Indian Markets & a Meme

When I was tagged by 3 wonderful bloggers The Cooker, Bhags & Priyanka, I was absolutely thrilled! Thanks so much guys! My very 1st meme, and that too by 3 people ☺...
Now comes the tough part...what does one write for a meme like this however? Well, here the the 7 things that came foremost to my mind!
Also, as part of this meme, here are some fun pictures of a local market in my hometown, Pune

With a smile like that, how can you resist the veggies

Ooh, fresh shrimp anyone?

1. I always want to say I grew up in Pune, but the truth is I moved to a new city every 3 years during most of my childhood. However, the longest years I have spent in one place are Pune, and it was where I met the people who had most impact on me and my life! Will admit however that it was just as fun moving to new places every few years, where the place and the people gave us way more love than we could ever give them!

2. Another fantastic place I lived in was Bangkok. Whyevers? Well, believe it or not, for school! I went to Asian Institute of Technology, which is an amazingly beautiful school 40 kms from Central Bangkok. We had professors and students from over 30 countries, each sharing in each other’s cultures. I had a blast there…traveling, eating great food and making some amazing friends now spread across 5 continents!

3. I adore food. That is the true word to describe it I think! In fact, the men in our family lament that their wives will leave them rather than let go of a certain food! Hehehe….

4. Even though I like food this much, I didn’t enter the kitchen till I moved to the United States. Back in India, I just enjoyed the amazing goodies being churned out in my mom’s, aunt’s, granny’s, neighbor’s kitchens…but never really bothered to learn or try to make then..alas…

5. When I did start cooking, it was a disaster! The 1st attempt to impress R resulted in burnt kheer and burnt omelet…of course I quickly blamed that on the weird hot plate like cooking stove in our new home in the US :-0). Soon R and 2 of his friends who lived next door became my test candidates…I kept experimenting new dishes on them, which they wolfed down with no complaints..other than the occasional “there is more rice inside right?” to my surprised look that all the rice I made (barely enough for 1-2 people!) had been polished off within 5 minutes!!!

6. Other than food, I love the mobile/telecom space. I am that geek you see who changes their phone every few months and has to have the latest phone. No, I don’t have the iPhone however…That’s a whole different story ☺ Every time someone asks me why I love the mobile field so much, I always tell them that when the internet happened we were too young to be at the beginning of it. With mobile however, we now have that chance!

7. I wanted to be a chef at one point of time (werd!), but after a couple of weekend classes at the California Culinary Academy, I realized just how tough it is to be in this business. My amateur chef's hat is off to all those hard working chefs, restaurateurs and just anyone directly connected with the food industry!

Now its my turn to tag 7 fellow bloggers for their meme..yay! I call on these wonderful bloggers:
Stephanie of Dispensing Happiness
Jen of Fallen Souffle
Becke of Columbus Foodie
Sia of Spice Corner
Sharmi of Neivedyam
Cynthia of Tastes Like Home
Jyothsna of Curry Bazaar

Play along if you have time or haven't been tagged before and are bored of talking about yourself ;)