The Year I would like to forget but can't

31st December, Last day of 2008. It really had been a roller coaster ride for me. Taking a cue from Pratik's blog I thought I will also summarize the year gone by. For me this was a really bad year but let's see..

For the good It was ...
A year which started on an ecstatic note having just bought my own apartment.
A year when I found that I do have real friends who will stand by me no matter what.
A year I enjoyed my hobby of photography clicking memorable pictures filling up my HD with images.
A year I grew up a bit & saw my priorities in life changing drastically (for the good).
A year when I was named TAKI, BEWADA etc which I am proud to be :)
A year when I came closer to my Family.
A year when I could no longer miss any moment of being with my dear ones.
A year when the worst stock market crash didn't affect me at all.
A year when my cousin & many of my very good friends got married.
A year CFoV came to life.
A year when my nephew Aryan was born.
A year when my Manish Bhaiya settled here with family.
A year when many new fine dining restaurants opened in Pune & I tried most of them.
A year when I matured in blogging & got my own domain for it.

For the bad it was ...
A year which took away from me the person I loved the most. The only person whom I loved more than myself, my mother. With her my dreams, my purpose went away and went away some part of me which changed & transformed me & my life in countless ways.
A year when I cried the most.
A year which shattered my family.
A year when I lost my faith in God.
A year when I injured my wrist in an accident and suffered from back to back health problems for about two months.
A year when I lost my beloved camera.
A year, home loan interest rates ran northwards right after I took a huge home loan.
A year when I could no longer take things lightly or be a kid and had to start acting responsibly.
A year when my learning curve went to an all time low.
A year when I didn't travel/drive to any new place.
A year of shattered expectations from my nearest ones.
A year when my Father suffered from stress and faced new problems through out the year.
A year wasted for my brother.
A year of financial crisis at Global, National & personal level.

So, personally, a year I would like to forget but can't and I am glad this year ends today.

Hoping & wishing a better & happy new year for me, you and everyone :)
Cheers!!

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Strawberry Sundae!!!

Strawberry Sundae small (1 scoop of Strawberry & vanilla ice cream with
fresh Strawberries & whipped cream) we had @ newly opened
Amul Ice cream parlor in Lane no 7, Koregaon Park.

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Offoh Calcutta!!

I am writing a blog after a long break (due to my hand injury), and it feels good. But sadly I will be sharing one of my worst restaurant experiences ever. I visited Oh!! Calcutta last Friday for dinner and we were first to arrive at the place. We ordered a variety of non-veg items, thanks to Kundu, who could understand the Bengali menu.. It's not very friendly to a non-bangla fellow like me :) But nevertheless food was really good. I actually enjoyed the food, drink & my time there, even though the service was a bit slow. Which was okay with us as it was Friday night & we were not in a hurry.
But trouble started after we finished and asked the captain to get the bill @ 10pm. After next 20 minutes when there was no trace of the bill & the captain (who attended us during dinner). We asked another captain to get us the bill as it was boring waiting after your food & drinks are over. Another 15 minutes pass and yet no word from them. We get up & approach one of their responsible looking staff near their billing counter and asked what was the problem why we are not getting the bill. He told us there is some problem with the computer. I couldn't understand why didn't they give us a manual bill. Worst part was that we were neither being informed about the reason for delay and nor being attended. No one even bothered apologizing to us for the delay. I sarcastically asked them to give us some game to play so that we can kill our time waiting for the bill. But they were too shameless to notice. Finally bill case after a wait of 50 minutes (interestingly other people were leaving in the meanwhile who came after us). We made card payment and there they go again. It took them 20 more minutes to get the card swiped. I then noticed that they had put a service charge of 10% in the bill itself. That was pretty ugly, paying 10% of the amount for the service which had all of us frustrated. I asked them to return the feed back from I had filled earlier, I wanted to change it and mention this lapse, but they didn't get it to us even after repeating the request. I then called the manager and told him about the service. He just politely said sorry about that and said they had some problem with computer.

I personally felt that they had an obligation to at least wave off the service tax on such a bad service, and they should have served us some drink while they made us wait. They didn't even serve water.
Highly unprofessional behavior & hugely disappointing service from a upscale restaurant where you are paying about Rs. 1000 per person ... to spoil your mood & evening ???

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