Foodie's Eyes

You come to a new city and you look out for touristy places. And then, you spend 10-12 hours a day looking at the city's 'restaurant oriented' data. You spend half your time dissecting the city into parts that would classify it in this way or that. You look at it like a lush green park, and wonder where to begin your morning run. Your efforts go into making restaurants' data collection do-able, possible, approachable and all the other adjectives that fit within this bracket! 

Gradually, you look at the city only through those eyes. People tell you "Oh! There is a pretty museum in XX area." And you reply saying, "Yeah we can go there some day and eat at the Spanish restaurant around that corner."

When you're charting maps and directions in your head to figure out the best route, your brains map is not the usual Google image. Your image of the map has tortillas and tacos at the crossings, pizzas and pastas at the turns and you missed the burgers and fries just 'cuz your destination led you to the left! 

That's what makes you a true blue foodie: The analysis of a city based on its restaurant density. You only think of fancy restaurants when people ask you what are the tourist places to visit in your city. People may expect to hear exotic locations when they ask, "Where are you going during this long weekend?" You come up with a long list of restaurants covering all your favourite cuisines, cutting across the length and breadth of the city; and all of those seem to make a better plan than a white sand, virgin beach somewhere afar. 

What do you see at your next turn? Is it puffs or rolls or the place that serves the yummiest Chinese food, you've ever had! 

Put on your food-lens and explore! 

Around the world in Zomato ways!

A lot of time has passed between my last post and now.  While the Sun continues to rise in the East and set in the West; I am now making my way into two extreme parts of the world. It has all happened so fast that I was not left with enough waking moments to follow my hobbies passionately (where writing tops the list!) On the one hand, I have been sleep deprived in my race to check things off my to-do list. On the other, when I did manage to hit the bed my brain cried out loud from being over-worked. In all honesty, until this moment: when I am sitting on an airplane on my way to Istanbul, I didn’t think of penning down my emotions as life goes by.

I once read somewhere that every day you wake up and feel you have the same, dreary day ahead and nothing seems to change but when you look back, you can easily spot the differences. I totally agree with it. Except, a few days that specifically stand out clearly in your memory and for as long as you live you will laugh and cry on these memories, reiterate these as evergreen stories and when you feel low these moments will shine bright and fuel your hope. God decided to give me one of these moments recently when, I was offered to work with my company for our Jakarta launch. As expected, I jumped at the opportunity and prepared myself to steer into a new direction. Just three days before my scheduled departure for Jakarta, word came in from my office head-quarters that they needed some help in Turkey now. And thus, opportunity came knocking at my door once again and the bonus offered was that I get to help with the Istanbul launch before the Jakarta chapter! Only an idiot gets life served on a silver platter and grumbles about the shape of the platter! Well, because I am not an idiot; I had no complains and took on the great chance.

So here I am, flying high above in the sky, awaiting the awesomeness to begin and looking forward to the lessons to be learnt, chances to be gained and morals to be imbibed. A quarter of a year ago, you would find me cribbing, complaining, waking, sleeping and following a typical routine. But now is a time when I am sleep deprived and have had no routine whatsoever for the last few weeks and yet, excitement and restlessness brings me to pen down these awesome, real life miracles.

As I make my way into these starkly contrasting countries, I will take time out to pen down my stories.  At the cost of making my blog a mini travelogue, I will write about my experiences in Turkey and Indonesia and years later, when I look back I will be able to spot the difference!  

Title Courtesy: Aditi Chandak! 

Ishita Shah

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