Burger King Visit -- Restaurant Review

CheesyItalianFries--Too Tangy

It was a day for completing a lot of necessary Bank work and so I left early from office. The Arien promised to pick me up from office and he did. After the boring work was completed, we found out it was too late for lunch and so we decided to walk into Burger King. This was our second visit but I really liked the options. Both of us were very hungry and went overboard. The Arien ordered the mutton whopper while I chose the regular veg whopper. We also ordered the Hi-fries (I chose cheesy Italian Fries) and the thick mango shake with it.

The burger buns were fresh and the size was definitely bigger than McD's usual. When McDs came to India first, their burgers were huge too though that has changed over the years. The cheesy Italian fries was a bit too tangy for me. Also, the whopper has pickled cucumber which adds a tangy taste and so it all became too much for both of us. The Mango shake was absolutely amazing - we ordered one between us and so it was manageable. It was very very tasty.


The Arien felt guilty about having an outing without Kuku. If Kuku had been part of this trip, we would have been two hassled parents running after him. This time, we ate together (that almost never happens), we had a bit of conversation (i.e we actually spoke to each other not announced stuff in the vicinity of each other), even joked a bit. I called this our time-out :P

Tamil Padam -- Movie Review after the II viewing

Happy Ugadi, you all. It was a holiday for me but the Arien was working.

Because the Arien's place has no cable yet, I decided to check his WD for some movies. MIL was also bored and so it was the funny Tamizh Padam that we opted to watch. I had seen it already but MIL had not and she wanted to see a comedy - having had enough of tear-jerkers and melodrama. 

Tamizh Padam is unique because it is the first spoof movie ever made, in Tamil. Considering tamizh sentimentu and emosun - I thought it was quite courageous of the director to shoot a spoof movie and hope for a HIT. It was a sooper (H)IT.

As in a spoof movie, this movie also lifts scenes from
various tamizh movies and adds a twist which makes you burst out in laughter. MIL was able to identify many movies.

The scene where Deva is offered the bill by the doctor and he says "Vendaam" - had me in splits. Another  scene where Shiva dances Bharathanatyam had us rolling in laughter and he completed the dance with - the picture of the ape on the right that was supposed to be the image of the heroine. There were so many scenes that had us laughing crazily - all through the movie.

The hero, Shiva, is a good fit and does his job perfectly. The other character actors do a good job as well.
Some of the movies that were parodied  (not in chronological order) are:

• Dalapathi
• Kanthaswamy 
• Boys 
• Kaadhalan
• Mouna Raagam
• Dhool

We spent the entire afternoon laughing away. One of the songs seemed absolutely meaningless and we were trying to figure out what the song meant when we realized that the song consisted of all fillers used in Tamizh songs in recent times such as "Randakka, Nakka Mukka, Asili Fisili, Rahatulla, Oh Maha Seeya, etc." Very creative! Absolutely Hilarious! If you have not caught the movie, watch it - if only to take a break from  reality :)

Vishwaroopam - Movie Review/Rant

I am not a big fan of Kamal's recent movies - his overacting and his crooning are a major put-off. I know some of you really like his singing but I simply cannot stand it. Also, he dons various hats: such as Director, producer, actor, singer, stunt director, fight co-ordinator (Ok.. I am exaggerating a bit but you get the picture) that it feels that the entire film rests solely on his shoulders and a few others who shall go nameless or creditless! In his movies, the only role that is safe is that of the heroine - of course, he will ensure that she is nothing but arm candy - but since that is the way the whole indutry works - cannot really fault him too much with that. Ok.. enough of the rants. Now that you know, very well, about how I feel about Kamal's movies, I was pleasantly surprised to see the trailer of Vishwaroopam. Kamal plays the role of an effiminate kathak dancer with wavy hair and he blows you away with his performance.

Image courtesy: http://theviewspaper.net/vishwaroopam-a-review-2/

I saw this movie after the hoo-haa of the ban and the re-release of the movie. By then the numerous interviews with Kamal resulted in free publicity for the movie and sent Kamal laughing all the way to the bank which was what the movie was supposed to achieve.

The movie was engrossing, fast-paced, and apart from a few jarring bits caused by the actress who played Kamal's wife - quite good. It was almost a month ago that I saw this movie and while I am sure most of you have already seen the movie - this is more a rant and not a review - if you had any doubts :P

 

Image Courtesy: https://pagalhkya.wordpress.com/tag/vishwaroopam-enters-funny-jokes/

Another irritating aspect - cannot be attributed to Kamal tho'- was the number of  FB 'friends' who urged you to watch this movie to support kamal, support Tamizhs, etc. The movie was good - not great. The rest was - as the above cartoon mentions all 'bout the money! Feel free to disagree.

Adhoc Interpretations of an Ad

Today, as I sat down to watch some TV, the first ad I saw had me cringing. It was an ad for pickles (Aachi). They had used an old Tamizh song "Thottu Kollava..." as the background. If you have not seen the ad, watch it here:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UbwBfVjjnds&feature=related

Why was I cringing? Well, they had this handsome hulk giving you a sidey smile as he sang "Thottu kollava.. "! A very small percentage of Tamilians use the term "Thottukka" to refer to the side dish accompanying the main dish. Now, if I am told that we are having sambhar and rice for dinner, I will probably ask "Thottukka Yenna irrukku?" The answer is usually the name of the subzi that was made. If you are eating curd rice, pickle is usually the answer. Thus, the idea for this ad, I think. However, literally translated, it means "What is available for me to touch?" And from the guy's expression, it looks like he means it literally - Naturally, I am cringing at the double meaning! So when he is singing "Thottu Kollava..." with sidey grins and glances, he is probably singing it literally to the heroine and not so literally to the pickle jar.

Well, if we are going to look at it literally, I vote for the big bad wolf singing this song to Little Red Riding Hood. Makes it less of a double meaning and kinda more believable - don't you think?

Change is ....

I decided to change the look of my blog and decided to use one of those templates that I could freely download. While attempting one of the changes, I lost some of my widgets :( While it was entirely my fault.. I am still a lil waaanh 'bout it. A small change has made me feel so blaaah is surprising. Actually, I have never attempted changing the look using a template that I downloaded and so it is actually a change after a loooong time. I liked the template but I am not happy tht I lost my widgets. I am also surprised 'bout how easily one can get used to a lot of things in life. While one can wax eloquent 'bout change - it is all 'bout how one handles change when you first face it that defines you. You could:

• cribb endlessly (like tht makes a diff.),
• fight change passively,
• fight change aggressively, or
• live in denial

Well, I have decided to add the widgets again.. can I really do anything else??!! It will take a while before my blog looks like my blog once again but I am willing to use the time to see if I really needed those widgets :) Talk of learnings.. this had me groaning! And btw, this is not like the "Dhaag achhe hote hain" ad. Honestly, Dhaaag acche nahi hothe - ask your mom :D

Brunch at Koshys

It was a lazy saturday after the Bank strike. The Arien had to transfer money urgently as one of his post-dated cheques was likely to bounce thnx to the sudden strike. He had also suddenly fallen sick and as a result was short-tempered and feeling very tired. After giving me a looong lecture on why I shd opt for online banking, the Arien decided to get going - dragging me along after only a cuppa chai. It was while we were driving on MG Road, that I decided we must have brunch at Koshy's. Lotsa folks (especially the non-veggies) loved the food at Koshy's. Having lived here all his life, I was surprised that the Arien had never been to Koshy's. After completing all the bank related work in 2 absolutely boring hours, convincing the Arien 'bout having brunch at Koshy's, finding a parking spot near the British Library, we had no clue 'bout the where the entrance was. We actually spent a few minutes walking all around and were told by a kindly shop-keeper that the place we jes walked out of was the entrance. Well, Well, Well...

We happily waited outside until a group pushed past us and we realized thats how it works. We walked in and I was instantly reminded of my college cafeteria - the plain wooden chairs, the beeg fat fans, the old old walls, and some really old pictures. The only difference was that the cafeteria was usually empty while this place was bursting with ppl. We made our way to a table near one of the various pillars and plonked ourselves on the chair without speaking a word. We observed the groups around us, a bunch of college gals occupied a corner and were making an absolute racket which we cud not hear as the general voice level of the place was pretty high. Diagonally opposite to us, on one side were two college guys who were busy guzzling beer and on the other side, we had a bunch of oldies (7 - 11 in number, most of whom wud step out for a while - probably for a smoke n come bk in later). I found this lovely sketch by Jai Iyer on http://iyermatter.wordpress.com/. I totally lowed his latest sketch on the transformers aka auto hilarious... chk it out when you have the time :D

It was when we slowly began to wonder if we would actually see a menu when a waiter walked by and dropped off the menu. We took altogether too loong to select wht we would like and he vanished. Finally, the Arien decided on a chicken steak and a drink while I opted for a spanish omelette with toast. We decided to continue observing the others while we waited for our dishes and we noticed quite a few foreigners as well, tucking in and guzzling away. I hoped the Arien liked the food - he is pretty fussy 'bout the food he eats. The food was ok. The Arien did not go ga-ga over the food - he felt that Millers46 offered absolutely amazing steaks and this was not as great. The spanish omelette was good - though with a lil too much cheese. We decided to try the Koshy's Hot Chocolate Fudge, which was a total waste. First, it came late and so it was all gooey and then it had peanuts instead of nuts which totally killed the taste.

While the meal was not our best, I feel we ought to give the place one more chance. The dishes we chose did not give us the opportunity to really sample the place and so another visit is strictly the order of the day. Convincing the Arien would of course take a lot of doing.... Have a happy day!!

Maid in India - Boon or bane of working women

With the topic title like that - I am sure you are reminded of class VIII debates that one wud b forced to participate in. Well, this is not a debate and neither is it a post 'bout the notorious Shiney Ahuja case tht grabbed eyeballs. In fact, now that it is clear that the not-so-shiney Ahuja did indeed rape a minor, I must admit that I had not pegged him as an offender at all. Surprisingly, almost everyone who knew him said tht he was incapable of such an act, including his poor wife, Anupam. Or shd I say poorer maid? Anyway, thts not the subject of this post.

When my maid wanted 3 days leave to help out a distant relative around Christmas last year, if we had had any idea that we wud never see her again or how quickly our well-managed household wud fast become a mess - we wud have begged n pleaded with her to stay. Of course, since we did not know, we happily gave her leave to go. In the past 6 plus mnths - I have realized the important role a maid plays in the smooth functioning of my house and also how very difficult it is to get a good maid.

We have had maids who kept their own timings, demanded naashtha (breakfast), wanted Cha (tea) before they started work, or spoke too much. If they washed the dishes well, they did a bad job of sweeping and if they did a good job of sweeping they did a bad job of washing the dishes. It seemed so difficult to get a maid who did a good job of washing the dishes, sweeping and swabbing. Punctuality, cleanliness, gossip soon became the least of our concerns. They actually seemed trivial in comparison.

Some Gems:

• Stains? I cannot see any stain on this tea-cup. I have worked for marwadis. Do you know how clean they expect their cups to be? [This was in response to my pointing out a very visible tea-stain on the inside of a white cup.]
• Do I have to swab everyday? [This was a week after negotiating the salary based on the 3 things she has to do everyday: wash vessels, sweep the floor, and swab the floor.]
• I will work only wen you are there. [This comment had the Arien jumpin up n down. He said "Does she think I am another shiney?? Grrrr" A trip to KFC and a lot of "She did not mean tht... Its ok" helped him calm down n decide against kicking this maid out.]
• I am part of the ladies club and we meet at 4 pm every sunday. Can I just do the dishes for today? [Do I have to say anything?? ]
• Aunty, has uncle gone out??? [Whaaattt??? She was the mother of two toddlers and I was the aunty? Grrr..]
• When do you plan to have children? [Whoaa???]

Pfhwah!! Phew!!! Blaaaah!!! GRRRR!!! We had had enuf of it. We even did a pilot without having any one for close to a month. By end of month, we were praying for a maid. I was ready to accept all her conditions. I decided not to have any conditions of my own. As you can see, I was pretty desperate for a maid to help me out with some of the household chores. I brought this topic up at general get-togethers and this is what I found:

• No Maid?? Are you kidding me?? I have a toddler and in-laws staying with me. We have a cook, a maid, and a driver.
• Why wud I want to do all this menial work?? My brain will be pakaoed. I have a life.
• My maid cooks, cleans, sweeps, swabs, and washes clothes as well. I pay her well and she is almost like an extended family. She has breakfast and lunch at my home and packs some for her kids as well.
• Initially, when my MIL insisted that we don't need a maid for the two of us, I agreed. Our marriage almost crumbled under the pressure that I was going through. I don't care how the older generation managed... I cannot manage on my own. The maid brought a lot of peace in my home.
• I think a housewife does not need a maid. If you are working, it is better to opt for one. It also depends on the kind of work tht you do, and the support-system you have. Some one who has a stress-free life with fixed timings can take on additional tasks - if she so feels like it.

Interesting huh??!! So, what do you think??

Boyfriend's Jeans

It was one of those lazy saturday mornings when I came across this article on "Boyfriend's Jeans". It was all 'bout how cute Katie Holmes looked in them and how the said pair of jeans was soon going to become a popular fashion trend. Firstly, there is all together too much hype and hoopla 'bout TomKat. I felt Katie looked very cute b4 she married Tom. Kinda goody-two-shoes but sweet. However, she totally lost all sense of dressing after her marriage to Tom and she looked dowdy most times - blame it on scientology or Suri - but its a fact. Anyways, wanting to know what other ppl think of the latest fad - I took this up as a conversation starter to find out what ppl think.

Overheard at the Gym:

"Boyfriend Jeans???!! I wouldn't fit into them" said Thunder Thighs Tina. "I prefer borrowing their T-shirts - I can easily fit into a size M while I wud b a XXL if I had to buy T-shirts meant only for women. "

Overheard at the Pantry:

"Boyfriend jeans... Chah" exclaimed Sneezing Sneha. "I prefer borrowing their kerchiefs. Have you noticed how beeg they are? Perfect for my cold. These chuntu, lacy stuff - wht use are they? I ask you Aaah... Achoooo!!"

Overheard at the Mall:

"Jeans? Why on earth wud I wear my boyfriend's jeans? I spend so much time Gymming and doing Yoga to get this amazing figure - why would I want to hide it in a pair of boyfriend jeans?" asked shopaholic Sweety. "If I had to borrow something from my boyfriend - it would be his wallet for my shopping."

Over the course of the day, I found that most women want to borrow something that belongs to their man, but it was not their jeans. Hmmm... Well, do guys want to borrow something from their women?

Shared in strictest confidence
"I used to borrow my gal's Fair and Lovely cream for years" whispered Vijay. "That was until John Abraham endorsed Garnier Mens Fairness cream."

All names have been changed to protect the identity. If you would like to share what you would like to borrow, send a comment and I shall include it here.

Am on Twitter - Finally!

Ghahahahahaha hahahahahaha Ghahahahahahaha (Ok.. ok... Stopped already!!) Yes, I jes joined the Twitter community.

I am sure my joining twitter equals the Miss India wannabes one stop solution - the one and only - "World Peace" - both of them have absolutely no value and so I better stop - now!!

One more way to keep in touch.. do we all really have so much to say? I guess, if the person leaves we won't keep talking but this is the absolute opposite - keep talking - sm goofball will respond n you can then .... continue.... talking - whatsay??!!

Yipee!! Yippee!! Am I twiterring?? Tee hee heee. I really must go - this was not really a post - this was utter timepass :)