What I Ate With Whom

 I distinctly remember Khao Suey with Savitha in Indiranagar.. first time I had it.

Vietnamese food in Indiranagar again, with Shweta Sinha.

Dosa with Shweta Agarwal in C.P.

Chinese with Meghna Sinha at Yuawatcha, BKC.

Chai and something with Nikita Ray, in C.P.

Wine with Padmapriya and Jasmine at their place in Delhi.

Pizza rolls, with Bhuvneet Raheja in The Big Chill at C.P. in Delhi

Kuremal Kulfi with Prachi Jain

Nishka Rathi and Vikram.. biryani. Ashutosh too. In Mumbai.

Veg a la Kiev with Akansh at Olypub, Kolkata

Remember I had a cake with Siri, Tosha and Abha at Grandmama's Cafe in Phoenix Mall, Mumbai, after dinner- it was close to my birthday.

Coffee with Sheetal and hubby Kausshal at a CCD on Marine Drive, near Churchgate. After a pizza at Pizza by The Bay with her!

Suleimani chai with Shatakshi and Varun, at a terrace cafe on M.G. Road Bangalore.

Biryani at Paradise in Bangalore, with Pallavi Bajpai. 

Biryani and Irani chai with Pratima Gaikwad at Nawab's Hyderabad a few times.

Chai with Anushka Mishra at Church Street. After a round of bookstores.

Fish and Chips with Suhasini Barman, my new friend in Kolkata, at Cha Bar, Oxford Bookstore.

Coffee with Ananya Ghosh, another new friend in Kolkata, at CC 2. 

A drink at Lord of the Drinks with Pratishtha Batra, global citizen.

Likewise, with Nidhi Kanungo at Sheraton Indore. 

A drink with Kedar Muley and team at The Irish House in a Thane mall.

Chhota samosa and chai with Jogeswari at the Golftripz office.

Wine with Vrinda Khanna and her Dad, at her place.

Lunch with Rimjhim at her place in Bangalore.

Lunch with Vandana at NMIMS campus. 

Coffee with Archana Singh, friend from childhood, at Bangalore Club. 

Siri Adi and her Dad. Coffee he made at home, at Kharghar.

Bengali meal at Ananya Nandi De's place, NOIDA. With her husband Raka and son Hrishit.

Poonam Bhatia's place in Mumbai, drinks with her husband Ashwani and dinner. Shraddha Nigdikar was also there. 

Drink with Bhagyalakshmi and Venkat at TOIT, Pune recently.

Dinner with Shraddha and her parents in Dadar, her place at the time.

Lunch with Anshita, husband, Gowri and Sreeram, Ishita and Anurag, Aashish and Anusha, Rupam Verma at Orchid, Bangalore. (pic below)

Mexican food at Taco Bell with Jaya Dulani at C.P., Delhi

Essex Farms restaurant, lunch with Sharmistha Singh and Sunil Kataria, near IIT Delhi

Surbhi Mehta Chadha and hubby, Cha Bar in CP.. sandwich and chai.

Pizza with Abha at Nehru Place.

Lunch with Kanika Mhendiratta at India Habitat Centre, our first meeting.

Divya Singh, coffee in her office building, Sikandarpur. Our last meeting. In Vashi earlier, Burger and Pizza.

More recently, Dimsums with Ananya Ghosh and Sayantani Saha, in Casa Miami, Kolkata.

Review of Marathi Film Half Ticket (Tikit)

This is an amazing film about two kids in a poverty-stricken family who live in a slum. Yet, they smile a lot, enjoy life eating Crow's eggs (and naming themselves after them too) and making small money from collecting coal dropped by wagons. They also have a friend, Tutti Frutti, who is older, but understands them perfectly.

Their life changes when a pizza shop opens in the neighbourhood. They have a Don Quixotic desire to eat a pizza, and try many failed shenanigans. Finally, an unexpected turn of events gets them what they wanted.

Very interestingly conceived, directed, and acted in, all three main actors- the mother, and the two boys- deserve an award. They may have got them too, as this is a 2016 film. The director deserves one too, for an excellent film. See it on Netflix/Amazon. It's on one of them, I forget which.

Flying Zebras and More

There was this place called Flying Zebra pizzas that I happened to eat at in Siem Reap, Cambodia. A small, homely but distinctive eatery, it had a wood-fired oven that was right at the entrance, and you could see the pizza being put inside it- it was a big oven. The taste of the thin crust pizza was very different, may be because of the wood. Better than many I have eaten elsewhere. It was served on a wooden plate too.

The TV played Charlie Chaplin films- a couple of classics that I must have watched ages ago in a theatre were on, bringing on nostalgia. There was also an interesting drink available, made of crushed mint and ice, with lemon juice and water/soda that looked unlike anything I remember having before.

In other words, a nice touch here, a nice touch there, and service with a smile. What more can a customer ask for?

Another interesting feature in Phnom Penh is that all streets are numbered, so they are easy to find on a map. They have names too, but names are usually tough to find for outsiders. Tourist-friendly, I'd say. And US dollars are in use for public transport or any other purchases, so you don't have to change currencies, saving a lot of bother. The local currency is Riel, which is about 4100 to a US dollar.

Anopheles in 2015

Anopheles, my winged friend sailed in without a fuss, and started a conversation as if we had met yesterday-in fact, it had been several months since we had met.

How are you doing? she said easily.

I am fine. How about you? I asked back.

Not too bad. But I must say, this business of kids growing up gets my goat at times, she confessed.

Why? I pretended innocence.

Well, they want so many things. A good training, a palatial home, and no interference from us parents, she said.

And the latest gadgets? I added, questioningly.

And all the latest gadgets, she acquiesced. For work and for play. 

I said, "Don't worry too much about it. It's just a phase. We go through it here in our world too."

She turned to me and said, "What's up in your world?"

I said, "It's more WhatsApp than What's up."

"And what's that?" she wanted to know.

I explained, "It's an app- life these days runs on apps-applications, I mean. We want a cab, there's an app for it. If we are hungry, the pizza company's app helps. If we want a doctor, there's a medical app. If we want to exercise, another one keeps tabs on how many kilometres we have walked, and tells us the blood pressure at all times, before, during and after. This one's a communication app."

"And all these apps make you happier?" she asked.

"Well, I'll need an App to answer that," I joked. "The art of conversation is close to dead. If it's alive, it's only because some women still like to chat the old-fashioned way." I couldn't tell whether that remark made her happy or not. But I went into a reverie of sorts, imagining what kind of an App could produce H 'app'iness in humans -or even mosquitoes. For now, we said our goodbyes happily, and decided to meet more often, and exchange notes.

Ragas and RaGas

Indian classical music is known for its ragas, and many have myths and legends associated with them. It is said that when Tansen, a musician in Akbar's court sang Raag Deepak, the lamps would light up, and when he sang Malhar, the rains would come down.

I propose that we learn the appropriate ragas for the following-

Peezza raga, to make a pizza appear in less than 30 minutes.

Percentage raga, to get whatever percent grades in any exam. Teachers can stay at home.

Good hair raga, to make your hair fall in place and behave. salons and shampoos, goodbye.

Border raga, to solve border disputes with Pak and China.

Adrushya raga to make lousy TV serials, and dance shows disappear forever.

Book raga, to make any book you wish for appear in full text, free..the author reading it out for you.

Chai raga to make tea available on tap. Coffee will still need you to go to Starbucks/Coffee Day and spend 200 bucks.

Brownie raga, so you can score brownie points with your friends, maybe by making selfies appear from places you have never been to..

and of course, the Women's Empowerment raga, perfected by RaGa, to make women empowered instantly.

Alarmists

Let us try and clear the mist- I mean, from the alarmists. They are the ones who keep posting alarmist messages like-

Don't read the newspaper, it'll make your mind weak.
Don't eat pizza, it contains hidden micro-organisms that will cripple you.
Drinking Coke makes you impotent.
Morning walks/jogs can displace your arteries.
Ogling at guys/girls can make you blind.

You get the drift, right? So I decided if I can't beat them, I shall join them. Here I go-

Stay away from Arnab Goswami. He is too serious.
Stay away from Salman's films or you'll lose your shirt!
Stay away from investment bankers. If you don't, you'll lose your pants.
Stay away from parents. They tell you what to do.
Stay away from your teachers. Or you will start believing you are a nitwit.
Don't have kids. They make you cry.
Don't marry. Prevent Chapter 11/bankruptcy.

That's all for now. Back with more if you aren't 100% Satisfied with these.