A thoroughly disappointing experience

Roasters has been around for a while now and though it has never been my favourite joint, primarily because I have always found its service slow, I have never had reason to complain about its food -- until my last visit this month. The deterioration in its food quality was shocking -- the food was largely cold and tasteless -- and the service was even more pathetic than I remembered it. When I complained to the waiter about the cold food, instead of doing something about it, he merely stared at me as if he couldn't believe what he had heard. Not only were the entrees cold, even the molten lava cake, which is always served straight out of the oven when it is at its gooey best, was cold and hard. And the waiters not only wore a nonchalant demeanour they were amused by our complaints, which was very irritating. I normally refrain from using any platform to air just negative views and whenever I review a restaurant I always present both its positive and negative sides, if any, but this time I have been so upset by their attitude that I have not been able to resist making my disgust public!

The Baron, Karbala -- A review

   On our recent visit to Karbala we stayed at the newly opened five-star hotel, The Baron. The Baron is the only five-star hotel in Karbala, and I can predict that it will start a new trend here to cater to the needs of those pilgrims who don't like to sacrifice their comfort no matter where they are, and in a matter of years there will be many such hotels, just like they have sprouted up in Mecca.
   However, for the time being no hotel comes close to The Baron in terms of the sheer luxury and facilities it offers. I have to say my only regret was we couldn't stay there longer, for our trip was too short and most of it was spent visiting shrines with little time to really enjoy its many comforts. However, having said that, I must admit that it was a great relief when we would come back exhausted from our pilgrimage at night, to find a luxuriously cosy bed, hot shower and clean towels waiting for us. The fact that there is a shuttle service to and from the hotel every half hour ferrying hotel guests back and forth from the pilgrimage site, is another great boon, especially when you are exhausted and not in the mood for a minimum 15-minute walk.
   With five restaurants overlooking their sprawling lawns and catering to cuisines ranging from Pakistani to Lebanese and from fast-food to Persian and Italian, and one within the hotel building where buffet breakfast is served, the hotel is not only providing an option to travellers for high-end boarding and lodging but also for dining that is a cut above the rest in the city. Not surprisingly, the restaurants have already become popular with drop-in clients.
   With modern rooms complete with free wifi and all necessary toiletries, not to mention the all-essential and often missing amenity of a kettle and tea bags and coffee satches; spacious, elegant lounges; gym and indoor swimming-pool facilities -- of course with separate hours for males and females -- The Baron seems to be on the right track. It also has a hamam and sauna facilities that is not in operation yet, but will hopefully be soon.
   But that is not to say that there are no teething problems in this five-month old hotel. The service needs to be improved and more waiters who understand English need to be hired so that they can understand what their guests want from them. And I wish someone would explain to the chef that a cheese omelette doesn't mean sprinkling cheese on top of the egg, rather than inside it. Housekeeping too needs to have a manager overseeing it, to ensure that used towels, bathmats, etc are replaced.
   In the larger scheme of things though, these are trivial matters that time and experience should be able to sort out.

Review of Priori eye serum

Okay, so I have been using this amazing product that I simply have to write about. I don't like to review anything unless I have experienced it first-hand, and since I have been using this serum for two weeks now, I feel quite confident endorsing it.  The beauty product I refer to is a smoothing eye serum, from the Priori range which specialises in anti-aging.

I must admit dabbing it lightly around the eyes every morning after a shower, just before moisturising the rest of my face, and every night when preparing for bed, I was not quite sure what I had expected would happen. Have my crows feet disappear, perhaps? Or if not disappear then at least not progress any more? Well, in all honesty, I don't think that either happened in these two weeks. However, one thing has certainly happened -- the shadows  under my eyes have practically disappeared. Anyone who knows me will vouch for the fact that my shadows were so deep that I looked like someone had given me two black eyes. Not only that, the skin around the eyes stays soft, smooth and supple through the day, though I hardly dab a miniscule amount on it in the morning. I'm  going to see if it's prolonged use does any other wonders, but so far so good. Give it a try, guys!

My travelogue published in Social Diary

My published travel piece on my recent visit to the northern areas of Pakistan

A spiritual experience within a physical exercise -- part 1

They say that only those perform Haj who are privileged to be invited by Him to His house. There is no dearth of stories of people who reach Mecca and yet are not able to perform this rigorous physical and spiritual ritual; that thought alone was enough to fill me with trepidation and dread when I finally embarked last month on this journey along with my husband. What if I fall ill, and can't do it? What if there's an accident? What if...

And so much did happen this Haj -- so many disasters that put paid to the plans and good intentions of the huge number of pilgrims, as they embarked on what turned out to be their last journey. But, mercifully, God was more than kind to both of us. I couldn't have asked for more. Not only did we manage to fulfil all our obligations in complete health and with relative ease, but we also became such great friends with some Pakistanis settled in different parts of the world that it made the entire experience a lot of fun.

So here's a diary of sorts that I maintained while at Haj:

14th sept - we left in the morning as we had to report three hours early for our noon flight. Flight was delayed a little, and we waited in the business class lounge till boarding. We met up with Sadiqa, the first member of what was to late become our motley group, and for whom my husband had agreed to pose as a mehram (a Saudi requirement that a male relative must accompany a young woman on pilgrimage) as she was travelling by herself.  When we reached Dubai, we said our prayers and did our niyats as guided by the maulana accompanying us. Our connecting flight was an Airbus A 380 - a massive aircraft . We lucked out as we got superb seats -- bulk head. Our luck didn't end there;when we landed in Jeddah the three of us were taken in a bus carrying pilgrims that had signed up for the executive package, to the VIP lounge where we sat in an air-conditioned environ and partook of tea, water and snacks and could use clean toilets. Hence, we never experienced the long and tiring wait in the heat at the airport that we had been warned about by all our friends. What's more, while there, we were asked to identify our bags in the luggage area, and discovered that in our absence everyone had been made to forcefully take polio drops even though they had certification of having taken the same prior to departure -- so we missed this discomfort as well! 
Next, we were transported in a freezing, air-conditioned bus and reached the hotel only to find Lady Luck was really smiling down on us -- we had been upgraded to Fairmont hotel although initially we had been told we would be in Swissotel. Not that the latter was of a lower standard, but the advantage of Fairmont was that the wifi worked there whereas it didn't in Swissotel -- as Sadiqa learnt to her chagrin. Our bathroom had a shower as well as a tub -- which I discovered most rooms didn't have and which turned out be a boon for soaking our tired feet -- and we also had a room with a view -- overlooking the haram -- so we could plant ourselves in front of the window and offer our prayers in direct view, something that women frequently didn't get to do even if they were in the haram, as they would mostly be relegated to an area that just overlooked a wall.
  As by the time we had all checked in it was around 2.30 am our moallim decided that we should do umra the following morning since there wasn't enough time to perform all the rites before fajr prayers. It turned out to be a wise decision as we were all tired and it would probably have been pushing ourselves too much had we stuck to our original plan of doing umrah in the night.

So the next day, which was also my birthday, we had an early breakfast and left for performing umrah. Just as I got a call from a friend wishing me happy birthday I came in full view of the Khana Kaaba so that instead of concentrating on making my wishes I was left with my attention divided! We performed umrah as a group and though it was very hot it was not overly crowded and we performed it with relative ease. I stayed on at the haram to offer my Zohar prayers but got place outside, as the women's section had got full by then. Exhausted, we mustered enough strength to go to the huge store, Bin Dawood, located in the Clock Tower where our hotel was also situated, to pick up a few things. After soaking our feet in the tub, we went off to have lunch at the food court - shawarma and fresh juices. Then showered and slept for a while.

We got up in time to offer our Asr prayers but again got space only outside the hotel in the walkway leading to the haram. Although it was my birthday we were so tired that we decided to just go for the buffet dinner at the hotel, which was part of our package. Pilgrims booked with other tour operators but staying at the Clock Tower also had their dinners at our hotel so my friend Rainie who was there also joined us. After dinner our tour operators had arranged for a Dua at the top-most level of the haram so we attended it and then came back and slept. 

On the 16th we went for ziarat of gaar e soar, gaar e Hira and the graveyard where Rasool Allah's family including his uncle Hazrat Abu Talib, and his son Qasim and others are buried. Although a gated cemetery where only special people were allowed to enter, the walls had openings through which we could see the desolate graves within, and offer our fatehas.
We came back and went for lunch at the hotel's high end restaurant with Rainie, and Sadiqa who had by then become our adopted daughter -- my husband had discovered at Dubai airport that she was the same age as our daughter, had two kids like our daughter, and had been married as long as she had, so had promptly shed all his inhibitions and begun to tease her relentlessly to which she would respond with due spunk -- to celebrate my birthday. After lunch we went for tawaaf where two other ladies, Marzia and Shehla who we had become friendly with -- both from Australia -- joined us. We managed to not only do tawaaf for everyone but also give bosa to the kaaba. Offered asr prayers in the haram. Also both times did our tawwaf within maqam e ibrahim and also touched it this day and saw the qadam. Sadiqa and I stayed back to say our Duas and sat in the tawwaf area to do it till we were shooed away. Came back to hotel, showered and sat on Facebook and then offered Namaz in room from where there is a clear view of the Kaaba. Ate dinner at hotel and went with moallim for ziarat.