California Pizza, Infiniti Mall, Malad, Mumbai

the rhird visit to this mall in the last 2 days! after a late night event, my cousin Ashwin and I were looking for places to eat. and we stopped at Infiniti mall. it was way past 11 pm and we were sceptical of finding any good places to eat. the food courts were all closed , but we were thankful for California Pizza which was open, thanks to a few late customers who had not finished eating.

at first they told us that the kitchen was closed, then after requesting, they couldnt say no to 2 starving clients.

The United Sports Bar and Grill, Infinity Mall, Malad West, Mumbai

The United, sports bar and grill was our choice for lunch, on nov 9, 2014 when me and wifey niki were treated by our relatives Elaine, Reuben and Aldridge.

Global Sigree Restaurant, Malad, Mumbai

Global Sigree is one of the most popular restaurants in Mumbai and the sheer number of people that were present on that night was testament to this.  we managed to get in thanks to our relatives who had booked a table earlier. true to the name, Global Sigree had a Mid east, GUlf based theme going on. every table had a flag of a middle eastern country and there were flags on the ceiling and even the buffet was Arabian themed.

Cafe Mondegar's and Colaba

another extremely popular hang out place at Colaba, i remember hearing about it in the 90's for the CD juke box they had for patrons. and this was my first visit and i was told that nothings changed.

Bade Mian Restaurant at Colaba, Mumbai

a very popular restaurant, Bade Mian is famous for its mutton kebabs. me and niki were travelling in a friends car, when niki saw Bade Mian sign board from a distance. we stopped the car and asked the driver to meet us after 4 hours and gave him some lunch money. we were pleasantly surprised at the restaurant.

Jamuna Building Mumbai

Jamuna Building was where my father grew up when he was studying his Law in Mumbai, even back then he remembers the building to be made from wooden flooring and now the building would have been least 80 years old.

I visited the building for the very first time in November, 2014 and took few photos for my dad.

The Pune dairies - Day 7 - Bye Bye Pune, Hello Mumbai

finished our breakfast at Vohuman cafe and prepared ourselves for the nearly 3 hour drive from Pune to Mumbai. we again thank our friends Colin at The 3 Hungry Men for arranging cab services to pick us and drop us safely from Pune to Mumbai, Borivali.

somewhere along the highway, we stopped over to pick up ...wait for it... for CHIKKI and the driver knew exactly where to take us.

The Pune dairies - Day 4,5,6 - Vohuman Cafe

the best part about staying at Sassoon road was Vohuman Cafe. in fact i am pretty sure that its the best part of staying in Pune!

one reviewer on zomato goes to write " great place, great food, just dont try striking up a conversation with the grumpy old man at the counter".

Vohuman cafe, dont be surprised by the old school looks, the cracks and crevices on the floor and walls only reflects the fact that Vohuman Cafe has stood the test of time catering to the tastes of everyone belonging at every strata of society. that too at an affordable price!

the 4 days we stayed in Pune , we visited the place at least 8 times for breakfast and evening coffee.  we only missed breakfast the first morning as we didnt know the place was close by and took a horrible decision of visiting a 3 star hotel for breakfast buffet that cost us Rs 500/- per person.

The Pune Diaries - Day 6 - The Asian Box

The Asian Box is a another popular food joint situated (wherelse) at Koregaon park. i had gone for a hair cut and niki decided to spoil herself at the spa called Le Clinique. a quick post here

The Pune Dairies - Day 5 and 6 - Inkarnation Tattoo

Sidhanth Nigam - incredibly talented guy and one of the nicest , down to earth people i have ever met. another round of thanks goes to Colin of the 3 Hungry men and his sister Shereen for introducing me to him.

Inkarnation studio, situated on Senapati Bapat road, is a tiny room that has really loud extreme metal music playing in the background when Mr. Sid is working , either on sketches or tattooing people.

i always wanted to get an Iron Maiden tattoo, as its my all time fav band and probably the only reason why i am alive today and also probably the only reason i am a musician. (started listening to Maiden was i was 5 years old in 1985 and picked up playing the guitar when i was 8! is my all time fav story as well)

The Pune Dairies - Day 5 - Toons Cafe

Visit to Pune would be incomplete if u dont come to Toon's Cafe for a quick bite or to quench your thirst. i also learnt that its one of the few (or maybe the only) pubs that place classic rock and metal music. i thank the 3 Hungry men again for recommending.

MG road in Pune is a shoppers delight. we first picked up a few shirts for myself from Louis Philppe and Niki tried to purchase a few sarees from the boutique next to Toons. meanwhile i had already fixed my appointment with Sid, to get a tattoo. (next blog post).

The Pune dairies - Day 5 - Shaniwar Wada

From Wiki - Shaniwarwada (Marathi: शनिवार वाडा) is an 18th-century fort in the city of Pune in Maharashtra, India. Built in 1746,[1] it was the seat of the Peshwa rulers of the Maratha Empire until 1818 when the Peshwas lost control to the British East India Company, after the Third Anglo-Maratha War. The fort itself was largely destroyed in 1828 by an unexplained fire, but the surviving structures are now maintained as a tourist site.

Following the rise of the Maratha Empire, the palace became the center of Indian politics in the 18th century

i am always fascinated with ruined buildings and visit to Shaniwar Wada was not something i had in mind earlier. at first i thought it was a restaurant serving vada on saturdays!.
rick to wada cost Rs 50/- from the lodge and entrance tickets was Rs 10/-

The Pune Dairies - Day 4 - Habibi

after visiting the tribal museum, both niki and I were hunggggryyyy!!! we took a rick to Koregaon park , and after spending time at a deserted mall, decided to try authentic Greek food at Euriska.

The Pune Dairies - Day 4 - Tribal Art Museum

nikki loves museums. we took a rick from Aga Khan palace to the tribal art museum for Rs 180/- and the entrance ticket was prices at Rs 20/-

we would have reached a lot earlier, but the address mentioned on google maps was completely wrong and we landed up in some other place at least 5 kms away from the intended destination. thanks to a couple of friends people, we were given the proper directions and reached the tribal museum around lunch time.

highlight was Warli forlk paintings at the museum. along with tribal jewellery, handrcrafts, weapons , masks, agri tools, etc.

The Pune Diaries - Day 4 - Aga Khan Palace

The Aga Khan Palace was built by Sultan Muhammed Shah Aga Khan III in Pune, India. Built in 1892, it is one of the biggest landmarks in Indian history. The palace was an act of charity by the Sultan who wanted to help the poor in the neighbouring areas of Pune, who were drastically hit by famine.

Aga Khan Palace is a majestic building and is considered to be one of the greatest marvels of India. The palace is closely linked to the Indian freedom movement as it served as a prison for Mahatma Gandhi, his wife Kasturba Gandhi, his secretary Mahadev Desai and Sarojini Naidu. It is also the place where Kasturba Gandhi and Mahadev Desai died.  In 2003, Archeological Survey of India (ASI) declared the place as a monument of national importance.

the above content taken from wiki

the place is really worth visiting, mostly for the beautiful paintings inside the rooms and tons of artifacts and memorabilia from the Gandhian era.

The Pune Diaries - Day 3 - Arthur's Theme - Restaurant

our first night in Pune and we decided to spend it watching a movie at Inox which was only a couple of blocks away from where we stayed. the movie was gone girl and after picking up the tickets for the last show, we decided to have dinner at a fancy restaurant.
looked up this place on google and zomato and decided to come here coz of the excellent reviews for steak! i love beef and if i am travelling outslde Mangalore, i make sure i get my plate full of the red meat. took a rick and we reached Koregaon park in 20 mins.

we reached quite early and we were lucky to find a table for 2. in about half hour the place was full and people had to wait till the tables cleared.

The Matheran Diaries - Day 3 - Leaving Matheran + Chikki at Lonavla + Hello Pune

it was time to leave Matheran and head to Pune. woke up early as usual and after a quick breakfast, we took along with us a lady porter to accompany us with our bags and walk to Dasturi Naka where our designated cabbie Sameer Khan waiting to take us to Pune.

The Matheran Diaries - Day 2 - Matheran at Night , Street photography

a quick run down of the streets of Matheran in case u are visiting this blog for the first time.

• Matheran is a popular tourist hill station situated about 90 km from Mumbai
• vehicles are banned here, rickshaw pullers and horses are popular means of transport
• the place is also famous for leather products, shoes and chikki and sweets. 

the streets of Matheran is filled with people at all times. most of the tourists are locals (Marathi speaking) from neighbouring districts , some from neighbouring states and few foreigners as well. 

The Matheran Diaries - Day 2 - Lords Central Hotel, Matheran + Breakfast, Lunch and Dinner

a quick photo series of Lord's Central Hotel at Matheran

Breakfast and meeting Mr Lord

we woke up early and had a lovely pritein rich bread and omlette breakfast. then met Mr. Lord himself, the owner/prop at Lords Central Hotel who was really helpful in planning our next few days travel itinerary. Mr. Lord lives in Mumbai and comes to Matheran on weekends to look after the hotel.

The Matheran Diaries - Day 2 - Parsi graveyard at Matheran

its  pretty spooky at first to find a graveyard in the middle of a forest on a mountain and Niki decided we take a look.

we met a caretaker family thats been living there for 2 generations and most of the graves belonged to the Lord family of Matheran (the hotel we stayed at belongs to the Lords family as well). we also met a dog named Pari which translates to Angel.

The Matheran Diaries - Day 2 - Sightseeing in Matheran

we woke up at around 8 am and after a quick but healthy breakfast at Lords Central Hotel decided to walk around Matheran, a decision that both of us would regret considering it would mean we would be walking for more than 6 km for about 3 hours! the terrain was rugged and we were tempted many a times to hire the local horse rides but decided to walk anyways.

The Matheran Diaries - Day 1 - Checking In at Lords Central Hotel and Matheran at Night

we had booked our hotel rooms in advance so we knew where we were going to stay. the 3 nights and 2 days we spent at Lords, cost us Rs 13,502/-  (we paid the next day), which included breakfast, lunch and dinner with tea and cake being served in the morning and evening.

The Matheran Diaries - Day 1 - Mangalore to Mumbai to Matheran

here i am back with another blog series , this time visiting Magnificent Matheran, which is a popular hill station situated around 90 kms from Mumbai.

this time, i carried my 5dmarkiii + EF 16-35 f 2.8 L II USM and Sigma 35 mm f 1.4 ART lens with me.

the duration of our holiday was from Oct 31 to Nov 10th and the places we visited included Lonavala, Matheran, Pune and Mumbai.

Shooting Portraits with Elimchrom 175 cm Octabox as back light and plain background

I have received a lot of requests to do a quick post of shooting portraits with a white background (backlight and plain ) and so have writing this post. FYI this might not be the text book way of achieving the result, but as long as it works for me and the client is happy, its fine :)

The Elinchrom 175 cm Octabox is one of the best for shooting portraits. the 175 cm is really large and gives soft, diffused lighting to the subject. 

in this quick post, i want to show u some examples where i have taken advantage of the large 175 cm size and used the elinchrom 175 octa as backlight and even as a plain white background

Goodbye Seychelles, Hello Dubai Hello Bengaluru

so 7 days had passed so quickly and now we were waiting for our cabbie to pick us up and drop us to the international airport.
ours was the first flight from Mahe to Dubai and since protocol demands we be at the airport at least 3 hours in advance meant that we would be spending a lot of time at the departure terminal at Mahe.

The Seychelles Diaries - Day 7 - Glass Bottom Boat

Day 7 :  so here it was, our very last day! once again, our tour guide had informed us that we would be the only couple to go on the glass bottom boat ride as the other tourists had rescheduled their plans.

so effectively this turned out to be a very private , romantic date, with just me and my wife niki.

The Seychelles Diaries - Day 6 - Scuba Diving

Scuba diving was something nikki was interested to do the very first day we landed in Seychelles! and the place we stayed at was called "Diver's Lodge" kept reminding her of scuba diving and we had "Big Blue Divers" for our immediate next door neighbours.
me on the other hand, well, am petrified of water, have always been, and so was not really keen to go scuba diving. when we met the instructor, i nearly signed up for scuba diving as well, but my senses prevailed and i decided not to enrol while nikki was jumping for joy!

The Seychelles Diaries - Day 5 - Sunday at Victoria + Lunch at Butcher's Grill + Dinner at La Plage

the only time we actually got to explore the city on our own was on day 5, which also happened to be a lazy sunday.

after our super awesome breakfast, we decided to travel to Victoria by local bus as it was the cheapest way to get to the main city and back. we totally forgot to overlook the fact that on a Sunday, nothing open! literally, all the shops are closed, the markets closed , only a few restaurants are open.

managed to ask a few friendly locals if any restaurants would be open as it was lunch time already, and we finally got to eat Seychelles Junk Food courtesy The Butcher's Grill.

The Seychelles Diaries - Day 4 - Praslin + Ladigue + Emmanuelle house + Anse Volbert +Coco De Mer + Anse Lazio +Baobab Pizza

for me, day 4 was the most memorable from our entire Seychelles trip. thats coz we got to do so much and see so much and meet a lot of people.

Catamaran from Mahe to Praslin and Ladigue : 

another early breakfast and Paul our designated driver dropped us from our lodge to the harbour where our tour operator Sultanne was waiting for ur with our catamaran pass.

Mahe was the main island with a population of about 75000 people while Praslin (pronounced Praa-Lean) and Ladigue were the other 2 important and big islands , with a combined population of not more than 4000 people.

everyone depended on catamaran for transport from one island to another and it was really expensive! our each ticket cost ur around SRs 3000/- and i was told the locals have a monthly pass to make commuting easier.

The Seychelles Diaries - Day 3 - Copolia Nature Trail + Beau Valon beach at night

Nikki and I were extremely excited on day 3 after finding out that we were the only couple to be part of Copolia nature trail with our very own personal tour guide Steve.

as usual we were greeted to the sounds of colourful birds waking us up, and after my fav breakfast 'bacon-ham-egg' we were off to explore the beautiful mountains of Seychelles.