The show is being organized by the Gurgaon Kennel Club and recognized by the Kennel Club of India. It will have multiple international and national level events, and is expected to be a very premier shows. The judges panel includes a number of international judges who are flying in for the event.

The venue is Tau Devi Lal stadium (near Rajiv Chowk). And events kick off at 7 in the morning and go on till 8 in the evening. As you can see, its going to be a big party.

I am definitely going to be there. For much more detailed information, program details, etc. visit their online partner: DogSpot.

I put together a list of the ones I know. I have included those that are relatively safe to get to, and are in or near Gurgaon. Typically, you can get to any of them in less than 15-20 minutes from anywhere in Gurgaon (after midnight only).

Here’s the list:

Plaza Solitaire Hotel

This place is located on Old Jaipur Highway behind Sector 14. They serve North India, Chinese, Thai, and Continental food. They have both outdoor as well as indoor seating. I have been to this place MANY times, and though it is not the classiest joint in town, but it does fine. Here are some details:

• Meal for Two: Rs. 500.
• Address: 30, Sector 14, Old Delhi-Gurgaon Road
• Phone: 0124-2323043, 0124-2325832, 0124-2325833

Bonitos

This is a coffee shop near the international airport. Technically, this is in Delhi, but the highway makes this very accessible. It is located in Uppal Orchid. Details:

• Meal for Two: Rs. 2,500.
• Address: Uppal’s Orchid, NH8
• Phone: 011-25061515, 011-41511515

Citrus Cafe

Citrus Cafe is the name of the coffee shop in Lemon Tree hotels in Gurgaon. There are two such locations in Gurgaon. Although, I haven’t been here at midnight, I have had lunch here, and the meal has always been good. Hence, it is recommended. Here are the details:

• Meal for Two: Rs. 1500.
• Address 1: Lemon Tree Hotel, 287, Sec 29
• Phone 1: 0124-4160303, 0124-4160304
• Address 2: Lemon Tree Hotel, 866, Udyog Vihar, Ph V
• Phone 2: 0124-4423232, 0124-4423205

New Town Cafe

I have visited this coffee shop many times. And I highly recommend it. I even wrote a review about it recently talking about the Biryani Buffet. It is located at Park Plaza, and is definitely one of the better places to go at night.

• Meal for Two: Rs. 1800
• Address: Park Plaza Hotel, B Block, Sushant Lok II
• Phone: 0124-4150000

NYC – The Fun Cafe

This one too is not within Gurgaon, but is a short drive away on the highway. It’s inside Radisson hotel. I haven’t been there, but if its Radisson, how bad can it be?

• Meal for Two: Rs. 2000
• Address: Hotel Radisson, NH 8, Mahipalpur
• Phone: 011-26779191

Palmyra

This is yet another coffee shop located in the Bristol Hotel. I have been there, and although the place looks big, the food is alright. I had ordered their house speciality Chicken Burger, and wasn’t impressed. Other items on the menu sounded good though.

• Meal for Two: Rs. 1800
• Address: Hotel Bristol, Sikandarpur, DLF Phase I
• Phone: 0124-2356030

Axis

This place is a coffee bar plus restaurant. Once again, I haven’t seen this at night, though have been there during normal hours. They did have a nice wine list as per what I remember. The food was average though. This is located in the Galaxy hotel behind 32nd milestone.

• Meal for Two: Rs. 1500
• Address: First Floor, Galaxy Hotel, Sector 15.
• Phone: 0124-4565000

Cafe RoadHouse

Located inside 32nd milestone complex, this is one of the cheaper places on the list. The place is clean and I have visited it many a times. The clientele can get a little ordinary at times, but I haven’t had any trouble ever. The food is usually decent.

• Meal for Two: Rs. 750
• Address: 32nd milestone, NH8.
• Phone: 0124-2332571-75

Well, that’s it. These are all the proper joints that I know of. If you know of any other, please leave a comment. Also, if you have eaten past midnight at any of these, please leave  a comment mentioning how your experience was.

Park Plaza Hotel (which is located in Sushant Lok, near Max Hospital) has a 24 hour restaurant, which serves an awesome Biryani Buffet at midnight. We have been there a million times, and it has never disappointed. The biryani is great and the price is not too expensive (don’t remember what it is exactly, but if someone does, please leave a comment).

They have of course both veg and nonveg stuff available. The restaurant (it is called New Town Cafe) also has a great buffet during normal meal times though that is on the expensive side. The staff is very courteous, the place has valet parking (being a hotel), and the crowd is usually good (yes the place can get crowded even at midnight).

It is a perfectly safe place to go even with your wife (as I do) and kids (though I think if you have kids, then you probably don’t get hungry at midnight).

Have you visited the place for the biryani buffet? What is your experience? Please do leave a comment.

Here’s where an Early Learning Center such as Intellitots comes in. One of the readers of this blog left a comment about Intellitots and how happy she was after visiting them (thanks Anika for pointing them out). Because of her feedback, I decided to get in touch with Intellitots and get some more information about them.

Intellitots is an activity center which offers a number of parent-toddler and parent-infant programs to stimulate the development of young children. Learning Centers such as Intellitots are pretty common in places developed nations such as USA or Australia, but are only now picking up in India.

About the Team

Intellitots was founded by two moms (Pooja and Shivani) who are both ex-IITians who had gone on to work in MNCs like Adobe, Palm, and Infosys. They have both lived abroad during their working times. Recently, both of them have left their professional lives to devote their time to Intellitots. They are both proud mothers of two.

Pooja and Shivani have partnered with Jimmy Eappen who is a seasoned teacher who was trained at the Julia Gabriel Center for Learning at Singapore. Jimmy specializes in speech, drama, and early childhood education, and manages all the programs at the center.

Activities and Programs

They have a number of programs that are run throughout the week, and you can visit the following page to get a complete listing: Programs. By the looks of the photograph (click the image to get a larger version), all the children are very happy in whatever they are doing (looks to me like they are building a parachute).

Here’s a description provided by Intellitots about their programs (I couldn’t have worded it better):

We offer a variety of activity based learning classes for 0-5 yr olds, designed to foster intellectual, social and physical development.  Activities include learning through music, movement and storytelling. We use age appropriate equipment sourced globally and have a professionally developed international curriculum.

Location and Contact

Intellitots is conveniently located near Galleria, in DLF Phase IV (next to Gate 1 of Ridgewood Estate). They can be reached via sending an email to info@intellitots.in. They are a very responsive bunch of people, and are always very happy to invite you over to their facility.

Conclusion

Based on Anika’s recommendation, and my discussions with Pooja (from Intellitots) I feel that it is a nice place to take your children to. If anyone amongst you have had an experience with Intellitots (good or bad), please leave a comment.

Oriental Senses is the latest massage service which has opened in Gurgaon. It is located on the second floor of DT Mega Mall on Golf Course Road (incidentally, the same mall also has an Ayurvedic Massage Center). Oriental Senses offers traditional Thai Massage, Shiatsu, and Foot Massage.

A one hour massage costs less than Rs. 1000. I think that is a great price.

The place itself is small. Once you get there, you are asked to change into soft tee-shirt and shorts which are provided. Then the therapist begins the massage in a very Thai style setup (a small mattress on a wooden floor). The entire setup is very Thai, with the next person only separated from you by a curtain (this is just how a lot of massage parlors in Thailand are setup).

As for the massage, it was great. The therapist who worked on me knew her stuff. She was able to increase or decrease pressure according to my needs. And after the massage I felt quite refreshed.

I think the only drawback is that the noises of the mall can penetrate into the massage area and so it is not as relaxing as it can be. But the quality of the massage more than makes up for this.

I recommend everyone who visits Mega Mall to take out this hour. Oh, and you should call ahead to book as they can only take three people at a time. Here are the phone numbers: +91 9818111433, +91 124 4307505.

Update (Sep 26, 2008): I visited Oriental Senses again today. And once again, I can safely say that I will continue to recommend the place to anyone and everyone.

This time it was a Foot Reflexology session that I tried and yes, even this was as good as the Shiatsu Massage. What is really good is that the therapists seem to be automatically tuned into your needs.

For example, today a group of people came in for their massage while I was having my massage, and they were (as is expected of us Indians) pretty loud while conversing amongst themselves and very chatty – with no regards to the quiet atmosphere in the facility. And it was actually quite disturbing, and my therapist must have read something on my face, because right as I was about to get up and request them to be quiet, she actually did it herself.

Have you tried Oriental Senses? Please leave a comment about your experience. Thanks.

Let me just say, we didn’t come back disappointed.

This place (like That’s Cute) is also a kids store with kids wear, accessories, toys, etc. which also carries Maternity Clothes. The store itself is located on the Upper Ground (UG) level in DT Mega Mall.

My wife didn’t find a huge variety of clothes, but she did have a number of selections to choose from. We ended up buying some tops for her. The main point is that even at full price, this place was cheaper than the discounted (on sale) prices we paid for stuff we bought at That’s Cute.

The store owner said that they get fresh stocks every couple of weeks, so we will check it out again. They do have a website, but its pathetic and non-functional. Not sure why they bothered to even put it up. So, to actually see what they offer, you will have to visit.

Even though now we know of two places where we can shop for clothes for my growing wife, it is sad that there are no big stores specializing in this type of apparel.

How to get there? Its not that straight forward, and so I put together a little picture (shown below):

Directions: So, basically, if you are coming from Sahara Mall towards DT City Center on MG road, right after the building of City Center ends, there is a cut which lets you enter Sushant Lok (through a big gate). Just go down to the end of that road, take a left, then take an immediate right, and you will see an entrance to your left to a big building (second gate) where the restaurant is situated on the Ground Floor.

You can arrive in style with their valet parking service. So, you can pull right up to the entrance of the restaurant, hop out of your car and walk right in. Once you are in there, immediately you are made to feel welcome. We had a smiling hostess at the entrance, and were escorted by a an equally ‘glad-to-see-you’ host who ushered us in.

Note: It’s always more useful to have reservations, because even on a weekday, the place was completely full. The number is +91 124 4044563.

Once you are seated, you have just two choices of meals: Veg or Everything. What they do next is that they will put a grill right on your table, and put a number of skewers on your grill with a variety of things ranging from potatoes to prawns. At the same time, they will keep serving you other kebabs and starters (until the time you get them to stop). So, you can cook the meats on your grill to your satisfaction, and enjoy already cooked starters alongside.

When you feel that you are done with kebabs, then you can hit the buffet. The buffet was good enough (not expansive, but enough). Well, I skipped the buffet, because I stuffed myself with starters, and went straight for double helpings of the dessert. You can choose how you like to do it.

Between 3 people with 3 soft drinks, we paid around Rs. 1800. I think that is a fairly okay price for the quality of food and the ambience of the restaurant.

Conclusion: No parking hassles, good food, moderate price, and good food. Did I mention good food?

Foodie Bay is a listing of restaurants based on your locality. So basically, I can simply go to their website and enter the area that I am in (e.g. Gurgaon->Sohna Road). The site then lists all the restaurants in that area, their ratings, their contact numbers, reviews, and whether they deliver or not.

It’s actually a quite professionally done listing just the way I would expect something like this to work (I couldn’t have done better myself). Of course, they do not have all the possible restaurants (and that should change over time), the initial results I saw were pretty good.

You can go and simply search or you can also create a user on the website and get some extra options. For example, it will store your default location so that you don’t have to enter it every time. It will also let you do reviews and ratings.

So, if you are looking for restaurants in Gurgaon (or anywhere in NCR for that matter), head over to Foodie Bay. Now, if only there was a website which would let me order food over the Internet.

We did come upon ONE store which specializes in maternity clothes. And although there is little choice (they were having a clearing sale at that time), at least there is choice. The place is called That’s Cute and is in Ambi Mall. You can find it on the second floor towards the end where the Reliance store is.

The good thing about the store is that they have a fairly interested store owner who gave us a lot of attention and helped out in general. We did choose a couple of items for my wife, but both needed fitting out and they were more than willing to carry out the customizations (this wasn’t just normal length alteration). You can visit their website to take a look at their catalogue by clicking here. You can even purchase online, although for clothes I suggest visiting the store.

They will be having a new line of clothes soon, and we will surely be going back for checking it out again. Do you know of any other places in Gurgaon that sell maternity clothes? If yes, then please leave a comment.

Lately I had to cross the plaza a number of times in a short period. Every single time I approached the tag lane a few cars in front of me were paying cash to the toll collector – IN THE TAG LANE. Yesterday, it was too much. There were 4 cars in front of me, and each one paid toll in cash.

I couldn’t help but stop a second and ask the guy collecting the money as to why they were accepting cash in the tag lane. He said: sir, ab hum kya kar sakte hain. That really got me mad, if you can’t enforce this, than who can? With all due respects to those who don’t carry tags, but such an attitude is SO UNFAIR to those who went through the trouble of getting tags installed in their cars.

There are many things that can be done to enforce this. Here’s one possibility: Impose a fine. Make it very clear through signs that anyone who crosses a tag lane without a tag will have to pay Rs. 100 fine. How hard is that? And, then go ahead and enforce it. Don’t bring the barrier up, till the fine is paid. Simple. And if someone gets stuck, the people behind will automatically make life hard for him.

There is always a PCR van standing next to the toll road. Coordinate with them ahead of the time for assistance in case there is someone making undue trouble.

I request everyone who uses the tag lane and notices that the teller at the window is collecting cash to stop and give him a mouthful (maybe that will prompt them to take action). And if you have any contacts who can cause action to be taken on this, then please go ahead and use them.