Friends can be good things. Not all the time. They get boring with time, cost a lot to maintain and can behave irrationally, a cheer group at times and as assasins at others. Anyway, I am determined to talk of only in the most glowing terms. After all, who else takes you to a fantastic new place in town, does not charge a finder’s fee and takes for a long drive thereafter? The place I am talking about is Rigo Restaurant. They have a branch…Continue Reading “Rigo Restaurant, Kamla Nagar”
Higher education system in India, especially since the past five years, is going through turbulent times. We would like our students to go for higher education, we are competing with China for producing the highest number of PhDs, we denounce the trend of brain drain, when our students go to foreign shores for further studies, but, when we cannot provide jobs for our existing PhDs, maybe there is something seriously wrong with our system. I have friends who went for jobs outside Delhi, but I…Continue Reading “Crisis in Academics- Teachers as Casual Laborers”
Modi crying in public at a nationally televised event is important. It does not change the course of history but you can’t completely discount it either. For a man who is built as a well scripted advertisement, this was the moment when the man forgot the camera. Or, the character took a well departed but definitive turn. We are used to see him not showing a shred of remorse, not exhibit an iota of emotion. So, what impact should his public breakdown have on you?…Continue Reading “What influence should Modi’s tears have on you”
I am the destroyer of South Indian food. Have written about quite a few of them: Jantar Mantar guy, Naivyedyam, Sarvana Bhavan, Tamilnadu house canteen, Kausstubh and may be a few more. I have been reading about the Carnatic Cafe for a long time but we end up in Naivedyam every time. This Sunday afternoon, we decided to go ahead and try the place out. The reviewers were promising the moon, so it’s not as if we were taking a risk. As always, we went with…Continue Reading “Carnatic Cafe, New Friends colony”
I am not much of an art person. I don’t get most of the art forms. In fact, it was the first time in my thirteen years I Delhi that I had stepped into the National Museum. I have previously written about the Kiran Nadar Musuem, but my wife had dragged me. My wife dragged me this time too. Another part of the reason was I almost knew the awesome guy who had single handedly curated it. Another part of the reason was there were…Continue Reading “Roop Pratiroop, The body in Indian art – National Museum Exhibition”
There are two obvious destinations for regional food in the national capital – the state bhawans and the Dilli Haat. I dont understand why both have to be such unapologetic disasters. How can states spend money on TV advertising and ignore food as an effective media? Not all bhavans are horrible. The Andhra Bhawan is quite a favorite among all. Despite bad reviews, Tamilnadu Bhawan turned out to be quite good. So, when we read good reviews of Gujarat Bhawan, we had to make the…Continue Reading “Gujarat Bhawan Restaurant, Chanakyapuri”
A lot happens in Delhi if you keep your eyes and ears open. Bhakti Sangeet festival in Nehru Park is one you should not miss. Organised by Delhi Government’s Department of Art, Culture & Languages and Sahitya Kala Parishad, the festival features 14 devotional singers of different genres, including the Buddhist chanting of Bhutan, the Sufi Qawwali tradition of India as well as the traditions of Krishna bhakti. I know Bhakti Sangeet may not sound appealing to may of you. Precisely why, you should be…Continue Reading “Bhakti Sangeet Festival, Nehru Park”
In my last post on our trip to Lansdowne, I had mentioned how small the town is. There is practically nothing to do here and that’s how I love it. You can go up and down the hill, but you will have better sights if you just sat down in a place. Bhulla Tal lake is one of the few tourist attractions. The churches of Lansdowne , the bazaar and the lake are on one road. It’s straight up the hill. They all come one…Continue Reading “Bhulla Tal Lake, Lansdowne”
I love buffets, even the bad ones. ‘Eat all you want, child. No one will stop you’should be the message from gods, resturanteurs. But who minds. If there is a choice between a la carte and buffet, we always go for the latter. And, Asia 7 is another reason why we will continue to do so. So many have told me that malls in Gurgaon are better than the ones in Delhi. But I go to malls only when I have to buy something that…Continue Reading “Asia 7 Restaurant, Ambience Mall. Gurgaon”
I work for a tech company. Like tech tech company…apps, data analytics, digital tools and stuff. Why am I saying this? Because, no matter how wrong in reality, we still believe that education annihilates bigotry. It does not. Now, you may ask, who is a soft terrorist? For arguments sake, let’s assume that hard terrorists are the exploding types, the gun toting, stoning and beheading types. Now, people who carry none of the above action attributes but have the same thoughts can be called soft…Continue Reading “My conversations with a soft terrorist”
I was born in 1981. Independence is already a few centuries into history. Despite the incursions and little tiffs now and then, loss to China is no memory at all, and apart from a few idiots, few believe in the need for military posturing there. No more wars with Pakistan have happened so far. Kargil was over too soon. Despite the media jingoism, the life of a man on the street was not affected in any manner. To those concerned, it was a victory over…Continue Reading “What the 2014 elections taught me about patriotism”
Gurgaon is another planet. A very remote and rough planet. It used to be inhabited by a species called jats before its discovery. I don’t venture there. I avoid friends who live there. I block recruiters who call from there. I even refused to pick up my parents from the airport as it is halfway down on the road to Gurgaon. But I happily drove down for food. I read reviews, I did my homework and was supremely excited. Finally, the planet has something good…Continue Reading “Roots – Cafe in The Park, Sector 29, Gurgaon”
The average Indian has a short memory, a big heart and the gullibility of a child. No matter how much the MNCs crib about our efficiency, we are easy to work with. Show us a video on whatsapp and we will kill a thousand, you kill a thousand and we will make you our prime minister. Individually, may be, not. But as a nation, we are extremely forgiving. Especially, in the matters of faith. I have heard eleven years olds talk passionately about coal scam…Continue Reading “The forgiving Indian”
Living in Delhi is not easy. I love waterbodies, to the extent that I love hotels because they have bathtubs. Delhi has lakes and a monumental river, we all know how they are doing. We have quite a few parks, I have previously written about the need for an all night park in Delhi. But the government is worried about law and order. So, what do you do? You make do with what you have and explore them all over and over again. But it…Continue Reading “Aravali Biodiversity Park, Vasant Kunj, Delhi”
B.S: The apology and the blame for the quality of photos is at the end of the post. What general elections are to the politicos, authentic food is to the foodies. You have to face your toughest test and earn your credibility all over again. I wrote about our experiments with Afghani food at Afghan Darbar Restaurant in Lajpat Nagar. There are many other Middle Eastern restaurants around, Iraqi, Lebanese and now, an authentic Arab restaurant. We were there the day after the restaurant opened….Continue Reading “Bayt al Arab, Lajpat Nagar – Another run in with authentic food”
A couple of days back, my friends were sitting and discussing the elections. The conversation then, moved to our childhood memories of the Ayodhya related riots in Delhi in 1990s, then the 1984 riots, etc. We all feared that BJP coming to power would also vitiate the atmosphere, and everything would just boil down to religious politics. People were not as afraid during the last BJP government, as Atal Behari Vajpayee was seen as a statesman figure, but Modi with his cronies like Amit Shah,…Continue Reading “My Memories of Curfew in Old Delhi”
Rajouri Garden has been coming closer to Delhi for last few years. From being a distant satellite spot to a plausible evening destination, it has become the coolest hangout place in Western Delhi. In fact, if the food is good, I may give South Delhi an occasional miss. One such occasion came in the form of California Boulevard recently. One of the few themed restaurants in Delhi, California Boulevard is replete with insignia from the city that it is named after. The entrance is a…Continue Reading “The California Boulevard, Rajouri Garden”
It is so enticing to visit a city and bypass all the major landmarks. There are those kinds travelers – the off the trail explorers etc. I used to do that at times. Took me 12 years to see Qutub Minar and countless visits to see the Hawa Mahal. When you have ticked off all the offbeat places, the touristy places may just save the day. It is better from the front than from inside. It is extremely crowded. The narrow stairs and the eager…Continue Reading “Hawa Mahal, Jaipur”