Explore Bangalore – 3

Last Saturday was unique for two reasons. It was going to be the first time I was going to watch a Bond movie( Quantum of Solace) at a theatre (Urvashi) . And I had also decided that since I am near Lalbagh, I might as well have my breakfast at Mavalli Tiffin Room (aka MTR), a place that I had never visited before.

So I started early from my place at Thippasandra in order to beat the Saturday morning traffic through Richmond Road.

MTR is a pretty well-known brand. Their ready-to-eat packaged food items are popular amongst Indians who are very particular about their food-habits and who have to travel abroad frequently.

The place was packed! It was a real struggle to get in and find yourself a seat. I somehow managed to find myself a seat and then started looking around for someone who can take my order. Unfortunately, the place seemed to be very understaffed. I finally managed to catch a staff member’s attention and placed my order : one masala dosa and a coffee. The coffee was something that I was really looking forward to. I had heard a lot about it.

As I sat there waiting for my dosa and coffee to arrive, I looked around. I noticed that rava idli was a popular choice here as every fifth person seemed to be ordering that. The staff, though smaller in number, were efficient. I noticed the kitchen on the corner. There were people walking in and out, most of them the staff as expected but there were other people too.  The rest of them were just seated like me were laughing, casually chatting , seriously discussing whilst enjoying their breakfast.

I did not realise this but I had waited for 15+ minutes easily and my order had still not arrived. Luckily I had enough time to spare before the movie began. The order did arrive eventually. The dosa was nothing much to write home about. Pretty standard stuff. It was different from the regular dosa available in Bangalore in the sense that it was a tad bit thicker and served with just the chutney minus the sambhar ala SLV Coffee Bar. The same thing, however, did not apply to the coffee. It was mind-blowing!

Overall, MTR is a nice place. I think a bit over-priced at the end of the day but thats just my opinion.

Oh and in case you are wondering, the Bond movie was a total disappointment.

Explore Bangalore – 2

As a electronics hobbyist I have to go hunting for components that I need for some of my hobby projects more often than not. In Bangalore, SP Road is a well known place for people like me to procure components at a relatively lower price.

Not too far away from SP Road is the well-known Kalasipalyam market in Bangalore. I have not really had a chance to visit this market. There are plenty of reasons for this. One of them is that this place is unbelievably crowded! You can try your best but you will still bump into someone while walking.

Last Sunday was different though. I had surprisingly finished my work on SP Road much more quicker than what I had expected. With nothing to do and lots of time to kill, I decided to walk through the market and explore like a part of Bangalore that I had never ever visited before.

Apparently the market was first created in the 1920s. By the looks of it, it does not seem to have changed too much since then.

The market was not very different from any regular market. Bustling with so much activity. People seemed to be lost in their own work. One would find it hard to believe though that this place actually existed very close to what arguably is the heart of the city.

The area that I walked into was a Muslim-dominated area. And as is so typical with Muslim-dominated areas, these places house the best eat-outs when it comes to non-vegetarian cuisine and tea. Since I had given up eating non-vegetarian food (for boring reasons that I will highlight in some other post), I decided to try out some tea at a crowded shop. After all, I was really tired after all the walking that I had done for the major part of the day.

The tea was out of this world. Simply amazing! It is very different from the tea that you would normally get at some of the darshinis that are so popular and widespread in Bangalore. It was relatively closer to the masala chai but it would give you a different kind of kick altogether. I could also see why every third person who walked into this shop was asking for a tea. I spoke to the old friendly chacha behind the counter there and he told me that he has been running this place for the last 30 years. The shop does not really have a name as such! So I am going to find it hard to actually direct people who might be interested in checking this place out.

The tea is available with masala bread and with some rather weird-looking but tasty cookies.Overall it is the best tea that I have tasted in my life so far.

So I move on and  walk right across a small gully that leads me to JC Road right in front of the SKC mall. All of a sudden it seems like a completely different city, a completely different crowd, a completely different atmosphere.

The market also houses so many packers and movers. Most of the trucks that you see in various parts of Bangalore invariably would end up at this place for the purpose of off-loading luggage.

Kalasipalyam market is not one of the those ideal tourist spots that one would think of when picturing Bangalore. It is far from it. But if you really want to explore a city, especially a city in India, you have got to go have a walk across places such as these to try and observe the two different extremes that a city has to offer. I guess a peek into the lives of the people who do business at this market is a nice way to start.

Back home ! :)

Yup. I am back in Kundapur. And I really deserve this mini vacation of sorts to escape the madness that so many of you call ‘Bangalore’ or ‘Bengaluru’ or whatever.

This place is heaven! And not just because it is my home and I get to meet my parents and eat some of nice food for a change, but more importantly I get the opportunity to stay disconnected from the rest of the world here.

Unfortunately, that is not going to be case for too long now. I can see how the look of this place is changing. It is still no where close to a full-fledged city, but at this point it bears the look of a small urban town gradually losing its charm with every day that passes by. Sad but true!

Got to go now. Will touch on this subject sometime soon when I am back in Bangalore. Ciao!

Explore Bangalore -1

‘Explore Bangalore’ is a new series that I am starting on this space. My objective is to be able to cover some of the lesser known places in and around Bangalore that I have had the privilege of visiting over the last five years of my stay here.

In this particular post, I will be mentioning about two eat-outs.

Sri Laxmi Venkateshwara Coffee Bar

aka SLV Coffee House is located at BSK 2nd stage, near BDA complex, opposite to that lovely BDA park. Anirudh suggested this place to me and I thought I should give it a try. Now I have gone past this place on innumerable occassions and always wondered as to why this place is so crowded. At first sight, you wouldn’t realise that an eat-out exists at that place thanks to a large tree present right in front of the entrance.

I somehow managed to squeeze myself in, avoiding the crowd, to try and have a look at the menu on the wall besides the counter. I couldn’t see more than 8 items on that list. I decided to go for a vada.

After another round of struggle with the crowd, I managed to get myself and my vada , soaked in the watery chutney, outside the place.

Aha! Time to eat! And as I digged into that vada, I could see what Anirudh was trying to say. The vada was brilliant! Period. I hadn’t eaten a more crispier vada at any other darshini in Bangalore. The chutney was watery yes, but it was spicy and tasted like chutney for a change. Interestingly, there is no sambhar to go with the vada or idli along with the chutney. Just the chutney.

No wonder this place is crowded! When I gave a search online, I found out about another place that is similar to this one. This one doesn’t seem to be too far away from SLV coffee house.

All in all, if you are a foodie and a foodie who loves the typical south-indian idli-vada-chutney combination, a visit to this place is a MUST.

India Coffee House

India Coffee House on MG Road is like a blast from the plast. The old building, the old tables, the waiters dressed in an attire so unique…everything about this place gives you a feeling that it has not changed since the place was opened for the very first time. The surprise package is the rates on the menu. They are all dirt cheap for a place that is located on MG Road, the heart of the city so as to speak.

This post has more on ICH. This is what the manager had to say then (15th of May, 2007)

“It is 50 years for our establishment,” said he, “but the building is much older; see it is still strong and does not need any repair but for a few minor patches. They did not even use any cement in the building. But next year, we are closing this place. We have a new building that is nearly ready in Avenue Road. We will be moving there.” I asked why did they have to move and if it has something to do with the Metro work. He said the owner of the building wanted them to clear the place, and will probably build something new in its place.

If you are lucky, you might still find this place on MG Road. If you do find it, do not miss the chance. Just walk in and let the place take you to what Bangalore might have looked like 50 years back!

More on this series later.

BarCamp Bangalore 7

Ive heard so much about BarCamp that I have decided to go ahead and participate and see for myself.

Venue: IIM Bangalore

Dates: Sept 13-14th

Go check out the main page for more details on the same.

By the looks of it, it seems like it is going to be a lot of fun.  See you there !

The Bomb Blasts

My heart goes out to all the victims of the blasts at Ahmedabad and Bangalore.

But this is ridiculous. Isnt there something that we can do to stop this growing menance of terrorism that is haunting our nation for the best part of the last 20 years. I mean, we are country full of intellectuals for God’s sake.  Cant we come up with a more logical way of dealing with this?

Sure we can walk out on our streets pretending that nothing really has  happened and the media can derive stupid conclusions out of this along the lines of ‘the spirit of the city and that of its people remains intact despite the blasts’. Truth is that we do not give a damn unless our families are involved.

Dear Imagined Readers

Sorry for the prolonged silence on my part. But there have been so many things that have been happening lately that it is difficult to find time to maintain an active blog.

So what has been keeping me busy all this while ?

Firstly, finished reading ‘The Three Mistakes of My Life’ by Chethan Bhagat and what a shame it was! I enjoyed reading Bhagat’s ‘Five Point Someone’. But his next two stories have been disappointing to say the least. Few questions to Bhagat :

1. Why do you always have to use a female character who is this modern, outgoing, ‘Jab We Met’ kinda girl in your stories when you clearly know that such girls hardly exist in India atleast ?
2. Why does your female character always have to wear a salwar kameez of chikan/whatever make?
3. Why do your couples always hang out at an ice cream parlour ?!
4. What on earth were you trying to depict in that last scene of ‘The Three Mistakes of My Life’ with all the trishuls ?! That one seemed to be straight of a 90’s hindi movie.
5. What is your underlying theme behind your latest story? friendship? politics? business ? cricket? none of these? a horrible mixture of all these?

Secondly, I gave my TOEFL on 12th. It was simple and boring. Should get scores sometime (some say 20 days later….others say 1 month later…..we shall c). Anyway, I have to sit down with the application process soon and chalk out some plans in the process.

Thirdly, work has been hectic. A possibility of a visit to Zhongshan city, China looms large, something which I am not all that excited about.

Fourthy, I need to start hunting for a new place. I managed to find a couple of places down in Domlur Layout but they were all too expensive for my liking.  Need to do a lot more searching.

More later….

Right Place..Right Time!

I was lucky to be at Forum yesterday. I caught this McLaren replica placed there. It looked fantastic!

One year through at work….

Its amazing how time flies by. It just seems like yesterday when I think of the times down at PESIT. I have learnt quite a lot of things in the past one year, techincal and otherwise.  Let us see for how long I keep this ball rolling !

Bowled em!

Yesterday was no different from a regular Saturday. Go meet some friends. Make plans to watch a movie….and then hang out somewhere discussing arbit stuff.

Me, Haathi and Daku went to watch Thoda Pyaar Thoda Magic. Wonder why we went to watch such a kiddo movie. But the fact that the other movies on offer had got hopeless reviews did not help our cause. The movie was ok-ok. Clumsy animation as expected. A Rani Mukherjee that did not look all that appealing. Kids that were adorable. But the surprise package, and maybe inappropriate given the plot of this movie, was that one song called ‘Lazy Lamhe’ picturised on a sultry Amisha Patel with barely any clothes on her ! Some critics have applauded Kunal Kohli for utilising ‘the complete potential’ of Amisha Patel in this song. Lol! I can only interpret that comment in one way.

After the movie, we decided to go for some bowling. We went to the nearby Star City bowling alley. While playing, I observed this one particular guy stirke on most occassions. I noticed his run up and then the release. It was not too different from the underarm leg break. That was the obvious part. But the surprising thing was his run up and then arm motion after the release. It was different.

Given that I am ‘brilliant’ at this sport, I decided to go and talk to him and learn a thing or two about bowling. I did learn a lot.

Me: Hey you know so much about this sport. You should be playing for India man!

X : I do ( flashing his Team India badge at me)

I was clean bowled!