DocDivaTraveller: May 2015

Lucknow is very close to my heart. Emotional people like me need very small reasons to fall in love with something or someone. So my love for Lucknow is very simple....its the place of the eminent King George Medical college which I could not get into but from where my spouse graduated from. Hence my longing for this city was enhanced by the belonging of Lucknow by him! Long story short, he looks for excuses to pay a visit to this city where he had spent the most crucial six years of his life!

I have some strange connection of exams and Lucknow. The first time I visited this city was back in 2002 when I represented my school in a Maths olympiad. The last time I visited, it was also for exams! This trip was a very short one and the best way that I toured around was back in 2013 (when I was 4 months expecting :D) You can read them here, here and here. Even a super short trip could not stop me from wandering around in my hub's favourite city. So after we were done with our chores, we set off to explore even when it was 45 degree Celsius burning!

We took a rickshaw and arrived at Hazratganj..the shopping place of the posh people. I found it very similar to our Connaught Place of Delhi. Anyways the heat was absolutely unbearable. When we had left from Delhi, it was very pleasant. The Lucknow heat suddenly took over us. Long story short, I could not spend much time as much I would have liked to.

We had coffee; the windows of CCD reminded me of my grandfather's grand mansion. The green wooden windows had provisions for light or for looking outside. They are called 'kharkhari' in Bengali. How I wish I photographed my grandpa's mansion before he had passed away! I hardly have any pictorial memories of that place to which I was so emotionally attatched.

These traditional windows (kharkhari in Bengali) remind me of Kolkata..

We had some snacks in Royal cafe, supposedly a hotspot for youngsters! After prancing around in the alleys and clicking pictures in the glaring heat (people actually thought we were crazy) we left to visit my friend. I really loved hazratganj and would love to go back again!

favourite spot for youngsters!!

I am so in love with these alleys and lanes...

favourite hangout place of hubs in his college days

arriving Hazratganj in style!!

Lip smacking lachcha tokri (edible baskets made of crisp fried potato)

Top: People

Pants: Forever 21

Necklace: Forever 21

Sunnies: Aldo

Bag: Globus

5/27/2015 10 comments

I am a very loyal person. I stick to those whom I support and remain grateful to them for my entire life. Similarly I am very loyal with the organisations I work for or are associated with by a strong connection. My dad is an engineer in Indian Oil Corporation and I owe my affluent upbringing to the only Indian company that features in the Fortune 500. And its not only me but we all Indian Oil Kids (that is how we address ourselves) love our father's organisation.

After I got married, my dependence shifted from Indian Oil to Max Superspeciality Hospital. Because my doctor husband started working in this eminent institute after our wedding. Now I am grateful as well as dependent on Max because it provides us our bread and butter and of course a good life.

Last Friday ie on the 15 th of this month Max Patparganj, the branch where the hubs works, completed 10 years. It was a great moment of pride and joy for all of us. Such a big event was ushered with double celebrations. On Friday all the doctors, nursing and administrative staff were felicitated with the Long Service Award who had completed 10 years of association with this institute. Our association is as long as our marriage..ie four and a half years! But that did not deter us from joining the gala. The best part of Max parties and conferences is the venue...Radisson Blu...which is just a stones throw away from our place.

our favourite venue for parties...just a stone's throw away from our place...

The second celebration was on Sunday when we had unlimited fun. The whole day was dedicated to medical conference followed by cocktail dinner at night. Apart from the sumptuous food and drinks, the best part was the jam session at the end. We literally danced liked crazy and I had to take off my boots as it hurt so much! We all were sweating like hell! For some time I actually forgot about all my problems that were haunting me!

I hope that we remain associated with such an eminent institute for years to come! Once again, Happy Birthday Max PPG!!

Senior consultants getting felicitated for their long term dedication to the institute...

The nursing team gathers for a photo op...

with the TPA department...

crazy time on the dance floor...

Today I am guest posting on my darling Fari's blog. Read the post here.

Outfit 1:
Dress: Globus
Jewellery: : Stupid Cupid
Pumps: Steve madden
Bag: Aldo
Lip Colour: MAC Girl About Town

Outfit 2:
Dress: Globus
Necklace: Forever 21
Boots: Charles and Keith
Watch: Casio G Shock

5/22/2015 9 comments

Have you ever wished that you had magical powers? I bet you did! Not only during our childhood but we wish we had super powers now!! Life would be so much easier! A pair of pumps right now....swoosh and it appears! All my wardrobe crises would have come to an end! I am considering wardrobe only because that is the only section of my life that requires instant gratification!

Living the fantasy life...

So who is your favourite magical character? The one who you have dreamt of becoming your entire life? It may come as a surprise to many that I have loved Jasmine forever! Yes Jasmine and not Aladdin who has the magical lamp. I am a feminist myself but I love the aura that a powerful man exudes.

Hence I have always wished to be a girl like Jasmine who had the charismatic Aladdin by her side! So if I need a vacation, my lover's magic carpet would take me wherever and whenever I want to go! If I want sumptuous food, his genie would present it. Last but not the least if I want a wardrobe makeover, my Aladdin would just rub the lamp and whoa a closet full of new clothes would appear!

Off to a dream destination on the magic carpet

So how would Jasmine and Aladdin and his lamp behave in the 21st century? Picture this. They are having a candlelight dinner at a posh restaurant. Suddenly Jasmine articulates her desire to fly off to a tropical destination. Her loyal boyfriend takes out his smartphone and immediately books air tickets and a resort with his travel app. Wishes are endless. Now Jasmine madam needs a resortwear collection for her getaway. As loving and loyal he is, he buys the hippest resortwear with a swipe...on the Myntra App! What has changed in all these centuries? Instead of rubbing the lamp, he swiped apps on his smartphone!

#ItsPersonal...your style your taste on your most personal device

In today's fast paced world few things like the Myntra App are indeed the 21st century magic lamp. Your wishes can be fulfilled just with a swipe!

From 15th may onwards, Myntra would be going App only. That means no desktop version! Your taste and your style on your most personal device...your phone..because #ItsPersonal!

So how is the Myntra app your magic lamp? You can browse and shop from hundreds of brands. From grooming tricks and tips to styling advices, you have it all. Learn to make fabulous things yourself (DIY) and cook and eat right. Tips on shedding weight to dressing up like your favourite celebrity. From make up tricks to beauty advice, this app is a combination of the magic wand and lamp...that too on your palm..your smartphone! Whether you are travelling or lying on your bed or watching television, you can always stay connected! Shop from the coziness of your bed!

Browse and shop from hundreds of brands...

Do it yourself to eat right!

keeps you updated with latest fads

Your doubts and queries answered

Therefore shopping on the Myntra app is nothing less than waving the magic wand or rubbing the lamp! You can do all thses things just with a swipe! So what are you waiting for? Go download the app now and get ready for your ride on the magic carpet!

5/21/2015 9 comments

It has rarely ever happened that I had gotten something without hard work. I cannot consider myself lucky in that sense because I have to shed sweat for everything I get but I have been privileged nonetheless! Well I won't crib for long..I had been doing it every time I lost a bomb in Tambola or spin the wheel type of things. But well, things do change and that happened ten days back.

As you all know by now, I love blogger meets. I love socialising and it is one of the best ways to do it. Blogmint, a new blogging community organised its first meet this month and named it #Techminter50.

At the bar...

It was at an upscale place..the Striker Pub and Kitchen Vasant Kunj. A blogger meet at Striker followed by shopping at my favourite malls of Vasant Kunj; what more could I have asked for?

Getting my doubts cleared by the panel...

To start with this meet was very different from the previous ones I had attended. It was a very open discussion between the bloggers and the marketing people from various brands. There were panels from both sides and we were free to shoot them with whatever questions had been haunting us. I could clear a lot of myths which I had in my mind.

The proud winning team...Chitra, Gaurav , Shiwangi and of course me with Irfan Khan, the CEO of Blogmint...

After the open discussions, came the most interesting part...A tech quiz!! A field in which I am a rookie, but that did not deter me from taking part! WE were quickly divided into teams of four and there formed around 13 teams! There was negative marking for each wrong answer and all the rounds were knockout! After a cuthroat competition between team 2, team 8 (ours) team 9 and team 12, WE WON!! The prizes were nothing less than a Casio G Shock watch! Yay!!

Some lovely blogger friends I made...

Blogger friends reuniting..

After what followed was excitement (for us) and chaotic networking for the rest! We had a sumptuous lunch and loads of laughter and crazy photo ops! Finally it was time to say goodbye to our blogger friends and we all were given a cute Blogmint mug as a souvenir!

Yummy dessert spread

I am fond of expensive watches and own a huge collection but did not possess a Casio G shock watch. I would always remember this day because I had never won something this expensive with so little effort from my side! I love my latest addition to my precious time piece collection!

Going viral on you tube!

three crazy bloggers trying to crash You Tube!

Dress: Forever21

Bag: Guess

Lips: MAC Lady danger

5/15/2015 7 comments

I don't want to sound silly but I used to get pretty excited at the mention of circus. My mom has always told me that I had seen a circus show when I was a year old. But of course that never counted. I always used to crave going to a circus whenever it was in town but my parents used to ridicule me. This time when we had gone to Varanasi for our daughter's birthday, I finally got a chance to witness it!

The day I entered my in laws home, I had noticed a pamphlet lying on the sofa. It had vivid colours and read Rayman circus in Ramnagar...3 shows a day. That moment I decided that I had to experience it. Whenever there had been shows in Delhi or Noida, my parents would put their foot down. Now that I was in Varanasi, I somehow had to squeeze a couple of hours from our hectic schedule and coax the hubs to accompany me! We had three and a half days in Varanasi out of which one was our daughter's birthday; the very reason why we were there, one day was required for the preparations and the day after was booked for the city tour for my parents. So I was left with the remaining half day, the day on which we were supposed to board our train back to Delhi in the evening.

The initial announcement for my desire to go to a circus was met with much condemnation and sarcasm. That did not deter me from brainwashing and threatening my hubs to take me there. As the three days flew by ( with so much to do and no time to breathe), the last day finally arrived. We decided to watch the 1 pm show. The venue was about half an hour away from our place. So we had to leave accordingly. My parents as well as my parents in law tried to explain that it was a sheer waste of time and money but I did not budge. Finally after I completed all my chores (bathing my daughter, packing and stuff) we zoomed off. We were late and the show had already began. We had missed an hour of it.

I had watched so many circus based movies (the latest being Reese Witherspoon and Robert Pattinson starrer Water for elephants ) that I associated a certain amount of mystery with circuses. Are the lives of the performers actually like that shown in the movies? Enough said, we took the tickets and barged in.

It was very little that I had imagined. As it was a weekday that too afternoon, it was sparsely populated. But the performers blew us with their tactics right from the beginning. We took our seats, got some delicious butter popcorn and cola and soaked in the marvel of acrobatics and gymnastics. Out of the myriads of shows, my favourites were acrobatics and rythmic gymnastics. The girls were very pretty. There were Russian and African performers too. Few animal shows (dogs and parakeets mainly) and the well of death at last. I absolutely loathed the clowns!!

All excited to watch the show!

This acrobat was my favourite performer of the day. ..

Yummy butter popcorn

Rythmic gymnastics

Cute dog show

Mind blowing acrobatics

The biker and the well of death..

Showtime for me after the real show got over!!

In all it was a perfect afternoon. At the end we managed to meet the owner to ask him a few queries that used to baffle me. I learnt:

Rayman circus is about 150 years old!

Its very expensive to run a circus and thats why these groups are shutting down. Today only 33 circus groups are left in India.

The average expanditure of a single day is around Rs40,000. That's enormous!

There is a special visa called circus visa for the foreign performers.

The Supreme court has banned using animals for show. Thankfully no elephants or horses are tortured the way I have seen in movies!

So an age long desire finally got fulfilled!

Sunnies: fastrack

Necklace, bracelet :Forever21

Dress: mango

5/12/2015 10 comments

Our morning had already started on a crazy note. We had a bunch of adventures on the Calangute Beach and it was not even eight yet! Well after the breakfast we hurried off to our hotel to begin our jam packed day. Our first stop were the Lamgao caves which was a two hour ride from our hotel. This spot was my idea. I have always been intrigued by Buddhist culture and these caves were ancient Buddhist ones. Hubs was not too fond of the plan because of the dearth of information of this place. But on persistent coaxing, he included it in our itinerary nonetheless.

We rode through Bicholim on the road towards Mapusa and reached the Lamgao village. From there we were supposed to ride uphill till the caves. On asking anyone in the village, they gestured to go further. We had already rode a lot uphill but there was neither any sign nor any human being. We had rode past the village and were in midst of a thick hilly jungle. Hubs started blaming me for the entire plan. But since there was a single way and we had come so far, we decided to continue. After riding about 10 minutes uphill, we saw a diversion and thankfully a board: from the Archeological Society of India indicating the Lamgao caves. This was the first affirmative sign of our journey and we continued in the given direction.

way through the thick forests...are we going to come back alive?

The signboard that brought hope in our hearts...

There were thick jungles of coconut and arecanut but no inhabitants. After a while we could hear running water. On approaching we saw a small waterfall that ran across the path. That meant our bike could not go further. As we deboarded, we saw an old man with a huge chopping knife coming towards us. A wave of chill ran down my spine.

The place of the waterfall, sign board and the spot where we almost became victims...

He tried to be overtly friendly and persistently insisted to guide us to the caves. According to him the caves had to to trekked on foot. A plethora of wild thoughts came to my mind. What if the man was looking for people for human sacrifice? With that knife of his he could easily chop us into two with a single blow. What if he is a criminal and wants to loot us? What if he kidnaps me and asks hubs for ransom? The worst part? I could not even share my apprehensions with my hubby as he was standing with us. Moreover the man kept on saying ' What's the need to get scared? I am with you'. Who could explain him that he was the reason of our deathly scare?

The prospective murderer...the giant knife is not apparent in this picture...Take a closer look at his sinister face!

Anyways he almost dragged us to see the caves. Hubs asked me to stay behind and wait there. Those were the longest ten minutes of my life. What if he never came back or was drenched in blood? Well I prayed incessantly and my joy knew no bounds when he returned in a single piece. Sadly he did not take the camera with him (security issues) and hence we don't have the pictures of the actual caves for which we took so much trouble.

A crude Shiva Temple below the caves...the place where he could supposedly perform human sacrifices :D

After that he asked for tips for being a guide and hubs was more than happy to let him go with some change. We took a breath of air and looked around. It was indeed beautiful. Not wanting to get into a newer trouble, we quickly took some pictures and left. This would remain the scariest day of my life till date.