TURQUOISE CHILL

There’s always something to do on a weekend if you look hard enough. I had remembered my boss telling me about this book sale that was happening at Prudential Hall next to Peter Cat and how he had bought a whole lot of them for a steal. So once I was back from Mumbai, I told my wife, who loves reading books about the sale and off we went. Books & Beyond, the erstwhile book store of the RPG Group was clearing out stocks and everything was up for grabs at a flat 50%. My wife went a bit dizzy and after a bit so did I, carrying that load. I think we ended up buying some 14-15 books. Since we were in the area, I decided to check out Emami Market (popularly called Landmark). At one time this was “the mall” and I had never seen it till date. So off we went. When we got there, I was kind of disappointed because the way people had gone on and on about Landmark in its hay-day this place was tacky and puny compared to the malls of today. Kind of reminded me of the 5 mall day when I had vi...

Since I was in the Lokhandwala area, I thought I might as well catch up with friends who were this side of town. So after our meetings, I hung out at some malls in the area and fixed up the plans for the evening. The place was decided and I met Dharmesh again along with one of his friends and we headed out to Firangi Paani. The place was huge and there was a live act which was supposed to start later on. So while we hung out with some beers, I noticed that this place was quite popular with the TV crowd. Mona Singh was there with friends having a blast. Unlike us, out-of-towners who look at them, most Mumbaikars couldn’t be star-struck. I need to do some shopping and took some time out and headed to the close by Lokhandwala Market and with the help of my sister in law managed to get some great deals (she’s good at this bargaining thing) on some stuff for my wife. That done I headed back to Firangi Paani to join my friends. After a while Vikrant & Kajari from Delhi (now married ...

The following day in Mumbai, we had a couple of meetings lined up and after we had finished the first one in the evening, I had time to kill most of the mid afternoon and did some Lukhagiri and some shopping on Linking Road. While walking down Linking Road, I was quite fascinated by the numerous types of Taxis and decided to click some. In Kolkata apart from the good old work-horse Yellow Ambassador, one hardly gets to see any other type of cars that ply as Taxis. Mumbai Taxis started from Maruti 800s progressing through TATA Indicas and Indigos right up to Maruti Esteems. The blue Cabs were Air-conditioned ones and the Yellow and Black ones were basic types. After that I went back to the Guest house for some lunch and then headed out for the next two meetings which were on the other side of town near Lokhandwala. Premier Padmini (originally Fiat) Maruti Suzuki Wagon R Maruti Suzuki 800 Tata Indigo (AC Taxi) Tata Indica

Just before entering the Taj, I just had to get a picture of the Bandra-Worli Sea Link which is very near completion and promises to cut down travel time between the suburbs and the business district in town by one hour. Anyway that was in the morning and after we left the Taj in the evening, we headed out with an ex-colleague for a drink and ended up going to a place called Temptation just off Hill Road. A couple of drinks later we went our separate ways. I decided to do some lukhagiri on Linking Road and Hill Road and make plans for the later part. The plan finally brought me to Zenzi. I caught up with Dharmesh, a school friend and my sister in law Akhila. We were pleasantly surprised to also catch up with another couple of my wife’s cousins, Vikram & Jagdeep, there. It was just a great evening over beers and munchies. Way past midnight, Dharmesh and I decided to go grab some dinner and he took me to a place called Persian Darbar where we indulged in some great Indian food...

We made it to Taj Lands End by 9am after going through some short cuts that the Auto wallah went zig-zag through. It was  India Radio Forum  once again. Like every year, walking down the steps towards the Forum area, one can get that familiar aura of Radio Professionals. Though it is meant for media planners, Brand Managers et al, it as usual ends up as a congregation of the Private FM Radio fraternity. The session started with the normal CEO panel with the usual suspects. The same old discussion, same old points, and they went on blah blah blah. Radio Rocks because of what it can do for advertisers and Radio is in dire straights unless the government changes some policies blah blah blah. And thank you very much. I had heard enough and was looking forward to some real inside stuff on creating really good radio programs that could captivate audiences. So session after session on technology and audience measurement and then finally one guy I had heard before, Diamid Mon...

Thanks to Cyclone Aila, our Spice Jet flight to Mumbai got cancelled. We still needed to get to Mumbai for the India Radio Forum. So we enquired with some other Airlines. Indigo was the only one with seats available and were charging some 15K one way; Mind-blowing. The only other options were Kolkata-Bangalore-Mumbai or Kolkata-Delhi-Mumbai on Spice Jet. We opted for the latter. So I left home at 10 am for a 12 noon flight to Delhi. Our connecting flight from Delhi was at 6.15pm. So we had just about enough time at the Delhi Airport for a meal between the two flights. I was quite impressed with the New Delhi Terminal which was coming up to International standards with shopping arcade and food court and ultra-modern architecture. The only thing I still felt lacking was the Aero-bridges. In the afternoon sun, waiting for the bus on the tarmac was quite an ordeal. I noticed a bunch of passengers who took shelter under the wing of the aircraft which was quite hilarious. Anyway that apar...

Cyclone Aila! I kind of missed the news in the papers in the morning and went to work. Only by late morning did I realise that this overcast sky was a big deal. “Aila!!!” a cyclone is what it was. Ok I thought to myself, as usual its heading towards Bengal and at the last moment will either hit Bangladesh or the Orissa coast. By noon with wind speeds hitting nearly 100kmph, and visibility going down to a few metres as I watched from our office window, I was beginning to wonder, especially when the local News Channels were only talking about the Cyclone. By noon, Kolkata Police had sent out a red alert and offices were shutting down, letting employees head back home before the cyclone hit. We could see the clouds racing across the sky and every now and then lightening and walls of rain moved across like a white veil. By 3 pm, things had gone from bad to worse. I decided to take a stroll and headed to the ground floor and as I stepped out on the street, I realised what a cyclone was. ...

After the show at Dalhousie Institute, we decided, since we were in the neighbourhood, to try the restaurant just opposite the club. Since it was raining, we didn’t want to roam about too much in search of a place to eat and it so happened that we hadn’t tried this one. So we ducked in to Indus Valley and got the menu. A very decently made place, practical and yet with its unique tinge of style with Mohenjodaro-Harrapa type wall sculptures lending credence to the name. The menu was quite exhaustive and we decided to try their continental fare. We took the suggestion of one of the waiters and ordered a portion of Cheese Bites something for starters. It was yum and we wiped the dip clean. For our main course a Non Vegetarian Pasta and a chicken dish made for a sumptuous meal. The food was well made and I have to add, with hints of Indian herbs in the pasta, it did make for the most unique Italian I’ve ever had. At the end, I couldn’t resist desert and a Hawaiian Sundae (with 3 scoops o...

Grand Finale of Vodafone Rock Stars in association with T2 at the Dalhousie Institute.

99 is a fictional movies based loosely on some true events that had occured in the past. The cast: Sachin (Kunal Khemu) Rahul (Boman Irani) Zaramud (Cyrus Barocha) JC (Vinod Khanna) AGM (Mahesh Manjrekar) Kuber (Amit Mistry) Jahnavi (Simone Singh) Pooja (Soha Ali Khan)

Yesterday I went on my first hand pulled rickshaw ride. E-Mall  6, Chittaranjan Avenue, Kolkata - 700072

HOT WOK VILLAGE CHINESE RESTAURANT 56, SOUTH TANGRA ROAD, KOLKATA - 700046 TEL: +91-33-23280702, 40012133 THAI SOUP (SMALL) 70 CHILLI GARLIC PEPPER CHICKEN (FULL) 200 PRAWN CRACKERS 60 SPICY HUNAN CHICKEN (FULL) 190 FRIED RICE (MIX/PRAWN) 100 RICE NOODLES (MIX/PRAWN) 130 VAT 12.5% KINGFISHER PREMIUM LAGER BEER 95X2 190

This weekend was a blast. Considering that the past week brought on a welcome onslaught of rain coupled with dazzling lightening flashes followed by deafening claps of thunder, I thought we’d have to stay in. But as luck would have it, rain didn’t play spoilsport on the weekend. Though we spent the entire day at home on Saturday and there was a mild drizzle till noon, the weather was awesome in the evening and just perfect for some thukpa and momos. So we got on the Karizma and headed out to Elgin Road, with a quick pit stop at South City Mall on the way. Momo Plaza is one of our favourite places to eat and we ordered our standard Mixed Thukpa and Fried Momos. Our luck was looking up, because they also had Chilli Fried Pork, something which, whenever we get there is finished. So we ordered a plate of that too. After finishing, we even decided to pack two plates of momos to carry back home and good that we did because it made for an amazing midnight snack. The plan was to get up on S...

A song from SMOKE from the album Smoke Signals featuring 'Summertime Rocks' is available all over India and ONLINE @ www.musicstore.bluefrogsounds.com. This is an awesome song. Way to go Ashu & Dhruv.

A hilarious twist of events results in Bill ( Aaron Eckhart ) finding his true calling in life. Bill works for his father-in-law’s company and is quite bored with his job. One day he suspects his wife Jess ( Elizabeth Banks ) is having an affair with local news reporter Chip ( Timothy Olyphant ) and decides to capture his wife’s infidelity on camera and does so. Unfortunately the entire video gets leaked onto the internet and ensues in big scandal. Meanwhile he has to mentor a school kid ( Logan Lerman ) who actually with the help of Lucy ( Jessica Alba ) a lingerie sales show him the light and influence his decision to find his own calling. The movie at times is quite hilarious and yet seems flat as an entire movie. If you feel that your life is in the doldrums, Meet Bill . I recommend it as a one time watch if at all.

Last evening we finally went to The Bistro. We had tried once before and never found the place and ended up going to Tangerine Wok & Grill instead. But this time around, we decided that we would find it and I recalled having seen it once or twice while passing by. We even called to confirm the location and then headed out. The weather was nice and so we took the Karizma. Once we reached there and entered this tiny little eatery, we realised what that write-up we had read meant by ‘its small”. This place is like a hole in the wall, with just about 3 tables squeezed in, but its nicely done. So we went about ordering some food and settled for Fried Prawn with Hot Schezwan Sauce for starters and the Penne E Polla Fettucine Pasta and Roast Lamb with Herbed Rice for the main course. A blue Curacao based mocktail drink which lived up to its tangy taste as mentioned in the menu. The food was nothing like the more celebrated Italian places. It had a distinct taste of its own which I would s...