Author: manuscrypts

  • 2009, I opine

    And so its two thousand and nine

    I hope and pray that here ends the decline

    And everything turns out just fine

    Meanwhile, here’s that annual list of mine 🙂

    Heath Ledger will get the Oscar for The Dark Knight. (Yes, why so serious? So lets try to put a smile on your face)

    Aamir Khan will be gifted a better mobile from Samsung, so that he doesnt have to write numbers on himself.

    Pakistan will adopt Pratibha Patil and rename themselves Patilstan.

    Petrol prices will go down so much that even discussing it would be considered crude.

    Yahoo’s hunt for a CEO will become the most popular reality show in history, thereby changing their fortunes.

    Navnirman Sena will be part of Chandrayaan 2 and be rechristened Moon Navnirman Sena

    Election 2009 : Politicians :: Ice Age : Dinosaurs

    Wall Street will be revived, thanks to Obama’s new campaign ‘Exchange We Need’

    Yuvvraaj..Yaadein.. Subhash Ghai’s scripts with a Y.. hope he’ll refrain

    Ekta Kapoor’s new show titled ‘Kkyunki Kkutte bhi Insaan hain’ starring Achutanandan will be a huge hit.

    Abhishek Bachchan will be locked up inside Bigg Boss 3 and made to watch Drona everyday!!

    RGV’s third edition of the Sarkaar trilogy after Sarkaar Raj will be titled Sarkar Taj, which has nothing to do with anything, he’ll insist..

    and if you’re still here, and are up to more torture, you might want to check out the lists from 2008, 2007, 2006, 2005

    until next time, same place, next year 🙂

  • Shaantam

    A thought that I’ve received for the second time – the first time was during a yoga class, and this time, it was thanks to the book I just finished reading – ‘Mistress’, by Anita Nair, as one of the navarasas that come into play in dance art forms – in this case Kathakali.

    Detachment. Freedom. An absence of desire. A coming to terms with life. When all is done, that is all we all aspire to. Shaantam.

    Now, I’ll not be presumptuous and claim that it applies to all, but it definitely does to me. For a while now, even before learning to articulate it, that has been a task I’d set for myself. The rough aim for me was to be comfortable with myself, and be as emotionless as possible with the judgments of others on my self and actions. I’ve had more failures than successes, but I’m learning. Learning that this state has to be acquired over a period of time. Learning that it can be done only in stages because there are things that one has to do to merely sustain the self in this world. Learning that there are responsibilities. Learning that there’s a time for everything, even for coming to terms with life.

    But for me, the revelation to me in that explanation was the word ‘absence’, while most of  my thoughts and actions had been done to suppress. There is a huge difference.

    The cold and cough that has been plaguing me for the last week made me go for an antibiotic. While it did its work on the trouble makers, the side effect was that my taste buds were rendered inactive. So, though I had a great dinner on Saturday, the desire that used to precede the regular weekend dinners was conspicuous by its absence. I read it as another signal – that the absence of desire is not to be achieved by frontal assaults meant to suppress it. That does more harm than good. The absence is merely a side effect of something far larger in scale, changes in the greater canvass of life, a gradual cleansing process. I shall start again. 🙂

    until next time, merry xmas, and I shall see you next on the first day of the new year

  • Boca Grande

    ..which means ‘The Big Mouth’ in Spanish. It belongs to the same group that owns Java City, and describes itself as the reality version of something like Facebook. In terms of ambience and attitude, it definitely works (although the demographics would mean that we were the oldies crowd 🙂 )

    Boca Grande is located on 80 ft Road, Koramangala, the road that goes from National Games Village to Forum. When coming from MG Road side, take a left after Forum, and you’ll have it on the left, after Mocha, opposite the Indian Heritage Academy. Deez, my chocoblog pal, had mentioned it first quite sometime back, and we managed a few dessert visits before this one. We got in by around 7.45, and the first floor was almost full, which meant that we didn’t get any of those window seats we were hoping for, but the crowd thinned by around 9, when we left. The place serves continental, but what makes it special is the humongous choice of desserts, and ice cream concoctions.

    We started with a broccoli, corn and chicken soup, which was made even more tasty by the nippy Bangalore weather. I’d have liked it a bit thicker though. Before I forget, needs to be mentioned that there is enough choice for ‘herbivores’ too. Yes, I would be classified as Omnivore too, according to the menu card 🙂

    Next, we ordered a Chicken Cordon Bleu with in-house BG sauce – that’s “chicken breast stuffed with chicken sausage and italian mozzarella cheese, grilled, accompanied with herbed mashed potato”. That description sets some high expectations, and boy, does it deliver!!  The sauce deserves a special mention since that’s what takes this perfectly grilled dish to a much higher plane. We then had a Grande’s pizza, which has “smoked chicken, chicken ham, chicken tikka, chicken salami, lamb pepperoni, lots of herbs n lots of cheese.” It did have all of that, but it didn’t quite reach the stellar status that the previous dish had. I felt that it wasn’t really value for money, but with the ingredients, the price is perhaps justified. I’d suggest that you skip the pizzas.

    And now for the main course – desserts 😀 My respiratory system troubles meant that I couldn’t afford anything cold, so I ordered a crepes – Choco Banana Cocoa Extravaganza – “a tempting mix that literally melts in your mouth”, and that was exactly what it did – those large crepes with chocolate flowing all around. There’s a Belgian chocolate dish that takes half an hour to make, that’s what I’ll go for next time. D ordered a chocolate ice cream sandwich, turned out that it wasn’t available, so she settled for a Chok Late – “choco roco, chocolate chips and vanilla ice cream blended with black forest pastry, chocolate crispies, hot and cold chocolate and nuts”. Well, settled for would be a wrong term, because she really settled into it, and wanted to be carried home after she was through with it. 🙂

    All of the above, including a service charge cost us just over Rs.750. The service, though a bit tardy to start with, got better. It must’ve been the crowd or the general mood of the place – hang out and chill.

    Boca Grande, 8th Block, 80ft road, Koramangala. Ph:41105183/41110889

    Menu and Photos at Zomato

  • The Sari Shop

    Rupa Bajwa

    Rupa Bajwa makes her debut with a haunting story set in Amritsar. It is a quintessential Indian story, but one that diverges from the usual existential woe stories of the Indian middle class.
    This one goes a bit lower, in terms of the protagonist – a sari shop assistant, and through his eyes paints a miniature picture of ‘the other india’. In spite of a troubled childhood, he lives an uncomplicated home-shop-home life, until one trip outside this routine, changes his outlook. Thus begins a journey – a search for a meaningful existence, which brings with it an empathy for others.
    Juxtaposed with him, is another character, who hasn’t had a great childhood herself, and manages to fall deeper into the morass of her life, when she tries to rebel against the unfairness of it all. Their meeting brings about the next turning point in the story.
    Throughout the story there are several instances that show the superficiality of the people around him, especially the upper classes, and their innate selfishness. The climax has been treated extremely well – closing the door to the larger world. Tragic, but realistic. And it is perhaps that streak of realism that runs through the book, that forces the reader to feel for the characters, and their pain.
    Meanwhile, I think the author has managed to be a part of the novel too, literally, through the character of Rina Kapoor. (at least in part)
    A very good read, especially if you’re into Indian fiction.

  • Faces in the crowd

    The thought started with a tweet of mine sometime back- “if some of my twitter friends lived geographically closer, my real social life would rock too :|” At least one blogger and now microblogger seemed to think so too. Why Twitter friends? Because on Facebook, and earlier Orkut, its mostly reunions or keeping in touch with those you already know. They are what i call contextual friends – made by us at some point in time at school, college or at some workplace. Their relevancy decreases with time and space. Yes, that is generalisation, and I do have a way of coldly analysing it. Humour me 🙂

    Blogging and Twitter work in a different way. You guys read this blog because you like the content, or you have to laugh twice a week at how a guy exhibits his lack of writing skills so blatantly to the world. Anyway, the majority of you do not know me from reality. Now increase and decrease the number of characters (people and letters respectively 😉 ) and you get Twitter. So in the case of blogs and twitter, you first get to know people virtually, and if all works well, you perhaps might meet up really. Now, in my case, except for a few meetings (that i can count on one hand) and one blog meet (which reaffirmed that I shouldn’t be attending them) I have kept my anti social record quite clean. 😀

    But the Twitter statement came because I’ve come across at least a couple of people on Twitter, with whom i have vibed splendidly. While it started off in my characteristic guarded manner, over a period of time, I’ve been able to be truly me, and not do anything for acceptability, with them.

    Let me elaborate a bit on this. In reality, we befriend people with whom we have a few things in common. There are some traits of theirs which we don’t particularly like, but since the net takeout is positive, we continue the relationship. Some of us, knowing that others dont like a particular trait, play it down in front of them, to be more acceptable. This is something I’ve grown to hate, and which along with my occasional penchant for “Hey, spade”/switching off, would partially explain the decrease in my real social activities.

    In reality its very difficult to tap people on their back, ask them ‘hey, are you interested in bollywood, F1, spirituality, music….and subscribe to certain views’ and then have sensible discussions, where we can even agree to disagree. I think virtuality makes it easier, but the snag then, is geography. The other snag is that it will push me deeper into the anti social shell, because now I know kindred souls exist, albeit far away.

    until next time, i still agree to a bit of socialism though 🙂