Author: manuscrypts

  • Stairway to heaven

    A few days back, I came across a line we had used some time back for a brand campaign, as part of some ambient advertising – “Let’s cut climbing stairs, but not climbing ladders”. That ended up prompting quite a surreal thought.

    Of starting to climb a ladder from the time we’re kids. The first few rungs seem easy, there’s someone helping you, and you know that the same someone is there to catch you when you fall. There are others who are climbing ladders too, your friends, some of whom keep up with you while others choose a faster or slower pace. There are those who will leap, knowing all about high risks and huge rewards. There are those who know exactly how much of effort is required to reach where they want to be, and there are those who are unsure, but still know they’ve to climb.

    At some point, when you have climbed quite a bit, you pause to look.  You might realise that the support you had in the beginning is gone, and perhaps replaced with another one. You would look up, perhaps you now know where you have to go, and the steps and pace required to get there. Or you would look down, and see how far you’ve come up. Or you would look sideways, at friends, family, peers who have been climbing too, you might be tempted to compare and consider your efforts and results against what theirs.

    And then perhaps you would just close your eyes, take a deep breath and look within – at what you have, and what you want to have. Maybe you’ll find yourself dissatisfied and might want to climb a bit more. Or you’ll decide that you quite like the place you’re at, and this is as good a final destination as there can be, you’ll choose to enjoy the view from where you are and perhaps help those who haven’t been able to climb as much as you have, or those who want to climb higher than you have. Maybe you would decide to climb a bit more and then decide.

    The choice would be yours. After all, its your ladder, and your climb, and the top rung is where you decide it will be. The only thing you really don’t know is the journey time.

    until next time, an alarm rung….

  • Paths of Glory

    Jeffrey Archer

    Every time I start an Archer book, I expect to be entertained and to be made to think, and it always happens so. This one is no different. I simply loved the humour that Archer retains throughout the book.
    But it is a bit different in on another front. It is based on a true story, but one as nail biting as the works of fiction that Archer has written in the past.
    Set in an age of adventure and explorations, when men had not yet reached the South Pole and the Himalayas, it is the story of George Mallory, a gifted man with an extraordinary dream, and if you were to acknowledge that he fulfilled his dream, another equally great name would be taken off history books. A wonderful tale that is as much about Mallory’s love for Ruth- his wife and the only woman he’s ever loved, as it is about his dream.
    After I read this book, I began to wonder how many such Mallory s exist in the annals of history, or just hidden behind the names that actually appear. Must read! Trivia: Mallory’s close associate Finch, who is a prominent character in the book, is the father of Peter Finch, the first actor to win an Academy Award posthumously. The second happens to be Heath Ledger, for The Joker, an all time favourite character.
    Speaking of trivia, do read the ‘Post 1924’ section at the end of the book. The last entry is bound to put a smile on your face. 🙂

  • Gramin

    Gramin will go down in archives as the first veg restaurant to written about on this blog. Before going further, let me reassure readers that I’m too chicken to go veg, this is just an aberration caused by super villainess D, who, with a malicious smile, ignored her bitter half ,  and chose the weekend’s dining spot.

    Gramin is located in Raheja Arcade. This is on the road that goes from Forum to National Games Village. When coming from the MG Road direction, it’d be best to take a left after the Tata Indicom office, and then, at the very end get on the road leading towards Forum. Raheja Arcade will then fall on the left, just before the Forum junction, and you can find parking on the service lane right after the building.

    Gramin gets quite crowded after about 7.45, so unless you want to wait, its best to get there before that. It has two floors – ground and mezzanine, and the decor matches the ‘gramin’ theme of the place. Compact seating arrangements, I prefer the mezz floor.

    We started with a Banjara Paneer Tikka starter. There were only two soup options, but that was compensated by lots of starter options. The tikka was not too spicy and came with an amazing chutney. We also had a masala butter milk and a sweet lassi. I had wanted a kala khatta but they had run out of it. The lassi was very sweet and thick, thoroughly enjoyable. The buttermilk was quite spicy, but if spice is what you want, then I’d recommend the Hari mirch soda, its quite awesome.

    The starter had about 6 pieces and so we only ordered a single dish for the main course. That was the paneer onion chatka and it was a reasonably good choice, though i liked the bhurji we’ve had earlier, better. To go with that, we ordered a butter methi roti, and a stuffed kulcha. The kulcha was a bit burnt, but the methi roti was quite good, with quite a large quantity of butter.

    And thus ended the sabzi outing. It cost us just over Rs.300. Gramin is a must try for all veggie Bangaloreans, they serve some excellent food. Its okay for the non veggies to give in once in a while too. We shall meat again soon! 😉

    Gramin, 20-21, Raheja Arcade, Koramangala 7th Block. Ph: 41104104

    Menu and Photos at Zomato

  • Ends and beginnings

    Work took me someplace where I normally wouldn’t be found – an AOL (Art Of Living) discourse. While I have nothing against those who choose that path, I don’t see myself there. Standing there, as a non participant while a few thousand listened and performed yoga, I thought I got a few pointers to what made them a part of this movement. One was a feeling of belonging to a community that had the same wavelength and subscribed to the same thought processes and the other was a meaning, a purpose that the movement gave to their life.

    Since it was an official event, I got dropped back at home, and in the process got to do something that i rarely get to do – forget the road, the traffic and the world ahead and soak in the effect of humanity passing by. I don’t know if you enjoy what could be uncharitably labelled gawking, but if you pause and consider that each face, and each expression contains a story, maybe you’d enjoy it like you do.

    I passed Resthouse Road on the way, and saw Pecos and Guzzler’s Inn, not places I frequent, but places that are ‘tagged’ in my memories of Bangalore from the time I came here. As i proceeded down Brigade Road, i also saw the signage of Vaayu, a lounge bar, and thought I could see a difference in the crowd that each catered to. I realised that after a while, after a few generations had passed, Bangalore’s character most likely wouldn’t include Pecos, although we would, in our denial of mortality, not think of it that way now.

    I reached home, and after the obligatory channel flipping settled down to Rocky Balboa, the comfort of a ‘seen before many times’ movie that will let your thoughts drift and you still wouldn’t feel left out. I never thought I’d quote from a Rocky movie, but it seemed to fit in

    Ya know they always say if you live in one place long enough, you are that place.

    It stuck to me when I watched Delhi 6 the next evening. An old woman comes back to her country-city-locality to die in peace, in a place that she’s familiar and comfortable with, and finds that the place has remained unchanged, but the people haven’t. And it took me back to this post that I had written a while back – on Cochin and the cosmopolitan place it was becoming.

    So, where will I be comfortable finally – Bangalore, where I have now spent 6 years (almost to the day) and where I will (at some point in time) have lived long enough to ‘be the place’, Cochin, which I refuse to let go of, whose memories I guard like a treasure- the chaotic, humid, gets-on-your-nerves place that I consider my home, or someplace new that the cosmos has in store for me. A place which gives me a sense of belonging. A set of people who matter to me and who I matter to. And that’s where this stream of consciousness ends.

    The cosmos is listening. From the list of 143 songs in the list, on ‘shuffle’ mode, it has suddenly chosen Daughtry’s Home.

    until next time, are we on the same home page? 🙂