Livin' It Up.... On The Dream)liner

The long Diwali weekend has come, and it was time to head back home to Delhi....

This was a well-planned trip from an aviator's perspective - we were to be flying on the Dream)liner, Air-India's Boeing 787. We had carefully chosen AI348, the flight that heads to Shanghai-Pudong via Delhi - the flight departs Mumbai at 0750 hours, reaching Delhi at 1010 hours.

Being an international flight, with a domestic leg, we were asked to report for checkin at least two and a half hours before the scheduled departure time.

We reached Mumbai's Terminal 2 before dawn.... The terminal was lit up and illuminated for Diwali... It looked awesome...

This left me speechless....

(Thanks to Neeti for grabbing these magical sights on her camera!)

We were flying on VT-ANL - this Dream)liner was fabricated at the Boeing facility at Charleston, South Carolina. It undertook its maiden flight on  October 28, 2012, and was delivered to Air-India on December 29-30, 2012 when it flew on the CHS-FRA-DEL route... 

We had an unusual takeoff from the 09 end of the primary runway 09-27 and took off over Kurla, overflying Vikhroli and the Vashi creek....

The GEnx-1B engines looked massive - there was indeed much lesser noise in the cabin and takeoff was much smoother...

We turned northwards over the Vashi creek overflying Mulund and Thane towards our left....

Once the seatbelt signs were turned off, the cabin crew dimmed the windows from their controls...

The Dream)liner windows are 65% bigger than conventional windows and passengers have a knob that helps in electrically dimming the windows...

The dimming effect is the result of an electrified gel sandwiched between two thin pieces of glass. As the electric current increases, the gel darkens and as it drops, the gel lightens. The system is a technological marvel...

Three stages of dimming.....

Overflying Rajasthan...

Dimmers at work over Rajasthan...

Notice the curvature of the Earth...

Overflying the Aravalis...

Approach into DEL

Landing on DEL's 29-11...

Landing was super smooth like running a knife through butter... wish Jet Airways learns a thing or two about smooth landings...

Winter is setting in with perceptible haze...

Three sisters - Boeing 777s from Emirates, Jet Airways and British Airways on the ramp at Delhi's Terminal 3...

The Dream)liner experience was an awesome one. Not only was flight a very smooth one, service on board was excellent. Air-India's in-flight entertainment was pretty decent - I watched the movie, Godzilla. Breakfast was excellent as well - omelettes and sausages with a flaky croissant... The stewards were kind with endless refills of lemon tea... Leg space is always awesome on Air-India, the Dream)liner was no different.... In all Air-India scores highly over domestic carriers like Jet Airways and IndiGo.

With today's flight on the Boeing 787-8 Dream)liner, I have traveled on all Boeing commercial aircraft from Boeing 707 to the Boeing 787 with the sole exception of the Boeing 757. Chances on traveling on a Boeing 757 are remote today. In India, the aircraft is operated Blue Dart for their cargo operations. A few carriers in the United States still operate the Boeing 757, but they would be taken off service soon.

My track record with Airbus is a lot better - I have flown on all their commercial aircraft - Airbus A300, A310, A320-series, A330, A340 and A380. Now look forward to the Airbus A350 entering commercial service. 

Back To School....

After exploring the treasures of Chinatown yesterday, I got a call from an old friend, a college junior, who is working in Singapore - he contacted me after he saw my checkin at Changi Airport when I landed here earlier this week. 

I met him at Costa Coffee at Raffles Place. It was exciting meeting him after nearly 15 years, I guess I met him last at my convocation in Chandigarh. Thereafter, thanks to the much reviled social media, Facebook, we got connected, again, a few years back...

We recounted the exciting times we spent at Chandigarh over a cup of coffee. After spending an exciting hour and a half, it was time to head back - my friend had to head back to Changi, where he lives with his family, two sweet little kids whose photos I had seen on Facebook. I was hoping to get a call from Neeti, who was to get free last night - apparently her classes went on till late, so I headed to her campus this morning.

When I work up this morning, I was quite excited - I was meeting Neeti after over a week, a week that was quite long. While I enjoyed my gallivanting around Singapore over the last few day quite a lot, it wasn't half as fun without her...

Today is the day when we catch up... 

The morning skies were overcast - I prayed for no rain today....

Catching up with yesterday's Straits Times which hailed Modi as a reformer.

It appeared Modi created quite an impression in Singapore.

Jokowi, the president-elect of Indonesia somehow bears an uncanny resemblance to Obama - separated at birth, are they?

I stepped out of my hotel to head to Balestier Market for breakfast. The skies had cleared up, and it was a crisp, sunny morning.... just the kinds I love....

Kaya-toast, soft boiled eggs and kopi-c - a nice way to kickstart the day at the kopitiam at Balestier Road....

The bitter sweet nectar that is kopi-c - man, this truly is the elixir of life, errr, early mornings at least...

From the Balestier Market, I walked down to Novena MRT....

Passing by condominiums was interesting - people stepping out for exercise, jogging, grocery shopping...

The national flag was prominently displayed outside many buildings - the National Day was just a few days back...

That's Balestier Road - the road at the T-junction - a place I call "home" in Singapore...

I didn't expect to see this - garbage on the streets on Singapore? Surprising...

The walk to Novena was nice....

I quite liked this building...

I was very upset and ashamed when I saw the Novena Medical Center - this is where our Nirbhaya, India's daughter, was brought for treatment and sadly she passed away...

Hopefully, the Modi government will prioritise the "right"education for our young men to ensure such heinous crimes against women don't take place...

At Novena, I picked up this newspaper which was quite appreciative of Modi's Independence Day speech at the Red Fort...

However, coverage of Modi's speech in the Straits Times was a little more scathing...

It was obvious that Singapore expects a lot more from the new Modi administration... and the island-nation has been watching India very carefully...

But, the Independence Day speech mainly caters to a domestic Indian audience, for whom investor attractiveness means little. Knowing Modi's style, I am sure he does have a few aces up his short kurta sleeves, for investors abroad, including Singapore...

The One-North MRT had an interesting artwork...

And I finally reached Neeti's campus...

She gave me a guided tour and introduced me to her frends here...

Wow, I wished I could ge back to campus and recharge my brain...

The fountain of knowledge springs eternal...

Dinner du Jour - Healthy and Wholesome

Holidays are the times when preparing and having food is not a chore, it's a work of art, it's creativity, it's destressing, it's fun.

Monday was a holiday, as the city celebrated Eid. We too celebrated the holiday with great, wholesome, healthy and tasty food. Our fridge was stocked with great fresh vegetables - mushrooms, zucchini, capsicum, bell-peppers and broccoli. We decided to make sauteed vegetables, hung-yogurt cheese spread on toasted multi-grain bread with steaming hot tomato soup.

The hung-yogurt cheese spread has always been the pièce de résistance on our dinner table. This was my Mom's concoction - yogurt was hung overnight in a muslin, the solids retrieved in the morning mixed with a pinch of salt, lots of pepper, cilantro and chopped green chillies.

This time around, we gave Mom's concoction a new twist - we avoided salt - low sodium meals is a fad, we've caught on to! We added finely chopped Del Monte black olives, mashed capers, crushed black, pink, green, white and red peppercorns (that's something we took a fancy to after visiting Coorg). The cheese spread was whisked vigorously to fluff it up with air and it was then chilled.

Next we took on the vegetables. Into the pan went half a teaspoon of Del Monte olive oil, followed by rough onion cubes. When the onions turned light translucent, in went cubed zucchini. Exactly three minutes after that went in broccoli florets, followed by diced capsicum, bell-peppers and halved mushrooms. These were sauteed for the next seven minutes. The vegetables were cooked but retained their unique crunchiness. Then went it a good number of green Del Monte olives followed a sprinkling of oregano, crushed peppercorns and dill - no salt was added, keeping in mind the zero-sodium philosophy. After another two minutes of tossing the vegetables, it was all done.

Slices of multigrain bread were toasted on top of which a thick coating of the cheese spread was applied. For a touch of extra spiciness, we sprinkled Spanish paprika on the toast!

And the food was yum - the spread on toast was absolutely out of the world - flavourful, creamy, spicy with just about a touch of sourness! That went very well with the sauteed vegetables and soup!

It was truly a healthy and wholesome dinner - a dinner du jour! 

As the the Worldfoody.com page on Facebook says that the adventurous food lover in you would try the recipes, adjust ingredients to suit your tastes, then call them your own. That's what Neeti and I did - we adapted my Mom's concoction to give a different twist with olives and capers. You too can do that!

Bon appétit!

Gourmet Sunday Breakfasts Continue!

Last week, Neeti came up with a brilliant idea of pickling mushrooms. After a bit of trial and error, we prepared a vinaigrette with olive oil, garlic, peppercorns and a mix of herbs, alongwith some sugar and salt. We soaked a full packet of mushrooms in our vinaigrette and left it for a couple of days in the refrigerator to pickle. 

In two days, our concoction had achieved a heavenly status, the vinaigrette had oozed into the mushrooms, which surprisingly had retained their texture and it all tasted great - an amazing blend of garlic and mushroominess, subtle flavour of the herbs with a sourish tinge contributed by the vinegar!

Today, in quest for something different, for another round of a gourmet breakfast, we retrieved our pickled mushrooms and stuffed them inside absolutely fresh pãos (or what we call pavs in Mumbai) alongwith butter,  and generous drops of our vinaigrette. 

We had our pickled mushroom pão with omelettes and baked beans, the next in our series of gourmet Sunday breakfasts!

Ubuntu - "I Am Because We Are"

I picked this up from Neeti's newsfeed on Facebook. The piece goes as follows:

An anthropologist proposed a game to the kids in an African tribe. He put a basket full of fruit near a tree and told the kids that who ever got there first won the sweet fruits. 

When he told them to run they all took each others hands and ran together, then sat together enjoying their treats. 

When he asked them why they had run like that as one could have had all the fruits for himself they said: ''Ubuntu, how can one of us be happy if all the other ones are sad?'' ('Ubuntu' in the Xhosa culture means: "I Am Because We Are")

This is so true, "I" is defined by the people around me, my surroundings and my environment. Ironically, there would be no "I" without them.

An interesting fact is that Nelson Mandela belongs to the Xhosa tribe. Perhaps it was this Ubuntu spirit that has laid the foundation of the post-Apartheid South Africa!

Such is the spirit of my homeland, Africa!

Gourmet Sunday Breakfasts!

Sunday is here again, and its time for another great breakfast, probably the best and the most enjoyable breakfasts of the entire week.

Neeti and I absolutely love this kind of stuff, baked beans with eggs and toast. But recently, we have given all this an interesting twist a few weeks back. Read on...

Mushrooms and olives stuffed with pimiento being sautéed in a few drops of extra virgin olive oil. The concoction has been sprinkled with oregano, pepper and herbs...

Baked beans cooked with mushrooms, olives and jalapeno peppers!

Finally on the plate, with eggs sunny-side up and toast!

That was about two weeks back! Today we give these concoctions a healthier twist, by including vegetables - broccoli, bell-peppers and capsicum.

Baked beans alongwith veggies and olives!

Sautéed vegeteables with mushrooms, olives and herbs. Today, we added diced onions at the very beginning in a few drops of extra virgin olive oil. Then the other veggies were added...

That's my cheese omelette with onions, coriander and mint, and yes lots of pepper!

It all looks yummy on the plate, alongwith grilled tomatoes. I could have added pâté de foié to this serving, but I am watching my diet! Can't wait to dig in!