Addiction

They say the first step to solving a problem, is admitting to it. So here goes. Yes, I am addicted to KFC.



It all started when I was 9 years old. Not old enough to remember the details of moving to a new city and a new country, but not young enough to remember the taste of my first ‘Finger Lickin’ Good’ Meal. What can I say..its been 13 years and I still get that same feeling; like my first time :)

While growing up, I had a McDonalds barely 50m from my building entrance. Soon another one came up also 50m from my building entrance, but in the opposite direction. Though I’m a hardcore KFC customer, I’ve probably spent enough time and money at McDonalds as well. But lets get one thing straight and clear : KFC is MUCH better than McDonalds.

The only reason I went to McDonalds was because of the proximity factor. KFC was a good 15 min walk, which in the Dubai heat and humidity will either kill you or leave you uncomfortably numb. Plus eating was a group activity, and since the majority lived near McDonalds, we usually ended up eating there. But I still managed to get enough KFC..how come you ask? Well McDonalds has one flaw.

They don’t Home Deliver. Its in keeping with their corporate belief that home delievered food is seldom warm enough and hence product quality takes a beating, hence no delivering. Before McDonalds came to India there was only one McDonalds outlet which home delivered; McDonalds@Wallstreet. Hey! Can you blame them?! Not just McDonalds, but a LOT of businesses have modified and abandoned all sorts of ‘corporate policies’ to adapt to the Wall Street way of life. As they say boys, Money talks ;)

McDonalds in Bombay is the only second place in the world where McDonalds home delivers. Can’t blame them, with Bombay traffic people will pay that extra 10 bucks to have it served to their door. Hats off to McDonalds management for realizing this.

Coming back to Dubai. KFC home delivered; hence many a dinner and evening snacks were spent lickin’ my finger. I think its time I threw in some numbers to give an estimate of how much KFC has profited from one single customer. On an avg I would eat KFC 5 times a week. I almost always had it on the both week-end days. Many dinners were spent ordering because my mom wouldn’t have made enough food during lunch such that leftovers would feed us. Funda being me and my bros ate in school, so the only person my mom made lunch for was my dad. My mom doesn’t eat, she claims to be dieting for 22 years…and couting. So out of the 5 weekdays, I ordered atleast 3 times. And over and above this I ate at McDonalds. So keeping count of how much junk food I ate is actually pretty ….pretty…sad. Mind you, Ive always been a thin boy though..with a little tyre :)

And since 1990, my addiction continues. In 2000, I ended up in Bombay. No KFC there  but they had McDonalds. So I made my peace with that. Right to my third year , McDonalds, the closest McDonalds was in Bandra. And I stayed in Powai. And on whims me and my roomie(and first love Ab: refer pic) would drive down to Bandra, a good 45 mins on traffic-ky days(17 kms away) just to have a bite.



So temporarily, McDonalds was my KFC patch. And it was fine, their burgers suck, but its better than nothing. Actually while at IIT, I ate more pizza than I did McDonalds. Dominos was right next door in Hiranandani. And they guaranteed delivery in under 30 mins(or its free!) In a 2 year period, including 4 months when I was out of the city, I ordered 250-odd pizzas. Yup Yup. After about a year, they’d recognize my voice and vice-versa. And conversation where mostly short and sweet.

Dominos: Hello, welcome to Dominos..today we are offering…
Me: Yo..Allen..its Monu here!
Dominos: Oh Hi Mr. Monu..how r u..shall I send the usual..
Monu: Yup
Dominos: Thank you for calling Dominos..Buh-byee

Short and Sweet.

Anyway..now getting back to McDonalds vs KFC. So after college I ended up here I Bangalore :D

Believe it baby, that I went straight from the Airport to KFC whenever I came to this City :)

And fortunately for me , there happens to be a KFC damn close by in Forum. So as would be expected, I hang out there a lot. So initially in my first sem, I went there quite a bit. No worries and never gave it a second though. Then sometime somewhere someone mentioned something about eating a lot of junk food and its ill effects on health. And that got me thinking..this stuff is so deep fried, it surely is bad for me. Actually I figured it was bad for me because it taste’s so darn good. This is a generic rule that I figured, that anything that taste’s good is Bad for you. Think about it…Chocolates, Ice-cream, Sugar, Butter Chicken, Cheese…
All Bad!!
And KFC taste’s so damn good..means….:(

So I made it a point to cut down on my consumption. So about a month back I took an oath that I would not eat KFC for a month.

I’ve eaten there about 9 times now. In my defense, of the 9 times, I ate there only thrice out of addiction and innate want for KFC, the other times I had no choice but to eat there. Everyone else was eating there or there was no other place to eat etc…

Actually some to think of it…am I really addicted to KFC or to junk food??
Ah fuck it. Who cares. I aint that fat and I don’t think ill ever get that fat and if I do, I’ll lose it. So screw it..I’ll keep eating junk till I see noticeable changes in my physique.






Thank you Colonel Sanders

bike it Baby

You can bet on this…The first thing I’m gonna do once I’m no longer unemployed, is start saving up for a bike. Not just any bike, one of those MEAN MACHINES. Those imported Honda’s/Yamaha’s/Suzuki’s.

I love bikes. Even though the pollution and discomfort(as opposed to a car) gets to you, a part of you would still like to be a biker.

My first bike was my CBZ. We called her Trinity.



She was sporty and sexy. It took a LOT of effort to convince my dad to lemme have a bike, considering that at the time I didn’t have a license(not that it matters!), Didn’t have any experience driving on the road, and I had only just learnt how to ride. But I managed to convince them 

If I didn’t have trinity I doubt I would have even attended ANY of my lectures. My department was about 1.6 kms away! At the end of 4 years , I’d done about 40,000 kms on my baby. But thenI couldn’t take it with me to Bangalore: had to give it to my bro Shanu(Refer pic)



The CBZ was one successful bike. No one could have imagined its success, it was launched at a phenomenal price(at the time) of 70K and it have a pathetic mileage of 35 something. But all in all, it looked good and drove well, and it started the growth of the Indian biking scene.

I honestly believed it was the best bike in India. Ofcourse everyone thinks his bike is the best..but I REALLY believed it was. That’s until I got my thunderbird. We called him Mustafa.




I’d already fixed a deal with my dad to get myself an Enfield. Thunderbird was the only model I could go for since it was the only enfield model where the gears and brakes were on the same side. It drove beautifully. It really was something else.

But all good things come to an end. The Enfield has one weakness, over water it behaves like someone wearing greasy shoes on ice. On a very normal day, while driving on a normal road at a normal speed, I happen to brake while the bike was over about a puddle of water not more than a centimeter high. And that was that.

I might have been unscathed(seriously..not a scratch!) but Mustafa was beaten and bruised beyond recognition. My parents obviously made me sell the bike. But in return I got my bro’s car. My older Bro Sonu that is.



But I’ve managed to sell it to someone within campus, so atleast this way I get to take it out for an occasional drive.

Thunderbirds and CBZ’s might be awesome, but there are nothing compared to the monsters that Honda/Suzuki/Ducati produce. And there is one place where I could get a chance to test out these bad boys. Home sweet Home, Dubai. 2 years back while I was at home, I saved up enough cash to rent a CBR for one day. One day only. It’s really expensive 250Dhms(Rs. 250x13 per day!). That day I drove 275 kms within the city, my shoulders and forearms were sore for 3 days, and that night I collapsed in pain(over the bed fortunately)



But it was all worth it. Its any bikers dream to command such power. It tops out at 285 kmph!! Imagine that! I thought I could take it to its limit, but no way man..at 200 I chickened out. But 200 aint that bad, rite :P

Karthik aka Fat Bastard

One of my oldest friends Karthik is in town. He's from Chennai 'The city of Sexxxxx', he's dropped by with a friend of his for a one day trip!! Why only one day? Ask him...for I've got no decent answer besides some ramblings about his whim n fancy :)

His train leaves sometime around 5 in the morning. Its 435 am right now and i've been awake all night. The thing is I have 2 quizzes tomorrow, for which I know a lil more than the topics...plus had a lot of other things going on, so couldnt get time till 3 am. And i figured, Hell..if i sleep now..no way im going to wake at 5 to take my 110 kg-friend to the station..so wtf..lets just make it a nite-out.

And thats how this post came about..i have 20 mins to kill. Every minute feels like eternity when you're fighting sleep...
and i still haven't figured out how to post pics...i see it on everyone else's blogs...so u enlightened ppl..help out a virgin blogger. Something tells me its simple..but yet...

Hold ON!!!

I know an update is due..i've been trying to figure out how to upload photos and customize the look of the blog. Been busy too...you can expect an update soooooooon...