Author: manuscrypts

  • Anupam’s Coast II Coast

    The coast line of restaurants is far from receding in Koramangala, but since we’ve exhausted most of the coastal food options in Koramangala, and this one stuck out like a sore thumb, we decided to drop in here. Its on the same road as the Kormangala Club. Here’s the ‘how to get there‘ part. This road spoils you with options now with Imperial, Kubay, Hyderabad House, Bhojohori Manna, Heritage of Bengal and Chinese Cottage, all in the space of 100m. We’ll be making more trips here. Anyway, since we’d pre-decided that we would be dining here, we managed to resist the other temptations. The ambiance is decent, with comfortable seating.

    The menu has about 6 pages, with just about one page devoted to the ‘authentic coastal cuisine’. Hmm. The rest of the menu consists of the regular Chinese and North indian options. So, in addition to the few coastal cuisine starters (veg – Rs.75 -120, and non veg – Rs.90-300) , you also have Chinese options like drumsticks, Shanghai etc in veg (Rs.90-100)and non veg(Chicken Rs.120-130, Seafood – Rs.90-120). For the soup kind, again, there are veg  and non veg options (Chicken and seafood) with representation from multiple cuisines – Manchow, Cream of Chicken and even Shorba. (Rs. 65- 115). They also have thali options for lunch.

    For the main course, there are quite a few coastal cuisine options – very few in veg, but better in non veg – Sukka, Kundapuri, Ghee Roast in chicken and mutton (Rs.90-270) and seafood (prawns, crab, different kinds of fish – Rs.120 upwards, depending on the size of the fish). In addition to this, you have a few pages of Chinese and North indian options (Rs.110-140 range) with dry, gravy items and noodles/paratha etc.

    So, we started with a Cream of Chicken. Okay, before you snicker, it was raining outside, and we couldn’t find a coastal cuisine equivalent. The soup turned out to be quite decent, though more cornflour than cream, but then, from experience, they aren’t the only ones guilty of this. Next we had a Marvai Chilly. That’s shellfish and you have to fish a lot to get the little pieces of flesh, but it was done quite well. Mind your tongue, while eating, that is.

    For the main course, we ordered a half plate of chicken ghee roast, a fish curry (anjal – kingfish) and appams to go along with it. You could also try neer dosa or pundi (rice dumplings) though we didn’t read good reviews of the former for this place. The fish curry, though well made, obviously makes a better combination with the rice. The ghee roast was quite good, though the ghee only made a Bollywood like special appearance, but the masala made sure we didn’t miss it much. The appams were also very well made. In essence, can’t complain about the food.

    All of the above cost us just less than Rs.600. So its quite okay on the value-for-money, quantity and service parameters as well, though the last one is a very no-nonsense, matter-of-fact approach. The coast is clear, so check it out. Bwahaha. In my favor, I resisted so far. 😀

    Anupam’s Coast II Coast, 113, 6th Cross, 6th Block, Koramangala Club Road. Ph: 41460666, 41460555

  • Brood Mode

    [The title, while in context, is also a Hi to an old blog pal]

    The last week of November gave me a chance to engage in one of my favourite pastimes – people watching. No, I wasn’t stalking anyone, it was just that I got a chance to watch more and diverse masses (different occasions) of humanity than my regular outings.

    So gawk I did, at famed dancers, musicians and celebrities, at their tantrum-throwing best, egos in full display. I watched people standing in long queues, eager for a glimpse of them, so eager that they were ready to trample the folks ahead of them, or cheat the line. Even after they sat down, they changed chair locations and occupied empty aisles that had been kept for easier crowd movement, angering those behind. I also had an argument with a guy who had a differently abled child, clearly in no state to enjoy the show. He had a regular pass, but said the child’s condition warranted his family being shifted to the VIP class. He said he was from the army, and when I refused entry into the VIP class, he questioned my humanity. I bit back a comment about what business he had bringing that child to a  free entry event, which was bound to have unruly crowds, and how human he was while doing his duty at the border. I observed acquaintances at work taking advantage of the trust I had in them. In essence I watched a lot and learned a lot, again, on human behaviour, and myself.

    After I shared the last post with her, Mo had asked me why I was brooding these days. While I told her that I was reserving flippancy, wit and wordplay for the 140 character world 😀 , I thought she did have a point. A later conversation with Surekha gave me some insight, when we talked about social media and specifically Twitter. I had thought that the seeming transparency of that world would imply more fairness in our transactions, acknowledgment of other people’s efforts and a refinement in the way we deal with people. But no, the talkers still rule, popularity contests abound, and the meek still wait to inherit. These days I can hear some of them grumbling too. 🙂 On hindsight, this is the same mistake I’d made with blogging too. Something I thankfully corrected.

    What’s the connection? Expectations. Of others and from others. From the celebrities, from the people who came to see them, from acquaintances, from relationships on the web and so on. On how they ought to behave and interact. Expectations I set based on my concept of fairness. “It’s not about what I want, it’s about what’s fair!”, Harvey had said, in The Dark Knight. But while I try to be as objective as I can, there is a limit to that too. When the expectations are not met, I get judgmental, which is not something I like to do. Let’s just say I then don’t meet my expectations of myself. 🙂

    Earlier I used to be bitter about all this, and be rude to people, but now I just brood. I brood on how to get out of this cycle. How can I not expect, either from myself or from others, or ideally both. Does brooding help? No. Can I help it? No. Does that make me unhappy? No again, because like those processes that run in the background while I work on the computer, this is a question that’s being worked on too. 🙂  No, that doesn’t make it a pseud brood :p

    And every now and then, I am reminded of the words of Harvey Dent Two-Face (again), as he flips the coin, and I wonder about the truth in them “The world is cruel, and the only morality in a cruel world is chance. Unbiased. Unprejudiced. Fair.”

    until next time, happy Dent? 😉

  • Cafe Thulp

    When in the mood for a good ‘thulp’ (hog/binge), you could go to the innumerable Chinese or Mallu joints, but you wouldn’t get burgers and sandwiches there, and that’s why Cafe Thulp makes sense. So, now you know the why, here’s the how to get there.

    We got there at just after 7.30, and easily found place, though it did get crowded by the time we left at about quarter to nine. Parking shouldn’t be too much of a problem. A bright, airy place with some good music in the background, and pleasant service. There is a peppiness about the decor – from the huge graffiti near the kitchen to the wordplay on the menu card, and the logo that is hard to miss.

    We saw a ‘Tom Kha’ soup on the blackboard which displays the day’s special, and decided to try that out before the ‘Start me up’ part of the menu. The soup was slightly thinner than we’d have liked, but that doesn’t take away much from the fact that it was quite good. Okay, we mallus have a thing for coconut milk, but even considering that bias, the lemongrass, lime and galangal flavors, the chunky chicken pieces and the mushrooms make it a must try.

    There are about 8 starters – veg, chicken and pork options, and a ‘Prawnic Healing’ too. We chose ‘Bird on a wire’, which is chicken satay with peanut sauce. The chicken satay was good – juicy and soft, and the peanut sauce, awesome. I wanted to try out the original hamburger – Moo (or one of its variations), but D bulldozed me on that decision, and so i let go with a meek boo. On the menu, there are veg and non veg sandwich options, a few salads, as well as some other entree dishes.

    D ordered a El Pollo Loco, which is crispy fried chicken strips with mashed potatoes and creamed spinach, I was tempted by the dark side (the damn blackboard) and chose, of all things, a stir fried chicken, with cashews, served with fried rice. The former was served with a sauce I liked a lot because of its hmm, sharp taste, which provided a good contrast. Liked it when I ate it, but not after D told me the ingredients – green mango and papaya. I hate the latter, and now I don’t have a justification. Hmmph. The stir fried chicken was good, but I was feeling quite dumb for ordering it, since the menu has a huge skew towards burgers and sandwiches. Meanwhile, during the meal, I couldn’t take my mind of the average Malayali’s long association with beef, (including er, cattle class tweets). I was mooved enough to order ‘The Rocky Balboa’ to deliver the knockout punch. A philly sliced steak, with grilled onions, grilled green peppers, and cheese sauce. Excellent stuff. The bad news was that it left me with no space for either the coolers/smoothies/shakes or the chocolate cake. :\

    All of the above cost us just less than Rs.750. Drop in here when in the mood for burgers, sandwiches and a cheery ambience.

    Cafe Thulp, 998, 1st Main, 1st Block, Koramangala. Ph: 40933344, 40933355

    Menu at Zomato

  • Aftermath…..

    ‘Intrigued’ might seem an insensitive word, but as the nation observed the first anniversary of 26/11 last week, I was intrigued by the reactions of different segments towards it. Bloggers, microbloggers, all forms of media, brands, everyone had a take on it, and their own ideas. Yes, nobody forgot, but this is year 1. Doesn’t count.

    I got few mails asking me for my opinions on everything from government apathy to the twitterverse on 26/11 – the POV of a blogger. I hardly had any, and whatever I had, I usually share here, like this. (my views haven’t changed) But I had been thinking about my feelings on the day, and what, to others, and perhaps even a part of me, might seem to be apathy, until I read this well written post. (thanks to Balu) And that set me thinking on standards and ‘Who decides?’, and then on to a tangent.

    Who decides what is to be done and how?

    A nation is formed. Its popular leaders, elected by the people, decide the way the country should be run. From sectors that should be open to private investment to tax slabs and from infrastructure to relationships with neighbouring countries, a few individuals, representative, some would argue, steer the fate of the country. In a few years, the policies and processes set up to aid the smooth functioning of the conduit – between the representatives and the represented- starts to work against this desired objective, because the balance of power between the objective and the processes have shifted. In a few more years, even the objectives which should have perhaps been reviewed, have been taken a step further, and promptly forgotten.

    Humans get together and aggregate, communities are formed, communities agglomerate, society is formed (in the original usage, not the housing kind :|) The society builds in conformation. Even with the non conforming kind, there is an understanding. Belief systems evolve, religions are formed, and rules are made. Do’s and don’t s are established in societies and sub societies. Popular culture is created and social ethos are formed. In a few years, the reasons for why things are done, and in the way they are, get forgotten, a mindless following ensues. Non conformists emerge, but then, we’ve been there before. Trading one system for another.

    A few people get together and form an organisation, knowing that they can create a better product/service than the places they have been working in. The founders have a vision for their work place, they set up systems and processes to achieve this, they hire more people, who can implement these. In a few years, a conglomerate is formed, the founders are at the top of the heap, there is a new breed that manages daily affairs, the process diktats are in place…. you know where I am going with this  🙂

    In all these cases, there would probably be a disruption at the end, and the start of a new cycle. It is what seems to be expected. In general, nations will sit up and take collective notice only when they are themselves under attack. The travails of another city, much less country are viewed only through the prism of how it would affect us. Society will take up cudgels when they feel a threat to the status quo. Those in power will want to retain it. Organisations collapse when they are unable to see macro changes and lack the foresight to adapt. When they begin to get affected, and they react, in many cases, its too little too late.

    The common factor is the LCD, no, not the screen kind, the kind you learned in primary school – lowest common denominator – the human. Recently, when taking some personal decisions, I tried watching my own mind work, drilling down from the seemingly obvious reasons to the unstated ones, and from there, down to the foundations of why i thought the way I did, and therefore did the things I did. Belief systems, created and maintained by experiences, peer metrics etc, and thought structures, the changes to which were only superficial with time (contrary to expectations), they were all there, with the reasons buried under multiple layers built over time. My experiences, my perspectives, so I decide, on hindsight, objectivity was perhaps impossible.  Autopilot. This is perhaps what gets reflected in everything that I am part of – organisations, society, nation.

    The realisation was pretty simple. Standards and decisions are on auto pilot, though they seem otherwise. Humans. Us. Living in bubbles, deciding objectives and setting up structures to get there, and then forgetting why.  Even when I think I am deciding, what is deciding for me is the baggage of the past.

    I thought of the poor souls in Leopold, Taj, Nariman House on that fateful day….who till then had built a structure and process to their life. Is that what it takes to get one out of autopilot? A cataclysmic moment – the moment when beliefs and structures scarily slip away, and the illusion of control becomes exactly that – an illusion. In the aftermath, calculated scenarios mostly don’t count.

    until next time, deciding the questions

  • Progress report

    One of the most memorable parts of the Andaman trip was the conversation I had with D, on the day we went aimlessly walking on the promenade. The conversation also seemed to understand the mood and was in its own way, aimless. As i wrote in one of the posts, I am fascinated by night lights, especially by the sea shore. It reminds me of Cochin, and sends waves of nostalgia at me.

    The entire trip had also made me wonder about human ‘progress’ and the motivation behind it. In a few minutes, the conversation that began there navigated itself to individual motivations. The comparisons with the Leh trip that I’d made  a couple of hours before at Corbyn were still fresh in my mind. I had set expectations for this trip even before i started out – expectations not based on any previous trip to Andaman, but on previous vacations. I thought loudly on what these expectations were – the beauty of the place? the feelings the place and people evoked in us? a getaway from the daily grind? A new setting and a scope for ‘discovery’? Comfortable stay, good food? Probably any or all of these. Anyway the expectations were set.

    And then D brought up one unacknowledged aspect – our projection of how wonderful the trip was, best characterised by the photos we share on FB and other private albums. (earlier, family gatherings and conversations) Isn’t that an expectation in itself – a proof of good times? Sometimes for ourselves, sometimes for others. I thought that was a good place to start understanding our motivation.

    From childhood, when we had richer cousins/friends flaunting their better toys, or showing us snaps of places they’d been to, or talking about the wonderful food they’ve eaten, a kind of motivation existed – to match better that at some point in the future. A driving force that dictated the choices made in life, which justified the ‘sacrifices’ made. Study hard to get better grades, to get a better job, to make more money and to finally get all the things that the cousins/friends had, even if it was a couple of decades late,  all the stuff that can be a justification for what is (in a sense) euphemistically called the rat race. And then to look back at the proof of achievement and let out an audible sigh of accomplishment.

    The problem arises perhaps not from being a rat even at the end of the race, but probably the realisation that a personal motivation got subverted into a generic rat race, which then became a motivation in itself. The rest of the life story would depend on the stance towards the original motivation. In many cases, the race stops, the baggage is dropped and a path of ‘self discovery’ is started.

    In my personal map, this is the place where I see a ‘You are here’ sign. I would’ve been happy with this, if I hadn’t realised that it has the same ending as the rat race. The path is different, and because there are no obvious indicators like the rat race, I have to evolve my own set of indicators. But the desired end is the same, simplistically put, personal growth, with previously decided benchmarks. The consolation offered is that it was reached on one’s own terms. I wonder, is it really one’s own terms if the destination is no different?

    Ayn Rand said “Man’s ego is the fountainhead of human progress”. Human progress, not just from a humankind perspective – the places and things he builds, but a deeply personal one too, as the ‘ego’ would indicate. I was conscious of this when I shared the Andaman photos, conscious that somewhere, someone was setting a benchmark and the beginning of a race, just like I had, and continue to do, even outside the rat race. And I wonder whether I’ve really replaced one rat race with another in my case. And I still continue to wonder about ‘progress’.

    until next time, progress cards with my own signature :]