Cashing in on Brand Kolkata Knight Riders

This morning I came upon Mani Square, the latest mega retail space being readied for opening. It claims it will be the largest mall in Kolkata when it opens.

On the way, I couldn’t help notice the outdoor assault of the Kolkata Knight Riders cricket team campaign. Apart from that, the likes of Reebok also getting in on the bandwagon and advertising their Kolkata Knight Riders merchandise. It has Shah Rukh Khan pushing it as the 12th man uniform. Also cashing in on the popularity of the IPL and KKR teams was a hoarding of Amul. I remember the Brand used to use this form or advertising a long, long time ago and I would look forward to seeing what the Amul hoarding would say about the latest political situation, or outcome of a game, or any current affairs topic that had made headlines.

ROYAL CHALLENGERS get FIRE&ICE

Last evening after a lot of deliberation I finally went out to FIRE & ICE. They've changed the alignment of the seating a bit, more to make for a more distinct and isolated smoking section. Otherwise the food is still great and the service excellent. Try out their Pepperoni Pizza. A meal for two here with alcoholic drinks would cost about Rs. 1000.

On the way back I noticed the huge Foot Overbridge at Park Circus No. 4 Bridge crossing displaying the entire Royal Challengers team. Yes Mr. Mallya only if your team was performing as well as the billboard. While clicking this picture and elderly "uncle" in the car next to mine was wondering what on earth I was doing. I initially lowered my window and stuck my hand out to click with my phone. But that didn't seem to capture the picture as well as I had wanted it. So I unzipped my bag and pulled out my camera and started clicking away. Sometimes with the flash sometimes without and sometimes in auto mode and sometimes in night mode till I got the picture I wanted. And you're probably wondering, all this in traffic. We thank you Kolkata Traffic Police for such long waiting times at red lights.

KRAZZY 4

The Krazzy 4 are Irrfan Khan (The Captain), Arshad Warsi (The Angry Young Man), Rajpal Yadav (The Freedom Fighter) and Suresh Menon (The Silent One). Juhi Chawla is the doctor who is treating them and believes they can be cured. The plot begins with her being kidnapped and then unravels with a hilarious sequence of events. It is interspersed with Item numbers by King Shah Rukh Khan, Rakhi Sawant and the grand finale by Hritik Roshan. Diya Mirza plays the love interest of Arshad. All in all it’s a laugh riot except for a preachy ending which could have been done without.

I must also add that while the Maharashtra government has clamped down on the Cheerleaders of the Mumbai Kings, how come Rakhi Sawant’s scantily dressed gyrating hips performance in the film hasn’t attracted any vocal assault.

Anyway, that’s my opinion about Krazzy 4 and if you’re crazy enough, go watch it.

I went to watch the movie at FAME, Highland Park. When we got there, a large gathering was watching what I later realised was a location shoot for a Bengali Film. I went up and for the first time tried out the food at the FOOD COURT at this mall. The FOOD COURT is quite simple and yet practical. The food is pretty good and surely worth every Rupee you spend. Several Counters offer different kinds of cuisine and the centre of the Food Court has a Drinks counter.

Once I watched the movie and came back to the parking did I realise that this was quite a big banner kind of film. Tapas Pal was enacting a scene leading several armed Policemen. He took a few steps pulled out a pistol said a few lines and then fired two shots. This happened several times before I got bored and left to go back home while the crowd probably stayed on into the wee hours watching one of their local Super Stars shooting for his next film.

Watering Hole

Last evening I did something out of the ordinary. I visited a place I wouldn’t under normal circumstances; Drinkers Paradise on Park Street, the Mecca of Cheap alcohol – OLYPUB. The last time I had gone there, was several months or more ago. I had never sat downstairs as it seemed like the ground floor was for serious drinkers. Anyway there’s always a first time and this time was it. So we got a table (the only one available) right in front of the door and settled down to start drinking. The ambience of the place kind of reminded me of the Coffee House, save the fact that tea and coffee was replaced with alcohol. There were some promoters in Red t-shirts promoting RC. Now I kind of get where MR. Vija Mallaya’s Rs. 16 crore marketing initiatives are being implemented to promote his IPL Cricket Team the Royal Challengers.

Anyway OLYPUB is unique in many ways. One being that I don’t think the interior décor (I don’t know if I can even call it décor) hasn’t changed for as long as one can remember. Two, that they serve drinks in cheap glasses, the kind you probably find at a road side dhaba. And the most unique one being that they bring the bottle of the alcohol ordered right up to your table, pour your peg using a peg measurer right there into your glasses. Watching this is so much fun. They ensure that you get every drop of that 30 or 60 ml peg you order. The snacks are ok and if you really want to eat, the Chicken Orley or beef stake is a must have.

Anyway after several pegs and some sheikh kababs and fish kababs we headed to the Mecca of Live music; SOME PLACE ELSE at The Park Hotel which is a little way along the street. Once there we waited for HIP POCKET to come up on stage. They seemed to be running a little behind schedule. So while we waited till they came on, we watched the Mumbai Indians getting plastered by the Kings XI Punjab team.

At about 10.30 pm HIP Pocket came on. They started with some tracks I hadn’t heard them perform earlier and the rest of their performance was peppered with song from their usual play list and their sign off was as usual with their Pink Floyd medley.

After HIP POCKET, the high energy band INSOMNIA came on and played some original tracks from their album and after a little while I left. It was way past 1 am and I had to get back to work this morning for some real important meetings.

So much for Saturday’s being off.

U Me Aur Hum

U Me Aur Hum is Ajay Devgan’s Directorial debut. The film is also produced by him. Add to that the lead pair brings his wife Kajol and him onto the silver screen. Kajol’s return after a long hiatus from movie scene is refreshing. The plot of the film is engaging and romantic. While it delves into a real issue it brings back everlasting romance in the true sense. The film is well made and though it gets dragged after the interval, it is worth a watch. The rest of the cast supports the lead pair with zeal.

I think the Devgans have made their film making debut with an excellent movie and what better way to do it than star in your debut film.

afraa

Last evening I went to the much talked about “afraa lounge and restaurant” at City Centre, Salt Lake. Before I headed there I did some time pass in Shopper’s Stop and Star Mark. While I was at Star Mark I saw the Biggles comics and was tempted to buy them. It kind of transported me back into my school days. I mean most of us are familiar with Tintin, Asterix, Commando and Amar Chitra Katha. Biggles was a rarity and I was privileged enough to have read a couple back then.

Anyway up and onwards to the 6th Floor and we stepped out of the lift into the plush entrance of the lounge. Beautiful wooden flooring, lots of frosted glass and immaculate white leather seating of various kinds surrounded us. We were welcomed by a most hospitable staff member and ushered to a table with high bar stool kind of seating which we weren’t to comfortable with. That too right in front of the DJ console. So we were shifted to a lovely low seating sofa right beside the terrace. The wall to wall glass offers a beautiful view of the wooden planked terrace. It gives the feeling of being on a ship and looking out onto the deck.

We were presented with four different menu cards which if I remember were liquor, snacks, main course and forget the fourth. But it was impressive all the same. I was so tempted to order wine and the ambience demanded wine, but I just went with beer. The big screen LCD on the wall behind the bar counters facing us was showing the IPL Cricket match between The Deccan Charger and the Delhi Daredevils. Just this morning I read one of the Dailies which had a headline reading “the Belly Bare“Devils” with reference to the new concept of Cheerleaders that has added a new Dimension to the game of Cricket.

Anyway I just went with a beer and some phenomenal Italian non-vegetarian platter. I don’t quite remember what it was called but it had sliced sausages and was served in the most unique fried crust. The vegetarian dish though it looked really impressive was a bit disappointing, but I’m not much of a vegetarian to be judgemental. So while we drank our beers and relished that fine food, the Delhi Daredevils had done the Deccan Chargers in. That was our cue to move up one level to the restaurant. We stepped out into the deck and took the outside stairs to the restaurant. It reiterated the feeling of being on board a luxury vessel. The moon shining down while we climbed the stairs just completed the mood.

Once in, we were once again welcome by an even friendlier staffer. We were guided to a table for two and as we were seated, one of them came up and lit a candle in the middle. This was just getting better and better. I did notice the wall we walked past with its fine selection of wines. A wall with a display of wine bottles does catapult a restaurant into a league of its own. We spent a little time on the menu and decided our orders. The fish dish I ordered was the best I’ve had till date. The roasted chicken was very different to any chicken I’ve tasted till now and the mashed potatoes. Well I have to say I’ve never ever had mashed potatoes like that in my life. I mean who talks about mashed potatoes. It’s a side dish. But believe you me, you want to order the mashed potatoes just to know what I’m talking about. To wrap up, we wre given chocolate coated "paan". Chocolate coated "paan"! I was a little wary at first becuase I don't chew "paan" but then the oddity that it was just tempted me to try it and so I did. Amazing!

I could just go on and on about this fabulous eatery, but will let any and all of you savour some of their delicacies yourselves to experience what I did.

Oh and I just loved the chairs. It just seems like the person who built this place did some finicky homework. The chairs just slide back so smoothly that whenever you have to get up or move back, its not a painful task.

All I can say is that if this is Mr. Harsh Neotia’s foray into the Hospitality business, I look forward to the things to come.

So if you want to go to this fine eaterey, here's the address.

afraa
City Centre, Salt Lake, Block DC.
Tel: 23581111.
A meal for two is priced at Rs 1,500 approx if you're not going to drink like a fish that is.

Chelo Kabab. Yummy!

Need I say much more!!!
Oh well ok I will. Went to Peter Cat for lunch. The ride in the cab was hot, hot hot! but once there we got seating at the same spot where we had the last couple of times we had been here. exact same table. How weird is that? Anyway a fresh lime soda each and a plate of Chelo Kababs was ordered and before we knew it, the food was on our table. After we had finsished what seemed like a fast food kind of lunch, we decided to go to Flury's for Pastries and Coffee. And so we did. A Rum Ball and Lemon Tart and two Cappuccinos completed the Lunch out. Then back into the Kolkata summer heat.

The Magnificent EDEN GARDENS

The past couple of days have been awesome in terms of eating out; from Kim Ling in Tangra to Momo Palace on Elgin Road, have had it all.

But the high point of this weekend was my very first visit to Eden Gardens. What can I say? It is all that I’ve heard about it and much, much more. I remember the last stadium I had gone to was the Feroze Shah Kotla Stadium for one of the world cup matches. But that is nowhere close to the majestic Eden Gardens.

I got a call from a friend who asked me if I wanted to go to watch a match at Eden Gardens. I was like sure why not. This Indian Premier League Cricket is catching on and after watching my home team Kolkata Knight Riders pulverize the Bangalore Royal Challengers, I was totally game to go to the Mecca of cricket and cheer them on in their second outing. The Kolkata Knight Riders were playing the Deccan Chargers.

I was on my way there and already running a bit behind my original schedule of getting there by 3 pm for the 4 pm start of game but got caught in traffic. People were just getting off their cars, cabs and whatever means of transportation they had taken and we were still about a kilometre away from The Eden Gardens. I waited on in the comfort of the air-conditioning as we moved a centimetre an hour and finally could wait and as we crossed the red light on Red Road, I just had to get off and join those thousands of people heading to what seemed like war.

As I walked through the assigned bamboo barricade towards gate no 14, I could hear the stadium come to life with the Kolkata Knight Riders battle cry “Korbo, Lorbo, Jeetbo Re”. There was thunderous cheering and I started running towards the entrance. Past security (I mean they did check my ticket and frisk me) and up the stairs around twice and voila I alighted to the stands and all I could see was the backs of people. I showed my ticket and one of the staffers showed me to the section where my seat would be. Once in that section, I actually looked up and saw the majestic ground and then stopped and took a long hard look around the stadium. Sheer magnificence! The stands were packed the field was a brilliant lush green. I’m not going to write much about the match, as most of you must’ve caught it live on Sony MAX. But here’s the ironic tragedy. I walked out of the stadium when the lights on two of the floodlight stands went of and thought the game would get called off. I walked down to Esplanade and just before I was getting into the Metro to head to Park Street I looked back to see that the lights were back on. By the time I reached Park Street and had got out of the metro and was on my way to Music World did I hear that the Kolkata Knight Riders had pulled off a nail biting victory. King Khan danced and jumped with joy. His team had won their second match and was leading in the tournament.

Later I headed to Elgin Road to celebrate the win with some thukpa and momos.

Bomb Scare on Park Street

Just when I thought there was nothing exciting happening around me. Voila!! A few minutes before end of day, suddenly there was a flurry of activity in our office. The commotion was stirred up by a communique from the Parking lot below to remove all cars. There was a Bomb threat in the building diagonally opposite us. So I rushed out to the stairway window and clicked a couple of pics of the Fire Tenders, Police Vans and the fairly large accumulation of people around the site of the threat.

Amazing, isn't it. One would think people would be running away from the place but then this is Kolkata, anything intrigues people and they want to know what's going on.

Traffic Magic

Since there is nothing interesting happening around me, I thought this one would put things in perspective.

This morning as usual on my way to office, I was crossing the road (Park Street) at the zebra crossing in front of my office building. There’s always a traffic constable there who assists in the way of stopping the traffic when he sees a sizeable number of pedestrians trying to crass the road. He manages this in between collecting fees from bikers who keep their bikes in “his” parking lot. Today as usual I came to the zebra crossing and it was bumper to bumper traffic as usually and then his walkie-talkie goes into a dizzying buzz. He whistles at a couple of cabs parked on the side. The last of the traffic had disappeared and merrily crossed the road without hesitation. Only then did I realise why there was absolute silence in the usually deafening street at this time of the morning. Some VIP was going to pass.

Sure enough sirens wailing I caught a glimpse of the first Maruti Gypsy all red and white and with its lights flashing while I dived into my pocket to pull out my Nokia 6630. It was a bit too late to pull out my camera from my backpack and I would just have to make do with my mobile phone camera. The Gypsy loaded with Commandos whizzed past followed closely by several white Ambassadors. By the time I managed to click picture number 2, I caught the tail end of the motorcade, a white Maruti Gypsy also loaded with Commandoes and a blue Mahindra Commander Jeep of the Kolkata Traffic Police.

It was silent for several minutes thereafter. Then again I saw the onslaught of traffic and the sheer mayhem of honking.

I just wonder how the Kolkata Traffic Police manage to sanitise a road and clear it in minutes for the Chief Minister to pass and yet can’t manage the utter chaos that engulfs the streets of Kolkata.

Poila Baishak Celebration Gallivanting

Yesterday was Poila Baishak (Bengali New Year) and the only way to celebrate it in the state of West Bengal is by it being a holiday. Well a holiday for everyone except our office. Anyway the attendance was kind of thin and the few that were there also decided to call it an early day. I left office and made the best of the early exit by indulging in some lukkhagiri. Where better but in the comfort of South City Mall. Air conditioning in this sweltering heat was the best excuse. Ok, Ok, I’m a Shop-o-holic, if there were such a word to describe it.

After manoeuvring through the tricky traffic in front of the Mall, I headed into the 2nd level basement parking and found a spot right in front of the entry gate. Straight into Spencer’s and for a change it wasn’t that crowded, albeit was a holiday. Got around to buying some stuff and during the time I was waiting at the express billing counter because of some mess-up done on my bill, I caught a glimpse of what seemed to be a rock band playing live in one of the shops being readied for opening which served as a makeshift studio/ stage for their performance. That is where the crowd seemed to have gathered. It was a full-fledged Bangla / English Rock band pelting out some high voltage music. Once out, headed back into the car to dump the stuff I had bought and head upwards.

I had never been up to the food court level so that was on the cards, save a short interval to step out of the mall and have a smoke. Well that led to me indulging in some mouth watering Puchkas that beckoned out to me to savour them. Well, I had never had Puchkas here before, so I thought to myself, why not? Then I headed back onto mission Food Court. But before that I did have a taste of some fine acoustics at the SONODYNE listening room. I sampled five minutes of their new Home Theatre System. Thereafter, up towards the food court. Well it’s an impressive food court in sheer expanse and seating capacity, but I wasn’t really impressed with the food counters and the kind of fare on offer and thus after taking a stroll right around decided it was time to leave. Two and half hours of lukkhagiri was enough.

TATA SKY, Finally!!

Today after much deliberation I managed to get TATA SKY installed in my house. To most of you it might seem like such a simple thing to get done, but believe me it has been among the toughest things that I've managed to get done in the recent past. It all started a couple of months ago when I went out and bought the TATA SKY set top box from Music World on Park Street. There was an offer on and the box was available for Rs. 1499/-. Little did I know at the time was that I had to take the permission of the Society I lived in to install the connection. The society had its own cable connection but if you wanted to install TATA SKY or any other satellite TV connection you needed to get permission from the society.

So I wrote an application seeking permission to do so. It took about a week or more for them to respond on that. They gave me permission but with a lot of clauses and the most explicit being that I couldn't set the dish on the terrace or the walls. Which when the TATA SKY engineer came about a month ago made it virtually impossible for him to find a place to set the antenna.

Anyway that was that, till more recently that is, when I decided enough was enough. Life without TV wasn't complete. Not that I watch much TV, but one did need TV every once in a while. So this afternoon I made way to the society office to seek their guidance on how I could get the TATA SKY installed yet meeting all their ludicrous stipulations. And I did and got a more ludicrous solution from them to install the dish on the parapet above my bedroom window. Well if that was how it was required to be done, then that’s how it was going to be done.

I called the TATA SKY guys and explained to them that I needed the Connection installed in my place and also the fact that the previous engineer had refused to install the dish. So they sent their firefighter engineer or so I learnt when he came. He was always called upon to installation sites where all other engineers had refused to install due to the dangerous nature of the installation. Believe me he was a daredevil. He climbed down from the terrace on to the parapet and went about the process of installing the dish. Meanwhile a much-needed thunderstorm was brewing up. Clouds were plunging the already dark sky into absolute blackness save the recurrent flashes of lightening. The engineer finally got the dish in place just before the squall. It came down cats and dogs while he pulled the wire into the room and connected it to the TV and waited for the set top box to set up the channels. Voila!! I had TATA SKY on my TV.

Amazingly I got to complete the movie I was watching on a DVD this evening before the TATA SKY engineers came, on Star Movies. It was a really nice movie called Little Miss Sunshine. It was quite a hilarious movie. A great story about family bonding in the time of the worst crisis. Some of the sequences are a laugh riot. A must watch, even if some of the language is over the top.

Biryani Festival

Last evening I went down to a place on Purna Das Road called Pakhwan. A little hole in the wall kind of place but very neatly done up. Well what took me there was a little write up about them in The Telegraph yesterday. So after doing some lukkhagiri and weekly grocery shopping at South City Mall I went there. A meal for four which included 4 different types of biryani (Chetinad, Musallam Murg, Ghosht Biryani and Afghani). Raita and Firni are complimentary witht he Biryani. For starters we ordered a plate of Fish and a plate of Paneer. Each had for large pieces. Also ordered were 2 fresh lime sodas, a sprite and a bottle of Mineral water. All this was paid for licking our fingers at a meagre Rs. 750/-. Oh and we had to pack and take back one full Biryani.

So if you like Biryani, you might want to visit this place. The service is really decent.

Ban Vague Movies

Last evening I rented a DVD with 4 movies on it. I watched the first one called "The Last Kiss". My advice to you guys out there, don't watch this movie with your wife, girlfriend or partner. It'll definitely lead to some complicated questions that however you answer them they'll be construed to be the wrong answer. The movie is vague and yet insightful into relationships and the institution of marriage. So if you are brave go right ahead and watch this one and better still get into a conversation about all the issues raised after watching the movie.

FM is available everywhere

I was so thrilled to see this phone last evening when I went over to my aunt's place. One, for the reason, that her phone instrument change was long overdue. The previous one was battered and temperamental. Two, the phone, I was shocked to see had an FM Receiver. I pressed the Radio button and then the scan and yippee!! It tuned into the first frequency on the band 91.9 fm. I’m amazed how technology is integrating everything.

RACE is tricky

The first thing in this movie is the star cast. My personal favourite is Bips who just sizzles the screen with her presence. Saif is a lady killer with his unshaven rugged looks. Katrina is hot, but doesn't have the oomph factor which Sameera Reddy does quite decently though playing a bimbo. RD played by Anil Kapoor brings in a little of the humour and Akshaye Khanna does justice to his role. Now I wouldn't want to reveal the plot but think that Hindi Cinema has just risen a notch after this film in terms of plots and the cinematography. The race and action scenes are right up their with international movies (OK leave Lucas and Spielberg out of this for effects comparisons). But I was truly impressed watching this tricky film and reminded me of reading a Roald Dahl book. You never know what's going to happen next because there's always a twist-in-the-tale.

My Super Ex-Girlfriend

Thank god there are no super sensitive super heroes in real life. I just can't imagine the amount of damage it would cause. So for all people who are single, go out there and live, it can't get this bad. You won't have to deal with your super ex-girlfriend anyway, just your normal ex-girlfriend if that happens. Gosh Scary thought. Anyway on a less philosophical note, the movie is for real time pass viewing. So if you have time on your hands and nothing else to do, don't rent this movie, wait for it to show on one of the TV channels and then watch it, just like I did. Ofcourse Uma Thurman has still got it going on!

In the Middle of the Storm

Finally I have moved to a 5 day working week, which gives me the weekends to indulge in sheer “lukkhagiri” without the pressure of not realising when the weekend started and ended. So now I have Saturday for gallivanting and Sunday for more gallivanting.

I started the first week thus. I made a trip to Gariahat and weaving through some narrow lanes to Fab India. I had heard so much about their flagship store in Kolkata and decided it was finally time to pay the place a visit. Well it sure has a lot of stuff and I was surprised to see this once famous for khadi stuff place now was peddling wares ranging from furniture to food to beauty products. Diversification and branding sure has penetrated the ethos of our generation. Anyway I didn’t buy anything. There was just too much stuff packed into that place and was quite dizzying.

So after that a visit to Forum was on the cards. Out in the rain that was now coming down quite heavily, I decided to be brave and turned into a narrow lane that I hoped would lead to Forum. We geographically, Forum was in that direction and I would land up on some recognisable road that would eventually get me to Forum and I did. Once at Forum, some window shopping finally led to a purchase at Cotton World. I quite like their stuff; they’re simple, neat and trendy.

Anyway post that a long awaited visit to one of my favourite malls, Merlin Homeland. Of course with the promise to me that such weather warranted Momos and Thukpa. So Homeland proved to be another fruitful visit. A Bookshelf and a Wardrobe in the bag built up an appetite so I headed off to Elgin Road to savour some of that delicious food.

The mixed Thukpa is just fabulous at Momo Palace and top it off with gluttonous consumption of 12 momos and a Coke to wash it down made for a perfect way to end day one of the weekend. Well not quite. I topped it off with watching a rerun of The Filmfare Awards on TV. I haven’t watched TV in what seems like months.

Oh and the picture is something I clicked on the way out of Momo Palace. The Thunderstorm had led to the felling of this Traffic Signal Post and blocked of Elgin Road sending traffic into complete disarray.

Driving my Swift ZXi in a Thunderstorm

It’s been raining on and off in the City of Joy for a while now. It’s a cold winter sort of rain and last night was no exception. A huge build up during the late afternoon and by evening the skies plunged into darkness with dark clouds looming heavy overhead. Lightening and thunder followed and then there was a squall. Gusts of wind blowing the downpour in all directions ensured that the rain was short-lived. It did continue with a couple of drops here and there, but the lightening kept illuminating the black skies.

This was the perfect weather to take that long clear road home. It was a slight detour but worth every single extra kilometre. The AJC Bose Road Flyover that starts from the Park Circus 7 point crossing runs for 2.6 kilometres over the AJC Bose Road and descends at the Race Course. Just before getting on, I decided to switch my camera on in video mode for the first time and capture the stretch on camera. I captured the lightening, some crazy driving and the sheer joy of this clear 2.6 km stretch. Rihanna’s music on the stereo did add some flavour to the drive.

Puchkas at New Alipore

Last evening I stopped atNew Alipore to relish some street side delicacy. "Puchkas" (or "Golgappas" or "Paani Puri" as it is called in other parts of India). Kolkata is famous for its Puchkas and the puchka wala outside Mama Mia in New Alipore is quite famous for his puchkas. Since it had been so long, I managed to polish off near a dozen of them. Kolkata "puchkas" Rock!!

Oh and that's my chariot in the pic. My red Swift ZXi still giving my great service and I just discovered that a USB Pen Drive works wonders on the move. I just got a Moser Baer 2 GB pen drive that has some music on it and once attached to my Sony Car Audio system works wonders.