Legends of Delhi’s Belly

 

Legends are a complex animal. They may not be the fad of the day, there may be shinier and better things coming up everyday, be they actors, stories or restaurants. But legends hold their own as places, people or things that have stood the test of time. You must experience them to have an opinion on them, whichever way your opinion may swing!

 

Rediff recently published my article on Legends of Delhi’s Belly. It traces legendary restaurants in each cuisine in Delhi and includes places of worship for Delhiites like Big Chill, Karims and the eternal HCF from Nirulas.

 

Check out the article HERE.

 

Disclaimer: The photographs in the article need an apology. Could have been and will be way better in the future. Food tends to make me lose focus!!

 

Big Chill’s signature Fuseli Chicken Piri Piri

 

Mutton Burra at Karims

 

Gigantic Golden Fried Prawns at Chungwa

 

The Mecca of all deserts – Nirulas for their HCF

Iraqi Restaurant Reviewed – Don’t say I didn’t warn you!!

 

No…this is not the description of the restaurant. Actually, it may as well have been. The Iraqi Restaurant, set in a bylane in Lajpat Nagar 1’s residential E Block (E-178 near the gurudwara) is indeed an Iraqi Restaurant and for the sake of simplicity, the owners decided to use the description for it’s name as well!! It takes a little bit of searching to find this nook and its best if one asks around for Krishna Market and thereafter locates it. On a hot Delhi afternoon (and the afternoons are getting sweltering hot these days), we braved the weather and went ahead in our endeavour of constantly trying to find new places to eat.

 

The decor was much better than we expected. Expecting bare tables and chairs like Bline (the Russian restaurant that is now shut), we were pleasantly surprised to see the minimalistic yet aesthetic look of black tables and sofa seats. The waiting staff, like the owner, are all Iraqi students and speak just a tad bit of English but pointing and hand gestures should get you by.

 

Very interested in exploring a new cuisine, we decided to start with the appetizers. A platter of kebabs, a mix seasonal salad and a dal (lentil) soup. The kebabs came impressively on their skewers but were dry and very bland in comparison to their Indian counterparts. The salad was great though – was one part an eggplant and onion salad, one part cucumber and tomato and a part of hummus. The dal soup was a large bowl of ..well what did you expect…dal! It had some boiled rice thrown in, so your quintessential khichdi!!

Telling ourselves that there must be an upside to this place, we went ahead and ordered the main course. The Qosi Rice is the most recommended dish to eat here so we ordered a plate of that with a bowl of beans for our vegetarian friend. Trying to figure out what the beans dish is like, we asked the waiter and he said it was like baked beans…we thought that perhaps that is just a metaphor. Alas, he was forewarning us, it was indeed just a plate of baked beans! Having said that, I have a feeling that our vegetarian friend had a better meal than us because the Qosi Rice turned out to be one large mound of rice with a ‘boiled’ piece of sheep meat on the side. Thats it. No gravy, no flavor. Literally just a boiled piece of meat! Thinking we must have ordered wrong (rather desperately praying that we had), we asked him to get any other dish with a gravy – the house speciality. What he plonked on our table though looked like he was very very mad at us. In the huge bowl, there was a lot of runny red water, submerged in this water was 2 huge rotis broken into bits and on top of this pile was yet another piece of the boiled sheep meat similar to the one that we had been struggling with!

 

The prices are low. A meal for 4 cost us just Rs.1000. Yet, we walked out hungry, discontent and very very unhappy. Nothing that a quick stop at the Def Col Nirulas couldn’t fix with their Hot Choc Fudge though!

 

All in all, a very disappointing experience. If Iraqi food is like this, then perhaps this is one country I’m not planning on visiting soon! If not, I hope to find a restaurant that does it justice!!

 

Rating: –0.5 out of 5

Journey My Way

Some things are just meant to be – they have been staring you in the face for so long and you just never saw them! Often I get calls from friends and family who are in a particular part of the city and want a restaurant recommendation for a specific cuisine in that area. Or colleagues who are going out of town and just wanted my suggestions on where they should go, what to eat there, how to travel, where to stay etc. Add to this, the fact that I have been writing about Travel and Food for many years now, on websites like Rediff etc. When you put this all together, I saw what had been staring me in the face. A Travel Advisory. Sharing local insights about North India with inbound travellers – helping them experience India in a unique way!

Thus, Ladies and Gentlemen, was born JourneyMyWay. The Travel Advisory helps travellers customise their itineraries to suit their personalities and not go for the tried and tested packages which make them adjust their personalities to their itineraries.

JourneyMyWay (JmW) first tries to understand the clients in terms of their preferences, their comfort levels, what aspect of a city would they be most interested in, what cuisines, how much would they want to spend on the trip etc. Taking these personality traits into account, JmW creates a unique itinerary for them, giving them recommendations on what to see, how to schedule their day, what to eat and where, what to wear, weather temperaments, how best to travel, where and what to shop etc.

Whenever one goes for a trip, the most credible source of information are friends who have already visited your destination and thus may have local insights. JmW is a traveller’s local friend who can help plan and guide him/her for the duration of their trip.

Please visit www.journeymyway.com to explore more of the concept. Also, don’t forget to become a part of the Facebook Group by clicking HERE. Keep tuned in for some great insights, reviews and tips!

Feature on Lakshadweep published

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My latest travel feature on vacationing in Lakshadweep is up on Rediff. Lakshadweep is like a string of pearls. The islands untouched, the white sand and crystal clear water - its a vacation that dreams are made up of.

If you have a week to spare and 25K per head to spend, take my advise and take this path less trodden. It will be a week you will remember for a long time to come!

You can read the feature here

If you're still in 2 minds, check these out:

Drained

Do you know how it feels to be drained
As if you were once a pot bubbling
And someone came and played a prank
Opened the tap
And slowly you felt like someone had sucked your soul out
Drained and completely empty
Devoid of emotion
Of logic or reasoning
Just an empty vessel

Do you know how it feels to float
Like a soap bubble in the air
Flitting here and there
Until a sharp edge prods you
And pop goes the bubble
And all that is left is nothingness

There is no angst
There are no emotions
Just nothingness
It’s not dark, just monotonous
Like the clock that goes tick tock
And seems to be in a rush to get somewhere
But comes back where it started from

Do you know?

This is one Paathshala I suggest you bunk!

So let’s say that it’s a Saturday evening. You have the option of taking the dog for a walk, painting the garden fence, counting how many mosquitoes have found their way into your house or watching the film “Paathshala”. I would suggest you go in the same order of preference. Take the dog for a walk, atleast he will be grateful and you would get some exercise. Paint the fence – it will look pretty, get you complements and make the missus happy! And if all else is over, resort to counting the mosquitoes. It may seem like a futile exercise but it helps to know your enemies before annihilating them. And even after all this, if you still go on to see the film, well then my friend perhaps you deserve to go through it!

There are some movies where you walk out of the hall with a puzzled expression on your face. No, its not about deciphering some major twist in the film that you didn’t understand. Rather, you look at your companion and wonder aloud why someone would bother to pay actors, make them work for so many months and actually bother releasing a movie like this!



So you think I’m being judgemental? Let’s see. The story (??!) revolves around a school which has been highly reputed since years but has stuck to the principles of education and not given in to commercialisation. As a result, the facilities are dated and the trustees threaten the Principal (Nana Patekar) that they will close down the school and build an apartment complex unless he upgrades and starts making profits. So far so good. Nana Patekar has a bunch of people on his staff rolls whom someone has painstakingly tried to characterise but failed miserably. So there is a professor who is obsessed with NASA (except that he never mentions it once in the film), there is the Bengali geography teacher who is always worried and confused. There is the school peon who actually gives a great performance (the only one in my opinion). And as a last ditch attempt to bring in the viewers, there is Ayesha Takia (a nutritionist who supposedly cooks for the kids but is never seen doing so and whose only apparent job is to switch off the hostel lights at night). And ofcourse there is the drool worthy Shahid Kapur. For him, I forgive the director. Even if he has a Shahrukh hangover from Mohabbatien.



So the director brings together all these people and asks the script writer to somehow tie them in together. The script writer has an off day and weaves a story which has more loose ends than a bunch of tassels. There is so much that could have been done with the film. A spark of romance between Ayesha and Shahid, the childhood crush of a class 12th girl on Shahid and how he handles her, the pretty girl in school/ the guy who likes her/ and her jealous brother. The trustees and their anger at being scorned. Alas, so much potential, such a wasted script.

What further surprises me is that the director actually brings together some fantastic child actors whom the public adores. Remember Kajol’s cute son in Fanaa called Rehaan. He’s there as is the lil girl in Cheeni Kum who treats Big B like her boyfriend. Add to that, there is also Aanandi – the household name of the girl in Baalika Vadhu on Colors. Such fantastic performers. So pointless a journey!

I cant even suggest that you go watch the film and make up your own mind. That would just be plain sadistic on my part. If you’re done counting the mosquitoes, help your son with his maths problems. Trust me, it’ll be more fun!

Rating: 1/4th and only because Shahid Kapur is so incredibly hot.
Paisa Wasool Moment: Paisa Wasool?? Are you kidding me? I’m suing the director for punitive damages!

New Beginings

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It is always a difficult thing, leaving an organization. Like everyone else, you may crib about your workplace often, but when it comes to finally walking away, I believe it takes a lot of courage. My father always taught me – don’t leave an organization when you are at a low. Quit when you are at your peak and quit for the right reasons.

So when I put in my papers a month back, I did not do so because there was something lacking in my current job. My work was being highly appreciated, I had a great team and the depth of my profile and role was the subject of envy. My leadership appreciated me and has been gracious enough to still keep doors open for me after I leave. I quit merely because my goal in life is a little different. My goal is peace of mind. I quit because I believe I have a lot to experiment before I finally find the thing I want to do for the rest of my life. I may be exceptionally good at my current job but my passions may lay somewhere else. It is in this search that I have set off again. Whether it is writing or entrepreneurship, I hope I find the courage to keep searching for my calling.

It was not an easy decision to make. When you’re good at something and the same is lucrative, you may fall into the inertia of its comfort. It took me a lot of thinking and years of building up my courage to take a step off the edge. But I could only do so because I knew that if I faltered and fell, I would have hands that would reach out to steady me and never let me go. I could do this because I had the support of my parents, sister and brother in law who may not agree with my decision but would always support it. I could do this with the blessings of my father in law, my mother in law, sister and brother in law who not only support my idiosyncrasies but egg me on. My best friends who are my emotional wall and would shield me from the world if required. Very importantly, the readers and followers of my blog who gave me confidence in my writing, many of whom silently read the posts but if I did not write for a while, would tell me that they missed it!

And most of all I did this with the solid reassurance of the Husband, whom this decision may most affect. If it wasn’t for his understanding, his love and his confidence in himself and in me, I perhaps would always be in double minds.

So, here I am on the threshold of a new chapter in my life, fresh with anticipation. It is not relief I feel, but the excitement of a child who cant wait to enter Disney land. It is a special day today. Today I feel blessed.