Author: manuscrypts

  • Drivel

    He was humbled by the wisdom of those visionaries – the town planners of the city he lived in. Every time he rode on Bangalore’s roads, he marveled at how they’d managed to forecast the city’s traffic snarls so precisely, and then ensured that the locations were named appropriately – Koramangala 1st Block, Jayanagar 4th Block…

    until next time, block aid!!

  • Head Trips

    Sometime back, a friend and I were discussing Bollywood in general and then we somehow landed up on the subject of Aditya Pancholi. Oh, okay, if you’ve forgotten him already, refresh your memory with Wikipedia.  The last I heard of him was when he tried to give Kangana Ranaut a lift, the story was she didn’t want it. During the discussion, I was able to ‘regurgitate’ information about him, stuff I’m guessing few track, since she is also a Bollywood buff , but wasn’t able to recollect. No, don’t go away, this post is not about him.

    This is about the place that gave me different kinds of education at different stages of my life. A couple of years after I started going to school, I was also deemed responsible enough to go to the nearby barber shop and get myself a haircut. After a few months, it was noticed that the time I took was way longer than warranted. I tried to get away by saying that there was a crowd before me, but my mother had a sneaking suspicion that I was playing cricket for a while before I came home. I wasn’t lying, but she was close to being right too. The barber had realised that I could easily be persuaded to wait, while he dealt even with those who came after me, if he gave me the video games he had. The complete version of the truth was discovered after a few months, when a rather long gaming session caused quite a stir at home, and my gaming education lost its continuity.

    In later years, after my childhood faults were forgotten/forgiven and the time I spent outside wasn’t so strictly regulated, it was noticed that  my haircut trips had suddenly regained their lost long duration. Though I claimed I was spending time with guys i knew, my mother had a sneaking suspicion that I was with friends of the opposite gender. I wasn’t lying, but she was again, close. For these trips was also when I caught up with Sridevi, Juhi, Madhuri, Kimi, and later, Raveena, Karishma, Urmila, Manisha etc, in addition to Big B, Mithunda, Jackie Shroff , and later Govinda,  Anil Kapoor, Sanjay Dutt, Chunky Pandey etc –  Filmfare and Stardust were read from cover to cover diligently, and random bits of information about actors and actresses were stored. They were always surprised at home, when I expounded on actors’ and actresses’ lives and the gossip surrounding them, since we never got the magazines at home. Some of the Bollywood education has obviously been retained in the memory bank even after more than a decade.

    This magazine habit still continues, despite getting a daily fill thanks to newspapers, TV and the web, who consider Big B catching a cold breaking news. When we move to a new location, and I have to go to a new salon, I make sure that the place is well stacked with magazines. There are so many more sources, and so much more content these days, but reading the magazines is a way of being in touch – with the past.

    Meanwhile, my paternal genes attack me from the temples and my maternal genes attack me from the vertex. When it happens, I’ll miss the hair, and the heady education, the haircuts provide. 🙂

    until next time, fountainhead 🙂

  • Cafe Y

    Yes, before you wise ones point it out, the name does elicit a feeling of connectedness with the blog. You can guess y. 🙂

    We’d heard about Cafe Y and ‘filed’ it for the future when we were returning from ‘Something Fishy‘, but we never managed to remember it when the dine out question arose, until D did this weekend. Cafe Y is on Langford Road, very close to the Hosur Road – Langford Road junction, but its a one way (no entry from Hosur Road until that morning when Bangalore’s traffic cops have their next mood swing), so you’ll need to take the right turn after that junction and loop back. Parking is available on the side road right next to it.

    We hadn’t reserved in advance since we planned to go early – and we turned out to be only the second group at 7.45. By about 8.30, there were several other groups though. There are a couple of seating options outside, very close to the road, but could work well on a breezy night. We chose to sit inside. The yellow-red decor is worth mentioning. Its pleasant and bright and yet somehow lends an amount of coziness to the functional design. In addition to the main Continental menu, they’re also now offering a Chinese one. The latter is not exactly exhaustive, but has decent options of soups, starters, and main course dishes in both veg and non veg, and yes, desserts too.

    Now, the continental menu, that’s what I’d call fairly exhaustive. There are no less than 14 soup options (and thats after counting ‘creams’-of which there are multiple options as a single option) and a lot of them are different from the usual suspects we see around – ranging from the regular minestrone, mulligatawny and consommes to Hungarian Goulash, Scotch Broth, seafood chowder, and some good options in veg too – for instance, I’ve never come across a Gazpacho before. We decided on a Fragrant Chicken soup, which is a “chicken flavoured cream soup with pasta seasoned with fresh lime, mild chilli and chicken”. It turned out to be an excellent thick soup with a unique flavour, actually flavours, though you wouldn’t call the chilli mild, but hey, I’m not complaining. Loved it!!

    There are salads too, and an option to make your own from choices of vegetables, meats and dressing. And what has been referred to in the menu as ‘Sidewalk’, which could serve as side munchies as well as starters – veg and non veg, priced at Rs.55 and Rs.80-125 respectively. The ‘stuffed tuna in pepper’ and ‘chicken liver pate’ have been duly noted for future consumption. 🙂

    For the main course, you could choose from a variety of sizzlers – you have the option of creating your own in this too. Choices of veg, and all sorts of animal life – lamb, beef, pork, chicken and a couple of seafood options too!! Sigh. And then there are the ‘Fusion Flare sizzlers’ – that come in veg and non veg. Ever seen a “Corriander and jeera rice served with chicken katti roll and Indian curry sauce”? There’s also a special ‘Kiddies menu’ and a whole assortment of bakes too – lasagna, sausage moussaka, and so on. And then the plethora of steaks which give you a high. This was the only part of the meal that left me disturbed – a couple of pork dishes, a few beef ones, and many chicken ones, I love all of the animals in question equally – okay, some more than others, but had to forsake dishes made of them when I made my final choice for the main course, after long and intense deliberation. I promise to return.

    I ordered a Chicken Olivia, “grilled chicken served on a bed of sphagetti and topped with tomato, basil sauces, olives and fried egg” and D chose a King Chicken Americano, “crumb fried breast of chicken with a stuffing of mushroom, olives and parsley served with BBQ sauce, french fries and assorted vegetables”. The dishes remained true to the fantasy that their descriptions had created. The sauces were excellent, the quanities were perfectly sufficient, and the flavours somehow retained their uniqueness even while complementing each other.

    Now, the blueberry cheesecake here has quite a reputation, but I’m quite a blinkered horse when I see a Chocolate Mousse on the menu. And as i type this, I close my eyes in fond memory of that awesome piece of work. It was rich, with that tiny hint of better that (for me) takes a choc mousse to another level.

    The nice part is that all of this leaves one full without that bloated feeling, and one’s wallet without that thin feeling. All of the above cost us just over Rs.600. The service, while efficient, could do with more smiles. They did give us a wide smile after we paid the bill though which left me wondering what was it about me that made them think that I might not. Still, Cafe Y moves quite easily into our list of favourites on all fronts – ambience, food, value for money, and yes, skills with chocolate. 😀

    Cafe Y, 2/2, Langford Town. Ph: 41144561

    Menu at Zomato

  • Married but Available

    Abhijit Bhaduri

    “Mediocre but Arrogant” seems to have preceded this, but its a read in itself. As the author says, this is not a sequel. I’m not sure whether Five Point Someone came before this, but its difficult to miss the similarity in the context and the writing style – racy, with a bit of ‘philosophy’ thrown in. It had been quite a while since I finished a book in one go – and this one almost succeeded, so, to me, there is no question on entertainment value.
    The premise of an MBA in his first job, and the ups and downs he faces, the things he has to learn – not just about his career but also about life in general, from people and his own experiences, as he moves ahead in different stages of life, is something I could identify with, at least in patches.
    A reasonably good snacky read with no pretensions.

  • Blockheading

    He was asked to write about the blogger’s block. How could he explain, that, on some days the words just flowed, and one could write without a pause. More importantly, how could he explain, that on some days the ideas and the stories just seemed to dry up, and there were only pauses. Like today.

    until next time, clear hai? 😉