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Some folks from IIT Roorkee (2008 batch)  are doing a wonderful job of spreading awareness to save electricity and make the earth greener! Their campaign has already got a huge response from all over the world. Now it’s your turn to pledge for green! You can do so from this link – Pledge For Green.

If each one of us be more concerned about the environment, then this earth will be a much better place to live in. A green earth is impossible without a conscious effort of the masses, which is what Green 1.0 is trying to promote. My salutes to such a great human effort.

Finally the arduous exams got over and I got back home last Friday. Now that the exams are over, it’s time to sleep well and that I am home, to eat well! 😀 It’s also the perfect time to watch some movies. Watched 3 movies yesterday.

2 of them are Bond – Dr. No and From Russia With Love. I have watched all the other movies in the 007 series! I had watched all these movies in quick succession within a short span of time after the 5th semester exams. It is anybody’s guess that Daniel Craig is no match for his predecessors.Then again, Timothy Dalton was a disaster though his The Living Daylights was a big hit I am told. That leaves only Sean Connery, Roger Moore and Pierce Brosnan, not counting George Lazenby who had only one appearance in On Her Magesty’s Secret Service. It is very difficult to decide who is the best of these 3 men. Though I like all three of them, I think Sean Connery is the best Bond of all times. Connery scores more on the count of his suave manliness!

I also watched Slumdog Millionaire. I loved the movie! Brilliant storytelling and a story that touches your heart.

Today evening, I had a dinner at Ginger.

We all need them. Blank DVDs. There are many brands with Sony, Moser Baer, etc. priced a bit higher for their better build quality while Writex, Frontech and such cater to most run-of-the-mill basic tasks. Most stores will ask Rs. 14-15 per disc (Writex, Frontech) and some stores even more. But ideally it should be no more than Rs. 9. So you need to find out a decent store and stop paying more. There is this store in Jadavpur from where I buy my DVDs. Take the first left turn you come across on your way from 8B to Thana and you will see the store on the left side of the lane. They seem to be a speciality store on discs with all kind of discs from all brands stacked neatly with the price labelled on the case. Make no mistake – it is by no means any swank shop. Rather a very small shop, almost like a ticket-counter. You have to pay & collect your DVDs through the opening in the glass window.

While in Siliguri, I have got them a few times from a store called Computer Paradise for 11/- per disc. It is at Sevoke More, in the lane ajdacent to the medicine shop named Kolkata Medical Hall. A narrow staircase will take you to the store on first floor. It seems to be a godown basically. I have come to know of another store on Venus Road, in the lane just beside Citi Style where you get DVDs for just 9.

That’s so much for now. Where do you get your DVDs from?

I have been busy working it out in the gym! Thing is, for several months I used to only fool around in the gym until our trainer gave me an exercise chart which I have started from 1st of this month. This new workout regimen is proving to be quite back breaking for me.

I hit the all new Sports Bar Express today. I will recommend the chicken tandoori and the chicken kebabs. They make a mean American chopseuy too! The food is really great here, as is the ambience. Finally a good hangout destination in Siliguri.

A Café Coffee Day outlet has just opened in Cosmos. The first one in Siliguri. Used to hanging out at the CCD outlets in Kolkata, I missed it here. Probably they read my wishlist.

I visited the all new CCD this evening. It’s in the basement of Cosmos.

After spending like nearly 2 years here, let me jot down my Siliguri wishlist.

• A quick passenger train transport that will take me from medical college to the town in 5 minutes.
• An alternative road transport. The city autos are like running coffins – noisy, uncomfortable and very risky. These autos can comfortably sit 6 passengers but the drivers are allowed to take 8. Yet they flout rules taking upto 13 passengers at times. Plus the autos waste roadspace, besides looking ugly. Why not increase the count of buses? Not big buses, mini buses will do.
• I wish the pavements of Siliguri were safer. If you walk along the Sevoke road you will find the footpath interrupted every now and then by high drains dangerously gaping at you. Tiled footpaths is a necessity too, rather than the uneven bare concrete that adorns them now.
• Introduction of metered taxis, numbered buses are a few other things I would like to see in Siliguri soon.
• Siliguri sure lacks quality movie halls. I once went to Payel the only AC hall. That was my first and last time. It is far far worse than the ordinary halls of Kolkata. I see an immediate need of quality movie halls in Siliguri as also multiplexes. I hear 3 multiplexes are coming up.
• It has too many restaurants but I would like to have more places where we can hang out, say like Café Coffee Day outlets in other metros. The shopping malls are good places to chill out. Cosmos mall on Sevoke Road is really a nice addition.
• For Siliguri to become a bustling metro, it needs to be connected with adjoining areas as also the rest of the north Bengal by a thorough rail network. Something like the circular rail of Kolkata should be implemented. For example, if someone from Raiganj plans to come here he has to undertake the arduous bus journey of 4 hours, the nearest rail stop Dalkhola being 30-40 km away.
• The Bagdogra airport needs night-landing facility and international status. Once it is placed in the lucrative Kathmandu route and more planes start flying, the smaller airlines will cut the Kolkata-Bagdogra fares I believe.
• Introduction of Airtel broadband in Siliguri. So that I can then happily get rid of this pesky little thing from Reliance that is driving me nuts with its super slow speeds.
• Times Of India and other leading English dailies should open their press in Siliguri. Among English dailies, Now only The Telegraph and The Statesman get printed here. Rest arrive in the evening by plane from Kolkata. Also, t2 the daily tabloid supplementary of The Telegraph should be circulated here too – it makes no sense otherwise.

So much for now. I will expand this list if something strikes me.

I finished reading Fountainhead (by Ayn Rand) back in February when I was finally relaxing after going through the rigours of the semester exams. It is an epic novel championing the individualism of mankind. I loved this book like anything. I had borrowed it from a friend. I also finished reading One Hundred Years Of Solitude (Gabriel Garcia Marquez) soon after, which is a colourful and delicious narrative of a small village Macondo and its people as they rise and fall through the sands of time – hundred years of time, that is. This one, and also Atlas Shrugged (Ayn Rand), I had bought from Oxford Bookstore recently. I don’t think I’ll read Atlas Shrugged anytime soon, for it is huge. It is one of the largest novels in English language. Even in a small type, it crosses 1000 pages.

I had been home in the weekend at the time of Holi when I got two bestsellers from Crossword – Love In The Time Of Cholera (Gabriel Garcia Marquez) and Inheritance Of Loss (Kiran Desai). Also got 2 more from Golpark. Sacred Games (Vikram Chandra) and A Thousand Splendid Suns (Khalid Husseini). It will take me a long time to finish reading all these books.

I am reading Sacred Games right now. It is an epic. A moving story – or rather many stories intertwined – that takes you through the dark underworld of Mumbai mafias.. and every now and then moves back and forth, sometimes to Punjab ravaged by partition, or to Bengal in the 1970s Naxalite era. Vikram Chandra, with his elegant style, is a master storyteller.

At home I was reading a Bengali novel by Narayan Sanyal (নারায়ণ সান্যাল) titled Rupomanjori (রূপমঞ্জরী). It is a fascinating journey through Bengal and elsewhere in India in the 18th century – a time when the Britishers are making their presence felt but the royal forces are still present, languishing though. This brilliant historical fiction is a must read for anybody. I’ll complete the book when I return home again.

Today I went to the newly opened Cosmos Mall, Siliguri for the first time and got two books from the Oxford Bookstore outlet there. One Hundred Years Of Solitude by Gabriel Garcia Marquez and Atlas Shrugged by Ayn Rand. I like to borrow books from Golpark but these books are worth collecting I thought. Could not resist buying them!

For the last few days I had been eating out a lot. Too many occasions, birthdays and all, coincided within a short span of time. Siliguri has too many restaurants given it is an important tourist centre, the gateway to Darjeeling. I find food here is a lot dearer than in Kolkata.

New Ranjit and Ranjit are two vegetarian hotels side by side on Hill cart Road – near Venus more. After trying both the places, I concluded New Ranjit is the better one in terms of food quality and cheaper too! Either of them would set you back by about 200 for a dinner.

On 2nd September my senior Dr. John gave me a treat at Tai wah. We were celebrating the revamp of his company website! Tai wah is known for authentic Chinese dishes. John da missed the old charm though – he used to frequent this place during his college years. We took rice, a prawn dish and 2 chicken dishes. Tangy and spicy! Slurp slurp! The bill was 342.

On 3rd September, I joined my friends for a dinner gathering at Sudhriti, an AC restaurant opposite North Bengal University. We had mutton polao, a chicken side dish, rosogollas and ice-cream. The food was great. We had contributed 110 each.

I also ate once at Tashi, located near my college. The place clearly has fallen in standards.

I tried the all new IRCTC food plaza at NJP station too. The food in this case was not the main attraction. What was really special was the never-before experience of having quality food at a railway station. I was surprised to see this well decorated, squeaky clean eatery! The food is really nice for a train station. A plate of egg biriyani + raita combo costs 80. Coffee was 10 a cup.