Author: manuscrypts

  • I feel funny?

    [I wrote this post quite a while back, but the trigger to post is Cyn’s recent post of a similar nature]

    Those of you who read my other blog – brants, know the site by now. When I announced it on twitter at that point of time, Twilight Fairy‘s immediate response was “mubarakein! so finally you use ur real name in the virtual world 😛 :)” I told her, that the real name already existed in the virtual world – Facebook, LinkedIn, but I had an inkling of what she meant, because I felt a twinge when I took ‘brants’ out of the manuscrypts domain. Though I did not dwell on it, it was a defining moment for me in its own way. I did dwell on whether I should write this post, and you now know the result.

    I checked the names on my blogroll and was reassured to find a few handles that are just that – handles, not names. Maybe we’re from a different generation of bloggers. Ones who blogged for reasons that were utterly different from the reasons now. That’s generalising, yes, but there was something then about virtuality that offered a haven from reality.  Some have moved on, some have clung on, and some have just drifted on, like me.

    As a handle, ‘manuscrypts’ has been in existence for more than half a dozen years now. Long before the blog, there were chatrooms. Then came the blog, and while it was a personal one, over a period of time, the persona slowly overshadowed the personality, my picture does not exist on the blogs, the M symbol does. Actually, I think its a bit more complicated. A part of me is vastly different from my overt personality. The blog became an ideal location for this  rarely revealed (only when I’m very comfortable with people)  personality to manifest itself. So its more than just a handle. It was a world in itself.

    This was the only place the persona had, and I realise that I’ve been trying to shield ‘manuscrypts’, but I got carried away. Let me explain. Its to do with what Ideasmith calls the personality of a blog. Thanks to the shielding, the blog has come to dictate what kind of posts appear here – the kind of humour, the kind of seriousness, its all getting stereotyped? Conformity within non conformity. But manuscrypts wasn’t supposed to be constrained. Where once I wrote stuff even if it sounded fun only to myself, these days, I think before I post. I wonder if the jokes sound stale, I wonder if the puns are too subtle. I wonder if I’m being funny enough. I obsess. I’m guarded. I measure.  I even wonder if i play to the gallery, yes, both of you. 🙂 And I’m not sure I like that.

    Meanwhile, six years is a long time, the world and the real personality have been at work too.  In the real world, we  now build personal brands online. 🙂 We don’t have to, but it helps. That partly explains the reason that I shifted the ‘work’ content to a different domain altogether. It was a significant step – a giving in to reality.  The real and the virtual moving towards each other. And while I could have kept the two domains thoroughly apart,  without the person connecting them, I didn’t see a point. Both are facets of my personality.

    And while that was happening, a life has also been evolving. New interests, old interests rekindled, new people, new experiences, new avenues to be explored, all of it to be done in reality. Many times, a post has come up here only thanks to self discipline. For something like blogging, i don’t know if that’s a good thing. There is a power struggle between my own evolution and the expectations I have set for myself on this blog. I think that is pretty dumb and pompous for a little blog. There, i make it all easy for you – you just have to agree. 🙂

    So I saw it coming, actually even before I wrote this. But sometimes, something becomes so much of a focal point, that you stop thinking about it objectively. For me, it was the blog/s. But these days, I wonder if you have as much fun here as you used to earlier. And I have to confess, it does make me feel inadequate, helpless, and strangely, old. Not old enough to quit blogging, but old enough to wonder whether churning out 5 posts a week (both domains included) was the best way, for everyone concerned. And that’s not including the microblogging. (self hosted, so you can comment)

    So erm, that was what all this was about. To tell you in the only rambling fashion I know, that I am going to reduce the frequency here,  maybe once a week, so that I free up a little more time for myself, to do things that I don’t want to postpone and regret later, to figure out things for myself, to let myself roam a bit, to see if i can reach a state which the persona and the person will be happy about, all without having to worry if the blog will be updated.

    And for those kind people have been reading manuscrypts from the time he was only a little handle, he  still lives, at least for now, and thinks there’s no page like home. 🙂

    until next time, handling it 🙂

  • Zoe

    Zoe is a restolounge on 7th Main, Indiranagar,a  Bistro Mediterranee, according to the menu. We’d been hearing about it for quite a while now, so since we were around the area, decided that now was as good a time as any to check it out. Zoe, here we go. 🙂

    To get there, turn left on to 7th Main from 100 ft Road Indiranagar (after 12th Main, when coming from the Koramangala side), and you’ll find it on the right. Parking isn’t much of a problem at all. And from what we saw, you don’t need to reserve in advance. Its got both indoor and outdoor seating. Since it was a nice breezy evening (as it usually is in our centrally air conditioned city) we decided to sit outside, though they had some nice sofas inside, where you could lounge about.

    In addition to the main menu, they also had a special menu for the day, and we ended up ordering most of the stuff from that!! The main menu has a whole lot of stuff that you could lounge around with  – espressos and derivatives (no, don’t think finance!!) , cappuccinos, lattes, chocolate drinks, brewed coffees, teas, iced lattes, milk shakes, smoothies, sodas, mocktails, dessert coffees and fresh juices. And then there are soups, veg and non-veg, priced between Rs.95-115, starters at Rs.145-185, sandwiches and wraps at Rs.135-165, burgers at Rs.150 (only non veg options) and salads at Rs.135 -195. The main course has pasta options among other things, but the options are a bit skewed towards non veg, and are priced between Rs.240 -290.

    We started with a Lung Fung soup, “cubes of chicken along with fined (sic) chopped carrot, green chilli, garlic, onion, ginger, egg white, spring onion, corn floor (sic) and seasoning”. The soup was very good, notwithstanding the spelling errors in the description. A bit spicy, moderately thick and hot, all of which made it a delicious start to an evening that was getting chillier. We then decided to try a starter and settled for Barbeque Chicken Wings, ” marinated fried chicken wings toasted  with mild spicy barbecue sauce served with garlic mayo”. This was also quite good, though the chicken was slightly under cooked, the sauce was excellent. The mayonnaise had only a mild garlic flavour and complemented the sauce very well.

    For the main course, we asked for a Chicken Venetian, “stuffed chicken with salami and fresh mozzarella cheese along with grilled shiitake mashed potato served with tangy venetian sauce and grilled vegetables”, and a Chicken a la brace, “sicilian style grilled chicken stuffed with spinach and ricotta cheese served with pesto rosso fries and salad” The latter was the only dish we ordered from the main menu!! The Venetian sauce didn’t impress me much, mostly because it was too tangy for my taste, but the shiitake mashed potatoes more than made up for it. D said the chicken a la brace was good, and if you’re a Popeye-like fan of spinach, you should like it too. 🙂

    All of the above cost us over Rs. 850, which though a bit pricey, was well worth it, in terms of the quantity and quality of food. We skipped dessert, though we did take a parcel for someone else. The ‘Black Out’ we ordered was charged an exorbitant Rs.152, I hope it tasted really good, because the quantity wasn’t much!! Meanwhile, the service was quite prompt, there wasn’t any delay in serving the dishes, and they gave us a complimentary drink too. There are quite a few of those chocolate and coffee stuff that I need to check out, so we’ll definitely be back.

    Zoe, 3790, HAL 2nd Stage, 7th Main, Opp Ambedkar College, Indiranagar. Ph: 42115257

    Menu and Photos at Zomato

  • Issued in Public Interest

    He was told not to misbehave. He mumbled that he understood the momentous nature of the event. She replied that his behaviour in public was still a matter of concern. He figured this conversation was bound to happen when one was traveling by bus for the first time after six years of life in Bangalore.

    until next time, riders 🙂

  • Characteristics

    There are nearly seven billion people on this planet. Each one unique, different. What are the chances of that? And why? Is it simply biology, physiology that determines this diversity? A collection of thoughts, memories, experiences that carve out our own special place? Or is it something more than this? Perhaps there’s a master plan that drives the randomness of creation, something unknowable that dwells in the soul, and presents each one of us with a unique set of challenges, that will help us discover who we really are.

    We are all connected, joined together by an invisible thread, infinite in its potential and fragile in its design. Yet while connected, we are also merely individuals, empty vessels to be filled with infinite possibilities, an assortment of thoughts, beliefs, a collection of disjointed memories and experiences… Can I be me without these? Can you be you?

    And if this invisible thread that holds us together were to sever, to cease, what then? What would become of billions of lone, disconnected souls? Therein lies the great quest of our lives, to find, to connect, to hold on. For when our hearts are pure, and our thoughts in line, we are all truly one, capable of repairing our fragile world, and creating a universe of infinite possibilities.

    Thus spake Mohinder Suresh in”An Invisible Thread”, the season finale of ‘Heroes’.

    And as if on cue, a large number of conversations and experiences popped up as conversations inside my head. Yes, those nice voices in the head. 🙂

    I remembered the conversations that Mo and i keep having on the subject of identity, purpose, character and other stuff that she completely gets. Okay i get too, but muddled up. 🙂 I remembered how, when I was reading Archer’s ‘Sons of Fortune’..again, I suddenly figured out why he is my favourite author. In addition to that amazing gift of story telling he has got, its his characters, and their character. Good or bad, they seem to have a moral code. They are noble – noble heroes and noble villains. (remember that word, shall come back to it in a while) Even when they come in contact with their character’s grey areas, they have a rationale they can apply to the situation. They make you aspire for such clarity in thought and deed, in being true to themselves and their character.

    Meanwhile, I see around me, a lot of young people eager to emulate – even things that I hoped would question and better. And as i keep a watch on that, I sense that they do it to belong, at any cost. They are willing to take their lessons from second hand accounts – not accounts of mistakes, which could be argued as a good thing, but enriching experiences that would shape their character. Of course, not every young person I know is like that. I also come across quite a few who have more character and maturity than many people double their age. But I do see more of the first kind. It is a different kind of conforming than what i was have seen earlier – a  need to fit into their peer group’s collective terms.

    On twitter and Facebook and all the services which connect us, I see this set, and more coming in every day to add to their number. And in this collective consciousness, I glimpse the desperation in the need to belong at any cost – even  at the cost of a character that is still being formed. A shared identity and a strong character, can it co exist? I wonder, if in this age of possibilities, they will be satisfied with this belonging, I also hope that they will not wake up, one day, years later and rue this conformity that they created for themselves.

    And then, I remember what a smart young lady from that age group once told me “Manu, this is so archaic. Only you could use the word ‘noble’ in conversation”. So, I wonder whether there is something in this connectedness that I don’t understand, whether the ‘plan’ requires all kinds of characters – with or without a strong character, to maintain the balance,  or whether the kind of disconnectedness that I’m feeling now is one that characterises that thing we all do – ageing. 🙂

    until next time, time for adages?

  • Little Home

    It is quite an apt name for this little restaurant in Koramangala, for during our first innings in Koramangala, a few years back, this used to be our regular take away joint. Of course, the primary reason was the awesome beef roast, and that’s been my beef with them for some time now, they have stopped serving erm, beef. Anyway, to get there, take the road from Sony World (on the Koramangala – Indiranagar Intermediate Ring Road) towards Koramangala 1st Block. You’ll find it on the left after Umerkot. Here’s the map, ‘B’ is the correct location. Parking is a small problem, and you will have to find some space in one of those small lanes that dot the area.

    This is the place to head to, when all the three conditions are met – you are in Koramangala, you want to pig on Mallu food (and want a break from the Empire/Imperial/Paramount trimurtis) and you don’t really care about the ambience. So, while the menu claims North indian and Chinese, with soups and kebabs and even a chopsey (sic) ignore all that and stick to God’s own food.They have thalis (Rs.55 and Rs.90 for veg and non veg respectively) and ‘Meals’ (Rs. 55 for veg, and Rs. 75 for chicken, and fish) but these options are only for lunch. Ditto for kappa and meen curry (tapioca and fish), that was a disappointment, especially for D, who takes her sun sign very seriously. [Why isn’t there a sunsign for chicken or chocolate, I’d get serious too 🙂 ]

    So we took long hard looks at the menu and found quite a few chicken dish names that we haven’t encountered anywhere else – kakanadan, tawakiran, tamiya etc!! We chose to be eh, conservative, and ordered half portions of  chicken stew and chicken roast, an avoli (pomfret), and to go along with that a plate of appam and a plate of Kerala porotta. We’d have liked some kallumakkai (mussels) too, but they didn’t seem to have it  yesterday. At some point of time, when the initial excitement of all this stuff had passed, and we were wondering what next, we overheard a conversation about kaada (quail) and asked for a kaada roast too, and another plate of porottas. Ask for the takeaway menu, since that is more updated and you can find stuff like kaada and rabbit, duck etc too.

    The food was just as we remembered, fantastic. I’d advise half portions because you can then try out more stuff. The stew was well made, with no stinginess on the coconut milk. The chicken roast has a paste like gravy that’s quite spicy, so if you aren’t a fan of stuff that sets your tongue on fire, stay away. The kaada roast is similar in consistency, and in terms of spice, starts off from where its chicken counterpart left off. Quails have crunchy bones,  and you really can’t separate the meat easily, so you could order one plate and figure out if you like it.  The pomfret was excellent, fried just right, well cooked yet soft. The porottas were a bit flaky, but soft enough, so I won’t complain. The appams were also made well, and it was really a tough call when we had to choose the stuff to go with the quail.For the record, the beef would’ve made the meal unforgettable, sigh…

    All of the above cost us just under Rs.400 😀 I assume, you get the USP of the place – awesome food at VFM prices. Don’t expect a fine dining experience, but when choosing a place for Mallu food, this one should easily be a front runner.

    Little Home, No 1015,1st Block,Hosur Road, Koramangala. Ph: 25631504

    Menu at Zomato