Rohit’s Ramblings

Archive for August, 2009

Ambigrams were invented by John Langdon (Langdon & ambigrams… do those names ring a bell? They should! The ambigrams used by Dan Brown in Angels & Demons were crafted by John Langdon - and Brown named his protagonist Robert Langdon as a homage). You can visit his website here.

Looking at the stuff at the website, I got an itch… I just wanted to try my hand at making an Ambigram. The results are below -

Not bad, eh?

Taru’s birthday party was around a month overdue. We’d already gotten him a cake, thereby mounting the pressure on him to give us the treat. Now Taru wouldn’t do anything by half measure. If it was a party (his party especially) - it had to be great. Taru is the Dil Wallan Delhite (and also the only Computer Scientist amongst us humble mortals - which we use as some sort of a justification to rip him off). Taru had been going through newspapers and websites to hunt down the next party destination. He very carefully browsed through the options, very painstakingly read the reviews - and arrived at his verdict. It was going to be Zest - a restaurant in Delhi’s elite Emporio mall. So Taru said -

I’ve been reading the reviews of the Zest,
They make it out to be quite the best,
It might be little dear,
But we have nothing to fear,
Let’s get there and figure out the rest.

Now - there are two adjacent malls - DLF Emporio and DLF Place. We landed at DLF Place by mistake instead of DLF Emporio - and were welcomed by brands like Reebok, Mango, etc. These brands were more obviously more expensive than buying things on the street - but nothing of the sort we read about. We could certainly afford the stuff here (heck we already were wearing stuff like that).

I guess we were unnecessarily so apprehensive,
The brands here don’t seem all that expensive,
We thought the prices would be brutal,
Now they seem a bit usual,
The dent in our pockets won’t be that extensive.

So. Now that we’d arrived - we had to look for Zest. We headed over to the information kiosk / desk and enquired for directions to Zest. We were informed that we were in the wrong mall - and DLF Emporio was the adjacent mall. So, we left DLF Place and headed towards DLF Emporio. When I saw Emporio - only one word came to my mind - OPULENT. I felt like a village bum there. Of course, we coped up with that by cracking some “rich” jokes.

Looking at Taru I said,
In this sweltering heat, I’ll be dead,
I could really use a hundred rupee bill,
So lend it to me if you will,
They’re really good to wipe your forehead.

Of course - Taru was “classier” than me. Here is what he had to say.

Rohit, my old friend,
Its really difficult for me to comprehend,
A hundred rupee note is flimsy and thin,
It’s only meant for a bumpkin,
A 1000 rupee note is much better in the end.

The people we saw in the mall - they were the kinds you’d normally reserve for Page 3. We could only dream of owning the stuff on sale there… Jimmy Choo, Kenzo, Christian Dior, Giorgio Armani… you get the picture!

The Armani that I just gave a try,
I am really interested to buy,
But before the billing can ensue,
I have just one question for you,
Can you give it to me on EMI?

I had an EMI card by the way … (yes!!).

We finally entered Zest. It was an out-of-this world ambiance. You have to see it to know what I am talking about. We had arrived early - but it was to our benefit - they could only offer us seats this early as they were booked for the night (weekend… what else did you expect?). A pretty lady took us to our table - a private dining area and we were seated. The first questions she asked me was whether we’d like “still” or “sparkling” water…

Since the prices could be extremely steep,
One’s thoughts are bound to be so deep,
I cannot decide between water sparkling or still,
My decisions shall pend until,
You tell me which one of them is cheap.

We settled for “still” water… which means it was just plain old mineral water. We browsed through the menu. It was pretty elaborate… seven cuisines is no joke. I usually make it a point to order whatever I can pronounce… and since the waiter at “Liquid Kitchen” in defense colony had earlier pronounced “Quattro Formaggio” for us - it was what we had [:D]. Quattro formaggio means 4 cheese pizza. Its quite delicious even though the only topping is cheese. However - due to some goof up, they gave us focaccia accidently. Focaccia is just plain bread with some herbs on top.

Our pangs knew that we were hungry,
We were as hungry as we could be,
But the focaccia’s looks did not impress,
Simply because it was four cheeses less.
But still, could we have it for free?

Pune had it’s first swine flu casualty. A young girl whose ignorant doctor decided to treat her for pneumonia instead (?!?!).

That doctor deserves a smack with a shoe,
Because it seems he hasn’t a clue,
That in midst of an epidemic,
And the fear gripping pandemic,
The symptoms may actually have been swine flu!

Back in 2nd year, I had a crush. She was elder to me, by about 4 years… and for many days, I was smitten. I always was tongue-tied. Here’s why…

I had a crush on you Reenah,
Tumhine tha mera dil chheena,
But I am afraid if I tell,
You will scream and yell,
And call me Kutta Kamina

– EDIT –

A few minutes after posting this, I was issued a warning… A few lines on that.

She said that how did I even dare,
To act like I didn’t care
To her it seems really lame,
To remember an old flame,
This limerick I will post to save my hair.