F.R.I.E.N.D.S.

I don’t exactly remember who recommended this amazing TV sitcom to me. 

But I have been glued onto it forever, downloading all the 10 seasons off torrent.  It rotates around the life of 6 friends, Ross, Rachel, Phoebe, Joey, Monica and Chandler. 

The Central Perk coffee shop seems like a character in itself, for F.R.I.E.N.D.S is surely incomplete without it!

From Joey’s lovable dumbness to Chandler’s witty sarcasm to Ross’ boring dinosaur talks and the sloppy divorces, the guys make up for a crack-up treat. Monica’s obsession with cleanliness, Phoebe’s crazy irrelevant talks and Rachel’s vanity-filled spoilt attitude all add to the insane drama, and create a lovable show. If there was a ‘Classics’ section for TV shows, as there is for novels, “Friends” would feature in that.

You can watch the entire season all over again, and chuckle at each of their jokes.

Phoebe’s dialogue, “They don't know that we know they know we know!” still remains my favorite till date, among many others.

JOEY'S MADNESS!

RACHEL'S HEARTBREAK!

I could absolutely not miss this picture! Joey in full swing :D

CHANDLER'S BRAINS!

MONICA'S FREAKISH NATURE!

TYPICAL ROSS!

PHOEBE'S CRAZY SPUNK!

Another one-liner also deserves a mention, since this reminds me of someone really close, “I grew up in a house with Monica, okay. If you didn't eat fast, you didn't eat.”

So, if you haven’t watched this TV series, you are missing on a lot of fun, for sure!
Go, grab a DVD set of Friends seasons 1 – 10, and then there’s WB, Star World and Zee Café that air random episodes of the ever-green series!

P.S. Here's a rare picture of how all the actors looked way back - in their teenage perhaps! Do notice the uncanny resemblance of Ross with Harry Potter's Snape!

Drool Food

“Isn’t that a very pretty furniture shop?” my friend pointed out the big yellow door, shining in the sun’s pride in Vijay Nagar. “Yeah, it sure is. But is it even a furniture shop? Let’s walk in someday.”
After some weeks, I found myself dragged till BYD, by a bunch of my girlies, who went there to have a look at the cute and charming owner. We are put on a 10-minute wait list, by their manager/waiter, after which we went to the adjacent shop, to grab a glass of lassi to quench our thirst. We returned in about 5 minutes, only to find people who arrived after us, walk in with a smile plastered on their face.

I was furious. I demanded an explanation by their manager who put our name on the wait list, only to find that he had been replaced by a sober looking young boy, who said “I would never break the list.” I reiterated “But they walked in right now, and arrived after us.” “No, mam. This is not possible.” “I saw it. Anyways, how much more time will it take?”, I asked with a clearly miffed tone.

BYD had infuriated me. My friend whispered in my ear, “This is the cute owner. I can’t believe you just fought with him.”  Too irritated to even turn my head, and without looking at the person my friend was pointing to, I muttered “Whatever. I don’t care. Someone needs to tell him not to break lines.”
After grabbing a table, I looked around the decors, and my mood lightened up due to the delightfully pleasant ambience and the awesome background playlist, as if it was tailor made for me. We had a quick bite of the cheesy French fries and left soon after.  It tasted fine, but didn’t match the overshowering praise which BYD had managed to instill in the minds of my college-mates.

The next visit to BYD, happened again, after a couple of months, when my classmates dragged me again for lunch, and one friend wanted to see the oh-so-famous-cute-owner. Surprisingly there was no waiting, and the owner served our mouth-watering food with such courtesy and politeness, that I smiled, for the first time since I came to BYD. The Bomb Burger, Sandwich, Pizza all were so amazing! The moment I looked at my friend, I noticed that she had her mouth open in awe. Like her own, actual mouth.  I had to literally ask her to shut it up! BYD added yet another crazy fan to their already huge fanbase – my friend – she was crazy about the owner! :P

The third visit was so special, that it made me fall in love with BYD, not with the owner (:P) , but with the place for what it was. Redecorating, innovating – they had put umbrellas and benches to comfort the people on the wait list. Not just that, the person who took our order goofed it up and the chocolate shakes got mixed up with some other table.  Since the food was so tempting, and tasted superb, I overlooked the goofup. But he walked up to us, admitted it was his mistake and gave us another complimentary shake, which he had mixed up in the first place! And this is what made me love BYD, apart from their lovely ambience, soothing music, ever-changing innovative ideas. BYD will soon be the desi version of “Central Perk”, as shown in the TV sitcom “Friends”, if it can manage to expand, for now, it’s running short on space!

Go to BYD, for the food, the ambience, the amazing staff, and NOT  just for the cute owner! BYD has a lot more to offer than that. And it's sure to brighten up your mood!

P.S. I have always dreamt of opening my very own restaurant since I was 13, maybe younger. And BYD is my inspiration, now! Yes, I’m a pursuing commerce from SRCC, supposedly, Asia’s best commerce college.  But what the hell! There’s just one life, right?

Book Review - Kane and Abel

It is one of the best books I have laid my hands on, till date. Truly, Jeffrey Archer’s masterpiece.

It’s a saga, of two men, William Kane and Abel Rosnovski, born on the same day and how their destinies intertwine. Kane is the blue-blooded heir to a banking fortune, whose life is blighted by the early loss of his father on the Titanic, leaving Kane Jr. in charge of the Kane & Cabot Bank. He proves to be good with numbers, graduates from Harvard and is blessed with business acumen. 

Abel is the one-nippled, son of a Polish baron, who gets deported to Siberia after the First World War, manages to escape the clutches of brutal beatings and heart-wrenching slavery  and makes his way to America.  Soon after, he starts his life as a waiter in the Hotel Plaza. With fate by his side and grit in his mind, he soon paves his way, rises to the top ranks and buys some stock in the hotel chain. During the Great depression of 1930, his mentor –Davis, needs a backer and thus approaches Kane & Cabot Bank. Kane’s bank refuses to lend him the money and so he throws himself off the 17th floor of his hotel, not strong enough to see his own bankruptcy. Abel blames Kane for Davis’ death. Richmond Hotels is however bailed out, by an anonymous benefactor. But, Abel vows vengeance from Kane. 

The beautifully descriptive yet highly intriguing mystery makes this book un-put-down-able.  World War I, World War II and the Great Depression of 1930 hugely shape the lives of the two protagonists, whose destinies keep crisscrossing, like when battling life and death in the war, where Abel unknowingly saves Kane’s life.

All this while, Abel has a daughter, Florentyna,named so in memory of his dead sister, whereas Kane has a son, Richard. Abel vents out his anger by plotting to ruin Kane’s bank, and thus making him bankrupt, only fit for begging on the streets. Next thing we know, Florentyna, falls in love with Richard. Through many crookish twists and turns, and the near-misses, this book makes for a rollercoaster ride.

Highly unpredictable and very engrossing, it makes every moment a page-turning mystery. The slavery, the after-effects of war, the economic depression, all make for a very interesting read.

Fiction intertwined with realistic incidents, revengeful ruthlessness, the fight for power, love, ego and so much more, makes this book no less than a classic. It might be the classiest book you’ve ever read. Fiction, non-fiction, historical incidents, insider trading, the never-ending lust for power and money: all blended into one.

Think you’re the smartest person out there? You might just find your match in Abel or Kane. Or both.

For those who are a sucker for love stories, the romance between Richard and Florentyna will sweep you away.

Even when I was half-way through the book, I just knew that this book will ricochet right into my top 5 books. Books you can’t simply give a miss!

And if you can’t enough of it, then go for “The Prodigal Daughter” – the sequel to Kane and Abel. It’s one hell of a novel too. But I’ll save that review for later. :D

Time - Are we standing still or are we in motion?

As the popular saying goes, time doesn’t stand still, it moves. Time heals all wounds. The phrase is good enough for consoling friends and family. But is it even remotely true?  Everything will pass by, just give it some time. But, what if we find out that time has been the greatest cover-up in human history? What if the farcical notion of time, which we have been led to believe is just a tale spun around to keep our daily life in commotion? A clock accounts for time; it keeps track of things lined up throughout the day for us, but by no means is it conclusive evidence as to the existence of time. Maybe, we have been cheated. Maybe, time doesn’t pass by. We are passing by. Maybe, it’s us, after all. Maybe, we are traversing the universe. Maybe.

“Sometimes I think
When I see trees from a moving train,
It seems
They go in the opposite way.
But in reality
The trees are standing still.
So can it be
That all our centuries,
Row upon row, are standing still?
Can it be that time is fixed,
And we alone are in motion?
Can it be that in this one moment
All moments,
All centuries are hidden?
No future
No past.”

The aforementioned extract of Javed Akhtar’s poem elucidates the poignant revelation staring at us in the face. The centuries have stood still and motionless, the moments have always been frozen. The universe is expanding, with its arms stretching out to embrace all the galaxies and stars. Outside bounds we can imagine, a part of the universe has always escaped us. A part that has remained untouched and truly serene, where time doesn’t exist but will soon be born. And we know, whatever’s born will have its death.

Time travels a long thread,

but it will have to die its own death. 

Maybe the Mayans miscalculated, 2012 is not the end of our dearest blue planet earth but time will meet its end, maybe in a gazillion years, but it sure will. We, humans are born in a cage of time. We take birth and die inside this cage. But outside the cage, lies another world, a world unknown to us, a world waiting to be explored, a world full of endless chances and a world filled with life.

The Danglers

As the sun descends down the horizon, Rajeev walks to the nearest bench in the park and sits down. Tired of the drowning city voices, he looks for calmness and shuts his eyes. A young girl, of about 10 years, sparkling with joy comes and takes a seat right next to him. Miffed with himself and his life, he doesn’t even bother to greet the girl, and shuts his eyes again. Thinking of how rude he had been, he opens his eyes, only to find the girl walking away into the winter darkness.

Her seat is quickly replaced by a beautiful woman in her late 20s, who has strikingly similar features to the previous girl, and who is whining about how bad the city has turned and how she has been robbed in a foreign city, with no money to return to her hotel. The worst thing being, s

he can’t even remember her hotel’s name. She had gone to a jewellery store and splurged her money on danglers, and had then been robbed. The only thing remaining with her, were those danglers. Rajeev, who had been patiently listening to her cockeyed fable, with a smirk plastered on his face, asks her to show him the danglers, so that he could actually believe her. She frantically searches for the danglers and mutters angrily that she might have lost them, and storms furiously into the darkness.


 As Rajeev gets up to leave, he sees the danglers lying beneath the bench and runs hastily to stop the girl, and blames himself for not believing her and gives her the danglers and some money, enough to last a week. She promises to return back the money.


As Rajeev walks back to the bench, he finds the 10 year girl, with whom he had been uncannily hostile, searching for something.

“Have you lost something?” he asks. “Yes, my danglers.”


An eerie silence greets Rajeev. He feels like a miserable fool. “Bam! I should have just trusted my instincts.”, he mutters in a hushed tone. He had foolishly parted with his own money.