TURQUOISE CHILL

The weekend started with a meal at McDonald’s and their resurrection from their fall from grace after my last visit. The service was back on track and I got my meal alongside the cashier returning me the change due. Now that is fast. The rest of Saturday was spent catching up on sleep and TV. Yesterday was spent watching movies back to back. So after a late lunch we headed to Fame Highland Park to catch ‘ Chalo Let’s Go ”. Yes I finally watched it. We caught the 5:20 pm show and I must say that Anjan Dutta is on his way to becoming a filmmaker of repute. The film is decent in all aspects yet lacks that finish that couldn’t catapult it into a major blockbuster. I felt some of the cinematography bordered on amateur work. But I enjoyed the film all the same. The good part is that Anjan Dutta created characters that every bong can relate with. After Chalo Let’s Go, we made a dash for the next film we wanted to watch. It was at Fame, South City Mall and showing at 8:20 pm. Chalo L...

I am sitting in a hospital right now biding my time writing about last nights event at Some Place else. I have just filled up the forms to register myself for a long overdue medical check up. So about last night; I had bumped into Anjan Da a couple of days ago just as I had come out of Music World on Park Street. The first question he posed to me was whether I had watched his latest film, Cholo Let’s Go. I replied in the negative which disappointed him but promised that I would this week. In fact I had wanted to go watch it as everyone I know who has watched the film have good things to say about it. As a parting note thought, he asked me to drop into Some Place Else on Thursday as he and his band were playing there to promote the music from the film. So come Thursday night and guess where I was? Well at the Atrium to begin with, as I had to grab a bite before 8:30 pm. You’re wondering what’s with the time business right. Well I had booked myself into the Apollo Gleaneagles Ho...

A couple of days ago, I noticed the magical number 9999 on the tachometer of my car. I was thinking to myself, what are the odds of most people seeing that magical number on their car’s tacho. And within moments it went to 10000. When it did, it suddenly struck me that my car was due for service at 10000kms. So the beats was sent to the workshop and has come back retuned and serviced and driving like a breeze.

After such a hectic weekend one can’t just let the tempo off, so Monday night I headed out to Heka at The Stadel in Salt Lake and met up with some friends. It was pretty decent in the sense that the DJ hadn’t come in and we could engage in some conversation without exerting our vocal chords. The evening was nice over a couple of beers and then on the way back home I decided to check out a restaurant I crossed everyday on my way back home. It’s called Sanjha Chula. Well for all practical purposes to put things in perspective, it’s a high end Dhaba. The Tandoori chicken and Kulchas were good and I finally got to eat here. So now I know where to make a pit stop if I’m ever hungry on my way home and there’s no dinner made.

Sunday morning I was beside myself with joy. The agony of waking up early was more than made up with the fact that “Mission Kolkata Sightseeing” was going as per plan. A slight setback at the Mcdonald’s at Mani Square put us off schedule by about 40 minutes, but we weren’t going to be stopped by their inefficiency. I had ordered a McChicken, Filet-O-Fish and a Coke. The McChicken came to me after 15 minutes and the Filet after half an hour and that too after complains to the manager. All of one counter was open at 11 am and the kitchen was still being put in place for the day. I was really irritated with the fiasco. To add to that an entire glass of coke had been spilled at the counter and was adding to the chaos of now what seemed to be a swelling numbers of customers. Anyway leaving that behind and getting on with the mission at hand we drove to Dakhineshwar. I had wanted to visit the temple for a long time and finally was glad we made it there just in the nick of time. They clo...

Saturday was spent completely indoors at home till finally by night the urge to get out and do something led to me going to watch a neat movie called 'Get Smart". Anne Hathaway looks sizzling and Steve Carell is splendid in his dead pan comedy. The movie also has a great supporting cast with some big names, but I'll leave that to you to find out when you go to watch the movie. Its an Entertainer.

Friday evening was quite a blast. Went to ONE STEP UP with a gang of new friends and then headed to ROXY and for a change just lolled around on their mezzanine floor comfy sofas. Of course beer and interesting conversations was the mainstay of the evening. The evening led to a great plan for Sunday. The Plan was to go sightseeing in Kolkata and we finalised the places and things to do that night.

So Mani Square Mall has finally opened. Maybe not officially, but with the kind of footfals its going to be the new hangout of Kolkata. And thanks to them McDonald's is finally back in Kolkata after a long hiatus following the mishap at their Park Street outlet. Fillet-O-Fish, McChicken, Fries and Coke...What more could you want for a quick yet sumptuous bite? And that is exactly what I did for lunch today. Now to look forward to some Partying on Park Street tonight.

A couple of days ago I bought a mike. Why? I’m trying making a music room. I bought a Shure SM58 audio mike. Last evening after a quick stop at Music Messe to pick up a few more cables to connect my computer to my amplifier, I headed to Some Place Else. There was a slight pitter-patter and the perfect weather to catch a beer. What better place than Some Place Else. When I got there the DJ was belting out some good rock music as usual. I hung out while I waited for the band to start and they did a bit after 10 pm. Hip Pocket as usual got their gig going and a couple of Beatles tracks set the mood for the night. The music faded into the background as I got busy chatting with a couple of chaps I met there. Beer and conversation and Hip Pocket dishing out their fare of great music got me through a nice evening. The high point of the evening was meeting Hitesh after an eternity. We caught up, rolled up our sleeves and exchanged views on the recently acquired tattoos we both had and th...

This morning I stepped out onto my balcony since I heard the droning sound of the rain which had been coming down incessantly through the night. Yippie! I looked down at my car and realised that there was only one way I was getting into it. I hard to wade through a foot of water. The entire colony was inundated. Welcome Monsoon!

After a crazy night at Dublin with over two dozen Sri Lankan lads on Thursday, I decided to go to Some Place Else on Saturday. RSJ Pub Rock Festival had brought the Mizoram based band, Boomerang, to town on its eastern leg of the multi city festival. The boys got the crowd crazy with some headbanging and hardcore Rock music. There was alot of alcohol and grass consumed there that night and not to mention that I have never seen the place so crowded ever. Well except that one time when Indian Ocean performed and I couldn't get a peek into the joint.

The fourth of the series from George Lucas and Steven Spielberg is a visual treat. Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull takes the Archaeologist Adventurer globe trotting yet again and saves the day after some of the craziest chase sequences. A visibly older Harrison Ford still has what it takes to be Dr. Henry Jones or Indy as he is affectionately called by his friends. The movie also stars Cate Blanchet as the crazy Russian Scientist who is after Crystal Skull and hopes to achieve world domination through it. Personally it is a slick film, but when you come from a generation that has grown up with Raiders of the Lost Ark, The Temple of Doom and The Last Crusade, this film seems a bit pretentious in its attempt to conjure memories of the whip slinging adventurer of the old days. It’s as though Lucas is trying to capitalise a franchise (milk a cow), the same way he did with the Star Wars saga. The first three were cult drivers and the next three seemed like an attempt...

Sex and the City, though a spin off from the popular TV series of the same name on HBO and featuring the four protagonists is a must watch movie for all adults and those that want to get into doing adult stuff. Tchk.Tchk. Not only the adult stuff that your dirty minds are thinking of. The movie delves into relationships and age as a non entity to the fact that love is something that can drop like a bomb at any age. Yet that love is something that just doesn’t only fall into your lap. It’s what you do with it thereafter. Like all things it has got to be nurtured and cherished and if you lose objectivity due to your petty ego, it can drop you like a ton of bricks plummeting towards the asphalt and hitting you smack on the face. It’s about the life of four friends in New York and their adventures with the elusive Love. The movie while it talks about love and the four girls also has a great take on the Big Apple and how treacherous and affectionate and lively it can be. Once again a m...