I couldn't.Neither would you believe it.
It was a lazy saturday morning and I had this urge to have breakfast buffets in one of those hotels where the dosa chefs keep serving you hot roasted dosas fresh from the pan and they don't stop (infact its me who won't stop). It was 6 years back when I had such breakfasts in Green Park when my company put me up there for the first 15 days. After the I din't have such a breakfast for one simple reason - I never got up early enough to be there before they close the breakfast service. and I don't think I'll ever get up early to have breakfast.
Yeah, that saturday I went to RV hotel in the 5th floor in a building in the lane next to Satyam in Begumpet. I'm going to list the things I had there. Then am going to tell you how much I paid for all those that I had there and there ends my blog. Coz, beyond that you wont be reading my blog, you'll be packing to go there.
These were the things I had, not necessarily in the order of appearance.
1. Cut fruits (Water melon, apple, pine apple, muck melon)
2. Corn flakes
3. Wheat flakes.
4. Idly
5. Dosa (both plan and masala) - I had to wait in line for this
6. Sambar - for point#4 & 5
7. 4 types of chutneys
8. Poori
9. Chappathi
10. Kurma - for point#8 & 9
11. Upma
12. Boiled eggs
13. Omelet (with and without masala) - served on request and I had to wait in line
14. Appam - I jumped the line to get this.
15. Stew - cocunut based. So if you are a mallu like Satba, then you can stand in this line forever.
16. Jilebi - never had dessets for breakfast before.
17. White bread
18. Brown bread - Again I had to stand in line to toast it.
19. Butter & Jam for the above two
20. Hot & cold milk - for the corn flakes.
21. Coffee for coffee lovers
22. and Tea for the rest.
....and all of them unlimited for a stunning Rs. 33 /- (that is like 0.73 US$).
What are you doing?? Still reading my blog...You Jack ass, go get yourself lined up before the offer closes.
Thursday, October 13, 2005
Tuesday, October 04, 2005
First Blood
Its the month of Ramadan and Hyderabadi Muzalmans get holy and observe their fasting regime. The whole city gets lively in the nights with Haleem sold at every nook and corner. People pour into Haleem shops after their evening prayers and break their fast.
Haleem is a traditional delicacy made of goat meat, wheat and other grains and spices. It is typically used to break the fast in the evening to provide one with fullsome meal and also provide the much needed energy. But the very taste of Haleem attracts people from other beliefs to have a go at it in the evenings and at late nights. It is served with some gravy on top with a piece of lemon.
These days Haleem is available customized for non vegetarians in the form of Chicken Haleem and Vegetable Haleem for those who don't eat goat or meat at all. But then if you ask hardcore Nonvegetarians who've tasted both they'll tell you there isn't any punch in having customized versions. If you having one of them , then its a compromise.
Having given all the background in the world about Haleem, let me introduce my first blood.
I'm part of a bunch of carnivorous friends(PG, Moinu, Satba,Bachi and few others ...) who are not fuzzy about having any type of food in any place at any time of the day. We are adventurous in hogging. We are shameless & disgusting.So what? No body died, we win the food all times. There were days when we had spent two hours in bikes maneuvering the busy streets of charminar, which is usually crowded and in the month of Ramadan you can drop a pin and I bet you, it won't reach the ground. We go to a place called Pista House to have the traditionally made Haleem which is available in tonnes there. Nothing has beaten its taste so far. This particular shop is so famous in hyderabad, it even started retail sales counters and kiosks in various parts of the city to distribute Haleem branded by its name. They even export fresh hot packed Haleem to the Gulf, thanks to Emirates flying daily from Hyderabad. They've also started sending Haleem by posts which opened up some controvercies last year.
On weekdays when we are tied up with work till late evenings, our alternative to Pista house will be the Haleem shop in Banjara Hills road#2, in front of the Masjid. PG likes this place a lot and has also been an ambassador to this particular shop by taking many other friends of him there. I had my first blood for this year yesterday. Having missed out on Haleem last year, I was looking like a hungry and ferrocious tiger or like an arrogant vulture in the deserts. Waited for the disgusting Mr.Bachi who chose to play table tennis as opposed to having Haleem, I lost patience and drove to the Masjid. It has to happen to me. They weren't ready with the Haleem. Drove back to punjagutta, parked my car in Hub, walked to Y2k chicken and had my first scoop of Haleem after 2 years. The prices have gone up and the quantity per serving has gone down. Does it matter? Had my second plate and felt like a King. My brother Savio also had his first ever haleem and decided to join the carnivorous gang.
Not taking this blog furthter, I dedicate this one to all Haleem eaters, my disgusting friends who missed out eating Haleem yesterday (sorry guys, we'll go today) and to all Muslims who religiously observe fast.
If any readers of this blog, find any interesting article on Haleem and its traditional preparation methods, please post as comment.
Haleem is a traditional delicacy made of goat meat, wheat and other grains and spices. It is typically used to break the fast in the evening to provide one with fullsome meal and also provide the much needed energy. But the very taste of Haleem attracts people from other beliefs to have a go at it in the evenings and at late nights. It is served with some gravy on top with a piece of lemon.
These days Haleem is available customized for non vegetarians in the form of Chicken Haleem and Vegetable Haleem for those who don't eat goat or meat at all. But then if you ask hardcore Nonvegetarians who've tasted both they'll tell you there isn't any punch in having customized versions. If you having one of them , then its a compromise.
Having given all the background in the world about Haleem, let me introduce my first blood.
I'm part of a bunch of carnivorous friends(PG, Moinu, Satba,Bachi and few others ...) who are not fuzzy about having any type of food in any place at any time of the day. We are adventurous in hogging. We are shameless & disgusting.So what? No body died, we win the food all times. There were days when we had spent two hours in bikes maneuvering the busy streets of charminar, which is usually crowded and in the month of Ramadan you can drop a pin and I bet you, it won't reach the ground. We go to a place called Pista House to have the traditionally made Haleem which is available in tonnes there. Nothing has beaten its taste so far. This particular shop is so famous in hyderabad, it even started retail sales counters and kiosks in various parts of the city to distribute Haleem branded by its name. They even export fresh hot packed Haleem to the Gulf, thanks to Emirates flying daily from Hyderabad. They've also started sending Haleem by posts which opened up some controvercies last year.
On weekdays when we are tied up with work till late evenings, our alternative to Pista house will be the Haleem shop in Banjara Hills road#2, in front of the Masjid. PG likes this place a lot and has also been an ambassador to this particular shop by taking many other friends of him there. I had my first blood for this year yesterday. Having missed out on Haleem last year, I was looking like a hungry and ferrocious tiger or like an arrogant vulture in the deserts. Waited for the disgusting Mr.Bachi who chose to play table tennis as opposed to having Haleem, I lost patience and drove to the Masjid. It has to happen to me. They weren't ready with the Haleem. Drove back to punjagutta, parked my car in Hub, walked to Y2k chicken and had my first scoop of Haleem after 2 years. The prices have gone up and the quantity per serving has gone down. Does it matter? Had my second plate and felt like a King. My brother Savio also had his first ever haleem and decided to join the carnivorous gang.
Not taking this blog furthter, I dedicate this one to all Haleem eaters, my disgusting friends who missed out eating Haleem yesterday (sorry guys, we'll go today) and to all Muslims who religiously observe fast.
If any readers of this blog, find any interesting article on Haleem and its traditional preparation methods, please post as comment.
Sunday, September 25, 2005
R.K.Narayanan Honoured
Many people like me who grew watching Doordarshan during our younger days when there were no private satellite channels cannot forget the Chitrahaars, Rangoli, Buniyaad, Nukkad, Patichaar, the 'Ek Anaek' song and the list goes on. Each one of us will have few programs to remember. One such favorite serial, which I still remember, is the famous 'Malgudi Days'. The play is screened based on R.K. Narayanan's award winning book, The Malgudi Days. As I type, I still hear the same music, which was played in the beginning and end of the program. There were days when I go under the cot and feel very low for missing one episode because my dad would've taken us out and we wouldn't come back home in time to watch the serial. Such was the passion that I had those days towards that program.
Many years passed by. I started my life in Hyderabad and one day I came to know of this restaurant – Malgudi, in the Lifestyle building in Begumpet. Gawd, doesn't matter if the food is going to tease my taste buds or not, am going to visit there just to get the nostalgic feeling about my all time favorite serial. And I visited the second time and the third and the fourth and then I lost the count. Had I counted, probably I need another brain to handle the numeric overflow. You won't believe, I've tasted every food in the menu and these days I don't even open the menu card. My favorite dish there (and for many) is the Chettinad Kozhi Biriyani (Kozhi means chicken in tamil). Just can't resist myself from having it. Many a times, I decide before going there, that I'll be having Bisi bela bath, or a South Indian Thali or a plain rice with an Egg Curry. But the moment I get seated and when the waiter comes to me, my tongue twists to utter "One chettinad kozhi biriyani please". Many Hyderabadis are ardent fans of the Dum Biriyani of Paradise, or of Bawarchi or of Cafe Bahaar. But am sure there are many others who would sell their precious diamond stones to have this Biriyani in Malgudi.
The main feature of this Biriyani is that it gives that additional taste compared to the others because the spices and masala are made into a paste, mixed with the raw rice and then cooked to give a good flavour to the dish (typical South Indian way of Biriyani preparation). You don't even have to have the Mirchi-ka-saalan for this kind of Biriyani.
Malgudi has a nice and unique ambience, with the look of olden days village setup with rosewood pillars and intricate workmanship on wooden arches and shed shaped entrances.( they should do something to stop people getting bored with the same ambience for the past 4 years)
I have a few interesting experiences in Malgudi. There was once I was dining with a few friends of mine and one of them was Mr.K. Mr.K, a natural cancerian by birth and by character, is a pure vegetarian, except that he doesn’t believe in the word “pure” some times and also doesn’t believe in the word “sometimes” most of the times. A nice person to be with and hang around. So it was one of those rare days that he wanted to act exactly like a vegetarian by ordering some veggie main course. On the contrary, his NV counterparts ordered some of Malgudi’s famous seafood soups and starters like ‘Varutha vanjara meen’, 'Karimeen fry', 'nethili fry' etc which are priced little high, but then given that Hyderabad is not a coastal place and that Hyderabadis don’t mind spending on food especially people like us who show lavishness in restaurants, thanks to Sodex-ho passes. At the end its all worth it and you keep your tongue happy at the cost of your wallet’s sickness. Malgudi also comes up with few themes and festivals once in a year. There was this Kerala festival once, seafood festival on another occasion etc, and at these times my wallet will look it was just returning back to normalcy after a severe typhoid attack.
Coming back Mr.K, who ordered some veggie, had to wait a long time for his soft appams and idiappams which are a speciality in Malgudi. He lost patience and being one of those cancerians who loose temper easily, Mr.K was frowning. “WTF” – came a grueling voice from him and in a flash, the hotel manager was there. After sounding little harsh to him to bring the appams, they reached negotiation junction. Then 15 mins later, poor Mr.K had to use the infamous four letter word to bring the hotel manager in a flash again since Mr.K just got the flash news from the chef’s kitchen that appams are over. (Now you know what to order fast, yes, appams get over quickly and that explains its taste.) After heated arguments on the service, the hotel manager was upset (he deserves to be upset though). Out came Mr.K from the restaurent and took an oath that he’ll never ever visit this restaurant again in his life. There were other friends of us (the same old Satba, Bondi, Vyaas etc) and they had a nice time with crab soup, and other seafoods.
You may be wondering why I brought this Mr.K into picture. I had to narrate the nice story about this gentleman Mr.K, because after 2 years these were the words told by him over lunch today “This thali is amazing man” – yellow dhal, three or four sideys, typical sambar, rasam and curd. Banana at the end (for Mr. SBR to improve his…..) and unlimited servings of two types of papads. No prizes for guessing the name of the restaurant :-) .Am sure Satba is enjoying this blog. Mr.K, a nice person, but very determined in nature, had to give up his ego and the oath just to satisfy his tongue and that’s what food from Malgudi can do to you.
Separate pages of menu items, one for the food items from God’s own country – Kerala, one for the place which was once more commonly called as garden city and now called the IT bowl of India, yes the state where Bangalore is embedded in - Karnataka, one for the place where some great names like Viswanathan Anand, A.R.Rahman, Hon Prez. Abdul Kalaam and Mr.K hail from – Tamil Nadu and last but not the least, one for the place where the stylish wristy batsmen Md.Azharuddin , VVS, the attacking and budding tennis star Sania, the gorgeous Tabu hail from, Andhra Pradesh (with something for each of the sects Andhra, Rayalaseema, Telengana). North Indians & Chinese food lovers won’t be disappointed either.
At the same time, I have to talk about this another interesting incident, when I was dining with Mr.PG & Mr.K another day. We all decided to be a veggie that day( we turned into calorie watchers for a day). We placed the order and we were half way through gossiping about few brownies (girls in our office) and we saw this new guest on our table, a green little wriggling worm, crawling near the sambar. After the initial EEKS, we became our normal self and gave the worm a life. Otherwise Mr.PG would’ve had a free serving of this Chettinad worm. He is an ‘SB’ – shameless B******. We decided to have some fun and called the hotel manager again ( this time not the same one who argued with Mr.K, guess he was sacked after that or may be he resigned and attained Nirvana, ofcourse shit loads of Bad Karma was attached and sent as email to that manager by Mr.K). As the hotel manager came, we did a fantastic exhibition of both the worm and our fluency in the local language which I better leave it at the hotel premises. Malgudi being a renowned hotel among the South Indians living in Hyderbad, should look into and do something on the sanity side. They can do much better to climb the value chain than what they’ve done till date on sanity. (Malgudi’s hotel manager, if you are reading this blog, I’m giving this feedback at the best interest of the hotel’s growth and as a loyal customer of your restaurent)
Am deeply satisfied with the variety of south Indian foods and I had so many nice evenings spent there. The staff is very friendly and has maintained their courteous levels high. I’ll continue to go to this place again and again and again. Overall, Malgudi - an esteemed honour to the person who created this fictious village – Mr. R.K. Narayanan. Had he lived, am sure he would’ve been a proud person.
Signing off after dedicating this blog to the famous writer who drove me crazy to wait for a week, which looked so long before I can enjoy his next episode.
Many years passed by. I started my life in Hyderabad and one day I came to know of this restaurant – Malgudi, in the Lifestyle building in Begumpet. Gawd, doesn't matter if the food is going to tease my taste buds or not, am going to visit there just to get the nostalgic feeling about my all time favorite serial. And I visited the second time and the third and the fourth and then I lost the count. Had I counted, probably I need another brain to handle the numeric overflow. You won't believe, I've tasted every food in the menu and these days I don't even open the menu card. My favorite dish there (and for many) is the Chettinad Kozhi Biriyani (Kozhi means chicken in tamil). Just can't resist myself from having it. Many a times, I decide before going there, that I'll be having Bisi bela bath, or a South Indian Thali or a plain rice with an Egg Curry. But the moment I get seated and when the waiter comes to me, my tongue twists to utter "One chettinad kozhi biriyani please". Many Hyderabadis are ardent fans of the Dum Biriyani of Paradise, or of Bawarchi or of Cafe Bahaar. But am sure there are many others who would sell their precious diamond stones to have this Biriyani in Malgudi.
The main feature of this Biriyani is that it gives that additional taste compared to the others because the spices and masala are made into a paste, mixed with the raw rice and then cooked to give a good flavour to the dish (typical South Indian way of Biriyani preparation). You don't even have to have the Mirchi-ka-saalan for this kind of Biriyani.
Malgudi has a nice and unique ambience, with the look of olden days village setup with rosewood pillars and intricate workmanship on wooden arches and shed shaped entrances.( they should do something to stop people getting bored with the same ambience for the past 4 years)
I have a few interesting experiences in Malgudi. There was once I was dining with a few friends of mine and one of them was Mr.K. Mr.K, a natural cancerian by birth and by character, is a pure vegetarian, except that he doesn’t believe in the word “pure” some times and also doesn’t believe in the word “sometimes” most of the times. A nice person to be with and hang around. So it was one of those rare days that he wanted to act exactly like a vegetarian by ordering some veggie main course. On the contrary, his NV counterparts ordered some of Malgudi’s famous seafood soups and starters like ‘Varutha vanjara meen’, 'Karimeen fry', 'nethili fry' etc which are priced little high, but then given that Hyderabad is not a coastal place and that Hyderabadis don’t mind spending on food especially people like us who show lavishness in restaurants, thanks to Sodex-ho passes. At the end its all worth it and you keep your tongue happy at the cost of your wallet’s sickness. Malgudi also comes up with few themes and festivals once in a year. There was this Kerala festival once, seafood festival on another occasion etc, and at these times my wallet will look it was just returning back to normalcy after a severe typhoid attack.
Coming back Mr.K, who ordered some veggie, had to wait a long time for his soft appams and idiappams which are a speciality in Malgudi. He lost patience and being one of those cancerians who loose temper easily, Mr.K was frowning. “WTF” – came a grueling voice from him and in a flash, the hotel manager was there. After sounding little harsh to him to bring the appams, they reached negotiation junction. Then 15 mins later, poor Mr.K had to use the infamous four letter word to bring the hotel manager in a flash again since Mr.K just got the flash news from the chef’s kitchen that appams are over. (Now you know what to order fast, yes, appams get over quickly and that explains its taste.) After heated arguments on the service, the hotel manager was upset (he deserves to be upset though). Out came Mr.K from the restaurent and took an oath that he’ll never ever visit this restaurant again in his life. There were other friends of us (the same old Satba, Bondi, Vyaas etc) and they had a nice time with crab soup, and other seafoods.
You may be wondering why I brought this Mr.K into picture. I had to narrate the nice story about this gentleman Mr.K, because after 2 years these were the words told by him over lunch today “This thali is amazing man” – yellow dhal, three or four sideys, typical sambar, rasam and curd. Banana at the end (for Mr. SBR to improve his…..) and unlimited servings of two types of papads. No prizes for guessing the name of the restaurant :-) .Am sure Satba is enjoying this blog. Mr.K, a nice person, but very determined in nature, had to give up his ego and the oath just to satisfy his tongue and that’s what food from Malgudi can do to you.
Separate pages of menu items, one for the food items from God’s own country – Kerala, one for the place which was once more commonly called as garden city and now called the IT bowl of India, yes the state where Bangalore is embedded in - Karnataka, one for the place where some great names like Viswanathan Anand, A.R.Rahman, Hon Prez. Abdul Kalaam and Mr.K hail from – Tamil Nadu and last but not the least, one for the place where the stylish wristy batsmen Md.Azharuddin , VVS, the attacking and budding tennis star Sania, the gorgeous Tabu hail from, Andhra Pradesh (with something for each of the sects Andhra, Rayalaseema, Telengana). North Indians & Chinese food lovers won’t be disappointed either.
At the same time, I have to talk about this another interesting incident, when I was dining with Mr.PG & Mr.K another day. We all decided to be a veggie that day( we turned into calorie watchers for a day). We placed the order and we were half way through gossiping about few brownies (girls in our office) and we saw this new guest on our table, a green little wriggling worm, crawling near the sambar. After the initial EEKS, we became our normal self and gave the worm a life. Otherwise Mr.PG would’ve had a free serving of this Chettinad worm. He is an ‘SB’ – shameless B******. We decided to have some fun and called the hotel manager again ( this time not the same one who argued with Mr.K, guess he was sacked after that or may be he resigned and attained Nirvana, ofcourse shit loads of Bad Karma was attached and sent as email to that manager by Mr.K). As the hotel manager came, we did a fantastic exhibition of both the worm and our fluency in the local language which I better leave it at the hotel premises. Malgudi being a renowned hotel among the South Indians living in Hyderbad, should look into and do something on the sanity side. They can do much better to climb the value chain than what they’ve done till date on sanity. (Malgudi’s hotel manager, if you are reading this blog, I’m giving this feedback at the best interest of the hotel’s growth and as a loyal customer of your restaurent)
Am deeply satisfied with the variety of south Indian foods and I had so many nice evenings spent there. The staff is very friendly and has maintained their courteous levels high. I’ll continue to go to this place again and again and again. Overall, Malgudi - an esteemed honour to the person who created this fictious village – Mr. R.K. Narayanan. Had he lived, am sure he would’ve been a proud person.
Signing off after dedicating this blog to the famous writer who drove me crazy to wait for a week, which looked so long before I can enjoy his next episode.
Wednesday, September 21, 2005
Manthra
Today is yet another rainy day in Hyderabad (pretty unusual in the month of September) and we decided to go for a lazy lunch and take the rest of the day easy. Kishore, Swaroop & myself literally entered into the nearest restaurent (Minerva) and then decided to withdraw as we were getting sucked into the same restaurent time and again for the very reason that we are just too lazy to think of another place to dine.
Today was different. We just came out of Minerva and walked across the Raj Bhavan road and climbed to the 4th floor to check out the new restaurent - "Manthra". One of us said - "Is it worth going all the way there to find the waiters waiting for customers?" and the other one said "So what, Nobody died" - The typical Lance Klusener statement, which is misused right royally here, because Lance said this when he dropped the world cup and we are using for a lazy lunch. But thats how we are used to showing off.
Vague experiences. We entered a dimly lit lounge , which opened up into a bar and then to another partition and then to another and so on. Anticlimax at the end. We were expecting an exotically new set up, because thats what sell these days and this restaurent being new , our expectations were not unusual. But we saw a pretty ordinary set up and I won't be boasting to my friends that I've dined in Manthra.
Well received by the waiters, (infact it was an overdose) we were little embarassed to see them receive us nearly and dearly like the treatment a filmstar would get. We quickly decided on the buffet after inquiring the after-tax rates. We thought it was moderately priced (159+ taxes). But what they had to offer in the buffet was nothing in par to what other competitors across the block were offerring. A simple Mutton masala and a chicken chettinad with a typical Dum biriyani on the Non veg side and Veg biriyani , steamed rice and a sambar on the veg side. Nothing more that makes your lips smack. We got the feeling that we were too early for the buffet (even at 1 o clock), but then thats all they had for us for the 159 + taxes. My brain was fast to erase the word moderate and quickly replace it with "expensive" for the money we are charged. But we continued with our usual discussion on cricket (coz thats the common interest that we all have and all of us have great passion towards that sport). Then we were getting restless seeing the jobless desparate housewives who gather at various restaurents atlunchtime and discuss on totally useless topics when their husbands are slogging their heart out at office to win their breads.
Now comes the interesting part. The waiter for literally standing next to us, patting our back to find what we want for the next helping. Infact even after declining few times he got loads of biriyani, paratas etc and was becoming a pain in the neck. We thought he was asked to do this to impress the customers. But what really happened was different and interesting. He did all these for the meagre tip that he was expecting and not at the best interest of the Hotel's business. He stole a fruit salad and offered it as a compliment to us first. We were little impressed in the beginning not knowing that he is doing all these for the tip. He then offered a kubani-ka-meeta with ice cream as a compliment and that took us by surprise. The when we settled the bill, he was paid with the normal tip what any waiter deserves and we were walking out. Suddenly we found someone rushing behind us. God, it was the waiter, asking for more tip and the reason he gave is that he offered 50 rupees worth of dessets as compliment without the knowledge of the management and expects a minimum of 50 rupees as tip. What should I say now, at the sorry state of the Restaurent and its management. Such cheap behaviour is only going to ruin their little brand and name that they are unlikely to earn with people like working for tip and forgetting that they are part of a bigger entity, the Restaurent.
Food was below par compared to what others are offerring, ambience was nothing new to be attracted. Other restaurents offer a variety of salads, dessets, fruits, papads, pickles etc apart from a delicious dishes (both indian and chinese) and still priced at 125 or less. My brain was again quick to erase the word "expensive" and replaced it with "Not worth it", but then when we walked out I only had to say myself that "Nobody died" and who knows, with all bitter experiences in this restaurent I may still choose to visit Manthra another day when I forget this experience.
Today was different. We just came out of Minerva and walked across the Raj Bhavan road and climbed to the 4th floor to check out the new restaurent - "Manthra". One of us said - "Is it worth going all the way there to find the waiters waiting for customers?" and the other one said "So what, Nobody died" - The typical Lance Klusener statement, which is misused right royally here, because Lance said this when he dropped the world cup and we are using for a lazy lunch. But thats how we are used to showing off.
Vague experiences. We entered a dimly lit lounge , which opened up into a bar and then to another partition and then to another and so on. Anticlimax at the end. We were expecting an exotically new set up, because thats what sell these days and this restaurent being new , our expectations were not unusual. But we saw a pretty ordinary set up and I won't be boasting to my friends that I've dined in Manthra.
Well received by the waiters, (infact it was an overdose) we were little embarassed to see them receive us nearly and dearly like the treatment a filmstar would get. We quickly decided on the buffet after inquiring the after-tax rates. We thought it was moderately priced (159+ taxes). But what they had to offer in the buffet was nothing in par to what other competitors across the block were offerring. A simple Mutton masala and a chicken chettinad with a typical Dum biriyani on the Non veg side and Veg biriyani , steamed rice and a sambar on the veg side. Nothing more that makes your lips smack. We got the feeling that we were too early for the buffet (even at 1 o clock), but then thats all they had for us for the 159 + taxes. My brain was fast to erase the word moderate and quickly replace it with "expensive" for the money we are charged. But we continued with our usual discussion on cricket (coz thats the common interest that we all have and all of us have great passion towards that sport). Then we were getting restless seeing the jobless desparate housewives who gather at various restaurents atlunchtime and discuss on totally useless topics when their husbands are slogging their heart out at office to win their breads.
Now comes the interesting part. The waiter for literally standing next to us, patting our back to find what we want for the next helping. Infact even after declining few times he got loads of biriyani, paratas etc and was becoming a pain in the neck. We thought he was asked to do this to impress the customers. But what really happened was different and interesting. He did all these for the meagre tip that he was expecting and not at the best interest of the Hotel's business. He stole a fruit salad and offered it as a compliment to us first. We were little impressed in the beginning not knowing that he is doing all these for the tip. He then offered a kubani-ka-meeta with ice cream as a compliment and that took us by surprise. The when we settled the bill, he was paid with the normal tip what any waiter deserves and we were walking out. Suddenly we found someone rushing behind us. God, it was the waiter, asking for more tip and the reason he gave is that he offered 50 rupees worth of dessets as compliment without the knowledge of the management and expects a minimum of 50 rupees as tip. What should I say now, at the sorry state of the Restaurent and its management. Such cheap behaviour is only going to ruin their little brand and name that they are unlikely to earn with people like working for tip and forgetting that they are part of a bigger entity, the Restaurent.
Food was below par compared to what others are offerring, ambience was nothing new to be attracted. Other restaurents offer a variety of salads, dessets, fruits, papads, pickles etc apart from a delicious dishes (both indian and chinese) and still priced at 125 or less. My brain was again quick to erase the word "expensive" and replaced it with "Not worth it", but then when we walked out I only had to say myself that "Nobody died" and who knows, with all bitter experiences in this restaurent I may still choose to visit Manthra another day when I forget this experience.
Monday, September 19, 2005
New dimension to blogging
After having read about blogging as 'Pajama writing' in a recent daily, I've decided to dust off the laziness that settles down on me during week ends. I've made many attempts in the past to have blogging as a hobby and successfully failed in all the attempts. But this time am determined. Two people have inspired me in blogging and both have given different dimensions to blogging.
1. Satba (my friend, collegemate and ex-roommate) - writes about every trivia that he comes across in his life, mostly with his experieces on travelling and the conventional day to day personal happenings (which is what many people blog). Infact he plans his week end such that he'll have something to Blog:-). Satba, you aren't reading this. Are you? I'm inspired because of his never tiring attitute towards blogging. He has already written terabytes of blogs. Visit http://kvsb.blogspot.com
2. Prem Panicker - who chose cricket as a topic to blog and writes articles on cricket with loads of passion. His blog site has now become a big discussion forum for all cricket fanatics. I know a friend of mine by name Swaroop (he is single, handsome & looking. So beautiful babes out there in Hyderabad, if you are on lookout for one such, then he is the most eligible bachelor that you can find out). He keeps refreshing Prem's page to see his blogs live. Thatz the influence Prem had brought through blogging.
and now, I've chosen to blog something like both of them. Choose a single topic to blog all times (like cricket) and at the same time make it personal ..untill i get bored and change the topic and the style:-))
My next blog(if it ever happens) is likely to give you hints on the blog theme...
till then ....
1. Satba (my friend, collegemate and ex-roommate) - writes about every trivia that he comes across in his life, mostly with his experieces on travelling and the conventional day to day personal happenings (which is what many people blog). Infact he plans his week end such that he'll have something to Blog:-). Satba, you aren't reading this. Are you? I'm inspired because of his never tiring attitute towards blogging. He has already written terabytes of blogs. Visit http://kvsb.blogspot.com
2. Prem Panicker - who chose cricket as a topic to blog and writes articles on cricket with loads of passion. His blog site has now become a big discussion forum for all cricket fanatics. I know a friend of mine by name Swaroop (he is single, handsome & looking. So beautiful babes out there in Hyderabad, if you are on lookout for one such, then he is the most eligible bachelor that you can find out). He keeps refreshing Prem's page to see his blogs live. Thatz the influence Prem had brought through blogging.
and now, I've chosen to blog something like both of them. Choose a single topic to blog all times (like cricket) and at the same time make it personal ..untill i get bored and change the topic and the style:-))
My next blog(if it ever happens) is likely to give you hints on the blog theme...
till then ....
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