Pakoda,Redando Beach & SPA !

Two lazy days...

Saturday ,11-June-2005

After past few unusual days when the day started for me at 3:30 in the morning, Saturday appears to be such a nice thing. So got up from sleep at 10:30. Had noodles for breakfast.

Meanwhile my roommates were in full action in kitchen. They were preparing Aloo-Gobi curry & some sweet out of milk & rava (Bengalis call rava as ‘Sooji’).Once the lunch was ready, we went to swimming pool in the apartment to build up the apetite.

Though I don’t know swimming, I enjoy being in water. Tried to get some tips to learn swimming. After the attempt in pool, it was time to go to SPA. It always feels good & relaxing to be in the hot steamy SPA. Back to apartment to have lunch.

Now to spend evening we headed to Redando beach which is near Torrance.We reached the beach by Metro bus.

Redando beach has King’s Harbour, Redando Pier and Seaside Lagoon. Though the beach looked to be ordinary, the way the infrastructure is built around it to make it a visiting place is impressive. Couldn’t help thinking of some amazing beaches of India which are handled very badly.

Walked through the beach & seaside lagoon. Everywhere there was only smell..’fish’. The restaurants were cooking up marine delicies out of fishes,crabs,shrimps & what not!

After the beach, our next destination was the Indian Grocery Shop in Crenshaw Boulavde.A travel in metro & a little longer walk, we were in the shop.We had came across this Indian Grocery Shop in google when we were looking for some grocery items.

Raj,the owner of shop was more than happy to see us again in the shop.We picked up rice bags(these are imported from Bangalore & have address of Bangalore on the bag with a kannada name “Ravi”!!), dhals(My Bengali roommates picked up ‘moor dhal’,a red variety of dhal), basin, mustard oil(Bengalis use this for cooking ), pickle & butter. But the problem now was how to take all these to apartment.We were about to call a taxi,when Raj told us that he is going to drop us to our place.We for courtesy told him why he should take the trouble.He insisted & we agreed.

Raj closed his shop, took us in his car & dropped to our apartment.

We couldn't stop admiring Raj’s helping nature. Looks like Indians will be (more) good to fellow Indians (only) when they are away from India!!!

Time to cook…
I prepared Sambar & rice. While Asis, roommate was busy with the basin.I was wondering what he is upto.Slowly the intentions became clear.He was about to make ‘Onion Pakodas’(which Bengalis call “Piyabji”).Meanwhile few visitors came to our apartment to meet my other roommate, Prosnjit.For courtesy we offered the pakoda plate & those guys almost finished the plate :)

It was a nice dinner with steaming rice, sambar, pakodas & pickle. Looked like roommates liked the sambar!

Post-dinner,as usual it was time to sit & talk. As always talks went through Bangalore,Calcutta,Toyota,Honda,Torrance,Vegas,LA,Bryan Adams,football and many other things.As both my roommates have spent few months in Bangalore,they have a strong liking for Bangalore. Mention Bangalore, they will be happy to talk about it. One guy in particular is a big fan of "Corner House" icecreams.Couldn't help going for a small flashback to Corner house & time spent with friends there.

Sunday

12-June-2005

Our plan of going to LA was called off because of my lazy roommate!!

After preparing lunch,we headed to the pool. I spent some time in pool & more time in SPA.I had carried the book “Selfish Gene” given at the airport by my Bangalore gang to the SPA . So sat in the SPA reading the book.

Walked out of the SPA & spread myself beside the pool in an easy chair & continued reading the book. My roommates were still in the water.

Came back & had lunch. For lunch , again we had pakodas! Asis & Prosnjit slept after having lunch. I took the book & went back to the pool side. Sat at pool side overlooking the water & read the book. This time there was coke can to sip while reading. The reading went good may be as there was no much distractions in the pool!

It is such a nice thing to sit in a mild sun, beside green-blue water, sipping the cold drink & reading..

I forgot to tell about the refriegerator we got. After the refrigerator came, my roommates have stuffed it with coke cans, juices, butter, vegetables, fruits, puddings. So everytime we open the door, a coke can or a pudding comes out!

Pakoda seems to be the order of day! For dinner, again it made its way to the menu but this time with a variation half were onion-based & other half were brinjal-based(call them 'bajji') . As told by my Bengali roommates, Bengalis have high affinity for these fried pakodas and they live on these.

amar konu samsho nahi.ami keno kora uchith :))