• The Lost Caravan

    From our current environs – Whitefield – getting to Church Street can be classified under ‘travel’, and that’s probably why I took to the theme of The Lost Caravan immediately! (map) The building it’s housed in reminded me of old hotels – the kind you used to see in the 80s and early 90s. A lift sometimes takes you to the second floor. (Bangalore and power cuts, you know the deal) A reassuring large bar and peppy interiors greet you as soon as you get in. The walls are full of curios – clocks, a neat open-suitcase way of showing travel paraphernalia and a/c ducts covered up with maps of all sorts! Also check out the post card sized travel photos. Fantastic stuff. That Mars-Venus touch on the loo doors – nice. 🙂 We had reserved a table for 8, but got there early and sat in the smoking section, which has the kind of street-facing view I really like.

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  • Habits and home

    It’s been happening on enough recent Cochin trips to be given the status of a habit – visiting The Grand hotel for lunch. The food is predictably good, though they take liberties with what can be called ‘meals’. But there’s more to it. The Grand has been around for as long as I can remember, and in the otherwise rapidly changing landscape of my hometown, it offers a solidity and anchorage that is rare and appealing. This time, we had this guy seated right behind us. 🙂

    Another habit, which is even older, is shopping from Malabar Chips – for friends, colleagues, and us. Some of the people working there have been around for decades, and I told D how I’d watched them change over the years. “..all the faces that made up my childhood“, as Rana Dasgupta phrases it in Solo. It made me think how we probably notice changes in others more than they themselves do. By the same token, we don’t notice ourselves change. (more…)

  • Sita

    Devdutt Pattanaik

    Fantastic!

    When I reached page 250 (almost 5/6th of the book!) – at which point Sita is freed – I finally allowed myself the comparison that had been bubbling inside my head for a while. Jaya, an illustrated retelling of the Mahabharata by the same author, ranks among my top five books of all time. Thus far, this book had not really touched those levels. Rationalisation was easy – the Mahabharata is perhaps a more complex and interesting tale because of the sheer number of characters, the back stories, and the grey shades that permeate every character in it. There were many little nuggets I hadn’t known about earlier, and that made the reading more exciting. On a relative note, the Ramayana is more ‘linear’, and there are a limited number of layers that the author can add to situations or characters. I consoled myself with the fact that the narration was as spectacular as Jaya, and I had gained at least a couple of perspectives beyond my current understanding of the epic and its underlying philosophies. (Aham, and Aham Brahmasmi, for example) I did wonder though, why the author had to call it Sita – there wasn’t really a justification. (more…)

  • Empathy & Monoculture

    Thanks to Shefaly, I saw this excellent video on Aeon about “outrospection.” As opposed to discovering who we are and what we do in this world by looking inwards (introspection), “outrospection” is about discovering it through cognitive empathy – consciously looking to understand the perspectives of others, and going beyond the labels we might have made for them. The idea is that outrospection is the ask of the times we live in, and not introspection.

    I quite disagree with that either-or view, and think both have their place in this era. They both work in tandem. For example, to let go of my prejudices, I’d have to understand why they exist in the first place and then proceed to change my perspective. Here outrospection follows introspection. Once I let go of my biases and listen more objectively, my worldview and my view of myself starts shifting again. In this case, introspection follows outrospection. As Lao Tzu says,

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  • Barebones

    First published in Bangalore Mirror

    If you’re stuck between a 26 year old pub chain that’s iconic enough to go for an IPO (why is it so difficult to believe that Pecos filed for an IPO?!) and a microbrewery that’s arguably the town’s favourite you’d probably stick to the basics, make no fuss and figure out a unique proposition for yourself. (map, it’s above 3oh3 and yes, there’s valet parking) You’d also call yourself Barebones. (though I suspect the idea behind the name is more about a ‘come as you are’ attitude) A flight of stairs takes you to what’s primarily a balcony bar, with some amount of indoor seating. The first thing that hits you, or more precisely, your eardrums, is the music. We have much to talk about on that , so first, take a seat. You can choose between the outdoor space – dim lighting, a few high stools, and a reasonably good view of the road, and a cozy looking indoor area – well lit, some very interesting wall art, chalkboards that add a layer of meaning to the quirky sounding cocktails, and a bar that reassures you that you’re in the right place! So far, so good, but wait, there’s something clamouring for attention. Ah yes, the music. Under normal circumstances, this is the point where I’d whine about not being able to have a conversation thanks to the volume levels, but when the playlist starts churning out Sting, Counting Crows, Crash Test Dummies, Snow (Informer!) and so on, mixes it up randomly with the Bee Gees and Lou Bega, and in general takes me time travelling, it’s hard not to grin happily. But hey, let’s not get sidetracked by nostalgia when there’s food and drinks to talk about.

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