Discontinuing

Something i have been thinking ... something which i would have done some time back, but for laziness. Writing two blogs, not necessarily the best thing to do, given the already existing volume of the blogosphere. So, i decided to reduce this, and discontinue this blog ...

You can read more of my blog at the other blog ... this you can find here. If this doesnt work, just copy-paste http://atulrai1.blogspot.com/ into your browser window, and you are ready to go!

Our Place, Banjara Hill

This place is not necessarily easy to find. If you drive down Road No. 10, Banjara Hill, you would have to be careful to not miss the lane which goes uphill to the restaurant which goes by the name of Our Place.

I was getting in touch with Rajesh da after a few years. He suggested the place and I was not too particular. And this brought us here. I was pleasantly surprised by the place. Driving up, the first thing you see is the beautiful vintage car which greets you. The façade is nicely done. The entrance, Homage to Lord Ganesha ... Passageway which is quite elegant. Probably one of the most elegantly designed restaurants I have been to. The only thing is that they failed to appreciate the fact that you will let go of some space in circular enclosures.

Coming to the food ... The service is reasonably good, but I guess that's probably because we were in a leisurely mood. The Prawns were good, though the Golden Fry doesn't do justice to them. While the Fish Tikka had good, fresh Fish, and the marinade for the tikkas adds a wonderful touch to the taste, derived no doubt from the kitchens of Hyderabad. And topping this up with Fig and Honey Ice Cream is a really cool way to wrap up Lunch on a rainy Hyderabad afternoon.

Eating Out In Kolkata ... 1

It has been said about Calcutta that the city is an epicurean delight. And, rightly so. Here is a bit about my experience over the last few days. Of course, this doesn’t even come close to the wide variety of experiences you can have in the city, but has to do, for starters. Which means, of course, that you can expect more to follow …

This time round, I decided to go to a restaurant where, for some reason or the other, I have never been to before … Flavours of China … Ok, so its not some reason or the other, its just one reason … Peter Cat! Simple … whenever I go to Park Street, the overwhelming urge to tuck into those Chelo Kababs is enough to overcome the urge to explore. Well, at least nine times out of ten.

The restaurant is everything a Chinese restaurant should be. First of all, its on Park Street, so it scores over Tong Fung, or Jimmy’s Kitchen, which in turn score over Mainland China (though, as i have written earlier, the food at Mainland China is wonderful) in terms of location. Ok ok, that’s about the only thing, though. The food is definitely good, though I don’t think this can match up to the iconic status of Jimmy’s Kitchen. Or, the Soups at Tong Fung … Though, given a choice, I would much rather be here than at Mainland China. This is not to say that Mainland China is lacking, but something about Flavours of China which could attract you there.

Since there were four of us, we were more open to experimenting. The reason being that even if the experiment bombs, someone will be there to help you mop up the pieces. So, we began with the Mixed Meat Fried Rice … Quite nice. Accompanying the Rice was the Hunan Chicken, the Shredded Chicken Chilli Garlic, and Fish Chilli Wine.

The Rice is nice, and something which one should definitely try. The Shredded Chicken Chilli Garlic is quite interesting … they put in crunchy sprouts in the shredded Chicken, giving a crunchy feel to the dish, in addition to the mildly spiced Chicken, which is quite nice. The Hunan Chicken is cooked in Wine Sauce, as is the Fish Chilli Wine … The sauce was quite similar, though on the whole, both of them are worth trying. Mildly spiced, they don’t have the spices standing out, yet you can find chilli flakes in the sauce, adding to the flavour of the wine sauce.

The ambience is not authentic Chinese, as is the food not authentic Chinese either, thankfully, considering that if there is one reason we are able to eat Chinese food, its because of the Calcutta (or Punjab, depending on your viewpoint) influence. The bar is tastefully presented, though nothing much to write home about. Besides, since I was here for Lunch on a working day, I wasn’t indulging. Though the bar does blend nicely into the ambience.

Another restaurant which I decided to eat at, is another old favourite (one of my favourites in the neighbourhood, in fact), that is Eats n Treats. Not much to write home about, the ambience is reasonably well done, not great, and not bad, the lighting is dim, which is nice, though the service leaves a lot to be desired. When here, one must not leave without trying the Fish Punjabi, which is like a Zeeshan or Siraj version of a Punjabi curry, and is something which leaves a wonderful flavour, the Fish is fresh, and the curry is very good. Another must try is the Mutton, or for the faint-hearted, the Chicken Rizala … the Rizala, as we all know, is the contribution of amader Kolkata to the world, and Eats n Treats makes this as good as any reasonably good restaurant in the city. Must have, something you would really like. The Daal Makhani is not much to write home about, though.

So this was about the last two days, and the places I went around eating at. And more to follow …

Getting Around In Kolkata

Getting around in Kolkata can be strange at worst, or an exhilerating experience at best. No matter which, it is bound to be an eperience you cannot forget. Nor can you replicate it in any corner of the world.


Commuting from Sector V, Salt Lake to Theatre Road (or to any other part of the world) could leave you breathless. And I tried to do this at half past eight in the morning.

Being the technology hub of West Bengal (for all that is worth as a tag), this place comes to life only at 10 in the morning. After that, posibly, but defunitely not before. For the enterprising Bengali spirit does not allow the bhodroloks or bhodromohilas (i am trying not to sound sexist here) to venture out before a certain hour. This hour varies from one member of the species to another but is rarely before 10. So this is the scenario that awaits you if you try to look for a taxi anytime before that hour. Because there just aren't any around.

Waiting for a taxi certainly gives you options. The first option to present itself was a private car, the driver ferrying the car from one place to another without employer supervision, making some money on the side. I thought I would wait for a taxi. Carried on waiting, but the taxi didn't appear. Quite soon, I was running out of patience and running into ample sweat. This was when the next option presented itself. Known in this part of the world as shaadaa mini, these are racing equipments (much like most other beings on Kolkata roads) disguised as buses. And one must see it to believe it. Well, this one was a shaadaa mini, to distinguish them from their non-shaadaa cousins from the (almost) F1 circuit. Getting a place to sit was not an issue.

I decided to get down to reading. Though the way the bus was swaying owing basically to the driver's demonstration of his geometric genius by drawing near perfect sine curves on the road in his attempts at getting ahead of every single living creature on the road, no matter it's denomination, reading was to be an exercise in futility.

So I decided to look out of the window. Wonderful day, with the beauty of nature being recently washed by rain. No wonder, I thought, about the person who had told me about the delight of watching the scenery outside the bus when travelling in these parts of the world ... After all, you don't have much choice do you? Not really given that you would much prefer to keep your eyes glued outside the bus, hoping to supplement the driver's sight if not his brains. And try to swallow your internals into the same place where they were before they decided to take an exit route following your alighting the mechanical monster. And trying to keep your legs steady once you are off it. That should keep you occupied enough to keep your eyes on the road ... And in the process also feel the soothing touch of Mother Nature... Specially along the Bypass.

You can also watch from the sidelines the highly intellectual debate between the bus conductor and a passenger about whether the fare should be Rs. 8 or Rs. 9, culminating in the passenger challenging the bus conductor's knowledge of bus fares (that's only his job after all, while being a topic of passion for the passenger) and the bus conductor inviting the gentleman to not avail the services of the bus.

PS: Park Street retains her charms even at this time of day.

Mainland China, Kolkata ...

Dinner at Mainland China at Kolkata ... And though I haven't been to their establishments in other cities (given a choice i much prefer Daal Makhani!) here in Kolkata, the restaurant is not really shining in the service. The gent serving our table was quite good ... He actually advised us against ordering the larger portion. Which is quite pleasant I must say ...

The issue ... The time it took to get the Soup. If you order Vegetable Sweet Corn Soup ...and this is basic, and it takes half an hour and then some more for Crispy Chilly Babycorn, they need to do something about it I guess. Though they needed to be reminded to clear the plates, refilling the glasses ... Its only Water, guys!

Coming to the core of the matter ... The food still has it. Whether the Soup or the Babycorn, they were both delicious. And then the long wait for the main course … in keeping with the starters, the main course didn’t disappoint, in the time it took them to come to the table … though the Crackling Spinach, the Sitake Mushroom Golden Onion Fried Rice, the Prawn Hakka Noodles, and the Sizzling Fish Green Onion were every bit as delicious as they have ever been, and as good as anywhere else you might go out to eat.

And, they even gave us complimentary Ice-Cream (to make up for the wait?), though the ice-cream bowls had some strange green colouration, which were told was Khus syrup … it seems they use Khus syrup at the bar, but then, what were Ice-Cream bowls doing there, even though the flavour was Butterscotch ...

Pakistan, ISI, and the US ...

Interesting topic, eh? Well ... read on! There was an interesting article in the ToI today, about Bush ticks off Pak PM ... ... Interesting reading. What this brings out is the fact that there is much more than catches the eye. Or, for that matter, much more than what comes out.

This article represents ample admission from the United States that Pakistan is, willingly or otherwise, backing, in some form or other, terrorism in South Asia. The humorous part about this is that it took Mr. Bush so long to figure this out. When this is something which is common knowledge in this part of the world.

While there might be a lot of truth in that the ISI is an institution unto itself, without much control that can be exercised by the civillian authorities in the nation, this does bring up the question that there must be someone in Pakistan, otherwise outside the country, who should be in a position to tame the institution of terror. After all, it cant be that this hydra monster is totally untamable! And as for Mr. Gilani's statement that they "would not allow that" sounds totally hollow, because, with all due respect, Mr. Gilani should remember that he needs to be able to exercise control in order to decide whether to allow or not.

Animal Sacrifice ...

There are interesting articles in the ToI today ... In the View-Counterview section ... about animal sacrifice. This is a topic which is quite controversial, so let me just write my two bits on this.

Actually, on second thoughts, maybe i dont want to write about animal sacrifice, because i dont have an opinion about it. I believe that if someone doesnt like the idea, they are welcome to abstain from doing it, while on the other hand, anyone does believe in it, they are free to do as they choose. Either way, when something is sanctioned by religion, it becomes a part of personal belief and hence, must be looked at, as such. For, if this was a universal reality, we should all have been Vegetarian. Of course, my personal view on this is not material to this blog, so i am not mentioning it.

What i wanted to write about, instead, is the way certain journalists treat the idea. We are a secular country, and one would expect journalists, who are responsible for forming public opinion, to be secular too. But when animal sacrifice at Kamakhya makes them write about the barbarity of the act, and this is the only occasion when they feel that it is a barbaric act, this brings into question their standing as being truly secular. Though i would like to applaud the newspaper in bringing this out in the form of a debate, the concern is the occasion, or the reason behind the debate, which seems to be restricted to only one dimension of our society.