Chennai Diary III

Day 6 saw a lazy Saturday. The WHOLE day stretched in front of me with an option to do whatever I want to…this prospect was too tempting to not exploit. Express Avenue at Royapettah was what I had narrowed down my choice to. Before starting I had searched the internet for some info on Chennai bus routes and was absolutely stunned at the wealth of information  I found.

ABOUT CHENNAI BUSES:

The frequency of the buses is amazing. There seems to be one every minute. To find the bus that you need, just type the source and destination and an amazing number of options throw up!
The Google map has the option of showing both the car and bus routes. When you click on the bus routes, a tiny figure of a person shows where you need to walk to catch the bus. Or how many meters you need to walk to your destination after getting down from the bus. The bus conductors have started conversing in Hindi, even if broken. They may/may not come up to you for tickets. The money gets passed from hand to hand till it reaches the conductor and the ticket gets passed back in a similar way. The Hyderabadis can bring their 5 rupee notes and 50p. coins...all are accepted here. Bus tickets are sold for odd amounts like Rs.4.50 and the the change of fifty paise religiously returned!
Despite being loaded with all the bus numbers, I still asked around to confirm whether I was headed the right direction. And guess what?! The one to guide me was not a Tamilian / Indian but a British lady! She advised me on how much to pay the auto driver after I get down from the bus to head to Express Avenue.

ABOUT EXPRESS AVENUE:

Hmm. I heard that this is the biggest mall in Chennai. I chose to visit a mall because I was told that the mall was different as it also housed some authentic Tamil stuff. Towards that end, I was disappointed as it had all the stores that any other mall has. Yet, there are no regrets at having visited this mall. The sheer size of the mall stuns you. There are three floors of clothes, accessories, cosmetics, shoes etc., plus the basement with the Big Bazaar that I didn’t have the time to visit. I felt that each floor had a circumference of 2 kilometers. It took me about 5 hours to only window shop through each of them.
I briefly spent some time at the Life Style and saw the hip crowd there. What is amazing to find is that there were the traditional sari-clad, jasmine wearing women and also the t-shirt-jeans kind too. So, though I wasn’t really dressed well that day, I didn’t feel out of place. The younger lot seemed to be modernly attired, the older ones more traditional. However modernly dressed, none of the women wore any cleavage–revealing clothes. I’d find more such girls amongst the hip crowds in Hyderabad.
What happens to husbands here is the same as happens to them in every mall in any city. The poor guy acts as a hanger for all the clothes his wife has selected and keeps passing them one by one to her in the trial room as she keeps stepping out and asking for his opinion (but then goes on to buy what she thinks is the right one).
When I reached EA, I headed straight for the multiplex and bought a movie ticket. This done, I started looking around the fourth floor which contained all the food joints. You are issued a food card after you pay whatever amount you decide to. And then you use it like an ATM card to keep paying for your food. If any amount is left at the end of the day, you are refunded.
I first decided to make a round of the entire floor to check out what was on offer. Almost every kind of food in its about 20+ outlets found menus from Italian to South Indian, Arabic, Malaysian, Chaats, KFC and many more. After having completed the tour of the place, I opted for Kobe

FOOD AT KOBE:

Kobe, I had read even before going to Express Avenue, was a place of Sizzlers. As I wanted to try something different, I opted for it. Kobe is a separate restaurant and doesn’t accept the food card issued by EA.
When seated, I saw that about 70% of the items on menu were non-vegetarian ones. Undaunted by the limited choice or the price, I stuck to my choice. The menu mainly consisted of sizzlers, pizzas, and mock tails. I selected one vegetable sizzler. It was priced 290 and I wondered whether one snack is worth 290/-. After a wait of less than 10 minutes, the waiter rushed towards me with a sizzling, steaming oval shaped plate which was about 12 inches long. Looking at the quantity, I was petrified. I just can’t eat all that stuff, I thought. I wasn’t sure of where to start…whether I’d get a plate to serve myself smaller portions of that gigantic offer or directly dig into it? I realized that the plate was quite shallow and placed on a half inch thick, burnt wooden base. The dish was made up of a portion of rice surrounded by shredded and par-boiled vegetables like cabbage, peas, carrots, French fries, baby corn and a flat potato cutlet. Over all this was poured Schezwan sauce. Between pepper/garlic/Schezwan sauces, I opted for Schezwan sauce though I was warned it would be spicy. What I realized by now was that this sizzler is not a snack but the main course itself. The dish was kept piping hot throughout the meal though the sizzling subsided after a while. It had a tangy taste to it, not very spicy with a delectable mix of rice, sauces and vegetables. I enjoyed every bite of this awesome dish which nearly burnt my tongue. This dish is a must-try.

                                Image from Kobe website

THE MOVIE: ZINDAGI NA MILEGI DUBARA

Getting a ticket for a Saturday movie is unthinkable in Hyderabad. Yet here, I was pleasantly surprised to find a seat for the evening show. Well, I read reviews in favor of and against the movie. I trust Rajeev Masand’s reviews. A 3 ½ /5 from him means that the movie is a sure-watch. There also are reviews which speak to the contrary belittling it as a Karan Joharesque movie with its unrealistic, feel-good, made-for-the-NRI-crowd kind of movie.I went with an open mind to watch this movie. Story apart, the script and execution was slick. Not a moment of boredom as you are taken through a journey of three 30-something bachelors reviving their younger days and finding a new meaning to life at the end of this one all-boys trip to Spain. You will not be disappointed when you watch this. But beware, Katrina Kaif and her non-acting still jar!

ON THE CHENNAI STREETS:

A few of my observations on my first outing in Chennai. Many women adorn their hair with jasmine garlands. This is a disappearing feature back in Hyderabad…unless women go for a wedding or some such traditional occasion. Most of them have good hair though. I also see many dark complexioned people around. In some imperceptible ways, I sense a respect for women ...like a man won’t sit beside a woman in the bus, even if the seat is vacant. I also find fewer lungis and more trousers this time. The roads are almost empty by 11 pm. In fact, when I was going back from EA, I found I was the lone woman on the bus home. A bit scary! What I don’t find is the fidayeen-kind of the ubiquitous women found everywhere in India these days, their heads all wrapped up and only the slits for the eyes showing. When I tried wrapping my head here, I realized why they don’t do that. I nearly suffocated in the sweat inside my scarf! I found one or two on the streets, though I am sure they too will give up soon.
I didn’t find any of those wide, pleasure-to-drive roads like we have in some posh locales in Hyderabad. Yet, the roads here have far fewer potholes than what we find back home. Many of the main roads too aren’t really wide.
There are almost no paan shops… as a result, also no red marks on the roads unlike in Hyderabad where we literally have painted the town red.
It is sweaty and clammy even in July whereas back in Hyderabad, this season sees you shiver with cold, especially after heavy showers. Here, shower or no, you always sweat and one can’t imagine life without an air-conditioner.
More posts to come when I explore Chennai more.

Chennai Diary II

Day 5: Uneventful so far except that the team happened to go out for lunch to a restaurant called Delhi Dhaba on ECR road. I had been eyeing a Delhi Dhaba on the Thuraipakkam Road and wanted to try it out and today I did…though the one at ECR. The food itself isn’t great as such. For the first time, I found that I am not in the minority. Of the 15 people in the group, 10 were vegetarians. We veggies stuck to one half of the table and the non vegetarians to the other half. The vegetable shorba for the soup was quite decent…a thick translucent liquid with a few chopped vegetables thrown in. We ordered for a vegetable kebab platter for starters which was a nice assortment of about seven kinds of starters. Except for the mushrooms, the rest of them vanished in no time. That platter was quite a decent one too. After this excellent beginning, the main course did let us down a bit. All curry gravies were quite bland and tasted the same. Sarson ka saag was an exception though.
Verdict is one can go here…no regrets and definitely for someone from outstation who is starved for good food, this can be recommended but not for a discerning diner. (although it looks like 3 days of having good dinner has made me go back to my picky ways.)
As of now, the plans are to try the Express Avenue tomorrow. I resist malls in any city as they only clone each other but EA has been highly recommended. I have also been told it could contain some handicrafts etc. let me try. If not anything, I guess my time will pass well in that huge mall. With also a multiplex in it, I might throw in a movie. People who know Hyderabad say it is like the Inorbit. My verdict tomorrow, once I have been there.
I want to carry back a bit of Chennai flavor with me whether they be clothes/ handicrafts/ food/ snacks/ footwear…whatever.I am only a bit skeptical about buying snacks as I may end up finishing them off before I reach Hyderabad and not have anything left for the family.I have been recommended Grand Snacks. Let me see. Being in city outskirts at Shollanganallur, I need to travel quite a bit for getting anything. But yes, I am glad to get this opportunity to go out and explore. I do not look forward to sitting cooped at the guest house for the weekend…that’s sure

Chennai Diary

Almost out of blue, with a very short notice of 2 days, an office trip to Chennai was planned. The trip is supposed to last for 3 weeks. First, I was told it was a training for a week…which I thought was ok but then that was extended to three weeks saying that we needed that on-job experience as well. That set me thinking. On one hand, at a personal level, I felt that it is going to be a good break from my daily grind. Second, was the opportunity to learn something new and this has always excited me.
As I was packing, I decided to pack the best of office wear. I was excited and looked forward to looking good, feeling good and giving this trip the best shot.

As I got down from the train and stepped on to the Chennai soil, I looked around to see, observe and absorb. I wanted to see how the city is different or similar to Hyderabad. What I noticed were the black and yellow Ambassador taxis which are not to be seen in Hyderabad. We have all those accident prone Indica cab drivers with their dented and scratched cabs. Another mini shock was being charged 430 bucks for a distance of 22 kms to my guest house! And this is the official price set by the police stationed there.

The service apartment provided was below par and I had to quickly shift to the company guest house. On the plus side is that the guest house is 2 kms from the office. This was my dream since we came down to settle in Hyderabad. Commuting to the office in less than ten minutes…that’s cool. The travel is taken care of but I lose heavily on quality food. Complementary breakfast is just that…something that’s an obligatory part of the deal. A semi-conscious and drooping dosa, rock solid idlis, and a watery fruit juice complete the deal. Lunch at office cafeteria is a well-known story…everything stinks of dal/sambar. All that I can do is get adventurous while in pursuit of dinner.

There shouldn’t…rather cannot be any comparison between the restaurant-rich Hyderabad and any other Indian city. If Hyderabad had a similar long IT corridor, we Hyderabadi foodies would be spoilt for choice! My friend and I went to Nallas right opposite my office once in the last three days (has it just been three days?). This place comes with high recommendation from many of my Chennai colleagues. Our meal for two consisted of three rotis, a soup, a curry and a can of soft drink each which totaled Rs 430! An ordinary restaurant, though air-conditioned, with ordinary ambience in Hyderabad will not charge as much. If they do, they will be out of business in no time. Out here, there aren’t really any other decent restaurants around.

Yesterday, we got a little more adventurous and headed towards a food court beside Asecendas. No one without a company ID was allowed inside. I surrendered my ID and got another tag in exchange. Well, with this new set of tags, we stepped into the food court and wow! Like a young girl getting attracted to glittering trinkets, all these junk food outlets had us stunned for all the choice they offered…all of which I might not even care for in Hyderabad . I almost ran towards Mc Donald for their burger, chomped on it washing it down with a much-caloried 7 UP.

Unsatiated, I looked around for more. It warmed my heart to find a bit of Hyderabad in a sign in a corner proclaiming ‘Hyderabadi.’ Well, I can have that once I am back in Hyderabad. I gave my favorite chaat corner a miss, so also the Chinese Wang’s, KFC etc and went seeking stuff from the famous Sarvanan Bhavan. Sarvanan Bhavan, which I thought specializes in South Indian, had a variety of North Indian stuff as well. I narrowed my choice to the never before tasted Idiappam. This was offered with coconut milk. I watched with fascination as I saw a tablespoon full of batter being spread thin in a deep vessel, covered and cooked. A hollow thin hemisphere-like layer was gently coaxed out once cooked. It looked very similar to the regular Dosa we have but I knew the batter was different. I was very tempted to lapse into my comfort zone and ask for chutney to be served with it. But I stoically stuck to the white, sweetened, cold, milk like accompaniment. The dosa was unique as it had a paper like consistency towards its rims and expectedly a slight thickness at the bottom At least, I got to try something from Sarvanan Bhavan and the Idiappam for the first time too.

By the way, how did I forget the filter coffee?! Being at Chennai and dining at Sarvanan Bhavan, I did order for filter coffee. It smelled amazing and tasted good too but really not worth the 23 rupees that I paid for it. I might need to try the same at some road side restaurant to have the real ‘kapi’

Today is the fourth day here. Need to see where else I can go for eating something different. I don’t know whether I will lose weight or gain some at the end of this stay. There are times, I get nothing but a plate of rice with curd and times like yesterday when I binge. More Chennal news in the next few posts till I come back…soon I hope!

Mumbai Life Cycle

 

Yaksha, Basil and buffet experience in Hyderabad restaurants

I hadn't eaten out for a long time. As I was thinking of which new restaurant to try, I came across Yaksha. I wondered why the name Yaksha (a demi-god) for a restaurant. Nevertheless, after reading the favorable reviews, I decided to visit the place. The distance of about 13 kms to Banjara Hills takes about three quarters of an hour in the usual Hyderabad traffic conditions. But that day, every traffic light waved me green as they seemed to understand the urgency of my hunger pangs and urged me to zoom by, thus allowing me to cover the distance in 25  minutes flat!

As I stepped inside Yaksha, I stood there uncertain as to where to go. Like a cinema hall, it was too dark inside. Also, the place seemed so tiny! There was no welcoming usher either. In fact, I had to draw the attention of one of the ladies who was passing by and asked to be seated. She waved me to the nearest table which was filled with some cutlery. I sat down a tad hesitantly and waited and waited. After a full 5 minutes, the same lady comes by and points in the general direction of the buffet spread and asks me to help myself. The usual expectation during a buffet is that the starter and soup be served at one’s table. But here that was not to be. I got up trying to find a path through the narrow spaces between the compactly placed tables careful not to stumble and trip in the darkness. In all this darkness, I spotted a bright countenance. When I peered closely, I found it belonged to an ex-colleague of mine. One of the few times I appreciate a fair complexion. Thank god, something is visible in the darkness! After the initial ‘Hi’ s, she told me that they were here as a group of about 15 people and were not just lamenting about the quality of food but rather the lack of it, I mean the food itself. The restaurant perhaps never had a huge number of 15 visitors in one go!

I made a quick u-turn wondering where to go to quench those quickening hunger pangs. A la' liberty was a well tried restaurant and one that I am truly fond of but I have been there thrice already. So I quickly decided on Basil in the immediate neighborhood. Basil is no stranger to the Hyderabadi. I had also visited the place around 3-4 years ago once and had carried no particularly favorable memories of the place. But then I thought about giving it a try once again.

As I stepped into the restaurant it was a relief to find it well- lit. The glass windows were used to let in natural light. Basil also comforts me as it is a pure vegetarian restaurant. Even as I stepped in, the usher was at the side and seated me at once.

Well, coming to the meal…let me tell you that I am a small eater and most of the restaurants make money on buffets through people like me. Now, why do I state this? I actually had a second helping of all dishes on offer! And if your mouth waters at the prospect of quality food, let me correct that assumption. I am not talking of quality but quantity here. Even as you think of allowing your eye to rove over the buffet spread, the journey ends almost where it begins. Two salads…unable to distinguish between the two diced vegetables placed in two different plates was all that was in the department of salads…and two starters to begin with.

When I talk of starters and salads, my mind recalls Barbeque Nation and Liberty. And that’s what I call a hearty beginning to a hearty meal. This offer was like the ragged clothes of a beggar. But to be fair, the starters of corn and boiled and barbequed potato were quite decent. For the first time, in a buffet I could actually finish off one full naan as there were only two curries and one dal to go with it. And only two sweets. The whole thing comes to Rs. 234 with taxes. What the restaurants must realize is that a discerning diner is willing to pay more for some unique taste/dish on offer in the meal. What else would make me bother to travel a distance of 26 kms for a meal? I can as well have it in any place nearby. The food itself was not unpalatable but then…

One of the risks that you run into when visiting a restaurant on a working day is to find groups of women having their kitty parties. I found one such group here too. Most of the women pass themselves off as upper middle class not by virtue of some self-achievement but the achievements of their husbands…which rather translates to the flaunting of the wealth amassed by their husbands. Many of them do not look well-educated themselves. I feel annoyed by the loud chatter and the louder guffaws that emanate from such groups. Culture and education seem not to even touch these women—all of them decked as though attending some party—sari, jewelry, flowers et al Why such uncharitable remarks you wonder. This was my experience there:

When I sit for any meal at a restaurant I always ask for tissues, beside the napkin provided. I did the same here too. I was seated beside the buffet table and one of the women while passing by my table, simply pulls out the tissues provided to me. I couldn’t help stare with disbelief at this uncouth behavior. She realized perhaps and asks customarily…”you want these?” and goes away without waiting for a reply with the bunch clutched in her hand. Luckily, there is a private room provided for such groups and the noise is contained within. It was at the end of about twenty minutes that the door opens and two of the women step out to have the dessert. Too lazy to go back, they stand there eating the sweets. Two more women join them, then more and then all of the 15 or so people all standing there right beside my table talking loudly and eating more noisily. One of the women finished her ice cream and had the audacity to just deposit the cup right beside me on my table as it was within her reach before she went for a second round of desserts. Fortunately, the alert waiter quickly removed the dirty bowl and spoon from my table. Respect for such groups dipped further seeing such behavior.

To sum up this post, this is not my usual review of a restaurant but rather a comment on the cost cutting measures adopted by many of the restaurants in Hyderabad these days wherein they keep the price the same year after year but the items on the menu in the buffet are fast depleting thus disappointing the regular patron. Case in point: ‘Haveli’ in Madhapur.

(Added later: Went to a gathering arranged at the banquet hall of Basil in the second week of Jan 2012. The food is the same as it was in the buffet. I had hoped it might be of better quality as it was catering to a group of about a 100 people)

(Ah)Men!

This picture of Wasim Akram recently in one of the newspapers took my breath away. Girls, this guy is still drool-worthy!
We girls, who grew up in the late 70s and through 80s, were not all that fortunate as we had no such heroes we could have a crush on. And so who did we have? Amitabh (hain!) Bachan, Mithun Chokroborthy, Shotgun, Jeetendra...You get the scene, right? That entire period we didn’t have ONE Bollywood hero we could drool over.
Luckily for us, the cricketer Imran Khan came by and had us girls swoon over his pictures in the sports mags and we ended up cutting and sticking his pics in our rooms. Post teens, I found amongst my contemporaries, all midget sized actors.
And when I had given up on watching a soothing visage, arrives the tall and handsome, Abhishek Bachan with Refugee and knocked me flat with his dark brooding eyes, left-handed gestures, the small crinkle of smile in his eyes, and a ‘bechara’ expression on his face.

Watch him as the intense lover in Refugee, watch him as the funny and naughty Bunty in Bunty aur Babli, as the oh-so-sexy brooding bad boy in Yuva, as the gay with the cutely effeminate characteristics in Dostana. Watch him in Paa as that bespectacled politician portraying a clean image playing father to his real life one. Watch him in all his talk shows/interviews and listen to his witty and intelligent repartees.  AND… and watch him mouth those now famous words “Get Idea!” I LOVE that Idea 3G ad where he says, “Chi! Kitne gande gande comments aa rahe hain!”
He brings back the same magic that the heart-breakingly handsome Garam Dharam & the handsome hunk Sunil Dutt had spun with a their looks ( an amazing mix of vulnerability and sheer masculine strength.)

Just as I write this, I hear he is going to be a papa himself. I wonder what’s going to be the product when a 6 footer handsome hunk cohabits with a piece of plastic.

Life

There will be two dates on your tombstone.
And all your friends will read them.
But all that's going to matter is
the little dash between them.

Yep, life is as short as that little dash between the two dates. Why don't we just keep it as simple and straight?