Mahesh Lunch Home,Juhu

Finger-licking good. Classy cooking. Fish Specialty Restaurant. Great ambience to take your mom-in-law to. There is barely any lighting..gives the effect of a bar where shady deals take place. I guess they went overboard with the soft lighting theme. Reminder: You need to SEE food to like it. Long waiting line. Slightly overpriced. Dunno about the food presentation coz the candles kept burning out every five minutes(We kept saying our prayers in case a fish bone got stuck down our throat. Then cousin came up with a brainwave: Lets use our cellphones as light! )
Technical error: Never keep candles as the main source of lighting when you have a restaurant facing the beach and seating arrangement on a terrace.
Plunge into Malaysian flat noodles, Fish Gassi and Thai Fish curry. Rating 7 on 10 ..Just for the taste.
Worth the wait and the faulty restaurant theme! Go for it Fish freaks!

Welcome to the Church of the Holy Cabbage. Lettuce pray. ~Author Unknown

He is the King isnt he?

He IS NOT imitating Amitabh. And he has made the show a laugh a riot! Scripted or non-scripted,there is not other actor who can do the show that well and I am so glad that he is doing it!!!! The first episode of KBC went very very good. Though Amitabh's baritone is missing, I think SRK's charm does the trick and you don't realize the difference. Maybe I am an SRK nut, but I know good stuff from the bad(KANK was monstrous!) and I think one hour of witty repartees from the King, makes the show seem less quizzy and more fun!
The rap song in the beginning is presented well and SRK in 50cent clothing, looks lean. His rap image is out of place, and reminds me of the Kuch Kuch Hota Hai 'Rahul'. Its been a while since he played the youngish cool dude, but the song hits bang!!!
Whatever be the verdict, SRK is a star entertainer!!

Update: If you subject your brain to the rap video, you will notice a striking resemblance to Ganesh Hegde's debut song 'Mein Deewana' video. No prizes for guessing the choreographer.

I'd rather sink trying to be different, than stay afloat like everyone else"--Shahrukh Khan

Babel:Demystified

When you see Babel for the first time, you really don't understand it and a movie goer would instantly think of Crash and the' jigsaw puzzle technique' that's put to full use in the movie. Now, I admit, the jigsaw puzzle technique--where you see a clear disconnect between the stories in the beginning and a faint link towards the end and say 'aha'--works brilliantly. It is going to be in vogue for a long time now. (Do I see a dozen or so Bollywood scripts marching in the same direction?)
But the key to understand Babel is to understand the basis of the story and why the movie is called Babel. (Actually when you read the tagline, it does mention the gist : "If You Want to be Understood...Listen")
This is the history behind the Tower of Babel as is mentioned in Genesis 10:10 as the home city of Nimrod. (I have reproduced the Wikipedia version here.)

"[10] And the beginning of his kingdom was Babel, and Erech, and Accad, and Calneh, in the land of Shinar. [11] Out of that land went forth Asshur, and builded Nineveh, and the city Rehoboth, and Calah, [12] And Resen between Nineveh and Calah: the same is a great city. (KJV)"

According to Genesis 11:1-9, mankind, after the deluge, traveled from the mountain where the ark had rested, and settled in 'a plain in the land of Shinar' (or Senaar). Here, they attempted to build a city and a tower whose top might reach unto Heaven, the Tower of Babel.

The attempt to build the Tower of Babel had angered God who, in his anger, made each person involved speak a different language which ultimately halted the project and scattered and disconnected the people across the planet.

When I left the multiplex, I kept racking my brains as to why this movie won so many awards and yet failed to leave an impact. It made me feel funnily dissatisfied but after I thought about the history of the word 'Babel' , the concept hit like a bolt! The 'tower' is the progress that we as a human race have made, and the miscommunication(whether divine or otherwise) is as a result of that.

The movie is about communication and about how miscommunications can cause deep misunderstandings. Its about a couple's miscommunication among themselves and with people around them in a land where no one speaks their language. They seem to find a way through strangers as opposed to their own countrymen.
Its about a Japanese girl who cant speak and get the love that she wants, so she tries to seduce it. Its about a maid, who cant communicate her deep sense of service to authorities that wont understand her. And most of all its about misunderstanding in a largely connected world.

The story does leave a lot of unanswered questions: Like what did the Japanese girl write in the note ? My guess is-- nothing that we don't know already. She must have told the officer about the lies she invented about her mother's death, and her need for love. The actual review of the movie on major sites, says that Brad and Cate are on a vacation. Its more of a "lets communicate and dissolve the tension" kind of vacation. So there.

Babel is very different from Crash. Yet both of them address issues that would sensitize an emotionally disparate mankind.

The problem with communication ... is the illusion that it has been accomplished.--G.B.Shaw

Egg Dosa at Mettupalayam

On your way back from Ooty, towards Coimbatore, you must stop at a place called Mettupalayam. There is a nondescript dhaba that serves the best egg dosa, my tongue has ever tasted.
Its delectable, finger licking and makes you addictive. If you are a dosa fan you'll know that its the weirdest feeling to be a fan of a dish that bland. It barely has any spices, so if you love something so much,so bland, that you almost want it to be chronicled, its gotta be brilliant!
And dont forget to take pictures of tea garden estates on your way back!

The real voyage of discovery consists not in seeking new landscapes but in having new eyes.--Marcel Proust

Raju Srivastav

"Come, come..its Raju's turn now", says mom. We all huddle around the TV sets waiting for Raju Srivastav's joke bag to be opened. This is the usual scenario, in our house, ever since we got glued to our television sets, on Friday evenings.
Now comedians can be broadly classified into two categories, those that make you sick with their jokes and those that don't. Raju falls into the latter. His inimitable style of picking your bone is unmatched in the Indian comedy context( except for the Hasya Kavi Sammelans that are a rarity on Sab TV) today. His keen sense of observation and his acting skills have ensured him a large audience who watch the weekly Laughter challenge just to see him. This has been noted by the programme , which makes sure his entry is right in the end(as if thats going to make us watch the entire bunch of nincompoops from the beginning!!). Even though he was the runner-up in the original laughter challenge, I always thought he was the true winner. Sunil Pal(the winner!) may find more moolah in hosting an Antakshari show and sprinkling his over-the-top sometimes bearable jokes in the midst of medley, but he certainly doesn't tickle us.
What remains to be seen is whether he can live up to the variations that he has created. His style of delivering jokes on seemingly unnatural circumstances(The Gabbar Singh spoof is a classic!!) and his depiction of details regarding those(like the rendition on railway stations being human beings)situations is impeccable. Of course, with his acting skills, his entry into the Indian Film Industry is a given.
We wish him all the best!


Earth laughs in flowers---Ralph Waldo Emerson

The blanket of soft joy covers a child
the smile of a toothless beggar on a packed street
the road to success seems startlingly mild
assigning , maybe a promised elixir to the meak?

the fanfare and the pyrotechnics
the glory of the growing star
its stops short of its acme
strides may not lead the journey far

the simple point of balance
amid the games and fun
the peaceful and the tense
coexist in temporary turns

Let arms give place to the robe, and the laurel of the warriors yield to the tongue of the orator

- Marcus Tullius Cicero