Cricket at 5A, Panchadri Society

First of all for those who are having trouble understanding what is "5A, Panchadri Society", it's the first line of my residential address. It's the place where I have been living for the past 24 and a half years and the place I believe to be one of the best locations you can find in Pune. And since I also believe that Pune is one of the best cities in the world, that makes it one of the best locations in the world!

The reason why Panchadri Society is so great is because it's situated on one of the busiest roads in Pune - Law College road but it's almost half a kilometer away from all the traffic, pollution, Barista, CCD etc. Panchadri also has abundant greenery, enough to rival that of some parks. Along with that it also has ample open spaces which is a feature not seen at all these days in housing societies. This ample free space is the perfect setting for playing all kinds of sports right from Dabba eyes-spies, football, basketball and most importantly Cricket!

Playing Cricket at 5A Panchadri has been a regular feature till 3 years ago (One of the many side effects of entering work life). Ever since I was 5-6 years old we have been playing cricket in our society almost every evening. In the vacations we used to play in the morning too. And in one summer vacation we actually put up a halogen lamp in a balcony which enabled us to play way into the night. Of course there were many hindrances which are common place in almost all societies namely breaking of windows, outsiders should not be allowed to play, no playing between 2 to 4 in the afternoon, no playing after 8 in the night etc. Though they did not deter us from playing we made a lot of adjustments like changing our rules drastically to discourage stroke making, cleaning bathrooms and replacing broken windows immediately and actually refraining from playing till EXACTLY 4 in the afternoon.

Till the year 2002 we used to play in a narrow area between 2 buildings. However the turning point came in the same year when the extremely rough driveway in our society was relaid and an extremely smooth driveway was made. Apart from increasing the lives of car tires this relaying of the road gave us an awesome pitch for playing cricket!

Courtesy a brilliant piece of welded metallic stumps from Australia we started playing on the tar road by bowling up the slope. The slope has quite a steep gradient but bowling on it felt great. Bowlers got nice bounce and batsmen felt the ball "coming on to the" bat as Ravi Shastri would say it. It also opened up a previously closed range of shots for us like the cover drive and straight drive. This time the windows were very far so the chances of breakage were minimum. Even so that did not prevent the odd breakage courtesy some adventurous and average batsmanship.

However it was hard to play competitively and though we loved the full pitch bowling and batting, the real fun began when we started to play "1 tip 1 hand" half pitch under arm matches. The competitive matches full of sledging and controversies were so addictive that we used to play right to the point where the ball was not visible at all due to the dark. Coincidently we played the most when it was the time of PL or "Preparatory Leave" during our Engineering days.

Due to the slope on the pitch we had christened it as "Lords". The memories at Lords are legendary and often relived with great enjoyment when the lucky ones to be a part of it meet after a long time.

Cricket at Panchadri is not just about playing. The "watching" part is just as memorable if not more. I have been lucky to be born in a cricket loving family. Right since I was a kid it's been the standard norm in our house that whenever India is playing there is nothing else allowed to be seen on TV. I also remember an incident when on a vacation in Simla we made the whole touring party wait as it was the ending stages of a cricket match. Consequently the tour left without us which in my view was the best thing to happen since we could at least watch the match in peace!

Over the years we have watched a lot of matches at my house. Each of them has been special which has made my house "lucky" for the Indian team. We have also watched football but of course it does not has the same effect of watching India play. Man United matches are great but the joy in watching Sachin pulling Caddick for a six is simply something else. I have tried to list some of the memorable matches watched at "5A Panchadri" in chronological order. Here they are along with some video links if you're interested in reliving the great moments:-

1. India vs Pakistan, 1998 Independence Cup Final - This match was one of the most exciting ones I have watched and I still remember the moment when our very own Punekar Hrishikesh Kanitkar hit Saqlain Mushtaq for a 4 to complete the highest ever chase at that time.
2. India vs England, 2002 Natwest Series Final - I remember this match well since it happened on my father's birthday, 13th July. Unlike Mohammed Kaif's parents we did not leave the house at 164/5 and were able to witness one of India's greatest wins ever. Also the highest chase at that time.
3. India vs Australia, 2003 World Cup Final - Now this should never count as a memorable match for any Indian BUT the atmosphere in my house when Sehwag was batting is something to go down in folklore. We knew that if anyone can achieve the impossible it is Virendra Sehwag. And when he was hitting the Aussie bowlers every shot was celebrated with the sound of about 25 plastic bottles which were demolished on that day.
4. India vs England, 2007 T20 World Cup - This match was made memorable by 1 man - Yuvraj Singh. The 6 sixes which he hit against Stuart Broad also introduced the "huddle" in my house which later became a common feature throughout the World Cup.
5. India vs Pakistan, 2007 T20 World Cup Final - Needless to say anything about this match and the atmosphere in my house as well as FC Road later on ...

I may have missed out on a lot of matches but I do hope I get to add to this list during the World Cup 2011 in India!

Only Veg

Hello! It's time for another post on food (made obvious by the title) as I'm not really keen on writing about Cricket after watching India's disappointing performance against Australia in the T20 World Cup Super 8 match :(

"Only Veg" - Normally such a phrase just below any restaurant's name would be a complete turn off for me and the restaurant would be deemed unfit to go at that moment and some times forever. The pure love for chicken, fish, mutton, pepperoni (or almost anything which walks) and maybe the fact that non-veg food is not prepared at home compels me to eat only non-veg food outside as much as possible. BUT there are very few hand picked eating joints which are an exception to this. The ones coming straight to mind are Vaishali, Bedekar, Sweekar(Kothrud) .... thats it. Still I wouldn't call them dinner places as its not applicable to Bedekar, Sweekar and the waiting period for Vaishali is too much for my stomach to bear.

The only "Only Veg" restaurant where I would happily go forgoing non-veg is Darshan!!!

Darshan has been one of my favorite eating places ever since I was a small boy when eating out was an occasion and not a run of the mill activity as it is now a days. However I have definitely started appreciating Darshan more after I had the self realization that it ranks very high in my list of favorite restaurants despite it not serving non-veg. It's also become a favorite lunch place for my team in office and among my friends there's a sense of nostalgia associated with it. A new "couple" is normally introduced to everyone at Darshan and any person who is returning abroad and wants to do a customary "meet-everyone-before-I-go" visit is taken to Darshan :)

Coming to the main point - FOOD - Darshan is synonymous with Cheese. If you love cheese (and who doesn't) then a visit to Darshan would be like visiting the kingdom of cheese. All the baked dishes in Darshan along with each and every other item which has cheese in it is simply awesome. Starting with Cheese Balls and Cheese Onion Capsicum Grilled Sandwich to Baked Veg and Macaroni and Baked Beans on Toast, it's the cheese which steals the show completely. If you're in a bad minority and don't like cheese at all you don't need to fret. The Chhole Bhature are the best in the world. And to top it off, no meal at Darshan is complete without taking at least one of Traffic Jam, Sizzling Brownie, Chocolate Soufflé or Jelly with Cream. There're also some juices and milk shakes but I never seem to go for them :P. I present my huge list of favorite items at Darshan -

Must Haves:-

• Cheese Balls
• Mushroom Fetters in Mustard Sauce
• Baked Veg and Macaroni
• Traffic Jam

These are some of my most frequently ordered items in Darshan and each and every one of them is a winner. If at all you want to substitute something then it can be the Baked Veg. Others are quite untouchable :P

Other equally great ones:-

• Baked Beans on Toast
• Open Cheese Chilli Toast
• Cheese, Onion, Capsicum grilled sandwich
• Vegetable Au Gratin
• Spinach and Mushroom Lasagna
• Chhole Bhature
• Chikoo Milkshake
• Jelly with cream

There's nothing much to not like in Darshan's menu but I don't like the Darshan Snack Dish that much and there's a "Chinese" section which I haven't tried ever! If at all I am missing something really good please put it in your comment :)

Good Luck!!

Hello! I am writing a post after such a long time that even classifying this as a writer's block will be a gross understatement! I thought it will be good idea to write a post before a whole year gets completed since the time the last one was written. Since I wanted a comfortable topic to resume after a long hiatus it had to be either food or cricket. Cricket would have also been a good topic since there's very less written about it apart from the IPLgate. But food gets precedence :)

For those of you who haven't yet figured out the connection between the title of the post and "food", I am referring to one of the best restaurants in the world - Cafe Good Luck. For those who still haven't got the chance to go to Good Luck I sympathize with you but whenever you come to Pune please go to Cafe Good Luck situated at Good Luck Chowk :P

I got "introduced" to Good Luck quite late actually. I remember it was about 5 years ago when I was in my Second Year in Engineering that I went with a couple of my friends for breakfast in Good Luck after Basketball practice. However since then Good Luck has always been synonymous with "breakfast". But its not limited only to breakfast.

Good Luck is one place where you can go for breakfast, brunch, lunch, tea, snacks, dinner or whatever reason or meal you can come up with. Whatever be the time or meal you'll always end up feeling full in the stomach and not much lighter in the pocket. Good Luck's waiters are the best in the world. Apart from being extremely friendly they also have the gift of getting the right order every time. One might think what's so great in getting the right order but when you have a group of people who chop and change the entire order in less than a minute it requires great skill to get the correct one. That too without getting it verified! However the waiters in the interior part are not as efficient. Its a standing joke among my friends that the waiters in the interior part are "interns" who graduate outside after training :)

Good Luck according to me is the restaurant which ranks #1 purely in terms of Return On Investment. There're are very few places in Pune now where you can have a complete meal of starters, main course and dessert and still end up paying less than Rs.100 per head. Of course I am talking of non-veg food here with no veg. dish apart from dessert being ordered.

Without further ado I present my list of favorite items in Good Luck. Please note they are not at all in order of preference. There are some things in the world which you cannot compare like "Sachin vs Bradman".

• Tea and Bun Maska (Butter) - Good Luck's tea is the best in the world and it's made complete by having Bun Maska along with it
• Cheese Masala Omlette
• French Toast
• Cream Chicken Dry - Better than KFC
• Boneless Chicken Biryani
• Goodluck Special Boneless - Best dish to have with Roomail Roti
• Mutton Kheema
• Fruit Funny - One of the best desserts you can have

They have also added some new items on their menu like Butter Chicken and Sukha Chicken but they're pending a second review which should mostly happen on the next Saturday or Sunday going by past record of going to Good Luck on every weekend come what may.

I have never ordered anything vegetarian in Good Luck apart from Bun Maska, Toast, Bread, Roti and desserts. If you are vegetarian then I would suggest you to go to Darshan which is the best only Veg. restaurant and deserves a separate post altogether. But if I have to suggest something for my only veg. friends it would be Cheese Tomato Grilled Sandwich.

I'm sure there're many delicious food items which have been missed by me in spite of being a regular at Good Luck since the last 5 years. The reason for this is one commonly used in cricket of "not wanting to disturb a winning combination" so please mention your favorite ones in your comment.