Welcome party

After months of planning, Bobo chan's welcome party finally went through this Sunday. Rather successfully I must say, most particularly since the little thing slept through-out the function! It was incredible, since I have so far never seen her sleeping for so long at a stretch during the day. And certainly not amidst so much noise, so many people and so much activity. The fortunate consequences of this phenomenon were several. For one, I got to actually enjoy the party, have meaningful dialogue with the guests, have a laidback easy lunch. I haven't had too many of such occasions since Bobo was born so I went all out to seize this one and made the most of it. Since there was no 'back-up' required, my mother was able to have her share of merriment and interaction too. This was in sharp contrast with the scene on the eve of the party. The tension, anxiety and stress was beginning to show. Bobo had been extremely cranky two days in a row and I was looking at the prospect of spending the entire function holed up in the room beside the party hall. But all thanks to my lovely daughter, none of these odds played out. Further, most other parameters fell into place. The ambience was great, decoration simple but classy, P's aunt's speech marvelous, food good and the overall atmosphere relaxed and chattery. More than that, most of the people who mattered were there, especially the sister whose presence we had timed into the party date. I would have loved to see a few other people, but I already knew their limitations so had to be liberal enough to excuse them. All in all, an event that went off well - ironically because the protagonist slept right through it!

Santa Claus comes a'calling

A dear friend came over to visit Bobo this afternoon. Her visit was special because she was the first friend to see my baby. It was also special because two other friends who had planned to come by last week could not make it due to inexplicably stupid reasons, leading to a lot of disappointment. Her visit was special because she brought along so many different gifts for Bobo that I was totally overwhelmed. It is at moments like these that you realise how much value good friends hold in life. That you almost come to expect their presence, support and encouragement, and something gets missed out in life if you can't have that.



We spent the afternoon talking, mostly giving and taking advice on new mom stuff. Very very valuable practical tips that no book can dole out, or no mother or grandmother can remember enough from their experience to tell you. Baby slept through our talking and later woke up enough to be seen and cradled. Another moment that will stay in my memory for years to come!

A celebration of life

It is 5 days already since baby was born, and we are finally home from the hospital. Baby is fast asleep on her new bed at Ajji-Ajoba's and I'm beholding this new addition to my life, my daughter. Nowhere in my wildest dreams would I have imagined what it would be to hold this little thing, a part of my body for the last nine months.

Now that she is here, all those months of nausea, bed rest, exhaustion, acidity, anxiety, etc. seem to be behind me as if they never happened. I can stay stuck in this moment forever and ever. Love you my little sweetie pie.

Valley of Flowers At Kas Lake

At about half hour's drive from Satara city is the beautiful Kas Lake. The landscape is arguably similar to what you would see in Mahabaleshwar or several other spots along the Sahyadris in Maharashtra. However, a special attraction and a totally unique one about the Kas plateau is its Valley of Flowers. Wild flowers blossom by the millions for a very short time very year - around August end to October on this 5 km stretch of flat land. And the sight is an absolute heaven on earth.

We left Pune early in the morning; a leisurely drive along with a brief breakfast halt on NH-4 took us some 3 hours. As we neared the Kas plateau, we could see plenty of beautiful spots and a whole lot of yellow (Sonaki) flowers. You need to continue along the road until about 5 kms before the actual Kas Lake. The flowers start rather abruptly along a turn and you behold the mesmerizing landscape agape.

The flowers are hosted on short bushes about 6-8 inches tall. They are of various shapes, sizes and also colours. The place is a haven for butterflies and bees of various kinds. I think there could also be some potential for bird watching if you hit it very early in the morning. Apart from enjoying the flowers, you can relax in the true European style under some shady tree with a sandwich lunch, or even go down to the lake if the weather is good. Be sure you don't litter around and spoil the sanctity of the place.

The valley is so far quite clean and a Forest department officer was seen doing the rounds, urging people to keep off the flower beds and park in the right lanes. Thankfully there are still no wada paav or bhutta vendors and therefore only true nature lovers seen along. Visit before that changes! A place not to be missed.

Portico restaurant at Sayaji - Good Buffet

We'd planned to go to Barbeque Nation at Sayaji (Wakad) to celebrate my sister's birthday. But we had a rather disappointing experience. The terrace restaurant was really cold and seating terribly cramped. The decor (that looked a bit hotch-potch what with the overal ambience like Puran da Dhaba at Pride, but with Maharashtrian Warli art splayed on the terrace sides, and Ghazal music on) was nothing like BBQ Nation at Kalyaninagar. Our family was offered a table right next to the bar. To add to that and the biting cold winds, we actually had rain water splashing on to us. Obviously it was impossible to spend a couple of hours like that and we walked out.

Back to the lobby, we decided to try the dinner buffet at Portico restaurant on the ground floor. We got a table in about ten minutes even though they claimed to be full and were even served lemonade while we waited in the lobby. The seating was tad uncomfortable, since the table and seats could not be moved and therefore us short people had to lean forward to eat.

Anyway that apart, the buffet was quite good though there was nothing really that was extra-ordinary. Yet it was attractive fare, well prepared and well laid out. Starters - both veg and non-veg - were tasty. The 'multi-cuisine' claim was rather far-fetched as there wasn't much global stuff apart from the usual Chinese and Italian. The desserts were varied and yummy.

Service was satisfactory and quick. You didn't have to wait with a plate full of main course for the bread basket to arrive, nor did you have to signal to get your glass of water refilled. The staff seemed to be used to the large crowds and were managing well.

For the price (425+4% tax) I thought the buffet was worth it. However, the drinks that the men ordered proved to be exorbitantly priced. The beer actually came with two lime wedges (?!?).

To quote my Dad's favorite saying - Dane Dane pe Likha hai, Khane wala ka Naam... Portico was meant to host our dinner last night. Meanwhile, I doubt I'll go back to try BBQ at Sayaji.

Kalote lake - you couldn't imagine!

After months of battling nausea and morning sickness, Sunday seemed like a good day for a small outing somewhere close by. Besides, it was raining after a long time making it the perfect type of weather for a drive, and our new car was waiting to get some fresh air outside the city!

We had a number of limitations - good road being a major one - and a lot of places got quickly eliminated. Lonavala remained an option but it's just too crowded and boring these days. Milind Gunaji's book came to the rescue and we decided to explore Kalote lake, a little off Khopoli.

Directions to get there are pretty simple - exit the expressway at Khalapur and continue toward Mumbai on NH-4 about 4-5 kms, locate Westend Meadows on the opposite side and turn in adjacent to the complex. Continue for about a couple of kms until you reach the lake. It's hard to believe that there can be such a serene and beautiful place so close to the main road and yet so virgin. Do not expect any of the usual - thelas, hawkers, etc. There are a couple of resorts - Eden farms and another (I forget the name), but we didn't explore any of those. The only thing to do here is to sit and enjoy the beauty of the place. Others, normal and fitter people that is, can even take off on foot and explore the landscape. We obviously could not do that. Hope to go back there sometime for that part.

We got back to Pune via NH-4, again a good change from the by-now monotonous expressway. Except that the road is pretty bad at certain places and we had to come back real slow.

It was a great Sunday afternoon spent well though. This place is definitely worth trying!

Copacabana - Full of variety

It must have been the lure of adequate space at a reasonable price that made the owner set up this restaurant at Vishal Nagar, Wakad. Else you could have easily imagined this joint in a plush area in Koregaon Park or Kalyaninagar. Our sole reason to get there for lunch was its proximity to the residence. But everything about this place turned out to be a surprise!

There is ample of parking space, which is an immediate winner. The ambience is lively and youthful, the decor impressive. There is a lounge in the evenings and expansion is still in progress, with Cabanas planned behind the restaurant.

The menu is so long and so varied that it really takes a while to go over it peacefully and actually put a finger to some specific item. From Korean to Mexican, Chinese to Malay, there is a vast array of cuisines to choose from, including most of the familiar and global delicacies - be it the Spanish Paela or Mexican Enchiladas. Despite the long-list of items, the food was served quite quickly and turned out to be passably tasty. But the real icing on the cake was the spread of desserts on offer. Not just that, they actually HAD whatever was listed on the menu - an all too common disappointment at a lot of restaurants otherwise. The blueberry cheesecake, caramel custard and kulfi we ordered were simply superb.

We all thought that the 'concept' is a bit too early for Wakad despite its density of the 'IT crowd'. This was confirmed when I overheard an oldish man tell someone on the phone that he'd come to have lunch at 'Copablanca'... wonder what the owner (or whoever named this place) will have to say to that!

With some aggressive marketing, Copacabana has the potential to become a 'hub'. I would recommend it not just to people who live around the area, but to people who don't mind driving a bit for a good dining experience. After all most of us criss-cross to Koregaon once a while, don't we?

Rocket Singh - a refreshing watch

I'd really liked Ranbir in Wake Up Sid - and he brings his same boyish charms to Rocket Singh. I saw the television premier yesterday and notwithstanding the annoying breaks, I actually enjoyed something on the idiot box after a long long time. I know the movie hadn't created any major stir when it released. But I thought it had a decent storyline and a strong message - based on honesty and integrity that's gone so missing from around us these days. Perhaps it appealed to me a bit more because of the peculiar point at which my life stands right now - disappointed by corporate life and on the brink of entrepreneurship.

The characters are a bit over the edge - I had the same feeling about the director's previous film Chak De. The story has a slow but steady pace, but the plot is so unpredictable that it keeps you guessing all the time. You can see every emotion in Ranbir's eyes and your heart goes out to him on several occasions. Especially when the whole office is making fun of him and he finds himself alone, yet determined to continue. Most of us have had a difficult time or two in our careers, especially at the outset, and the reminiscence strikes hard.

All in all, I enjoyed the innocence and the 'people-orientation', far removed from emo-dramas and surrealism that I've never fallen for in Indian cinema. No song-and-dance sequences, no garish fashion, no side-kicks; just plain engrossing cinema.

My verdict: 4 out of 5... A really nice watch!

Night Train to Lisbon - And money down the drain

Gosh! I can't believe I actually went to a bookstore and purchased this book. I've recently become a member of an online reading club and I blame them for getting me to blow a few hundreds on this miserable piece of writing.

Usually I hate to put down books - though I have started to do that more often recently. In this case I started with a determination to read through to the end - I SIMPLY could NOT manage this.

The German translation is pathetic - the translator seems to have put words in an online German-English dictionary and blindly used them in places. The grammar is poor, there are hundreds of typos - something very unusual for a Western publication. But more importantly - there is NO STORY. I'll tell you what this is - a so called philosophical-cum-trying to be modernist-cum-melodramatic-cum-loserly tale of a professor who has lived a certain routine most of his life, and almost borders on being a psycho. He then sees a Portuguese book, gets intrigued by the author and sets out to trace this author's apparently contrasting life. Every few lines you are reminded of how totally surprised he is by the sudden turn of intentions in his head. Enter some more weird, totally impratical characters, painfully long descriptions that leave you no more enlightened, tears, fears, in short... verbal diarrheoa - Ugghh!

I used this book for several days as an antidote to my insomnia - 3 pages at a stretch and I would dose off into peaceful slumber, relieved that my world is what it is and stands where it is!

As for the good reviews of this book - I have one thing to say. You don't have to like all 'philosophy' - it's not like the Emperor's new clothes - you can turn down some of it without the risk of being labeled a pseudo-intellectual!

Mr. Pascal Mercier, I feel like sueing you for causing readers such acute mental trauma and then get away with it and into the bestseller's list!

Paathshala - Horribly misses the target

Writing a movie review of Paathshala is also in fact a painful task. There is not one thing that stands out, apart from may be a few hummable tunes. The movie attempts to highlight an issue that is in the thick of things these days - the commercialization of education, but director Milind Ukey fails miserably to tackle it properly.

Characterizations are totally missing, melodrama prevails throughout the second half, too many sub-plots jostle for space without any of them being taken to a logical conclusion. Shahid and Ayesha are unbelievably wasted, other actors have virtually no role apart from the sports teacher Sushant Singh may be. Saurabh Shukla is so annoying, you'd want to kill him not for his bad acting but for accepting an utterly illogical role. Nana Patekar could have been impressive, but the scriptwriter has not done any justice to his capability.

I have come to think that every such disaster sets back the pace of Bollywood cinema by a few notches. A similar theme revolving around education and its treatment of children was so well-tackled in the focused and just-adequately emotional Taare Zameen Par. The trick lay in the empathy with the main character, I think, rather than the temptation to please everybody. The beauty of TZP was that no one was intentionally bad, everyone had their reasons for the way they were behaving. That is totally lacking in Paathshala. Gone are the days when Hindi cinema had clear-cut 'heros' and 'villians'. Good modern Hindi cinema is more situational, practical, human.

My verdict: All in all, Paathshala makes for a pathetic watch. A must-miss for all age-groups.