2 States - Chetan Bhagat

This is pop-corn fiction, modelled on a bolly/kollywood movie. The book costs the usual Rs.95 ( so wouldn’t have to worry buying pirated copies ) for its 269 pages. It’s a quick read with a very simple plotline, with dollops of humour, mostly at the expense of Madrasis ( verbatim...as used in the book ). Not to cause much consternation, there is self-deprecating humour in the form of the so called over-the-top lifestyle of Punjabis :-)

The book apparently is inspired by Bhagat's real life and takes off from the time how the two protagonists ( Krish-the Punjabi thambi and Ananya Swaminathan-the Madrasi kudi ) meet at IIM-A's mess. Bhagat doesn’t spend too much real estate on developing the romance between Krish and Ananya, since the expected plot is how the two families are going to play a big role in this love saga. There is the usual muted profanity and some Un-Indian ( as claimed in the book ) behavioral pattern to remind us that our society is in the midst of a major westernization flux. Krish and Ananya land their dream jobs and the next step is to figure out how to convince their respective families.

The hero opts Chennai as his Citi posting in order to befriend the austere tam-brahm family of Ananya's. His IIT brains are put to test by the typical nerdy younger bro of the heroine, while the Tamil maami-mom is a budding carnatic singer. And of course, the dad is a devout Hindu reading "The Hindu" which he can’t do without. To complement this Tamil family caricature, Krish's side has a retired army officer for dad ( in his chauvinistic best ) and a loud blink-i-will-cry mom who loves food and is always on the lookout for more dowry and status show-offs. There are the usual Punjabi names and the mandatory family wedding and similar such predictable references. After all machinations, Krish does end up getting the consent of Ananya's family and soon after Ananya goes to Krish's house in Delhi for a week at HLL's expense. After some tear-jerker contest between the Krish's mom and Ananya, and one wonderful act of persuasive talk by Ananya at a Punjabi wedding, Ananya wins over Krish's mom.

Not to be satisfied, the lead pair decide to force the two families to like each other. Out comes the overbeaten rivalry between Northies Vs Southies, and one must say that this part could have been played down without the crude references. However, after much ado, the families try to reach a common ground by catering to each other's preferred lifestyles. The desi drama has a happy ending with lead pair getting married in Chennai in a deliberately chosen "Arulmigu Kapaleeswarar Karpagambal Thirumana Mandapam". C’mon, it’s that not difficult to pronounce...

What carries the book are some heavy doses of humour involving Krish's first tamil boss-Bala and the loud mouthed Rajji mama from Krish's family and some sensitive moments involving Krish's dad's sudden change of heart ( cant explain what caused it though ), and a short dip into philosophy with a Pondicherry saint. Chetan Bhagat says he doesnt want to be remembered as a paragon of high pedestal english literature and so he keeps the sentences simple, and the narration just flows through. One doesnt have to wrack his/her brains to keep up with the pace of the plot. Would rate this just below "5 point someone" and definitely way above "3 mistakes of my life".

Pondy - The first official road trip in India

Nov 21-22/Chennai-Pondicherry/ECR :



Notorious for planning dime-a-dozen trips, I should thank "bangalore se aaya mera dost" for what turned out to be the high-octane cruise on the bump-free and beautiful ECR. OK, that is not true, not possible with a 2000 model Maruti Zen loaded with 4 not-so-size-zero-guys.

Sudhi (tamilian in the guise of a kannadiga) and me set-off to first replace the wiper blades and have our bat-mobile checked for any major performance barriers. After a mathematical mess-up of epic proportions at the spare parts shop, we picked up the ever-so-popular Raghav and the new kid on the block-Narasimhan, from the latest addition to Chennai city maps - Tambaram. Never one to keep up the sanctity of punctuality, we were behind our schedule by a mere one hour.

The recent rains ensured that we bumped our way to the ECR road and then in a yahoo moment, pressed on the accelerator and the engine cried out loud for some mercy. Every trip of ours ( dating back to the US days ) has centered around food, and so I took a U-turn after we missed Don-Pepe" by a whisker, only to order some "kewl" cool drinks and a chimichanga and enchilada. Satiated, I laboured into the driving seat and hit a steady 80kmph. Mamallapuram looked not so appealing in the hot sun, but to showcase Chennai to Sudhi, we did the mandatory pit-stop. To ask directions, we could not recollect the historical monuments in local lingo and it was a comedy of sorts trying to explain arjuna's penance, and I blurted out "rocks".



We reached Pondy and checked into GINGER - a TATA enterprise. The hotel offers a freshness not to be seen in the more pricey options or cheaper ones - thanks to the "citrus" theme. We had our dose of caffeine from the in-house coffee day and I couldnt help buying India Today and Sports Illustrated from the miniature landmark. The rooms were very convenient for the Rs.1800 tariff. After stretching our legs, we hit the streets and navigated through the chaotic JN street ( we wanted to shop even in Pondy...for a pair of Cargos to ease the pain of wearing trousers ) without much success. The beach front reminded us of the Besant Nagar stretch, and the slight drizzle made our distant gazes across the dark waters more special. Soon after, we wandered off to the Asian House and then to Le Terrasse for our dinner. We retired to our rooms for a well-deserved rest and Raghav was very adamant that we witness the sunrise the next day.

Sudhi, is the epitome of perfection and so he woke up by 5 AM and surprisingly Raghav came into our room hoping to beat the daylights out of me. Luckily I was awake by then and we started off to witness a bright start to the day. Well, the clouds played spoil sport, but we still had a great time just sitting on the rocks with umbrellas to give us cover from rains ( Narasi....under the umbrella...hmm...he wandered off in his thoughts... ). It was very calming and refreshing to see the waves hit the rocks under the cover of dense clouds, which I preferred over a bright orange circle arising out of distant horizons. Food - we never forget food. So back at GINGER, we were as usual pestering the hospitality boys for the buffet breakfast, and not surprisingly we did the honours in inaugurating the rather conservative buffet( Rs.99 ). I went back to my room and deciding to rejuvenate my aching muscles and sore back to take the trip back home. The trio visited Auroville meanwhile and just came back in time to check-out by the customary deadline of 12 Noon.

We bought quite a few "Off-beat" printed casual Tees, before heading to "Promenade" for our buffet lunch(Our motto - more the buffet, the better ). Priced at 575 per head, the food was as good as the beautiful view of the ocean side. We felt that the overall lunch experience was awesome, which meant my job as a driver was that much more difficult ( for obvious reasons ). The return trip was very pleasant - en route we stopped for a tender coconut drink. The next drink for us was coffee/T at besant nagar CCD. Overall, it was a very welcome break from the hum-drum of city roads and the constant chaos. The best part is that we proved people wrong by proving that we can execute our plans as well as we plan them ;-)

Chennai Rains

The northeast monsoon is causing much havoc among the sun-capped denizens of Namma Chennai. The met dept had predicted that the rains would subside after the initial few days of downpour, but yet again, they have been proven wrong. That too in an almighty way.

Normally in Chennai, the 3 best indicators of the intensity of rains are :
1) the mixing of sewage with the relatively pristine waters
2) the diameters of the craters formed on the Chennai roads
3) the auto fare.

Residents have had to put with the innumerable suffering brought upon them by the poor design of roads, while the government is claiming credit for the so called storm water drainage system. Newspapers are awash with pictures and related public outcry on the sewage water seeping into their households. Since the onset of these rains, I have had to navigate around daily addition of new potholes. Enough said about the toll linking roads; just makes us wonder how on earth, newly minted roads turn so tricky after a heavy downpour. Auto drivers' suddenly show a heightened sense of social awareness by reducing the fare from 200 to 150 ( on a normal day, it would have cost 50 ) and talk so much about the risk they undertake to ferry us across the dangerous waters to the safe harbors.

Gone are those days when we used to just take out the bike for a zip in the rains; there arent many proper roads to enjoy the steady stream of rain, with the focus now more on avoiding the pitfalls that wait in ambush under the murky waters.

P.S: The accompanying pic looked good, and was more of a foreboding of heavy rain in Chennai, than the rain itself.

The Hyderabadi Biryani

I set off on my quest to taste the ever-so-popular Hyderabadi Biriyani from "Paradise" hotel in Secundarabad. The biriyani had what we would call, "larger than life image". Now please dont argue about the not-so-wise choice of analogy. I started off from my borrowed space in a cab - one hour package for Rs.300 within an hour or 20 kms, and every additional hour would be Rs.100 + Rs.18/km. Luckily I reached my destination within one hour and paid Rs.350 in all.

I found my way to the 2nd floor of "Paradise" :-)( there were many different mini-restaurants of Paradise in different floors ). There was another dude, who was waiting eagerly for his quota of hyderabadi cuisine and I took the table next to his. The menu had the usual non-veg fare, but I looked for the word "Biriyani" and they had a separate section for it. The "Paradise Special Biriyani" was listed for a whopping 660 rupees and another one was for some 550. I am assuming it would serve a group of 4 or so, else, dont see why would someone charge so much for a biriyani at a non-star restaurant. However, I scanned down for what would serve my needs - a chicken biriyani for Rs.165. I saw big servings of Biriyani in a copper vessel being taken to different tables and thought maybe it was the special biriyani. But to my surprise, I got mine too in a similar vessel and was horrified at huge the quantity of rice.
The chicken piece buried in the rice, was as tender and well-cooked as it can get. The offering had general doses of saffron for sure, which was very dominant among other spices used for the rice. It was more close to the kerala biriyani, where the masala is not fully mixed with rice, than to the traditional chettinad biriyani. The accompaniments included, a rather plain raitha, a very ordinary mild chicken gravy and some slices of onion and lemon.

A friend of mine had remarked that "Paradise Biriyani" is more hype than substance and unfortunately, that was the case. It was really good, but wasnt good enough to generate the "Aahaa" feeling. The biriyani my friend made in a typical mallu style and the one at Anjappar-Nungambakkam restaurant are the best I have tasted so far. Lucknowi biriyani is next on the list. However, for now my first big agenda of the visit was done and dusted, and I wondered if I will be able to eat or drink anything for the next 8 hours after this bountiful biriyani episode. I proved myself wrong- had a aaloo paratha to satiate the 4-hour delayed hunger pang. Long live spicy Indian food, and the wait for Irani chai continues....