Thursday, January 29, 2009

Wayanad

Just came back from a 3-day trip to Wayanad, Kalpetta to be precise. I and Richa had gone with Shyam and Gayatri, although we did offer a free ride to Alistair also. Unfortunately for him, he was holed up in Hyderabad :-).

Some not-so-funny and funny incidents -

On the Mysore highway, a black swift was trying to overtake me from the left. Now, Mysore highway is a 2-lane (each side of median) road, with many U-turns, speed breakers, and umpteen no of interruptions. Some of them nobdoy can even anticipate - such as - ladies plucking flowers from the flowerbeds on the median, cows, bullock-carts and tractors travelling on the wrong side of the road and coming in opposite direction, and people going for a stroll right next to the median. One has to very watchful on this road. Anyways, the black swift driver was probably asleep in the wee hours and in his endeavour to overtake me, rammed straight into the backside of a mini-bus. I could see in my RVM, the bonet of his car crumbling. He was at a decent speed (around 50+). Just hope he is not dead.

In Wayanad, I and Shyam wanted some booze. We did not like the bar at the hotel, so decided to procure it from outside. Now, I did not know at all that in a communist state like Kerala, the govt controls even the sale of booze. We had to go to KSBC shop to get booze. We realized what we were getting into only after we reached that place. Dont even ask how pathetic that experience was. Had it not been for Shyam, I would have abandoned this idea completely.

The good thing about Kerala is its natural beauty - its greenery. It is quite refreshing to see so many trees and forests while driving. You actually dont feel tired at all. 

Will post some snaps soon.

Thursday, January 8, 2009

Skin creams, lotions and how much I hate them

I see so many people buying the so called "age-miracle" skin lotions, creams, moisturisers in super-markets these days, and for a substantially heavy price. I am not sure the price they are paying for it is simply restricted to money. There could be other side effects of these creams which are never even mentioned.

First of all, I want to know what is the need to apply "age-miracle" creams in the age band of 20-30 when the skin is at its best. If for some reason, the skin isn't so good, then why do we not pay a visit to a dermatologist. It probably is cheaper to do so than to buy an age-miracle cream which costs 590/- and in all probability does not have any effect either. Moreover, it is not simply about cost. A dermatologist surely knows much more about the skin than we do, and a cosmetologist does. Moreover, being doctors, they can take a more holistic approach.

Yesterday, I was visiting one of my dad's friend, who happens to be a very good dermatologist. Richa asked him what should be done if you have a dry skin type. Firstly, he suggested to throw out all such fancy creams, and then told two very simple moisturisers -

  • Olive oil
  • A mixture of Glycerine (100ml), Rose water (100ml) and Lemon Juice (20ml)
These two, as per him, are the best moisturisers, in increasing order of effectiveness. Also, one has to watch his diet carefully - take in proper amount of nutrition and keep the junk away. Nothing else is required was his conclusive judgement.

I hope some sanity dawns upon people who regularly resort to off-the-shelf creams and lotions.

Monday, January 5, 2009

The Bizzare and The Amazing

On my recent trip to Australia, I had the opportunity to experience some really weird and amazing things. Please note that I am not being critical here. My intention is to just report things in a factual manner :-).

I was surprised to find that bathrooms there do not have a latch. One needs to call out before he pays a visit to the bathroom. Otherwise... Moreover, none of the internal doors have latches. Moreover, many a times, half of the internal door is made up of ground-glass (translucent one). This holds true even in 4-star hotels in Australia.

When I was hunting for a rental accommodation in Bangalore, one person showed us a 2BHK house with attached bathrooms. When I inspected the house, it had a single bathroom attached to 2 bedrooms. This kind of architecture is unacceptable in India, and I was baffled to say the least. What if you forget to latch one of the doors of the bathroom? In Australia, such an architecture is very common place. In addition, you have to keep in mind that none of the doors have latches. 

Lets move on to some amazing things now. 

You can actually cycle down to your office. Cycles are allowed in trains and trams. Pretty easy, isn't it. Somehow, the bicycle still holds me spellbound. I don't quite know why, but I do like it very much.

When I was visiting the blue-mountains, I went to a shop called "Josephans". This shop serves some of the world's best chocolates, and undoubtedly the world's best hot-chocolate. The hot-chocolate that I drank after lunch was pure chocolate. No milk. No sugar. Nothing but beautiful dark chocolate. Of course, you have to love the slightly bitter taste of dark-chocolate to appreciate the hot dark-chocolate. Truly amazing.