14th March - It all begins today…. The regime is drastic because I do not have an option.

Keeping in mind that it would be a tough act, with a lot of people watching and more cheering, I decided to blog it weekly for the 5 weeks that I would be following a very strict diet. Details of week 1 can be read here.adfat2fit-bigloser20111

Alert: My customized diet and regime are being conducted under strict supervision of a doctor. It is advisable to consult a qualified doctor before attempting any regime whatsoever.

I have been patronizing the Arrow brand since they launched, maybe in 1994. I used their bespoke collection, which was discontinued without even a communiqué to their so called Aristocracy club; they discontinued their big tall with the same attitude; cloth became
thinner, buttons cheaper, different, I still hung on. They always had ‘low or no stocks’ of size 48” citing variety of reasons.

A couple of years ago, some problem about the product, had made me
write to them, with their Area Manager responding and trying to sort out problems, not completely, but at least it happened.

A year ago, their Bandra store called up saying please pick up shirts
of your size, since the sale would commence soon. I went over and
picked up some 20+ shirts, tried out all of them, some were baggy or length was incorrect, till finally I was left with 12+ shirts, in which 2 favorite colours – blue, pink grey were extremely baggy, the store manager promised to alter and asked me to pick up the
next day.

Promptly they called up off I went, pleased with the customer
service approach of the brand. And the nightmare began – they had changed the size by cutting the sides making the shirts useless. Again
the apologies flowed and promises made.

Like clockwork I would call up every 15-20 days to enquire if my replacement shirts had come, 2-3-6 months passed, till I had finally given up, when one fine day I received a mailer and wrote to the email id. No response, however the
store called saying they had received one pink shirt and I could pick
it up.

I rushed to the store took the shirt and also another colour just so
that my account could be closed, besides this two half sleeve shirts
also were made available. Fool that I am did not try out the shirts.

Two weeks later, today morning, rushing for a meeting carried the pink shirt to wear it under the jacket. Mid-morning changing into the shirt realized with a horror that the sleeves were so tight that I resembled a south Indian heroine.

This time I intend to take it up with their top brass. I know they
would just apologize, say QC was at fault etc. etc. but not give a
damn, because there is a sucker born every minute who would pay that horrendous amount just because it is a brand.

I had first got hooked to Costa Coffee a couple of years ago and have staunchly defended it against a lot of friends, who asked me try out
Gloria Jeans, Coffee Beans, Barista etc. because the coffee was
consistently good, convenient, close to office, stores that I have to visit.

But an incident happened yesterday, that prompted me to write about it. Lucky Bhatt aka @bhatnaturally was in town from Bangalore and we had planned to meet up at Costa coffee in Phoenix. Whilst waiting for him with @b50 @shamikv we decided to have coffee. Asking them to hold a table, I went to place the order, wanting to prove a point to @b50 that Costa would serve good cold coffee without sugar.

Walking back to the table, saw a man pushing his chair from the table from the corner of my eye, as also an aluminium strip jutting out where Costa had used it to economize on the wooden flooring. It
snagged my trouser and baam I went down in a ugly fall; trying to save
the edge of table hitting my eye, put the entire pressure on my left
knee. Managed to get up, with people running up enquiring whether I
was hurt. @b50 raised his voice to one of the service boys, who just
beat the strip down and wandered off.

We sat finishing our coffee, trying to gather my wits and checking the swelling before leaving.

The issue here is not that I was hurt – maybe I was at fault, which
I was not; maybe the strip, floor was not maintained properly, which it should have been, given the fact the brand coffee charges; but the fact that the attitude of the staff – no one even bothered to look at what the commotion was, come up to enquire “whether I was hurt” offered a
cold compress – to act humanitarian, which one would expect from a brand like Costa.

When I tweeted about this, a couple of people said that they knew the
manager would I like to speak to him; whilst some said “sue them”.
If I were in the UK or USA, I would have done so, not for money but
for the attitude, however I definitely want to bring this to their CEO/President’s notice and see whether they have a semblance of customer service feedback mechanism at all.

I remember this place from the late 1980’s but somehow missed visiting her even when I was based out of Ahmedabad, and on subsequent regular visits.

A couple of months ago, on a visit for a friend’s daughter’s wedding committed myself to trying out the pizzas.

So one evening pushed my friends to visit the place. Hordes & hordes of Amdavadi’s were gorging away as if it was already 2012.

Keeping in mind there were 25+ people at home for which we had to pack, we decided to partake one on the spot, whilst the packing was happening.

Biscuit bhakri, soft with veggie toppings, cheese and in less time than Domino or Pizza Hut can roll out the dough, we were biting into it.

The Italians, and so called connoisseurs would never understand - the gravy/sauce; toppings; cheese but then Hey, what do they know about life!

A full value for money place and must visit, if you are in Ahmedabad.

Century Bazaar, Ambawadi,
Ahmedabad
Phone: 26407525

I have been hearing about this for a long time and had been wanting to give it a try, but BKC is not a place that I need to visit regularly.

However an opportunity arose last week. After enjoying Jagjit Singh mehfil in MMRDA decided to try out CPK (as California Pizza Kitchen is more popularly known).

Though located at the corner, signage is a problem, so much so that had to tweet/send BBM to get direction and finally reach there, passing thru security (maybe carrying pizza hut menu?).

Walking in, the first thing hit me was - Noise - sounded like a matunga shetty joint or definitely a McD. Being led to our table realized the noise level was due to yuppie parties going on - all youngsters with a candian-ireland-USA-gujju/panju/tamil (take your pick) accent.

Settled down, the water (after the usual mineral or regular) was quick. And then the patience was tested……

The servers floated around, not meeting eyes, gathered near the side table, rushed everywhere like wanting to catch the virar fast at 6.04 pm. Politely, said excuse me a couple of times (No response, maybe my accent less English could not be understood). On the verge of giving up, when my wife called in a stern tone (similar to when she uses with me, when I screw up) and boom, service began.

We ordered a Fresh Lime Soda (no liquor because that would take time) which was not too fizzy, Margherita Pizza (my test at every pizza place - because if they cannot make that then they should not be in business. This barely passed muster); Spaghetti in garlic sauce (nice, with actually taste of garlic flowing thru, not too runny) and Sandwich Salad (Ok, sandwich was not too good, salad better, but could have done with better dressing). Since this took a lot of time & we had to reach home before midnight (daughter’s birthday) we carried a chocolate banana cake (very good, but still not something I would travel all the way for)

They have a service charge for the ‘Service’ too.

To sum it up - Nothing out of the ordinary, since the area does not have anything similar, so will do well. Does not seem vegetarian friendly. Personally would not go all the way, would prefer visiting pizza hut.

3 North Avenue, Maker Maxity,
Old Drive in Theatre
Bandra Kurla Complex, Bandra (E), Mumbai
Phone: 65588888, 65606560

I had meaning to go to this place, irrespective of the thrashing it had been receiving for service, attitude and at times food also.

So gathered a friend, his son & my father in law as guinea pigs landed up one sunday afternoon.

It was around 12.30 and we were the first people there, so the service was prompt and efficient. After looking at the menu, we decided to go the whole hog ordering everything that looked nice.

Mutton galawti kebabs (excellent, soft and just the thing with onions & roti), kakori kebabs (excellent with roomali roti), wrap mutton sheek (good but can be avoided if ordering other kebabs) along with the healthy whole wheat roomali rotis.

This was followed up by Machli lasooni tikka (amazingly moist, succulent); murgh golmirch kebab (very good with the tikka just done right & spices seeping thru), Haleem (can definitely give Paradise in Hyderabad a run for their money) and Nihari ghost (I did not taste this personally, but the orgasmic look on the face of others told me how good it was). This was followed by the Dum ghost lucknowi biryani which was again excellent, though personally I prefer the calcutta version of biryani myself:).

By this time we were stuffed completely with no place for anything else. However, my friend has a sweet tooth and wanted to try the shahi tukda, but the captain & server were persuasive enough to push - shahi tukda, zaafrani malai phirni and Jaamun - o - gul which was ecstasy personified.

We left fully satiated with promises of coming back. Whilst I have not had the time to do so, we have definitely ordered during the recent India vs England match and the service as well food was superb.

Shop No. 4 & 5, Building 25, Linkway Society,
New Link Road, Near Oshiwara Police Station,
Oshiwara, Andheri (W), Mumbai
Phone: 64539951, 64539952, 64539953, 64539954

Whilst waiting to commence reduction, read a tweet from Asfaq that he had lost some 8-10 kg….when according to me he had nothing to lose. Soon enough the great Bombay Addict aka B50 got on the band wagon as also a lot of others who said that all of us need to support each other in changing our lifestyle.

B50 proposed a scheme whereby people could sponsor those trying to lose weight and the number of kilos lost by February 2012 would be multiplied at the rate of Rs. 10/- kg and given to charity. You can read more about it here. So, as we say, Read up, join up, Sponsor up or at least damn RT it and spread the word.

Soon enough, more people joined, making it difficult to keep tabs at which point Bombay Addict decided to make it a movement and hence Bigloser came into being with its own website

This is where it now begins… I lost 6 kg in 18 days (more cleansing of antibiotics etc rather than anything else) and would begin my plan on the 14th March 2011

A month or so ago, I had either received a tweet or mail from Abhay Nagarajan, wondering if I had read the above mentioned book.

Frankly, it was of no interest to me and had forgotten, till last week, looking for a book on flipkart saw the book and price (Rs. 100/-) ordered it along with Witness the Night by Kishwar Desai The Premier Murder League by Geeta Sunder.

Aha, well back to the afore mentioned book. A sort of poor @sidin about investment counselor from two tier B school and his boss, with too much jargon and extremely thin story line, trying to encash on the so called ‘market melt down’

Personally, I think it should have had a better story line, with less jargon and more humane touch.

Also for me the fact, that everyone wants to write, manage to write publish is ‘courage to follow your dreams and realise them’ is cheers time.

And hey, it may probably work for that age group, B school people, with a great price point.

There was a large gap in my plan and posts, thanks to Dr. Davare’s clinic being renovated and my wanting to see how I could maintain myself.

I was fairly successful in maintaining myself, with just and increase of 2kg till November 2010, when our Anniversary, birthday and generally party season began.

My Gym membership had lapsed and like everyone else thought that, I was fit enough not to renew it again. And then 31st December, party clothes refused to fit me. “Wake up” said my wife - who incidentally with all the parties and eating nay hogging had not put on a single kilo.

January 2011 began, called up Dr. Davare who finally agreed to give a date in February with the reason that - more relevant people were also waiting.

Whilst waiting for the date, renewed the gym membership, but in the intervening period - Jan 1, 2011 - Feb 15, 2011 fell prey to the recurring ligament & tendon problem, followed by the AV fistula problem that is persistent since birth.

Antibiotics, laid down, not even the brief walk piled on the kilos, leading to being depressed, thereby eating more, feeling guilty but still not worried.

This meant that when I weighed in for my Plan, I was practically back to my original weight of 156kg. I was sent back with a warning to lose 4-5 kg by flushing out toxins and to discontinue the antibiotics.

I normally do not like to order pizzas from Pizza hut as home delivery, however the family has always ordered and last Friday, the urge to order in after an exhausting day was extremely strong.

So I was designated as the order giver, with specific instructions. Called up Pizza Hut.

PH: Thank you for calling…………
ME: Hello, my number is 26xxxxxx and I would like to place an order please.
PH: Sorry sir our systems are down, may I have your address please.
ME: Can you please take my order
PH: Sorry sir, our systems are down, may I have your address
ME: Sure, but can you first take my order
PH: May I have your address
ME: Of course, I’ll provide that since you would need to deliver, however take my order down.
PH: Your address
ME: (Sternly raising my voice) Young man, Please take the order and then ask for the address.
PH: OK, as you wish
ME: ABC pizza; xyz bread; what is the offer of the day etc…..& I have xxx coupon
PH: Ok sir, your address please
ME: *deeply sighing* 111, abcde, mmnop, opp. aaa,
PH: Sorry sir, our system shows that this address is in Goregaon on the link road.
ME: That must be the same building name, but I do not stay there
PH: No Sir, your address in our system is there only.
ME: (Beginning to lose my cool) Young man, on one hand your system is not working, so that you cannot accept my telephone number; on the other hand, when I am providing my address, you say it is listed in another suburb altogether.
Can I speak to your superior.
PH: Yes Sir, but can I have your correct address.

I disconnected and ordered from my neighborhood shetty - delivery time - 15 minutes.

And this is where the story ends, MNC, high expectations, let down and by the by did not even bother to call back, but I guess ‘Why bother with a person, who is not a regular, does not know his address?’ How about you? Have you had a similar experience? Do share it.