New Intellitots Center at Nirvana Country

A while ago, I had written about the Intellitots Early Learning Center, located near Galleria in DLF Phase IV, Gurgaon. They offer several different activities for kids beginning 6 months to about 6 years in age. These range from parent-infant and parent-toddler programs to speech and drama for older kids. I just found out that they're opening another center soon. This will be located at the Shalom Hills School in Nirvana Country, Sector 50, Gurgaon. To kick things off, they're holding a free parent-toddler workshop for 1-2 year old kids on the 2nd of August, Sunday, 10:00 am - 12:00 noon. Their regular programs will kickoff after that, from the 3rd of August.

If you're looking for an activity place for your little one as well as a little social time with other young moms (they don't offer that but I know I made a lot of friends when I used to take my son to Jimmy's classes!), I'd recommend you pay this place a visit. The Intellitots website is http://intellitots.in/ and their number is 9990800892.

Terrible experience on Gurgaon road

My husband was driving on the road that goes past Ardee City (Gates 1 and 2) all the way past Scottish High school and hits the new road that connects Sohna Road to Sector 56 in the evening yesterday. There's a market complex called Hongkong Bazaar a little past Scottish High on this road. As he was driving by this place, he heard a small bump on his car and then saw two men on bikes yelling at him and gesturing that he should stop. Well, he stopped and got out of the car, upon which one of the men started yelling abuses at my husband and accusing him of having hit his bike. Even the other guy on the second bike said he had stopped because he heard a "very loud" bump and thought someone was hurt. They both got extremely loud and abusive and demanded that my husband pay them Rs. 2000 as compensation for his bike which was now broken. When my husband tried to calm them down and pointed out that there absolutely no damage, and that even his car didn't even have a scratch, they pointed to some minor damage to the bike and brought the demand down to Rs. 1200. Since the place was very deserted and the men were very rude and bordering on being violent, my husband wisely decided to simply pay the guys and move away from there.

This is obviously a scam. These guys must be putting up this show several times a day and making money from people similarly wary about their own security and cautioned by the horrible news one reads so often about crime in the city. I've had a terrible taste in my mouth since I heard of this experience last night.

So, fellow Gurgaon survivors, please be careful when you're out, especially on roads that are deserted such as this one. Would also like to hear your thoughts on how one should deal with a situation such as this one.

Beauty Parlors in Gurgaon

So, as you may have noticed, I’ve been out of circulation for a while now. My friend Divya, who has been a Gurgaon resident for many years and has moved away just last month was nice enough to guest write a review of some of the beauty parlors in Gurgaon for this blog (thanks a tonne, Divya!) Here’s what she has to say.

A beauty parlour is an essential for most women (will all male readers please excuse this observation!) and finding the right one can be on one’s wish-list for a while. As for me, I ‘almost’ found one many times but something or the other put me off it. I have recently started going to External Affaires in the Main Sector 14 market. It came highly recommended by a good friend who loves a good eyebrow. As a lot of women will agree, the criteria for a good parlour is how well they can sculpt your brow and take you from Ugly Betty to…well…whoever you want to be! My hunt for the perfect parlour followed the same rule so though there have been other reasons why I might have changed parlours, the brow would be the key!

For those trying to find a parlour with the right combination of services, price and time taken, I have tried to put together a quick list of the ones I have frequented in Gurgaon

The first one is Fairy, located in the main Sector 14 market. They have all the standard services and also offer a range of hair treatments including a hair spa, coloring, and dying. In fact, if you have special requirements, they even call specialists for the job. This was my first parlor in Gurgaon and has been around for 20 odd years. The owner is a really nice lady who has the most amazing management skills. Some other points about this place:

• All their services are well delivered
• I would rate the quality of their services as good
• They’re optimally priced
• The place is extremely crowded with waiting times anywhere from 10 minutes to 1 hour. So it’s a good idea to go with a prior appointment
• It’s very noisy, so you can forget about trying to relax during a massage or a facial
• Only the owner does haircuts, which means you have to wait a lot for a haircut

The second parlor on the list is Occasions, located in Southcity 2, B block market. They offer all the standard parlor services. I moved to this parlor when Fairy in Sector 14 became too far to go. It’s small and personalized and they do a good job with the standard services. Also, it’s optimally priced. Some problems with the place:

• It’s really small so it can get uncomfortable if you’re there for a longish time
• It’s noisy so the relaxation factor is nil
• Their haircuts are not great
• They burnt my leg when waxing so you have to keep an eye out for the wax temperature
• Their massages leave a lot to be desired

So, all in all this is a decent place for some of the small and regular stuff you need to get done, but not so much for a full once over!

The next parlor on my list is Beauty Lounge in DLF Phase 3, next to the restaurant Italianos. This is a unisex place with separate areas for men and women. This one came highly recommended by friend so I went there despite the distance from my place. Though they have a decent range of services and a nice comfy setup, I’m terribly disappointed with this place because of their staff. One of their male staff really crossed the line by first trying to have an inappropriate conversation with me and hinting at “extra” services he could offer and then actually feeling me up while giving me a pedicure.

Obviously, I will go out of my way to dissuade people from taking themselves and their business to Beauty Lounge.

Finally, there’s Tangles, which is in the Malibu Shopping Plaza in Malibu Towne, Sohna Road. They offer all standard services as well as a hair spa with repair and treatment. This is a really nice place which offers very good hair services, especially haircuts. The ambience is also very comfortable. However, it is overpriced. I paid Rs. 280 to get my 6 year old daughter’s hair trimmed!

So that’s the list. Thanks again for the review Divya!

My personal favourite place to go has always been Finesse in DT Mega Mall close to the Bristol roundabout. I’ve been going there for almost 4 years now and haven’t been disappointed. It’s quite comfortable and relaxing though a little overpriced. I go there anyway though because they’re really clean and their staff is very friendly, courteous, and for the most part, quite competent. The biggest reason I go out of my way to go there is because there’s a lady there who does my eyebrows really well! (Have to agree with Divya on this one!).

Another place that I haven’t visited too many times, but really liked is Bella Madonna in the Galleria building, attached to the Galleria market in DLF Phase IV. The place is super swanky, very clean, and very comfortable. They actually sat me down on a massage chair while shampooing my hair…how’s that for pampering! Obviously, this comes at a price…the place is quite expensive. Though I’ve only gone there for haircuts, I did look at their card and they seemed to have a wide range of services. By the way, there’s a guy called Satyaveer who does really good haircuts. So ask for him if you go there!

As always, I would love to hear your comments, experiences, and feedback.

Where am I?

Just a quick note to explain my absence and the huge delay in responding to your comments. I'm going to be in and out of circulation for a bit for a happy reason - we just had another baby!! As anyone who has kids can imagine, life is pretty crazy in the real world right now, and I barely get time to shower, much less post stuff on here. I promise to be back as soon as I can though and really appreciate your comments in the meanwhile.

Take a small step this Earth Day

A fellow blogger (Hi Vaibhav!) talked about an initiative by IamGurgaon to spread awareness about the damage we're doing to the environment by using plastic bags and to try and get people (including shopkeepers) to reduce their use of plastic bags this Earth Day, which is on 22nd April. And they're doing this in a smart way...by involving kids, who can learn early and really make a difference. The initative is called KidsForGurgaon - they're gathering forces to visit local stores in Gurgaon on 22nd April to spread the word. Just wanted to link to it here and encourage you to add your support to this initiative and take your kids along as well.

Fresco, Ambience Mall

Fresco is a restaurant in Ambi mall that serves some really good Mediterranean food. We've been there more than a few times now, mostly on weekends, and I've always had a good time. They have a pretty decent a la carte menu, but the thing we always go in for is their weekend buffet...all you can eat out of the very wide range of soups, salads, breads, main course dishes, pizzas, fried vegetables, and desserts. Theirs is one of the widest menus I've seen and I always end up overeating (why do buffets make me so greedy?!)

It's not cheap, but its more or less comparable to some of the other good buffets around town such as Park Plaza or Bristol. You can get the full buffet for Rs. 600 (these days they have some sort of a promotion going on, so this includes a glass of wine, but that's not always the case) or get just the soup, salad, and dessert for Rs. 300.

The things I like: food, bar, decor (very breezy and cool Mediterranean looking), service.
The things I don't like: price (obviously, cheaper would make me happier!) and location (it's on the food court floor of Ambi mall which is such a loud mess with millions of people on weekends that its hard to enjoy the nice decor and nice music.)

If you're fond of Mediterranean cuisine in general, definitely give this place a try, especially now that the weather is becoming too hot for spicy and masala filled stuff and light salads and icy cocktails are all you want to look at.

And of course, as always, share your experience and other recommendations here if you can!

If you're looking for a good vet for your pet...

...we've been looking for quite a while too!! We finally went to someone who made a good impression last week, so I thought I'd share the goodness! His name is Dr. Kharb and his clinic is called the Center Point Pet Clinic. It's in Center Point (d-uh), which is located on the same road as Max Hospital Gurgaon and the Remfry House (pyramid topped blue twin towers), along where the metro line is being constructed. This is the same complex which also has a Pizza Hut and Kebab King and a L'Oreal salon.

There's an associate vet named Dr. Ashok Kumar who is mostly available for consultation. Dr. Kharb himself is available by appointment, and we haven't met him yet.

So why did we like the place?

The place was very clean. They made sure to wipe the vet's table with Savlon each time a new "patient" showed up - this is something we hadn't seen any other vet do. Overall, the clinic was well maintained and clean as well.

They have a good process. The first thing the assistants did when it was our dog's turn was a quick, thorough general grooming including cleaning his ears, clipping his nails, cleaning his bum, and brushing him, without even being asked.

The doctor had a great manner with all the dogs and other pets that were there when we were there. The dogs especially seemed very much at ease with him and almost seemed to listen to him. Our dog, for example, who isn't really aggressive, but generally makes his dislike for the act of being hoisted up on a cold metal table to be poked and prodded quite visible, behaved very differently this time around. He was calm and let the doctor do his thing without a squeak. The doctor actually gave him three or four different injections and he didn't have a clue! That hasn't happened before.

The only downside is that they don't have a proper waiting room. This means that you have to wait outside the clinic with your pet, which can be quite a challenge, especially with an aggressive pet.

Anyway, here's the contact information, if you plan to give this doc a shot (pun intended:0).
Address: G-10, Centre Point, A Block, Sushant Lok-1, Gurgaon
Phone: 0124-4272464
Hours: 9:30 am to 7:00 pm, everyday except Tuesday. Also closed on Sunday evenings.