Sunday, December 21, 2008

Good Food , Great Place







Kamat in Karnataka has been a household name with regards to chain of restaurants and other line of businesses. They have these three popular joints in and around bangalore, kamat yatri nivas, lokaruchi and nandanavana,
Yatrinivas is in one of the busiest places of bangalore called majestic, lokaruchi is on the way to mysore and is a crazily crowded place with all travelers on this route stopping over…. But talking about Nandanavana, this joint is near BEL township, this is in the heart of the growing city but the place is so quiet and green. There is nothing hi fi about this place at all, yet the scenic beauty of nature in this restaurant is what makes one visit it again and again…
It is in one of the Govt bda complex kind of buildings… but the whole backyard is full of tall trees, shrub which form the fencing,,, some old lamp posts , a fountain , some shaded huts, stone slabs, old chairs…

You have trees right from Apricot to Sampige and jackfruit… awesome place for children to just play around, beside this hotel is a huge park also…
The food is decent and so is the price…. Next time you happen to cross this place do catch up for some good food and lovely set up…..

Friday, December 19, 2008

Mourning on Sheshadri Road

Well for those of you who have not known Bangalore, I am not too sure how much you could relate to my feeling today..
And for those who have crossed this road over the years.. would surely mourn with me .,,
Sheshadri Road is one of the ancient roads if I may say of Bangalore which housed and still houses many of the heritage buildings, be it the fire station, Maharani’s College, the Central Jail ( X) , SJP polytechnic, UVCE,,,,,
This road has gone thru so much of change over the last few years, in the name of modernization and accommodating this new hungry civilization,,,,, which doesn’t stop growing
In this whole exercise of modernization, There have been out right massacres of the many trees, that have long given shelter to so many livings things, including human beings,,,,
First came the flyover on Anand Rao circle , boom went the trees for upto a kilometer…. And now in the name of further road widening,,, the trees are being chopped right upto UVCE….
It was over a week since I had taken that route to office.,,, Today morning while crossing Central Jail sunlight just hit my eyes so hard,,,,, I was wondering how come I had never pulled the shield before while driving on this patch,,, and then I saw that inline all the trees lie by the side of the road… Chopped and dead…. And the road almost looked naked,,,,
There have been many associations and environmentalists fighting for this, we have been vouching for it too, but it does not seem to stop… do I blame myself for not actively being there with others who are trying to stop it…
Will just my mere mourning stop this atrocity,,, I don’t know,,,

Corner House

Near Nehru Circle in Sheshadripuram , there is a Corner House .. ice cream joint that I have been visiting for years. Week after week I have been visiting this place especially when we go on a late night drive to have an icecream. The good thing or the most convenient thing about this place is that there is a guy, Joseph if I am right, who comes over to your car and gets you the order. Over a period of time, we have befriended him and he ensures that we get the due attention, as soon as we dip our light or horn….
But yesterday, night which I thought was very usual, went to Corner house, but to my surprise bang next to corner house , sprang “ Baskin N Robbins” icecream shop…. Wall to Wall…..
My first reaction was , how can two competitors, hit wall to wall like in malls, This is a very silent place with limited , loyal customers….
But my daughters first reaction was “ Ma, I want Baskin Robbins…… only”
Even this joint has the same operating model of serving to your car. Now joseph came as usual and then this new guy also to catch up… And my daughter started yelling for BR … Joseph saw that and he had a look in his eyes, with disappointment… and I felt like as though my loyalty was being put to test….
As a new marketing stunt, this new shop also was offering 1 + 1 free…. We ordered, and I was eating the icecream, looking at both these guys, trying to run and catch their customers,,, ,,, but end of it all, for whatever loyalty I have, I guess I would vouch for dear Corner House,,, which has been there for so many years there, serving my favourite icecream in hot chocolate with nuts,.,,, yum,,,, that’s what I would say…

Now I know my next visit I go, we would have both these guys coming over to serve, coz I would go with CH and my daughter for BR….

Friday, December 12, 2008

PERCEPTIONS

This is a word that I have been hearing most frequently for the last few days
What is perception? “Is perception a fact and fact a reality”. Each one of us lives with our own perceptions… We build around it, we dream it the way we want, design it the way we think it should be and end of it either feel extremely happy or extremely dejected.
What are the ways to break perceptions?, is communication the only way to break it…… I think there has to be a total behavioral change in an individual to tackle perceptions.
Does trying to build in positive perceptions, ever help? Or is it just living again in a hypothetical world?
Ok, now you relax and don’t start perceiving after reading this brainless blog of mine….

Sunday, December 7, 2008

Oye Lucky, Lucky Oye

Saturday evening was usual for us to go to the Hanuman temple. Post the visit, we generally would go to Sagar for some chat, since Saturday evening is skipping meal kind of a ritual… to be frank , it is more on the needs of the tongue and the stomach. It was around 8 in the night and all of a sudden, got the bright idea of going to a night show movie. It has been more than 5+ years since I went on a night show, and that too with my daughter was surely an experiment. We went to Garuda mall, and were checking which movie to go to, then in the available night show list we had “oye lucky, lucky oye” for me the first glance was some vague movie and just did no interest me ,,, then I closely read the banner, which said, “ from the director of Khosla ka Ghosla” , have you watched this movie. It was a fine movie and therefore , got tempted to take the risk of having my daughter, and watching the night show of a movie with a vague name.
Well all I can say at this point in the night is, it’s a cool movie. No cheap comedy, no obscenity, no unnecessary songs, just precise, fine comedy and most of them are new faces, and they all look like theatre artists to me, very natural in their acting,. What to say about Abhay Deol, son of Dharmendra… I had seen some of his movies before, but either switched off the tv in 10 min , just don’t recollect him, but this movie, I just fell in love with him, what an awesome, charming guy is he…and then is Paresh Rawal.. my all time favourite... I can write about the story here, but what’s the fun, go watch it….
Thanks to Dibakar Banerjee, for saving the viewers with an assurance that there is still some good cinema left. Movie is brilliant, fast pace, natural , nothing unwanted or unnecessary…..
Go watch it…
It’s helped make me a much required, relaxing Saturday.