Everyone’s got to do their bit for the community. As a resident of Malleswaram, a brahminical south Indian neighborhood in Bangalore, for close to 18 years now, I do state with certain confidence that this is the place you ought to stop by for good food, street side markets and 30% offs on garments at Mummy Daddy’s.
I’m not much of a foodie, but here’s a list on some of the best eateries that you must visit in and around Malleswaram (in no particular order). Big thanks to Grandpa, Anoop, Navneet, Satya and Anu for all the visits.
1)CTR: Stands for Central Tiffin Room, though you’re not going to find that name displayed anywhere. The board at the entrance above the little green door opposite Malleswaram Association says Sri Sagar, and it’s here you’ll get to taste the Oscar award winning benne masale dose. The owner of the restaurant once worked as a waiter here, or at least that’s the popular belief. They don’t serve sambar until you ask for it. The big grandpa clock is said to be more than a hundred years old. Make sure you go here on an empty stomach. The best time to get here is on weekdays around 4 pm when it’s least crowded. This funny little place attracts page 3 socialites and paatis alike.
2)Janata: On the street parallel to CTR in 8th Cross Malleswaram Market is Hotel Janata. A household name in the locality, this restaurant is best known for its vade and sambar. The tea is also amongst the best you can taste around the city. Visit anytime other than Saturday evenings when the crowd usually spills on to the sidewalk.
3)Veena Stores: There’s a fan following on Orkut for Veena Stores. It’s a one of a kind place where steaming hot idlis are sold across the counter, and a little crowd is always gathered on the pavement on 15th Cross Margosa next to the MRF showroom. Get here early in the morning around 7:30 a.m after a brisk walk around 4th main to avoid crowds. This place is all about the chutney.
4)Adigas: This is the new baby on the block. Just up the street from Veena Stores across Sampige road is the relatively big Adigas Sampige. The coming of this restaurant proved beyond doubt that Bangaloreans are born foodies. Just when everyone thought that the eatery business in Malleswaram was saturated, Adigas came along and proved that there’s still plenty of room at the top. No dish that is worthy of exceptional praise, but the juice stall is alright.
5)The push cart guy on 11th Cross: The guy rocks! He is your master chef with his chaat on wheels in 11th cross Malleswaram. He usually stands in front of Visu Consultant/ Way to wealth. The place is not very crowded, but the stuff is good. Must try: Dahi Puri.
(to be continued)
Wednesday, May 27, 2009
Friday, May 22, 2009
What Barney Stinson forgot to add
“What’s that box for?”
“I’ve decided to start collecting cigarette boxes.”
“But why?”
“Generally, man. I’ve got five of them – 555, Marlboro, Surya, Navy Cut and B&H.”
“So, new hobby?”
“Yea. Timepass.”
---
“How have you been doing? How was the vacation?”
“It was great. I was in Delhi most of the time.”
“What did you for two months?”
“Lazing around, catching up with friends and shopping.”
“Nice!”
“What’s your roommate been up to?”
“Nothing much, except starting a collection of cigarette boxes.”
“Hehe!”
---
“How is she?”
“Normal only.”
“What did she say?”
“She asked how you were doing.”
“And ..”
“I said you just got back; and that you had started collecting cigarette boxes.”
“You told her that?”
“Yes. What’s wrong with that?”
“Did she tell you that her roomie collects panty hoses?”
“No. Why would she tell me something like that?”
“Then why would you tell her something about my cigarette boxes?”
---
What Barney Stinson forgot to add: guy talk should never leave guys.
“I’ve decided to start collecting cigarette boxes.”
“But why?”
“Generally, man. I’ve got five of them – 555, Marlboro, Surya, Navy Cut and B&H.”
“So, new hobby?”
“Yea. Timepass.”
---
“How have you been doing? How was the vacation?”
“It was great. I was in Delhi most of the time.”
“What did you for two months?”
“Lazing around, catching up with friends and shopping.”
“Nice!”
“What’s your roommate been up to?”
“Nothing much, except starting a collection of cigarette boxes.”
“Hehe!”
---
“How is she?”
“Normal only.”
“What did she say?”
“She asked how you were doing.”
“And ..”
“I said you just got back; and that you had started collecting cigarette boxes.”
“You told her that?”
“Yes. What’s wrong with that?”
“Did she tell you that her roomie collects panty hoses?”
“No. Why would she tell me something like that?”
“Then why would you tell her something about my cigarette boxes?”
---
What Barney Stinson forgot to add: guy talk should never leave guys.
Monday, May 18, 2009
When is it too late?
I read a joke once in which a gorgeous woman on a stroll notices a guy seated on a park bench. He looks old but fit. The woman is intrigued by the man’s appearance and decides to find out more. She sits beside him on the bench and asks him what the secret to his good looks are at such an old age. The man starts off by telling her that he spent most of his life consuming junk food and alcohol. He tells her that he smoked a packet of cigarettes everyday, and regularly visited brothels. He never exercised and in a nut shell, led an erratic life. The woman is surprised as this was certainly not what she expected to hear. But nonetheless, she continues and asks him how old he his.
Bang comes the reply: “Twenty seven.”
I found the joke funny and sad at the same time. We all have our moments in time when we wake up one fine morning and realize we are 23 years old (like I will be tomorrow) and haven’t really done much all these years. A sense of panic sets in at times and we ‘decide’ to do more with our lives. But a few days later, there’s a visitor at the door. His name is laziness. He’s been with you before and you recognize each other all to well. He wants to move in with you this time. Most would oblige and let the visitor in. Time goes by and soon you realize that he’s been sapping you of energy. It’s time to drive him out. Many others would let him be their guest for as long as he chooses.
At 19, I expected to be much further ahead by this time than where I am right now. Maybe that thought occurs to you sometimes. But what’s going to make the difference is the answer to this question: “What then?” It’s unreasonable to think that it’s too late.
I’m working with a book called Word Power made easy by Norman Lewis. The author makes it explicitly clear in the introductory chapters that it’s never too late to increase one’s vocabulary. I think you can take that thought and broaden it out to other areas as well. I have friends who are 28 that think they’re getting old. Still worse; there are 24 year olds that think it’s too late. On the other hand, I know of a 61 year old who’s been looking forward to going to the Oktoberfest in Munich.
The human body is designed to function well for a period of 120 years with all the right kind of care and nutrition. Take your current age and subtract it from 120. Maybe that should give you an idea if you are interested.
Bang comes the reply: “Twenty seven.”
I found the joke funny and sad at the same time. We all have our moments in time when we wake up one fine morning and realize we are 23 years old (like I will be tomorrow) and haven’t really done much all these years. A sense of panic sets in at times and we ‘decide’ to do more with our lives. But a few days later, there’s a visitor at the door. His name is laziness. He’s been with you before and you recognize each other all to well. He wants to move in with you this time. Most would oblige and let the visitor in. Time goes by and soon you realize that he’s been sapping you of energy. It’s time to drive him out. Many others would let him be their guest for as long as he chooses.
At 19, I expected to be much further ahead by this time than where I am right now. Maybe that thought occurs to you sometimes. But what’s going to make the difference is the answer to this question: “What then?” It’s unreasonable to think that it’s too late.
I’m working with a book called Word Power made easy by Norman Lewis. The author makes it explicitly clear in the introductory chapters that it’s never too late to increase one’s vocabulary. I think you can take that thought and broaden it out to other areas as well. I have friends who are 28 that think they’re getting old. Still worse; there are 24 year olds that think it’s too late. On the other hand, I know of a 61 year old who’s been looking forward to going to the Oktoberfest in Munich.
The human body is designed to function well for a period of 120 years with all the right kind of care and nutrition. Take your current age and subtract it from 120. Maybe that should give you an idea if you are interested.
Tuesday, May 12, 2009
The Lord was in town
Yes, he was!
Lord Jeffery Archer met fans and followers at Landmark, Nungambakkam on 11th May 2009 at 7 pm. Chennai was the first stop of the 5 city India tour of his book release “Paths of Glory”. The evening started with the Man outlining the tale of the book. He went to share the story behind the story and the entire behind-the-scenes effort that went into bringing out Paths of Glory.
This was followed by a short story that he shared from his upcoming collection of short stories "And thereby hangs a tale". Questions and Answers were next. Like only Chennai can do it, the well read audience came out with some fabulous questions. Lord Jeff provided valuable insights into what goes into writing a book. For instance, Paths of Glory is a 140,000 words novel. It was completed in 1000 hours and it took him reviewing 17 drafts before the publishers snatched it away from him. Archer’s writing routine goes like this – he writes during the following time slots in a day: 6 am to 8 am; 8 to 10; 12 noon to 2 pm; 4-6 and 8 to 10 pm. It takes close to a year before the book can hit the shelves. Not surprisingly, he doesn’t suffer from Writer’s bloc. Sometimes, it just takes fours days of walking to get the plot right. Like with playing a violin, painting and dancing, he believes that writing a book is a God given talent too. He rarely knows the ending of a novel when he begins writing one. “The story takes its own course along the way, and the writer must follow that. One should never stick to a rigid structure”, he said.
His favorite writer is R.K. Narayan who he believes had the double bonus of being able to tell a good story in an excellent way. Most other writers write observations, he remarked. A good story necessarily has a good beginning, a middle and all of this leading up to an ending.
The evening concluded with a long round of book signing. He’s promised to be back in India next year.
You can catch up with Lord Jeffery Archer on his blog:
http://www.jeffreyarchers.blogspot.com/
Lord Jeffery Archer met fans and followers at Landmark, Nungambakkam on 11th May 2009 at 7 pm. Chennai was the first stop of the 5 city India tour of his book release “Paths of Glory”. The evening started with the Man outlining the tale of the book. He went to share the story behind the story and the entire behind-the-scenes effort that went into bringing out Paths of Glory.
This was followed by a short story that he shared from his upcoming collection of short stories "And thereby hangs a tale". Questions and Answers were next. Like only Chennai can do it, the well read audience came out with some fabulous questions. Lord Jeff provided valuable insights into what goes into writing a book. For instance, Paths of Glory is a 140,000 words novel. It was completed in 1000 hours and it took him reviewing 17 drafts before the publishers snatched it away from him. Archer’s writing routine goes like this – he writes during the following time slots in a day: 6 am to 8 am; 8 to 10; 12 noon to 2 pm; 4-6 and 8 to 10 pm. It takes close to a year before the book can hit the shelves. Not surprisingly, he doesn’t suffer from Writer’s bloc. Sometimes, it just takes fours days of walking to get the plot right. Like with playing a violin, painting and dancing, he believes that writing a book is a God given talent too. He rarely knows the ending of a novel when he begins writing one. “The story takes its own course along the way, and the writer must follow that. One should never stick to a rigid structure”, he said.
His favorite writer is R.K. Narayan who he believes had the double bonus of being able to tell a good story in an excellent way. Most other writers write observations, he remarked. A good story necessarily has a good beginning, a middle and all of this leading up to an ending.
The evening concluded with a long round of book signing. He’s promised to be back in India next year.
You can catch up with Lord Jeffery Archer on his blog:
http://www.jeffreyarchers.blogspot.com/
Wednesday, May 6, 2009
Grub and tunes for the road
Did you know they have golf carts at the Infosys Training Center in Mysore? Anoop tells me it’s meant for use only for the top guys. The rest have to walk or use cycles. Similarly, IIT Madras has these battery run shuttle buses for commuting inside their beautiful campus. Such environment friendly transportation should be made a norm across other campuses as well.
Talking of buses, I was in one traveling overnight from Bangalore to Chennai earlier this week. If you’ve been on an overnight bus journey across cities, you know these guys stop at roadside dhabas. Over the last couple of years as Pratik and I made several trips across Delhi, Haryana, Punjab and Himachal, and even as recent trips in the south have shown there are a couple of observations I wish to share. Number one: almost without exception, the food served at these dhabas is miserable. Yet, the chai kicks ass. The food not only tastes bad, it looks scary as well. I mean, go to the dhabha (it’s a big one where all the buses halt) on the GT Karnal Highway between Karnal and Panipat in Haryana and check out the bread pakoras for yourself. On this bus ride between Bangalore and Chennai, the driver pulled over at this place. We don’t call them dhabas here in the south. At 2:40 am, I got out of the bus and found the guy behind a counter slicing watermelons and fixing an assortment of fruits. I bought it; it had been more than 5 hours since dinner. Here’s what I mean when I say the stuff you get is weird: the guy had taken the word assortment to a new level and had included cucumbers along with papaya, watermelon, pine apple and grapes in the salad. Yew! I bought 2 plates to amuse myself.
And the other given at these highway stopovers - they play obnoxious music really loud. As you sleepwalk out of the bus, the blast of incoherent music being played at illegal decibel levels comes as a jolt. Try it sometime.
And those golf carts at Infosys - they can be used by the other non-top employees too. But just not always. It’s for them to transport the luggage from the living quarters to the main gate up on getting the pink slip.
Talking of buses, I was in one traveling overnight from Bangalore to Chennai earlier this week. If you’ve been on an overnight bus journey across cities, you know these guys stop at roadside dhabas. Over the last couple of years as Pratik and I made several trips across Delhi, Haryana, Punjab and Himachal, and even as recent trips in the south have shown there are a couple of observations I wish to share. Number one: almost without exception, the food served at these dhabas is miserable. Yet, the chai kicks ass. The food not only tastes bad, it looks scary as well. I mean, go to the dhabha (it’s a big one where all the buses halt) on the GT Karnal Highway between Karnal and Panipat in Haryana and check out the bread pakoras for yourself. On this bus ride between Bangalore and Chennai, the driver pulled over at this place. We don’t call them dhabas here in the south. At 2:40 am, I got out of the bus and found the guy behind a counter slicing watermelons and fixing an assortment of fruits. I bought it; it had been more than 5 hours since dinner. Here’s what I mean when I say the stuff you get is weird: the guy had taken the word assortment to a new level and had included cucumbers along with papaya, watermelon, pine apple and grapes in the salad. Yew! I bought 2 plates to amuse myself.
And the other given at these highway stopovers - they play obnoxious music really loud. As you sleepwalk out of the bus, the blast of incoherent music being played at illegal decibel levels comes as a jolt. Try it sometime.
And those golf carts at Infosys - they can be used by the other non-top employees too. But just not always. It’s for them to transport the luggage from the living quarters to the main gate up on getting the pink slip.
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