Author: manuscrypts

  • Cafe Masala

    Cafe Masala is brought to you by the BJN group, and has ‘Aromas of China’ and ‘Vaayu’ for neighbours on the top floor of Eva Mall, Brigade Road.

    We made reservations in advance, and i think a wait of about 15 minutes would’ve happened if not for that. We were given a reasonably good table, with comfortable seating, though some poor staff were dealt with sternly by my wife when they tried to pull one of our chairs for an adjoining table. She treats the results of our shopping expeditions with a great deal of adoration, you see, and so, those covers on the floor would be sacrilege.

    While the menu does have some continental stuff, a lot of it is meant for the evening snacks category, and not dinner. But we did manage to get some corn soup, which was quite good. And like good mix and matchers, we ordered mutton pepper chops, murgh bhartha, kulcha and butter naan for the main course.  The mutton chops gravy was awesome, though not recommended for people with low spice tolerance. The chicken was also good, but for once, was overshadowed by the above. And yes, special mention for the fact that they gave us a Lachcha Paratha instead of the Butter Naan, and when we pointed it out, we were told that this was how Butter Naan was made here, but it could be replaced. We’re yet to figure that out.

    You’ll notice from later reviews that we are no novices when it comes to desserts, but this time, we were too stuffed, although the menu listed some decent options. 🙁

    The pricing is as per the regular BJN standards, and all the above came upto about Rs.650.

    The ambience is pretty good, somewhere between the rgular noisy neighbourhood cafe, but with an effort to make it look more organised. We noticed a lot of large groups there. And yes, there’s even a one-man-band, who plays requests. Heard him play MLTR and Bollywood numbers, so metal guys can consider that a warning.

    Overall, it was quite a pleasant experience, and definitely makes it to the ‘please visit again’ list.

    Address: No.60, 5th Floor, Eva Mall, Brigade Road, Bangalore
    Phone 41113388, 41118477, 41118466, 41118422

    Photos at Zomato

  • Lovegames

    It was easy to say ‘love all’, but he’d have to make a choice. The tall, slim, squeaking Serbian brunette, or the taller, slimmer, shrieking,Russian blonde. Both were too good to be co-recipients of his affection. Perhaps he should watch one more tennis match between them before he finally chose between Ana and Maria.

    until next time, match makers

  • LOC

    And we draw our lines. They might be invisible to those who come in, but we expect strict adherence from them, and sometimes we communicate it subtly or explicitly but sometimes not at all. And when they leave, we can’t complain. Perhaps they don’t like our lines, or perhaps they have their own lines.

    until next time, draw your own conclusions

  • Sister Act

    My sister’s college group finished their social project, and built the local tribals a treehouse to show their appreciation, with a strict warning nailed to it -‘maximum 4 people’. A few days later they heard the tree house had collapsed from overloading. We asked her who was dumber – the literate students or the illiterate tribals.

    until next time, tree has a crowd

  • Legacies

    Quite sometime back, i had written this, in which i had tried to fathom the confusion of a generation caught in transit. That genaration is definitely making progress, marching towards the paramaters of the next generation with ever increasing confidence, but in a sense, giving up on things that used to be sacrosanct until a few years back. Nothing wrong with that, to each his own. But there’s one thing that always makes me wonder.

    There were things we grew up with – watching potboilers of amitabh in moviehalls with uncomfortable seats and later in VCRs, listening to the nasality of Kumar Sanu on Tseries tapes, enjoying the exploits of Kapil Dev or later Sachin Tendulkar in a crowded room full of cousins, reading Amar Chitra Katha and Tinkle and Indrajal, travelling in Ambassador cars and Indian railways, lazing around during summer vacations and so on.
    And while they still watch Big B movies in multiplexes, listen to Himesh on Tseries CDs while pretending to say Oh No’s, Tendulkar still rocks despite occasional calls for retirement, ACK and Tinkle will soon be available online, Indian Railways is still cool if we go by Jab We Met, and they find a few hours to laze around during summer vacations despite the karate classes, entrance tutions, salsa classes etc that enable them to survive and win in this oh-so competitive world, I wonder whether they’ll ever get nostalgic about any of the above the way we do.
    Or have they found other things that i haven’t heard of that will link them with their childhood and youth, the ones that will give them bittersweet memories which they can jot down like this, the legacy of a way of life they can pass on to the generations that follow. Or will it all be forgotten in the tumble of the life we lead today, in which everyday brings in a faster way of doing things, a quicker way of travelling, a better way to store data, an easier way to communicate and so on… Will it all be lost when things become so transient that the past won’t really matter anymore…
    until next time, remember….