The Malt may be Single, but can easily flirt with many Kababs

The last time I tried to get inside, I was with MSMG and another friend known for his brilliant puns, so I’ll call him Punny. Punny, MSMG and I decided to try a new place, and landed up at Barbeque Nation. We tried calling up and reserving a table, but were told over the phone that they do not take reservations between 7:30 pm and 9:30 pm. On reaching there, we were asked if we have a reservation! We obviously did not, and were then told that there would be a waiting of 30 minutes. By the time we decided that we might stick around (less than 30 seconds), the waiting time increased to 45 minutes minimum! That is when we decided to have Kabab Rolls outside Shoppers’ Stop.

In my last post, I was cribbing about the rate of experimentation going down, and attributed some of it to Blackbird. Blackbird returned from Pune on Sunday evening, and fortunately did not come home. He called to ask if we were eating out, and actually suggested that we go to Barbeque Nation! (It was easier for him to reach Bandra than come home to Andheri, and I think he was hungry.) Well, he reached Bandra early, and waited at the restaurant (he was told to wait for half an hour). When MSMG and I reached, the table was ready, and I did not have to wait at all (Yay!).

Now that everyone has been subjected to a really long introduction, I’ll get down to the real thing – the food, the drinks, and the review.

There was no a la carte menu for the food. A buffet spread and a list of kababs (I don’t know why they spell it as kebabs; must find that out) lay before us. The waiters handed us the drinks’ menu, and asked us whether we are vegetarian or not, before proceeding to remove a wooden cover from the centre of the table. A live grill was placed in this hollow, and while we waited for the kababs, another waiter took our order for the drinks.

The variety of alcohol on offer was outstanding. The best of everything - Single Malt Whisky, blended Scotch (including Blue Label), a wide range of flavoured Vodkas (both Absolut and Smirnoff), the premium Vodkas (all three that I would personally stock – Ciroc, Grey Goose, Belvedere) – I could go on, but that would be akin to pasting their menu here. I am not much of a wine guy, so I didn’t notice it, but they did have a good Cognac or two as well.
I tried a Single Malt that I had heard a lot about, but never seen in even the best shops, never been able to procure one from a bootlegger, not seen it in numerous duty-free shops of two International airports, and definitely not in the Mumbai bars and pubs I’ve been to. At 350 Rupees for 30 ml, Talisker is not cheap, but it was “as smooth as a baby’s bottom” (Sidhu, Navjot S., circa sometime in the early 2000s).
Blackbird stuck to a conventional blended Scotch, but a very good one – Chivas Regal 12 y.o. MSMG was a bit confused, and at my suggestion, tried an Absolut Peppar. He called up another friend famous for his alcoholic sprees (call him 9T), and 9T suggested a fantastic combination of Absolut Pepper, tomato juice, and fresh lime.

Meanwhile, the kababs had started coming. The first one to make an entrance was a Vegetarian skewer with Capsicum, tomatoes,… wait! Did we say we were Vegetarian? No! We promptly asked them to bring on the real stuff, and they did – chicken, mutton, fish and prawns. They kept on bringing the kababs till we realized we were full, and hadn’t even seen the buffet spread!
The kababs were quite outstanding; not chewy like some pre-cooked stuff tends to get if they are lying around for a long time. They even had a variety of sauces kept on the side with basting brushes to apply them to the kababs on the grill. But the kababs were succulent, well-marinated and did not need any add-on. (MSMG did remind us, albeit after we had left, that we could have ordered for some roomali rotis, as they also offered a choice of Indian breads.)
I was amazed that they were bringing kababs whenever they saw some empty skewers, without us having to ask for repeats. The fish was excellent – I don’t particularly like the fish in Mumbai; being a Bong from Calcutta, I’m a bit partial to Calcutta Beckty (it’s pronounced bhetki in Bengali). And MSMG and I must have had 25 prawns between us! There was also a Mutton Malai Kabab, very similar to my favourite Kakori Kabab that was so soft that it just melted in my mouth.

The buffet spread is something I really cannot comment about much. I tried only three items – Mutton Biryani, Chicken in a butter and tomato-onion-based gravy (not the usual Butter Masala), and the Raita – and all three very above par.

Blackbird did not even attempt the main courses and directly attacked the desserts, and Blackbird being Blackbird took a liking to, yes that’s right, the chocolateiest (I wrote “most chocolatey” to which Spell-check suggested “chocolateiest”, and while I add this comment, it shows the red curly line underneath!) thing available. I must admit that the chocolate cake, or whatever it was, was really good. Blackbird also later admitted to have liked the Fruit Custard (I think he’s going a bit soft around the edges)!
I don’t remember the names of the other desserts, but I did not try the Gulab Jamuns. I did go for the Phirni (I love the one at Kareem’s Delhi), and it did not disappoint at all.

The ambience is good, and the ACs have to work really hard because of the grills on each table. The place is surprisingly not stuffy or hot. The décor is simple and pleasant, but with the live grill in front, one is really not looking at much else.

Is it VFM (Value For Money)? At 500 plus taxes and unlimited kababs, you bet it is! This obviously does not include the Talisker, but even the alcohol isn’t that expensive compared to a pub like Sports Bar.

Ultimate test for a Restaurant from a Reviewer’s perspective: "Will I go there again?" – MOST DEFINTELY YES!

All-in-all Rating: 8.5 / 10

Restaurant details
Barbeque Nation
Dr. Ambedkar Road Junction
Pali Hill, Khar West, Mumbai
(http://www.barbeque-nation.com/)

The Death of a Community, the Revival of a Passion

I am one of those self-proclaimed foodies who think they know everything about food and drink. I won’t say I know everything because that is when one stops experimenting and that is the death of a foodie.

During the 2 months of internship (April – June ’06), I visited more than 50 different eating places, expensive, 4D (dark, dingy dirt-cheap and delicious), the usual (McDonalds, Barista etc.) and the unique (Laddoos and Sabudana Vada near Dadar Station, Pav Bhaji on Juhu Beach,…).
A few fellow foodies on campus decided that we should continue trying new places when we start working in Mumbai, and that started me on the idea of “The Sunday Brunch Club”, or TSBC. TSBC would be a forum for us to explore new places every weekend, and even if we were not able to meet up, keep everyone in the group posted on which new place we have tried and what is recommended. I even designed a poster and started a community on Orkut.
Unfortunately, the community, like many others on such social networking sites, did not get going. The last post by a flat-mate (call him MSMG), one of the 5 community members, reads – “Wakey wakey Junta! The club is sleeping!!! A Rip Van Winkle nap now!!! Kuch karon saalon!!” By the way, this is the only post! (Note to self: Ask MSMG what prompted him to visit this page 15 days ago?)

Fortunately, we have been quite active. Some of the original members meet regularly (3 share one flat!), and with the addition of a few more friends, we have eaten out at quite a few new places in Mumbai. The Orkut community is dead, but the club is still alive.

What stands in our way of really exploring places all around Mumbai –
1. Lethargy on weekends – I travel from Andheri to Churchgate everyday for work, and am not in the mood for much travel on weekends. So, south Mumbai is sort of out-of-bounds.
2. An hour long wait at a popular restaurant might be a signal for how good it is, but it just does not suit me. It could also mean that the service is inefficient that day, and that would mean more waiting time. I walked away from a supposedly good restaurant in Bandra last weekend, and satiated myself with Kabab Rolls on the roadside outside the Bandra Shoppers’ Stop.
3. Connected to Point 2 – the places we frequent now know us, and will make place for us very quickly. By “places”, I mean Toto’s Garage Pub at Pali Naka, Bandra (W)! We are the definition of “regulars”, and now the waiters don’t even have to ask for our orders – they just get the drinks!
4. My other flat-mate (let’s call him Blackbird) appreciates food, but I won’t call him a foodie. He does not like any cake or ice-cream that is not all-chocolate. I don’t see a reason for his lethargy since he works a kilometre away, and yet he is too lazy to move beyond Sai Krishna (the Veggie place next door), and he will order the same thing everytime – Medu Wada! (Medu Wada is a South Indian fried snack that looks like a Do(ugh)nut.) If people were to start resembling the food they like, Blackbird would look like one big Chocolate covered Medu Wada, and that would be a big improvement!

My current count is past 110 now. The rate of trying new stuff has gone down, but I intend to reach 150 by mid-June.
I tried out a new restaurant today with MSMG (Blackbird is in Pune!) on Andheri-Kurla Road near the Western Express Highway. It is one of those shady places that says “Family Restaurant & Bar” outside, but rarely visited by families. Tried Boneless chicken with spinach stuffed in an omlette in a tomato gravy. Sounds complicated, but was pretty good. The name of the place is L.P. (Laxmi Palace) Family Restaurant & Bar, and though the chicken was good, I wouldn’t really recommend it on the basis of one “pretty good” dish. (2 stars out of 5)

Now I know how to increase my count quickly – try all these supposedly shady restaurants around Andheri-Kurla Road and MIDC. As for TSBC, we shall continue, but like all Orkut communities, all social networking sites, and all internet and tech-fads, the TSBC community will also fade away.

A train in the rain

My second tryst was during my Summer Internship in 2006. I was staying with some friends in Ghatkopar, and we all were working in Fort. So everyday we went on the Central Lines from Ghatkopar to V.T. (Ok yaar, C.S.T.!!!)
In the interval of 6 years, I had experienced 3 years of public buses, Mini Buses and the Metro in Calcutta, and 3 years of DTC in Delhi. So, I was quite cocky about this new experience – what can Mumbai locals do to a DTC-survived Dilliwallah? Well, it was an experience, but still not as bad as the horror stories I had heard.

Then one day it started raining… people still had 26th July 2005 (the day Mumbai received a record 942 mm of rain) fresh in their minds and started panicking. This was the first few days of June and the Monsoons were still a couple of days away. At worst, it would be a heavier than usual pre-monsoon shower. But everyone panicked and started leaving early. To complicate issues, some official came on TV and asked people not to panic and leave for their homes asap! That was sure to settle our nerves!
On the insistence of a fellow intern who was from Mumbai, we left early. There were three of us – two going to Ghatkopar (S and me), and one to Dombivali (B). It looked like someone had left a great big shower on, and the water kept pouring. We tried getting a Taxi from near the Fountain to VT, but to no avail. Anyway, by this time we were soaked, so it didn’t really matter. B, the Mumbaikar was prepared and had his umbrella, but even that didn’t help much. S and I decided to get to a cigarette, and we tried smoking on the way. It felt good to smoke while getting drenched, but such pleasures are short-lived. The cigarette also gave in to the unrelenting rain, and though it was still lit, it was impossible to smoke because it was so soaked.

We stopped on the way at a roadside stall which gave temporary shelter under its tarpaulin. Ate some bhajia, and then reached the station. What we saw outside startled us – a traffic jam that made Calcutta jams look like smooth flowing jellies. Cars were not moving – some because they couldn’t (stuck behind another car) and some because they just wouldn’t (their engines giving up halfway just like my cigarette)!

We entered VT to find a huge mass of people just waiting. An announcement informed us that the line after Kurla is temporarily down due to a lightning strike. And we also waited! After some time, S said we should take a taxi to Ghatkopar. I reasoned that it will take ages and who knows where the car would break down, leaving us stranded in the middle of nowhere. We were definitely better off here. At least we could go back to office and stay there. We decided to venture outside again and go to some place where we could sit for some time. B had a long way to go, and he wanted to wait and take the first train going to Dombivili. S and I wished him luck, and walked back towards office. We stopped at Suvidha where we were joined by A (it was his place at Ghatkopar we were staying). After having our Masala Dosas, we went back to VT.
By this time, some of the services had resumed, and we got onto a jam-packed train (“Sardines in a tin-can” would be an understatement!). A weird coincidence was that B also got into the same compartment.
The train was finally on its way, stopping at every station, and though we thought there was no space, some people managed to get on without anyone getting off the train.

Near Dadar, one person wanted to get down, and was trying desperately to find his way through. He got stuck a few feet from the exit. On asking the guy standing at the exit to give way, the guy refused. He said, “You’ll have to punch me if you want me to give way”. On further coaxing, he explained, “if I have to give way, I’ll have to temporarily get down, and then with so many people wanting to get on, I may not be able to get on again”. A seemingly irrational statement backed by some very good reasoning.

S, A and I were having a tough time, but B was having a ball. Whenever the train stopped, and someone outside asked if there is space, he would shout, “Lots of space, buddy. 4-5 people can easily fit. Come on in”.

After Dadar passed, we tried to make our way to other side of the coach. We were standing near the exit on the right-hand side, but our platform would come on the left. A was near the middle, so he was able to make some progress, but S and I got stuck. At Kurla, we decided to get off one station before Ghatkopar (Vidyavihar), where the platform comes on the right. We shouted out to A that we’ll meet him back home, and got off quite easily. There were not many people trying to get in, so we didn’t have to punch the unreasonable guy at the exit.

Standing at the station, I looked back at the train. People everywhere like ants crawling over a dead insect – sitting on the top, between the gaps of two coaches, and even hanging on to the window grills outside!
I know I can never do that, and that should have put me off from traveling on Mumbai locals, but here I am back in Mumbai again and back to some more of such exciting and harrowing experiences!

My first time

My first experience of traveling by a train in Mumbai was very pleasant. I had just finished taking my Class 10 Board Exams and was accompanying my father on a business trip. We were staying in a guest-house on Malabar Hill (Fantastic place and whattay view! The view deserves its own post here!) and we were going to visit a relative somewhere near Juhu. It was Ambedkar Jayanti; the reason why we were not visiting our clients on a business trip, and also the reason why the trains were empty!

We took tickets for First Class from Churchgate to Andheri, and easily got seats. Coming from Calcutta, I thought why do people make such a big deal of Mumbai locals? I had traveled in some really crowded buses in Cal, and I was yet to see something more crowded than that.

Another thing I noticed was a middle-aged couple sitting near us. They were both dressed in white, and the woman, apart from having very intricate chikan work on her kurta was wearing seemingly very expensive jewellery. The jewellery may have been imitation, but I had never seen such well dressed people take public transport in Cal!

Nothing very exciting, but that’s all I have to say about that.

This Blog gets CPR

And I make another attempt at reviving this blog. Like the previous times, this time too I may start off and vanish again. But now, it seems like I have a lot to write about.
The blog, though still suffering from the identity crisis, will have some specific topics that I’ll write about. I thought about starting separate blogs dedicated to these, but let me just get this one going!

The first thing I will write about is about my travails on the Mumbai local train. I take the Suburban train (local version: Local) from Andheri to Churchgate everyday. The next few weeks, I hope to pen down all my thoughts and some of the interesting experiences I have had on my daily trips up and down. After that, whenever I have something to write about, I’ll try and do it the same day.
I will also write about Mumbai, link up with previous experiences in other cities, blah blah…

Food is one of my few passions. I have eaten out at over a 100 places in Mumbai, and though I like to go to new places every now and then, I now have a few favourites. So, a few articles once in a while would be on food and drink.

I have also bought a lot of books over the past few months and now that I have some time, I have a lot of reading to do. Book reviews and my thoughts while reading will get their due in the future posts.

Work however will not figure in this. I don’t think my writing ability is going to attract a fan-base of any sorts, but I do not wish to shoo away the few readers with posts about work.

Now, breathe…

Caution with Conversion

I have heard a lot about Indians (or South Asians) going overseas for a trip, and being really stingy with their money. At some point of time in the past, I'm sure it would have hurt. For some particular things like haircuts, I'm sure it still hurts. In places like the UK, where the Sterling exchange rate is really unfavourable to the Indian Rupee, it should hurt. But what about travelling to South-East Asia?

Right now, I'm in Malaysia on a 7-week long training. I would get a daily stipend that would be very comfortable considering my hotel stay (with the complimentary breakfast) and most lunches are already covered.

If I were a tourist, I admit I would have been tempted to convert everything to INR before taking a purchase decision. I also admit that I did that a bit the first few days I was here.

But now that I get paid my stipend in Malaysian Ringitts and spend my money here (wisely enough, I hope) in Malaysian Ringitts, should I still be in MYR-INR conversion mode?Ok... so some people will want to save the Ringitts and convert it to Rupees when we go back home. But surely statements like " (this) is very expensive here", or "...in India, this would have just cost 100 rupees, here it's 160!", are not very becoming of people especially with Educational qualifications that most Indians can only dream of!

So, would I want to spend my stay here thinking about how much everything costs in Rupees ,and survive on Fish & Chips like some people I know did when they went to London, or do I just want to enjoy?

Time for my clean-up act

Long time since I wrote something. Time is not as issue; lack of time for writing is just an excuse. Actually, lack of time is always an excuse. Something like cleaning up one's apartment needs time, and at the end of the day, I do not have to seem enough of it.

Why is this so?

Maybe it's the little more than 2 hours of travel everyday, or maybe it's just the lack of importance given to such mindless menial tasks. When I can actually do the clean-up act on a Sunday, I'll wake up at 1pm, go out for lunch, maybe watch a movie, meet some good friends, buy things that will make the house look good, and then come back after dinner only to dump all the newly bought stuff in the cupboard!

The fact there is a nest right outside my kitchen window does not help. It stinks! When I shifted in, the egg had just hatched... now till the time the pigeon grows up and learns how to fly, we can't clean that part at least. I just hope these horny pigeons don't lay another egg before this one learns how to fly!

Going to Malaysia for some training. Will be in Mumbai 8 weeks later, and right before Diwali. So, I guess I won't have to do anything for now, but I really want to spruce this place up when I return.

Lots of things to write about, lots of things to say

But the way this blog has gone about

The next post might be in May!

Legal communication or legal confusion

The first time I was late for an exam in my life. It was a one-hour exam and I was just 12 minutes late. Fortunately, I was able to finish, but that's another story.

It seems like I am living in another time-zone. Or you could call it a huge first-year hangover. I never sleep before 5 am, and if there are classes in the morning, I hardly get any sleep. Yet the next day, I can't sleep early. It wouldn't be a problem if I did not love sleeping so much!

LAB. That was the exam I was late for. (Also the course that has the damned morning classes!)
And it is not a laboratory of any sorts. It's just legalese (the course title is Legal Aspects of Business).
What is legalese? "the specialized language of the legal profession" (Source: Merriam-Webster Online Dictionary)
This "language" is quite amazing. It has the ability to make a simple thing seems so complicated that even exponents of the "English" language may not be able to make sense out of it. The sentences seem to go on and on and on...

"where any packaging material bearing thereon the month in which any commodity was expected to have been pre-packed is not exhausted during that month, such packaging material may be used for pre-packing the concerned commodity produced or manufactured during the next succeeding month and not thereafter, but the Central Government may, if it is satisfied that such packaging material could not be exhausted during the period aforesaid by reason of any circumstance beyond the control of the manufacturer or packer, as the case may be extend the time during which such packaging material may be used, and, where any such packaging material is exhausted before the expiry of the month indicated thereon, the packaging material intended to be used during the next succeeding month may be used for pre-packing the concerned commodity:"

This is a clause from The Standards of Weights and Measures Act, 1976. What do I like about it?
1) It is 132 words and not even a complete sentence! It does not start with a Capital letter, and ends with a colon!
2) There are 7 commas. I cannot figure out why there is one before an "and", and, one immediately after. It could be a typo, like in the aforementioned sentence.

Legal text is full of such inordinately long sentences. It is also full of a punctuation mark rarely used these days - the Semicolon.
The Semicolon is not a comma; it is not a colon (see I know how to use a semicolon too!) . It, like this blog, suffers from an identity crisis.
In his autobiography, A Man Without A Country, American satirist Kurt Vonnegut says, “Do not use semicolons. They are transvestite hermaphrodites representing absolutely nothing. All they do is show you’ve been to college.”
There is another blog entry on this very issue of the semicolon. The comments are interesting.(http://wyndhamtriffid.blogspot.com/2006/01/death-to-semi-colon.html)

I rarely use semicolons. I am not a great writer, and though I know how to use a semicolon, I generally stick to using commas. I like short sentences that do not confuse others. Business communication is almost devoid of semicolons, probably because of the same reason.
It is not poetic. It is generally clear, crisp and unambiguous. Unfortunately, one cannot say the same about legal text or communication.

I remember my Uncle telling me about some legal hassle he had to face and a conversation he had with his lawyer about writing a letter.

Uncle: Ye chitthi bahut lambi hai aur kisiko kuch samajh mein nahin aayega. (This letter is very long and nobody will be able to make head or tail out of it.)

Lawyer: Saab, chitthi hoti hi hai confuse karne ke liye. (The purpose of the letter is to confuse others. They should not be able to make sense of it.)

Needless to say, my Uncle retained the services of that lawyer, and won the case.

Blog renovo-ed

It's been a really long time since the last post. More than a year now. I really can't figure out why I got this urge to start, and then within 50 hours odd, I stopped. I actually forgot about it, as ridiculous that may sound! Sometimes I did get reminded of the fact that I have registered on blogger while visiting other blogs, but they were only fleeting, and I never got back to it.

One of the most difficult things about having a blog is the name and the title. My earlier posts were under the name - wish2balive. It was just reflective of my mindset at that point of time. First term at IIMA was tough, and after the mid-terms, I just wanted to break the monotony of it all. Another motivation for starting the blog at that time were the blogging habits of my batchmates. Some were really good, and I was pretty enthused with the idea of sharing my thoughts on the net.
But all good things come to an end, and this blog also suffered its demise (that could be attributed to First Term as well!)

And so here I am, back again; still without a clue as to what I intend to post. Even if can ramble on about nothing for a few hundred words (another capability acquired here in Ahmedabad), I am still unable to think of a suitable title and the address for this blog.

I also suffered from this unique kind of writer’s block when I initially started last year. Wish2balive!!! I’m sure I could have come up with something better. But when I thought of starting afresh, I still couldn’t come up with anything.
Wish2balive.blogspot.com was simply changed to arjunsanyal.blogspot.com, and the title went through several iterations before I realized that this blog does suffer from an identity crisis.
Among the various titles considered:
“Random ramblings” – My girlfriend said that it’s too common. I agreed. Just out of curiosity I googled for “random ramblings” and blogspot.com – 195,000 entries! I know there are not as many blogs
“I’ll stop procrastinating from tomorrow” – That’s something I should do from today, but not good for a title. Too long!
I also searched for various names that would sound exotic and pseud, and ended up wasting a lot of time on an English-Latin translator!

So, if anyone reading this blog has any suggestions, please post them.

quizzes, kamla & soccer

what's the relation between the three? they all occur simaltaneously here.

5 quizzes in 5 days last week. the only day we didn't have one was 15th august.
kamla is a play by vijay tendulkar. IIMACTS presented that to the IIM-A audience on friday and saturday. i was helping with backstage and lights. the auditorium wasn't even half-full on friday. some 2s had a quiz at 9 pm, and an exam the next day. the 1s had operations and quant the next day, with the huge possibility of a quant quiz looming over their heads. so, nobody was interested in spending 2 hours in the audi.

we did have the quiz on saturday. not that studying a lot would have helped. the questions were conceptual, and personally, i figured out that my understanding of a sensitivity analysis report isn't good at all.
saturday audience for the play was good. the audi was full. even the team did a much better job. only 1 or 2 minor goof-ups!(on friday, the phone started ringing after a character disconnected it and was taking it away... that was fun!)

today is sunday- the day of rest? i was supposed to go for soccer practice at 8 in the morning. obviously, who wakes up at 8am, except the soccer captain, who was waiting in the ground with... the ball!
have an inter-section match at 6pm. i am in the team by default... because i am a bong!

i'll stop blogging now cos i'll miss lunch otherwise.

First Post

Today is going to be an interesting day. There is a probabilty of an Economics quiz for which everybody has studied. I can afford to be complacent because I am an Eco grad. The truth is that I have hardly studied anything that is in the course right now.
Studying Quant right now. Something related to primal-dual linear programs.
I'm very sleepy now, so I'll explain everything tomorrow, including the blog name.