Argh Hmpf

Friday, April 06, 2007

This that and the other …

"Aila World cup"
– Zish’s status line on Gtalk a week back.

I had originally wanted to write about the world cup circus; about cricket, conspiracy, the media and about whether Mandira has better cricketing sense than Charu (aesthetic appeal being a pre-decided issue). But such discussions having percolated pretty much every forum in the country, I shall move on to greener and more unexplored markets. I couldn’t resist the starting quote though; Zish is my sister whose erstwhile involvement in the game was limited to ranking players using the well known Ballack-Hrithik-Leonardo good looks scale. These days she goes about exploring the strength of the Indian middle order in various Indian collegiate panel discussions. Goes to show how much the game has begun to touch our lives. Ah well!

WC cricket apart, work has as usual been the predominant flavor in life (A la - What do we do today, Brain? .. Same thing we do everyday Pinky, we try to take over the WORLD! – tagline from Pinky and the Brain, CN cartoon cartoon). That apart, I’ve grown as a person, literally and laterally, and I now feel fully qualified to begin a humble attempt at capturing the raison d'être of the multiple eat out options in Bangalore.

One of the best things about Bangalore is the abundance of steak places. And nowhere are the stakes as high as at The Only Place (muahaha .. AT Korney!). This, imho, is the best place for steaks that I have come across; and that is saying a lot! If you’re the meaty non-spicy kinda guy (or girl, for that matter), then this is the place where the proverbial peri throws open the gates of a podgy paradise and all the world’s a happy combo of meat and cheese and mashed potato and pepper sauce and poached eggs and .. beg your pardon, really, I got a bit carried away. The desserts, by the way, are also to die for – competition for corner-house, on apple / strawberry-pie-with-ice-cream bases. Sadly, I’ve hardly been there too often; Bayleaf and Mulligatawny (that’s how it sounds like, don’t ask me for the spelling) soup are the convenience options on most days of the week; you could almost call it a weak option (AT Korney redux!) .. bwahahaha ..

I could go on with the steak motif and remark on such places as La Cassa, Jukebox (in Bangalore) and Mocambo (Calcutta) but I think I shall reserve that for my great food-ologue magum opus, The Food Shift – The Eat to Live Paradigm. Till such time as that materializes I’ll leave you with two more status lines from the Zish school of cricketing thought.

The first one was immediately after the India-Bermuda match
“India vs Bermuda – The ghost of the kicks not listening to the talks” ..

… and the second after the India – Sri Lanka tie
“Cricket isn’t everything”

Temporary adios

Tuesday, April 03, 2007

Ek sailaab tha, sara ghar beh gaya ..
phir bhi jeene ka, thoda sa darr reh gaya ..

- Tum gaye sab gaya, Lata mangeshkar (Maachis)


Teri aankhon se chhannti hui iss chamak ki kasam,
Ye samundar jo namkeen hai ... iss namak ki kasam,

- Le chale doliyoN mein, Filhaal

Gulzaar sa'ab rocks .. pity I never really developed an understanding of Urdu poetry. I merely get happy with the scraps I can glean from the odd song or the lesser involved sheyr. Ah well!