aka Om Routray
How many of you would really go to Malviya Nagar or Shivalik Road if I told you there is a good place there? None. Nor would I. Can’t blame you. The traffic and the parking are a mess. So, let this be a pleasure read. Pema’s is a small outlet next to a gift shop and a take away joint that you may not notice even on the most adventurous days. But the food is worth it. We ordered a pork momo, chicken shyapta and…Continue Reading “Pema’s, Himalayan Food, Malviya Nagar”
I have been running a series on the blog about food in office areas by the title and there have been a few installments. While the original idea was to let people pool in, people don’t easily pool in. So, it has remained a one man effort. Anyway, the scene has just become more exciting with this cool new place opening round the corner in Noida Sector 3 – the one with graffiti on the walls. It was interesting but the weather demanded something else,…Continue Reading “Office ke neeche kya hai – Part 4”
Dahi vada. One dish I can write poetry for. There are so many versions and I can never rank them. I just love all of them – the south Indian version in the photo, the east Indian version with spices in the dahi and on odisha served with dum alu, then there is the Old Delhi version with mithi chutney, pomegranates and bananas. Also, this is one dish I can have for breakfast, lunch and dinner as well as an appetizer, main course and dessert.
If late at night, your guide car turns into a dark, dusty side lane in Gurgaon, you are probably in a gangster movie. If the car stops in front of a non-descript building with an ill-lit entrance with no one in sight, may be, you are the one that gets a bullet in the back. If you cut the over-imagination out, you may be at an interesting place that attracts people with word of mouth than billboards. Hachi ba is massive inside, must be seating…Continue Reading “Cafe Hachi Ba, Gurgaon”
Let me cal this historical, epic, unprecedented and life changing for the blue ball we live on. After going through every carpool application like a scavenger, I scored a ride with Orahi. The guy lives practically next door, is polite, works for HCL and didn’t talk too much. Sounds like a match. He also picked up another rider from Dwarka – a woman who has been working in Noida and has been carpooling for 3 months now with Orahi. With two strange men in car…Continue Reading “Odd even rule in Delhi: My first carpool”
Today was the first Monday of the Delhi Odd Even rule and I tried everything to dodge the bullet. Though, it has been going wonderfully well so far – been on a long weekend off and never got out of the house. The city has been behaving alright too, not too many violations, the transport infrastructure has not come crashing. There is but one disappointment. The carpool apps have not really taken off. I decided to try a few and started with the Orahi app….Continue Reading “Odd even rule in Delhi: A review of carpool apps”
Let me say it clearly in the beginning itself. Patriotism is an outdated concept that is quite out of place in current era of global citizenship. The sentiment to passionately and, if need be, violently defend one’s motherland is a eighteenth and nineteenth century concept, at best, applicable to the first half of twentieth. But in this century, it is only an ideological baggage that encourages divisiveness. The stress on patriotism in our times is misplaced. The discourse should be about good citizenship. But as…Continue Reading “Good Citizenship. Not Patriotism”
The first two and a half decades of my life, I had only veg biryani. You may stop giving any credence to this post right here and stop reading. If you are still reading, let me pile more shame on myself. Apart from the biryani at the Hyderbad stall in Dilli Haat, I can’t remember a single other instance when the biryani was horrible, disgusting and offensive. I have been trying to grow a nose that smells the trashy ones from the one good biryani…Continue Reading “The unicornification of biryani”
Street food. Whatever you eat on the street is street food. If you don’t have to take it home, unpack and bring out the cutlery, it is street food. In our country, there is no life without it. Hygiene is something you notice after you have got jaundice. Germs are seen only in handwash ads. Baaki sab theek hai. 30 bucks for kadi chawal prepared by our bro from hinterland. Who else will add green chutney to the combo? But does it work? Yes. Where…Continue Reading “Office ke neeche kya hai – Part 3”
Nothing mumbaiya about it. It is a Delhi based chain, owned by a Delhite. But the food is good and they have an interesting menu. The sabu dana and the Standard vada pav were mathematically correct, the garlic chutney was accurate too. I rarely use the word precise to describe food but this was just that. Compared to Goli and a few other vada pav chains that have come up, this does not do all that badly. They have an extensive menu, they seem to…Continue Reading “WOW vada pav”
Recently, Myntra put an end to its app only experiment. It was an experiment. They were foolish if they thought it to be something else. To shop, we, the seller, will put a condition. You, the customer, must download the app. Remember those saree shops of yore? You want to buy a saree, you must take your shoes off and sit cross legged on the floor. Most of the customers did it. First, there was no choice, really. It was the trend with most of…Continue Reading “The app arrogance must end – Myntra Appwapsi”
Germany’s biggest enemy was not the allied forces. It was the rise of fascism and the silent agreement of the majority with this rise. What happened later is not just history but a logical course of event that will happen in every such circumstance. India’s biggest threat today is the rise of fascism, aided by the govt in power and implemented by a nazi like militant sanghi army. Just like in Germany, the threat comes in the garb of hyper-nationalism, claims of majoritarian puritanism and…Continue Reading “Why we must selectively rave, rant and militate against sanghis”
Some famous old places disappoint, some don’t. This one did not. If you reach early in the evening, you can beat the crowd that generally descends in the later hours. The menu is the typical Old Delhi kebab/tikka place menu and it is not expensive even compared to neighbourhood takeaways. We ordered a chicken malai tikka, which came with the Old Delhi style dahi and butter gravy. If you were sadly anticipating the general dry version, you would have to go back and order for…Continue Reading “MI Food Center, Lodhi Colony”
The concept of a mouth freshener is either unique to the sub-continent, South Asia at most, or, I am really ignorant. The mint is the only western substitute that I know of and it comes out of a packet. Within India, we have tens of kinds of stuff that serve as a mouth freshener, some double up as a digestive. Firstly, the paans, the cold meetha paan being a northern novelty, to the best of my limited knowledge. The paans in the east had just…Continue Reading “Is mouth freshener a South Asian concept?”
Ek din mil baithenge zindagi Jab tu mere shareer se azaad hoga Aur puri karli hogi maine teri miyaad Zameen se saatve aasman ke beech ke safar main Kagaz kalam leke karenge hisaab Kagaz tu lana, ya phir likh lena aasman pe Kalam main kisi se maang lunga Badi si ek badal pe baith ke karenge hisaab Meri zindagi kitni maine jee Aur kitna jia tune mujhe Kitni dafaa maine mauka dia tujhe Kitni baar tu dagabaaz nikla Pehli baar mujhe darr na hoga tera…Continue Reading “Hisaab”
Being an anti-religious guy in a stupidly obsessive religious nation has all the pains but none of the perks. May be, a few. The perks are frequent, delicious and unlimited if you happen to live in a sikh neighbourhood. No matter what the festival of which there are many, they will spread out tables by the roadside and start distributing food, for free. I have binged on puri, sabzi, halwa and chai numerous times. During the last year, thanks to social media, I have come…Continue Reading “Friendly neighbourhood religious prick”
I don’t care what you call it. In different parts of the country, people call it by different names. The only name that’s correct is the one grandma used when she took the sputtering grains out of a sand filled earthen pot. That’s the origin story for me, it never came out of a packet. Ma would put the pot on fire with a little sand at the bottom and thrown in rice. We watched them puff and it was the best magic tricl for…Continue Reading “The thing about Mudhi”
Shahid Nagar, Bhubaneswar. In a market crowded with golgappas, chaats, rolls and roadside grilled sandwiches, I kept looking at this guy. During the half an hour I took to try everything else, he just stood there, arranging, rearranging stuff, I may have been the second guy in all that duration. Finally, gingerly, I approached. A plate came for 20 bucks. He made it with fingertip precision and it was tasteful. Should he do better? Ideally, yes. Do we generaly avoid food that’s healthy? Yes, nless…Continue Reading “Sprout chaat, Bhubaneswar”