The ICH

Ok..I got a day off from work today after slogging continuously for 3 weeks at a stretch, Today was election day in Banglore. So me and my roommate decided to exercise our right to treat ourselves to some fun and good food .We headed to the Indian Coffee House in MGRoad . Spending 200 Rs on auto for masala dosa and coffee from ICH should get you the idea of the ICH fanatics we are . I always take credit for introducing her to the glorious ICH.ICH in MG road is a dingy smoky room in the middle of an array of other shops.we occasionally go there , when we need a change from the usual fancy restaurants . we reached there to see the place locked .Upon some enquiries found out that the place is closed down forever!!! My roomie ( disappointment has already clouded up her face ) wondered aloud " Why the hell did they do that??" . Well , now i found out from certain forums that they got a notice form the high court to close down the place and yeah , the usual hue and cry to save the place . I hope it stands the test of time.

ICH is an institution in itself , a modest place run by modest people serving modest food to modest and not so modest people, for modest prices! The waiters in ICH dressed in ill fitting once whitish uniforms with an elaborate tall hairpiece or sometimes with the Maharaja kind , spotting red belts gives you the first impression of the menu in store. The menu ranges from dosa items to cutlets to bread toast .ICH is a place where decor takes a backseat , its a place where people does not turn nasty if the orders are placed a second late and where nobody cares about the cheap wooden tables , wobbly chairs and stained tablecloths. The waiters do no look down on you if you just order a coffee and hang around for hours , and they would not judge you by the tip you leave.

As Tom Hanks says in You Got Mail “the whole purpose of places like Starbucks is for people with no decision-making ability whatsoever to make six decisions just to buy one cup of coffee. Short, tall, light, dark, caf, decaf, low-fat, non-fat, etc. So people who don’t know what the hell they’re doing or who on earth they are can, for only $2.95, get not just a cup of coffee but an absolutely defining sense of self.” This is exactly what ICH is not . You only get coffee there , no frills nothing fancy.Only Coffee , NO confusion! . Its a place reputed to have cultured intellectuals , where people met up to discuss politics, thoughts and where idealisms brewed . As they say a lot did happen over a cup of coffee but not in ac rooms and on heavily cushioned couches.

Back home. theres two ICHs. One in the town and one close to home . We always frequented the one in town though . Its a dilapidated building , a house converted . A very faded green paint adores the walls . One foto of Indira Gandhi and under that a mammoth wooden table welcomes you . From the time i visited the place , theres two plastic containers on the table in front of the cashier who sits on a tall chair . One container has milk sweets and other has Cadburys. If ICHs has a frequent visitor award like airlines have for frequent flier , theres a fair chance that me and my brother would grab it . On usual days our order includes a masala dosa , a veg cutlet and coffee , which i think by now the waiters there know. On lavish days we would order another mutton omelet or a fruit salad . Fruits in the salad has more of bananas which have turned black by being in the cold storage and the cream is full of ice. The real fun is when all of us go there after a temple visit or just an outing . Mindless chatter and Masaladosa!

Its a place trapped in time where all the cigarettes people smoked all these years have clogged up the ceiling and sometimes that time happens it has to make way for the newbies, and we are left only with void if we happen to travel back in time.

Summertime!

Summer is here .. and as the guy in the radio said so are cute girls in short skirts. Although i do not share his excitement on the topic, I have my own reasons to be happy about . Summer is not fun like it was 5 or 6 yrs ago , but I still feel elated when it is summertime , probably since I associate good times with it. All I get to see now which makes me realize its summer is the rising temperature in Bangalore,tensed kids studying at the backseat of their dad's bike on the way to the exam or with their eyes lost in books at the bus stop. On the other day ,I even saw a girl flipping through a hefty book in a mall while her parents were busy shopping ..

Back home though it was a completely different story ..Summer is when it rained mangoes at home , it still does . We would have mango juice, mango jam, mango pickle, mango curry with rice , sweet mango, sour mango , cut mangoes with vanilla ice cream....What Not! .As the day comes to a close we all kids smelled like mangoes .Then there was the much awaited summer holidays when all we ever did was play for hours in the blazing sun , climb trees , jump fences , cycle race in the colony and play carroms or watch horror movies in the night . It was during one summer I had my first crush :D .He was my neighbor's cousin who was visiting and who came to play cricket with us. The crush stayed for exactly one summer until he knocked the front tooth out of our wicketkeeper ( :P ).Again one of the major attractions of summer was the festival in April . This was the time when all the kids made some serious pocket money , all later well spent on badminton balls or ice mithai.

Hmm...I think I am one of those people who is still stuck in the past and craving to be blessed with the same simplicity of childhood.. *Sigh*!

Now when I relive all this to my little cousin sister with some sort of a ridiculous grandmom getup , she raises an eyebrow , lectures me about the zillion bacteria in the mud ,the UV rays from the sun or the pleasure of watching POGO . But I tell you she aint having no fun!!

Down with Oscar fever

I am done with watching most of the Oscar line up for good movies this year..
my half a penny worth of thoughts on the movies goes this way :::

The reader - good movie , great acting. Kate Winslet proved again she knows her craft inside out .I liked the kid too who played the Kid, Micheal .

Benjamin Button - worth "a" watch is a safe bet. I guess the movies intention was to make you feel sorry for the male protagonist , but ended up making u feel bad about Blanchett's character.

Slumdog M - did not deserve the Oscar . all the kids were terrific, very slummy( just coined it) with their demeanor, especially younger Jamaal although Dev Patel did not look the slightest of a slum boy.

Milk - adored Sean Penn. should have won the Oscar hands down.

Celebrating Women's day??Who are they kidding?

World celebrated women's day a couple of days back.As usual nothing grandeur about the celebration. Although it made me wonder how many women might have got raped on the day, how many might have got beaten up by their husband , how many girl children were killed or how many women delivered their baby on the cold cement floors of the hospital unattended by hospital staffs since their pocket was empty . Or did they get a relaxation for that one day just because the world celebrated their existence , were they spared of the atrocities they face everyday, did it bring a smile on their faces or were they run down and stripped off in the name of culture for celebrating the day. But I know all of my wishful thinking is futile if i can draw a conclusion from the simple fact that my mailbox was not flooded with women's day wishes barring some from my women friends, none from my male friends unlike other more glamorous days like the valentines day. The world sure has not waken up to celebrating women's day .

I only have to look in and around my family to know that women of today live in different worlds.There are women who enjoy the highest benefits of the society ,status obtained through education and work,respect obtained by being an earning member of the family or lucky enough to be around good people, there are also women treated like shit even though they solely support the family.Two such person I know is my mom and Kamala ,our maid of fifteen years .My mom showed the courage of standing against and breaking off from an abusive marriage.She was strong enough to find a job ,raise me and regain her self respect needless to say life was still hard on her.She to me is the brave face of women.And then there is the dark,lean beautiful kamala. She has an horrendous story to tell , story of a women being vexed by both her husband and her twenty something boy.She gives me a sad smile every time I ask her how are things at home and I do not have anything cathartic to offer her although I wish one day I do.There are thousands of other Kamalas around us, probably the one sitting in the other cube at work or the one who sat beside us in bus today .We will never hear of their stories for most of them do not wash their dirty linen in public or simply because we do not care.

For all these millions of women who seek liberation and happiness , even a heartful laugh is a distant dream for We are not man enough to promise the Kamalas of the world a shimmering light at the end of the tunnel.

lov u, grandmom :(

A terrible terrible week passed by. An unexpected unwanted visitor at home took my grandmother away from all of us... the pivot that kept everyone together has fallen apart.One of the major influences of my life, the most righteous person I would ever have known has disappeared behind the curtain leaving the stage. I always thot of her as Omnipotent thereby making it difficult for me to comprehend the fact that a terrible thing like death cud touch her . She was never scared of death , but leaving her dear ones behind always petrified her. I have never seen her cribbing about anything or anyone and even in extreme difficluties she always placed her discomfort last. She looked forward to all the festivals and holidays since thats when her grandkids visit, and when we do her face lites up like the sky on a starry nite. Shes gone is known to me as a fact but at the back of my mind I still think if I go to her room she mite still be there , still laughing teasing my brother about his girlfriend...but suddenly in the middle of other things it strikes me that shes gone forever . I wouldnot be able to see her toothless smile anymore , cannot hug or kiss her , cannot listen to her stories from the past and a million other things ...thats when I feel the pain of a thousand needles piercing ..

Life wudnt be the same anymore for any of us...

Political Atyachar...

Its funny how a bunch of uneducated morons from the stone age with a set of terrorist ideologies can ruin the joy and celebration of a day of love turning it into absolute mayhem. Its funny how a God knows what Sena can decide how others should conduct their life. Its funny how they can chase , manhandle and beat up women and young people in the name of religion and culture.Its funny how the culprits can walk out of prison within days after the crime and make strategies to vandalize the city again. Its funny how they can turn a blind eye to human trafficking,rapes, abuses assaults etc etc and rage a war against tight jeans and spaghetti tops.Its funny how they can come up with plans to marry off couples holding hands on a particular day.Its funny how the largest democratic nation in the world needs to think twice before expressing their love and affection to their dear ones.It sure is a funny world.

The simple life

My place back home is a sleepy little town.Theres nothing metro or fab about it.Everything and by everything I mean the restaurants, temples, all gov offices, skools , railway/bus stations,movie theaters even the beach is a max 20 min walk from my home.No malls or shopping complexes mushrooming in the city , no trace of international brands or foodchains, where the local community know eachother by name, and when u make a visit home they sure know how to make you feel special.The people also adds that extra personal touch by unwinding their knowledge base filling you up with stories about u and ur family.It ofcourse is a welcome change from where you come from ..where you are just a face in the crowd.

At home when on a vacation , you are taken seriously too. My timetable is quite royal also. I wake up with coffee served at bed , a stroll in the backyard amongst tall mango trees with my doggie, come back n then breakfast like a king.Watch some TV, lunch , a nap after that or make movie or outing plans with cousins . A perfect example of how simple the life here occurred to me when our doggie ran away with his lease yesterday evening. After an anxious one and half hour later and a two people search party, we found him half a kilometer away .The person who tied him to a tree in his garden expected sum one will turn up for the dog.I even jumped the wall to my neighbors house as part of the dog search :D and today I answered more than a dozen enquiries about my dog while on my evening walk..

You may travel to the end of the world, but theres not many places where you feel at home...and right now i am home :)