Grilled Prawns Curry

 

s.

Tipping Point - Review

I am usually into a lot of fiction and mystery books, and dont usually venture into the non-fiction area. However, for those of you who do love these books, I think 'Tipping Point' would be a good one.
After reading this review, I am definitely going to read this one ...
http://thoughtmazes.blogspot.com/2010/08/tipping-point.html

Khatta Meetha

Khatta Meetha is a light comedy of corruption in the contractor’s business. Anybody who has been to the municipal corporation office for getting a particular work done would know about it. Starting with the peon to the top engineers, bribe is the way to go ahead. (Not that there are no honest people, but very few).

Sachin Tichkule is a descendant of a royal family, a budding contractor who has huge dreams of starting Tichkule and Tichkule Company. He is well known in the municipal corporation office for creating issues. His elder brother and one brother-in-law are corrupt contractors, who walk alongside politicians, minting money by all means possible. His other brother-in-law is in the inspection department in the municipal commission office, and is in cahoots with Sachin’s elder brother.

Sachin has logged a complaint against the municipal corporation, for not clearing his cheque on time, and this gets him blacklisted in office. If they were not helping Sachin earlier, the court case hinders the cause further. His situation at home is also not that good, with everyone in the family thinking him to be a lazy, corrupt person. Things start getting worse when a new commissioner comes into town, who happens to be Sachin’s ex-girlfriend – Gehna Ganphule and who makes life worse for him. Though Gehna is against corruption, her prejudice against Sachin is so strong, that she does not realize the corruption around her in the office. As usual, things work out in the end with bad people getting punished and all.

The first half of the movie is comedy, but the second half does not have you laughing always. The movie even has some fight scenes. Trisha, a new comer to Bollywood, is ok, but her acting does not stand out.

Overall, I would say it is an ok to watch movie, but not that great. After all, movies like Hera Pheri are not made everyday.

Harry Potter and Order of Phoenix - Misses

I am a big fan of Harry Potter, have read all the books numerous times and watched the movies numerous times as well. I like to read a particular book and then watch the movie to understand how the directors take out the best parts of the books and put it in a 2 - 3 hour movie. I believe the job is really tough. The author of the book might also be required to ensure that the movie has covered all the important parts for the sequel to be released and understood by the movie public.

Harry Potter, for those who do not yet know him, is a young wizard, a Boy who survived the killing curse of The Dark Lord Voldermort. Hogwarts is the school of magic where Harry studies wizardry. Ron Weasley and Hermionie Granger are his best friends. J.K. Rowling, the author of the book, has spun the storyline so well, it’s really brilliant. The author has written 7 books with Harry from the age of 11, each year presented in one book – Harry Potter and Philosophers Stone, Harry Potter and the Chamber of secrets, Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban, Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire, Harry Potter and the Order of Phoenix, Harry Potter and the Half blood Prince and finally Harry Potter and the Deathly Hollows. Till now, 6 movies have been released and the last one would be sometime this year – this movie would be split into two parts.

Yesterday, I was watching the Order of Phoenix and as I mentioned I was wondering how they choose which are the parts that should go into a movie and which should be skipped or changed. For those who have read the books would understand what I am speaking of. There are numerous things that were missing in this movie. I thought I would just make a list of those things that I would have wanted in this movie, and which do have a bending on the future parts and are difficult to understand by people who just watch the movies and have no background of the books.

Appointment of Dolores Umbridge – The school has seen three different Defense against Dark against teachers for three years. This year, the ministry had given an order that if the school cannot appoint a teacher on its own accord, then the Ministry would appoint one of their choices for the post. Dumbledore was not able to find a teacher for the post, and hence Dolores Umbridge was appointed by the minister as a professor in the school.

Dismissal of Professor Trelawney – For those who were wondering who was teaching the students the subject of Divination after the dismissal of Prof Trelawney, I hope you remember the centaur who saved Harry in the first part in the Dark Forest. Centaurs are supposed to be creatures who can gaze at the stars and can predict the future, though not accurately but Divination is also the art of patience.

Fred and George Weasley – Harry had won the Triwizard Cup and a lot of money as the winner of the competition. Harry was reluctant to take the money due to the fact that it killed Cedric Diggory. However, when he realized that he had to take it, he instead offered it to Fred and George and they put it to their business of the ‘Weasley products’. That’s why the ‘W’ when they run away from the school at the end of the movie.

Capture of Hagrid – After Dumbledore vanishes from the school prior to arrest by the ministry, the next one to go is Hagrid. Umbridge is biased against half-breed creatures, and she dismisses Hagrid from the post of the professor. However, since he refuses to go from the school, they start attacking him with spells. Professor McGonagall  runs to his defense, however she is also it by multiple spells and is required to be rushed off to the hospital for recovery.

Cho as the betrayer – The movie shows Cho as the betrayer of the secret about the room of requirements. However, it is not Cho but her friend who betrays all of them.  When Hermionie had asked everybody to sign their names on the paper for Dumbledore’s Army, she had put a curse on the same, which would make the betrayer’s face hideous if ever anybody tried to say a word about the Dumbledore’s Army or the place where they practice. This is a really nice trick that Hermionie does and should have been in the movie.

Umbridge as principal – When Dumbledore vanishes from the school, Umbridge is appointed the Headmaster of the Hogwarts. However, when she tries to get into the Headmaster’s office, she realizes that the gargoyle has shut her off and she cannot enter the office. She is required to use her old office itself.

Kreacher – He is the house elf in Sirius Black’s ancestral home. When Harry has the vision of the Dark Lord torturing Sirius in the Department of mysteries, Hermionie asks him to check whether Sirius is at home by using the Floo network from Umbridge’s office. When Harry uses it and verifies, he meets Kreacher who informs him that Sirius is at the ministry at magic and would not return at all. Kreacher is the house elf of Black family and Lucius Malfoy’s wife is Sirius’s cousin. She informs Kreacher to mention the lie about Sirius to Harry so that Harry could be lured to the Department of mysteries. During this whole time, Sirius is supposed to be at home itself tending to Buckbeak whom Kreacher has earlier injured.

Christmas Gift – When Harry mentions to Sirius about Snape teaching him Occlumency, he mentions that he is afraid that Snape is in fact making his mind more vulnerable to the Dark Lord. Sirius gives a mirror mentioning that whenever Harry needs Sirius, he should look at the mirror and call him. The mirror is a communication device whose other part would be with Sirius and they would be able to talk via it. Harry forgets all about this gift when he gets the vision and instead uses the floo network to contact Sirius. This mirror is very useful in the last part of the Harry Potter series. And I wonder how the directors would go by without it.

Well, these were some of the things that I thought would have been good in the movie. Guess, others would have their own views about what should or should not have been there in the movie.

Pick your own crop and fruits - Garsons, UK

This weekend I shifted to my cousin’s place at Farnborough, Hampshire. They had made a plan to go for Strawberry picking and I tagged along with them. This was my first time at such a place and I had no idea what to expect.

We drove from Farnborough to Esher to a place named as ‘Garsons’. They have a huge farm where a lot of crops and fruits are grown. They have an excellent range of vegetables variety from cauliflower and beans to green peas and potatoes. They also grow fruits– Strawberries, Gooseberries, Blackcurrant, Raspberries, Blackberries, Cherries and a lot more. The farm grows 5 types of flowers. Here, you can handpick the fruits and vegetables that you want, and take them home (obviously at a price), though its still fun to pick what you want.

We started from the Raspberry farm, started picking some. Some of the berries were a little too ripe. So when you are picking them, make sure they are just the right amount of red. From the Raspberries, we went to the Gooseberries. I had the delight of tasting Gooseberries for the first time. They are a little sour, a little sweet and definitely a once taste. Be very careful while picking these up – the bush is thorny. The blackcurrants are one fruit I have no intention of tasting every again.  We saw Cauliflowers, though had no intention to pick those up this time.  We did go to the crops section though. We checked out the Garden peas section. The same place had 3 different varieties – Garden peas, Mange Tout and Sugar snaps.

We then made our way to the top attraction – Strawberry farm. This is really fun. You would have to search for the strawberries amidst all the bushes. Pick up the red ones, but not too red. The dark red ones do not taste good. The normal red ones however are delicious. I had been buying strawberries from the Borough market for the past week and I had thought these were good, but the ones from the Garsons are very yummy. You would always remember their taste.

Garsons has a nice picnic spot where you can go and eat the lunch or snacks you have brought with you. Its very sunny these days, so if you have an umbrella, please bring it along. The picnic spot has benches, though on weekends there is a lot of crowd, and its better to bring your own mats that you can use. In case you are planning on eating the picked fruits, please remember to pay for the same. The picnic spot can be found if you drive through the Ring Road across the farm, there are sign posts which would guide you. Or you can always give a shout and ask.

People who would like to visit please note the timings – Mon – Sat : 9 am to 6 pm and Sundays : 11 am to 5 pm.

Hope you have a nice time there.

Garsons  has two branches – Esher and Titchfield.

Address for Esher: Winterdown Road, Esher, Surrey, KT10 8LS

For the complete list of crops grown please visit - http://www.garsons.co.uk/Esher/PickYourOwn/CropAtoZ/documents/CropCalendar.pdf

For the map of the Garsons farm to know where you can pick the crops - http://www.garsons.co.uk/Esher/PickYourOwn/CropAtoZ/documents/CropMap2010.pdf

Visit http://www.garsons.co.uk for more details on how to reach via public transport and other details

Note: Tomorrow they are opening for cherry picking. If you want to get the best, please be there at 9 am. Last year, they mentioned, all the cherries were gone in just 4 days. So please don’t wait for the weekend. You might miss the fun. I know I will.

Kodaikanal 2009

Bangalore Air Show 2009

New Moon - The Twilight saga continues

Twilight saga is the story where all legends of vampires and werewolves become true. New Moon – The second part of the Twilight saga, is the story about the budding friendship between Bella and Jacob, the story where Bella finally meets the deadly royal vampires – Volturri. I liked this book the same as Twilight one, and here is a small synopsis of what the book has to offer.


Bella, a human, has fallen in love with a “vegetarian” vampire, Edward Cullen and now she is afraid that while she would grow old with time and her skin would be covered with wrinkles, Edward would always look the same. Would Edward still love her then? Bella is now determined to become one of them – “the blood sucking creatures”. However Edward refuses to even consider this as an option, he is afraid that once Bella becomes a vampire, she would lose her soul. The story starts with Bella turning 18 and getting one year older than Edward (though not in reality since Edward is over hundred years old, but he was 17 when he became a vampire and has stayed so ever since) Alice organizes a birthday party at the Cullen house, where the turn of events changing Bella’s life occurs. While unwrapping the presents, Bella cuts her finger and though its not a deep cut, Jasper – the newly turned vegetarian Cullen, tries to kill Bella. Edward in his haste to keep Bella out of danger pushes her further where Bella hits the glass and her arm starts bleeding. Now no one is able to control their thirst and all look at her with thirsty eyes. Chalrlisle takes Bella and starts tending first aid to stop the bleeding. Everybody else however have to go out to get away from the blood. The next day Edward comes to say goodbye to Bella. The Cullens are going away for good, they had stayed in Forks for a long time now and Charlisle who is supposed to be over 30s does not look like his age. Bella wants to go away with Edward, but he bluntly refuses, mentioning that she is not good for him. The only thing that Edward asks from Bella is a promise that she would take care of herself and not get into difficult and dangerous situations, and in turn Edward promises that Edward never existed in her life. Bella tries to run behind Edward and gets lost in the woods, alone, desperate and with a gaping hole in her chest that could not healed with anything except Edward’s love.

When Charlie comes home and finds Bella gone, he organizes a massive search party and ultimately Sam, a guy from La Push, finds Bella and brings her back. For days and months, Bella acts like a zombie, burning inside with rejection, with betrayal. She gets up in the middle of the night screaming as a aftermath of her nightmares. Charlie tries to make her go to her mom, but she refuses. Bella still has hope that Edward would come back for her. After much push from Charlie, she decides to go to a movie with Jessica. While coming back, she sees some guys standing in the alley way and then she sees Edward in her mind, urging her to go on, to not look at them. She realizes that since Edward had broken the promise to be with her forever, she could break her promises too, and that would make them even. She gets some old scrap bikes and goes to Jacob Black to get them fixed. Jacob, as usual welcomes her with open arms and agrees to work on the bikes to make them in running condition as well as teach her to ride the bike. Bella starts meeting up with Jacob everyday and while Jacob works on the bike they get talking. With him, Bella’s hurt started disappearing, even though for a smaller duration and only when Jacob was around. But she started looking forward to their time together. Jacob teaches her to ride the bike and Bella realizes one more thing. Whenever she is doing any dangerous thing, she could see Edward in her mind. She tries to grasp those small times with Edward and even after a lot of falls from the bike, she still wants to go ahead with it. Jacob talks about Sam, the goon of La Push, he says, and that everybody is somehow asking him for council but he does not like the way people follow Sam around. Even his old friend Embry, who used to be with Jacob earlier, has now joined Sam’s gang, and Jacob resents it. Bella’s school friends whom she had neglected when she was with Edward start neglecting her now. Only Angelina and Mike welcome her back. Mike has broken up with Jessica and now that Edward is not there sees his chance with Bella,

Bella decides to go to a movie with everybody and also invites Jacob along. However, due to stomach-flu finally only Jacob and Mike turn up for the movie. By the end of the movie, Mike mentions that he has also got the stomach-flu. Jacob, tries to tell Bella that he likes her, but Bella refuses him mentioning that he would always be just a friend for her. Jacob agrees to wait for her even if it took a long time and promises to never hurt her like Edward did. However, the next day, Jacob does not turn up. Billy phones and tells Bella that Jacob has also contradicted the stomach-flu and would not be visiting any visitors. Many days go by and still Jacob neither comes nor calls Bella. Charlie mentions that hikers had come across huge bears and people had gone missing from the woods. He asks Bella to stay away from the woods till the animal was found. However, Bella ignores the warnings and goes to find the meadow where Edward had taken her. She realizes that even if this place was their favourite, she could not see Edward here. However she does meet Laurent. He had come to check upon the Cullens and Bella for Victoria. When Laurent realizes that Bella is all alone with noone to protect her, he decides to make a meal out of her. Suddenly, out comes huge wolves and start chasing Laurent away. Bella runs off from there and reports to Charlie that it was not the bears that people saw but wolves.

One day finally Bella decides to go herself and meet Jacob. When she comes face to face with him, Jacob tells her to go back and not come again. When Bella realizes that Jacob is with Sam, she tries to put the fault on Sam for getting Jacob involved in the gang when he did not want to. But Jacob refuses and blames the Cullens for what is happening; Sam is only trying to help out everybody. Bella is confused about all that is happening and she realizes that Jacob had not exactly healed her hole of Edward but had got into her heart and carved out a separate hole for himself. Jacob, not bearing the hurt on Bella’s face, comes to her house in the night and tells her to think about the story he had told long before on the beach. He tells her to think hard about where the legend mentioned they had originated from, and mentions that if Bella could somehow remember the story then there need not be anything hidden between them again. Bella tries to figure it out and realizes that Jacob is a werewolf.

The next day Bella goes to confront Sam and ask him to turn Jacob back. However Paul looses his anger and changes to werewolf in front of her and Jacob also does the same to protect Bella. Sam asks Embry to take Bella back at Emily’s place and they would join back soon. Emily, is Sam’s soulmate, a ‘wolf-girl’. Emily’s one side of the face is marked with claws when Sam had once changed to a wolf in her proximity scarring Emily for life. Jacob explains to Bella that the killings were not done by the wolves but by a vampire, who was for some reason trying to enter Forks. However, the wolves were thwarting her effort. The only thing that they did not know was what she was after. After hearing all this, Bella realizes that Victoria had come back for her, to take revenge for James death. Even though Edward had left Bella, Victoria still thought of her as Edward’s mate and the only way to avenge James death was not the death of his killer but of the killers mate – Bella. Jacob explains all this to Sam and they decide to have proper look outs for Bella in and around Forks so that they could catch Victoria and kill her for once and all.

Even though Jacob was now with Bella, all the roaming around in night and guarding the area, would leave Jacob tired and Bella once again started feeling the hole in her heart. She now wanted new ways of keeping Edward alive in her memory and she realizes cliff diving is one of the most dangerous things. Jacob promises her to take her for the recreational activity but from a lower point where it would be easier. However when Jacob does not turn up, Bella decides to go on her own. She jumps off the cliff and she thinks it to be very easy, till she realizes that the dangerous part of all are the tides. On the other side, the werewolves were chasing Victoria from the woods and she also jumps into the water. While Bella is drowning in the water she sees Victoria coming for her. Jacob saves Bella and gets her out of the water. Charlie’s friend Harry had died of a heart attack and he goes to Harry’s place for the funeral arrangements. When Bella comes home, she finds Alice there. Alice had seen a vision of Bella jumping off the cliff and thinks that Bella attempted suicide and when she does not see Bella coming out of the water, she assumes that Bella is dead. However, Bella reassures her that Jacob saved her just in time. Somehow for no reason apparent, Alice realizes that she cannot see the werewolves. Jacob comes in to check on Bella and when the phone rings he tells that Charlie is not at home but is arranging for the funeral. Alice suddenly has a vision that Edward had gone to Volturri for asking them to kill him. Rosalie tells Edward about Alice’s vision and when Edward hears about the funeral over the phone, he jumps to conclusion that Bella had died.

Alice mentions that the only person who can stop Edward now is Bella. They jump on a plane and go to Italy. Alice mentions that the Volturri had rejected Edward’s plea for death and now Edward would need to motivate them for killing him. The Volturri value the fact that humans are oblivious about vampires and anyone who defies that is killed. Edward decided that he would walk into the sunlight and when his body would shine like the diamonds, the humans would know something is amiss and Volturri would kill him. However, Bella reaches just in time to stop Edward and somehow convinces Edward that she is alive and in front of him. The volturri however have not forgotten the fact that Edward tried to make their presence known and they ask for an audience with Edward, Bella and Alice. Aro, the main leader of Volturri, has the gift that he can every thought of a person just by touching him. Jane, has the gift that she could bring pain to anyone by thinking about it. Aro realizes that his gift does not work on Bella and neither does anyone elses gift and he is intrigued. However, his rules mention that no humans are allowed the knowledge of vampires. He decides to kill Bella unless Edward promises to turn her into a vampire. Alice shows Aro her vision where she has seen Bella becoming one of them. Aro is satisfied for now, but mentions that he would come and check it himself in sometime.

The Cullens move back to Forks again and Bella is once again happy. However, since the vampires are back, her friendship with Jacob suffers. Jacob asks Bella to choose between him and Edward and Bella chooses Edward. While parting away, Jacob reminds Edward that the treaty that was present between them would no longer be valid if they bite a human. Bella, remembering Alice’s words to Aro, takes a vote among the Cullen family of whether she should be turned into a vampire. The date is set for Bella to become a vampire.

Would Bella have her happily ever after with Edward? What happens to Victoria? And now what would Volturri do? Some questions would be answered while some new ones would be raised in the third part of Twilight saga – Eclipse.

Also read my review of the first book of the series - Twilight

First look on London, UK

One of my friend’s father once told me that when you go to Switzerland as your first onsite location, you would never find anything else satisfying again. I was not so sure about it then, for me Switzerland was my first onsite assignment and I thought that the ease with which I could be there would be the same everywhere. But not every country or city is the same anywhere, except in sleepy Swiss.

 

I arrived in London on 20 June in the evening. I had to go to Ilford where I was put up in the company guesthouse. Normally, if it is a first trip for anyone to an onshore location, the things that they would notice would be the greenery, people and all. As I travelled in a taxi from airport, the first thing that I noticed was the litter on the highways. I even saw a couple of cars break the lane rule. Well, what do you think of that! In India it is not so much a big deal since every other Tom, Dick and Harry is breaking the lane rules and all. But, it was a surprise over here for sure. The sun was shining brightly in the sky, and the time was 8 pm (yes, it was evening) London is divided into 9 concentric zones and I had to travel a long way across from the Heathrow airport to Ilford – one end of 9^th zone to other end 4^th zone. By the time I reached the guesthouse, I was dead tired. It was almost 20 hours since I had slept (you cant really count the small naps during the flight) Just got myself a burger and some fries in case I got hungry in the night, dumped my luggage and went to sleep. The sunset happened at around 10 pm, though there was light for a long time after also.

 

The next day dawned again at around 5 am (I think before that). When I suddenly got up, I saw the sun shining again brightly. Doesn’t the sun go to sleep like it does everywhere else !!! I got up, got ready and off to office. London had a lot of rail networks, its been 4 days since I came here and I still haven’t got to know all of them. Theres the national rail, then the tube, these are what I use to move around. There are others like DLR. The tube or London underground itself has a lot of networks – Jubliee line, Metropolitian, Northern, Central, Hamilton & City and so on and so forth. When you want to travel you can use an Oyster pass, which are available as either pay as you go, where in you would have to top up the card everytime, or you can take a weekly pass in Oyster card. There are also day travel cards available which you can add on to your Oyster card. Every zone has different charges, and depending on where you get in and get down, this Oyster network calculates your fare for the journey. Also, if you have a day travel card, it also checks whether to use the money from the card or to use the day travel card. When you use tube as well as national rail (like I do) it calculates how much money should be given to the tube and how much to the rail. Pretty cool, right!!

The transport here is expensive and zone 1 is the most expensive. People do a lot of workarounds so that they pay less for travelling within zone 1. I have to still get hang of all the transport and moving around, but thought of just penning down a few of the things that I do know.

 

I have not seen anything of London yet, except some stations while moving around for work. So, would drop in a few lines more maybe next week once I have seen something here.

Marawanthe : West-Coastal Karnataka

Love this pic taken at marawanthe. The beach one one side, and river on the other.

Ravaan - Mani Ratnam's new movie

 Ravaan - zhang zhang zhang zhang zhang ...... story of 21st century Ramayan(hindu epic saga).
A Mani Ratnam venture, shot in 3 languages - Hindi, Tamil and Telugu. When we hear about the film, hear about the director, thats all, we are ready to go for the movie. But are all movies really worth all the hype? I was eagerly waiting for the release of Ravaan, and today, in betwix a lot of things, I went to watch that movie. and BOY it was such a disaster for me.

Ravaan is the story of Beera(Abhishek Bachaan), a terror in a place called Lalmati. Some think of him as Robin Hood and some call him "Ravaan". The movie starts with a lot of police killings, where they show people burning policemen within the station and outside. Rajini (Aishwarya) is the wife of the Dev (Vikram), the new SP of Lalmati.

Beera kidnaps Rajini and vows to kill her in the coming 14 hours. However, seeing how Rajini has no fear of death, Beera is awed, and cannot kill her. The entire first half of the movie is about how Rajini tries to run away from Beera and how he keeps holding her back. A lot of drama with Beera mainly saying the same dialogues again and again, (looks a little psycho here) ... "bakbak, bakbak, bakbak". And atleast I thought that there were a lot of songs in the first half. Rajini's fighiting spirit makes Beera fall in love with her.

The reason why Beera kidnaps Rajini becomes clear in the second half. Lakshman, Ram's brother, had cut off the nose of Shurpanakha, Ravaan's sister. In the movie the scene is a little bit more tragic and makes our police look really bad. Govinda has played the role of "Hanuman", with him finding Sita - Rajini, at Beera's (Ravaan) lair. However, here the "Ramayan" takes a turn. I was expecting Hanuman to light up Ravaan's Lanka, but instead it is Ravaan who burns up Ram's tents, as a revenge for Ram killing Ravaan's brother, who had come to make a truce with Ram. The story takes quite a turn here, with a little bit of pieces taken from Ramayan, but not coming out that well.

I would have been more happy if the movie was named "Beera" instead of "Ravaan". Just because you take a similar type of story as Ramayan and make Beera say dialogues like "Das sir vala hun .." does not make the story about Ravaan. Beera has been shown as a person from adivasi area. So, just like we cannot comment on the naxalites - what their needs are, why they are as they are, we cannot say why Beera is such a terror in the first place. Why he kidnaps Rajini is clear in the movie. But, that does not make him a Ravaan. I am not saying that Beera is good, but guess he is the villian of the movie, from the start. Some people are villians, without any reason. What can I say!!
Overall, for me the movie was a very bad idea. 
If you have liked "Guru" and/or "Yuva", then beware, this movie might be a disappointment to you.

Twilight Book review

The first thing that people know about me is that I am books’ fan – mostly fiction, but when I have time at hand, then I can pick up any book and start reading it. The other thing is –I always like to complete a book that I have taken up, I cannot leave it incomplete however boring or sad the book might be. The only exception to that rule was the “Wuthering Heights”. I had so many people tell me that the book is impossible to complete and the movie has so many characters that you forget who is who. When I picked up Wuthering Heights, I was prejudiced and ultimately my record of unfinished books was broken. I could not get past the first 10 pages, though someday I would be finishing this book.

I heard about Twilight saga when my friends started telling me that they had gone to watch the movie and all females loved it. I am usually not a romantic novel person,  I am all into Robin Cook type  books, but after hearing their comments, my curiosity was piqued.  Twilight saga is the story of love between a human and vampire, the story where legends of vampires, werewolves become true. A love story, that too between vampires and humans, I had serious doubts about how good this book would be. But today, I have read the complete books twice and I can read them again. They have a different quality about them , not a typical romance novel neither an action or suspense novel.

In Twilight, 16-year old Bella comes to stay with her father, Charlie, in a small town named Forks, to give her mom and step-father a chance at their own life.  She hates the weather in Forks which is always cloudy and rainy, she hates being the pale girl and expects her first day in school to be worst. Her fears are confirmed when Edward Cullen, her biology partner, turns away from her and runs off at the first chance he gets, trying not to sit in her class again. However, luck turns her away, when Edward saves her from an accident with amazing speed and strength. Bella does not understand how Edward could have saved her, but Edward refuses to explain and refuses to be friends with her mentioning that it is not the right thing for them.  Bella, being a magnet for trouble, again comes across Edward when he saves her from some goons.

Jacob Black, son of Billy – Charlie’s friend, explains to Bella the Quileute legends of vampire and werewolves. Jacob’s grandfather had come across the vampire family  - Cullens a long time ago and the leader of the family had mentioned that they were vegetarians – the name being a joke within the family, drank only animal blood and did not kill humans. A truce was made between the Black family and the Cullen family mentioning that both can live in harmony as long as Cullens did not kill any human. Though Jacob himself does not believe in these legends, he knows something is not right with the Cullens.

The love story between Edward and Bella gets a little bit of action here when a series of animal killings start in the town.  The killers are however not animals but vampires. With the killing spree going on and the Quileute legends fresh in her mind, Bella puts two and two together and confronts Edward with the truth.  Bella mentions that she is not afraid of Edward but still loves hi,. Edward who reciprocates her feelings takes her to meet the rest of the family. Charlisle – Edward’s father, is the original vampire. Edward is his adopted son, whom he had created due to his loneliness and at Edward’s deathbed as a promise to Edward’s dying real mother. Esme had tried to commit suicide after losing her family, and Charlisle had converted her as well. So was the case with Emmett  and Rosalie. Alice had joined the Cullens family along with Jasper, her mate. Edward has the gift of reading everybody’s mind, however he is surprised to realize that Bella’s mind is a mystery to him. Alice, can see the future and Jasper can control the emotions. Charlisle is a practicing doctor and has never killed a human since his birth as a vampire. He values the human life and being a doctor helps him to save them.

The book describes Edward’s journey of how he has to conquer his thirst for Bella’s blood and love her truly. The love story takes a turn when the blood-thirsty vampires – James, Victoria and Laurent find Bella among the humans and want to make a meal out of her. James, a tracker, wants to find Bella and hunt her. The entire Cullen family now struggles to get Bella out of this mess. The end comes when Edward finally kills James and rescues Bella, but not before James has bitten her. Edward passes the test when he sucks out the venom from Bella’s blood, keeping her alive and human. The book ends with Victoria seeking revenge for her mate – James’ death.

I had not thought that the book would be this interesting but it held me in a grasp that I could not keep the book away. Stephnie Meyer has kept the thrill in the story alive, the flow of the story consistent. My recommendation to all you females would be to read it once and then you can judge for yourselves whether you agree to me or not. For my male friends, I am not sure how much you would enjoy this, if you have lived through the movie then you can take a quick peek through the book, though no guarantees from me to you at all.

Further reviews on the next books will continue …..

A small peek if you wanna watch the movie ..

Queens' restaurant

Queens’ Restaurant – how many Bangalore people have heard about this small restaurant on Church Street? Among all the shiny, sparkling restaurants present on the church street, Bangalore, I doubt if anyone would have given a second glance to the small huddled up place next to a juice centre. I have passed it so many times before, but had never understood why so much crowd was present in front of the particular shop. I had not even known that it was a restaurant till I went to the place along with my some friends a few days back.

Queen’s restaurant is rightly named after the amazing food that they serve. The restaurant is very small with sitting place for about 30 – 40 people at a time. If you are one of the unlucky people who come late, then you might have to wait for some time to get a seat. Though once seated you would be served quickly. The food is really amazing with mouth watering dishes – panner and chicken very nicely marinated and with the right amount of spices – neither too spicy nor too bland. Even if the weather is hot outside, be sure that you would feel very comfortable within the restaurant. The place is very cozy and with amazing food.

If you are one of those who believe the restaurant has to look good to serve good food, then think twice. I would highly recommend this place for you to review your views.

Dishes that I recommend are –  (though these are the only ones that I have tasted till now, I have enjoyed them a lot)

Mango lassi – I am not a lassi fan, but everytime I have been here, I was unable to stop myself from taking a sip of this delicious drink. A true “thandai” in  this blasting hot weather of Bangalore. The

Chicken methi something – though I do not like methi much, this dish tastes really nice

Veg korma

Chicken bhartha – the chicken is in very small pieces and the curry tastes yumm …

Location  - Church street, Bangalore.  Not exactly in front of Mast Kalandar and Oye Amritsar, but towards Brigade road. Next to a small juice counter.

 
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Rajneeti - Movie Review

When I thought of Rajneeti, I had great expectations of an excellent story line, brilliant acting of the wide range of actors and overall entertainment. Reality, however, was much different. Yes, the movie shows the political battles which are true, but I would have wanted a little less murders.  I am not sure how many of you who have seen the movie would agree to me, but for me not much of the expectations I had were fulfilled.

The movie starts with Naseruddin Shah who is the good person against the Indian political battle, raising his voice for the poor and asking difficult questions to the politicians. The politician’s daughter, Bharti, is his prime disciple, going against her father in this war. Then one day, they get together in a moment of passion and Naseruddin realizing his mistake goes out of her life. Bharti conceives a child who is dumped away on the ghats of Banaras by her brother – Nana Patekar. Bharti is then married off to the rival politican’s son and an alliance party is formed out of this new relationship. Now, the scene turns to current day where Bharati has two sons – Ranbir (screen name - Samar) who is doing his PHD outside India and Arjun Ranpal is handling the political party along with his father and uncle who is the leader. The political party leader has a paralysis attack and this triggers off the war to identify the leader of the party.  Manoj Bajpai, who is the son of the political leader thinks that since his dad was the leader, in his absence he should get leadership. However, when Arjun and his dad are given the leadership of the party, sparks fly everywhere. Along comes, Bharti’s long lost son, Ajay Devgan, brought up as a Dalit by the driver of this family. He wants a ticket to stand up in the election and joins the party with Manoj. A war explodes to get hold of the party leadership. Arjun’s dad is murdered, and Arjun is arrested by police on various charges, all brought about by Ajay. A romance is sizzling on the other end between Ranbir and Kathirna (Indu) – a businesman’s daughter. However, Ranbir does not reciprocate Katty’s feelings, and his love is there in his college. With the death of Arjun’s father and arrest of Arjun, Ranbir moves to come into politics to save his brother’s future. Nana Patekar is the brain behind Arjun’s political decisions, with him hovering over all the meetings and subtly giving hints.  A new party is formed by Arjun with his supporters. To obtain the money for elections, a pact is made between Katrina’s dad and Nana Patekar, with Katty to be married off to the chief minister – in this case Arjun. A typical case where the female is sacrificed for the “greater good”. Nana Patekar, with his great move, brings Ranbir’s girl friend, Sarah Thompson Kane, to India. The move was to bring Katty closer to Arjun. A wide hunt is made to identify the murderer by Ranbir, and this leads to some more murders. Somewhere along the line, Katty falls in love with Arjun, realizing that Arjun is  a better man than Ranbir. However, the murders are still not over, and to bring things back to war front, a bomb is blasted which kills Sarah and Arjun. Again, with the question of who the leader would be for the new party, a new move is made and Arjun’s widow – Katty is brought into picture as the new leader and future chief minister on success of the elections. Nana Patekar who goes to avenge the death of Arjun at Ajay’s house, reaizes that Ajay is his nephew, and informs Bharti of the same. Bharti in turn tries to get him to join the party with Ranbir and forget Manoj Bajpai and the rivalry between the two parties. However, Ajay refuses to leave Manoj’s party. While the poll counting is ongoing, Manoj is called at a secluded place on a false pretence and Ajay follows him. Ranbir avenges the deaths of his father, brother and girlfriend by killing Manoj and Ajay. Katty wins the elections and is elected the chief minister. Ranbir flies off again to complete his PHD.

The movie as you see had a good plot, but look at it closely and you would find that it was a mixture of too many things. Scenes from Sarkar with car being blasted off killing Ranbir’s pregnant girl friend, Mahabharat with Ranbir as “Arjun”, Nana Patekar as “Krishna”, Ajay as “Karna”- Ranbir does not want to kill Ajay since he has no weapons but Nana Patekar tells him to complete the job and avenge the death.  Also, I am not sure whether the script writer forgot about Naseruddin Shah completely, what was his role in the movie apart from fathering Ajay. And the dialogues are the best – who has heard these dialogues these days – Nana Patekar tells Bharti about Ajay – “wo tumhara pehla jana hain” and Bharti tells Ajay that he is her son – “tum mere jeshta putra ho”. They are hilarious and do not fit in the movie at all. There are however some dialogues that are very catching – “karara jawab milega” being one among them.

 The acting is good, but you cant say that for all actors – of course Nana Patekar is always brilliant, Ranbir has done a good role as mature actor, Katty still cant get her hindi correct, Arjun needs a course in acting school and Manoj Bajpai is definitely good.

Overall, the movie is worth a once watch. Watch the official movie trailer at youtube

Venice Beach : LA

Taken at Venice Beach, Los Angeles, CA

Chakum chukum - Calcutta on roll

Today we discovered a new eatery in Indiranagar. I am not sure how many of you actually know about the place, looks pretty new to me. We had gone to buy some bread from "Daily Bread" on 7th main,Indiranagar, when we noticed this small little place just next to Daily bread.

The place is called "Chaakum Chukum", I know its a very funny name, but one that you are not likely to forget. The place sells rolls - veg as well as non-veg. Based on your liking, you can ask for spicy or non-spicy food. We have tried - Egg roll and mutton shaami roll. Both of them were very delicious.

Address of the place: 901/2, 7th main road, 4th cross, HAL 2nd stage, Indiranagar
They also provide home delivery around Indiranagar, with a minimum order of 150-200. The home delivery number is 080-42115536.
The only drawback being, there is no place to sit and have your rolls. but, if you dont mind standing besides your bike or car, and munching into the roll, then this is the place.



To all the roll lovers, theres a place besides Katti roll, and this is also worth a try. You might love it and you would then be eating it in your own chakum chukum way.

Valentines dinner at Jalsa, Bangalore

I know this blog is coming pretty late, its been a while since I got some free time on my hand. So, finally here I am, giving you my experience of dining at Jalsa restaurant. I read different reviews where people did not like the lights inside the place, did not like the food, service, etc - Due to the fact that I went to this restaurant on Valentines day, I do not know what the place might have been on normal days. My review might be a little biased, so giving the restaurant benefit of doubt.

My husband and me always try to go and check out new places to eat. Sometimes, when we do not wish to try out new and want to get into something we call as "safe zone", we go to our normal hangout places that we are sure are good. This valentine's day, we decided to try out a new restaurant.
Jalsa restaurant is located on Outer ring road, Marathahalli, Bangalore. The restaurant is designed like a palace, On Valentines day eve, the restaurant was lighted up and looking really amazing from the road. We reached the place at around 9.30 pm, and had to wait for half an hour before we could actually get a place to sit.
The ambiance of the restaurant is really good. The lights were neither too dim nor too bright, just enough to have a very good affect. All the restaurant people were wearing turbans looking like people from the palaces that we see in Jodha Akbar like movies. The inside of the restaurant is not that big and the four corners have 4 service owners. What we could make out from the arrangement was that every corner had a set of waiters who took care of tables near that corner, and some part of middle rows.
Now, I come to the part which is very important to me - eating. We had to wait at our table for around 10-15 minutes before anybody actually noticed us and gave us the menu card. We took hardly 5 minutes to decide our starters as well as main course - but took another 5 minutes to get the attention of a waiter. When we finally got the waiter to take our order, he was reluctant to take the order of the main course, mentioning that he would take it once the starters are served. We had to convince him that we are ok if the starters and main course come together. Now it was really late, and my stomach was growling with hunger. Maybe this was the reason why the time looked as if it had stood still. The food took almost half an hour to come to our table. The taste of the food was good. We had ordered a chicken starter, chicken curry and bread/naan. The chicken was delicious, it was very soft to eat, and I wished that I had ordered paneer, which would have also tasted good.
We gobbled up our food in almost 10 minutes flat, and then started waiting again to grab the attention of the waiter to clear our table and bring the bill.
We saw people sitting in front of us, who had come before us, ordered some drinks and then dinner. They were just waiting for the food to be served, where the order was given before us. Finally, when the bill came, we were so bored, that we paid by cash directly and ran out of the restaurant.

My opinion - on a scale of 1 to 5.
ambiance - 3
Food - 3
Service - 1
Should try - 2