Author: manuscrypts

  • BLR Brewing Co

    Back in the day, I had reviewed Biergarten for Bangalore Mirror, when it opened its first outlet, in Whitefield. It has lasted 8 years, and that’s no mean feat. We had been frequent visitors until the crowds became intolerable. Ok, them losing their brain, dish that is, also played a role. Zoom to now, they have a neighbour- BLR Brewing Co, and the crowd during the first week was a scene to behold. Even those who had reserved a table had to wait. I think we got lucky in that respect.

    BLR Brewing Co Whitefield

    The place is quite huge with two levels of seating. I suspect upstairs overlooking the courtyard would be a nice place, but we were led to a table near this slightly weird pool, which also had some seating in the middle (last photo with those mini palms) The day we visited, there was also a fire show.

    BLR Brewing Co Whitefield

    They didn’t have all the beers, but we tried a Hefeweizen, Belgian Wit, Dunkelweizen, and Six Decades (APA). The Wit was easily the winner, the Dunkel was not too bad. Everything else was reasonably bad!

    BLR Brewing Co Whitefield

    The Shrimp Hor Gao had shrimp, that’s the kindest I can say. The Black Sesame Chicken Tikka just about passed muster though it was highly recommended by our service staff. I’ll get to that guy in a bit. The Feta Salad was dead on arrival. I am naturally biased against salads, but even those unlike me agreed.

    We asked for the Old Mutton Seekh because despite the elaborate menu, there were really not many interesting choices. The saving grace in the entire meal was the Bheja Fry. They did this a little differently – fried so it got a mildly crunchy texture, with an excellent masala. I am not sure why they called it the Rainbow Chicken Dim Sum, it was all dim!

    BLR Brewing Co Whitefield

    The Roasted chicken-Cheese sauce pizza throughly depended on us for flavour, and we depended on the sauce we got for the dim sum. Now that was good!

    That service guy was something. He was at our table ALL the time providing commentary before, during, and after the order, or removing things, incessantly interrupting our conversations. I repeatedly tried to signal my annoyance, to the extent that D got annoyed at my annoyance! The bill came to a little under Rs.5300 for four of us. I am unlikely to repeat. At best, I will order in that brain fry!

    BLR Brewing Co, Plot No:2, Doddanekundi Industrial Area, Bangalore Ph: 08071174545

  • Broad Band: The Untold Story of the Women Who Made the Internet

    Claire L. Evans

    I had a sense of deja vu while reading this, and later realised that it was thanks to Maria Popova’s Figuring. The books are very different in terms of scope, but are connected by the women-oriented narrative, the idea of intellectual successors, and the presence of what one could call a ‘crossover character’ – Maria Mitchell.

    When we think about the internet’s history, and its current pantheon, the names that pop up are all, or at least mostly, male. But Claire Evans points out that the origin stories are actually mostly female. Their contributions are practically invisible both in the public eye, and while we use the web.

    (more…)

  • Slowly and then suddenly…

    …because we’d like to have the best physical abilities that any species has in terms of moving, seeing, hearing, strength etc. From the mind’s perspective, an organ that could upgrade itself to store more, to experience more, to work faster, to be more accurate. And it doesn’t stop there – reading others’ minds, telepathy…

    We will see the beginning of all this in our lifetime. The progress might be slow, so slow that perhaps later generations wouldn’t realise how we’d lived without most of the artificial things that they would be taking for granted. How would this affect the experiences of life that we go through now – joy, sorrow, pain, ecstasy, spirituality?  How long before what we call human would give way to a being that would probably exist forever, possibly without living? Will they even realise it when it happens?

    The man… the machine

    This is from my first post on what I called the augmented human, back in 2009. And I continue to ask myself what the man-made man will be like.

    (more…)

  • Home in the world

    Amartya Sen

    It’s really difficult to write anything about a memoir because while it is written for an audience, it is also intensely personal. But I think the perspectives are such that it deserves a larger audience, and I hope even this drop in the ocean can help in that!

    The book is more about the life, and less about the work. They obviously intermingle to a large extent, but the focus is on the relationships and the exchange of thoughts. In some cases, the subjects of discussion also manage to creep in, but they aren’t inaccessible, except on a couple of occasions.
    In the beginning, when I started reading about his background, and his family’s relationship with Tagore, I thought he was privileged. What added to it was the seemingly casual mention of historical figures, Gandhi downwards! It would be easy to think of this as incessant name-dropping, but Amartya Sen bends over backwards in acknowledging the privilege, and luck, that shaped his life.

    (more…)

  • Deck of Brews

    For a change, D had already visited once, but she hadn’t tasted the jamun beer that had been recommended to me. And that was how, we ventured to ORR for an evening out, deviating from my policy of avoiding anything from Brookefield onwards!

    Deck Of Brews is a little away from the main road (ORR) and resides in a large industrial-meets-Total Environment building. There are multiple seating options – al fresco, and at least two floors of indoor seating. One reason I was lured was the terrace, but that apparently is open only during weekdays, which is when their main crowd (from the IT parks nearby) frequents the place. The next best spot for a pleasant Bangalore evening was the al fresco area.

    (more…)