It was a long day at work and I had skipped breakfast. The vending machine would be my salvation, the holder of unspeakable treasures (or so I felt as my stomach slowly took control of my brain in a foodless coup) I hunted out a dollar note (my last) and made my way to the vending machine only to find empty rows and two packs of instant noodles sitting forlonely as if waiting their turn on the chair. Dammit, I was ready for anything, so in went my dollar note.. C8 I punched.. no response.. the noodles were $1.25 and I didn't have a quarter, only a tenner which the machine in all it's humility wouldn't accept.

Nor would it give me back my note, so my creative mind went to work. I punched in the code for an empty row. (If there is nothing to vend, it should give me 100% change right?). I watched eagerly as the empty row spun and moved forward to drop an imaginary food item into the tray below. Then the machine proceeded to give me 10cents as my just change.

My stupidity was so great that I couldn't help smile at the whole situation. Nidhi was online a few minutes later and she kept spending occassional messages about the kachoris she was going to make. I could have licked my computer monitor.

Pretty soon I was fantasizing about food. As in The Life of Pi, my fantasies began to grow. "A Ganges of dhal soup. Hot chapattis the size of Rajasthan. Bowls of rice as big as Uttar Pradesh. Sambars to flood all of Tamil Nadu. Ice cream heaped as high as the Himalayas."

I did indulge in something like that at Fogo e Brasa later that night. Steaks as tall as the Empire State Building.

Pi is turning out to be a great conversation opener. People are forever curious to know about the strange title. So is it like.. the number pi? Naah, it's this guy who gets shipwrecked and drifts in a lifeboat for seven months with a tiger. Tell me more about it!