अर्ज किया है...
एक सुकून की तलाशमे ना जाने कितनी बेचैनिया पाल ली
और लोग कहते है, हम बडे हो गये और जिंदगी संभाल ली
एक सुकून की तलाशमे ना जाने कितनी बेचैनिया पाल ली
और लोग कहते है, हम बडे हो गये और जिंदगी संभाल ली
Tuesday, June 24, 2014
Dunkin Donuts, Phoenix City Market, Kurla
Amazingly enough, the mall that makes you reach for a deck of cards when it comes to choosing where to go for lunch, doesn't boast of a lot of places where you can indulge your proverbial 'Indian Sweet Tooth'. They have Natural, Gelato and I suspect, Ice Cream Works. But Haagen Daaz is conspicuous by its absence. On one of the floors we came across Havmor and tasted their ice-cream sandwich. Nothing to write home about but a little bit different than the normal fare dished out at most of the joints. The 'Punjabi Kulfi' has a couple of interesting choices when it comes to their long stick kulfi - like Pan, Thandai, Gulkand and Cadbury - apart from the usual flavors like mango, pista-badam and malai. We tried Cadbury Kulfi and liked it, though I wonder what Cadbury thinks about it :-) There is a place serving waffles somewhere but I couldn't try it during this visit.
There was one place that I was keen to visit - Dunkin Donuts. In US, two of their donuts were my favorite ones - glazed and the one that came with desiccated coconut on top. At Phoenix City Market, their outlet is on the 2nd floor (for some strange reason, the mall calls ground floor 'lower ground' and first floor 'upper ground'. So the 2nd floor is actually the 3rd floor!). As soon as I reached there my eyes hungrily scanned the golden disks neatly lined behind the counter. I was overjoyed to spot the glazed ones but disappointed when I didn't see the one with desiccated coconut :-( So here is what I ended up ordering (as a takeaway of course!) - Glazed donut, Cinnamon Ring and Toffee Nougat. Glazed was good but I think it could have been sweeter :-) I didn't like the Cinnamon Ring at all but Toffee Nougat was a glimpse of the heaven!
Guys, can we please please have the donut with desiccated coconut on top in India???
There was one place that I was keen to visit - Dunkin Donuts. In US, two of their donuts were my favorite ones - glazed and the one that came with desiccated coconut on top. At Phoenix City Market, their outlet is on the 2nd floor (for some strange reason, the mall calls ground floor 'lower ground' and first floor 'upper ground'. So the 2nd floor is actually the 3rd floor!). As soon as I reached there my eyes hungrily scanned the golden disks neatly lined behind the counter. I was overjoyed to spot the glazed ones but disappointed when I didn't see the one with desiccated coconut :-( So here is what I ended up ordering (as a takeaway of course!) - Glazed donut, Cinnamon Ring and Toffee Nougat. Glazed was good but I think it could have been sweeter :-) I didn't like the Cinnamon Ring at all but Toffee Nougat was a glimpse of the heaven!
Guys, can we please please have the donut with desiccated coconut on top in India???
Rainforest Resto-Bar, Phoenix City Market, Kurla
As soon as I entered the place, I thought of an episode of a crime series, most probably CSI, where the patrons are expected to dine in the dark because that supposedly enhances your sense of taste. :-)
The Kurla mall spoils you for choice when it comes to eating places. Apart from the usual fast food suspects - Subway, Pizza Hut, McDonald's, KFC- they have Kailash Parbat, Shiv Sagar, Funjabi Tadaka, Kebabs & Grills, Poush (this one boasts of Kashmiri food!) and a host of other options. We had almost made up our minds to walk into Golden Chariot because everyone was in mood for some Chinese food. But at the last moment, we chose Rainforest instead - mainly because of the decor, I must confess.
A cave-like structure with clear gurgling water greets you at the entrance. And then you better watch your step because it is very dark inside - even when your eyes get adjusted to it after a while. They have provided little overhead lamps to help you read the menu but the light is not enough and some of the corner tables don't have that lamp even. I saw people trying to decipher the menu using their cell phones. I myself felt my wrists go numb from having to hold onto the lamp for dear life.
The menu doesn't make things easier. At first I thought the Chinese section (they serve Indian and Italian food as well) doesn't have Rice/Noodles. How can that be? A couple of minutes of hectic page-turning later I realized that the menu was arranged first course-wise and then cuisine-wise. Oh Boy! That means I will have to keep flipping the pages back and forth a number of times to make the final selection. My sincere sympathies with those who walk in with the intention of deciding which cuisine to go for after going through the menu!
We finally zeroed in on 3 Mushroom Fried Rice and Crispy Chicken - only to be informed by the server that the fried rice will have only one type of mushroom. Whatever! Just add some chicken and bring it. I remember waiting for good 20-25 minutes before we were served. An unsolicited advice - don't go to this place if you are very hungry and expect your food to be served in minutes. Another confession is in order - I was waiting for food and dreading it at the same time because by now I was not sure what was going to land on my plate.
I am happy to report though that I have never been proven more wrong in my life - at least as far as food is concerned. The food completely redeemed the place. It was no use trying to take photos so you will have to take my word for it. The rice was piping hot, full of flavors and huge chunks of meat, neatly cooked - I simply couldn't get enough of it. Thank God it was dark or else the diners at the other tables would have cringed at the way I was stuffing myself :-) The Crispy Chicken was delicious though it would have tasted better with a little bit of more spice. If they had served Fortune Cookies, mine would have come with the message 'You Will Have A Delicious Lunch Today' :-)
A bit of an unsolicited advice for the management: improve the lighting (but please don't take away the lanterns!), tone down the music (I am sure the rainforests don't have it!) and make it easy for the diners to sift through the menu.
The Kurla mall spoils you for choice when it comes to eating places. Apart from the usual fast food suspects - Subway, Pizza Hut, McDonald's, KFC- they have Kailash Parbat, Shiv Sagar, Funjabi Tadaka, Kebabs & Grills, Poush (this one boasts of Kashmiri food!) and a host of other options. We had almost made up our minds to walk into Golden Chariot because everyone was in mood for some Chinese food. But at the last moment, we chose Rainforest instead - mainly because of the decor, I must confess.
A cave-like structure with clear gurgling water greets you at the entrance. And then you better watch your step because it is very dark inside - even when your eyes get adjusted to it after a while. They have provided little overhead lamps to help you read the menu but the light is not enough and some of the corner tables don't have that lamp even. I saw people trying to decipher the menu using their cell phones. I myself felt my wrists go numb from having to hold onto the lamp for dear life.
The menu doesn't make things easier. At first I thought the Chinese section (they serve Indian and Italian food as well) doesn't have Rice/Noodles. How can that be? A couple of minutes of hectic page-turning later I realized that the menu was arranged first course-wise and then cuisine-wise. Oh Boy! That means I will have to keep flipping the pages back and forth a number of times to make the final selection. My sincere sympathies with those who walk in with the intention of deciding which cuisine to go for after going through the menu!
We finally zeroed in on 3 Mushroom Fried Rice and Crispy Chicken - only to be informed by the server that the fried rice will have only one type of mushroom. Whatever! Just add some chicken and bring it. I remember waiting for good 20-25 minutes before we were served. An unsolicited advice - don't go to this place if you are very hungry and expect your food to be served in minutes. Another confession is in order - I was waiting for food and dreading it at the same time because by now I was not sure what was going to land on my plate.
I am happy to report though that I have never been proven more wrong in my life - at least as far as food is concerned. The food completely redeemed the place. It was no use trying to take photos so you will have to take my word for it. The rice was piping hot, full of flavors and huge chunks of meat, neatly cooked - I simply couldn't get enough of it. Thank God it was dark or else the diners at the other tables would have cringed at the way I was stuffing myself :-) The Crispy Chicken was delicious though it would have tasted better with a little bit of more spice. If they had served Fortune Cookies, mine would have come with the message 'You Will Have A Delicious Lunch Today' :-)
A bit of an unsolicited advice for the management: improve the lighting (but please don't take away the lanterns!), tone down the music (I am sure the rainforests don't have it!) and make it easy for the diners to sift through the menu.
Byculla To Bangkok - S. Hussain Zaidi
About a fortnight ago, when I went to the library to return 'Dongri To Dubai' by S. Hussain Zaidi, an attendant there asked me if I had read 'Byculla To Bangkok' by the same author. I hadn't but I wasn't keen on another dose of Mumbai dons and their shenanigans - at least not so soon after my head was reeling from reading about the likes of Dawood, Chhota Rajan, Chhota Shakeel, Manya Surve, Amar Naik and Arun Gawli. So I checked out 'The Winds Of Hastinapur' instead. But I remained curious about why the author felt the need to write a second book on the Mumbai underworld.
As I returned 'The Winds Of Hastinapur' my eyes fell on 'Byculla To Bangkok' and I decided to read it this time. Turns out this one is exclusively about "Mumbai's Maharashtrian Mobsters". I am not sure if, as a Maharashtrian, I am supposed to be proud about it :-( The book is written in the same racy style as 'Dongri To Dubai' and gives detailed account of the lifes of Amar Naik, Ashwin Naik, Arun Gawli, Sunil Sawant alias Sautya and Suresh Manchekar. The only mafia man conspicuous by his absence is Manya Surve.
Of the two books, I like "Byculla To Bangkok" better. And for the record, that has got absolutely nothing to do that I am a Maharashtrian! :-)
P.S. It was interesting to read the list of mills that once stood where the skyscrapers of today tower over the surrounding area. I am reproducing the list here:
Jupiter Mills -> India Bulls Sky
Elphinstone Mills ->One India Bulls Centre
Phoenix Mills -> High Street Phoenix
Kamala Mills -> Kamala City
Raghuvanshi Mills -> K-Lifestyle
Matulya Mills ->Sun Palazzo
New Island Mills -> One Avighna Park
Piramal Spinning And Weaving Mills -> Marathon Nextgen
Modern Mills -> Mahindra Belvedere Court
Dawn Mills -> Peninsula Towers
As I returned 'The Winds Of Hastinapur' my eyes fell on 'Byculla To Bangkok' and I decided to read it this time. Turns out this one is exclusively about "Mumbai's Maharashtrian Mobsters". I am not sure if, as a Maharashtrian, I am supposed to be proud about it :-( The book is written in the same racy style as 'Dongri To Dubai' and gives detailed account of the lifes of Amar Naik, Ashwin Naik, Arun Gawli, Sunil Sawant alias Sautya and Suresh Manchekar. The only mafia man conspicuous by his absence is Manya Surve.
Of the two books, I like "Byculla To Bangkok" better. And for the record, that has got absolutely nothing to do that I am a Maharashtrian! :-)
P.S. It was interesting to read the list of mills that once stood where the skyscrapers of today tower over the surrounding area. I am reproducing the list here:
Jupiter Mills -> India Bulls Sky
Elphinstone Mills ->One India Bulls Centre
Phoenix Mills -> High Street Phoenix
Kamala Mills -> Kamala City
Raghuvanshi Mills -> K-Lifestyle
Matulya Mills ->Sun Palazzo
New Island Mills -> One Avighna Park
Piramal Spinning And Weaving Mills -> Marathon Nextgen
Modern Mills -> Mahindra Belvedere Court
Dawn Mills -> Peninsula Towers
The Winds Of Hastinapur - Sharath Komarraju
Mahabharat! An epic tale of an epic war that was fought centuries ago. A tale involving a set of complex characters with complex relations and interactions. Since eons, authors, scholars and ordinary folks like you and me have pealed layers off it and yet more remain. Each character is worthy of being investigated and written about. And yet some of them get sidelined as authors and readers alike concentrate on the main players - Krishna, Arjuna, Karna, Bheem, Yudhisthir, Draupadi, Bheeshma, Duryodhana, Shakuni, Kunti, Abhimanyu, Dronacharya, Dhrutarashtra and Gandhari. This book focuses on two such women, who, in a way, were responsible for the events unfolding the way they did - Ganga and Satyawati.
We are familiar with the hardships faced, trauma suffered and sacrifices made by Kunti, Gandhari, Draupadi, Devki and to a certain extent even Subhadra - she lost her only son in a battle that was waged because her husband's first wife was insulted. We even know about how Amba suffered because men in her life placed more premium on their egos and oaths. But Ganga and Satyawati have sort of remained in the background because they stand at the beginning of this tale. By the time the drama unfolds in its full intensity they are but a dim memory of a distant forgotten past. We don't give much thought to their story, we don't feel their pain and we don't feel sorry for what fate had in store for them. This book changes that to a certain extent.
The novel starts with Ganga, the daughter who seems destined to take over from her mom as the Lady Of The River in a land called Meru. The young Janhavi is certainly being groomed for the same. But her life takes a different turn when one of the elemental powers, Prabhasa, visits them one morning. He, along with other Elementals, is cursed by High Sage Vashistha's wife Arundhati for stealing the Divine cow Nandini. They are to be born on earth and cannot think of a woman other than the Lady Of The River as their mother. Since Ganga's mother is past her child-bearing age, Ganga is chosen for the same. That starts her journey from Meru to Earth. And Ganga ends up being more cursed than the Elementals because she has to kill the first few of her newborn sons, has to bear the scorn of the citizens of Hastinapur, see husband Shantanu's love turn to pure unadulterated hatred and even after bringing back her last son, Devavrata, to Meru with her, has to watch helplessly as he decides to go back to Earth.
Satyavati's tale begins where Ganga's moves away from Hastinapur. A princess of the fisher-folks, she has her own cross to bear - a swarthy complexion in a land that often equates fair skin with beauty and a fishy smell that clings to her at all times. An encounter with Sage Parashara changes that. She gets both her wishes - to marry King Shantanu to become Hastina's queen and to ensure that her children have the first right to the throne and yet she is the loser in the end. Neither of her sons survives to sire any children and she has to use her son born of Sage Parashara to make sure that her daughters-in-law bring the next generation into this world.
Ganga and Satyawati are used by fate or destiny as puppets. The only difference being that Ganga is acutely aware of it to begin with while Satyawati learns it the hard way. Whenever I read about the Mahabharata, I cannot help but feel that the only price that the men in this tale have had to pay is death while the women have all had to sacrifice a great deal. And it all began with Ganga and Satyawati.
I will always remember what Ganga says at one point of the story:
The Wise Ones say that acceptance is the only true way to happiness; acceptance of the fact that we do not have a say in what must happen, and that the harder we try to change that which is fated, the more we contribute, unknowingly, to bringing it about.
We are familiar with the hardships faced, trauma suffered and sacrifices made by Kunti, Gandhari, Draupadi, Devki and to a certain extent even Subhadra - she lost her only son in a battle that was waged because her husband's first wife was insulted. We even know about how Amba suffered because men in her life placed more premium on their egos and oaths. But Ganga and Satyawati have sort of remained in the background because they stand at the beginning of this tale. By the time the drama unfolds in its full intensity they are but a dim memory of a distant forgotten past. We don't give much thought to their story, we don't feel their pain and we don't feel sorry for what fate had in store for them. This book changes that to a certain extent.
The novel starts with Ganga, the daughter who seems destined to take over from her mom as the Lady Of The River in a land called Meru. The young Janhavi is certainly being groomed for the same. But her life takes a different turn when one of the elemental powers, Prabhasa, visits them one morning. He, along with other Elementals, is cursed by High Sage Vashistha's wife Arundhati for stealing the Divine cow Nandini. They are to be born on earth and cannot think of a woman other than the Lady Of The River as their mother. Since Ganga's mother is past her child-bearing age, Ganga is chosen for the same. That starts her journey from Meru to Earth. And Ganga ends up being more cursed than the Elementals because she has to kill the first few of her newborn sons, has to bear the scorn of the citizens of Hastinapur, see husband Shantanu's love turn to pure unadulterated hatred and even after bringing back her last son, Devavrata, to Meru with her, has to watch helplessly as he decides to go back to Earth.
Satyavati's tale begins where Ganga's moves away from Hastinapur. A princess of the fisher-folks, she has her own cross to bear - a swarthy complexion in a land that often equates fair skin with beauty and a fishy smell that clings to her at all times. An encounter with Sage Parashara changes that. She gets both her wishes - to marry King Shantanu to become Hastina's queen and to ensure that her children have the first right to the throne and yet she is the loser in the end. Neither of her sons survives to sire any children and she has to use her son born of Sage Parashara to make sure that her daughters-in-law bring the next generation into this world.
Ganga and Satyawati are used by fate or destiny as puppets. The only difference being that Ganga is acutely aware of it to begin with while Satyawati learns it the hard way. Whenever I read about the Mahabharata, I cannot help but feel that the only price that the men in this tale have had to pay is death while the women have all had to sacrifice a great deal. And it all began with Ganga and Satyawati.
I will always remember what Ganga says at one point of the story:
The Wise Ones say that acceptance is the only true way to happiness; acceptance of the fact that we do not have a say in what must happen, and that the harder we try to change that which is fated, the more we contribute, unknowingly, to bringing it about.
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