Thursday, November 17, 2016

The drivers of Bangalore...

I have seen a new way of driving from the Bangalore folks. When they see road blocked as people are walking on the road, they use "horn" instead of brake...

Wow... hats off to this type of driving style.

Saturday, November 12, 2016

A day out...

It was a good day today. 

Arjun and I spent pretty much the whole day together, on foot and in a very relaxed way.

We went to Matteo. Well, there are two of them in Bangalore and we had to go to the church street one. Uber cab took us to the Indra Nagar one. Biwi kicked us out of the house 2 hours before the appointment. We ordered stuff at this Indra Nagar Matteo and called her, saying, we have more than an hour left, what to do? ;) Of course she had the last laugh. :)

Anyways, so this Matteo is a nice coffee shop, great ambience, good quality food and service. Seating is great in Indra Nagar one, as its filled with natural light.

So, now coming back, after we were done, the person waiting for us called saying, I am here, how come I cant see you guys?? And I was like, dont tell me we are at a different one. This place looks like it would say "हमारी कोई शाखा नहीं है"। Needless to say that I was wrong. This place does have another branch (or maybe a third one, who knows?), on Church street. So we enquired on how do we go to Church street in the fastest time? The answer was very unexpected - Take the metro. Namma Metro. Of course, the metro station was next door. And Nitya and I have joked about the Bangalore Metro on how it is a touristy thing rather than actual way to commute, but today, it was the fastest way.

So we went up to elevated stations. Very clean stations. Quick ticketing. As the train came, Arjun and I stood to take a selfie thinking we might not do this again :), but the doors closed so quickly that we rushed through the closing doors. And in 10 mins, we were at MG road. Another 5 mins and we reached. It was great.

Next stop, bank. 10 mins walk. We walked. On the way was this famous landmark restaurant Tandoor. I had heard about this place a lot from folks, but never ventured, I mean why will anyone go to MG road? :). Bank had queues, as the 500 and 1000 notes have been recently abolished. We saw there was shorter queue to an ATM which was working. So we rushed there, stood for an hour and got Rs 2000 :).

Then to Tandoor. Great ambiance, great food, great service. Highly recommended. I will write a separate review, but had Yellow dal tadka and Chicken Lababdaar with Garlic Nan. All great.

Then, again Uber and drama class. Sat under a tree, went to a CCD, had a green apple soda - very tall one. Spent 1.5 hours there, for Rs 151 :). Finished all office mails, charged phone and iPad. Went back and sat under the tree again on the road listening to music. Passers by were not sure how to see this.. iphone, expensive bag and watch and sitting on road. So, guess they thought i am mad, which works well :).

Home at around 6. Arjun enjoyed, I enjoyed.

It was a good day today.





Monday, November 07, 2016

Bread and butter...

Great things in life are always simple. And some of them, other than iPhone are free also.

Like, using a finger as pointing devise rather than a stylus. Such a simple concept. Like, putting down your thoughts in a blog. Like, water being the universal drink. Like, sipping a nice whisky. Like, feeling so good after a walk near the beach. Like, sitting on top of mountains. Like, watching a nice movie. Like, waking up to the rising Sun. Like, not sleeping till the middle of the day. Like, sitting in cool water on a hot day. Like, feeling the warmth of Sun in cold winters. Like, talking to a close friend. Like, being with yourself. Like, eating bread butter when hungry, with tea !!!

Sunday, November 06, 2016

Kapoor and Sons (since 1921) - Film review

Not very often, does a film comes, which has this great attention to detail. The last such movie I watched was Khosla ka Ghosla, which came like years ago.

Kapoor and Sons, on face of it is a very simple family drama. Parents, two sons, an old grandfather, a dog and a servant. All living in beautiful Coonoor. I can vouch for Coonoor to be beautiful as its my favourite holiday destination. 

Each character has been given space and time to develop. Even Kishor, who is some random servant for Tia, played by Alia Bhat. It is amazing how this movie does not interpret life as happiness and sadness divided by an interval, which most movies do.

This movie carries it all together in the moment. There is always happiness with an undercurrent of tension. Between parents, between brothers. I think thats a very real portrayal. 

The director, Shakun Batra, has done a splendid job. Hats off. And a movie that sensible coming from Karan Johar stable, is another very happy surprise. That shows Karan Johar will still support substance, even if the movie does not make 200 crores. This is a movie which a lot of people can relate to very easily, just due to the simplicity of story-telling and due to how sometimes in life, one weekend is great and another is not so great. Or some times, the Saturday morning is crappy but things sort of sort themselves out towards Sunday.

From an acting perspective, Alia Bhat is impressive. Very real acting. So is Fawad Khan. I would like to see more of his work. Rajat Kapoor was his good self. Ratna Pathak-Shah, is out of the world. I mean what else can be said, she looks every bit in each of the scenes. I think we need to make more such movies where we can have her play great roles. Siddharth Malhotra, although had a simpler role, comparatively, plays it well. Last but not the least, Rishi Kapoor, as a 90 year grandfather was fantastic. He had a powerful stage with this role and he made the most of it. His character is this all knowing grandfather, who does not want to force the decisions, but guide folks together in this very subtle way. I think he did full justice to his role.

The music was good. Not too many songs, but were outstanding. I loved Buddhu sa Mann, Bolna and even Kar gayi chul. Badshaah, Amaan Malik, Armann Malik did a splendid job overall. Great compositions. Fast and slow, melodious. Again, very refreshing.

The screenplay, written by Ayesha Dhillon and Shakun Batra was very tight. Each scene was very thought through and had a life of its own. The way, the scene starts and the way it develops over time is fantastic and very complicated pieces come together as part of this development of the scene.

I haven't watched something as complex, put together that simply before. I think its a great team effort with great acting, story/screenplay, music and direction.

Imminently watchable. Multiple times.

Great movie.

Friday, November 04, 2016

The Yeti

I got a Skoda Yeti. 4X4. 4 months back.

Cars have a special place in my heart. I always thought them to be these living-breathing creatures who you can talk to. Thats a very romantic notion, but thats how it works with me.

Ever since I bought the Yeti, for some reason, the hunger to buy that Merc or BMW has gone down quite a bit. I am quite satisfied in the car department.

I was wondering what can be the reason for such a change in me?

Maybe, the Yeti, although not exactly a German car, is still so amazing, that you don't need anything more from a car.

Or, it can also be that I am now getting old and so realising that there is no point trying to get bigger cars in your lives. All one should do is offload the loans as much as you can and be free of debt :).  Now, thats a very non-romantic notion, especially for the car enthusiasts like me.

But one of the above is true, or may be a combination.

Tuesday, November 01, 2016

And am back...

After a fair number of days off the blogging circuit and trying out Wordpress, I have decided to come back. 

Realised that I have been a lot more active here. Maybe it's the time, but maybe it's just the ease of blogging using blogspot. Who knows?

Anyways, for now, I am back on blogspot.