Author Archives: Lakshmi Rajan

Monsoon is playing hide and seek and seems like it’s finally out here…  So time to pull out your rain coats, umbrellas and flaunt your style statement and get wet too! Our in-house stylist Sanjiv who when not driving around cars and bikes, gets his high on fashion and styling comes up with an exclusive monsoon photo session.

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Photo credits:

Photographer: William G K

Models: Warren David Dodsworth, Pavana

Make-up: Satish

Styling & Concept: Sanjiv Vakharia

Costumes: Zenia

Mansoon also brings its own mood swings to people, flu and also its time for some snacking! Enjoy the rain, rainbows and good food!

Some posts you would like to read:

How to feel better when you have a cold!

How to fight Flu?

In case you are down with flu or cold, some recipes for you!

Chukku Kappi – for your body and soul!

Pepper Rasam

Soups!

Kanji for body and soul!

Some traditional monsoon snacks to indulge!

Rasam Vada

Idly batter Pakoda!

Banana Appam

E.L Jame’s 50 Shades of Grey is simply put – an enigma frowned by critics but read by millions and an international all time best seller. Myriad of thoughts floats in my mind while reading the book. The first question that popped out ‘How could a porn stuff like this become a mainstream sensation and a national best seller?‘ and then more I dug into the darker shades of love, sex and the dark pink room and the intriguing, troubled and mercurial billionaire male protagonist, Christian and the much flushed in her first love and sex, the innocent, strong and hopelessly in love, Anna I realize yes, sex sells but then writing sex in itself an art else it might get boring like in many bedroom realities. To her due credit, E.L James takes us spiralling down into a dark world of sex with a detailed, articulate and in a captivating or simply put orgasmic writing.  Everyone can fantasize sex but few would be able to live the fantasy and E.L James got her act right in the Fifty Shades of Grey, trilogy. And then floats a thought ‘damn! here is nothing but porn laced with love!‘ and then yet another thought ‘ A trilogy of porn stuff is not just enough to stimulate it to be a national best seller unless the author has taken advantage of the dark shades of human psychology that makes the book endearing to the millions of readers‘ Probably right, after all Fifty Shades of Grey is not your regular romantic fiction nor your regular mills and boons stuff. It’s an adult erotica and it 50 shades darker in it. Not the regular vanilla sex but bondage, pain, sex between a dom and sub caught between a wounded past and anguish of unspoken love.

E.L James, author Fifty Shades Triology

Welcome to the Fifty Shades of Grey, the latest book phenomenon that has women across continents swoon in sex literature. The numbers speak volumes of its mass appeal. 4 million copies and counting in UK and another 2.5 million reprint now, making it the fastest selling book in UK, 15 million copies shipped to US and Canada and the throw in millions across the world and you know E.L James has hit a literary G-Spot bang on. Puritans might frown, the blue-blooded literature fans might cringe but millions of readers especially women are devouring the 50 shades of Grey. It is literature’s sexual liberation for whatever reasons and would make a good subject for modern-day Freud.

So what is Fifty Shades of Grey, the first of the trilogy all about? Ok, those who want to stay away from the shades of book summary can make a one para-leap here.

Anastasia Steele, a young final year collegian gets to interview the young, self-made billionaire  entrepreneur Christian Grey for the college newspaper when her best friend and roomie and newspaper editor, Katherine Kavanagh falls ill. Christian Grey is totally overwhelmed and intimidated by Grey’s greek God looks. Events follows and they meet again and by now Anna is flushed with love over Grey in spite of him warning him he is not a heart and flowers kind of guy and being a control freak. In spite of warning, the duo hooks up and Grey insists he does not make love but only fcuk hard and in a business like fashion offers her a contract that would take her into a vortex of dominant and submissive bondage, pain and lust in spite of  unspoken love simmering underneath.  She also realizes Christian is not a shining knight but a troubled man fighting his own inner demons and a troubled past that he would not share with her or anyone. So does love conquer the erotic dark cloud hanging over the couple? Where does the dark path of erotic desires lead Anna to? Did she able to unlock the troubled past of Grey makes the first book in the trilogy.

Now coming to the narrative, E.L James has no pretension of spinning a tale in a language that would be lauded by literary critics but its appeal lies her ability to make this erotic fiction appeal to men and largely women and bring them out of the closet of shame and unabashedly talk about it to others and read it in public. After all it is indeed a sex book in essence, not a romantic book laced with sex but other way around. Writing sex as I mentioned earlier is the most difficult part if you would ask any writer and to bring an erotic fiction with sex as the focal point and to explore the darkness of the erotic side of a troubled protagonist who in his own words is Fifty shades F%CKED up and gets his satisfaction in pain and pleasure of BDSM. To explore the fifty shades of darkness in a pretty ordinary and even slack language where  page after pages in detail and in-depth and managing to climax the reader’s anxiety (and imagination) is where E.L James succeeds.

My final word when I began reading Fifty Shades of Grey I had no idea what to expect but only the fact it has taken the bookshelves across the continents by storm. What I read shocked me, it was unexpected. It was over-the-top erotic sex that am not sure if I enjoyed it or not but one thing for sure E.L James did strike the imaginative g-spot somewhere that makes this book such a hit. If you like an orgasmic reading, go shamelessly indulge in it.

If you were wondering what happened to the Chaiwala last few days as the brew station was simmering low, well two reasons.

One I was yet again down with a bout of cough and cold. *sighs* Yet again a stark reminder to take charge of my health, after all every time cough overcomes me, I realize health is wealth!

Second and the true reason, Sanjiv and me were buzy working out the modalities and ground work for Ginger Chai Network’s new offering: AutoRaman.com , Since Sanjiv is happy driving around and burning tyres and our car and bike  reviews here at Ginger Chai getting quiet a good hits, I thought its high time we spend the extra fuel and effort to come up with a dedicated automobile portal, where we can do comprehensive reviews, comparisons, news updates on all kind of wheels. Plus, Sanjiv is also excited to add a dash of glamour to the drive. So look forward to lots of glamour shots on cars and bikes. Do we have a plan to compete with King Fisher’s calendar? Errrm…. let me check with Sanjiv, he is one crazy dude, so we can expect all the unexpected from him. One thing I can promise, we are going to cover everything about your favourite wheels comprehensively and in a true chaiwala style.

Join our ride there, be part of our interesting journey ahead. Yes, do join our facebook page, subscribe to our newsletter and all the social tools we have popped up there and yes, wish us good luck!!!

“What’s in a name? That which we call a rose
By any other name would smell as sweet.

What is with this Rohit Shetty? First he took hold of Hrishikesh Mukherjee’s Gol maal title and made it into a money spinning franchisee. Atleast we can forgive him by asking what is in a name title?

This time though he makes a filmi harakiri in the name of paying homage to the Amol Palekar starrer Hrishikesh mukherjee’s 1979 classic Gol Maal. In this (mis) inspired movie, Ajay Devgn as the village feudal lord and pehlwan ‘Prithviraj Raghuvanshi’ who has an obsession with English and ends up muttering nonsensical phrases, the sole aim being a desperate attempt to make us laugh. Incidentally, he detests liars. It should be the only commonness with the original classic’s Utpal Dutt who reprised the role of an employer who is a man of traditional values, honest, principled but who hates irresponsible youth and especially men minus moustache. Bachchan Jr reprises the role of Amol Palekar while in the classic it is Ramprasad and Lakshmanprasad, here it is Abbas Ali and Abhishek Bachchan. So the plot follows the original and a comedy of errors follows allowing duplicity of characters due to spur of the moment lies and the need to justify it and ends up with what one can expect from Rohit Shetty – flying cars, footbal style kicks and flying men, singham Devgn and his facial close-ups and slo-mos and a ridiculously hanging-in-balance-on-cliff climax that we have seen many times before. Then we have the hapless Asin, who comes as  sister character of Bachchan Jr, who aimlessly and cluelessly makes appearances and in this Rohit Shetty’s scheme of ridiculous nonsense maximus resembles Pehlwan’s dead ex-gf and thus becomes his love-interest due the same reasoning. Prachi Desai gets to romance Abhishek Bachchan.

In between tolerating and occassionally LOL it out (that is the best we can say else would be a disgrace for the true meaning of laughing it out) at Ajay Devgn’s morbid english dialogues, what works partly is the effemiate act  by Abhishek Bachchan, who to his credit does it shamelessly enjoyable act. While Archana Pooransingh and Krishna Abhishek tries to enact a comedy circus into the movie.

Bol Bachchan is easily the weakest comedy circus amongst Rohit Shetty’s films.  If you are a gifted movie watcher who can instantly shut your brains and LOL at the shamelessly repeated mindless comedies Bollywood dishes out, go watch it. For the rest, you can wait and watch it on small screen when it is aired in a month or two.

It’s the season of Super-heroes and now is the turn of Spider-man to amaze us in this Mark Webb directed ‘Amazing Spider-Man’ but this re-spin is more humane than super-amazing.

Its only ten years back when Sam Raimi’s Super-Man with Tobey Maguire in the lead caught us in the web of Spider-Man’s origins. Have we forgotten it yet? After Spiderman 3 (released in 2007), all the spidey fans expected the fourth instalment of the series but Sony and Raimi parted ways and Sony announced the reboot of the Spiderman. And re-boots are essentially revisiting the past but the problem is the past is still mint fresh for most hardcore comic and spidey fans and in ‘Amazing Spiderman’ though Mark Webb tries his best to bring in a freshness to the origins with more stress on the humane side of the super-hero divulging more into his character,  past, romance etc. First half of the movie re-spins what we all know the origin of spider-man and how a spider bite turns the teen college kid into a self-doubting super-man and then proceeds to his encounter with the Lizard man.

For any actor who has to don the spandex red and blue masked suit and cast the web it’s going to be a tough act since like it or not the comparison with Tobey Maguire is inevitable. Tobey’s Spiderman looked nerdy, boyish, innocent, introvert, goofy at times and felt awkward and unease to woo girls and as Spiderman in 3 instalments, his spider-effect is quiet strong to erase and replace.

In Mark Webb’s Amazing Spider-Man, Andrew Garfield  dons the spider suit and gets a different character treatment. He skateboards, wears a contact lens, defends others and gets beaten even before he gets his super powers, he is playful and though still bit awkward not entirely shy of wooing his crush.  Prod me deeper, I  would declare my Spider-man votes to Tobey between the two.

Mark Webb delves more into the past of Park Peter. He is plagued, unsettled by the memories of the past and the unknown reasons that compelled them to leave him as kid with Uncle Ben and Aunt May. His trails leads to Dr. Cutts Conors who was his father’s co-scientist and friend both of whom together researched upon cross-species genetics. After making us wait for a long time almost into the second half of the movie Dr.Cutts transforms into Lizard man. For those who have not seen Raimi’s Spider-Man, you will be thoroughly entertained and fascinated by Andrew Garfield’s transformation into Spider-Man and for the rest of us, it is a bit of a yawn inducing wait, though to Mark and Andrew’s credit, there are moments that comes as a fresh deviations. Especially this Amazing Spider-man is not shy of being a playful bully when tackling criminals and unlike the earlier Spider-Man who had his organic web shooting up from his wrist, Mark Webb’s Peter Parker invents a device that is armed in his wrist and shoots the web. Hmmm… more realistic eh?!

Super-heroes needs super-villains to match with. Rhys Ifans performs as Dr. Cutts Conors and is very convincing and impressive as the scientist. Though it might seem like an eternal wait for him to transform into Lizard man and when he does I felt the Lizard man a mix of Lizard-lla, those dinosaurs from Jurassic park and Hulk! Ha! A villain character similar to Doc Ock in Spider-Man 2 is badly missed.

The biggest meh moment of the movie? When the spider-man is wounded and he has to cross many blocks to reach the villain while the city is being evacuated, the city crane operators move the cranes to provide a bridge for Spider-Man to web and swing his way to the villain.

As for the 3D effects, it is restricted more to the few sky rise jumps and swings and Mark seems to be bit disinterested on its usage elsewhere.

What works for the movie is the casting especially the supporting characters and though my leanings are for Tobey as Spider-man, Andrew has put his best spandex to live as Spider-man.

My final word, If you have seen Sam Raimi’s Spiderman, Amazing Spider-man might not amaze you, though it is a decent effort to re-boot the spiderman franchisee but for those who had missed out the previous installment, you might get amazed erm … I repeat you MIGHT!

A blend of style and utility value makes this Galaxy Tab 2 7.0, Samsung’s first Ice Cream Sandwich tablet to roll out of the box, a value for money

Samsung Galaxy Tab 2 P3100 , the second generation Galaxy Tab that was unveiled at World Mobile Congress this year is the latest to join the Samsung tablet portfolio in India and the most affordable too from their lot.

Before we go deep into the device, here is a video to enjoy as well as understand the tab 2 7.0

Available in pure white and titanium silver colors,  this 7″ tablet that comes with both Wi-Fi and 3G and 16 GB internal memory with an expandable memory upto 32 GB and a video calling feature makes it a very good bet amongst the tablets available currently in India. So essentially we have here a compact tablet that can also double as a GSM voice and video communication device that handles  SMS, and MMS as well.

Wrapped in a plastic glossy shell like most of the Samsung ‘Galaxy’ family, Tab 2 looks good if not attractive. Slim? Yes. Light weight? Yes. Weighing 345 grams and measuring 193.7×122.4×10.5mm its pretty nice to hold and read. On the face of it is a 7″  LCD capacitive touchscreen.

Note the Samsung logo on the bottom? Well, it also means that the guys at Samsung assumes people would love to use it in portrait orientation. It does makes it good reading slate for e-books  in this mode (but then no one stops you from using it in landscape orientation either)

The back gleams in what going by Samsung’s words is titanium silver color! Edges smoothly curved inside the back looks neat.

On the top is positioned  a 3.5mm headphone jack…

On the right hand side and to its top sits the stand by button and the volume rocker.

On the bottom you get the connector port for charging (as well as syncing with your comp) flanked by two speakers.

Galaxy Tab 2 P3100 sports a front and rear camera. A VGA camera in the front that sets you up for video chatting and a 3 MP rear camera for err photography, i assume. Though I still find photography with tablet an amusing thing. Hey, most of our smartphones can do a pretty decent and easy job at it, don’t you think? In any case if you are still adamant in shooting with P3100, 3 MP is not a very exciting spec but still you can manage with.  Coming to video, Tab 2 7.0 can shoot 720p video at 30 fps. So go about happily on a shooting spree and edit it with the video editor app that comes along.

So you saw the  bold  markings saying the obvious SIM and microSD? Well its where you fit into the cards. The next two images are  self-explanatory.

A flimsy latch secures both the slots. Its easy to open and shut and judging by my experience handling various such flimsy slots, it should hold on well too on normal usages.

Interface, Apps and  Widgets of Tab 2 7.0 P3100

Alright Tab 2 7.0 is Ice Cream Sandwich version of Android. But like all the Galaxy family it is overlaid with Samsung’s TouchWiz UI. Is it good or bad over here? Let’s dig into.

To begin with a dismal note, all those who fancied the face unlock feature that comes with ICS, sorry folks Tab 2 7.0 P3100 does not bundle that magic. Nor does it support the ICS easiness of snapping a feature / app to the lock button to reach the most used app faster. Dismissing all this sore notes, otherwise TouchWiz UI is as usual intuitive and neat.

On the bottom along with the usual listing of back, home and recent apps, there is the Samsung Galaxy tablet’s familiar soft key which is a  shortcut for screenshots. Did you see that small arrow mark? It is a customisable dock for frequently used apps. A very good value addition that comes very handy.

There are 5 homescreens that can be accessed by swiping left and right.

There two more additons to the device options – Data network mode and a restart option…

Tab 2 7.0 (p3100) comes loaded with apps. Along with the good number of google apps, samsung also has dished out its own apps like S memo, Chat On, All share, Readers hub, Samsung apps, Video editor, Game hub etc…

and good number of widgets to play with…

Readers hub and Games hub gives you access to choicest of premium reading and gaming…

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Then there is Google Play store for all the free and paid games across various categories of your choice. Though the selections for tablets pale in comparison to the arsenal of iPad, still there is plenty to keep you engaged.

7″ tablet is quiet a good form factor for playing games since it snugs into your hands very comfortably and Tab 2 with its spec is a fantastic buy to enjoy gaming as well as for reading e-books. Reading books as we mentioned in the video is a pleasure  for bed time reading as well as on-move.

Calling and messaging features in Galaxy Tab 2 7.0 P3100

Galaxy Tab 2 7.0 P3100  also handles the voice and video calling.  Personally, I feel video calling is an attractive and an effective feature in this 7″ tab. It is pretty nice to handle the table in hand as well as the screen is wide enough to enjoy a good video call. It comes with all the usual phone feature you would expect to have.

Messaging is quiet easy too thanks to the well laid out touch keypad.

Especially for elders, I feel the screen and the numerical soft buttons on top of the QWERTY touchpad are very good for dialling and to enjoy video calls. On a dismal note, the audio is quiet feeble and you might need to plugin the earphone to receive calls, when it is quiet audible.

I liked it especially in the portrait mode. Also the well laid out numbers are a welcome addition. Overall, messaging and calling features are neatly done.

You also get various call settings to dabble with call waiting, speed dial setting etc. Also you can view logs and sort it based on various parameters like all calls, all dialed calls, all missed calls, all received calls, all rejected calls, all messages, all received messages, all send messages etc.

Browsing in Galaxy Tab 2 7.0 (P3100)

Not surprisingly, Galaxy Tab 2 7.0 comes with Android 4.0 default browser. The preferred orientation for browsing is without any guess, landscape mode which gives a better browsing experience without having to pinch and zoom.

Though by default the site opens on mobile versions whenever the option exists, there is also a ‘request a desktop site’ option for individual sites which I find a very handy addition. Then as expectedly, it supports multiple tabs, bookmarks, and there is also save for offline reading option.

The QWERTY keypad is well spaced out and with the 0-9 on to top makes it easy to type. Overall the keypad neatly done and effective.

Overall browsing is a decent affair even if it is not very enjoyable like in the larger screen of 10″. To give due credit for 7″ size, it is easy on palms while idle browsing.

 Tech Specification of Galaxy Tab 2 7.0 (P3100)

• 7″ display
• Resolution : 1,024 x 600
• 1 GHz processor
• Dimension: 193.7 x 122.4 x 10.5mm
• Weight: 345 grams
• Android 4.0 (Ice Cream Sandwich)
• 16 GB in-built memory
• Expandable memory upto 32 GB
• 3 MP rear camera and a VGA front camera
• 4,000mAh battery
• Wi-Fi, 2G, 3G (HSPA+ 21Mbps/HSUPA 5.76Mbps ), AGPS connectivity
• Bluetooth 3.0
• USB 2.0

On a final note, Samsung Galaxy Tab 2 7.0 P3100 is a good buy and a value for money, a compact and well packaged tablet that satisfies your entertainment needs as well as combines as a phone tablet when needed.

Anurag Kashyap’s Gangs of Wasseypur a dark, violent tale that kicks its journey through pre-independence 1940′s to 2000′s demands your full attention or you are at danger of getting bumped out of the narrative and events.

Set in the rustic, wild, rural land in Danbad district which shifted its address from pre-independence Bengal, later to Bihar and now in Jharkand is blessed with minerals. The exploitation of coal is actually at the cost of the exploitation of poverty and illiterate local population which leads to proliferation of blood, gore and the might of machetes and bullets in collusion with political class, bureaucracy, and the rogues. The seeds of revenge are sowed in the tiny hamlet of Wasseypur when Shahid Khan is outcasted after crossing lines with the local gangster and impersonating as legendary Sultana Daku. He then joins as the pehlwan of Ramadhir Singh (Tigmanshu Dhulia), a local mafia. Sensing Shahid Khan’s larger ambitions of becoming a mafia himself, he eliminates him one day, when he takes him out of home, only to not return forever. Shahid khan’s kid, Sardar Khan is whisked away by his uncle escaping the knives of Ramdadhir Singh’s men who were send to eliminate the family. Sardar Khan grows up in Danbad with only revenge in thoughts and action and sports a shaved head which he swears will be bald till he takes revenge on Ramadhir Singh. Time shifts. Ramadhir Singh grows up to be a politician and a MLA now, while Sardar Khan his nemesis engineers himself to become a ruthless, cold-blooded gangster. Amidst all the butchery and gore,  the film also delves into the timeline of Sardar Khan’s family life with his marriage first to Nagma (Richa Chadda) and his second marriage with Durga (Reema Sen) and his children.

It needs a huge effort, attention and narrative skill to tell a tale that spans 60 years,many generations and changing landscape and Anurag Kashyap weaves through the time and characters adeptly. He deftly handles the intricacies and extreme lunacies of human nature with so many characters that walk around, many getting butchered in between. Standing tall is Manoj Bajpai as Sardar Khan with the fire of revenge burning inside and ruthlessly and meticulously planning his rise as gangster taking advantage of the turmoil and lawlessness of the countryside and equally being goofy, quirky even getting beaten up and chased by his wife, Manoj is in full flourish and sizzles on-screen with his controlled acting. Matching him is Tigmanshu Dhulia (for the filmi un-initiated, do note he is the director of movies like Shagird, Saheb biwi aur gangster and Paan Singh Tomar) as Ramadhir Singh with an understated calmness even when Sardar Khan is baying for his downfall. Then you have the womenfolk in the movie dominated by men and blood. Richa Chadda as Nagma, a nondescript women when she  marries Sardar Khan then flourishes with her screams, chases him when he visits other women, rues, shouts but manages the family when her husband leaves her to other woman and then there is Reema Sen, a Hindu Bengali woman who marries Sardar khan and also we have Huma Quereshi, who makes her presence felt in the fading end of the movie and promises a bigger role in the second part of the movie (Yes, GOW is a two parts and you have a to be continued at the end, the movie was screened in Cannes continuously taking some 5 hours, for Indian audience it would be presented as two parts) Rest of the characters and you have a long list for me to name all of them does a very commendable work and Nawazuddin Sidiqui as Faizal, film crazy, drug addict son of Sardar Khan who expectedly would get the larger role in the second part of GOW hints ably that he can match Manoj in acting.

As much blood is spilled without any remorse or sin, expletives fires out of the mouth at free will adding to the rustic and darker shades of the movie. Sneha Khanwalkar’s folk music and GV Prakash’s gripping, rustic background music is the strong pillar of the movie along with Rajeev Ravi’s mowing camera that is a brilliant visual,dark canvas capturing the changing landscape and fallacies of the people.

On a final note Anurag Kashyap’s GOW is an epic bloody tale that drains you at the end even though it adeptly holds you till the end. A bit of butchering in the editing table could have made it deservedly less demanding on the audience, nevertheless it’s a great movie but full of blood and expletives.

If you ask Archana the co-founder and the soul behind Imli Cafe and Restaurant what is her kitchen secret? She would propably say ‘mere paas maa ki recipes hai’. Homely healthy food in a relaxed ambience is the key selling point of this newly opened cafe-restaurant in the cuisine-happy neighbourhood of Indranagar, Bangalore. Add to it Archana’s artistic background and her plans to add few artistic touches to the cafe through designs, an artistic corner and events it does makes us sit, notice and dine at the place.

Nested in a corner building on a bylane of the popular CMH road, Indiranagar the bright yellow walls of the restaurant is something that stands out in the neighbourhood and invites your gaze. Walking into the restaurant we met Dhiraj Shetty, co-founder of the restaurant. Unfortunately Archana was travelling so we missed her around but Dhiraja did kept us engaged in conversation (and you know we love good conversations and good meal!).

The ground floor of the restaurant has a small and a simple dining area with incomplete hand painintings adoring portions of the wall, waiting for Archana to give the finishing touches. The highlight of the restaurant and one  that most would prefer would be the terrace dining on the first floor. Well spaced out and naturally lit gives a relaxed ambience and the simple wooden furnitures still gives a comfortable seating. I instantly liked the openness of the area and the setup. The terracotta roofing is high and being a corner building opens up the area and thankfully being in the bylane keeps the outside distractions to the minimum.  Dhiraj mentioned that one of the idea behind the restaurant is to give an non-intrusive ambience where the diners can relax and indulge on a long conversations alongside their food.

For al those die-hard non-vegetarians out there please note Imli serves only  pure vegetarian North Indian cuisine but you do have a large menu, different sharbats and variety of chai and coffees to keep you engaged.

Browsing the fairly populated menu was itself interesting. Din Bhar Khana Peena , Chaat – Vaat, Sookhi Sabzion Ki Bahaar, Rasedar Sabzion Ki Bahaar, Dalein , Set Pet Puja, Chawal Toh Chalega, Muh Meetha Karlen, Ek Thanda Ho Jaaye, Taazi Garam Chai Coffee. Now that sounds tempting isn’t it?  And you do have a long list under each of these. A simple menu though sounding straight from a home kitchen. The choice of the dishes are picked from various parts of North India and not anything ‘experiemental’ or ‘fancy’ but reminding you of various ghar ka khanna you would have tasted at your home, relatives or friend’s home.  For those who are hard-pressed to choose from the long list and would like to keep it simple, you can opt for ‘Set Pet Puja’ combos that are available in various combinations and priced at Rs. 200.

Now coming to the food itself, how would a caring, health conscious mother like to feed her child? Non-greasy , healthy yet with dash of enough ghee/oil wherever required isn’t it? Well its exactly what you get here at Imli and I loved the food served. Healthy bhi and tasty bhi!

From simple Besan Ka Cheela served with aam ka morabba, my favourite Mathri aur Ghar Ka Achaar (that reminds me the ones made by my mother-in-law!) to Poori aur Aalu Ki Sabzi  and various khichdis and the Pakodeys. I would recommend you to try their assorted Pakodey that is crispy, non-oily and perfect for bangalore weather! Perfect for engaging on a long conversation and a cup of piping hot chai  that comes in a choice of tulsi, pudina, adhrak etc both in Ghar jaisi types and kaali chai‘s . For coffee drinkers, you do have filter coffee and coffee by Lavazza choices. Do try their Karela Ka Chakkar one of my pick out of the menus.

We started our food though with imli ka panna and khus ka sharbat. Mild flavoured, soothing and enticing. The drinks are priced from Rs. 60 and chai and coffee at Rs.50. A good deal for a relaxed conversation and the ambience considering the restaurant also doubles as a cafe for you to spend time with your friends or meditate over your laptop without being disturbed. Unlike the other restaurants being a cafe, Imli is opened all day from morning 10 a.m to night 11 p.m

Dhiraj mentioned Imli is also looking at catering to small and medium sized companies and also arrange birthday and small events with some personal touch. Seems like they recently hosted a birthday party and arranged for a puppetry show to entertain the kids.

Now you can drool over some of the pictures I shot and the food I relished…

Imli ka panna and khus ka Sharbat …

And the irresistable Pakodey! Crisp and yummy!

Dishes spread out … begining with Karela Ka Chakkar and Pindi Choley…

Mouthwatering?

Jeera rice and Amritsari Da. Tasted just the way a mom would have cooked… (that is if she is good at cooking! I know many mom’s these days who would just be happy ordering their maids or burning the utensils or just feed the packaged food to their kids! *sighs*)

Pickles are another highlight of Imli. I was told by Dhiraj all the choice of pickles you get here at the restaurant are made at Archana’s home kitchen. You should taste it to believe why I drooled over them!

Muh Meetha Karlen? Though I am not much of a sweet tooth, I did loved the Aate ki barfi while my friend drooled over the rest.

Imli

204, 5th Main Road, 7th Cross Road, 1st Stage, Indiranagar

Call: 40949464

Price: Rs500-600 (Meal for two)

Timings: 10 a.m to night 11 p.m
(cards accepted. parking available)

Check Imli’s menu > here

Location map:

Its video time again and this time it is based on Samsung Galaxy Tab 2. I received the review device of Samsung Galaxy Tab 2 7″ tablet which also happens to be the first Ice Cream Sandwich Android Tablet to be shipped right out of the box by Samsung. A sleek, compact and lightweight tablet that also has a voice dial feature along with video calling. I would come up with the complete review of the device very soon, meanwhile enjoy the video I made.

Once upon a time human beings lived offline, then networking came along and nobody lived happily thereafter…

When the very first chapter begins with these lines, you can gauge the leanings of the author. Of course the title says it all ‘The Asocial Networking’ , so there is almost no  ‘likes’ buttons here for social networking – just a musings on the real and online worlds that almost screams to ‘Shift+Delete’ all kinds of online social networking to save the humanity and re-establish the glorious paradise that we lost. Along the crusade, to his credit Dhiraj does manage to bring wry humour in plenty throughout the 320 pages of this  ‘in-depth’ treatise on the effects and after-effects of Facebook inspite of it being a serious musings or better can be summed up as the author’s rantings.

If someone jokingly mentions Mark Zuckerberg that the book ‘The Asocial Networking’ might be a main cause of all the investor worries and the downfall of Facebook’s shares, he might actually believe if he reads it. Such is the trident assault on Facebook that it made me think Dhiraj Kumar, the author of the book could have very well named the book ‘The Faceless Book’ or something like that to make his musings more profoundly made clear.  One of the biggest asocial points of the musings is making Facebook a satanic incarnation that is intoxicating the entire civilization and threatening the very mankind and by analysing like a tarot reader the personality of the facebook users in an alarmingly absurd way in most parts. Making sweeping generalizations of user behaviours and making microscopic analysis of people’s online behaviour over 150 chapters without any scientific basis or proper studies but purely based on his lopsided pre-conceived notion does not make for any rational casestudy. Having said it, the absurdities and logical fallacies also makes at times for sly humour. Never mind that Social Networking is not be all, end all with Facebook and there is a whole gamut of Social Networking sites and platforms and even niche networking sites, conveniently forget that there is a pros and cons in all the developments in human history, forget that social engagement has always been a dynamic and evolving trend – Dhiraj’s musings is cynical, blatantly anti-social networking (read: facebook). To top it all, he  seriously analysis the personality traits of the Facebook users based on their posts, frequency of updates, likes, comments, photos and what not you and me do on my wall, your wall and everyone’s wall.  Let me just warn you, don’t take the musings seriously and do a self-analysis – it might seriously be self-damaging if you are a weakling.

As a closing status update ‘The Asocial Networking’ is an unintentionally funny and amusing rant which does not hide its one-sided umpiring.  And all those who lost some dollors in Facebook IPO, you can send a copy of this book to Mark just to irritate him a bit!