Campus Life :’)

March 23, 2016 / Srishty / 2 Comments

Hello there!

I don’t feel good about not writing here since a long time. However, this is not the only thing in my life that’s facing the wrath of procrastination, almost everything in my life is a witness to that.

I am a promise keeper though, I mentioned that I’ll do a post about my MBA campus in India before moving to Germany for the second leg of my course. I wasn’t able to write a post because the last few days in college went by super fast, before moving to Berlin, but I took lots of pictures on my last day in college, simply to save for this post. 🙂

So, here it is, MDI Gurgaon, India in all its glory. I should also mention here that campuses outside India are usually not very huge but then, I have a hundred more reasons to miss my campus life, definitely one of my most cherished times!

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That would be ‘Gurukul’, the block where all the classes and lectures happen. Gurukul is a Sanskrit/Hindi word meaning the place of the teacher where people used to go for studies in olden times, the name of this block is quite fitting! That small pantry like canteen you see is always booming with people despite the fact that everyone hates the canteen guy in this particular canteen. After all, its the easiest way to grab a bite in the 15-minute breaks between lectures.

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This is the garden in front of the block that you just saw and some set of hostels.

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‘Change Masters’, fancy name for our mess and few hostels are also situated in this building. Since the girls hostel for my batch was a little far off, most of our time was spent in this particular building only. Oh, I miss having hearty breakfasts in the mess now! 😛

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This is the customary campus picture, if you search for images of MDI Gurgaon, you’ll find prettier and photoshop versions of this block – ‘Scholars’! I cannot say why. 😛 This block houses library, auditorium, faculty offices and other such things.

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This is the other side of Scholars and I believe that this side also deserves some love when it comes to the pictures on-line of our campus.

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I really, really miss walking on this road. It was simply perfect, taking strolls on this road. It is the main road in our campus connecting all the blocks.

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I consider myself lucky that the dual degree has given me an opportunity to have a taste of studying here in abroad, as it is an altogether different experience. However, even before coming here, I knew that nothing would be able to replicate the charm of campus life. Chilling in hostels all day long when you have so much pending work to do, going to places only because you have a discount coupon or a free Uber ride for that place, taking strolls at midnight in the campus or playing cricket ( 😀 ), checking the autowallahs right outside the campus smoking up, walking up to the tea stall right outside the campus and feeling immediately secure when you enter the campus premises after coming back from somewhere in the night. Every campus has some peculiar and fun things attached to it, one that is gloriously peculiar for MDI is ‘Jha ji’. He is a parantha (Indian stuffed flat bread) stall owner who comes to our campus only at midnight, say, from 12 am to 5 am. He probably makes the best paranthas I have tasted in my entire life, and a lot of people can vouch for that. Keeping aside the paranthas even, this guy Jha ji is so peculiar in himself. He is a super slow guy and probably a lazy one at that because he skips coming to campus many a time. Finally when he comes, the crowds outside his stall are huge in the middle of the night and due to his slow nature, people have to wait for hours to get a single parantha (no exaggeration there). Well worth the wait though. In the bone chilling Delhi winters, he reduces the frequency of his ‘campus visits’, so during that time, whenever he comes, a mail to all the batches is circulated by someone who sees him coming or whoever calls him to check whether he is coming. ‘Jha ji on campus’ is a celebration time.

Writing all this, I am now acutely aware of how much I miss the campus life. All kinds of experiences have their own charm but campus life is literally irreplaceable in the strictest sense. I wish I had lived more semesters in hostel during my engineering too because engineering life is anyway so different, a good hostel life on top of it would have been perfect. I really envy NITs & IITs people (two major engineering colleges in India) where it is almost compulsory for students to live in hostels. Not to mention that NITs & IITs have gorgeous campuses! I am sure for many of them, their engineering time was the best time of their lives. For me, it may be my post graduation time, the time that I spent in this campus! 🙂

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Cafe Tafri – Sector 14, Gurgaon

October 2, 2015October 2, 2015 / Srishty / 16 Comments

Hello people from this part of the world!

I know I talked about being more regular but it is what it is. No excuses. I just don’t get the time to post or I am way too exhausted when I get the time. Before entering the B-School life, I would never have even imagined that I’ll sleep for only 3-4 hours a day but again, it is what it is. 🙂

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Keeping those things aside, I wanted to let you know guys know about this place that I visited a long time ago near my campus. So, there’s this homely market near my college. It belongs to the sector-14 residential area, so we call it Sector-14 market. The Cafe Tafri is located there.

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My experience here was really, really good. I loved the things that I tried from the menu, although they were only two. However, both were supremely tasty. The pizza was thin crust and while thin crusts can be problematic for some, this crust was very well-done and the toppings were also very satiating. The lasagne was the other thing and that was also super tasty, although heavy. I enjoyed both the pizza and lasagne a lot.

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The prices at Cafe Tafri are also bearable, if not affordable. For one person, it would set you back around 150 – 250 INR.

The thing that I really need to mention is the ambience. Look at the picture where a scooted (yes, scooter!) is hanging as a show piece. Do you see the floor seating arrangement in that photo? How awesome is that? You sit and hang your legs downwards. It looks so comfortable (although I sat on a regular table there).

I definitely wish to visit this place again to try out other things on the menu, considering how close it is to campus. I’ll see if I can update this post when I get to try other foods. If you live nearby, definitely check this place out!

That would be it from my side and I hopefully will write the next post sooner! 🙂

Oh, and, don’t forget to tell me your experience if you have been here.

Not Just Paranthas!

December 3, 2014December 3, 2014 / Srishty / 19 Comments

……..and some confusions (blog related) that I am facing. I am also confused about which one to go for first but I guess you will all be interested in Paranthas more than confusions, so yeah, decision made pretty much. 😀

First of all, my phone is not working anymore. Something went wrong and, therefore, I am not able to click pictures for the blog. I also lost the pictures I clicked in ‘Not Just Paranthas’. I’ll see if I have any in my computer.

Yes, regarding this place, it can simply be summed up in one phrase – average. The problem with me having North Indian food in restaurants is that I have a whole lot of places to compare it to. I mean apart from the food that gets cooked in North Indian families, we always have the option to compare it to awesome dhabas that we have visited. In that regard, it is disappointing. The paranthas that I had were not super tasty but they were not bad either. If you have nice, hygienic dhabas around you or you have access to good paranthas due to some reason (family, PG owner etc), you can give this place a miss. No need to pay 200 bucks for one average Parantha. However, if you work in a high-end place like Cyber Hub where Dhabas are pretty much non-existent or you don’t have access to good paranthas due to some reason but Parantha is one of those things that satiates your hunger like nobody’s business (like me), then you should check this place out. Amid all this, there are three things I really like about this place:

Wide Variety of Paranthas
The lassi (buttermilk) was really nice. I did not notice if they had other such drinks on the menu, I would like to try if they have.
The water that they served had coriander and some other healthy herbs added which did not make much of a difference to the flavor but still it was a nice touch. 🙂

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So, try if you are craving Paranthas and cannot have a better option.

Oh, and, in the past few days, I have tried so many new places in Cyber Hub, Gurgaon as I have started visiting my office after a long leave and a long stint at the client. I don’t know how will I ever document them. :O But I will. 🙂

Regarding the confusions, well, it is just that I am thinking about some new things for the blog but I don’t know where or how to start. They are very small changes but time-consuming nonetheless.So, if you can give me any tips on how to clear my mind and go about things step by step, it would be great. 🙂

Thanks for stopping by! 🙂

SodaBottleOpenerWala, Cyber Hub, Gurgaon

July 19, 2014July 19, 2014 / Srishty / 18 Comments

If you guys know about Cyber Hub, you will be happy (or jealous 😛 ) to know that I work right next to Cyber Hub (like millions of other people, so don’t be jealous 🙂 ). What is Cyber Hub, you ask? Well, it is a new hangout place in Gurgaon that has taken Delhi-NCR by storm for its internationally famous food chains and beautifully constructed architecture. It is situated in Cyber City, the heart of Gurgaon, if you may. Cyber City is actually the corporate hub of Gurgaon, it is where most of the offices are situated in nice, posh buildings built by DLF. These buildings, of course, have their own pros and cons, which all you environment conscious people already know of 🙂 . Anyway, so Cyber Hub is situated in Cyber City and my office is also in Cyber City and that too in the building next to Cyber Hub. So the moment I get down the stairs (mostly the lift 😛 ), all the unaffordable restaurants call out to me. 😛 While all these restaurants are famous in some or the other way, the one that has really garnered a lot of hype is ‘SodaBottleOpenerWala’. Before you all kill me for not coming to the point, I’ll start discussing my visit to this restaurant and this won’t take long for what I experienced here was just what I had perceived before visiting.

Nobody exactly knows the reason as to why this is one of the most hyped restaurants at Cyber Hub, but I would like to attribute that to two reasons mainly:

The name and the decor. Who wouldn’t be intrigued by a restaurant whose name is ‘Soda Bottle Opener Wala’ and which has kettles, pictures of Parsi uncles, furniture and tiles like in a vintage Bombay Cafe for decor? This is totally something that would make heads turn.
The Parsi and Bombay Cafe style food. I think there are hardly any restaurants in Delhi offering Parsi cuisine, add to that the fact that this was conceptualized by restaurateur AD Singh and we have a reason why people would take notice.

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Now comes the most important question, how was the food? As I already mentioned, I had a preconceived notion about this place and I was proved right. That’s because I had heard rave reviews about this place but the dishes mentioned in people’s praises were mostly non-vegetarian. I also noticed on Zomato that the menu has limited options for vegetarians. So, I had expected that this would be a good place only for non-vegetarians. This came out to be true. 🙂 We ordered thick cheesy masala fries, Vada Pav, Chicken Baida Roti and Ice Cream Soda. ‘Thick cheesy masala fries’ were basically french fries served with a dollop of Cheese spread. Err, I am sitting in a fine dining restaurant paying through my nose, I don’t expect that when the menu says ‘Thick Cheesy Masala Fries’. They were delicious but why would I pay so much for french fries with Cheese spread? Vada Pav was pretty average again. The ‘Chicken Baida Roti’ looked extremely tempting and it almost made me become a non-vegetarian again! The person by whom it was tasted gave full points to it. I don’t remember how the Ice Cream Soda tasted but I guess it was good enough. So, yes, only the non-vegetarian dish tasted great. Having said that, the menu has dishes with pretty quirky names and I really want to try them. 😛 Also, there are many dishes like ‘Chicken Berry Pulao’ and ‘Keema Pao’ which have been raved over and over again by many people. So, I am guessing they must be good.

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Chicken Baida Roti. I know the picture doesn’t do justice to my praises.

Love the attention to detail. See the Parsi Uncle logo on tissue? 🙂

Overall verdict: The food is not out of this world, but we hardly get to taste Parsi cuisine here in Delhi. Hence, there are many new things to be tried here and the non-vegetarian dishes taste extremely good. I think it is worth a try. 🙂

PS: I hope this gives some ideas to you, Tatsat. 😛

Kingdom of Dreams

June 24, 2014June 24, 2014 / Srishty / 19 Comments

All of us in Delhi-NCR were pretty curious & excited when this hangout place first opened. I knew I’ll go here someday and kept it in my bucket list to be considered later. Finally, we visited it.

Too crowded!

I should begin by telling you what exactly this place is. Basically, this is a huge palace like structure which has two major attractions – a culture gully and a theater to showcase musical plays. What’s the culture gully, you ask? On a very basic level, it’s a food court along with shops selling knick-knacks, touristy stuff like in malls, you know. But what makes it special is that it is built in the form of a real street and on this street are the various restaurants, shops and stand-alone food stalls, all representing different states of India. One moment, you are crossing Mumbai Central and the next moment, you are standing outside a temple from Chennai. 🙂 Also, there is some sort of entertainment going on this street, all the time. Either it would be folk dances, or Bollywood dances or a cricket match getting screened. The architecture is just too special (and, of course, unique). About the theater, I have got to say only two things. First, everyone who has visited any of the two musicals (known as ‘Zangoora-The Gypsy Prince’ and ‘Jhumroo’) has raved about it and has rated it as gorgeous, ethereal and a must watch. As per them, the musicals are more awesome than everything else at this place. So, that means that they are just way too awesome 😀 . Second thing is that I couldn’t watch any of the musicals 😛 as they were houseful at that time and they are pretty costly too.

IPL match being screened 🙂

Now coming back to the place that I visited, the Culture Gully. It’s an experience in itself. When you enter, you are welcomed by an artificial blue sky, with a Punjabi restaurant and a truck on one side and a quaint Chinese restaurant on the other. And too many people :/. That is the only bad thing about this place. Anyway, as you move forward, you are overwhelmed by what all this gully (street) has in store for you. There is a Goan restaurant, a Chennai/ Chettinad restaurant, a Lucknowi restaurant, a magician, artists, souvenir shops representing North-East, Mumbai, the Rajasthani puppets, the Mumbai Central station, Kathakali and what not along with regular food stalls from Kerala, Hyderabad, Delhi, Mumbai and what not 🙂 . There is a bridge that takes you to the first floor where are all the cosmopolitan places. There is a book store, a coffee shop, a spa, a palmist and what not. What I found innovative was that it has two bars, one of which is IIFA (Bollywood awards) themed, done up in a very modern way and the other one is a typical shamiyana (old royal Indian drinking places or bars). The old style one is B.E.A.U.T.I.F.U.L. I can’t tell you how gorgeous I found it. It was completely palace-like and done up entirely in rich purple. How royal! If you love bar-hopping or drinking, you would fall in love with this gorgeous place more than me.

The vintage royal style bar or as the Nawabs called it – ‘ Shamiyana’ 😉

Mumbai 🙂

Chennai 🙂

Few things to take note of:

How entry works: You buy a ticket or use a member’s card. You can use that card or the ticket to buy food and souvenirs etc. As a fresh entrant to the culture gully, you have to use up the entire amount of your card or ticket, else it’ll go waste. However, if you use up your fresh ticket amount and still recharge the card again inside the gully and are not able to use that up entirely, it can be used a second time.
I honestly don’t remember the ticket price but I guess it is 750 INR per person on weekends and 600 INR on weekdays. If you have a member’s card, this price gets halved. 😉 For the seats of the musicals, the cheapest ticket costs 1000 INR or 1500 INR (not sure).
If you plan to visit here, get hold of a member’s card. Someone you know in Delhi-NCR would definitely have it. Once you are inside, you can get one made for yourself. It will be sent to you by courier later.
At most of the food stalls or restaurants, food might be average (and over-priced). But then we are going for the overall experience and the architecture, right?
I have heard really good things about the Lucknowi restaurant. More than everything else, I love the ambiance. Everything done up in Lucknow old school style and qawwalis (Sufi music popular in Lucknow) being performed, it makes for a very enchanting dine-out experience.
This place is VERY crowded. Try going on the weekdays, if possible? (It is in Gurgaon, by the way).

At night

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In the end, I want to say this: Highly recommended! 😀 For the architecture, the experience, the overwhelming beauty. 🙂

Life Instagrammed! #7

April 16, 2014 / Srishty / 4 Comments

Hi there! 😀

It has been so long since I wrote here and even longer since I did an instagram snippets post. Well, work-wise everything remained pretty much the same and there were a lot of things occupying my mind relating to work, studying, reading and what not but isn’t that the case always? So, I guess, I was just plain lazy to post. 🙂

And what better way to break the break than a life snippets post, yeah? Here is whatever I clicked since around March 14 (I have reasons to remember the dates. No, not any romantic reason :D):

1. The book that I was reading in the beginning of March. Can anybody take a guess which book it is?

2. A photograph of the famous Olive Bistro in Cyber Hub taken from far away (because its too pricey to go near :P). I have heard really good things about this place, but I think the opinions are bound to be affected by the beautiful, beautiful ambiance. Do you see that terrace with the vintage-y white segregated areas and the lights! The indoors are as beautiful. :’)

3. I was going to my hometown to celebrate Holi with my cousins. In this picture, I wait for the train to arrive.

4. This was when I tried my hands on a Chinese dish that I learnt about on the internet. It did not turn out great, but it was fine. 😛

5. Trying out a hot dog from Cafe DT in Cyber Hub. This Cafe DT is great, you guys! I mean when you pass by this place, you will never even give a second glance to it, it looks like those metro station fast food joints (or railway station food joints if you don’t know what am I talking about). However, if you do try any of the things here, believe you me, they are going to turn out very, very delicious. Everything on offer is pretty basic stuff but everything tastes good, like the vegetable momos, the hot dogs. Oh, and, DO NOT miss the 4700 BC popcorns!!

6. You remember this from the holi post?

7. I love this nail paint. You may have seen it here.

8. Shahi Paneer. One of the yummiest dishes we eat here in North India. This is truly the stuff what dreams are made of. 😀

A quick note: Hey Guys! If you live in Delhi-NCR, I would suggest you give a go to Cyber Hub, Gurgaon for an evening out. This place has really fabulous fine dining restaurants opening here for the corporate people in Cyber City. It might be a fun place to hang out!

Keep Smiling,

Srishty

Life of Srish

Because every tiny thing is worth a snapshot

Gurgaon