It was time to go to India and that meant I was on a shopping spree. I wasn’t driving at the time which meant I was dependent on Santa (husband). One fine morning I decided to hit the road alone, using the public transport service the VTA provided. I ‘googled’ the Mountain View address of Bed Bath & Beyond. Noting down the directions given by Google maps on a post-it, I went out after Santa left for office. Walking for a mile to the bus stop, I saw the bus whoosh right before my eyes, as I struggled to reach the stop. It was 20 minutes before the next bus arrived.
Usually I ask the driver about the destination before boarding the bus. But this time I was so confident I didn’t bother to ask him, neither did I tell him to inform me when my stop came. I thought the PA system was good enough. The address was one of Charleston Road. Sitting inside the bus I saw the bus whiz past Charleston Road without stopping. So I got down at the next stop which was Amphitheatre Parkway.
After getting down it seemed to be a deserted land at first. I took a right at Amphitheatre Parkway and walked down the sidewalk. The Google HQ extended on my right as far as I could see. I walked till the end of the road and hit Shoreline Boulevard. Took a right at Shoreline and kept walking when I realized that if I kept walking through Shoreline I would reach home, except for the fact that it was not walkable because the entrance to freeway 101 did not leave any space for pedestrians. So I turned back and retraced my steps. Everywhere I looked, I saw the glass buildings of Google. I walked up and down the road quite a number of times. Lunch time was getting over as I saw people filing back into their office with coffee cups and take away boxes in hand.
I entered all the roads I could enter only to be stopped by a sign saying 'Dead End' or 'No Thru Road'. I even asked two passersby where Charleston Road or Bed Bath and Beyond would be. None of them seemed to have any clue. I took the next bus home and as the bus crossed 101 I could see Bed Bath & Beyond from the bus but couldn’t figure out a way to reach it. All this happened without Santa’s knowledge.
The next morning I googled Bed Bath & Beyond again. It showed the same route so I asked Santa and he pointed out that the directions were wrong. For once I follow the map correctly and end up in the wrong place. Now that’s what I call being 'googlied by Google'!
Had been eyeing the new restaurant called NH8, on 80 Feet Road in Indiranagar, for quite some time now. Opportunity finally came when we ran out of grocery on a week night. Time to go to NH8.
The restaurant's on the second floor and as we were about to enter the lift, we saw a poster of the restaurant, which said it was a Rajasthani place and had some mention of vegetarian food. There was a phone number, so we called up to find out if they had non-vegetarian fare. “Is this a veg restaurant?” The friendly voice on the other side assured: “100% pure vegetarian, Sir”, which made us take a u-turn and walk straight out.
If only the man had known that we were hardcore non-vegetarians...
