn’t make you look like Chinese or Korean!

But this has happened with me quite a few times. Once in Mizoram, where I had gone for a trip, I was mistaken by their people as a Mizo. They were protesting against something, there was a rally and they came to our car and gave me a flag and said something in their language. Yes they picked me out from a car full of passengers!

Even in Kolkata, my hometown people used to speak to me first in Hindi, thinking I’ll not know Bengali, which is my mother tongue! Weird I say.


You guys tell me do I look that Asian???
this is me in childhood, I am the one in Blue
This is me from the time this incident happened. That’s my mum by my side.
This is me now, Feb 2016 and my little man
Do I look very Asian??

Until next time, Cheers!!

Meanwhile check out a yum Salad Recipe

  in my Food Blog


 ***
This post is written for the A to Z Challenge 2016 for Day 7 Letter G. Visit A to Z, BlogChatter to read other beautiful bloggers!



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Life, Musing & Anecdotes

#AtoZChallenge 2016 Day 6 – F for Faculty Fondness

by Tina Basu
written by Tina Basu
Guys admit it, everyone has had a crush on their teacher at least once in their life time! I am sure you had a crush on one of your faculty too. If you say no, you are lying!! Now I studied in an all-girls school where all teachers were also female. But in our times we had these exciting tuition classes.

I had joined a tuition class  (which was like another mini school) because many of my friends were joining it! I was in 7th or 8thstandard at that time. We had a lot of fun specially because we met a lot of new girls and ‘boys’ and made friends with some. That was also a place where we constantly judged a lot of girls and boys. Who has feelings for whom? Why this girl is getting so close to that boy, ohh that poor boy got dumped by that girlso on and so forth. 

Seriously when I think about it now, I can only say what nonsense creatures were we.


This was also the place where one day a hot dude entered the class – the maths class and everyone went :O awwww… the guy was a third year college student that time who had just joined there as the maths teacher! Vikram Sir, that’s what we called him!

I too was quite carried away by his charms! I used to (I still) hate maths but never missed a class just because this guy was cute! Okay okay, I was a gullible teenager then, it happens.

On a particular day this Vikram Sir had given some algebra equation to be solved. And I was trying hard to solve it only to get a good remark from him. I thought I was doing good and as he was passing by my bench I showed him my notebook. I was obviously not going right with my equation and he placed a finger on my notebook and said something. [I don’t even remember what he had said]

But I was careful enough to circle that part of the page where he had placed his finger and then pasted a cellophane paper patch on it!!!!

Seriously I was that naïve! I am laughing as I am writing this down!

I was travelling in a local bus once, I guess after a dance class, when I saw this Vikram Sir, sitting there. I simply looked at him and thought, does he recognize me? He smiled at me! And I don’t know why he smiled!


I still can’t digest how dim-witted I am sounding with this crush on teacher story! But it happens I guess, in everyone’s life!  

P.S. I seriously hope no one I know from that tuition class or this entity Vikram is reading this! 

This photo is so damn apt for that situation
Source
Let me know if you are enjoying the anecdotes!

Until next time, Cheers!!

Meanwhile check out an easy healthy fast food
  in my Food Blog


 ***
This post is written for the A to Z Challenge 2016 for Day 6 Letter F. Visit A to Z, BlogChatter to read other beautiful bloggers!
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Life, Musing & Anecdotes

#AtoZChallenge 2016 Day 5 – E for Emergency Room

by Tina Basu
written by Tina Basu
This is in 2009, I was staying in a PG in Bangalore and had some lovely friends there. We are still friends though we stay in different cities and countries now! One early morning my room-mate, the very sweet V, started complaining about stomach ache all of a sudden. This was 9thMay, I still remember the date.

We had been out for a dinner the previous night so thought she must be having some indigestion and gave her a ‘Pudin hara’ (an OTC popular drug) in that half asleep state. She was obedient enough to pop it in. But I heard she was crying in pain. Another friend (R) got in our room hearing her sobs. V was still complaining about pains!


“If you keep doing like this, we’ll take you to the hospital, now get back to sleep”, I almost scolded her!

But I was surprised when she said ‘yes please take’. V was not the one who would go to a doctor easily and she is willing to go to the hospital means she IS in pain.

We were on our way to the hospital in an auto-rickshaw when V started screaming in pain and then went limp all of a sudden. The auto was waiting at the red signal. The driver got scared too.

“Signal tod du?” he asked (should I break the signal?)

“Tod do” we replied in tandem. (break it)

We were at the ER in no time breaking all signals on our way. We were quite scared because we didn’t understand what was going on. We wheeled her in and got her on a bed when this junior doctor took details.

“I think it’s kidney stones” V cried aloud suddenly waking up from the unconscious.

We all looked at her in surprise. She was okay!

“That is for me to decide”, announced the doctor.

They ran few tests and gave her some painkillers so that she could be silent for some time. We were running here and there getting the payment done, taking her to those particular departments for the tests. Our third friend A was back at the PG after her night shift and joined us at the hospital.

I took her to the X-Ray department to get this chest X-Ray done.

The X-ray was over in a few minutes and I was helping her to get dressed. The nurse at the room was taking down some details in the file. She looked to be a calm, serene, soft spoken Keralian.

“Patient’s name”

I was tending to all her queries while V was coming out from behind the curtains
As the nurse uttered the next words V started howling holding my hands

“Tins, AIDS ho gaya mujhe…” sob sob sob (Tins, I caught AIDS)- They call me Tins instead of Tina

“27” I replied to the nurse aloud who was utterly shocked by now looking at V howling

I had to scream at V –AGE AGE, she asked you AGE!!!!

The tears stopped, the howling stopped in that fraction of a sec.

Tell me how can someone mishear AGE as AIDS!!!!

But thanks to the nurse’s accent, that’s what V had heard which resulted in all the hysteria.

I was still thinking whether to laugh, be annoyed or do what.

All I had to tell V was – Since when did AIDS virus started getting detected in a chest X-ray!!!

And AIDS…. Really???

We still LOL on this whenever we are together and discuss our 9th May mayhem.

P.S. She actually had developed kidney stones, but is all fine after a surgery and medication.


Love you V.   

Source


Let me know if you are enjoying the anecdotes!

Until next time, Cheers!!

Meanwhile check out an easy healthy breakfast recipe
  in my Food Blog


 ***
This post is written for the A to Z Challenge 2016 for Day 5 Letter E. Visit A to Z, BlogChatter to read other beautiful bloggers!


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