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.

Flavors, Wakad - Unexpectedly good

I'm saying unexpectedly because I didn't particularly think that a restaurant situated in kaspate vasti, wakad would resonate of class. But as it turns out I was unreasonably biased. This is a restaurant situated on the roof top of a 6-storey building near Kalewadi phata. The ambiance is decent and the food was good. We went along with some friends on a Saturday evening and even then there was relative peace. We in fact there spent quite a long time and were left to enjoy an unhurried dinner with IPL cricket on a big screen for company. I quite liked that about the place. No one to bother you, but even then good service without asking twice for anything.

We ordered a couple of drinks and a veggie platter for starters. The platter was standard, but I must make a special mention of the delicious mushroom. On the other hand we didn't think the cauliflower (which was too big to be counted in the category of aesthetically pleasing) or the paneer (too chewy) was that great.

For the main course, we ordered a vegetable jalfrezie and daal. A standard order, but well cooked and tasty. We stuck to vegetarian that day since our company was mainly vegetarian, but the sea food and the chicken dishes on the menu sounded quite good. We didn't taste any desserts that day so I'd do that too if we went back.

My verdict: A standard place with good food and reasonably priced too. If you are in the area and are looking for a decent place to have a quiet dinner, this is a good find. May not be a place you would especially seek out, though.

"The Old Man and His God" - a poignant collection

I found Sudha Murthy's "Old Man and His God: Discovering the Spirit of India" lying at our old apartment. The title didn't particularly interest me and assumed it would be some philosophical rendition of existentialism. Consequently the book was further lying around in my bedroom for several days before I picked it up one lazy Sunday afternoon for want of nothing better to do. How I regret not doing that earlier! The book is far from a discourse, it is in fact a collection of short stories, a third in a series, based on real incidences in Sudha Murthy's life and travels.

This is a book that can change your entire perspective of looking at people. Sudha Murthy's sincere, down-to-earth, practical writing style and the sheer simplicity of characters, stories and incidents portrayed in this book are apparent in every single page, every single line that she pens. The stories are crisp and have an inherent lesson or moral, but this is not clearly spelt out and left to the reader's interpretation. The reader is bound to relate to one or the other character every few pages and that keeps the interest alive through out.

I was especially touched by the story "The way you look at it", where Murthy recounts hearing criticism about a public toilet scheme started by her for rural women; but does not get discouraged by the remarks as no matter what you do, you cannot please everyone. However, if you are convinced about something, you should go ahead and do it with conviction nevertheless.

My verdict: Certainly not a book you can miss! A penguin publication, priced at Rs.150. I am now looking forward to reading the other two volumes in the series.

Post-91 - the attraction begins post the main course

Yes - desserts are among the few praise-worthy things about this restaurant - they have the choicest spread of cakes, mousses and Indian sweets in the lunch buffet. The rest of the stuff in the restaurant has nothing particularly unique to offer, but let's say it's not bad either.

Post-91 is located in lane 6 of Koregaon Park, opposite Kapoor's Yellow Chilly. I believe the name has something to do with the post-liberalization era in India - the relevance beats me. Anyway!
I've visited them 3-4 times as they are conveniently located from my office, have a buffet which makes for a quick working lunch and is generally not that crowded on a week day so it's peaceful. The ambience is decent, service is just about acceptable (though out of the 2-3 times I've been there, I've witnessed a couple of goof-ups), food is ok. I've generally liked the soups they've served, especially the carrot-tomato coriander soup I had there the last time I went.

Even then, I think there are plenty of things that can be got right in this place. First, the buffet spread is a bit hotch-potch. I mean multi-cuisine is one thing, but having too many dishes on board can get quite... err... confusing. For example, what do you eat a chinese stir fry with if the rice items include plain rice and an Indian biryani?

Also, some of the preparations are not exactly what you would call authentic. Sample this, there was an attractive looking salad bar the last time, but unfortunately whatever you asked for (the choices included three different dressings), you would get the same concoction. The cook manning the salad bar was adding whatever was available in front of him and the end result was not very exciting.

These and other experiences reduce the potential of the great place that Post-91 can aspire to be! For the price range (Rs.300 onwards - plus there are at least 2 pricing options in the buffet), let's say its value for money.

My verdict: You could try it out sometime, grab a quick bite if you work around the area and want to take someone out, but don't build too many expectations.