Deewana Tera

The days have been such that a lot is being said without saying a word, but still a lot is being left unsaid.

Here is a song I wrote a long time back. It's been playing in my head for a while now. Can't get the song out of my head.

जानेजां मैं दिवाना तेरा, मुझको तू यूँ ना तड़पाना
तेरे बिन जीना भी क्या, समझो ना मैं करता हूँ तुमसे प्यार||

आँखों में तुम, साँसों में तुम, धड़कन में तुम, तुम हो मेरी जान
तू ही चाहत, तू ही खुशबू, तू ही अरमान, यूँ ना तू सतां|
मैं चाहता हूँ तुमसे कहू, नहीं समझ पाती है तू,
जानो मेरी आँखों से, मैं करता हूँ तुमसे प्यार||

जानेजां मैं दिवाना तेरा, मुझको तू यूँ ना तड़पाना
तेरे बिन जीना भी क्या, समझो ना मैं करता हूँ तुमसे प्यार||

ठंडी रातें, मुलाकातें, मीठी बातें, है रंगीन सामाह
ये हवाएं, ये फिजाएं, ये अदाएं, करती परेशान|
मस्ती भरी है हवा, मदहोशी का है सामाह
आओ तुमसे मैं कहू, मैं करता हूँ तुमसे प्यार||

जानेजां मैं दिवाना तेरा, मुझको तू यूँ ना तड़पाना
तेरे बिन जीना भी क्या, समझो ना मैं करता हूँ तुमसे प्यार||
 
12:32 AM | Category: | 0 comments

Treat Your Senses @ Sula Vineyards, Nasik


It had been a long time since we had a 'Just the guys' weekend. So we had decided to keep the last weekend just for the guys. All the married couples were informed in advance to take care of their women and convince them to allow their hubbies to be off their arms just for this one weekend. But was it because of the lack of convincing skills in the men, the dominance of women in our group, or a mutual feeling of 'wont spare my spouse on a weekend for friends', the guys came back with a board hanging from their neck that said 'Wife Says No!' (Just Kidding!). Except for Manish. Roopali and Manish is one couple unlike a couple, that's the best part. They love to spend time with the group rather than just by themselves. And they both give enough space to each other. Roops, Manish, I love you guys! :P Roopali was happy, in fact overjoyed, that Manish would be gone for the weekend, which meant she had the whole weekend just to herself. So the four of us, Manish, Nanu, Pedro and I decided to leave at 2AM on Saturday. However, as the night rolled on, the eyelids rolled down. Finally, at 8:30AM, we all were ready to leave. We kept arguing about where to go. Now that we were just four, some thought it would be too long a drive to Nasik, the place we had decided earlier. But Pedro suggested 'Chandu, you are behind the steering. So let's stop arguing and take us wherever you wanna go'. And hence the destination, 200kms from Mumbai, Sula Vineyards, Nasik.

It wasn't a tiring journey till Nasik. The roads from Mumbai to Nasik are well developed to provide a smooth ride with an average of 70-80 kmph. To add to that the landscapes stretching alongside the highway are picturesque. This keeps the drive pleasant. Apart from the vineyards, Nasik does not really have any major attractions. Moreover, you would not even find good enough accommodation within the 10km circle around the Sula vineyards. Sula has it's own resort called 'Beyond' (initially it was just one bungalow, which was later extended to a 30 room resort), but it's expensive (good for a couple who is out for a romantic weekend though). So if you are planning to stay in Nasik, then Tapovan resort is the place we have tried and would recommend, which is 12kms away from Sula vineyards. This place is a kilometer away from Tiger Hills Vineyards (A brand of Chateau Indage), which you may plan to visit on your way back to Mumbai. Tiger Hills vineyards also provides accommodation, cheaper than Sula, expensive than Tapovan.

When to Visit
Harvesting months for grapes in Nasik are from January to March and October to December, however Sula utilizes only the January to March period to cultivate grapes. This is the time when the temperature is cool and the vineyards would be flooded with a variety grapes.

Secondly, though the place is great in the morning and afternoon, it is awesome in the evening. Sula has an open roof wine-tasting café which opens to a bed of grape farms, a setting sun on the left and a cool breeze flowing in making the tasting experience heavenly. Sula also has a restaurant in the premises that serves a wide range of Indian and Italian cuisines at pretty moderate charges. The restaurant and the café are open from 11AM to 11PM on the weekends (not sure about weekdays).

Sula also provides a Vineyard tour followed by a wine tasting session for five different wines. This is charged at R150 per person. It's quite a learning and I would recommend the tour to everyone planning to visit this place. It's a half an hour tour explaining the wine-making process in brief, the different varieties of grapes produced in India and abroad, the nomenclature of wines, wine etiquette, etc.



Farming
There are around 3000 varieties of grapes around the world, out of which Indian climate conditions are favorable for only a handful of varieties. Out of these handful, Sula cultivates 11 varieties of grapes for wine production. One thing to notice in the farms is that at the beginning and at the end of each row of the grape trees, there is a rose plant. Until now, I was under the impression (as someone had told me) that the color of the rose indicates the color of wine produced from the grape. Any lay person would think that green grapes produce white wine and the black ones produce the red wine. However, this is not the case. All the grapes can produce white wine since it uses only the pulp part of the grape and not the skin. The skin is used to give the color and produce the red wine. So the color of the rose does not matter. It is in fact planted for early detection of a pest attack. The pest attacks the rose plant before the grape plant and hence control measures can be taken before the pest attacks the grape farms.

Sula produces wine from 1500 acres of vineyards, 400 acres of which are owned by Sula and the rest of the production is outsourced.

The Process
White wine is produced using the whole bunch of grapes (including the stem and leaves). The bunches are put into a crushing machine that punctures the berry, extracts the pulp and sends it for further processing. However, the red wine is produced using only the berries. Hence, the initial process is done in a destemmer that removes the stems and leaves using the science of centrifugal force thus separating the berries. The further process remains the same for red and white wine.

The most important activity in the whole wine-making process is the fermentation. This is naturally done by the yeast present on the grape (the white film that appears on the berries of a bunch of grapes), but this is uncontrolled. So the fermentation is induced using controlled yeast whose fermentation rate is already known. To do this, first the natural yeast is killed by cooling the pulp to 6 degrees Celsius, after which the controlled yeast is added to the juice.

After different levels of filtration to remove impurities and foreign substance from the juice, the wine is stored in huge steel cylinders, where they are allowed to ferment at a controlled temperature (generally raging from 20-24 degrees Celsius) for 6-8 months. Sula has a capacity to store 7 million liters of wine in the cylindrical tanks. For certain aged wines that have peculiar tastes and aromas like vanilla, cherry, oak, the juice is stored in wooden barrels made generally from oak (the other woods used being chestnut, cherry and mulberry). The flavors are induced not by adding the actual flavors but by the reaction between the wood and the yeast and also depends on the type of grape.

The alcohol content of the wine also depends on the aging. The more the age, more the fermentation, and more alcohol would be released by the yeast. The darkness of the red wine, which is produced by the skin of grape, goes the other way. The more the age, less darker would be the wine produced (Except for Rosé, which is a young wine taken off very early during fermentation, when the skin has not yet given out it's complete color to the wine).

A sparkling wine is a wine with a fizz. The fizz is given by the carbon-dioxide, which is released by the yeast during the fermentation. In normal wine this carbon dioxide is released into the atmosphere, whereas for a sparkling wine, it is trapped inside the bottle by corking the bottle before the fermentation is complete. The yeast is later removed by keeping the bottle neck down (allowing the yeast to settle down at the neck) and freezing just the neck part to minus 6 degrees Celsius. The frozen part contains the yeast which is popped out and the bottle is corked again trapping the carbon dioxide inside the bottle.

The Nomenclature
The different names of the wines come from the type of grape used to make that wine. For example, Chenin is a type of grape cultivated in France and used in the white wine Chenin Blanc (Blanc is french for White), Sauvignon and Chardonnay are other examples. Some wines are a mix of two or more grape varieties, e.g. Cabernet Sauvignon.

Many of the wines also get their names from the place where they are produced. For example, Port wines are wines produced in Portugal. Champagne is nothing but a sparkling wine produced in Champagne, France.

Rosé (sometimes called Blush) is a young pink wine, extracted at a very early age during the fermentation process.

There is another type of wine called semi-sparkling wine in which the carbon-dioxide is not produced by the yeast, but artificially added to the wine. Sula's Dia is a semi-sparkling wine.

 

Wine Storage
The wine bottles are stored in a cool dark place in a horizontal position. Wines need to be prevented from direct exposure to sunlight and heat as it might lead to further fermentation or certain chemical reactions that would produce an unwanted taste in the wine. The bottle is kept horizontal so that the wine touches the cork and keeps it moist helping it to keep the bottle airtight. If the cork dries up, the wine would come in contact with the air and perish.

Once opened, the wine should be kept in a refrigerator and consumed within a couple of days, beyond which the taste of the wine would deteriorate due to reaction with the air. Such a wine, which has changed the taste, is not gone bad and need not be thrown away. It can be used for cooking purposes.

Wine Etiquette
The etiquette start right from serving the wine to gulping it.

While serving the wine the wine bottle should be held by the base and not by the neck or stem. This allows to maintain the temperature of the bottle and hence the temperature of the wine. White wines are serves chilled whereas Red wines are served at room temperature. While drinking a white wine, there should be minimal contact between the glass and the hand of the person drinking the wine, to maintain the temperature. It is therefore that white wines are served in flute glasses (or wine glasses), which should always be held by the stem of the glass. On the other hand, since red wines are served at room temperature, the contact between hand and glass does not raise the temperature as much as in case of white wine, and hence are served in goblets (Goblets are held by slipping the stem of the goblet in between the finger webs and using the palm to rest the glass).

A point to note is that the wine culture is not native to India. It has been acquired from Europe, where the room temperature is generally below 20 degrees Celsius. Hence, in India most of the wines are served chilled.

Once the wine is poured into your glass, you need to follow the four S's: See, Swirl, Smell and Sip.
See - Check the consistency in the color of the wine. Also, you can tell the alcohol contents of a wine by looking at the wine drops that stick to the glass. If they form droplets (less viscous) then the wine is not aged and has less alcohol. If there are no drops, but you can see streams of thick wine (called wine tears), then it's a well aged wine with high alcohol content.
Swirl - Swirling the glass helps release the aromas and taste from the wine. This is not done for sparkling wines.
Smell - Smelling the wine helps you experience the rich flavors generated in the wine due to aging, fermenting and reactions with the wooden barrels.
Sip - Sipping the wine also helps you identify the age of wine. Young wines are generally dry and leave you with dry gums, which isn't the case with aged wines that are pretty smooth and soothing for the throat.

Red wines go well with red meat cuisines (lamb, beef, pork, etc. that generally have red gravy) whereas white wines go well with chicken, sea food and vegetarian cuisines (pastas, etc.).

After all these learnings, our senses were further satisfied by the ambiance of the café in the evening, the music and of course the wines.

The next day we also paid a quick visit to the Tiger Hills Vineyards, a brand of Indage group that has been in the wine business for longer than Sula. Some great wines from Indage group are Chardonnay (not produced by Sula), Cabernet Sauvignon (Chantilli), Ivy and some new tastes under the brand Tiger Hills.

I have added this place to the list of places I would love to revisit and I hope out of all the other places in that list, I visit Sula Vineyards again very soon.


11:50 PM | Category: , , , , , , , , , , | 1 comments

What Have I been Up To?
It's been a long long time since I sat with my laptop and scribbled something to put on my blog. Quite a lot have happened in the last six months, due to which I could not find time to gather thoughts to write a thoughtful blog. You might notice from this post that I have lost the touch of writing to my lethargic attitude. Just a word of caution, this post might be a boring one, but I need to write to get back to where I left it. So bear with me :)

So What have I been up to? Well, since the last few months I have been trying to figure out myself. What are my interests? What I wanna be? What should I be doing? What kinda girls I like? Which of my hobbies should I grow further and take it up as a career option? Blah Blah. And frankly speaking I haven't found an answer for any (quite a complex creature I am, you see). So chuck it.

The one great thing that I have done during this period is that I have gained some control over my life. Since many years I have been procrastinating the renovation of my house. There were many reasons behind that. 1. My job requires me to fly any time on a short notice. So it would have been difficult to start the renovation work and leave it mid-way. 2. Since a couple of years, I have been hearing about my society going in for redevelopment. So no point if so much money is spent to renew my house just for 2-3 yrs. 3. It required a lot of efforts to be put in to find an alternative place to stay until the work is done, monitor the progress of work, keep an eye on the workers, keep a tab on the expenditure, etc. Apart from these, the major reason was that I was not ready for such a huge decision. After the death of my parents I have hardly taken any big financial decisions, like over a 2 lac rupees. I was unsure whether I would get the results I expect out of the money I spend and would it be worth spending at this moment.

With all these thoughts tormenting my mind, my life was getting messier. Then one fine day I decided to put an end to it. I attended the AGM of my society for the first time. There I realized that my society would not undergo renovation for at least 3-4 more years. Moreover, some of the members had taken up small renovation works at their respective places. So I was sure that these members would be in opposition to the redevelopment any time. That's when I made up my mind to beautify my house. I spoke to my cousin Gauri about I needing a place to stay. Gauri and Ujjwal whole heartedly invited me to stay over at their place until the work is done. I am very grateful to them as this would not have been possible otherwise.

The contractor that I'd appointed also took off much burden off my head since he was the one point contact for every piece of work being carried out. He also handled a few quarrels during the work in my society.

While the work was in progress at my place, the whole family once met at my aunt's place, where the thought of buying a used car popped up. My bro-in-law Sandeep advised to for a new one instead as he had a bad experience with his used car. So we did some research on cars on the web. Right from the beginning, the only car that fit into all my requirements was Ford Figo. We went to take a test drive. Both my brother-in-law took the test drives while I sat in the passenger seat. I was not that confident a driver then. Both of them liked the car. Now I was again in second thoughts whether I should buy the car. I was already spending a lot of money on renovation, plus there would be furniture required, plus electronics, plus I was about to fly to Thailand for a trip, and on top of that this new expense behind the car. Was I ready for such a huge expenditure that would sweep away all my bank balance? Then I gave a thought to the fact that whatever balance I have gathered in my account was within the last 5 years. So, even if I drain out all the money, it would take me just 5 yrs (or may be less) to reach there again.

So here I am today with all the accounts empty, still happy for what I have achieved. I have a good clean home, an awesome car, mind-boggling electronic gadgets and a bean bag :) Believe it or not I have not been this happy and satisfied ever before. I love my house, I love my car, I love my family and I love my friends. But yeah, my job sucks! So there is still some room for betterment.

Now let's talk about the Thailand trip. Actually there is not much to talk about Thailand. You gotta be there to believe it and experience it yourself. If Mumbai is the city that never sleeps, then Thailand is a whole country with Insomnia. You find people on the streets whenever you go out. And they are not just walking. They are playing music, selling stuff, selling food, and many of the women selling themselves. It's an awesome party atmosphere there. You feel like a king with all the ladies wanting you and pulling you from all the sides. Ours was an eight days trip with four places to visit. So we did not get much time to absorb the aura and experience each place to the fullest. 

However, the rooms we booked at each of the places we visited were overwhelming. Huge rooms at cheap prices. To add to that, beer is very cheap, 10-15 bucks cheaper than Indian prices. And you can find girls for economical prices too :) So let's just say we had a wonderful time in Thailand. For people interested in visiting Thailand, I would just say do not miss Pattaya, do not miss The Walking Street in Pattaya, do not miss Mouline Rougue (The Gentleman's Club) at the Walking Street and do not miss Natalie's and Linda's performance at Mouline Rouge :)

After the Thai trip, there was the New Year's Eve which was a mess. People, a lesson to learn here. When you get passes to a grand party for cheap prices, DO NOT GO THERE! It was so crowded that you didn't even have space to expand your lungs. Apart from that the liquor brands that were being served were the one's that you'll have when you are broke, the cheapest of the lot. And to add to the pain, there were only three bar counter, each just a couple of meters wide. It took 20 minutes to get one drink from the counter. On top of that the crowd (I know I said it once, but still). We were a group of around 25 people that day, but at any point even five of us could not meet and the same place.

And now recently, I am back from the BIG FAT INDIAN WEDDING. A friend of mine got married. The wedding was something I would never imagine of. A complete 5-star hotel booked for the guests for two days, with a plethora of cuisines and international liquors. We had expected the wedding to be grand after the teasers we witnessed at his Bachelor's party (Belly dancers and all), but this was way past our expectations. I didn't get to attend the Sangeet and the Pool Party, but I heard were awesome. Most of the friends kept hogging on the food and pouring the drinks down their throats, with minimal attention given to the bride, the groom and the wedding. It was a real FAT wedding with some good memories to cherish.

So, that's it. That's what I have been up to until today. Hope I catch up with my writing skills and give you much better things to read in the coming days.

8:51 PM | Category: | 0 comments