Grapevine - Restaurant at HSR Layour, Bangalore

Went to Grapevine once. Tushar suggested that we do a get together there with some office colleagues. Now, this place being in HSR layout makes it very accessible.

The first thing which catches the eye is amazing ambiance. Very nicely done up this place is. Simple set-up, very informal and warm. Small yellow lights all around.

Food also is quite good. Mostly Mediterranean cuisine. Different Types of hummus - all quite good.

Interesting things -

- They serve wine
- Have books lying around you can read
- Have board games one can play
- Have Rubik's cube - 3x3 :)

And most important -
- They make the BEST Cheesecake. See for yourself..

Highly Recommended...

The Red Moon

Uncertain times...

Uncertain times, not moving quick enough in the right direction. I guess its just wait and watch for sometime...

The Business Walk

Starry and I have been consistently walking everyday around 6 am in morning for last 5 years. There would be less than ten days where we might not have gone for the walk over this span. Now for the past two and a half years, Bonnie has also joined us. 

The current walk if I analyse, not that I HAVE to, but I have to anyways :), has style 9 stages. The purpose is simple, Starry and Bonnie to do their business by the time we back :). Hence the business walk :). 

So the stages -  

- The beginning - of course means beginning of walk 

- The meeting - this is where we meet Ramu and Geeta and give them some food. Geeta passed away a few weeks back. May she RIP

- The build up - the buildup towards the business. Smells, the works :).  

- The anticipation - next steps, now the business is close and we are walking and walking 

The Heaven's Gate - not anther stage but this is where we come to a point in the walk where we see an opening and light gushing down from a tree illuminating everything which is dark otherwise due to shadow of the tree.

- The desperation - more than a kilometer done and still nothing. Walk faster... 

- The conducting of business - success at last. Starry is conducting his business. Relief :)

- The march back - walking back towards home, typically a brisk walk 

- The re-entry - re-entry into the orbit. Again back inside the complex. The road crossing and what not 

- The end - and we sit down. And half sleep for 10-15 mins :)

Running circles

Running circles doesn’t always mean that you finish where you started... :)

Or why I hate running...

I recently picked up running. I have been a runner, sprinter, district level at a sub-junior/junior level. That was many years back when dinasours used to roam the earth. Then job and other things took priority and health took a back stage.
I started going to gym, cycling, swimming and jumping rope some time back, but could never make myself go for a run. My right heal hurt and even if i could cycle a lot, could not get to running beyond a 100m. Bonnie, my other dog, and I started running a bit as part of the morning walk. Like, 50m here and there. This continues for a while, and then one fine day, I said, lets try 5k.
And so, one fine night, at around 9 or 10, I tried running with the app C25k, which roughly translates Couch to 5k. And I was able to finish the day 1 or running 30 seconds and walking for 2 mins and repeat 6 times :). And so decided to run the next day again.. and again the next.. Eventually, I eached 5k in around 32-33 mins. Just reached the 10k milestone, but the consistency still needs to come.
This was the good part.
The issue is that by the time I am back from office, it is already past 9 in the night. Then I change and all, speak to wifey and kid, speak to Star and Bonnie (my dogs). Once they all get tucked in the bed, then the pain starts. When, in the night I sit with myself preparing to go for the run, my brain and my body keep telling me non-stop that today, I should take a break.
“Oh, it was a long hard day, take a break.”
“Oh, you just plain sleepy, go tomorrow.”
“Oh, you have been running for 5-6 days straight, you will be nuts to go.”
“Oh, you didn’t sleep well last night and body still needs to recover.”
“You cannot run daily, nobody runs daily...”
“You are so fat, your knees will give up. Running is high impact, remember.”
“Aren’t you hungry, just Swiggy something...”
“Federer is playing, you missed the game, watch highlights.”
“Man, tomorrow you need to be in the office at like 9 on the dot for that meeting.”
“The left knee is hurting, let it recover.”
“You dont want to overdo it, just cos you can run 5k, does not mean you can do it everyday.”
And...
I go in slow-motion... pick up a banana very slowly, peel it, keep sitting on the sofa eating it for 10-15 mins, listening to my brain and body telling me why I should not go today...
After half an hour or sometimes 45 mins of reasoning with each other, they both (brain and body) almost fall asleep, at least slow down a bit for sure... That’s where I get up, throw the banana peel in the dust-bin, pick up my running shoes...
And then again they start..
“That’s fine, do just 10 rounds today.”
“Or better even, just walk.”
“You dont have a Garmin watch, its tricky to measure your run on phone.”
“The GPS signal is patchy and will not track correctly.”
“Buy an arm band at least for the phone, rather than carrying in your hand, so inefficient.”
“Why not go to gym today, you need to strengthen your body to run better...”
..
..
..
And then, I wear my shoes, put the jacket on as its cold, around 12 degree C and go down for my run.

Warm-up, run, cool down, stretch.. the routine.
And I love it..
And I hate it, because I know that the next day, my mind and my body will start convincing me to take another break. And again the next day, and the day after next... and I will still go for my run... everyday.
God, I hate running..

Choices we make...

People are judged by the choices they make. Today, I chose eating Top Ramen curry noodles over running :). 

Am sure where I am going... haha

1 Misal, 12 Pav

I was reading and watching some You Tube videos about Misal Pav recently. I was surprised to find out that this item is more than 150 years old.

Where did it start is not clear but most folks think Nashik is the origin. In older days, folks used to make "bhakri", a form of bread made of Jawar/Bajra and used to take misal, which used to provide a good source of protein as it was made of moong dal "usal". For taste, they started putting sev, mixture, onion, lemon etc to that. Some misal also has potato as source of carb.

Pav was not originally associated with misal. Misal in itself was almost a complete meal but folks wanted something with it, so it bhakri they made was not sufficient, then they started adding pav to it.

In Nashik, one can take unlimited tari with misal and so, the idea was to keep taking tari, and keep eating pav with that, thats where the "1 misal, 12 pav" came to being.

Another important consideration with misal is that it has to be "zanzanat", means after eating it, people should start perspiring because of spiciness. There is of course taste of the "usal" in there somewhere, but the typically misal is heavily spiked with mirch, spice. One can round off the taste with yogurt and lemon. That helps for a few not so bold ones.

Misal par has overtime become a staple food for folks in Maharashtra. Other than Nashik, misal pav is available and famous in Nagpur, Kolhapur, Mumbai/Thane and Pune also.

So, whether you are the bold one or not so bold one, go and eat misal-pav as it is a healthy, hearty food.

Enjoy !!!

Skipping 1000 reps in 12 mins

This is amazing feeling. Never thought that I would be able to reach this point. But I can actually do a 1000 reps of skipping in around 12 mins :).

And it feels great !!!

तपस्या

मैं विश्मामित्र की तरह तपस्या करता रहा, तिल तिल गलता रहा,दिन में रात में सर्दी में बरसात में, तपस्या चलती रही,
मन में आश्वस्त था, फल गई तो फल गई, वरना मेनका तो कहीं नहीं गई।

तपस्या करते करते बाल बढ़ गए, दाढ़ी बढ़ गई, जटा में जोएं पड़ गई।मन घबराया, मेनका इस रूप में देखेगी तो क्या सोचेगी,
मन को समझाया, अरे सोचेगी क्या, उसने बहोतोन की तपस्या भंग की है वोह खूब खेली खायी है,
उसे पता है की यह जटा जूट दाढ़ी मूंछ ही तो हम ऋषि मुनियों की कमाई है।

तभी कहीं पायल की झंकार सुनाई दी, वातावरण में मस्ती छायी,मैंने कहा अब के मेनका आई।

दूर कहीं बासुरी के स्वर सुनाई पड़े, मेरे कान हुए खड़े,
मैंने कहा यह क्या गड़बड़ घोटाला है,
दाल में ज़रूर कुछ काला है, आँखें खोली तो झटका लगा,
सामने खड़े थे साक्षात् भगवन कृष्ण कनाही।

बोले वत्स, तेरी तपस्या पूर्ण हुई बधाई, तू भवसागर तर गया,
मैंने कहा की मर गया, यह क्या हो गया, यह तो भगवान् जी आ गए,
मैंने डरते हुए पूंचा भगवन, वो मेनका वाला सीन कहाँ छूट गया।

प्रभु बोले, जब भी तेरे जैसा कोई भला आदमी तपस्या करने लगता है,
तो दुष्ट इन्द्र उसकी तपस्या भंग करने के लिए मेनका इनका भेजता है,
मेनका करती तप का हरण, उससे पहले मैंने कर लिया तेरा वरण।

मैंने कहा बॉस यह आपने आछा नही किया,
बॉस यह आपने अच्छा नही किया, पता नही किस जनम, का बदला लिया।अब भगवान् हैरान, बोले अगर तुझे मेरी चाह नही थी, तो तू तपस्या करने क्यों लगा?
मैंने कहा मेरे साथ हुआ है दगा.. 

मेरे साथ हुआ है दगा, बात यौं निकली की मैंने TV पे विश्वामित्र की कहानी देखी, 
उसमे मेनका वाला एपिसोड मुझे भा गया, और इस चक्कर में यहाँ आ गया |
... . 
... 
... 

I think the poem is by Shri Om Prakash 'Aditya'. I dont remember the rest and cannot find it anywhere on web. Will complete it if i remenber more.

Swimming...

I have been swimming quite consistently in the past few days. Around 400-600 m per day. And that takes me like 40 mins to do that.

Michael Phelps' world records is at 4:03 secs for 400 m. I am just 10 times slower.

But thats not important, what is important is that I am swimming everyday for the past 4-5 days. 400-600 m.

Bahubali - Beginning to the Conclusion

The most awaited films ever I guess - Bahubali - The conclusion. 

The chime of "Why did Kattappa kill Bahubali?". It's quite all-pervasive across India. People have taken day off from office to watch this movie. And I am like WOW. 

I think it's so age related. When I was younger, I have stood in line for Amitabh Bachchan movies. Specifically remember Hum when I stood in line since mid night to get the 6 AM show tickets. 

The question is, will I watch the movie? Absolutely, I will. Not he first day first show, but will watch. 

What do I expect from the movie? Well, the same as you expect from such a movie. No story, muscular men, half naked women, non-existent acting. And with the great graphics this movie promises, this already takes it in exceeds expectations category for me. 

So, why did Kattapaa kill Bahubali? How does it matter? And who the hell cares...

And, the Cube...

Well, yes I started cubing again. Don't think that's a word, this "cubing". But why not. :)

Got my Moyu AoLong and tried to solve it. It does take some time when you are not used to it. My that I was ever the fastest, but used to be able to do under a minute. Now it's more 3 minutes.

Anyways, happy that I am doing it again. Speed will come :). 

Enjoy "cubing". 

Motivation

"I want to do today, what you don't want to do. So that I can do tomorrow, what you can't."

Sairat - movie review

 I just started watching this movie called Sairat. It's a Marathi movie set in one of the many sugarcane producing villages in Maharashtra. 

If you look at the movie at 30,000 feet view, it's nothing different than the usual movie with upper and lower class divide. But as you go closer, you realise that the treatment is very different in this movie. 

The main characters of Prashant (Prasha) and Archana (Archi) and characters are set right in the day and age of a modern village with smart phones and 3G. Even the supporting characters of friends and family of the two is meticulously done. The accent used to speak Marathi is outstanding and seems to be coming right from the area. Each character has been given time to develop and establish their role for the movie. This helps as then the director doesn't have to come back to characters again and again. 

Another way to look at maturity or movie is how different it is pre and post intervals, some movies like Khosla ka Ghosla, My cousin Vinnie and Kapoor and sons (since 1921) does this amazingly. Sairat is not like that, but that is probably because it had to find an ending which was earth-shattering, with an element of surprise. So there would be a build out to that ending over the course. When the movie is over, you still find yourself just sitting at the place not willing to get up as if there will be a Ctrl+Z on the end. It's an unbelievable ending. 

Very good screenplay and music. One very interesting thing is the use of subtitles. The makes of the movie have paid a lot of attention to this and have put the subtitles in an extremely contextual manner. Very unique way of doing things. 

Overall, a very watchable movie.

Interval Timer

Got this great app called Interval Timer. You can set up custom exercise timer and rest times based on what you want to do. 

So if I am jumping rope, I will put a timer for 1 minute of jumping and 1 min of rest. I can repeat the cycles as many times I like. So for example, If I say repeat 10 times then the whole process of jump rope time and rest timers repeats 10 times. 

I can add more custom timers and name them separately based on the exercise I was to do. 

Pretty cool eh?

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.

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.

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 !!!

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.