Quick review – decent food of uncertain cuisine, good size portions, serves alcohol, expensive, accepts credit cards, very good service, good atmosphere and bright clean decor, well kept and clean ladies loo.

Quick verdict – despite not so good reviews a popular place especially in the evenings, usually quiet at lunchtimes during weekdays, can go for meetings as the chairs are uncomfortable so it keeps you on the edge (of the seat balancing your butt)

Longer review – I went there for lunch with a client I had to wine and dine. Radi recommended it strongly as she and her gang hang out there regularly in the evenings. I reached by 12:30 and left my driver to figure out the parking coz there was no space. I found the place easily as I know Dayal, and climbed up the small staircase which they have smartly done up in bright white and placed huge circular mirrors to avoid inducing claustrophobia. On first sight I really liked the look of the place with bright white walls and furniture and chairs, sunlight streaming in. After the scorching heat and yellow dusty brown outside, you feel as if you’ve stepped into an cool and clean idyll. The place was empty so I got to pick the table I wanted. I decided to sit next to the windows, which turned out to be a mistake as the chairs (benches) didnt have a back rest. There wasn’t time to change as my client walked in but the tables with the pretty wrought iron chairs were squeezed together and this was the only other option so I stayed put…..

We ordered Vietnamese Crisp Prawn rolls for starters, which was an interesting flavour but I am reasonably sure that there was not much Vietnamese about it. I ordered Chicken Breast with Mushroom & Cheese and my client ordered Slow roasted chicken with vegetables and mashed potatoes.  My dish was fine, not divine but not bad also. My clients food reached the table cool and rapidly became cooler as we ate so he ended up having a wrestling match with the food trying to slice it delicately. Being a well travelled man, he asked the waiter for a steak knife which they didnt have. We didnt stick around for desserts coz our meeting was rapidly degenerating from a polite fight to a spirited argument,  which I regretted coz I had been so looking forward to the desserts.  By the time we signed the check the place had filled up with lots and lots of women, and both of us took a minute off our argument to comment on that.

Overall – ok, worth a dekko

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Keeping pace with the latest in Australia finally the one Indian newspaper is willing to give space to the voice of reason  and at least has attempted to present both sides of the story. There are zillions of articles on the net all about them “racist Aussies” and “us poor Indians”.

I watched the Big Fight in NDTV on Sunday and realised that our TV coverage is eons away from anything resembling journalism. All that the TV presenters can do is gather a shrill audience and whip them up into a shriller frenzy. My sympathies to the poor Australian High Commissioner who kept trying to say that his country is not racist. But obviously no one was interested in giving him a fair chance including the presenter.  A couple of moderates in the audience or the experts were also given the short shrift. What was really disgusting to watch was the supreme sense of superiority that emanated from the audience about “being an Indian” which was nauseatingly holier than thou. They were smug, superior and obnoxious and Vikram Chandra just encouraged “we Indians are the greatest feeling” pandering to the insecure ego of the masses.  

To come back to my point, I am reasonably impressed with todays Hindustan Times coverage where they have initiated a series of articles on reverse racism in India.  Some good and a refreshing new take. But the same paper has also carried a useless & opportunistic article on supposed racism in Canada. IANS reporter Mr Gurmukh Singh has very skilfully converted a teenagers fight into a supposed racist attack. It is obvious that Mr Singh has never played games & got into arguments in his teenage years or maybe he has a foot in the grave and so can be forgiven for not being able to remember what it is to be a teenager with escalating levels of testosterone in your bloodstream. The only statistics that he has to back his claim is a supposed incident five years back. Huh, get real Mr Singh. This is not an example of racism, this is an example of journalistic opportunism.

This came to me as a forward a couple of months back. I tried to google it today and nothing came up. Was a bit surprised, but did a second level of search. Again nada… Youtube has a note that states “this video has been removed coz of copyright issues ” or something which means exactly that.  Hmm that got to me so I got my googling cap on and found this hilarious video on a blog on personal development. Watch it while you can. I dont know how long it will remain on this site before NBC catches on. If Katie Brandt has covered the copyright on this video, then I am grateful coz this post will remain valid for some time.   

The video is hilarious and really appealed to my 40 minus sensibilities. I could really identify with this guy as I can be quite old fashioned about some things. My friends and relatives are definitely more relaxed than I am about certain things about kids & how to bring them up. While most Indians haven’t reached this level yet, but there is a slow permeation of this idealogy in urban India. The West has always been cool & better so everything western is embraced with fervour & a sense of superiority. I’m a bit wary of that mindset.  

Interestingly, my 18 year old is the one who forwarded this to me. She grudgingly accepted that Louis is “okly funny”. If you’re over 30 be prepared to laugh out loud, less than 30 you’ll enjoy this if you can laugh at yourself.

Enjoy - the best way to begin your day is with a hearty laugh :)

PS: Just found the clip in Youtube. Here it is http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jETv3NURwLc

In the last two days, this issue has escalated from an issue between India and Australia to a full scale global issue. My initial post listed all the Indian newspapers and their coverage on the issue. But now the issue has gained such a momentum that Australian Prime Minister, Kevin Rudd has been forced to do serious damage control. The critical nature of international students to Australian economy is never more clear than when Prime Minister Rudd takes time to reassure Indians and the rest of the world that “Australians are not racist”. Mr Rudd’s official stance and reassuranaces are echoed by Australian opposition leader Malcolm Turnbull who calls these attacks “absolute disgrace” and “un-Australian”.

In the western world of media, the rally by Indian students in Australia made it to BBC, which is a factual listing. The article in Business Week tries to put the attacks with a backgrounder on the Aussie international education efforts.

I checked the eastern newspapers, and nothing on this in SCMP, Hongkong but the Bangkok Post includes this in their Asia section. The Pakistani Dawn calls it curry bashing and links it to quality (or lack of it) of Indian students flooding Australia and hopefully asks the question “Why are Indians hated around the world”. God, they are so predictable!!! 

Locally in India this issue continues to be on the front page of all newspapers starved of major news in India. This issue comes as manna from heaven for them as summer months are traditionally slow, and these attacks neatly fill the gap created after the drama of the Indian elections & the IPL . The Aussie police chief has changed from calling these attacks “opportunistic” to “partly racist and partly opportunist”  as per Hindustan Times latest article on this. The Times of India’s angle is on the protest rally and the use of force as is Rediff’s take on this.

The way this news has been picked up at a global level is an indicator of how Indians have permeated across the world. There are very few countries in the world which do not have a significant Indian origin population. In the last 40 years, the Indian diaspora has grown so big that the Government of India set up a separate Ministry to look after the affairs of Indians settled out of the country.  Some of the blogs I went through fall back on the good old racist cum brain drain argument. Get real guys. In India Today, students are going to these countries because it is their need, so get out of your old fogie notions of brain drain & how the western cultures are exploiting us poor Indian taxpayers, blah blah blah… A fairly decent discussion is going on at Blogbharti if you are inclined to read the regular bloggers views.

This incident just reflects the reality of a world without boundaries. If  hordes of people are translocated from one part of the world to another – there will be clashes, there will be resentment and there will also be lifelong friendships formed. We as Indians need to prepared for the fact that the rest of the world will not fall at our feet. The beleagured Police Chief makes some good points which have got lost in the media blietzkrieg. In every city you have to follow safety procedures. I know that I would think girls or even boys walking in certain parts of town late at night stupid. Similarly Indian students who go out need to be aware of the do’s and dont’s of the other culture.

On the other side, the Aussies have realised the hard way that treating education as a service industry has long range impact unlike the tourism sector. There is a difference when you get people who have paid for a service. The expectations of high fee paying international students from India are very different from the traditional international students of yore (who were either the scholarship types or the rich types). Its what we in India call the railways versus airline factor. When you travel by flight, you automatically expect better service, higher standards and more comfort. Australia will do well to remember that and figure this out in a hurry.

Since I travel a lot it is the most handy proof of identity that I have (I dont drive). It works well most of the times but in the last couple of  years, I’ve had problems off and on. Staff at airline check in counters peer suspiciously at my picture (what can I do its 20 years old, I’ve changed a bit) and point out – politely of course that the spelling of my name on the Pan card doesnt match with the spelling of my name on the ticket. I’ve also changed jobs so had to go through the tedious process of getting new salary bank accounts and company credit cards made. Since I have my Pan card handy in my purse I distributed it to HR only to discover shortly all my debit & credit cards have my name spelt wrong. After fighting with the HDFC call centres for 6 continous months I finally got them to make the necessary corrections in my name but only after I supplied them with a copy of my voters id card & passport with the correct spelling.

It was a harried HDFC call centre operative who told me, Ma’am why dont you just get your Pan card corrected. And I thought Jeez, that is a sensible suggestion. As they say in Hindi, dimaag ki batti jal gayi. Why didn’t I do that. Apart from the instinctive reaction of a person who works in private companies which says dont go near the bureaucracy unless its an emergency, what stops me from getting the card corrected/changed. Er… the thought of venturing into a government office, trying to negotiate the chai paani route, standing in lines while staff saunter around, chat or worse still just disappear. I guess all of the above contributed to my reluctance to suffer through the process. I may be from a government employees family but I hate getting any work done through the GOI. So apart from an inbuilt laziness, and all these old prejudices I didnt have any reason which stopped me from applying for a new Pan card. I’ve asked around and some people tell me that I can do it online. Lets see. I’ll take a break now and try to figure out how to get this done with minimum in person interaction, and keep a log about my experience.

While it is worrying to read about Indian students getting mugged, what really gets my goat is that nobody in TOI has bothered to read the article that they have published. The article quotes the name of the student who has been attacked, gives the city and location he is and then the reporter states ” Singh, who is recuperating from emergency surgery at the Alfred Hospital, has not told his family for fear they will be distressed. “

Duh!!! Are you a reporter or a sub intelligent species impersonating as a human being with brains. After using his name a zillion times in the article you write a sentence which says that he has not informed his family because they will get worried. Did you forget that you are writing this for a newspaper that millions of Indians read and there is a teeny weeny chance that his family may be literate and hence read this story in their daily newspaper and get the shock of their lives. But of course that is not the reporters lookout or his responsibility. His is just to file a story and not to question beyond that.  I tried to check the name of the brilliant reporter who has filed this story and realised that its a standard press release credited to Press Trust of India ostensibly “India’s Premier News Agency”. PTI needs to give a better brief to its reporters and sub editors. And Times of India journalists and desk need to ”READ” the press releases that they publish blindly.

To be fair to The Times I did a spot check of other publications and what they had to say on this story. DNA article on this looks like a carbon copy of the TOI one, so you know that this is another newspaper who’s journalists do not bother to read or edit before they publish. Take the release and hit copy paste. The headline says “Indians continue to be victims abroad“  and if you’ve already read the TOI article dont bother to read further because the DNA journo has followed the TOI philosophy and done a copy paste.  Obviously DNA also cant be bothered about the students or his families feelings.

The Indian Express article on this is better as the reporter/desk editor has at least tried to put together information from a variety of sources and sum up the situation in a story format. The source is still PTI but the story reads like a screenplay with dialogues such as “Singh screamed for his life, but his attackers laughed and fled the scene.” and a dramatic black & white graphic with bright red drops splattered all over it hopes to add a visual punch to the story.  The Hindu has a dry factual report but they’ve also listed the students name etc. The Hindustan Times has a similar report. These three newspapers have very conveniently edited out the sentence which said that the student has not informed his family, which ostensibly absolves them of any responsibility.

In the wake of the Mumbai terror attacks, a lot was said about TV journalists and their infantile reporting. The print journalists are no better, and the coverage of this story by all the so called “top” Indian newspapers just proves that not even one of them has tried to report with a view to respect the privacy of the victim. It took many years and a constant series of criticism before Indian newspapers stopped reproting rape victims names, but I still see them slipping up on this. It will take many more years for them to reach a point where they will be concerned about privacy unless someone sues them first.

Though I find this baby sling and other products of its ilk a ripoff I have many western friends who swear by such thingammijigs.  I completely fail to see the point of these things. Interestingly this is not something you see NRI’s flashing around here which proves my point that “baby sling” as a product is not for the Indian market. If you strip it down to the basics, how different is this baby sling from the good old fashioned cloth slings that you see in this picture of an African mother & child.  The simple cloth used to carry babies is a common sight across India and most Asian, African and South American countries. Go to any place with mountains or the poor and you will find babies slung across mothers back or front.  Zillions of times. But do you look at those slings and think that it “offers comfort, hands free motion and promotes bonding”. No, we look at those mothers and feel bad for them and empathise with their struggle for existence. It takes a westerner to reinvent the wheel, dress it up and market the result as a convenience or branded product. Not surprising that the MBA is a western invention.

But obviously I am in a minority with my viewpoint and there are enough people in the west who like the baby slings and need these enough to shell out 50 – 100 dollars on them. A simple google search on baby slings convinced me that there is a big market for this stuff. There is something called Oopa(R) Baby slings which was created because the owner couldn’t find the sling with the “right look”. For the green brigade they even have eco friendly organic cotton baby slings.  

Then you have Angel Wings Metro Wrap in Savannah Rose which is only for posh mom and tots. According to one mom in the website Super cool baby its USP is that it keeps the baby close, snuggled up tight, looks good and is practical too. You can even dump it in the washing machine when dirty. Imagine that!!!! A sling that is washable.

A basic type of sling is available at The Sling Station and they have pictures of happy moms & dads using the slings in various styles. First website with Dad pictures in it. Women may have come a long way in the west but when it comes to carrying babies its still the moms who bear the burden.

There is one for everyone. For the simple but classy types you have the classic black no frills sling featured in Hug a Monkey  for “todays chic mama” says the website. The perfect accessory with your little black dress. Yea right….. These guys seem to have got all the basics, so you have the basic black and then the crush organic super soft in cream colour.

Another blogger mom features the reversible sling. This one is in my favourite colour so I will refrain from saying anything more about it. Pouchlings says with confidence that baby wearing is a “rapidly growing” trend in the west. And we have Brangelina, Courtney Cox and Gwen Stefani to thank for that. They offer some variety and options with  daily wear & special occasion slings in colours, designs, prints etc etc etc…..

I’ll stop at Shantislings. For me this ones takes the cake, the pastry and everything. These guys are brilliant marketers. Take a long piece of organic 100% cotton cloth, figure out a few different ways of tying it, make a DVD about this, sprinkle a bit of yogic clap trap, add a few “oms” and there you go. You have a yoga friendly sling. I guess it really is true. There is a sucker born every minute.  In India they have a saying in Hindi “unche log ke chonchle”. This would qualify as “paisewalo ke chonchle”.

I fail to understand why cant I vote if I am out of the country? Now that the election commission of India  has figured out how to handle 1 billion voters it is time for them to figure out how to manage the out of towners. If my work takes me out of my city on election day, I should still be able to exercise my franchise. Can someone get this organised in time for the next general elections please!!!.

The only satisfaction I get is from my asessment of this elections. I was sau feesadi correct when I predicted that this will be the end of the goonda politics. Remember, you read it here first. Ha ha Ha………..

Chole kulche – Chickpeas with soft baked flat Indian bread. Not to be confused with the slightly upmarket & fried variation called chole bhature. Commonly available in most North Indian cities in streetcarts or bicycle vendors called thelewallahs. For pictures you can check TIP‘s blog or this post on Flickr. Very common in Punjab, Delhi, Uttar Pradesh, Uttarakhand etc and now I can see a few in cities like Mumbai. Default version is spicy, but you can always instruct the guy to customise the final dish as per your personal preference. So feel free to tell him more chillies, less salt, less lemon etc. If this is said with a smile the changes will be made with a flourish. I love the sound of the thelewallahs spoon hitting the copper pot. It has a nice resounding ring to it which helps soothe the hunger pangs in your stomach.

For foreigners, venture forth if you have cast iron stomach lining or have lived in India for at least a couple of months. A few friends who have tried it are in love with this healthy combination of carbs, proteins & roughage. But I wouldnt recommend it if its your first week in India. If you are brave and want to try it out, make sure you’re not travelling the next couple of days. Worst case scenario means that you will want to be close to clean loos. For non Dilliwallahs or South Indians its a must have - just make sure the chilli levels are fine for you. Its typical Punjabi spicy streetfare.

Interestingly, though it is called chole kulche the chole in copper pot toting street food is not made of chickpeas but yellow/green peas. I assume that this was the poor mans version of actual chola kulcha because chole (chickpeas) are expensive. So for the thelewallah it made economic sense to replace the costly ingredient with a cheaper substitute. I’m not sure when the replacement happened but as far as I remember its been called chole kulche but its made of peas (matar).

It was a very popular snack for Indian students or those who are running low on money and my daughter tells me that it is still very popular. It falls under the category that we used to call “Cheap & Best”. My college life would have been very different without the chole kulchewallah outside our gates. In our days college canteens had terrible food, there was no Barista & Cafe Coffee Day, no Pizza Huts, McDonalds, Subways or any of the zillions of fast food chains that you have today. Only Nirulas existed for us poor-middle class types.

For the sticklers amongst you reading this peace, if you want actual chole kulche  you’ll have to go to a restaraunt or Indian fast food place. No streetwallah serves you chickpeas. Its only peas.

Glossary