‘Must visit restuarant’ - Global Fusion in Mumbai

There are more than 600 restaurants in Bandra/Khar area and most of them are good. It just depends upon each person’s preference.

One place that I love to take my guest is at 'Global Fusion'. This place is neatly tucked on 3rd floor of Link Square Mall, off Linking road just opposite KFC at Khar(west)

“Wowie” is the first expression you use as you take in the ambience. This is the dimly-lit restaurant with lighted food stations, each serving different kind of food, it has a oriental feel with the pond running between tables. Some of the tables are quite low while some on a higher level and some in those cute gazebos. There is enough space between the tables which gives you enough privacy, probably because you are required to move around from one food counter to another.

This is one restaurant where you cannot order ‘a la carte’. You order what you see. There is unlimited selection of Sushi’s, salads, fritters, assortments of veggie and meat dishes and deserts. There are numbered clips at each table that you clip them on the bowls adjacent to the prepared dish. The portions are small and the variety is huge. I like it for its variety of culinary dishes that are on display. It is always advisable to take a survey of the all the food on display and make a mental note of what you would like to eat.

There is live-cooking station where you can choose from variety of dimsims, sauteed chicken, spring rolls, roasted shrimps, soups and many more things that are so attractive that you are tempted to order all that are on display. There is no beef and pork (thank God)

 But because of your limited appetite you just select few by dropping the numbered clips into the bowl next to the display-dish and the waiter gets them to your tables, freshly cooked in small portions.

You sit relaxed, munching on your food, savoring each dish, starting with cold cuts, sushi and salads and moving on to more exotic dishes and before you realize,  its been over two hours that you have been masticating. Ouch!!! You loosen your belt and look around to see if you can still squeeze something, a wee- bit more and so again you drag your feet and head on to Baskin Robbins ice cream counter and then to those neatly sliced cakes station, where you help yourself to just one more tiny piece of cake and maybe 2 scoop ful of ice-cream.

Its a sin, and you know it, to overeat is a sin, but you just burb!!! its okay, you can skip dinner, no issues!!

The service is good and prompt and the waiters are cheerful. When you ask for the bill,  you are in for a surprise. So much food you have consumed (lunch and dinner, remember you overate?) and you pay so little..well, well, well! Compared to other places, this place is very, very reasonable.

The Prices:

Rs. 570 (Monday – Friday Lunch Buffet)

Rs. 720 (Monday – Friday Dinner Buffet)

Rs. 850 (Weekend Brunch & Buffet)

From My lens at Sewri

Birds of pink feathers at Sewri..most welcome guests of Mumbai during summer- Flamingos

Blowing Away NRI’s Blues

After the warm hug and a glass of cold water, when my NRI guest sits down to relax I am eager to start a conversation, I quickly finish off the chores and get ready to begin a healthy chat expecting some spicy gossip and some latest family news. But wait a minute; before even a monosyllables are uttered, there comes a pause. As soon as my NRI guest starts the conversation, it begins with “I need India SIM card”

Oh Gosh!

Yeah of course, everybody needs a chip to communicate, first things first, there will be lots of time later for casual chat but not before the basic necessities are dealt with and now with mobile and laptop,a most important hand-luggage, they need a internet toggle too, then they need to change some dollar/Euro to Indian rupees, need to rent a car to drive comfortably around the city. Oh! There are so many important things to attend to before you can really sit down to chat. Living in Mumbai, it is important to know these basics, such as what is available on which corner of the street or else lots of time is wasted in just discovering the right tone.

I know one thing for sure, that getting a SIM card in Mumbai is a big hassle. There are too many formalities to complete before you can get one. Just passport and photographs are not enough, you need pan-card, electricity bill, photographs and proper paperwork to complete. I asked my guest to try getting one from a tiny kiosk on linking road near my house. She walked up/down the street searching for the shop but each one directed her to yet another shop till she reached a ceramic corner.

Now who would think that an ordinary ceramic shop will have answers to all the NRI queries?

After making enquiries she came back disappointed and announced that she could not get SIM card without my approval. Only I, as a resident of Mumbai was entitled for such luxury and that my autograph was required to get her phone connection. So, when I got free, I accompanied her to the store at Linking road that had promised to get the required goodies.

I have seen this store hundred times, but have never stopped there. The shop owner was busy with another client who was shopping for ceramic crockery. I stood there outside the kiosk, in a small bye lane off linking road, where the auto-rickshaws with its usual unnecessary toot-toots added to the noise pollution. While I waited, I discovered that this was no ordinary shop. The side board on the kiosk offered many more services such as car rentals, air and train tickets, Holiday packages (India and abroad). There was even a computer inside the store that could do all the online services such as getting toggle for internet connection, SIM card and would even help you with money exchange.

This is what I would call efficiency.

In India, you need the right people to help you get your work done, one who knows all the tricks of the trade and is able to pull all the right strings. For a small fee, my guest was able to solve all her problems in just few hours, which would otherwise have soaked off all her time and energy, had she ventured out to do it on her own through a proper channel.

I have been through that rough patch and have often tripped over the pot-holes. Its better to pay and smile.

Mumbai Medical Care Centre

Okay this is not a beauty parlour, if that is what you were thinking when you saw this picture, the lady sitting on a big comfortable, soft chair is waiting for her blood test.

That is what I like about NM Medical, a preventive diagnostic care centre where I go for my regular check ups once a year and come back with a great feeling.

The staff is very friendly here, so are the technicians. I take my blood and urine samples and then normally go for lipid profile. I always include the breakfast during my each visit. Love their breakfast which has variety of things, this time I had pohas, khakhras and coffee, there were also cornflakes and milk , tea and of course fruits.

The clinic is very clean and there is a separate waiting enclosure for women which have comfortable couches where you can read comfortably or watch TV while you wait for your turn.

Walking distance from my house, I go via linking road and turn into the lane of KFC-Croma and walk towards this lab at Bandra. When the person is ill, all that he needs is bit of pampering. And this is the place where I feel pampered whenever my sugar shoots up or the BP rises so high that I am afraid it has gone beyond its acceptable mark.

Just visiting NM Medical makes me feel just fine.