Breakfast Extravaganza

A friend of mine once quoted "Lunch and dinner is overrated. Breakfast is definitely the most important meal of the day". A good breakfast advice is rooted in serious scientific studies too.

Having a grand breakfast means getting up early in the morning, you surely cannot have it post 12 o'clock. It will be called a brunch then or rather, early lunch. So being a late riser, I definitely missed out on those "breakfast in style" for a long time. But better late than never!

There are plenty of places where one can enjoy a beautiful breakfast, relax and have a good time. Thanks to ever increasing fad of "themed restaurants", Bangalore boasts of a huge list of such places. Outdoor sittings, artistically themed, European decor, open terrace sittings,cosy places, book cafes etc are just a few to name.

I have recently been to a few. Did not take many, but think images below can somehow provide a glimpse of what I relished!

Cafe Max: Located in Indiranagar, it has open spaces and it is airy with sunlight coming in through the open windows. They have  pastry counter and the sitting is casual. Good food and nice ambiance. I had apple pie and farmer's breakfast with coffee. Yum!!

Ant's cafe: I had a pleasant surprise after reaching this place that Ant stands for Action Northeast Trust and is a part of  voluntary organisation that works on the development issues in Northeast India. Greeted by a map of NE India with all the ethnic tribes mentioned on it, you enter into a store showcasing and selling all the traditional stuff of Northeast. The cafe is in the first floor, the steps leading to it has interesting facts about ants. Beautiful setting with greenery all around, there are no windows and I would love to sit there when it rains. They keep books for reading and they serve breakfast the whole day. English breakfast or Belgian breakfast with pancakes are a must try!


154 Breakfast Club: A small cosy place in  residential area in Koramangala. They have an open kitchen and homely sitting. Services are prompt though weekends are busy. Had the "Big Breakfast". Good food and awesome omelettes!


Smoke House Deli: Quite the posh place it is. European styles, clean, pristine ambience with amazing music. Mostly European crowd, they have an outdoor sitting too. White color seemed to be the theme of the place. They say that all their dishes are gluten and trans fat free, so be ready for a guilt free trip to good food. Awesome service.


MTR: Madras Tiffin Room, the one in Indiranagar is almost always crowded and they have space outside to wait in line. You can buy coffee/tea while waiting! Masala dosas are the best here. Filter coffee is a must-try.


It is not only about the food, it is about the whole experience. Fresh air and energetic people around makes this time of the day really good. What more do you need to do on an weekend, it is all about relaxing right. So call up friends to plan a grand breakfast or grab a book one fine Saturday morning and off you go! Happy Weekend Breakfasting ..


Courtesy: Zomato
My guide to restaurants!

Being alone and being lonely

Do you not mind going to the movies alone? Do you not mind mall hopping alone? Do you not mind having a coffee and reading a book at a cafe alone? Do you not mind travelling alone? Do you not mind going to the beach and sit alone? Do you not mind sitting and eating alone?

If your answer to all or any of these is no, then I belong to your club. Our species might be rare but definitely not absent. Us doing these does not mean that we are dejected by friends, family or lovers or we are freaks. My colleagues calls me a 'weirdo' because I sometimes go to movies alone or go for shopping alone. I don't mind being called that because I know I am just as normal as them.

Probably we are very comfortable in our own company, listening to the thoughts that crawls through our minds. Or we just want to go out and we do, as simple as that!

I have my breakfast alone at office and I like it. Not a morning person and can't handle gossip at 8 o'clock. But I do have coffee and lunch with my friends at office.

I have been staying alone for the past 5 years. And the questions comes from every possible direction that what the hell I do alone? What do I eat? With whom do I talk to? What do I do at weekends? Don't I get bored? Do I have friends at all? The curiosity of humans at other people's  expense is incredible!

Yes, I stay alone. I have hobbies and interests. I cook my food and eat. I watch romcom and love it. I listen to music and probably sway to some favorite numbers. I have my folks back home and I have people in my life who loves me enough to let me have my space. They don't suffocate me with probing questions and they don't investigate my case. They care enough to just let me be. I have few but special friends. We may not share a minute to minute report but we do share our happiness and troubles. My life is good.

I might look alone but definitely am not lonely. There is a huge difference, my friend.

Immeasurable love

We all love and we are all loved. It is a basic emotion and is the most sought after. It is an extremely fulfilling feeling and is the root of many heart wrenching stories. People rise in love and achieve greatness in life. People lose in love and succumb to many levels of deaths in one lifetime. So love is all there is and they say "love is not for the faint hearted".

But can we measure love..if yes, what are the dimensions to measure it in? What is just the right amount of love for it to be sustainable? What duration must love live to prove its genuinity? Can't we love deeply but briefly, passionately but selfishly? All the terms, conditions and boundaries that makes us self-appointed judges of love distracts us from the truth that love is boundless, timeless and has a mind of its own. It is not a slave to our philosophies and man-developed theories. Love has wings and it flies. It is pure and heart-driven, innocent and tumultuous.

A mother's love is the purest of all and there is certainly no doubt about it. A mother can love all her children equally and infinitely. But is romantic love divisible i.e can you love more than two people at the same time? If you do, does it mean that you really love neither of them or you love both of them? Is this possible and does this kind of love exists?

Long gone are the days when people had to wait for months to get a reply to their love letters. Probably it will be carried by a bird or a man by foot across great distances. What remarkable patience they might have had! Now we are into instant messaging and instant calls.

"The double ticks has become blue, why has not she replied yet?She probably does not care for me."

"I called him like 2 times, why has not he called back yet? He probably does not think of me at all."

"He did not plan to come and meet me, he wanted to stay in. Why? he does not have any interest in me anymore."

How do you know and how do you measure the love? The time it took for her to reply after reading your messages or the number of times he sent her flowers. If a person has loved before, does this fact make him/her less capable of loving again?How much time gap is appropriate? Simple yet quite complicated.

How can we measure something which is itself not measurable, it has no units. Maybe love is vast like the universe and deep like the sea, not limited by days, months or years. In this mundane world, are not we lucky to still find love no matter how brief or deep, how shallow or selfish, how pure or exclusive.  Can we just hold on to it and not spend our limited and precious time in defining and measuring it?

Dear heart

Dear Heart.

It's you and me.
Against this world.

Stay close.

Don't wake me up.

Don't wake me up
I already am in my senses
Even though it might seem
This is not real
This will not last.

Don't wake me up
I have not felt this awake
Since a long time.

Don't wake me up
I want to sleep and live this dream
Just a little while longer.

The art of letting it go.

You know you want it. You know you can’t have it. And this makes you want it more.

The heart is always the culprit in this kind of mess. The mind already knows that it does not belong to you and so there is no logic yearning for it. But does your heart listen?

Not everything in the world is for you to win and make it yours. Love. career, money, happiness, peace, comfort, luxury-there is no end to what this mortal’s heart wants. Often it happens, in this crazy stubborn want for “something” makes us lose what we already have and what is already ours. Want makes us blind and oblivious to the concept of “content”.

Our share in everything in this world is already measured and kept aside and will never change, no matter how much we fight and sulk. Wanting “it” which is not ours always leads to misery and ends in pain causing hurt and dismay. There are innumerable instances where ordinary men has turned into poets writing about their yearning and unfulfilled dreams. Pain has a strange beauty and emptiness has great inspiration.

Buddha has taught the Four Noble Truths: Life is suffering. All suffering is caused by some “want”. Suffering can be overcome and happiness can be attained. And there is a path to overcome suffering.

“Most of our troubles are due to our passionate desire for and attachment to things that we misapprehend as enduring entities.”~Dalai Lama

We all want to be happy yet we do things to ourselves that cause us pain. Man is a set of contradictions and never ceases to surprise ourselves of what we are capable of. The heart wants what it wants and it often refuses to give an explanation. There is no cure and there is no redemption.

Zen philosophy says that when you stop trying to grasp, own, and control the world around you, you give it the freedom to fulfill you without the power to destroy you. That’s why letting go is so important: letting go is letting happiness in.

Everything is an illusion. To be truly happy, you have to learn the art of letting it go.

Faith restored

It happened yesterday.

I was travelling back from an official trip, exhausted. The day started at 7:30 am and I took the cab from airport at 9 pm. On the way somehow I kept thinking how the human kind is selfish and becoming demonic in nature with each passing day. Neared my home around 10:30 pm and after getting in I realized I left my mobile in the cab. I rushed downstairs but obviously the cab had left. I panicked and without a mobile I felt helpless. Luckily my house owners were awake and I asked for their help. Called at my number around 15 -20 times but the cab driver did not answer. Then we called the customer care of the cab service twice and finally got the cab driver details.

He said that he has the phone with him but he is already on the highway so it is not possible for him to come back then. I offered to pay the fare and he said he will come back early morning. I hardly slept and woke up in the wee hours of the morning and waited for him to come. He came.

He came and gave me back my mobile phone. I said sorry that I bothered him. He said he is sorry that he did not check the cab after dropping me. I was grateful and relief spread over me.

There are still a few souls among us who are kind and honest. I have pushed my doubts some miles away for now. A simple act has restored my faith in our kind.