Time again for some more fun

Finally,

Now I have some poems in hand. Will download Avro today, the laptop has come ( the keyboard is in a kind of mess)

 

Well, some journey into the heart of West Bengal, to the  Chandigram , to Mecheda and finally to Digha.

This is not the best time of the year to go though and the last we went they did tell us to come during the new year , the reason for it being the beaches are not safe to bath .

 

The high tide will pretty much affect even your seats about 50 meters away from the winter sea. The view is good during this time of the year and if you really love the sprinkle once in a while you can take a safe seat some where up and enjoy the view,

The wind is cool but one thing funny about the place is that it no way resembles a typical Goa evening and the breeze is pretty much invisible a little away from the beach , Some how that was astonishing for me . I had taken a room a little far away from the beach and it was the last you could say in the line.

 

It was more like , we are tired and please please please lets use this room ( it is fine  ) We will choose a better one tomorrow if needed,

Moreover , they sometimes ask for marriage certificates , “you know that feeling don’t you?”

Still, the hotel people treated us well as we were the only people around. We looked like the cool guys around,

 

They don’t bother couples much. Yup , especially if you look happy with life, ( the problem started with many romantic couples thought it better to end their lives in the shabby 150 rs hotel rooms out there ) near to the sea away from their homes.

 

The shopkeepers don’t loot you and the food in the hotel was godsend , in future I will prefer somewhere else to stay because Gitanjali ( the hotel where we stayed ) is not clean any more ( the old one looks a complete mess  ) with insects strewn dead here and there and the room smelling like morbid morgues .

 

The new Gitanjali just opposite to the old one is better but still I will prefer the newer ones which are closer to the beach. The only thing that completely ranks it on the top is the food .

 

Well, that is pretty much for the Digha trip ( but though it is a small writeup ) immediately after returning I am feeling tired to do anything else now other than a small power nap to wake me up completely.

 

 

Bandipur trip

Finally after a lot of struggle getting people to come along and after a lot of hype and hoopla with 100’s of messages a single amongst the group members we have finally completed our Bandipur trip .

IT was a different experience perse. Since I have never been out with 25 other people. To find common interests that will keep everyone engaged is one hell of a challenge.

We started off early morning Staurday night . IN the wee hours in the morning I stood out side Leela Palace here on Airport road.  We were supposed to gather in Bellandur in one of our friends places. In fact more than one stay there

 

We took some precooked food like parathas and Alooo ki subzi to be had as breakfast somewhere on the way. The amount of planning that goes in such excursions is unbelievable. Whom to be put in which car. How will the in city pickups be charted and how to avoid some of the road blocks that come up out of the blue.

There was a planning mail chain that revolved around all these activities.

The trip was planned to be an one night stay , Saturday night being the chosen night. I might need to write for hours to even get near to the wholesome experience that we had. Mostly it was the route , the in vehicle fun, the cricket out there and the food in the middle of nowhere stuff that got us really charged up for the evening.

We reached there after quite a few halts like all the CCD’s on the way to relax and chat.

 

The ones who were in the power vehicles enjoyed speeds of about 150kps at times , the chicken was bought on the way too. We had planned for Cricket, Bridge and firangi paani out there , it was small nice place called the Tiger Ranch . The owner has bought about 100 acres in that area, and runs this place in a small cottage yard of about 2 acres. He keeps 4 Dobermans around him all the time. Weekends are his main income, though he now considers keeping the place for passion rather than business. We had a nice small buffet out there with south Indian, north Indian and non veg and veg dishes. The Beer was overpriced and whatever biscuits and all  were available out there were randomly priced.

Anyway, we got into our tent like cottages to get some rest, after which we played till late in the evening.

 

We were all waiting for the darkness to come down upon us and bring with it the main attraction of the stay , the mystic of the dark.

We had taken two barbeques with us. It took some time to get the coal burning, once it was up ,there was  big bash. One hell of a bash .

Songs , from the nostalgic memories of the past days, Songs from the local band of boys. There was a complete engagement of people.  Late at about 11 the lights were sut off and we were left in the dark with on small lantern .

 

That is what people pay for, that is what is Bandipur all about. The all consuming darkness . And the half expectation of seeing two lighted eyes in the dark ness. No other experience beats the question and the puzzle of the unknown. I was trying to get in to the silence of the place. The calmness of the nerves that one will immediately acquire by being so near to our roots is a holy experience of its own kind.

We came back the next day after a big lunch out there. One thing pretty funny was I saw more girls out there in the jungle then we see in the towns nowadays. We spotted some deer crossing the road on our way back. The forest is pretty huge and Bandipur is just one place in that forest . It actually is spread across the three states of the south except Andhra. All in all there are 88 leopards and 82 tigers and that too if you are believe the last survey . With low numbers like this, the chance of a leopard pouncing is far less that what it used to be to spend a night in a forest retreat.

 

I believe that the more important factor is fact that we need a huge group, some who can cook well, some who can sing well, some who can keep you engaged and some who can arrange well. We need some leg pulling, and if there are girls around , there is nothing like it. So all in all, it was a complete trip if you were to ask me but going as a 7 or 8 guys will be a put off.

 

Indi Joes

I had written a post a few days ago about the Indi Joes in the RMZ , though I was not very positive about the place but the buffets in Indijoes Old madras road are pretty cheap ( 125 bucks )

I did not know that on the day I wrote about it, So hopefully you guys can tune your quality sense a bit if you want to take office people out once in a while, Since it is mostly the gathering that matters and not the stuff that enters your stomach ( now , now, dont shy away )

 

Well,

Today I want to write about Indiana Jones and the kingdom of the crystal skull. The Inca and Mayan civilization seems to be the American answer to the mysticism of the east. Nope we wont allow you to rob us of that. I am Indian and so I have the extra mystic  powers ok and we will not argue over that. Spielberg and Harrison Ford have done the swan song. They put everything they could,

 

A family reunion ,  a bomb explosion, a trans continental shift in scenes, a treasure hunt, a little bit of the alien pinch, a little bit of betrayal, a vamp with the guts, a tarzan act, a father son union, the reckless fight, the Mummy stuff , like lust of gold and the bugs . Yes the bugs, this time red ones.

 

So almost everything we wanted to see when we were in Class X . Still it is good entertainment for parents taking their children to the movies on the weekend since most of the Hindi movies in an attempt to get all kinds of people and to keep the Bhaiyya jee mass happy will end up making a movie where there will be scenes far more inappropriate than a hollywood movie at times for a family entertainment, I believe movies like Indy 4 will definitely earn more in Indian markets than Bollywood movies. Can you believe that people spend money to go and see movies like Saawariya, My sister had bought a DVD of it with high aspirations and expectations. When the result is so bad that the difference between your small expectations and huge loss you suffer make a gap and void that needs to filled with movies of substance.

 

Well, Zee movies is coming up with 5 movies from Akiro Kurosawa. Be there

Indijoes

So they are coming up with all these places all around Bangalore. Today we went for a office lunch to one of these places, It was nice one. I prefer not having my lunch since it makes me feel drowsy throughout the day and even till evening at times . That takes away a major chunk of the day . So I preferred eating something light out there.

Well, the pizza though it was a vague attempt at making a thin actually ultra thin crust pizza, but all it tasted was like a bread rolled in some home made ghee. What a put off, you might be writing off the whole idea of going there.

The ambience was good, I told you hotel makers think that the people come here to eat the ambience , no one wants to eat out for good food. The last time any Bangalore restaurant impressed me was the Sahib, Sindh Sultan. That place has Everything. From parking spaces to ambience, choice of drinking place and a good chef ( or many be more than one )

Well, restaurateurs I think know that if they provide good and tasty food,he will end up having to serve more customers than he can handle.

And he cannot provide parceled food since that does not make any sense. So he is happy overcharging for the ambience. Indijoes now has already opened up in three places ( old madras road , where I work is a new one )

All I like about the place are the film posters and stuff like that. They are really cool. I liked the place in terms of some nostalgic remains of Rome in the 1950 ‘s ( not for me though, unless you watched movies like a Roman Holiday first day first show, I really mean that)

I did end up tasting a lot of the stuff. The only think I will commend is the vegetable soup they made, may be it will be some other thing for the others who went with us. But definitely it is not the best of places that I have been

Bhojohori Manna

If you are there in kolkata for a short visit and want to taste everything that you miss outside Kolkata, you may as well try this place.

Kolkata has very few places to talk about in recent times and I came to know of Bhojo hori Manna all the way in New York where a friend of mine was placing all kinds of laurels on it.
Well, you got to believe that Bengalis are good at business ( unlike what the marwari and gujarati community sometimes think ) . It was started by a group of friends Goutam Ghose (a film director), Siddhartha Chaterjee (actor), Siddhartha Bose (Tata group executive-turned-restaurateur), Ranjit Duttagupta (a businessman with a passion for food) and Rajeev Neogi (a publisher).

Actually it has all grown due to a belief that we are big time hoarders. , Funny, the same community that produced, Vivekananda, A brave man who said that the only to fear was fear itself,
it produced more nobel laureates than we could have ever thought of.
They constantly fought together with the Punjabis to get this country out of the British clutches and , they also kept the art and science alive throughout the 20 th century only to end up in a misery where two generations are brooding over their past .
I see people in Kolkata fight all day only to get their next generation some where far away from the hassles of the city.

But the mind that grows in Kolkata will never be able to leave it truly. I am planning to start a online community like orkut , only for Bengalis. Anwesha is one of the government programs to do the same. They are trying to get the Bengali community all around the world to contribute, With prosperity , when your basic needs are taken care of, does come great art.
With hunger in your stomach and a family to support you really dont think of much art do you?