When was the last time you did something for the first time?

When was the last time you did something for the first time? Invariably this question keeps popping up in my life once every few months and every time it does it leaves me with the same extremely uneasy feeling - so much to do and experience and so little time! Last August, I made a big change to my life, one where I clearly knew work-life balance could no longer remain a theory that I kept hearing of and discussing with people. More so because that uneasy feeling had created a home in the back of my mind making me question the significance of what I was doing and whether that would amount to anything truly valuable at all in the long run?

9 and a half months later, I feel like a new born baby. People who have known me for the last so many years will know what I mean. People who have come to know me after August will never fully understand how these words are an understatement and still don't communicate the intensity and fervour with which I say them. It's been 9 and a half months of several firsts and an incredible feeling of pure happiness that's just there every time I remember any one of them!

9th March was one such day.

It started off with one email about 6 of us being able to go sailing in Mumbai for 3000 bucks. Yes, sailing in Mumbai. Obviously, it was only a matter of few minutes when that one email jumped to 23 and we were all set for this!

All dressed up and geared for sailing, we met at the jetty at Gateway of India and took our boat with the motor (no do not imagine a fancy motor -boat) to travel to where the sail boat was anchored. A sailboat just before you envision it is a simple sailboat and not like the luxury ones or somewhere in between that we see on all the shows on Star World or AXN or the Hollywood movies! Having said that, it was a thrill to stand up and jump across from one boat to the other somewhere on the sea! Jimmy captained our sailboat and was our guide for the 2 hours that followed.

Sun kissed sails and smiles!

What did we learn? 
(Yes I have seen Go,Goa,Gone) : 

• Jimmy, our captain, is a sportsman - turned - entrepreneur! He has participated in several sailing races across the world and on the very same sailboat that we were on! Unfortunately, as we all know, sports apart from cricket (and now some more) barely get any patronage in our country and hence racing hasn't turned out financially viable for Jimmy leading to the entrepreneurship and running the sailing business!

• Sponsoring one of these sailing teams costs under 10 lacs. Is it really that difficult for any of the brands or age old industrial families to actually put in some money and encourage this in the country? Godrej has in the past.

• There is an unseen boundary to which you can sail when you take one of these sailing trips. The other side of this invisible boundary is the area that we know from the roads as Chowpatty.

• There is a sailing school for kids to learn and you can see them practise!

• There is an old unused prison on the Arabian Sea not so far from the Gateway of India and chances are the first word that will pop in your head when you see it will be Alcatraz!

Alcatraz!

• Many of the sailboats used at the Gateway of India by Jimmy and others are made by Godrej and the sails only are imported.

• As business is closed for the monsoons, Jimmy (like most other sailboat owners there) sails back to Goa on the same sailboat with supplies and the trip takes about 3 days.

• There is a lighthouse somewhere mid-sea that I would love to go visit if it was allowed and feasible!

• No boats are allowed on the sea after 10 PM.

• The Indian Navy has marines who in order to stay fit practise wind surfing and it's a thrill to see them zip by at the speed that they do! 

It doesn't surprise me that I remember all of this like I only went sailing yesterday. It's only because while Jimmy was telling us this, we were also chilling a wine bottle in the sea, I was screaming (of course lesser as time passed by) every time the boat dipped down or swerved, my very awesome friends were having a ball laughing at me when I did so, 2 of them were busy posing at the helm with the sail, one of them was busy showing us the finger (and other such poses) and Jimmy while sailing the boat was also busy laughing with us all!

The two ours passed quicker than we anticipated. The wind, the waters, the sun, the laughs, the shrieks, the conversations… all that and so much more that I won't ever forget!

I returned knowing that we are going back in the winter once sailing resumes and doing this more often and also with the want to discover more such unique experiences and importantly to ensure that every once in a short while, I can continue to ask myself. "When was the last time I did something for the first time?" and know what it was and how recent it was without a moment passing by! 

….I seem to be doing well so far! (more on this soon!)

Here are some of things you must keep in mind when you decide to go sailing!

• Wear comfortable clothes and shoes. You need to climb down a slope on the jetty to board the boat!

• Carry some thing to eat and more wine and beer when you go sailing! It's fun!

• Do not chill your wine in the sea! Ours became salty and we don't know how! (That did not stop us from almost finishing it!)

• In the summer go for the 5 to 7 slot for sailing. 

• The cost of hiring the boat in the 5 to 7 slot is around 2500 bucks and it can accommodate up to 6 people.

You can reach Jimmy at +91-9987000004 to make a booking.

Welcome to Central Perk.

The guitar strums, a familiar tune plays, words that we know well enough because we have heard them so many times. Phoebe walks in - her usual chirpy whee-ing self, Monica comes in next - booted and bagged, Joey next a little lost and with every statement having some easy-to-identify double meaning, Chandler and Chandler's jokes, craziness and shenanigans follow and then there is Rachel the crazy shopping person who can't live without her credit cards. No Ross isn't there yet. You'll know why soon enough. 

Yes we are at Central Perk alright. Only this isn't in NY. This is here in Mumbai. This isn't as brightly lit. This place is more dimly light, a little more red. This doesn't have couches. This has chairs and bar stools.They don't serve coffee here. They serve the drinks we like. They don't have a spot for a live performer. They have a DJ who plays some really cool music. 

This is our Central Perk. The place where we hangout. The place that also brought us closer to each other. The place that's become our home.

Welcome to Toto's Garage. Our Central Perk. Where we know which tracks will play every day of the week. Where we can walk in at anytime and be welcomed home like family members are at the end of day. Where everyone from the doorman to the servers to the managers to the owner is now a friend who we look forward to meet. Where the drink is served before we can look up and ask for it. Where our table choices are known. Where we can find a table within 10 minutes of being there no matter how crowded the place! 

Toto's for me (earlier in December) was this really hip place that I, in spite of working 5 minutes away for 2 years since 2004, had never visited. It was one of those places that you want to go to but just haven't and are so longing to go to at least once! I can't remember our first visit together to Totos but what I do remember is Joey saying, "Toto's chalte hain" and that being how it all started! 

At Toto's I was introduced to the joys of eating Bun Maska, Anda Bhurji & Pav and Kheema Pav while drinking! Tasty with that almost home-cooked flavour and feel, the experience just became much more personal! And because Monica with her OCD doesn't eat eggs after 12 PM (I know you are surprised, I was too!) we landed up ordering Chicken Lollypops one day and they were easily one of the best I have eaten anywhere! Another dish that has made quite an impression on us is the Deep Fried Pork Sausage with deep fried onions that we tried just a few days ago. 

What tops all of this, however, is that I can sit at a place as cool as Totos, that plays some of my favourite songs and eat Masala Peanuts (yes I like traditional chaknas with drinks!) Most of the places I like and would want to hang out at serve almost everything but when asked for Masala Peanuts, simply and as politely as possible, decline the request.  

I have lost count of how many times we have been to Totos now. I remember a time when we would plan going to Totos, to a time now when we just know that we've got to be at Totos. I also remember this time being a short span of 2 odd months from December to now. And when you go to a place as frequently as we do here, the biggest problem is that while you love the place and what you eat, you also feel you have exhausted the menu and are just bored of what there is to eat. Just when we felt that was going to happen, our Gunther surprised us and started serving us variations and his recommendations like chicken sausages with greens and tandoori chicken lollypops that literally melt in your mouth! 

There are days when we probably haven't gone to Totos for days and then there are days when no matter where we have been earlier, our last drink has to be at Totos. I think of this place and I see the times when we stood at one end of the bar and had a quick drink in 20 minutes to celebrate something we were waiting so eagerly for, when we stood at the other end and had shots as we bid farewell (thankfully for a short while) to Joey, when just some of us have sat down to outrun our thoughts and some really depressing days and also when we sat at one of our two favourite tables and I was flicked in the eye by Monica while the rest of the gang kept cheering for a cat-fight! 

As I see my journal, I realise so many of my most precious memories have been created here. Welcome to our Central Perk, to Totos Garage, our safe place, our hang out, our first choice to be at any given day. I hope you too create some unforgettable times here!

Cheers!

Ever since I can remember the thought of food has excited me like very few things can! Yes, pun intended. ;)

The idea of a food blog has been on my mind for a long long time now. Not because I am a great cook but because I love eating...because I love watching people cook when they do so as passionately (Courtesy MasterChef Australia of course!) ... because there are those really rare times when I do cook and enjoy my space, my kitchen and the idea of serving up joy on a platter to the people I love!

I couldn't possibly word it well enough to express how much I love food (the eating, the watching, the preparing, all of it!). However, the idea of a food blog lacked something, I couldn't really put my finger on what that 'it' was till I was sitting at Lemongrass on the 4th of January 2013 at 1115 in the night with one of my best friends for a really late dinner and we started talking about our love for food and how we were meeting after almost 10 months and what followed was a heart warming, laughter-filled conversation complemented brilliantly by the Sula Rasa and some amazing Crispy Basa in Dry Red Chilly Sauce (the combination is unbelievable!). 

That conversation and dinner ended with The Social Kitchen being born. When Sunil Karanjikar, my friend, just went on to say that when it came to me, it was never about the food or the ambience at a place alone, it was (as it is in every other case), over and above everything else about people, about the experiences, about being connected, about the memories, about the emotions. Something clicked. Instantly. I knew this had to be 'it'.  

With a lot of happiness and contentment in my heart, I now start "The Social Kitchen", my blog which talks not just about the food at a place but the unforgettable memories you can create there. I have always believed that people will get bored of a place and it's food invariably no matter how incredible the food is. The only reason they will go back to a place is the warmth, the sense of belonging and when they know that it somehow feels like home. The Social Kitchen will tell you about such places, where you would want to spend some of the best times of your life.

Cheers. (And in true twitter style) ... *clinks glass*!

M