Author: manuscrypts

  • Sichuan

    The idea was to go to this new place called ‘Pot Puree‘, but they were just so ‘helpful’ with the directions that we sulked and decided not to visit even though we finally found the place. Since I don’t need to be particularly persuaded for Chinese food, we decided to drop in at Sichuan, after we found it quite appealing from the outside.

    Sichuan falls on your left when going from Sony World Junction, Koramangala towards 1st Block, just after Natural Ice Creams, (map) and after our favourite hole-in-the-wall Mallu joint – Little Home. If you’ve been around that area, you’ll know that parking is a pain and your only hope is one of the side lanes nearby.

    The take away counter is on the ground floor along with a few tables, but the main dining area is on the first floor. Not a large area, but the decor is handled well with the familiar dim red chinese lantern effect. There’s a nice cosy feel to the place, and if you get the right table, you can watch life pass by in Koramangala, as the serene Buddha in the corner seemed to be doing.

    Zomato has the menu, though this is the take away/delivery menu. The dining menu has a few mocktails and desserts too. Some of them are here. Our hunger made us uncharacteristically go for dim-sum and soup. The Hot Mushroom, Coriander and Chicken soup came first and was thick with a spicy undertone. Watch out for that red chilli specifically. Perfect start. The Cheung Fun took a while, but the rice paper rolls with chicken, mushroom and green onions also turned out great, though we missed the ginger flavour.

    For the main course, we ordered a Cantonese Fragrant Rice (chicken) and as per the advice, a Kunming Chilli Chicken, which was supposed to be medium spicy. The latter turns from medium to high as soon as the green chilli turns up in your mouth, but the rice complements it very well. We wanted to sample the Mango – Lemon Grass mousse, but it wasn’t available. Wonder if desserts would sell here, Natural is a strong force. 🙂 All of the above cost us just over Rs.500.

    Delicacy and China Pearl remain favourites in different contexts, but the next time I have a Chinese food craving, I might just land up here again.

    Sichuan, #1016, 80 ft Road, 1st Block, Koramangala. Ph: 41317636

  • Insignificance

    I remember writing this post about 4 years back, with an insight on why I didn’t particularly like to travel. Things have changed since then, and I do travel as much as possible these days. The odd discomfort of viewing masses of humanity still persists, but the reasons are more nuanced.

    What reminded of that post was this article that beautifully expressed the discomfort with the title “The Sad, Beautiful Fact that We’re All Going to Miss Almost Everything“. The article uses this in the context of books, films, music, television and art. But I relate it more to places and people. I still remember that the saddest part of leaving Leh was that it was perhaps my only visit to the place and I had not seen everything that had to be seen. In the case of people, the rise of the statusphere (Facebook and Twitter) has only added to the feeling that one is constantly missing something significant.

    It is probably going to get worse, unless of course, we manage to do the Matrix-USB type thing of instant information absorption. Even then, it would probably go the way things are headed to these days anyway- consuming without experiencing. The real time challenge of being updated about people would still exist. And perhaps it will end up the way the line goes, “we will increasingly be defined by what we say no to”. But, as the author of the article I linked to, above, notes,

    It’s sad, but it’s also … great, really. Imagine if you’d seen everything good, or if you knew about everything good………That would imply that all the cultural value the world has managed to produce since a glob of primordial ooze first picked up a violin is so tiny and insignificant that a single human being can gobble all of it in one lifetime. That would make us failures, I think.

    If I had to adapt that to places and people, I could say that the creator might feel insignificant if we could discover all of it in a lifetime. However, the collective advance of humanity is not a complete solace when it comes to the individual’s existential angst. As one of my fave Calvin strips go

    until next time, insignificant choices too?

  • Integral Calculations

    The reasonable man adapts himself to the world; the unreasonable one persists in trying to adapt the world to himself. Therefore all progress depends on the unreasonable man. ~ George Bernard Shaw, Man and Superman (1903) “Maxims for Revolutionists”

    Now, I guess if i stretched that to Charlie Sheen, especially the last sentence you’ll think I have been swigging “Tiger Blood” too. 😀 But I did have this notion after I read Scott Adams’ post on him.

    Imagine if you stopped filtering everything you said and did. ….just try to imagine yourself living without self-censorship. Wouldn’t you sound crazy?…. Imagine you are so unafraid of consequences and the opinions of other people that you start sentences before you have a plan for how they will end……I think Charlie is fascinating because he’s living without fear. That translates into a disturbing degree of honesty……But I also think that a total lack of fear would look like insanity to the casual observer. And perhaps it is. But it’s a strangely great kind of crazy.

    When I read up about moral absolutism, I wondered what/who would decide the absolutes one would stand by, and were they really absolutes? After reading all of that, I guess moral integrity towards the self better explains what I had in mind.

    So, if Mr. Sheen has decided that no-self-censorship and no-fear are the integral parts of his self from now on, and lives the rest of his life by it, we might consider it bizarre by civil society standards, but he just might be in a better space than we are in terms of moral integrity. (not hinting at a goddesses irony 🙂 ) The alternate consensus that this is just the drugs talking is not as comforting as it should be, when I think of it from this perspective.

    Does our general dissatisfaction stem from our willingness to conform to society’s norms of moral integrity, and the lack of courage to show society the middle finger whenever warranted? The individual consciousness against the urge to belong? I’m still thinking.

    until next time, integration and differentiation 🙂

    P.S This is not sheenfluence

  • Veekes & Thomas, Koramangala

    So there I was, walking up from Apollo Clinic in Koramangala, towards Forum, and what do I see? A standee with a Veekes and Thomas menu! Having heard so many good things about the JP Nagar outlet, and having been guilty of sheer laziness, I decided to redeem myself by dropping in there the very next weekend. To be noted that I ignored even the rain gods. Veekes and Thomas is on the same road as Oyster Bay, Sultans of Spice etc – the JNC Road, and is opposite Mani’s Biriyani on the first floor. Here’s the map. Two wheelers will find space near Lazeez Express and the more well wheeled ones can try the parking lot near Empire.

    A single flight of stairs and you’re transported to one of the coziest places you can find in Koramangala, spread across two floors and three rooms. It’s quite obviously a house converted into a restaurant, and a job well done. Music has a huge presence, not just frames adorning the wall, but Floyd, Dire Straits etc playing in the background.

    And now that you have leaned back in your chair and are relaxing to the music, we can finally get to the food. In addition to the regular menu, you might also find a couple of specials on the whiteboard. We decided to start with a couple of soups – French Onion and a Sauteed (?) Mushroom soup. They are served in chai glasses and that means we don’t need to do the by-two routine and can actually try out two soups! I liked the Mushroom soup but that’s because of a bias towards creamy soups. D liked the French Onion soup’s flavours too. We also tried a starter – Southern Fried Chicken Strips with a BBQ dip. The dip turned out to be spicy and excellent and complemented the chicken very well.

    For the main course, we had the Cilantro Chicken in White Sauce and a Lemon Butter Chicken Risotto. The former was easily the winner with the spicy chicken, chilli flakes and the creamy soya sauce coming together very well. The lemon flavour in the Risotto was quite underplayed and therefore a bit on the bland side. It also seemed to have some other flavour involved – dill? For dessert, I asked for a Chocolate Brownie and D got herself a Mango Cheese Cake. The brownie was good though I’d have liked some thicker chocolate sauce. The cheese cake was actually better.

    All of the above cost us just over Rs.550. Smaller soup and dessert portions means that we can try more dishes. The main course/starter dishes portions are standard but the prices more reasonable than what I’ve found elsewhere. They have nailed the consumer understanding – “Indians loving Armani at Rs.99” 🙂 We got around to talking with the manager and she wondered whether getting people in during evenings would be tough. I am sure that with the location, they’ll do well so long as they deliver good food, and told her as much. For now, they have an excellent ambiance, superb food and a very friendly service staff. There is somehow a simple elegance in the entire offering. Thanks to that and their stated philosophy, I am quite a fan and will be a repeat customer for sure. 🙂

    I later did a review for Bangalore Mirror and that can be seen here.

    Veekes and Thomas, 5th Block Jyoti Nivas College Road, (opposite Cuppa) Koramangala, Ph: 80959 85000

  • Stop. Watch.

    Playing music on the mobile as you drift to sleep is probably nothing new. I’m sure many people do it. The snag of course is managing to switch it off before you sleep. You could create a list and make sure it stops after x number of songs, but there’s some joy to be found in random shuffling. There’s probably an app somewhere that will somehow manage it, but I haven’t found it yet. What I would like is something that will sense my breathing pattern and switch off, but that might be wishing for too much 🙂

    ‘The Tibetan Book of Living and Dying’ brings up an interesting point, when it discusses sleep in the context of death and the state of consciousness. It asks

    How many of us are aware of the change in consciousness when we fall asleep? Or of the moment of sleep before dreams begin? How many of us are aware even when we dream that we are dreaming?

    From the music example, it is easy to guess that I certainly am not. In fact, my experiment on this failed too, as I completely lost track during a conscious attempt to ‘know’ the moment I fell asleep. I then realised that I should perhaps try being ‘conscious’ while I am awake without flowing from thought to thought unconsciously, especially since D is not very encouraging about me trying to sleep more. 😐

    Try recollecting the last 15 minutes minute by minute, and you’ll sense the unconsciousness 🙂

    until next time, asleep yet?