Tag Archives: Navdeep Singh Dhillon
Video: Riding Underwater Scooters in Oahu, Hawai’i
Since we had already jumped out of a plane in Oahu, we decided to go the opposite direction this time. We found out about riding around in the ocean on submersible scooters through Groupon, and couldn’t resist. Even my 73-year-old father was down to go. Check out the video above to see how it all went at Island Watersports, Hawaii.
Video: Sona and Navdeep Jump Out of a Plane in Hawaii
We got a bit bored of hanging out by the shops in Waikiki, and it was Tarun’s birthday (my brother-in-law), so we all thought the best option was for all three of us to jump out of a plane. No, that is not a metaphor.
Going Local: An Insider’s Guide to Pakistan and India’s Film Industry
The Woods, they are a confusing place. Bollywood is just a player in India’s massive cinema scene. Get the low down on Bollywood, Mollywood, Tollywood, and yes, even Kollywood. I am also including Lollywood (you heard me right) even though it is based in Pakistan, because there is nothing that can beat the old school Punjabi classics coming out of there.
LOLLYWOOD
Lollywood is arguably the most underrated film industry in this part of the world. There has never been the sleekness, sex-appeal, string of “super-hits,” or the budget that Bollywood has had over the decades. But then again, it wasn’t funded by the Indian mafia either. During the 1960s, Indian entertainment in almost all forms were heavily censored, and in many cases, banned. This inevitably gave rise to blackmarket dvds, and radio programs playing bollywood dance numbers based out of Sri Lanka. These days, most Pakistanis (and Indians), as well as Desis the world over, get their hit of movies from Bollywood. But in its heyday, Lollywood made a string of the most awesome Punjabi films. Now Punjabi films are relegated to Sikhs from outside India, so you have a handful of Punjabi films with the same weepy storyline and the hero is a Punjabi singer with zero acting ability who is funding the production.
CHECK OUT:
Maula Jatt, which launched the careers of Sultan Rahi (the hero) and Mustafa Qureshi who plays the villain, Noori Natt. The storyline is simple. Maula Jatt is the hero. Noori Natt is the villain. He steals his woman. Maula Jatt kicks ass while wearing a loongi, carrying a gandasa, and gets his woman back with a lot of dishoon-dishoon, and some of the most awesome zingers in the world. There is also a lot of mustache tweaking. Here is the best fight scene you have ever seen:
Photo of the Week: Sona Burning a Pepper in Puebla, Mexico
Sona Burning a Tortilla While Our Chef Watches From a Distance, Puebla, Mexico. Photo Credit: Navdeep Singh Dhillon
While in Puebla, Mexico, for our honeymoon, we took a wonderful cooking course at Mesones Sacristia, a boutique hotel. We learned how to make some truly spectacular dishes like Mole. In this photo, Sona is doing what she does best: burning a poblano pepper. In this case, she did it on purpose to use for the base of the Mole.
Travel Tips: Five Travel Tips To Get The Best Prices on Airline Tickets
One of the most annoying things about travel is exactly that: traveling. I’ll admit that taking rickshaws in India, or riding on sleeper buses in China is bloody good fun. Flying, however, is the most boring form of transportation, but in most cases it has to be done before the fun travel begins. Even more boring than flying is looking up plane tickets to so you can fly to your destination. Flying is an efficient form of travel, but it’s also the most boring, and the most expensive part of the trip. And waiting at the airport is just plane boring. No, that wasn’t a typo. It was a deliberate attempt at being clever.
Before we had Kavya, the initial flights were the only things we would book. Everything else, we winged. We didn’t pre-book hotel rooms, or train tickets. We just showed up and hoped for the best. In most cases everything worked out. The one place we had a spot of trouble was in the city of Bhubaneshwar, where every room had been booked because of some conference. So, we picked up our Lonely Planet and headed off to the coastal town of Puri, a few miles down the road, and got a lovely room right on the beach.
Flights really are the one thing we labor over though because the money we save simply by booking a day or two ahead or behind is pretty significant, particularly when you go to a country where street food costs under $1.
Our upcoming trip to Hawaii this winter is going to be an interesting one because we’re in charge of planning a family trip involving my parents, Sona’s parents and sister, and of course our 1 year old, Kavya. Winter in Hawaii is the high season, a period we usually go out of our way to avoid because it involves much more planning. And in a place like Hawaii, not only do hotels get booked up, so do rental cars. Even inter-island flights. And unfortunately, while me and Sona are down with vagabonding in Hawaii, everyone else has responsibilities, so a lot of it has to be pre-booked.
Anyway, here some travel tips we’ve learned over the years for getting good deals on air fare. Some of it is common sense, while some of it is just knowing how to play the game!
Tip #1:
Musings: Osama Bin Laden is Dead. Now What?
Celebrating the Death of Osama Bin Laden in Time Square.
Over the weekend, Sona had a journalism conference near Grand Central, so I met her afterwards for dinner. And it was a lovely day, so we decided to go for a long walk, randomly ending up in Chinatown. And equally as random, we decided to walk to the World Trade Center PATH station, something we never do. And the only reason we did was because we didn’t want to stop in Hoboken (the other PATH line to Jersey City stops there for a good ten minutes).
Ever since I’ve been in New York, the area immediately surrounding the World Trade Center PATH stop has been fenced up with massive billboards and images of a projected futuristic Jetsons-like renovation planned. We were in a typical New York mood as we made our way to the PATH: happy it had been such a great day, chatty, but tired from all the walking. That changed pretty quickly. Behind us we heard a father attempting to explain to his two young children what the explosion had done, not just to the twin towers, but to many of the surrounding buildings, and what the renovations were going to look like. But the kids just weren’t getting it. We crossed the street just as one of the kids asked why the explosion had taken place in the first place. And it’s a question that we will inevitably have to talk to Kavya about in a few years, and something we don’t fully understand ourselves.
Neither of us are strangers to travel, but we are very different travelers. Navdeep can brush aside a cockroach from his food and continue eating. Sona flies into hysterics at any creepy-crawlies (real or imagined) within a ten mile radius. 
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