Best Places of Interest - Page 132 of 180

July 26, 2016 Travel, Within India

Top 5 Destinations for Street Shopping in India

Dubai might have a floating mall, but, India is the spot for shopping all that you want like a king. Starting from street shopping to grand malls, there are a lot of places to shop in this country. Thus, it is important for all shopaholics to keep their calendar open in this country. Let us talk about the top shopping spots in the country.

Kerala

Street shopping in India- Cochin — Cochin Fort Shopping

When it comes to street markets or malls, there is no place to beat Kerala. This is the top tourist destination in South India where a walk through the markets is considered to be an important tourism activity. The street of the Cochin Fort is a well-known place for shopping. Starting from antique items like clocks and vases to delicacies; you can find almost everything in this place. This is the Venice of East and this place is the best for romantic shopping. Moreover, the largest mall in the country is in Kochi. The Lulu shopping mall is found in many international spots too. If you want some luxurious shopping experience, this is the right place to stop.

New Delhi

Street shopping in India- Delhi — Delhi Street Shopping

This is the capital of the country and one of the popular places when it comes top shopping destination. No matter what type of shopping experience you want, you can find the right spot in this city. Starting from Select City Walk Mall to the flea market, you can find a lot of spots to enjoy shopping in this area. It is not possible that someone visits Delhi for vacation and not roam around the local markets and malls.

Mumbai

There are a lot of markets in Mumbai and each market is famous for certain items. Many tourists love to walk through the markets, shop and enjoy the local life. You can find almost everything in these markets. Are you fed up of street shopping? You can find the second largest mall in the country in Mumbai. The Phoenix Market City has almost all attractions like restaurants, movie screens, retail stores and many others.

Chennai

Pondy Bazaar, T-Nagar and many other areas in this place are dedicated mainly to shopping. You can find both street shopping and big malls around here. Apart from these, you can find a lot of top-notch malls like Phoenix Market City, Vijaya Forum Mall, Sky Walk, and many others. You can find many unique items and interesting objects to buy in these malls and street shops. If you love to bargain, the street shops are the best.

Jaipur

It is the capital and largest city of the Rajasthan. It is called as the Pink City. This is famous for a lot of activities including shopping. There are a lot of malls and street shops in this spot. This place is famous for textiles, handicrafts, puppets, precious jewellery, Minakari work, quilt and many others. You can find a lot of shopping centers and authentic shops where you can find a lot of these items. You ought to take your time to walk through the markets to get better deals in this city.

July 24, 2016 Book reviews, Literature/ Art/Music/Education

Book Review- Destiny of Shattered Dreams by Nilesh Rathod

Your client must go to jail tonight, the judge said, as he picked up his pen to formalise the pronouncement cancelling Atul’s bail.
Atul’s heart skipped a beat, the blood rushing about in anguish as he sank down on his chair, discredited and shamed.
Atul hadn’t been as prepared for this; so when reality struck, it did so with a paralyzing force.

The above are opening lines of ‘Destiny of Shattered Dreams by Nilesh Rathod. These opening lines lure us into the novel as we want to know about Atul, the protagonist. As readers, we have the following questions in our minds: –

Who is Atul?
Why has he been convicted?
What crime has he been convicted of?
Why has the judge been so strict in not granting him bail?

The title ‘Destiny of Shattered Dreams is apt and justified as it is here that we see the dreams of a Man being shattered and know how does it feel. So, as we proceed to read the novel further, the questions are answered as well the mystery unfolds.

Story– Atul Malhotra, 35 years, Chairman of the board and founder CEO of Transmech Telecom Limited (TTL). He was in judicial custody on charges of corrupting government officers, violating the Foreign Exchange Management Act [FEMA] and other economic offenses.

Atul Malhotra’s ambition, passion, and raw courage help him realize his dreams. He is a quick learner and adapts to any new situation. Power, aspirations, betrayal and drama is what all the story is about. It gives out messages of righteousness while entertaining you.

Atul found his solace in Qazi Sahib’s couplets while in jail. Qazi Saheb or Akram Qazi was the legal brain behind the business. He often came up with such beautiful lines or couplets. He was a poet, musician, and romanticist, a multi-faceted personality. The following quote is appropriate to the situation and worth mentioning:

Time is a messiah, every sorrow it shall contain,
But time it is and time it shall take,
But who will heal my wounds till then?
Just so will continue sorrow’s shackle all life,
Sometimes the pain it shall bluster,
At other times, pain it shall heal.
For how long will the distraught cloud contain itself?
Bellowing, bellowing, it shall set the firmament on fire,
Afore bursting it too will set fire to the same desire.
What do you call destiny, this I do not know?
Transforming, altering forms it too shall my extant relish.
Something like the spark did leap, I thought that now at least it will absorb me,
Fire, fire all the way but how shall it give cinders
before destiny’s decree.

The above lines are very apt and beautifully expressed. The author, Nilesh Rathod who is debutant novelist is praiseworthy.

Genre– The genre of the book is Contemporary Fiction and covers many sides of life. It is about the rise and fall of Atul Malhotra in business. Contemporary fiction is usually focussed on giving people a glimpse into some part of daily experience showing them what it would be like to walk in someone else’s shoes. In contemporary fiction, the writer focuses on making everything as realistic as possible. The author hopes that the experience of reading a story will give the reader a better understanding of these issues than he would otherwise obtain from non-fiction account which deals with the same kind of subject matter that would potentially help the person develop more sympathy or better understanding.

Style– The pace of the novel is fast and tells a tale of this brilliant young man’s meteoric rise at business. The author has used simple, clear and lucid language. The fast pace of the novel keeps you engaged till the last page. It is nothing short of being a Bollywood movie. It is well-written with poise and with conscious efforts.

Book cover of Destiny of shattered dreams — Image courtesy – Goodreads

The book cover is very apt and suits the title ‘Destiny of Shattered Dreams’. It has been designed by Mugdha Sadhwani. It grabs the reader’s attention with a broken line running right through the centre of the cover page. It is a brilliant red and blue cover.

About the author: Nilesh Rathod is a business person, writer, and poet. Co-founder of Ensemble Infrastructure India Limited, Nilesh’s current company employs over 2000 people. Destiny of Shattered Dreams is his debutant novel. He is currently working on his second novel. He lives in Mumbai with his wife Preeti and sons Shloak and Parv.

Book trailer– This book has a book trailer which has been directed by Jay Bhansali, Music Composer: Amaal Mallik and Script & Voiceover: Nilesh Rathod. It is an amazing concept, narration, and music.

So, all I can say grab your copy today. 🙂

July 21, 2016 Food, Weekly photo challenge

Details You Need To Look At While Cooking

Cooking is an art, technology, and craft of preparing food for consumption with the use of heat. Across the globe, there are various techniques used from grilling food over an oven fire to gas stoves, to baking in various types of ovens which reflect the unique environmental, economic, cultural traditions and trends.

Go green with organic vegetables- Details of cooking ingredients. — Ecologically grown vegetables.

In cooking, you require Details about the ingredients used in a dish and the method of cooking to make that delicious meal. Ingredients comprise usually of vegetables, fruits, grains, and nuts as well as herbs and spices come from plants, while meat, eggs, and dairy products come from animals. Mushrooms and the yeast used in baking are kinds of fungi. Cooks also use water and minerals such as salt. Cooks can also use wine or spirits.

Ingredients that occur naturally contain various amounts of molecules called proteins, carbohydrates, and fats. They also contain water and minerals. Cooking involves a manipulation of the chemical properties of carbohydrates, fats, proteins, water, vitamins and minerals.

All cooking ingredients are measured with Metric style measuring cup set. It is an important utensil in the kitchen. The typical cooking measuring cup sizes are 1 cup, ½ cup, 1/3 cup, ¼ cup and 1/8 cup and in the case of typical spoon sizes, 1 tablespoon, ½ tablespoon, 1 teaspoon and ¼ teaspoon.

Nasi Lemak - Cooking details while preparing this dish — Nasi Lemak
Image courtesy- traveldelight.biz

There are various methods of cooking since antiquity – baking, roasting, frying, grilling, barbecuing, smoking, boiling, steaming and braising. A more recent innovation is microwave. Various methods use differing levels of heat and moisture and vary in cooking time.

These major hot cooking techniques comprise of
• Roasting – Barbecuing – Grilling/Broiling – Rotisserie – Searing

• Baking
Baking – Baking Blind – Flash baking

• Boiling
Boiling – Blanching – Braising – Coddling – Double steaming – Infusion – Poaching – Pressure cooking – Simmering – Smothering – Steaming – Steeping – Stewing – Vacuum flask cooking

• Frying
Fry – Deep frying – Hot salt frying – Hot sand frying – Pan frying – Pressure frying – Sautéing – Stir-frying

• Steaming
Steaming is usually done by boiling water continuously, causing it to vaporize into steam; the steam then carries heat to the nearby food, thus cooking the food. It is considered a healthy form of cooking, holding nutrients within the vegetable or meat being cooked.

• Smoking

Smoking is the process of flavouring, cooking, or preserving food by exposing it to smoke from burning or smouldering material, most often wood.

Similarly, there are temperature charts for details on cooking meats, poultry, eggs, leftovers, and casseroles.

A delicious meal prepared with details of cooking. — Chinese Prosperity Food with Salmon Photography: ProjectManhattan (Own work) [CC BY-SA 3.0], via Wikimedia Commons

Cooking has been around for centuries and everyone is connected to it in some form or the other from bringing friends and family together or planning to make a fulfilling home cooked meal instead of ordering one.

July 20, 2016 Lifestyle

5 Apps and Services For Cheap Travel

Who doesn’t like vacations? People who don’t like to spend a lot of money, that’s who. Good thing there’s no need to spend all your savings on a weekend getaway. These days, it’s fairly easy to stretch your dollar by using specialized apps and services that deliver quite the bang for your buck, and tell you how to spend less while getting more out of your traveling experience.

Airbnb or iTunes

Travel apps and services that will help you travel cheap — Airbnb

The one and only. Airbnb will help you find accommodations in the city of your choice, with very flexible pricing. You can get any kind of housing you like: apartments, entire houses, or shared rooms — nearly always the cheapest option. Depending on where you’re staying you can get hotel-like service or more of a hostel feel. Get whatever you feel comfortable with, but staying with locals is probably the best. Remember, if you’re not meeting locals, you’re not traveling.

2. Hipmunk or iTunes

Before you go somewhere, you need to book a flight! And Hipmunk is the app to use. It does what other apps don’t, which is a sorting algorithm called ‘Agony’. If you’re just searching for the cheapest flight, you might find yourself sifting through flights with two or three 10-hour layovers. Hipmunks eliminates that, since they recognize it’s not a boon to pay $20 more for a more comfortable arrangement.
Notable mention: the price graph. Input what city you’re traveling from and your destination, and Hipmunk will show you what the cheapest dates are to travel to that location. The difference could sometimes be hundreds of dollars, so make sure you plan accordingly.

3. LoungeBuddy or iTunes

Travel apps and services that will help u travel cheap — Loungebuddy

If you do find yourself in a lengthy layover or a delay of some sort, LoungeBuddy can help you spend your time like a VIP. You don’t need a high-priced club membership of some sort to get you into the nice area, you just need this app.
The way it works is this: when you find yourself in an airport, LB takes your location information and gives you a list of available lounges. You can sort them by price, filter by amenities and browse photos of the lounge to choose what fits you best. Pay through the app, and you’re in! The best part is, figuring at the exorbitant prices of everything airport-related, this service practically pays for itself — you get tons of free perks like drinks, nice seats, and service personnel that doesn’t treat you like cattle.

4. XE Currency or iTunes

Travel apps and services that help you travel cheap — xe-currency

Did you know that there’s a segment of every local economy that’s specifically dedicated to ripping off tourists? Sorry to tell you, but they’re really out to get you, and one of the major ways they try to do that is by using unfair currency exchange rates.
With XE Currency, you can monitor the exchange rates from your phone and make sure you’re getting the best deal possible, wherever you are. Check out the Pro version for even more features and monitoring options!

5. iTranslate or iTunes

Ever been in a situation when you have to communicate with a local, but don’t know the language? It’s an awkward nightmare. With iTranslate, communication can be a pleasure.
The app’s most impressive feature is its voice-to-voice translation capabilities. Just start talking into the mic, wait a second, and you’ll get a translation of what you’re saying. It works in over 90 languages! The app also works offline, so you don’t have to pay exorbitant data roaming charges to use it.

*/Ernest is a writer and blogger trying to find a balance between productiveness and bingeing Netflix at 3 a.m. He writes about innovations in tech and social media. His best friend is his dog, Milo. /*