Iddarammayilatho...asale vaddu

These days when I see Brahmanandam on screen, I know this movie is poised for a failure. Movies with good stories don't need such props ('Gundello Godari', 'Mithunam' and even 'Gunde jaari'...examples).
The movie featuring Allu Arjun, Amala Paul and Katherine Teresa is like a typical 'seeti-maar' masala movie with a concoction of romance, dance, crime, comedy. Allu Arjun has an electrifying presence as usual but utterly wasted in this meaningless, headless movie. And why does Amala Paul look strikingly like (a shorter version of) Deepika Padukone? And Katherine Teresa? Gawd! Why the hero didn't give her two tight slaps and asked her to shut up, I don't know. Never seen a more screeching and annoying acting.
Nothing happens in the first half of the movie. The second half is JUST bearable.
Quickly posting this as soon as I came back from the show to alert people who crave for a good story and a good movie. Didn't get tickets for Jawani-Deewani and hence had opted for this :(
Reviewing this movie is a waste of time.Yet, amidst all this is a short but brilliant piece of acting in one scene between the hero-heroine's parents, brilliantly enacted by Nassar, Tulasi, Tanikella Bharani and Pragati. Rao Ramesh displays exceptionally strong acting in the brief role that he essays. Great genes carried forward!
Bright spots in an otherwise lifeless movie.

Indijoe and Westin: food review

Infrequent posting had never been my intention when I started my blog. Agree, there are the ups and downs of moods but nothing earlier had kept me so irregular at posting.
I mean, being the foodie that I am, I should have at least done justice by doing the restaurant reviews.

Two of the  restaurants that I visited in the last few months have been as below. Some memory fades as its been a while but the impressions are as true as they were. I will post the rest in the next few posts. Till then--

Indijoe: Always open to experimenting with different tastes of food, we tried Indijoe. Indijoe is on the top floor of City Center Mall along with other BJN group of restaurants. Sahib Sindh Sultan though expensive was a decent experience. Indijoe didn't let us down either. Indian food forms a very small proportion of the meal. The buffet, modestly priced, if I remember correctly, at around 350+, has a wonderful mix of continental food. What was pleasantly surprising was finding a decent amount of vegetarian stuff in the buffet. Great taste and a good spread. I normally crave for the salads and starters. They could have experimented more with the salads, which I found were rather limited in imagination.
The ambiance was decent though not very spacious. Service was found wanting. No one really bothered about seating you or come to you for your order though it was a week day and we were among the first ones to visit.
I would rate this buffet a 4/5. Not being too expansive nor limited, they served the right number of items per section. Many a time, too many items in a buffet leave you feeling as though you do justice to none. Will I go there again? A big YES. The good quality of the buffet items make me want to try their a' la carte fare the next time.

Westin. Had heard so much about Westin that by the time we visited it, the expectations were sky-high. And all those expectations were met exceedingly well. What's there in Westin? Well, an exorbitant buffet spread priced exorbitantly!
Being a thorough foodie, I prefer to taste across multi-cuisine and never believed in indulging only in Indian. Well, a foodie can have his heart's delight as they have food from across globe. Even when you have a tbsp or two of every dish, you cannot taste everything in the spread! My taste buds go bananas at the mere mention of the Indian street food like the chat, and its unbelievable that I couldn't taste it! I was so filled with just the visual delight of the spread! There were at least 14 varieties of the ice creams! The fun part was that they had ample varieties in each of these cuisines spread across continents. So, people who are not open to experimenting with their food are also not disappointed.
The restaurant is quite spacious with good distance between the tables. Service was quite courteous. If I remember right, the buffet was priced at around Rs. 1100 per head. If I were to be really finicky, and choose to say something negative, I would say that the vegetarians ought to be really careful. Most of the dishes have the veg and the non-veg versions of the dishes placed right next to each other and the labels, though present, are skewed (not enough space to place them) and leads to confusion. I ended up serving myself  some non veg stuffed momos and had to quickly have my plate replaced. After that, I asked the steward before I served myself the suspicious looking ones.
Will I go there again? YES, a hundred times!

Small, little big things of life

"Enjoy the little things, for one day you may look back and realize they were the big things.”

—Robert Brault

Had this quote forwarded yesterday and at what an apt time!

What I never believed in is:

• trying to appease people so that your selfish needs are met
• trying to comply just because you need to look good in people's eyes
• compete: I am what I am , comfortable in my skin
• consider materialistic things important

If I  was sure of one thing from my childhood, it was the importance of love and relationships.

All that I ever cared for is the perceptive unsaid love one has for one's own. Of love that gifts you what you need and not what they think you need, of love that knows exactly what you want, like, of what pains you and what gives you joy.

My birthday this time was exactly this: gifts of no great value, money-wise. They were all a series of small gestures, very thoughtful and which could come only on being very perceptive of the needs of people we love, things not expressed or asked but given, each one bringing that twinkle to the eye and a smile to the face.
That was my son who made this birthday so special.

The music of silence

The world around me is silent.

as the noises of the day gradually fall silent 

as lights are dimmed one after another 

as the body and mind langurously unwind

as  the back relaxes at the support provided, finally, finally... 

A deep sigh of contentment

as the mind is quelled, after a string of maddening  chores

as the night deepens, the smallest noises enhanced

as  far away I hear a chirping, a cricket perhaps?   

as I sight the soft movements of shadows of night and dark 

as I breathe deep to hang on to these rare minutes of sanity

as I draw the sheets closer 

as I sink into a deep languid sleep

Sikkim: Pelling

Sikkim provides the much needed succor to the urban eye tired of fast-pacing itself through concrete jungles and air-conditioned cubbyholes.
What you find is greenery in abundance, mountains, slopes, fresh unpolluted air and plenty of waterfalls.
Pelling is closest to Mt. Kanchenjunga, the third highest mountain peak in the world.  The view is something to die for. No painter's hand can do justice to this scenic beauty.This is the view that you wake up to:

Kanchenjunga: view from our room

Kanchenjunga: another view from our room

And there are waterfalls of all sizes! There are so many that our car had to drive through one of them as we went to visit the Kanchenjunga waterfalls. A natural car-wash ! Here's the picture:

Driving through a waterfall

The swirling waterfalls, the regal mountain peaks and the lush greenery all around make Pelling a worthy trip.

Sikkim: tastes, tips and takeaways

Some tips for the tourist, not found in a tour itinerary:

1. When you go on a tour, the norm in India is that the tour operator stops at some restaurant for lunch-break. In Sikkim, you find no such 'proper' place for lunch. You only find some small eateries selling local food.
The local food normally found is noodles, thukpas and momos.  We had a dig at all three. The Momos were quite tasty and my family liked them particularly because of the really spicy chutneys served with them. The chutneys vary from place to place and so do the momos' size. But inside, it is the same stuffing of finely chopped cabbage and carrot.
By default, the thukpa was rejected by family as it was a very, very watered down version of Chowmein and was quite bland in taste. The Chowmein, we found, was ok, though not yummy.

The Thukpa

Momos with the spicy onion-green chilli Chutney

 
2. It is also important that we do not waste much time in eating at a restaurant. One, there aren't many on your way to the tourist sights. Two, you cannot afford to spend about an hour on ordering and eating food as it is dark by 5 pm itself and you need to complete all the sight seeing before that time.

3. Another strange thing is the abundance of banana trees on all the mountain slopes. Surprising to find these trees one normally associates with the tropical plains and not the colder temperate regions. You are, therefore, assured of finding banana fruit wherever you go. The abundance does not convert to inexpensive though.

4. Day times are ok but nights are cold. So you need some warm clothes. October was pleasant and just one sweater was enough for me. Nathula is much colder and you need to properly protect yourself.

5. Lower oxygen levels at Nathula could be a deterrent for BP patients.

6. As mentioned in my earlier post, a visit to MG Road in Gangtok is a must-visit place, not just for its walk, but also for its many eateries (and pubs too).

7. Sikkim, being a mountainous terrain, you get some very good exercise as you keep climbing and getting down slopes all the time. It looks easy for the locals as they do it all the time but it is not the same for many of us whose only exercise is to move our fingers across the keyboard. Even to go to eating food at the MG Road, we had to climb up a steep flight of 50-60 steps. To do this, I had to stop at least 3-4 times. Going here may not be a great idea for the elderly.

8.  A pleasant surprise was to find many restaurants claiming 'pure vegetarian' food. I found this to be a relief as I thought the North-East India is known for its meat eating habits. Later, I came to know that it is because of the prevalent Buddhist religion which forbids consumption of meat and second, to support the vegetarian tourists who visit the monasteries here.

9. Rabdentse  Palace Ruins at Pelling can be skipped. One, it is almost razed to the ground. Two, you need to walk 2 kms up and down the mountain and it is not worth it! I say this because the climb is definitely quite tough for people not used to trekking. And if you have to go, then start at at least 2:30 pm and not later as you cannot see anything in the dark if you reach late. It took me (a person not used to any physical exercise) almost 45 minutes one way. It was the ancient capital of Sikkim and may be of historical value for the interested.

10. All the monasteries are worth visiting because of the peaceful aura.

11. Particularity intriguing are the 'Mani Khorlo' or the prayer wheel that we found almost everywhere...mostly near monasteries. We are supposed to rotate them clockwise as we say our silent prayers. We found two giant ones in Sikkim...about 10 feet high! Here's the ones that we found on our way to Rumtek Monastery:

Mani Khorlo: On our way to Rumtek Monastery

If I'd stay back, I am sure, with all the physical exercises going up and down the mountains and through breathing the pure mountain air, I'd return much thinner and healthier.

Sikkim: Travel to Nathula Pass, a spine-chilling experience

Nathula, 55 kms from Gangtok, is a mountain pass through the Himalayas connecting India and China. It is at an altitude of 14000 ft above sea level.
To go to Nathula, one needs a permit from the Indian government. It is open to Indian citizens only on Wednesdays, Thursdays, Saturdays and Sundays. We were asked to submit two passport size photos and two photo ID proofs (our tour operator insisted on our passports towards ID proof).
We were there just two days after the roads were thrown open after a major landslide in September which had killed four people.

The road after the landslide

And the delayed monsoons ensured that the roads, if any, were full of mud and slush.

A stretch of the slippery road

What was truly a spine-chilling experience was traveling on these roads or non-existent roads. The roads become very narrow in places, sometimes just as much as the width of the vehicle that you are traveling in!  The waterfalls which exist everywhere in Sikkim wash away the roads. Where there is a strong waterfall, it is not possible to have a road, and your vehicle actually rides over the stones to travel across. All the slush on the roads jeopardize your travel further, as you never know when the vehicle could simply slide 14000 ft to the valley below. Though there is lovely scenery and nature filled with trees, mountains and waterfalls all around, you are rudely brought back to the real world with all the rocking and rolling of the car. Most of the time you sit through the journey praying and hoping you make it through. At one place, we waited quite some time for the crane to clear away huge boulders from the route which had come rolling down due to landslide. People are known to be stranded overnight for this very reason. And while returning, unless you manage to climb down before 5 pm, the diminishing visibility only makes things worse. Not for the faint-hearted, this experience!

The road can get as narrow as this

Visiting in winters is ruled out as temperatures can drop to below minus degrees. Visiting in the rainy season is ruled out as heavy rainfalls cause massive landslides. So that leaves a narrow window for visits. While we were there in October-mid, we were shivering from cold. It is necessary to wear shoes, and cover yourself head to toe to save yourself from the biting cold.We also saw some ice falling around us...not snow...just some random pieces of ice here and there.
The vehicle drops you at the bottom of the steps leading to the border and it is a steep climb up around 50-60 steps. Not an easy climb, especially due to lack of oxygen at that altitude.
After you catch your breath, it is time to get breathless again as you open your eyes to what you see around you: The Indo-China border and the beautiful mountain ranges all around you. Is this Yash Chopra's Switzerland, you wonder?
Patriotic feeling surges through you when you see the Indian soldiers guarding the border. And a quiet, reverent moment when you see the Indian War Memorial with names of all martyrs.
 The Chinese soldiers are busy clicking our photos and we theirs. They helpfully pose for us, with us. It is heart-warming to see their friendly nature. I was told that the Indian soldiers do the same when the Chinese visit the border, which is three hours before us as their time is ahead of us. Perhaps, this is the only international border which doesn't have a no-man's land.

And...the China post

Nathula Pass is a must-see.