Not so favorite dishes

Certain foods I DO NOT LIKE.

Son has similar tastes and I am accused of influencing them. I think its a hereditary thing. However the missus thinks its not. Its just me influencing him.

I must say Nikhil and I have more foods in common than he does with his mom. Thats more because of the quality of food I eat.. Pizzas, Chaats, and other healthy stuff…

Heres some of the stuff that I dont care for. Apologies (and sympathies) to those who do.

1. Sakkare Pongal – Rice was not meant to make sweet dishes.Pleeeease

2. Shame Gadde (dont know the English name) – It looks like a potato when its cooked… until you eat it..gets all gooey in side

3. Raw Bananas – Except chips all else should be banned

4. Banana Flowers and Stem – No no no… who thought about this?

5. Broccolli, Sweet Potato – @#$%#$

Whats your least favorite dish?

Vote Banks Vs. Peoples Lives

Vote banks at the cost of innocent peoples lives. That seems to be the mantra of all our politicians. How else can you explain the bombings that seem to be happening over and over and over again in city after city.

The police are NOT inept nor are the intelligence agencies. Its political pressure that ties the hands of these people and prevents them from doing their job. Its disgusting.

Bombings happen, people die, politicians express their regret, Government announces compensation, News Channels analyze everything to death.. and then we sit back and wait for the next blast.

I feel its high time citizens play a part in helping the police as well. A good method is to organize neighbourhood watches in both in residential and commercial areas to look for and report any suspicious activity. Neighbourhood watches have worked in other countries. Why not here?

I mean this is our country. Why should a few morons keep us hostage?

Eateries – My3 needs your help

One of my regular readers My3 (Mythri) is visiting India from the USA. Shes been in Bangalore for a few weeks. She suddenly surfaced today.. commenting from Bangalore.

If you folks have had vendors like Subbamma telling you that they are running short, its because My3 has been shopping for stuff to take back with her.

Shes done Dosas as Vidyarthi Bhavan, Idlis at Brahmins… NOW SHE WANTS a list of more places to eat.

I can suggest the following:

CTR and Veena Stores in Malleswaram

Janatha Hotel near VV Puram Circle

Modern Tiffin Rooms near VV Puram Circle

Vinay in an earlier comment had mentioned khali dose at an SLV in Jayanagar.

SLV in Bsk 2nd Stage.

Food Street in VV Puram – Especially the Bonda guy there

Any others? Please help her.. shes soon going back to the USA where she’ll eat chutney made from dessicated cocunut…

GIVE HER YOUR LIST OF PLACES TO EAT.

Altered… but where?

My friend KTN only wears suits when hes overseas on business visits.

Once before a trip to Japan, he goes into a Raymonds showroom and buys a rather expensive suit. Since the trouser waist was too big (and he really liked THIS suit) he asked for the waist to be reduced. He then stops off the next day, picks up the suit and packs it. Doesnt think its necessary to check…

He reaches Japan and realizes that the waist hasnt been changed at all. Grumbling, he tightens his belt so that the trousers stayed up. While he was wondering WHAT the tailor changed, he happened to glance at his reflection in the full length mirror in his room. To his shock, the guy has reduced the length by 2 inches !!! So now KTN has an ankle length trouser…the only other suit he had was his wedding suit, and he has to leave for his meeting in the next 5 minutes.

I think he wore his “tight fitting” wedding suit….

To Raymonds credit, they allowed him to exchange his suit.. in fact they let him have a more expensive suit.

Will They Wont They???

… the episodes are more “gripping” than a Hindi Soap. There are more characters here… the Karats, Yechuris, Rajas, Bardhans and several other comedians…

Theres Manmohan the Hero in Distress being bolstered by his Heroine Soniaji…. plus old villanous uncles like Mulayam/Amar Singh and Deve Gowda (with his 2.5 seats) now are coming back into the family and want to sing songs with Manny the Man.

In all this the hero is currently in Japan waiting to sing a song with Bush against the backdrop of Mount Fuji.

Meanwhile the former friends keep threatening… “We’ll withdraw today.. tomorrow”… “We’ll withdraw if Manny goes to the G8 Summit”… “We’ll withdraw if he wears a red underwear”… etc etc…

But till now.. countless politburo meetings later… they are still threatening…getting off the gravy train will not be easy. Where else can they have power without any responsibility…

Latest news is our own “Sin of the Soil” wants to tango…. way to go !!!!

Saar Please See Saar !!

“Saar do you want to see the back of your head”

“No!!!”

“Please see saar…”

“I said no !!! I know whats there…”

..in the meantime a mirror is held so that the growing bald patch is exposed…starting at the center and then slowly streaking outwards…

This conversation happens everytime I visit the hairdresser. For some reason he insists I see his handiwork. All I can see is that theres very little left for the bugger to do. I am paying too much. The guy probably fancies himself as an “artiste” for working with so little.

Its just not fair. My brother has a thick crop of hair that can house wild animals if there was a shortage of forests. Ditto for my son.

But me???? Its going.. going… Its just not fair !!!!

I dont mind going bald.. really I dont… it makes you appreciate the rain even more…what ticks me off is how I “inherited” this bald streak…From my maternal uncle… Thats right folks.. the only thing I got from my maaama is this DNA that controls baldness… nothing else 😦

Anyways good news for the world is that I DO NOT INTEND to have a combover which requires one to grow 6 feet hair on one side so that it can then “supply” hair to the rest of the head. Fear not.

I have a neighbour who does a combover and I have seen the effect a strong wind has on him.. the poor guy…

Last One Pays the Bill

Few years ago (during the heady days before the dot com bubble), the company I worked for had its partners meeting in Hong Kong. This was an annual exercise mainly intended to give our folks in the USA a glimpse of Asia (in other words total time pass). It was usually sponsored in part by the local partner.. how we managed to get them to sponsor will be the subject of another post. These meets usually happened at the most expensive hotel that one could find. Usually these were attended by all our partners from across Asia and invitees from Europe. It was also an opportunity for us to “thank” our customers.

So anyhow a group of us (including the Sr. VP – AN) are sitting down and having dinner. Most of our Silicon Valley friends were the high maintainence types. Lots of food and more importantly red wine… bottles of it.. as times goes on more and more people join the table.. some invited… some uninvited. Suddenly the table grows to about 20 people.

Finally our sales person from Australia Pam joins the table with two of her Aussie counterparts. They had just returned from having dinner outside and were hailed by the group as they walked by. By now dinner is done and people are having after dinner liquer. One by one the people at the table start disappearing. Each one assuming that the other one is going to pay..finally the only people at the table were Pam and her small group and she got handed the bill… much to her surprise… and nearly faints after looking at the bill… about $4000 USD… anyway she signs it hoping that it will be paid with her expenses.

A week later we are having a conference call.. when AN clears her throat and says “Ahem..Ahem guys.. we need to really look at expenses.. Pam.. my dear.. I am looking at this item thats says ‘entertainment’ and its $4000. You really need to control costs. No way we can pay that”.. Pam’s trying to speak but keeps getting cut off… “No no Pam.. we cannot afford such entertainment… you need to really control it”… (most of us on the call know what that expense is…poor Pam)

Finally Pam sputters “But.. but…this was not my expense… this was YOUR dinner in Hong Kong.. I just happened to be the last person at the table”…

Silence…

Finally AN breaks her silence.. “Hmm.. ahem… well ok.. didn’t realize that”…. More Silence “I’ll approve that right away… but guys we really need to watch our expenses…”

Office Quote

Our email is “DOWN” because of all the Viagara mails we are getting…

The Old and The New

Couple of pictures that depict new trends while the old order tries to cling on. Heres a new fangled “Vegetable Market”

 

..while right outside the door, this woman tries to compete…