Hote Empire, Church Street-where you can get bad food and find insensitive, bonehead managers !

This monday, after spending almost 2 hours shifting to the next chair in the queue and waiting for almost 2 hours at the Submission and Verification counter at the Passport Office, Kormangala, Mom and I decided to have lunch on our way home. So, I suggested Hotel Empire on Church Street. I had been there once before for a buffet lunch and it wasn't worth even half the price. But thought the 'regular food' might be something that mom and I could enjoy eating. Being completely tired , we ordered a 'Veg Thali' each as it would be sufficient enough and could get it quicker too.

After about 10 min got our "Thali". They've introduced something called "Coin Parota", which is not bigger than the size of your palm. Well, digging in, realized that the food was not even close to tasting good. The "dal" was seemed undercooked. Another brinjal curry/sambar was smelled as though it was rotten, which I realized only after taking a bite with rice. And the so called rasam was just water with drops of oil and some color.

Couldn't eat anything in the ordered "thali" except the Fruit salad that was given. Mom was pissed off. The price of the "thali" is Rs.85. If I had to fix a price for the same, it would be 15bucks, only because of the fruit salad. Mom complained to the Manager soon as we realized that it was real bad. But the olfactory dysfunctioned Manager told us that it was perfectly normal.

I just stayed quiet and let mom do the complaining, thinking that the Manager would realize the bad service and do something about it. He telling us that it was "perfectly okay" just pissed me off. This guy must have had his olfactory organs removed as a free offer when he was circumcised, I thought. Blasted him for saying its "okay", when clearly it was smelling rotten. He told us to report to his senior, another Jackass who I complained to on our way out(we paid the bill btw!). The senior jackass was also arrogant enough to defend himself/miserable quality hotel without actually having a look/smell/taste the so called food that was served to us. I took out a 100 rupee note, kept it on the table and challenged him to give it to ANY customer in the hotel and if they said that it was atleast close to consumable, he could keep it. But the bonehead either didn't understand or he didn't want get spit on the face by another customer. As we walked out of the hotel, I vowed never to go there again.

When the Manager was so confident about the rotten smelling curry even without smelling, I should have just splashed it on his face(hhmm....thats something I will definitely do the next time some bonehead manager behaves the same way).

Well, my point is, nowadays, when customer satisfaction is the topmost priority and companies(whatever the industry/field maybe) try to go the extra mile to make the customer feel happy by providing a good service, the behavior of the authorities at the popular Hotel Empire was not at all acceptable. Thats been the worst food and service I have ever received ever!

All those of you who decide to go this Hotel sometime, I suggest you give it a second thought.

Power of 15

Well, its been almost since 6 months since I posted something new here.Lot of things have happened in these days; a turning point, new events encountered and new people I've met and some of the so called close ones who've shown their true colors....


My bad, I will be attending college again from Aug'08 with a year junior batch for my final year. The blow was real bad, trust me. Its completely different seeing from experiencing. That too with an unfortunate case like mine.


But the suicidal phase got over long back.;) Actually, the time off has given a whole new experience. Although not completely productive, I am satisfied with the experience that I've gained in the past 4 months. Saw and made new friends, got to know their perspectives in life and the whole environment itself was enough to make me realize how lucky I am. One of my favorite quotes seemed to make even more sense-"I stopped complaining about the shoes I had until the day I came across a man with no feet".


Joined an NGO called Dream a Dream in Feb. The organization aims at empowering children from vulnerable backgrounds. I have been enjoying my experience there. Attended 2 "Fundays"-where the kids are taken on a picnic on a chosen sunday.

Thats the latest Funday that I had been to-Just Peace Festival at Dodda Gubbi on May 11.


The whole experience is quite overwhelming. A separate post on that one soon.


Felt really sad to miss the Photo session of my batch, this year. Although I'll have one next year, it would no way be close to being with the friends with who I had almost spent 4 years. Well, thats the way life is, things happening for a reason. Maybe I am expected to experience something else, who knows !


Hadn't been dear to academics since Jan, getting back to books slowly. Joined CCNA classes which will go on till July 1st. GRE prep again taken a back seat ! Anyways, will prepare well and will definitely write the exam by September.


The exciting part and what I am looking forward is my "vacation" to Scotland around the end of June. Brother's Graduation Ceremony in July, hence. If everything goes smoothly and according to plan, will be posting a blog a month from now, from the UK. :)


Lots of running around in the next couple of days though. Will keep updating about that right here.

And I promise to be more regular in posting blogs here.

Bye for now. :)

Something to ponder about

We do make fun of ourselves quite often. Seldom do we think about how it affects us at an sub-conscious level. This incident happened few months ago, where in my group of friends displayed the casual, happy-go-lucky attitude in front of an intellectual being and a few days later this is the mail I receive from that person. Although this was written to us about our casual attitude the other day, I somehow felt that quite a large number of us do regularly belittle ourselves, making fun about things that we think that we cannot achieve. I certainly do believe how certain little actions can affect our personality. The mail was unexpected but enlightening. Read on....



".....I was also dismayed at your remarks about yourself. One should always learn to respect oneself. Self pity and belittling oneself never helps us; it only weakens us. If you find your life is not going on well, as your remarks indicated, you would do well to change your thinking pattern and change your attitude towards yourself and your activities. It is thoughts that become actions and actions become habits and that makes one's inner personality which makes or unmakes one's life. So we must read and hear and ponder over positive, helpful thoughts. Negative, belittling thoughts about one's abilities never bring strength and right direction in life. You have studied in a school where Swami Vivekananda's teachings are liberally given to all. Swamiji's words have inspired millions of people around the world. His message is not just confined to academic and scholarly discussion but is meant for living a nobler life.Cannot you derive some inspiration from his teachings? I am sure you would look into your mind, and try to change your outlook towards life. Read Swami Vivekananda's words regularly. "

Back to music

Back in primary school at MES, our class had a prodigy;. He captivated the entire school with his ability to play the flute so well that there was no doubt that he would be making news very soon.

A year later, after joining Vidyashala, we were given a chance to choose our hobby classes. I definitely wanted to join the Flute class, hoping that I too could mesmerize a crowd someday. The College Band Troupe is definitely an added star on the shoulder at Vidyashala and I had fallen in love with the Sax. But during the selection process, after determining how much air I could breathe in and out, it was decided that flute was the best choice. Although there was a tinge of disappointment that I had to be satisfied with a less prominent instrument like the flute in the College Band, it felt good to enjoy the prestige status belonging to the troupe. The hobby classes was a joke, some of them spent their entire 3 years trying to produce at least some sort of sound out of the 7 holed stick !

Strange that my chemistry with the flute worked out smooth that in a matter of weeks I could effortlessly play most of the tunes written in the Band book. And the first prize for the Best Hobby student(flute) 8th through 10th standard was in my possession. But the best part that I can cherish was the competition for the Band prize. In the reed section, there were Saxophone, Clarinet and Flute. Each one of us had to play a tune each from the 'Quick march', 'Slow march' and the 'Melody' section and also play the National Anthem. The competition was funny too, because the true colors of some of the members were brought out, as we had to play our respective instruments individually. When my turn came up, I was done with my decision of what to play. My 10 minute performance was my dream come true of mesmerizing the audience. Although the audience consisted only of the other band members, it felt amazing. There was a strange kind of silence, I had the audience 'mesmerized' and people there applauded for the first time and it felt absolutely great.

Back in Bangalore, I somehow lost in touch with playing the flute. My brother, who btw, was great with playing the guitar encouraged me to learn playing the guitar n number of times. But playing the guitar somehow seemed nuclear science to me and I had given up on it. Fast forward three years, here I am back with a craving thirst to learn playing the guitar. Anand and me have decided to learn playing the instrument for good and the honors of having to teach us has been kindly agreed upon by Vijay and Vinay. The 'classes' begin from next week and I am looking forward to it.

Strum away !

Wake me up when september ends

Well, September is almost closing up on its dates and it surely hasn't been that good to me this year. Have you ever come across the situation where in the highway of life seems so smooth and you feel like everything is just falling into place until one fine day you fall down so hard that you just can't realize what just hit you? Best can be related to what Chetan Bhagat writes in the book '5 point someone'- "...just when you feel that everything is going your way, life screws you big time..."

Moving on, the past couple of weeks has not been kind enough to me. I did have numerous plans and big dreams and now I feel that they might end up going down the drain. All though there is a lifeline, you don't expect things will turn up right when you know that you are going through the 'rough phase' of your life. Maybe that's the reason why I changed my Blogspot name to "Its all just Maya". For those of you who didn't know me during my PU days and also a during my early Engineering semesters, MAYA-the concept of everything around you being an Illusion was what had got me enchanted. It's difficult to even imagine what just happened which forces me to think otherwise.

It's that part of the time when you are supposed to be happy, but since you are not, you put on a fake smile in order to let people know that things are just fine even though it's not. It's sad to see that people don't seem to be quite the same and that they are trying to let go gradually. The situation has provided me with power to differentiate between people who genuinely care and those fake ones, who just need somebody to hang out with.

For the past couple of weeks, it's been hard for me to get a refreshing night's sleep, an appetite thats decreased even more and a mind that has become restless-being bombarded with endless number of thoughts day in and day out.

Maybe it's just my faith that is being tested and I am trying to be stronger than before.

It's all just MAYA !