A place for penning my observations, introspection and expressions.
Saturday, May 16, 2009
No Squealing
A city boy, Ram, moved to the countryside and bought a goat from an old farmer for Rs 1000. The farmer agreed to deliver the goat the next day. But the next morning the farmer went to Ram and said, "Sorry son, but i have some bad news. The goat died last nite." Ram replied, "Well then, just give me back my money." The farmer said, "Can't do that. I have spent it already." Ram said, "Ok then, just unload the goat." The farmer asked, "What are you going to do with a dead goat?" Ram: "I'm going to raffle him off." Farmer: "You can't raffle a dead goat!" Ram: "Sure I can. Watch me. I just won't tell anybody he's dead."
A month later the farmer met Ram and asked, "What did you do with that dead goat?" Ram: "I raffled him off. I sold 500 tickets at Rs 10 apiece and made a profit of Rs 3990, net of the Rs 1000 I paid you." Farmer: "Didn't anyone complain?" Ram: Just the guy who won. So I gave him back his Rs 10.
Tom & Jerry, as they are also known, among geriatric circles, kidding !!! ...Tom & Jerry 's music & lyrics still stand the test of time. I can't claim to have had access to LPs by Simon & Garfunkel. I dare say - I was more or less stuck on their tapes in my wonder years.
These are my favorite songs, as rendered by Simon and Garfunkel, in no particular order -
1) Cecelia - you're breaking my what ? ho-hum lyrics, but foot-tapping music, catchy tune
4) America - contrast this with Rammstein's stupid song by the same name
I love this song - especially the part which goes - "...She said the man in the gabardine suit was a spy, I said " His bowtie's really a camera..."" & "toss me a cigarette...", no subliminal or direct messages intended. :D
5) At the zoo - oh why didn't I mug this one up when I was in 7th standard. And why did I get wheedled into elocutions where I'm expected to speak about Zoos & animals. I had a classic-case of wobbly knees, frogs in my throat & tongue-tied-ness. Fate, albeit imposing and alarming, without being conscientiously partial, paved the path for better speeches to come.
6) The Dangling Conversation - I just love the lyrics of this song. I was really impressed by this song, when I was younger. So much so that, I feel inclined to paste them here -
It's a still life water color, Of a now late afternoon, As the sun shines through the curtained lace And shadows wash the room. And we sit and drink our coffee Couched in our indifference, Like shells upon the shore You can hear the ocean roar In the dangling conversation And the superficial sighs, The borders of our lives.
And you read your Emily Dickinson, And I my Robert Frost, And we note our place with bookmarkers That measure what we've lost. Like a poem poorly written We are verses out of rhythm, Couplets out of rhyme, In syncopated time And the dangled conversation And the superficial sighs, Are the borders of our lives.
Yes, we speak of things that matter, With words that must be said, "Can analysis be worthwhile?" "Is the theater really dead?" And how the room is softly faded And I only kiss your shadow, I cannot feel your hand, You're a stranger now unto me Lost in the dangling conversation. And the superficial sighs, In the borders of our lives.
"We note our place with bookmarkers, that measure what we've lost." :-) GEM.
I always knew who Robert Frost was, but I used to wonder who Emily Dickinson was. Here's a version of this song that I found on YouTube -
7) CLOUDY
One of their better songs, I like the last para, for its lyric & its music's semi-crescendo, which goes something like this -
Hey sunshine I haven't seen you in a long time. Why don't you show your face and bend my mind? These clouds stick to the sky Like floating questions, why? And they linger there to die. They don't know where they are going, and, my friend, neither do I.
Which brings me to the burning question, why should I ignore the other stanzas !!! Without much ado -
Cloudy The sky is gray and white and cloudy, Sometimes I think it's hanging down on me. And it's a hitchhike a hundred miles. I'm a rag-a-muffin child. Pointed finger-painted smile. I left my shadow waiting down the road for me a while.
Cloudy My thoughts are scattered and they're cloudy, They have no borders, no boundaries. They echo and they swell From Tolstoy to Tinker Bell. Down from Berkeley to Carmel. Got some pictures in my pocket and a lot of time to kill. ....
8) The 59th Street Bridge Song (Feelin' Groovy)
A catchy jingle - "I'm dappled & drowsy & ready to sleep" with a groovy note, sounds really anticlimactic, reminds me of a few college night-outs. ;-) LYRICS
9) HOMEWARD BOUND
An excellent song that I associate with (no points for guessing) going home -
I'm sittin' in the railway station Got a ticket for my destination On a tour of one night stands My suitcase and guitar in hand And every stop is neatly planned For a poet and a one man band
Homeward bound I wish I was Homeward bound Home, where my thought's escaping Home, where my music's playing Home, where my love lies waiting Silently for me
Everyday's an endless stream Of cigarettes and magazines And each town looks the same to me The movies and the factories And every stranger's face I see Reminds me that I long to be
Homeward bound I wish I was Homeward bound Home, where my thought's escaping Home, where my music's playing Home, where my love lies waiting Silently for me
Tonight I'll sing my songs again I'll play the game and pretend But all my words come back to me In shades of mediocrity Like emptyness in harmony I need someone to comfort me
Homeward bound I wish I was Homeward bound Home, where my thought's escaping Home, where my music's playing Home, where my love lies waiting Silently for me Silently for me Silently for me
"A poet & a one-man band" indeed. ;-)
10) THE SOUND OF SILENCE
Hello darkness, my old friend!!! One of my favorite songs - I like the fourth stanza a lot -
These lyrics seem to echo in my mind, every time I hear the sound of silence -
Hello, darkness, my old friend I've come to talk with you again Because a vision softly creeping Left its seeds while I was sleeping And the vision That was planted in my brain Still remains Within the sound of silence
In restless dreams I walked alone Narrow streets of cobblestone Beneath the halo of a street lamp I turned my collar to the cold and damp When my eyes were stabbed By the flash of a neon light That split the night And touched the sound of silence
And in the naked light I saw Ten thousand people, maybe more People talking without speaking People hearing without listening People writing songs that voices never share... And no one dare Disturb the sound of silence.
"Fools," said I, "you do not know Silence like a cancer grows." "Hear my words that I might teach you, Take my arms that I might reach you." But my words like silent raindrops fell, And echoed in the wells of silence.
And the people bowed and prayed To the neon god they made. And the sign flashed out its warning In the words that it was forming. And the signs said: "The words of the prophets Are written on the subway walls And tenement halls, And whisper'd in the sound of silence."
11) SCARBOROUGH FAIR/CANTICLE
No piece on Tom & Jerry is complete without Canticle. Seems like an inspired effort to keep the listeners glued to the 70s and the 80s. Somehow reminds me of "Dead Poet's Society" - synesthesia anyone ?
Are you going to Scarborough Fair? Parsley, sage, rosemary & thyme Remember me to one who lives there She once was a true love of mine
Tell her to make me a cambric shirt (On the side of a hill in the deep forest green) Parsely, sage, rosemary & thyme (Tracing a sparrow on snow-crested ground) Without no seams nor needlework (Blankets and bedclothes a child of the mountains) Then she'll be a true love of mine (Sleeps unaware of the clarion call)
Tell her to find me an acre of land (On the side of a hill, a sprinkling of leaves) Parsely, sage, rosemary, & thyme (Washed is the ground with so many tears) Between the salt water and the sea strand (A soldier cleans and polishes a gun) Then she'll be a true love of mine
Tell her to reap it in a sickle of leather (War bellows, blazing in scarlet battalions) Parsely, sage, rosemary & thyme (Generals order their soldiers to kill) And to gather it all in a bunch of heather (And to fight for a cause they've long ago forgotten) Then she'll be a true love of mine
Are you going to Scarborough Fair? Parsley, sage, rosemary & thyme Remember me to one who lives there She once was a true love of mine....
Mani's second wind. Its like the character Prof. Gnanaprakasam, from a recent flick called "Mozhi", says - "Mani Ratnam - brilliant boy. Mark my words, he'll come up trumps. (Ivan oru naal periya aal a varuvan - transliterated askew but fits the bill)"
I'd hoped to find a Tamil movie. But the die had been cast & history's already been written. Malayalam was the language in which the movie was shot. Having never seen this film, I had to resort to crawling web-pages that describe this movie. As to what "Unaru" means, my speculations lead me to believe - "Arise".
Here's what I found & liked about this movie - I liked the theme in particular - it assumed a Machiavellian hue as opposed to "Pallavi Anupallavi" and the director besotted himself with portraying life or something like it from within the ranks of red Kerala's Trade-Unions. Escape from Poverty and Unemployment are depicted as being synonymous with blatant political overtones and alignment with Trade Unions. In particular I read of a scene where Mohanlal, with his grand on-screen presence, presumably the protagonist, arrives at a town, goes to a tea-stall and asks for tea. In return he's asked which political party he belongs to. Upon riposting & conveying his non-alignedness, the tea-stall owner retorts that if such was the case, he can't serve him tea! Throw in a bit of religious fanaticism and mallu-charm and you have the skeleton of Unaroo/Unaru. Gotta have More cowbell. ;-)
3) GITANJALI
What a breath of fresh-air ! I saw this movie in Telugu and didn't bother to see the Tamil version of it called "Idhayathai Thirudaathe". I remembered the songs in these films, partly because they were played at home, quite often, on the tape-recorder in the 90s. I had a creepy-crawly, hair-stood-up-on-the-back-of-my-neck flashback moment as the theme song "O Priya Priya/I Love You" was introduced while the title and credits rolled out(at the beginning of the film). What I didn't remember was that this film was about two terminally-ill patients. Nagarjuna enacts and embodies the rowdy college-goer to perfection in the first few scenes of the movie...reminds me of Shiva (not a Mani-Ratnam movie, but a RamGopal Verma venture, his first to be precise).
The accident soon follows (after a foot-tapping number called "Jagada Jagada", plagiarized in RamGopal Verma's new Shiva as "Hosh mei, josh mei or whatever") and Nagarjuna gets a glimpse of the sorry future that lies ahead of him. His spirits sag but in the lead-up, the dialogue bears trenchant wit even as he asks the doctor to marry him, since he is well and fully-recovered. Nagarjuna's character Prakash decides to take a trip to Ooty, far from the madding crowd, as a possible recourse to choking and fading away to non-existence in the city.
Scene shifts to a girl dancing her heart out as it rains over the plains and the hills and the vales (stop!). Nice catchy number. However, in my impressionable days, as I'd shied away from Telugu and adopted Tamil instead, I seemed to have caught only "kaavali" from this song. So she wants something, eh ? Just kidding, the song's called "Jallantha Kavvintha". Gitanjali (played by Girija, where did she disappear? ) ends up late for a meal & is asked to leave the table by her loving and caring dad (played by Vijaykumar, does he speak Telugu? I don't know, I've seen him in many a Tamil movie. I guess AP is only across the border. So no bother.) . Again, Mani's direction and Girija's kiddishness shine as Gita gathers food from her siblings and manages to slip out unnoticed were it not for - ok ok too much detail.
"Aamani Paadave Haayigaa" is a wonderful song picturised on Nagarjuna, who folds his arms around his body to protect himself from the cold & takes a casual stroll across the mountains and the plains and the hi...(choke) Ooty's scenic beauty, but he manages to convey a picture of Devdas too ;) - damn here's where I curse myself coz I can't understand a thing that Veturi's intending to convey in Telugu. He is promptly followed by Gita and gang, who make quips and joke about his bearing and mannerisms and disappear into the all-pervading Ooty mist. An interesting scene ensues when Prakash visits the local hospital. Boy meets girl. Girl fakes it. Boy scares girl. Girl cribs to grannie saying boy wants them to elope from that hill-station. Grannie reprimands boy. Boy follows through and actually kidnaps girl. ;-) tadadadaaa boy gets to know girl's terminally ill. This is the second layer and brings interesting perspective into play. Gita doesn't get to know of Prakash's malady (of body & of discontent ;-)) yet. Prakash is stunned at Gita's vivacity and liveliness and is equally stunned at Gita's nonchalance in saying everyone dies at some point in time and its just that she's destined to die a few years before them. She'd rather live in the present than in the future. Love happens. A rather poignant depiction of their love and the theme song - "O Priya Priya" in a Laila-Mejnun fashion, is preceded by SPB & Chitra's awesome rendering of "OmNamaha", that whole song where they share a kiss (or more) in a room that fills up with Ooty's ethereal mist.
Rudely interjected into the film are a few irrelevent, irreverent, coarse and bawdy humor-sequences. Please get your formula right well in time before Roja. ;-) A stoic performance from Sowcar Janaki too, who plays Prakash's mom. The end may not be worth watching. The third eventual layer must come when Gita learns of Prakash's terminal illness. And you might not be blamed for missing all scenes & songs save one - "O Paapa Laali". :-) Ilayaraja's music serves that creamy upper-layer to an altogether enjoyable movie. Music from Gitanjali here
In the ides of March 2006, when my taste buds had been reduced to unmasking tastes between spoonfuls of oil, I chanced upon visiting this restaurant shrouded in a smart hoarding speaking orange and red, tucked away in an unassuming corner of Koramangala on 80 Feet Road. I couldn't believe I hadn't noticed this place before, after having lived practically right next door.
I detest overdoses of oil, generous golden drops of taste and fortune they very well may be, but they do clog arteries. I was pleasantly surprised at the ubiquitous accompaniment of Dahi & dry salad with almost all dishes.
The menu comprises mostly North Indian dishes. There are special items on the menu during festivals of Holi & Dushahara.
You could start at the very beginning with one of their special starters - "Chatori Chat" a combo of puri swathed in green chutney & samosa-chat. Enough for 3 I presume, although I wouldn't mind dunking in all of them myself. A lemon-mint cooler or a mango panna / aamras might do you some good in beating the heat this summer.
One of my favorites has always been "Tom, Dick & Harry" combo. You don't get any of the standard side-dishes in this combo such as those with "Balle Balle Pindi Chole", "Baingan Ka Bartha" or "Tangy Dum Aloo" with them, but you do get to choose three different parathas - I normally go for Mooli, Healthy Sprouts, Xing Shing, Aloo paratha - a combo thereof. I prefer Dal Makhani (which is well-made) to Dal Tadka...:)
I'm not particularly fond of rice-dishes (Its just rice!!!)Probably a bit of South Indian upbringing went into that-having eaten Sambar & kootu & curd rice for over a decade, life sure seems different ;). You might want to try the Biryani out. You may rest assured that no pieces of meat made their way into your biryani. There's something the Hyderabadi House might not be able to offer.
Favorite Dessert - I like the standard Gulab Jamun + Icecream combo. Never have had a Gulab Jamun here that didn't have a raisin/pista/almond inside. Can't wonder what my friends see in the aamras / aam ka panna?
Their ambience takes away all the redness & orangeness too form the food. No stupid overdose of garam masala or oil(did I fail to mention?) makes for a sumptuous dinner at affordable prices. Its really crowded on weekends. Be there at 7 PM or else prepare to wait for some time.
The damage done for a decent meal(dinner) is not too high - I'd put it at around 150 bucks per person topside.
Their Billing seems innovative. You pay in advance & hand the bill over to the folks in red & orange. It lets them serve you better, without having to keep track of real-time orders. Mast Kalandar seems to be the brain-child of IT professionals who boldly delineated a market-space for veggie food and went where few would have ventured. Good Job.
Little Italy
Little Italy caught my fancy because it happens to serve veggie Italian cuisine with wine. Being brought up in and around a conservative city, its quite impossible to dream of wine being administered in a Pure veggie resto - call it a culture shock. :-) The outdoor candle-lit ambience greets one as one enters the restaurant. Reservations in advance are counselled, especially in the weekends. If you're the indoors type - well step right in and say goodbye to windy or rainy conditions. I loved the time when my cousin and I had been to this place and the family sitting in the centre, was kind enough to extend a few slices of Birthday Cake.
The Californian Red Wine was good, albeit a tad expensive. I had had it with a pasta preparation and a pizza (adhering to the true spirit of the pizza - "A baked pie of Italian origin consisting of a shallow breadlike crust covered with toppings such as seasoned tomato sauce, cheese, sausage, or olives.", and very unlike the chunky bread they serve in Pizza-Hut or Dominoes) . I also hear the Tequila-cocktail they serve up is refreshing. One of the best places to extract a treat. A good meal works out to around 250 bucks per person + 450 bucks or so for the wine. ;-)
This baby is tucked away in 100ft road in Indiranagar.
Udupi Krishna
Come Sunday, I'd expect one'd be wondering what one is doing in Bangalore, Karnataka without having visited an Udupi restaurant. Udupi Krishna is a decent Veggie restaurant. Its amicably placed in the JNC Road behind Raheja Arcade. Situated next to a Coffee shop called BrewHaha (yet another cafe' where I have bumped into more than one fellow college acquaintance), this place can boast of a very spacious arrangement of tables. The ambience is lightened with light-flute music pervading the mild environs. The Sunday Special meals is a special favorite of mine. It comprises, among other items, an aperitif - which is normally a seasonal fruit juice concentrate, some kadubu (Spongy Idli-Rice Cakes), baby-masaala-dosas and ice-cream towards the end. It sets you back by around 80 bucks per person. An altogether relaxing experience for a lazy Sunday afternoon.
Krishna Cafe'
A very regular haunt of mine, yet another South-Indian resto, not to be confused with the Madurai Idly Shop. ;-) The idlis here are well-made and the chutney's good. There are a few daily specials - among which I fancy Adai & Avial, rasa-vada & morkozhambu-vada. Better still is the banana-leaf meal served everyday at lunchtime between 12:15 and 3:15 PM - It costs 60 bucks on weekdays and 80 bucks on weekends. The sweet shop Anand is nearby. Madurai Idly Shop - Good Pongal, not to be found anywhere else but here. Poor Pooris, Good surprise for a sweet in the morning - sweet pongal, carrot halwa, sometimes even jamun. This old haunt's located in Koramangala, a street behind 80 Feet Road, near Koramangala Club. Shanti, Sukh & other Sagars - may you Rest in Peace.
*LEKKERBEK - Belgian Cafe'
This is not strictly a vegetarian restaurant but I fell in love with this quiet little place situated on the first floor, down 80ft road, the moment I stepped in & picked up a Tintin comic. :-) Hercule Poirot too is Belgian, you know. (the Belgian detective with the odd egg-shaped head)
I always make it a point to have a Belgian Breakfast and nothing else here. The Belgian breakfast comprises sugary waffles, a chocolate cup-cake, a few pieces of fried potatoes & coffee or tea. I also have a cup of chocolate while reading a second Tintin comic or MAD magazine that are also on display here on the racks.
This was a little something I'd sent out to my friends in the Civil engineering batch at IITM. I'd typed this out last Diwali.
Hi Junta
Here's wishing all of you a very HAPPY DIWALI in advance. Do mail in and share your experiences during this Diwali.
I guess my Diwali is going to be a big wash-out due to a storm off the coast off Chennai. I'm going home for Diwali and so are most of the people in my team at office. I'm working in IBM at Bangalore. Here's a typical week at IBM.
The week begins with the unavoidable Monday morning nightmare scenario....wherein you wake up and find that you've got potloads of work left to attend to....and a pile of clothes greets you as youwake up....damn forgot to wash'em over the weekend. Plod my way to office, its quite close from where I live....The autos here are unbelievable...they respect the meter...well they actually do (things tend to get a little complicated at night, where the drivers turn the meter the other way and it measures 1.5 times automatically, but I'll leave that bit there) Anybody's better than Chennai autowallas I guess. These autos run on LPG...the auto driver literally sits atop a gas cylinder, tucked under his seat....talk about living dangerously!!
Try to shy away from the Team Lead and head to my CUBICLE (yes you read it right) there are Cubicles in IT offices..miles of them...scary and imposing at first...but you get used to them...The Dilbert comics were right about one thing....the cubicles.
Well Monday's when the meetings happen. The Manager seems to appear every hour or so...and pops into the cubicles to check on statuses. The team lead is the boss otherwise. Learning is quite redefined in my company...its such a private burden that you felt better off at IITM...where there was always someone who would clear things for you. We are learning Java, Web SErvices and Unix right now. The repository of gathered information at such a company doesn't fail to impress. Seriously people, these guys have a good intranet facility and lots of books.
The week I'd joined, the HR Dept. seems to appear with their bag of surprises and with their beaming faces and puzzles and answers...Ladies and gentlemen, I was in a 5 star hotel, while all this was happening. Ahh! the first week was sweet.
Now its back to the regular grind of course...work whizzes past and it needs a very determined effort or some really clever friends around to get past all those codes, bundles, applications and platforms.
There's always a joke or two that falls back into circulation...I believe there is a mini-book in Landmark which compiles the best SMS jokes and forwards of last year...well all these jokes fall in the same genre...they'll probably make it to that book in its next edition. ITs a daily ritual.
We have a daily quiz kinda thing going on over here. SO that peps things up a bit for a while anyway. There's always a TT table that would do for games to just get away from work....but only in the evenings...
The Office is really a pretty sight. We overlook a Golf Course. The lush greenery of Bangalore, which I was promised, seems to materialize before my very eyes as I step out. Its quite a Business Park.
The day goes by uneventfully. There are the usual patches, security updates and forms for personal evaluation, conduct, insurance and trivia.
I don't really know how to cook. Some people say I am missing something...well I just get on with it...now a Shanti Sagar, now an Idli shop, sometimes a rare visit to Andhra Mess and when that burns my tongue up, I revert to my food coupons and douse the fire witha fruit juice or a fruit bowl at Juice Junction.
Tuesday, Wednesday and Thursday kinda feel like you're going throuogh the motions.
And then Thank God Its Friday. The team wakes up and flutters and spreads its wings...we go out for a treat at the expense of the bakras...who could be birthday boys or girls..or some new joinee who got suckered into throwing a treat. The girls and ladies do put a lot of effort and manage to cook something from home...The guys just cover the main course by buying the sweets and desserts or getting mummiji/bhaabeeji ke haathon se bannaya hua khaana. Some other times its over to the latest buffet that hit the town...and the restaurant finds itself occupied just shy of 30 people who are in the team.
As the week draws to an end, the party animals confirm their plans and the silent types go home and relax with friends and family...
MG Road's too far off and so are the pubs....Legends of Rock is getting too monotonous...the beer tastes bitter nowadays. Forum is such a familiar sight...Garuda mall's too far off....lets go to Coorg next week...heard that was a nice place...these are some of the best laid plans. Lets see if some of them work out.
Now its raining pretty hard as I type my guts out...and I surmise it won't stop for some more time.(the rain and not the typing) I only hope it doesn't spoil my plans for Diwali.
It so happens with me that I follow a good poem with a bad one:
IMAGINATION -----------------
If I don't satiate the feeling that grows, With what courage shall I not miss you? As time goes by, my heart dips and eventually slows And my feelings wane out to those vital few.
The lights switch off by themselves And my starved imagination fades My memories grow larger by themselves And in them I fear my dead soul wades
External Stimulus tickles my ribs My stomach churns in disgust I know the response that kicks But my senses quell it in mistrust
Some gross mismatch allows progress It stops the small and feeds the large A cancer in me grows and begins to press A natural law needn't always help me recharge
I realize its my imagination that tilts the balance Now that its on its way out, I try and smile Knowing too well time's fraudulent cadence Has pulled a fast one with its usual guile.
Its contrary to rationality to glorify life with a girl. But I still fantasize, as a part of me refuses to surrender to this incessant pounding on the head following associations with girls and women. Its become too difficult to say nowadays, if I've used any other poet's verse, I dare claim originality and commend my courage too.
INNER PEACE ----------------
From heaven above and earth below; I gather a storm is about to blow; the girl who said she'd keep good time; has reconciled her fate to the toss of a dime!
Can a kiss on her lips revive her? Can a tear on her cheek surprise her? That the tear is not hers would try and test her my funny tear-stained face would arrest her
awake from a long-lasting slumber i finally found the winning number its a lottery to win and its worth winning her freedom's my joy and that sends my head spinning
Its a teaspoonful of nectar added to an ocean of woes watch the magic as the nectar's force grows the ocean stands humbled before your eyes and sheds a tear, as the great monster cries
The life now flows through my veins I feel one with my toils and pains As happiness and reason guide me to inner peace I find true love, time vanishes and I rest at ease
