Mother Care is a well known international brand for parenting and children needs. I have often blogged about how limited the choice of stores in Gurgaon is for maternity clothes (a couple of options here and here), and now there is another that you can add to the list. Here’s my quick fire review of the place based on one visit.

Maternity Clothes

This is certainly a focus for me right now, since my wife is 6 months in. And when we saw this store, we were very happy and went in straight away. Now, there is definitely a dedicated selection for maternity clothes, but it was overall disappointing – not enough daily wear options were there. However, it has better selection than any other store in Gurgaon.

Infant Clothes

Tons of options. You should find what you need. Having said that, we were looking for a gift for a 4 month old, and came back empty handed because we couldn’t find anything that we liked. Once again, the store is way better than anything else in Gurgaon, but still lacks a lot.

One instance pops out – we liked a pair of socks, which were available in green. We wanted the same pair in blue which was also available. But the blue option was only available if you buy it with a cap as well. I found this very frustrating.

Other stuff

There are many other things such as prams, cribs, shoes, etc. It can easily serve as a one stop shop for all your parenting needs.

Conclusion

We think that the lack of options right now is because the store is brand new, and the merchandise is still being setup with a lot of product still not unpacked. It is so new that the location is not even mentioned on their stores page on the Internet (at the time of writing this article).

Overall, a great place.

The closest to what we needed turned out to be LifeStyle Home Center in DLF Plaza Mall near IFFCO chowk. We had been there several times before, and had always found the selection good, but not what we wanted. After several weeks of not finding what we needed, we decided to just go and buy from Home Center whatever we find.

Here are the good things about this place:

• Variety of furniture items: a very large selection of beds are available to choose from. So, you should find something that you like (unless you are super choosy like us). There are several options on dining tables, sofa sets, and wardrobes as well. They lack any office/home-office furniture, though.
• Quality of goods: the workmanship is good because everything is produced through standardized processes, so you don’t see improper paint, or unpolished wood, etc. as you might see in some of the shops at MG road.
• Professional servicing: the people who came to assemble the bed at home knew what they were doing, carried proper tools, and did a very efficient job of assembling the bed.

Here are the things that we didn’t like:

• Discount policy: there was a discount being offered on the bed that we bought. When we made up our mind to buy, we were told that the discount is given in the form of vouchers for the store, which forces you to make another purchase from them.
• Poor delivery service commitment: We were told that the bed will be delivered at our home the next day and it will be assembled at home. What NO ONE told us during the purchase process is that these two things can be very disconnected. The bed was delivered the next day, but they mentioned that the assembly team can take up to 48 hours (post delivery) before they come for assembling the bed (as per their policy). We found this to be utterly ridiculous. Why send the bed in pieces to us if no one was going to come over and assemble it for 2 days. After much fighting over the phone, they sent someone the next day (not even the same day, even though they promised over the phone that it will be the same day).
• Poor inventory management: Earlier we had thought of buying a mattress separately, but since we now had to use those discount vouchers, we decided to purchase the mattress from the store itself. They were able to offer us the type of mattress that we wanted (pocketed spring). However, once we chose the mattress, we were told that the mattress will take 15 days to deliver. So, now we have a bed without a mattress, which will come in another 10 days or so. We think this is a major customer service failure.
• Pricing: We think that there is a 15%-25% premium on their prices, but there is a lot of convenience in dealing with them, so maybe its worth it.

In conclusion, we think the place is worth shopping, if you are aware of the negatives before hand. What have your experiences been at this store?

Almost all malls in Gurgaon have a salon – a lot have more than one. The mall that I most visit is Ambience Mall on NH8, and the salon present in this mall is called Hair n Shanti. I am a regular at this place, as is my wife, and this blog post is a quick review of our experience with Hair n Shanti.

If you are in a hurry, here’s the quick review: generally, you will be pleased with the outcome of your visit. There are no red flags in terms of services provided and the quality of service. So, I recommend this salon.

However, if you need a little more detail, read on.

The place is usually crowded, so either take an appointment, or be prepared to wait a little while you are adjusted in between appointments. I normally just walk in there the moment I enter the mall to see when the next slot is, and then adjust my other activities in the mall accordingly.

The services offered to the ladies are fairly good (as witnessed by my wife – she has never complained once, so it must be good).

For myself, I can vouch for the haircut and head massage which are always excellent. I have been nicked a couple of times while getting a shave, so I generally avoid that (but I think that is pretty much the norm anywhere). My wife forced me into getting a manicure once, but I didn’t like what they did and nor did she. However, there are always plenty of men getting a variety of face and hair treatments, so overall it should be good.

Most people seem to be regulars (as evidenced by the familiarity between the service providers and the customers). What this says is that they are happy with what they get and that is why they return.

The guy who I normally get catered by is named Sahil, and he is fairly good. You can ask for him by name.

Now the main negative – the place is expensive. A men’s haircut costs Rs. 400. So you can scale the other things accordingly. I guess that is the price you pay for the location and the convenience. But if that doesn’t bother you, this place is certainly recommended.

Have you had experiences at Hair n Shanti? Please leave comments.

But let me step back first, and start with the hotel itself. The hotel is located in Udyog Vihar which is one of the busiest places in Gurgaon. If you’re planning to go there on a weeknight, better plan to be stuck in traffic for a while, since all roads going there are likely to be jam packed. However, once you get there you will never know that you are in the middle of hustling bustling city.  The moment you get in the place, you are taken in by the immense architecture of the hotel. It’s like stepping into a different world all together (see below the photo of the entrance – photo by Sanctu)

The reason it is so important to mention so much about the hotel, it’s architecture, it’s lobby and so on is because it puts you in the right mood for a relaxing meal.

Now let’s move on to the restaurant itself. The restaurant that I went to recently is called Saffron and it serves Indian food. I have been here several times. And I cannot say that it has always been the best food, but this last time, the food was really good.

Here’s the review.

Food:

I have normally ordered A La Carte here, however this time around they had an option of a set meal which includes starters, main course, and dessert. We chose this option. Basically, this is similar to what you might get at The Great Indian Kebab Factory, or at Barbecue Nation.

So, they started with the starters (no pun intended). There was an assortment of veg and non-veg stuff. I liked everything, and it was a large variety. They will keep coming back with more of these till you tell them to stop it and bring on the entrees.

The main course it self was pretty tasty, and the as was the dessert (an assortment of 4-5 types). Combine this with their extensive wine list, and I would say that the food is definitely good.

Service:

If I quickly summarize the service, then here it is:

• polite people
• no one rushes you
• they know how to pour wine properly
• basically what you would expect from a five star hotel

Ambience:

Very nice. It is the same as the rest of the hotel. The place is done nicely (see picture below). There is live Indian music (some tabla, sitar, and sarangi) which is very melodious. The space is small, but that has the effect of it not being filled with a lot of people and so doesn’t feel very crowded.

Conclusion:

Its a very nice place to go to for a nice lavish dinner. Lavish because the price will be very high; but I think that just the entrance to the hotel is worth the price tag.

Good place to go for a celebration, an official dinner if you need to wine and dine someone important, a special date, or just to treat yourself once in a while.

Bad for budget conscious dining.

But, I am jumping all over the place here. Let me introduce this place first. The restaurant is called FresCo. It is located towards the backend of the Ambience mall food court (a little behind the McDonalds).

They have both A La Carte and Buffet menus, and I have enjoyed both, and liked them both. A friend of mine however would differ as she didn’t like the soup that they served her (but she is vegetarian).

The staff is very polite and is always watching out for you, and makes you feel very much at home. There are two seating areas, open and closed. The benefit of the closed area is that you don’t feel like you are in the middle of a mall with people passing by all the time.

They have a decent wine list as well, so you should be able to order good accompaniment to the largely Italian/Med cuisine that the place serves. We enjoyed their desserts as well when we tried the buffet. However, if you are really a dessert buff, then you may want to check out IndiJoe’s which is a couple of restaurants down (once we ate at FresCo’s and then walked to IndiJoe’s for dessert).

Overall, the place is recommended. Do try it out, and leave your comments here on whether you liked it or not.

So, I visited an orthopedic expert who has a clinic in DLF Phase I (I do not want to name him here). This person is supposed to be a very experience doctor (he probably is, and I don’t doubt it). He examined my wrist, moved it around, pressed it a couple of times, and asked me when it hurt. He immediately gave me a suspect diagnosis and asked me get an MRI done.

I don’t have a problem with getting an MRI done because that makes it easy to detect any problems that you may have. However, it was the suspect diagnosis that this doctor made that caused a lot of concern. This doctor told me that he suspects “Kienbock’s disease”. If you don’t know what that is, I recommend you to quickly go through that link. It is basically, an untreatable disease in the wrist which leads to disfigurement and complete loss of mobility of the wrist.

I was very disturbed and depressed with this. For a couple of months, I didn’t know what to do. I didn’t even get an MRI done. Well, I eventually got my MRI done, and decided to take the results to another doctor (this was Dr. Rajesh Bawari, a senior consultant at Max hospital in Gurgaon). When I got to the appointment, I had the MRI report with me. The doctor didn’t look at the MRI report, but asked me what the problem was. I told him about the pain in my wrist. He did the same thing (press my wrist at various points) and gave a conclusive diagnosis. He said that I have a very small Ganglion Cyst in my wrist. Now, if you look that link, you will see that this is a fairly common problem with a known treatment.

So, which doctor was better? Well, the MRI report should tell us. The MRI report mentioned that the scans are indicative of a Ganglion cyst, and the bone structure is completely normal (which it wouldn’t have been if I had Kienbock’s disease).

Furthermore, the doctor said, that the cyst is so small, that neither of the two prescribed procedures make sense, and I should try to endure the pain a little longer, since sometimes these Cysts disappear on their own.

I am psychologically very relieved. I just can’t imagine why the first doctor thought that I had a very rare and serious disease. But the lesson learnt was that one should always take a second opinion when it comes to doctors.

Two incidents happened which has almost ensured that I am never going back to Artemis.

They don’t care about the customer’s time

I have been having a pretty severe pain in my wrist and needed to visit an Orthopedic. I went to Artemis and sat at their OPD registration desk. They told me that Dr. Hegde is on call, and I can have an appointment with him. I said, that is fine. Then as he tried to book the appointment, he told me that Dr. Hegde will only be available after one hour, and so I had to wait. Since I didn’t have the time I told him not to bother and I will come back another day (as I can’t wait for an hour). Then he told me to wait while he got on the phone. Then he said, a doctor will see me now. He said another doctor who is an associate of Dr. Hegde’s will be able to see me. Since, I was only there for a preliminary diagnosis, I didn’t care and told him that it is alright. Incidentally, this doctor wasn’t even listed in their doctors’ database, and the appointment was made in the name of Dr. Hegde.

Never mind, I said to myself; I made the payment and off I went to look for this doctor. Now here’s the kicker. I still had to wait in this doctor’s office (there were no other patients) FOR ONE HOUR. This is after I told them that I had more important things to do and I can not wait for an hour. It all went downhill from there. I couldn’t leave as I had paid already and every visit to the registration desk yielded a he’s-just-coming response. I would have expected that after waiting for an hour, Dr. Hegde will show up; but no, it was his ‘associate’. If ever, a doctor has not looked like a doctor, it was this time. In any case, all this guy did was hold my wrists for a minute or two, move it around, and then told me to go get an MRI.

That’s it.

Getting an MRI and how incompetent these people are

I went back to the OPD to see if I could get an MRI right then (I was already late), but I guess I was overly optimistic. There was no chance of that, so I left thinking that I will take an appointment and then come.

Well, a couple of days later when I did have the time, I called them up for an appointment. I asked and they gave me an appointment for the same day, and asked me to come sharply at the appointment time. Well, good I thought. Since that would mean I wouldn’t have to waste my time.

I got to the hospital almost on time, and went to their diagnostics desk. For almost 10 minutes, nothing happened. This is a private hospital, they charge a lot of money for their services, and they are still understaffed? The guy who was holding the prescription just didn’t do anything about it for 10 minutes. He just kept yapping on one phone call after another.

In any case, when I got a little pissed, he started looking for my appointment details, and then told me that I don’t have an appointment. I said that’s impossible, since I had confirmed the appointment on phone. He then looked and found out that I had been given an appointment for the next day. Once again, this was a sheer waste of my time.

I told him to cancel my appointment for the next day and left. Of course, I still haven’t got an MRI done on my wrist, as it seems that there are not enough MRI machines in Gurgaon and too many people need to get an MRI done, so there’s always a queue.

This is wrong of course. Every global citizen on the planet carries the responsibility of conserving the planet for future generations. We need ensure that we don’t pollute the planet; we don’t overuse it’s resources; we don’t destroy its natural abundance and wildlife. And as with almost every large problem, the solution lies in baby steps. We need to start small and at home.

KidsForGurgaon, is an initiative by IamGurgaon (a citizen’s group hell bent on improving Gurgaon). And they are putting together a drive to spread awareness on Earth Day.

They will be visiting shopkeepers in various markets around Gurgaon to talk to shoppers about the importance of minimizing the use of plastic bags. They will talk about how to implement the three R’s – Reduce, Reuse, and Recycle. You are all invited to join them in their endeavor and make a difference.

Please visit the link above to find details of their activities and ways to contact them if you would like to participate.

Remember, over a billion plastic bags are discarded every day. Even a small step will make a huge difference to the environment and the planet.

Somehow, they managed to get hold of our phone number and called us with their offer. Their sales pitch was good, and so we were interested. Here is what they offered:

They would take Rs. 500 and provide 15 free service calls where they will send an electrician or a plumber (based on what you need) throughout the year. There is no labor charge for these services, and you will only have to pay the charges for actual material used.

In addition they will also do 2 free services for the air conditioners.

And they promised a visit in the next 24 hours.

Well, this was the pitch. And we liked it. So, what went wrong? Everything.

After we signed the contract and made a measly payment of Rs. 500, these guys disappeared. Let me put it this way, they were calling us up everyday before we made the purchase, and afterwards, we just couldn’t reach them at most times.

We needed a plumber to visit and do some jobs at home. We called them on the first time and asked for a visit. We were told that a plumber will be available the next day. Can you guess when the plumber showed up? Not for a week. And during this week, we tried several times to call up and ask for a status. But no-one answered their lines most of the time.

And incidentally, when the person did show up, he didn’t look like a trained professional. He spilled a bottle of glass cleaner in the bed room, and our bed room still stinks of the smell.

So, if you are receiving this sales pitch from Pentacle Service, I suggest that you tell them to get lost, and rely on your neighborhood electricians and plumbers.

Here follows a review of the place.

The place serves beer of course (the name kind of gives it away, doesn’t it). But its no ordinary bar. They have their own brewery inside the restaurant and all the beer is fermented fresh. Now, that makes it different (if not unique, as this is not the only micro-brewery in town).

The Beer – I don’t normally like beer. However, I did develop a taste for a particular type of beer which is common in Germany (its called wheat beer or Weizen). And surprise, surprise, they offer wheat beer at Rockman’s. And it was pretty good as well. They do offer a number of other brews, and you can choose to order a large glass or the regular ones (the photo shows the regular ones).

We were joined by a couple of other friends and all of these beer-drinking guys said that the beer was good (remember that I am not too big on beers).

The Food – the food was nice. We ordered a variety of starters and dishes, and there were no complaints with the food quality. The menu is varied, though it is heavily biased towards the non-veg variety of food. So, you vegetarians will have only a handful of options to choose from.

The Ambience – the environment in the restaurant (I call it a restaurant) was pretty bright and cheerful. They have this little booths which look like barrels/kegs (call it whatever you want), in which you can sit 4-6 people. But you can only use them if you are only going to have some beer, as the tables in them are tiny. Other than that, there are normal tables and of course a bar space where you can sit if you happen to be alone or with a friend.

The Price – the place is very expensive. That’s all I can say.

Conclusion – nice place but very pricey. Will probably go back though.

Have you been to Rockman’s? If yes, please leave your impression of the place in the comments.