Author: manuscrypts

A Greek odyssey – Day 2

Continued from Day 1

The agenda for the day was Lindos and the old town part of Rhodes. We had planned a public bus ride for the former, but I was thrilled to see a poster at the reception – that the hotel arranged a bus trip to Lindos for 22 euros per person. The joy was shortlived, since it operated on every day except Saturday! Such terrible luck! I asked for directions to the bus stand, thankfully it was only 10 minutes away by walk. All of this had happened the previous night. From the time table, we had decided to get on the 9 AM bus. Despite directions, a map, and 20 minutes in hand, we got a little confused with the route. Thankfully, I spotted the bus station and we hopped on just in time after getting tickets. (5 euros per person) As we sat waiting for the bus to start, we saw an elegantly dressed lady talking to the guy at the ticket counter. We thought she might be a regular and wondered why she was commuting on a Saturday. She turned out to be the driver!

The 1 hr 20 mins drive took us through wide roads in town followed by narrow but clean streets in the suburbs, then a countryside complete with goats to finally, an awesome view of Lindos. (you have to walk back a bit for the kind of shot below)

A 10 minute walk took us to the city square. Unlike the feel I got at Trip Advisor, the place has plenty of options for hanging around, shopping and dining. The Lindos version of the acropolis is a little climb away, and a popular means of transport is a donkey! The entry (to the acropolis, not the donkey) costs 6 euros per person and the place, as well as the path leading to it, offers fantastic views. At the Acropolis, there are temples to various gods. We walked down to the beach, 5 minutes from the square. It had some good lunching options (with a view of the Acropolis) but we had already made up our mind on Kalypso. On the way back to the square, we did find the way to Kleoboulos’ tomb, but since Trip Advisor had mentioned a 2 hour walk, we passed.

The guy at Kalypso was super friendly and when we said we were from India, immediately wanted to know the name of a particular movie. He narrated a typical brothers-lost-reunited 80s story, ending with a googly – a song he claimed was from the film – which turned out to be Aati Kya Khandala! Classified under #WTF. Though he looked genuine, I wondered how many times he had enacted this scene before! The place, and the food was excellent – a fantastic salad, and vine leaves filled with minced meat, washed down with the recommended local beer, and fresh orange juice.

Some amount of shopping later, we got on the 2.30 bus to Rhodes, which was extremely crowded. We both slept all the way. On reaching Rhodes, we walked around the port and Old Town, and in the process of finding the Palace of the Grandmasters, got utterly lost in the maze of lovely cobbled streets! But we did manage to locate two of our intended dinner options – Island Lipsi and Socratous Garden – (check) utterly by accident. We then bought me a fake Puma ‘jacket’ for 10 euros and wandered into another maze – this time complete with castles and musicians. We desperately looked around for a main road, and just as we found it, also found a signpost which announced that we had exited the Grandmasters Palace! Lesson – get internet from home! (I could find no open outlets of Wind Telecom)

D corrected my sense of direction in time and thankfully found the way back to Old Town and the bus station – only 2 minutes away, it turned out! Some more shopping and we walked back to the hotel. I had a bad headache and slept off, and ended up skipping dinner in the process!

June 4, 2014
A Greek odyssey – Day 1

In what was a departure from our standard departure, we turned left on the world map this time. The Meru we hired for the early morning (or late night) flight – at 4.15 – had a neat hat tip – an ad for Santorini, Sobha’s version, that is! The driver was in an #F1 mood and we reached well in time, prompting us to take a little nap. That almost led to us missing the flight, and we just about made it!

Since we were in the middle column with no window seats nearby, the napping was continued on the first Emirates flight till it landed us four hours and a functional breakfast later in our other homeland – Dubai, which we were visiting for the first time. [no transit visa required, unlike Malaysia!]If not the sheer scale, a metro between two terminals was enough to wow us completely, and convince us even more of what we Malayalis are capable of, when we have Arab money and manpower backing us! 😉

For all the awesomeness, getting free WiFi, even for half an hour, was a tedious task which I gave up on. The Emirates flight to Athens was at 10.05 and took us about 4.5 hours. Still stuck in the middle column of seating, nap time was replaced with in-flight movie time. I saw Up & Down, a Malayalam movie first, out of courtesy for where we were at, and then watched American Hustle! We landed at Athens at 2 PM in the afternoon (local time) and immediately faced Athenian Hustle in the form of a luggage trolley that cost 1 Euro! There seemed to be quite a few lottery sellers inside, making the place quite like a bus stand, but I could already imagine why they might be popular!

We had a long wait for our flight to Rhodes – about 5.5 hours, but between immigration, meeting our tour operator for all the vouchers and free wifi for an hour, time passed by quickly. After much research, I had decided to buy Wind Telecom data cards, but couldn’t find them at the airport. The Cosmote pack cost over 25 euros. I immediately felt a disconnect, and decided not to buy! At some point in time, we got hungry and chose Negroni from the range of options available for a first taste of Alfa beer and some souvlaki, watching flights go by.

The Olympic Air (recently acquired by Aegean) was tiny and reminded me of Air Deccan. The air hostesses wore a very chic uniform though. I also discovered the species who have been reading mutual fund disclaimers on Indian television ads – Greek pilots. And I’m told Malayalam is fast. Some peanuts and Coke and an hour later, we were at the Rhodes airport, located right next to the sea. This was around the time I discovered that I’d be carrying our luggage and could expect no help from drivers. When I asked for help, they looked at me like I was speaking Greek. Oh wait…

The drive to our accommodation – Atlantis City Hotel – showed us what seemed a calm, peaceful, idyllic town, with small well populated and commercial stretches. We wondered if we’d have to travel all this way the next day. It took us only 20 minutes to reach the hotel, and we made our way to the room in the tiniest lift I’ve seen. Wifi was available in the reception and dining area. The room itself was small, but functional and neat, with a little balcony overlooking the street. The location was awesome, and we immediately went out in search of the three restaurants we had shortlisted for dinner.

Agalma, though more difficult to locate, appealed to us more than the higher rated Kerasma and Tamam. (both were within 300m of our hotel, check this list for options) After beckoning us in, they proceeded to ignore us for a while, but were very apologetic when they brought the menu. I asked for a Cider and D chose the house wine. The cider was great and the wine was a little meh. A Giouvetsi got me victory in the second round too as D wasted most of her salad. But in everyone’s defense, she was quite sleepy and the food took a long while getting to the table, accompanied by apologies.

The walk back to the hotel made me realise how utterly unprepared I was in terms of clothing choices. I thought 19-20 C was pleasant, and had an all-summer shorts+ tee sets packed with not a single jacket/sweater or even a pair of denims, and here I was, shivering! My nightmares, understandably, were about freezing to death and becoming history in Greece!

June 2, 2014
The Storyteller of Marrakesh

Joydeep Roy-Bhattacharya

The book begins with the proposition that there is no truth, and only opinion. This is a fundamental premise of the book and important from the perspective of its narration. Hassan, the primary narrator begins his story at the Jemaa el Fna, surrounded by his listeners, the motive behind the narration supposedly to prove the innocence of his brother Mustafa, who is in jail for a crime he seemingly did not commit. It involves the disappearance of an exceedingly beautiful woman who tantalised all the square’s inhabitants and visitors, when she made an appearance along with her male companion.

Though Hassan starts the narration, some of his listeners add their versions of what happened on the night of the event, some contradictory, some corroborative. There are arguments, and debates of what actually happened and truth being an opinion is brought out many a time.

The narrative shifts gears all the while, as speakers delve deep into their pasts for explanations, and Hassan himself highlights events of his past to give the listeners an insight into his and Mustafa’s lives and behaviour. The prose is elaborate, and vivid enough to be almost considered poetry as the author describes people, places and events in all their textures and facets. It is by no means a racy read nor is it gripping in narrative pace. As Hassan himself says, if that’s the kind of entertainment you want, you’re better off at a cinema. It’s not an easy style to get used to, but no harm in giving it a shot!

June 1, 2014
Infinitea, Indiranagar

I’ve been to the Cunningham Road version a couple of times, and am a bigger fan of its ambiance than the food served. D has not been there and such occurrences (me having visited places that she has not) don’t sit well with her. Unfortunately, Cunningham Road is a little away from our part of the universe, so I have dillydallied. Sometime back, she triumphantly announced that she had seen an Indiranagar version and that left me with no excuses. So we landed there one Sunday noon. When going from Koramangala, take the left turn after the Domlur flyover, you’ll see the outlet on your right a bit before this road meets 12th Main. Enough lanes around to park peacefully.

The space is considerably lesser than the Cunningham Road outlet, and limited to one floor, though there are alfresco and indoor seating options. The ambiance retains some of the quirkiness, though this is less of the elegant tea room than the other outlet. But they have done their best given the space constraints. The menu is the same, and we asked for pots of Choco Ginger and Vanilla Oolong. The first one had a chocolate aroma that proved that the way to man’s heart can also be through his nose. The taste though was skewed towards the ginger. The second one had really subtle flavours and D didn’t care for it much.

We decided to skip starters and began with a Cream of Mushroom and Chicken soup. It was slightly thinner than we’d have liked, but it wasn’t stingy with the cream, and with a dash of pepper, we learned to like it. For the main course, we ordered a Chicken Tetrazzine and a Baked Fish Parmigiano. The Tetrazzine was a baked dish with spaghetti and a cream sauce. The cheese was strong with this one, but the sauce again felt a tad diluted and bland. The fish dish was relatively better, because there was some tang thanks to the red sauce and tomatoes. This one too was generous with the cheese, and left us with just enough space for a Crillon Cake. Dark, flourless chocolate cake with whipped cream which floored us. Fantastic end to an otherwise average meal.

The service was quite prompt, the ambiance is pleasant enough, and the meal left us lighter by only Rs.1470 including service tax and charge. That was quite reasonable, given the location.

Infinitea, 26, ESI Hospital Road, HAL 2nd Stage, Indiranagar, Ph: 41265258

May 25, 2014
ASURA: Tale Of The Vanquished

Anand Neelakantan

Asura is partly a Ravana perspective on where his life intersects with that of Rama, (and thus Ramayana) and partly a social commentary of his life and times. (how society treats women, the caste system etc) The tale is narrated by Bhadra, an asura who fought under Mahabali and several others before becoming a recurring (and key) figure in Ravana’s life from the time he led a ragged army against Kubera. The narrative begins with Ravana’s last moments, as he lay dying on the battlefield.

Predictably, the book shows Ravana in a good light, whose only fault was that he defied the prevalent societal norms and lived life on his own terms, as opposed to Rama, who was deified by the higher castes and made into an ideal image. For all we know, this is probably true, since history is after all, written by victors.

While most of the story is essentially known, the author deserves credit for demystifying the myth – from the big picture details of which region was ruled by which king to smaller details like Pushpak as a flying machine prototype and Jatayu becoming a bird that got caught in its rotors. This does require that he has to gloss over some of the events, but that’s easily something we could forgive because the author largely keeps it true to the original tale. Varuna as a pirate, Kubera as the merchant king, Yama as the drug lord, various Indras, are all superb renditions of familiar mythological characters. There’s some intelligent use of Bhadra in the final events, and the author leaves ample clues for the reader to predict it. The author tries to show that in many ways, things have remained unchanged – the generation gap between Bali/Angada and Ravana/Meghanada is a classic example, and this is something that gives the narrative a lot of credibility. (+5 points for the Jabali mention)

But I did feel that it could have been edited better. Bhadra’s character, though used well to show how the life of a common man changed, or remained unchanged as the ruling class switched, is prone to long winded discourses which slackens the pace. The working of Ravana’s mind too becomes preachy once in a while, but thankfully not too often. If I had to nitpick, I’d say that mistaking navel for naval while describing a woman’s anatomy is not a sign of good proofreading. (-5 points for not connecting Chandrahasa to Shiva and relegating it to a blacksmith origin)

But in essence, it is a fresh take, and was good enough for me to visualise how it really must have been – as something that really happened, and not just a myth.

May 18, 2014