Thursday, May 24, 2012

There's no such thing as FUN for the whole Family!!

"I can't come today dude, I got guests coming over". Haven't we all said and heard that line at least a hundred times in our lifetime. Guests have a weird way to ruining all your plans. What is it about them that demands so much of my attention? All families are weird, mine is no different, and my family's guests well and truly take the cake. Be it the grumpy old uncles who keep bumming off my toiletries and act all cool about, or the annoying aunt who wants to start an argument everywhere she goes, my folks comprise of the wackiest group of south Indians. They are almost like the "Avengers" of  awkward situations and I am the helpless lil' guinea pig who is often subject to ridicule and far too much judgement. I've simply never understood this phenomena of having the whole family around when said "guests" visit. Why should I hang out with a man who's as old as my grandfather? What could I possibly have in common with the man? Why would anyone in their right mind want to spend time with that friend of your mother, who's like a walking encyclopedia of knowledge when it comes to the percentages and marks of her family. So just because her daughter aced her 10th and 12th exam, this lady can come over to my house and make sure that my mom gives me shit for something that happened five years ago? Crazy world this we live in, and it bugs me to no end that I am the only child, no cousins my age, well at least not normal ones, and just for fun god decided to screw with me more by giving me five girl cousins,  four of whom aren't even teenagers yet.

I might be coming off as a real child whining about having to spend like a week with the family, well I am. Maturity has never been one of my greatest facets, that being said I did score a lot of bonus points with my mom this past week. Mom's run their child's life. Right from the time we learn how to walk all the way till the time we get married, I'm not even gonna try and deny it. The woman is plain crazy, its scary how much control she still has on my life. So when she decides that I have to drive to the airport to pick up guests and miss my IPL game, then I can argue all I want, but Radio One score updates are all that I'm going to get that evening. But it works out in the long run, mom's are very easy to please that way. You don't need to buy them fancy gifts and all, you just have to suck it up and admit they are right and you are wrong. Once you do that, hell you can pretty much get away with anything. So these guests I am talking about, dad's college friend and his family, apparently they were pretty tight in Bangalore and have been friends ever since. Luckily for me they have these adorable set of twins (boy-girl twins that too), and the best part was that they are only 7 years old. Now as Krishna(boy) rightly calculated with the help of his tiny fingers, I am 15 yrs elder than him, but age is no bar when it comes to Hot Wheels, cricket and having fun. Boys will be boys I guess. What I thought was going to be an awful Saturday turned out to be a rather amazing evening. When you are a 7 year old boy who has two sisters, one stay at home mom and one father who travels a lot, you kinda idolize every other guy you meet. That guy for Krishna was ME!! He did not leave my side the whole day, he wanted to go in the car I was driving, wanted to sit next to me in the table, wanted to sleep in my room, so much so that I even convinced him that Arsenal is the best team in the world and he should definitely support them. Lets see how long this idol status lasts.

The only silver lining of guests coming over is the fact that you have the prospect of good food. Good VEG food, but good food nonetheless. My family doesn't go out that much, they are very weird like that, but on occasion we do visit a few of my father's approved restaurants. He has only one parameter, they should be pure veg. Kailash Parbat is easily his favorite restaurant and for good reason. I was rather skeptical about the place but I must say two meals in as many days has helped change that opinion. They have a decent lunch buffet too, for 299/- bucks you get a rather good lunch, with 3 starters, chats, assorted rotis, one good paneer subji, one okay daal, horrible pasta and Sindhi curry and as always a brilliant selection of desserts. As good as the buffet was, I don't think the Kailash Parbat we all know and love is famous for its buffets. I think there real success story is that portion on the menu that says, "Signature Dishes since 1982". Ragda Pattice, Chole Batura, Gulab Jamun with Rabdi, Royal Falooda, Dal Pakwan and their chat items, these are what you should have when you visit here. Hell I'd have no qualms over eating here every week, their Chole Batura is one the best I've ever had. Its a nice place too, pretty good ambiance, perfect for the family get together. I felt bad for the twins though, their parents refused to let them have he chats and batura sighting a possible "sickness" they could get, ridiculous really, the kids had to eat a crappy cheese pizza whilst the parents nicely hog their Ragda Pattice. Well not my kid, so I can't really judge. Nevertheless the twins were happy as long as the IPL game was on and I was sitting in the middle. All in all a good fun evening with the family..........for a change.

But not all family outings are fun, when my mom's sister and her daughter visit I literally have to start making plans with every single person I know. She's twelve now, she was much cuter and much nicer when she was like seven, now she's just a giant pain in my ass. She has anger management issues, she's nice and healthy so you can't even wrestle her anymore and as any almost teenage girl nowadays, she suffers from the "Disney Princess Syndrome". Ever since she was like five years old, she is used to getting whatever she wants. Now that list comprises of a wide array of designer clothes, god knows how many shoes, nail polish and other accessories and other cool tech gadgets like an iPad and a decent Nokia mobile phone. That's one spoilt brat. She also has an Xbox Kinect, due to which going out to play is out of the question, it worries me that she's already a couch potato and she's not even a teenager yet. And the scarier thought is that she is only going to get worse from now on, well I am not gonna stick around for another vacation with her. No thank you. One last family trip to Mahabaleshwar and that is it for me, next I'll probably hang out with her at either one of our weddings (please for the love of god, I hope its mine).

Music wise I decided to give the Gallagher brothers a try this week. Oasis is a decent Brit band, british pop to be precise, I quite like the feel of their music. Definitely can't be classified under rock or any other genre, Oasis are probably on par with the likes of a Switchfoot or a Poets of the Fall. They are known to be die hard Manchester City fans, not like the glory hunters who became citizens after Aguero's injury time winner, but proper Man City fans. They are ever present in City's home games, but it must really suck that their hit song "Wonderwall" is only third in City's winning match playlist. For the life of me I can't understand how "Hey Jude" is always being played after a city win. Nevertheless, really okay band to say the least, got like 7 albums. 3-4 of them are worth a listen to, hell I'd say go for it, get the entire discography. Oasis isn't a band that normal people would be head banging to, but they are good. Worth the space on your iPod. A lot of people say that "Don't Look Back At Anger" and "Wonderwall" are their best songs, I won't disagree but there are a bunch of better songs. "Morning Glory", "The Masterplan", "She's Electric", "Champagne Supernova", "Roll With Me", "Cast No Shadow", "Keep The Dream Alive" and "Let There Be Love" are some of my favorite Oasis songs. Wouldn't want to talk too much about this band, at best they are slightly above average. But they are british so I'm glad that I checked them off my list. Here's there entire discography:

  • 1994 - Definitely Maybe
  • 1995 - (What's The Story) Morning Glory? 
  • 1997 - Be There Now
  • 2000 - Standing on the Shoulder of the Giants
  • 2002 - Heathen Chemistry
  • 2005 - Don't Believe The Truth
  • 2008 - Dig Out Your Soul 
Since I loved #MayBuffetMadness so much, I am gonna continue it into the month of the Monsoon. Keep reading guys, more British Rock and Buffets to follow. Peace. 

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