Feast Of (Junk) Food

I have something to admit.

I love fast food.

I love it more than the food my mom makes.

It's not like she makes bad food, its just that I prefer eating food that does me more harm than good.

As far as I remember, my first exposure to American fast food began with McDonald's.

Before that, I had no clue what a burger tasted or looked like.

And McDonald's was all the craze when it opened here.

Before McDonald's, if you went to an Indian restaurant thinking they served fast food, you'd have to come back disappointed because their version of fast food was, 'the food that people have when they fasted'.

I didn't care whether they were good or bad, I just cared for the toy that came with their Happy Meal.

And I had an awesome collection, which by now must be rotting in some dump-yard somewhere.

To me, McDonald's was the ideal image of how a burger should look like.

It all changed when I went to an american themed diner and tried their burger.

That's when I found out that McDonald's was nowhere close to how an actual burger should taste like.

I had forgotten that their objective was not to bring delicious burgers, but to sell people their version of an american delicacy.

But thanks to them burgers were all the range at many Indian households.

Even at my home, I tried making a burger once, all I needed was a burger bun, an aloo tikki, some mayo and it was done.

It did not taste the way a burger should taste like.

And after that I swore I would never make one at home again.

The homemade burger was the parents version of "why eat outside? we'll make one at home".

I guess it was some kind of challenge by McD to the parents on "Who can make the most shitty burger ever, you or us?"

The parents took the bait, and McD won.

All was going well for McDonald's until KFC dropped by.

And again people were surprised.

"Till now we all were used to eating tandoori chicken, so what's with this fried chicken thing? and why does it taste really good?".

Soon a whole new bunch of American fast food joints came up and McDonald's became just another name in the fast food industry.

Nowadays the popularity of fast food has risen to the point where all of them attempt to replicate their version of local dishes.

Though in India, thanks to the large population of rabbit food lovers, they just change their whole menu but not without adding one Indian dish to it.

Basically, its just a really spicy version of their dish, and has an Indianised name to it.

Now if you've lived in India for quite a long time, you know that Indian cuisine isn't all about spicy food, there's sour, there's sweet, there's also I-don't-know-what-the-hell-was-that, etc.

But what do they know, eh?

I mean, if I'm going to an American fast food joint, I want to experience what their food tastes like and not 'what our food would taste like if we put it in a bun'.

We have rotis for that and they do a far better job.

Well, no matter what they do or don't one thing's for sure:

I'll never stop eating fast food.

Summer Daze

The best part of everyone's childhood is their summer vacations.
A whole month of freedom, watching the tube, playing with friends, gaming and going out on a trip with the whole family.
It's the only time of the year when you get to really be a kid and be away from all the responsibilities.
In fact, the only thing that I liked about my childhood was my summer vacations.
I used to spend the whole day outside home playing with my friends, then coming back late only play at home again.
And that yearly trip to Delhi with my family, only a few times did my dad tag along, otherwise it was just me, my brother and my mom.
It was fun too, visiting different places, playing in the garden with my brother, meeting relatives whom at times I wouldn't recognize, etc.
My vacations actually ended when I came back home to Mumbai.
Then there was the ritual of buying new text books.
It was the only time that I was actually happy to see and read those books.
I ignored them until the day of my exams.
Just like any normal kid would do. 
When I started college, the summer vacations got a different meaning and purpose.
It wasn't the same old - play games, have fun and do nothing type holidays.
It was the 'now start planning for your future and join a course' vacation.
Even my trips to Delhi became shorter.
In fact, my trips to Delhi changed from summer to winter.
It was a huge mistake.
Let me explain:
If you've lived you're whole life in the blazing heat and the only exposure to cold was just a breeze passing by, then you haven't actually seen what cold is actually like.
And Delhi cold is something that I wasn't even prepared for.
Most of the time I would just lay under a bundle of blankets and try not to shiver.
The only time I went out was when the sun came out, and it did for a short time in the afternoon.
Later, my college also got over.
How fast the time went by, I didn't even notice, and then here I was doing my post graduation. 
Once that was over, I had only a few weeks of free time.
It was my last summer vacation and the feeling hadn't sunk in yet.
And it sucked, knowing that in a few weeks I'll have to start looking for a job and make a living.
I didn't want to, I yearned for my childhood to come back whereas my mom screamed at me to get a job.
So I did.
Now that I am working, and am gonna spend my whole life doing that. I've come to respect and enjoy the two precious days in my life which I didn't give a damn about in the past.
Weekends.
Without them, my life would just have been mundane and without purpose.