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.