What an Album!

Ever since Himesh started singing full time, I started dreading a new album release. In a way I am actually delighted he's started acting. I can live with a 'Mashaaa allaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaan' once in 8 months.

The good thing is that for all those Himesh, Anu Malik and other mere mortals, we have one Rahman.

I do not usually write full posts about music albums. Not for bollywood film music at least. 

But in the last few days, I have gotten so absorbed by this gem of an album, by one gem of a musician, that I had to write about it.

I have been listening to 'Delhi 6' since last weekend and I've got to say this is some of the best music I've heard in years. It is interesting how lyricists seem to up their game for a Rahman album. Prasoon Joshi is emerging as a class act of late, and here he creates some amazingly meaningful yet non-cliched poetry.

And there's Rahman. He weaves magic around those words, transcending genres effortlessly in the process. I dare you to show me another contemporary album with such variety, and quality.

I'm actually compelled to put a listing. So here goes:

Masakali: Oh, the song you'll fall in love with. Fresh, Unusual and Earthy. Mohit Chauhan sings it with flair and energy. The lyrics compare Sonam Kapoor to a carefree pigeon. You can't help being smitten by it.

Arziyan: While I'm not the right guy to analyze the subtleties of a genre like this, I can still recognize a good composition. The words are honest and so are the singers.

Dilli 6: The title track is one giddy mix of guitar, funk, rap and attitude. The rhythm is so infectious, you can't help but keep tapping your foot, which is okay unless you're foot is on the brake of your car, which may result in you get honked for braking pointlessly. (This was totally hypothetical, by the way.)

Rehna Tu: Beautiful Beautiful song. Its funny how Rahman ends up singing the best songs in all his albums. The beat is just perfect, lyrics eternally romantic, reminding you of your loved one every time you play it. My guess is this song is played as background to some intimate scenes between the lead pair, which could be an interesting watch. I can easily see this one being a hot favorite at Valentine's day dedications.

Dil Gira Dafatan: Best song of the album for me. It has got this mysterious otherworldy feel to it. Every time I play it, I feel transported to another universe where everything moves in slow motion. At the heart of it, I think it is a song about one way love. There's something hauntingly poetic about one way love; a sensation that every guy or girl has felt at least once in a lifetime. The words are just dreamy. And the vocals. God, I wonder where Rahman finds all this talent. Have you heard of Ash King and Tanmayee? Well, hear them here and you'll wonder where they were all these days. I just love this song when I'm on the road. I stop caring for traffic or anything else for that matter. Did I mention that there's not a single beat of percussion in the entire track?

Genda Phool: Most interesting track. A simple folksy tune about marriage is raised to far higher levels of interestingness by adding some groovy percussion in the mix. You can't teach this stuff in music schools. It is just magic.

Bhor Bhaye: An out and out classical number. I keep telling myself that I haven't attained the levels of maturity required to enjoy Indian classical music. But I loved this one. It is intense, sometimes bordering on fusion, but you can just close your eyes and enjoy it.

Aarti: Customary spiritual ditty. Its become a standard for Rahman albums. I didn't mind it.

At the end of it, you realize Rahman is just so far ahead of anybody else in India (maybe even in the world with all the oscar noms) that it is almost laughable.

Is it not?

Okay, close your eyes and  just picture Himesh in his new Karzzz wig singing (and dancing) 'Harri Yomm Harri Yomm Harri Yooouuuuuum' for 30 seconds.

See, that did the trick.

A Realization

My eyes open. Its five past 7 in the morning. I turn to see that she's still sound asleep. I move her hair away from her eyes and gently kiss her forehead. That's how I usually wake her up.

She twitches a little, moans a little and turns away to sleep again. That's how she usually responds.

"Honey, I'll be late. Again. Wake up", I whisper.

She twitches again, half opens her eyes and pulls my shoulder towards her.

"Five more minutes", she mumbles "Pleeeez". It is too much for me to resist. And she knows it.

I lie down again for two minutes and then grumpily pull myself out of the bed.

"Honeyyyyyyyy", I let out another wake up call as I'm putting toothpaste on my brush, but hear nothing. 

After a couple of minutes, I come out to see her finally up, sitting on the bed, still under the sheets. She is stretching her arms slowly, like a bollywood heroine. With still half open eyes, she gives me a 'come hither' look. When I reach her, she pulls me next to her, pulls up the sheets on me and snuggles up next to me. 

Two more minutes of sweet gibberish follow ending with "Don't go to office today.. Pleeeeeease". It is accompanied with those sad kitten eyes for extra impact. Even though I hear it every day, I still consider it every day. 

With great difficulty, I get her out of bed and push her into the bathroom. I then proceed for my morning combo of online news and Sportscenter. Ten minutes pass. I feel her arms wrap around me from behind the couch and she plants a big kiss on my cheek. Before I even turn around, she's off to the kitchen. Now that she's fully awake, she's realized that its getting late for me.

"Will you drink milk?" She asks.

"No" I reply, as always.

She hands me a glass of Bournvita anyway, followed by two minutes of explanation on how milk is good for my recently healed broken arm.

"Yucckkk, there's all sort of things floating in it. I don't want it"

"That's just kene (cream). Shut up and drink it"

I take five full minutes to carefully avoid all the kenes and finish the milk.

"Gawd, what a baby!", she smacks the back of my head before taking the glass away from me.

Halfway through reading the day's Bill Simmons' column, I hear her voice, "Aren't you getting late?"

Yes, I am. I rush to the bathroom. 10 minutes later, as I am getting dressed, she walks in with breakfast. Its my favorite: Khaara Avalakki (A Poha Dish). She knows that I'm already running late, so she spoon-feeds me half the food. Finally, I'm dressed and I take the plate from her and start eating while returning to the Bill Simmons column.

"God! Can't you read that after you reach office?"

"Okay, Okay". I gobble up the last 2 spoons together, place the plate in the sink and proceed towards the glass of orange juice.

"Honeyy.."

".. I know. I'll pack your laptop"

"Don't forget my SecureID Token"

"Ayyoo gotthappa, neenu ninn SecureID (Ohh, I know, you and you're SecureID)"

I wash up and come back to the living room to see my bag packed.

"Will you come early today?"

"Yes, I'll definitely try!"

"That's what you say every day"

"No, today I will definitely be home before 5:30".

"5:30?? That's early??"

"Then what? You want me to come back at 4?

(Giggling) "Hmmm"

"I'll stay home instead, why bother."

"Yayyyyy!"

"I'll make up some bahaana to my boss and try to sneak out early, Okay na?"

"Tell your boss that you have a wife who's waiting at home all day thinking about her husband"

"Why don't you tell him that?"

"Sure. Give me your phone", and she plucks the phone away from my hand.

"You're crazy!! Give me my phone back"

"Only if you promise to come at least half an hour earlier than usual"

"Okayppa, I promise"

"Okay, take it. Now give me a ummwaa"

"Umwaaaaah"

"That's it?? I want more" (giggles).

Some more ummaas later, I wave goodbye (and some flying ummaas) and head out towards the car. As I'm warming my hands inside the car, I see her on the balcony. It is freezing cold, but she's there, just like every other day, waving goodbye and watching me till I'm out of sight.

While driving, I keep smiling at the thought of her trying to call my boss & getting him to send me home early and suddenly, I realize that I forgot to tell her how great the Avalakki was.

I feel that a phone call isn't good enough and decide to turn back home...

"kikikikik... kikikikik.... kikikikik .... kikikikik ... kikikikik" 

My eyes open. 

Its 7:15.

I turn, hoping that she's there, but I am alone.

Slumdog Millionaire

I watched Slumdog Millionaire this weekend and I have to say I'm a little confused about how I feel about the film.

First of all, unless you're from another planet, it is impossible to walk into the cinema hall to watch this film without any expectations. It has been lauded with superlatives by critics across the globe and it has won 4 major awards at the Golden Globes this year. It is expected to repeat that performance at the Oscars next month.

With all these expectations, I walked in hoping to be 'wow'ed, I mean absolutely 'holy-smoke-that-was amazing' wowed. But to be honest, I was only just impressed.

Firstly, being an Indian, I felt the urge to dissect the film a lot more than others. There were plenty of moments in the film when I went "whoa! that was a little exaggerated". Would I have done the same if the same film was based in, lets say 'Mexico'? Probably Not.

Secondly, its the hype. This is a very good film, no doubt about it. But the hype surrounding it makes it look like a path-breaking must-see film, which it is not. It is a 100% filmi film, with all the right masala in it. The only difference is the way it is served.

Danny Boyle is one crafty filmmaker. He takes a good story (Vikas Swarup's Q&A) based in an exotic foreign land (Mumbai Slums), adds the right dose of shocking images, gets a great soundtrack by Rahman and infuses some symbolism at the right places, and voila!.. you have a potential Oscar winner.

Oscars and the like always seem a little weird for me. A little overrated, perhaps. Why should one lobby furiously for his film to win this award? Doesn't that kinda defeat the purpose of the best film winning? I've never really understood the intricacies involved there. But I digress.

Coming back to the film, there are bits which are clearly stretched from reality for the sake of the film's narrative. I am pretty sure nobody would ever jump into a pile of sh*t just to get AB's autograph. Would News Channels be sitting idle if they found out that the game show contestant who's become a national phenomenon has been arrested without a shred of evidence? Which TV channel would allow its game show host to treat a participant in the same insulting way Anil Kapoor treats Dev Patel?

Which brings me to the actors. I was actually disappointed with Anil Kapoor. I like his range as an actor and the fact that he's willing to take on unconventional roles. But he overdoes it here. Also, I felt that the Host-Participant chemistry could have been given a little more depth and intrigue.

On the other hand, the 2 young leads Dev Patel and Freida Pinto have acted very well indeed.

Dev Patel shows great restraint & control in some difficult scenes. Earnestness, that's what his performance projects. Freida Pinto is disarmingly beautiful. She has a very expressive face, especially those eyes. And a smile which matches Madhuri Dixit's in wattage.

Irrfan Khan is great as usual. Mahesh Manjrekar is his usual annoying self. The real stars of the film are the kids who play the younger versions of the 3 protagonists. Their performances are ashtonishingly real and it is they who give the film the much needed emotional connection with the audience.

Great cinematography and a superb background score elevate the film to something more than just good.

(I thought the song 'n dance at the end was a cute touch too!)

At the end of the day, it is a really good work of fiction, aimed and marketed perfectly to its target audience.

A chaiwalla who doesn't know about the Indian Flag goes on to win 2 Crores after answering all of 15 increasingly difficult questions based on just his life experiences, which were mostly horrific.

Sounds intriguing? You bet. But does it sound plausible? Hmmm.. not so much.

(P.S. : I apologize to everyone who checked my blog in these last 3 weeks only to be disappointed with no new posts. Yes, to all 3 of you :))

(P.S.2: I've gotten hooked to Masakali song from Dilli 6. God bless Rahman!)

A Really Bad Day at Office.

I'm sitting at my desk staring at the computer screen. No work to do. No one from our office gang is in today. I've come to office to finish some paperwork with Finance which, as expected will only happen after 5 in the evening. There is not a single person in the adjoining 5 cubicles. Where the hell is everybody dammit? What am I doing here??

Winamp is running on shuffle mode since morning. I've even read all the user comments on rediff.

Bangladesh were giving me something to look forward to, but even they folded for 410 odd.

Okay, I shall drown my boredom in some random musings.

• Saw Ghajini on friday. Good masala movie, although I felt that there wasn't enough of the intriguing short-term-memory-loss concept even though that was publicized as the USP of the film. I watched it in Urvashi theater with 2000 other people. The ambience was terrific. Aamir khan can take a bow for his versatility. Asin is like a breath of fresh air. Jiah khan has super potential, methinks.
• Went to Mysore over the weekend. Me & the missus visited chamundi hills & the temple. Huuge crowd. Chaos. Screwed a couple of smartasses trying to jump the ticket queue. Sadistic pleasure :). One funny incident though: A marwari guy walked toward the small hanuman idol inside the temple, pointed toward the idol and asked the poojari "yeh kaun hain"? The poojari looked at him dumbfounded for 3 seconds, then just lost it totally and chased him out of the temple while yelling obscenities!!
• Visited a friend and her cute li'l 3 month old baby girl. She'd dressed her up in a pink frock we'd gifted her when the baby was born. So sweet. Is it just me or are girl babies a little quieter & less destructive than boy babies?
• The fact that I only have 2 more days to eat all the indian junk food is making me feel miserable.
• Whatever happened to Anuradha Paudwal, that singer with a distinctly melodious voice? I'm listening to the title song of 'Hum Aapke Dil Mein Rehte Hain' (I know), and she sounds so damn melodious. Good song that.
• My office gang is disintegrating. And its making me sad. I'm leaving for the US, one quit the company, one moved to a different department and a different office.. all this at once. Dunno if life will be the same again once I return.

Okay, enough rambling. Its 3:30. Time to harass the finance guys once more.

Spiritual Conquest, Karnatic Style: Part 2

Dharmasthala was hot. Sweltering hot actually, which didn't make sense because it was December. Walking around barefoot didn't help either.

We headed straight to the temple and stood in the queue for 'darshana'. And thus began the most traumatic 2 hours of my life. The queue moved slower than traffic on Bannerghatta Road, but we were lucky to be surrounded by some very civilized, cultured people who kept us entertained throughout.  These people were also obviously high on personal hygiene. And their kids were a charm. Honest. Highlight of my trip: When one of those kids vomited in the middle of the queue.

The line moved through narrow metal-grilled chambers which made me feel like I was in prison waiting for my hindalium plate of food. After about 2 hours, we reached a point in the queue where there was a security guard who was letting in people in batches of  about 100. "At last", I thought "Here I come Manjunathaaa!". But to my horror, I realized that this was not an entrance to the temple, but to another long crowded prison-chamber which led into another chamber.

And that's when I lost it. I asked the security guard to open the gate and stormed out of the queue after giving my wife a 'don't even think about it' look. (She gave me a "Its Okay, we'll talk later" look which was heartening). I refreshed myself with a couple of cold lemonades, went back to the van and cooled my heels waiting for everyone to come back.

After about an hour or so, I got a phone call, from my wife, and I was ordered back to the temple to join them for the free lunch.

Lunch at Dharmasthala temple is a once-in-a-lifetime experience. 

The whole thing gets over in less than 6 minutes. Whether you like it or not, whether you finish eating or not. Taste was okay, but it isn't a lot of fun when your trousers eat more than you do.

Moving on, we started towards 'Kaarkada', a small town near Udupi where we had planned to spend the night at a relative's place. Watched 'Mungaaru Male' on the way, which held up surprisingly well on second viewing. (I'd watched it at PVR last year, the only Kannada movie I have watched at a theater in the last 2 years. Just thought you'd like to know.) I realized that I can actually watch those songs any number of times without getting bored. 

After a great dinner, I slept really well that night.

Next morning, we took an early morning walk around the open fields and the countryside. It was charming and gave me some really nice photo-ops.

After breakfast, which included homemade 'Tatte Idly' and Kesari Bhath, we headed out to see the temples at Saligrama and Anegudde. These 2 were by far the best & most peaceful of the lot. I actually enjoyed those visits.

(Saligrama Temple Premises)

On the way back from Anegudde, we stopped at a road side shop who is famous for making superb 'Mandakki Churmuri'. It is similar to 'Churmuri', but is made from a different type of rice flake. And they use Coconut Oil. All the ingredients come together like heaven and this is what you get.

Believe me, it tastes better than it looks!

So, after spending an astonishing 500 Rupees at that shop, we boarded the van for the jouney back home. We decided to take the Shimoga route thinking that it would be better for our stomachs, backs, etc. Bad Idea. It added an extra 2 hours to the journey.

The silver lining though was that we got to pass through 'Agumbe Ghats' which offered some fabulous views like this:

We stopped at Shimoga for Lunch (although eating at 5 PM is not necessarily called 'Lunch'). We went into a restaurant near the bus stand and waited for what seemed like an eternity before a waiter decided to stop by and place glasses of water in front of us. He disappeared quickly and we did not see him again. Losing patience, we asked the guy at the counter where the hell were all the waiters. He said "Neeru togond barakke hogavre" (Waiters have gone to fetch water).

With brains not working full time because of hunger, we obviously did not understand his response. We did not care either.

We told him that we've been waiting from over 20 mins and we need some service urgently.

For that, he pointed us to a notice signboard near his counter which read (and I kid you not):

"Urgent Service Not Provided". 

(I tried to take a photograph of that signboard, but the guy hid it away!)

In the meantime, my wife, who had gone to see if the bathrooms were usable, came back running, looking like she had just seen Himesh Reshammiya without his wig.

Taking cue, we quickly exited the restaurant and got onto the bus, food be damned. After a couple of hours, we stopped at Tarikere and ate Masale Doses which tasted surprisingly good.

The rest of the journey was spent watching 'Rock On', another movie which I did not get bored watching the second time. I think it has one of the most uplifting and well-crafted climaxes in recent memory.

So there I was, at the end of the trip, uplifted and jovial. I was thinking about the amount of brownie points I had scored by going on this trip and calculating if that would be enough to last another 2 years, when my wife asked me "Great trip alwa? We should do this again sometime, right?"

I nodded with a smile. But there was a part of me that was genuinely nodding & smiling.

I guess Indians are indeed strange.

Spiritual Conquest, Karnatic Style: Part 1

India is a unique country. Strange, but unique.

One one hand, young boys, as soon as they graduate to the exciting world of high-school, are made to sit so far away from girls in the classroom, you can't even make out if they've started wearing their elder sisters' perfumes yet. As much as a sideward glance towards those desks attract a 'yaako poli?' from lady teachers.

And on the other hand, at some of the the holiest of holy places, men are ordered to get half naked and encouraged to pile up in a queue with women where anything goes as long as you are chanting the holy lord's name.

Yes, I finally took the customary family trip to the famous temples in Karnataka and the thought above occurred to me when I was standing in a queue at 'Dharmasthala' wondering if the banian-clad gentleman behind me will ever ask his super-hygenic kids to stop bumping into my posterior every time the queue slowed down.

I'd avoided this trip for 2 solid years, but this time my wife pulled out all the stops ranging from threats of physical violence to the ever-reliable senti looks. And she used the 'brahmastra' in the end - 'If we go to the US again, we won't be able to do this for a long time' - for which I had no response. (See how I casually slipped in the fact that I'm going to the US again. Subtlety at its best I say)

My wife, for all her 21st-century-woman-of-style-and-substance image, is a pukka conservative brahmin girl at heart. So when I broke my arm into 2 pieces in February, she had promptly prayed to god and promised a visit from both of us to 'Anegudde Ganesha' in case I healed up well. (Known as 'harake' in Kannada)

Healed up I did, albeit with the help of a titanium rod to hold the bones together. So now I'm obligated to go wherever she decides to take me. In full enthu, she chalked up a plan with her parents, siblings and cousins which would make maximum use of our time. In short, it meant at least 5 temples in 5 different cities in little over 2 days. 

You see, I am a brahmin guy in my 20s living in Bangalore, occasionally touring abroad. Which means:

a) I wear my 'janwaara' for strictly show & tell, i.e. showing elders when they ask me where it is and telling new acquaintances who I know are brahmins that I'm also one & not a shabby-joe even though I may appear like one.

b) My frequency of doing 'sandhyavandane' is at most once a year. (Mostly on 'Upakarma' day). And the frequency of doing 'parishanchane' before lunch depends on the number of weddings I attend where I'm seated next to/opposite of elderly people.

c) The only times I visit the Pooja Room in my house on non-festival days are when my wife or my mother ask my opinion on some new rangoli/light decoration they've tried.

d) I'm the one who controls the remote for the Music System during 'Ganesh Chaturti' pooja. (controls = fast forwards).

So, you can imagine my excitement as the day of the trip finally arrived. We had 12 people, including 2 kids packed in a minivan which seated exactly 12. Luggage was dumped behind and all around the last row. I was seated at, you guessed it, the last row. 

Once inside the van, we realised that it had a working TV & DVD player. Ahh.. Hope. 

We got 3 new hindi DVDs (A Wednesday, Dasvidaniya and Oye Lucky, Lucky Oye!) for company and started off towards the western ghats to our first destination: Kukke Subramanya.

Within the first 5 hours, we had finished off A Wednesday (which was really good) and Dasvidaniya (which was decent but a little too drawn out). 

And after a quick dinner break (read chitranna & mosranna made by MIL, which was superb by the way), all the great minds in the van decided to start the third movie as well. I know, we are all about the future. No one actually watched Oye Lucky! fully, but everyone kept saying 'bad movie'. I myself dozed out a few times and couldn't watch it fully. 

We finally reached the place by midnight and entered a lodge where we'd booked rooms. We were greeted by this:

"Before 10 barbeku saar", said the guy at the counter. After much haggling, he showed mercy and granted us two rooms on separate floors. "All men in one room and women in the other" announced my MIL. We followed. By 1 AM we had settled in our rooms.

I couldn't sleep at all. Must've been all those Hindi movies I watched at a stretch.

So I did the logical thing and ended up watching 'Main Hoon Na' on TV till about 2:30 in the morning. 

Next morning, I woke up last and delayed everyone else which was highly appreciated by my wife. My requests for 'tiffin' were duly ignored and we headed to the temple.

(On the top left corner, you can catch a glimpse of Kumara Parvata, one of the tallest peaks in the region and a popular trekking attraction)

The temple was nice, but the devotees, not so much. It was not like there were 500 people crammed inside, but the 50 that were there created enough chaos for me to almost say 'screw it' and leave. But I stayed and went through the motions. Inside the temple, all men are required to remove their shirts and vests. So you get to see some memorable sights. 

We were standing in a queue about to enter the main temple and suddenly the line which was moving at a leisurely pace started to look like an impromptu Sourav Ganguly press conference. For no apparent reason, people started pushing and shoving one another. I guess the lord is a little biased towards people who lean over the person in front of them to take a peek at him before entering the temple. Most of my time in this temple was spent covering my wife with my arms and my body the same way one protects his girlfriend on new year's night at Brigade Road.

After an hour of struggle around the different sections of the temple, we were finally out.

A quick breakfast and we were off to Dharmasthala, our second destination, but not before we picked up 2 more DVDs - Mungaaru Male and Rock On! for further entertainment purposes.

I clicked this on the way:

Not bad, eh. 

More to come in the next part, including an episode I'd like to call "My escape from Dharmasthala".

(to be continued...)

Counter Shots at Lavanya Bar

For those of you who are unfamiliar with this exotic concept (you unlucky souls) - please, allow me to explain:

Counter Shot (pronounced "counter shaat") is a popular socializing technique used by adult men across the length and breadth of this great country of ours. 

In the simplest form of this technique, one parks his vehicle in front of the No Parking signboard outside the wine shop on his way home from work, enters the shop, asks for a '60' of Rum/Whiskey, mixes it with water (and in some rare cases, soda), drinks it in one or maximum two gulps, hands over the money to the shopkeeper, returns to the vehicle, spits on the footpath after a long gargle, and gets on his way home.

Sounds Dull? Cheap?

Heh! You could not be more wrong, my friend.

I was like you, pretending to be sophisticated, pretending to despise these places. But somewhere inside my shirt, my heart wanted to give them a 'shot'. So I went to two of the more alcohol appreciating buddies of mine at work and asked them to help me experience this bliss I'd heard so much about. They gladly obliged. (Their exact words were "Wokay maams, tell us when").

After referring to the latest 'panchaanga' to figure out when the raahu kaala ends, we decided that yesterday evening was the most auspicious time. The Place? Hmm.. this was tricky, since we'd all seen our share of dingy spots while commuting, but in the end the choice was unanimous. It was 'Lavanya Bar and Restaurant' in Audugodi.

Reasons:

a) This is one place we'd see every other day while coming to or going from office, and the fascination for it was just too much.

b) It was an enigmatic place. For the untrained eye it looked too classy to be a Counter Shot place. On close observation though, one could see the 'fast food' counter outside the bar sold 'chikan manchuri' whose spelling kinda gave away its classiness.

c) Look at the Name man!!

So, with some potato chips to appetize ourselves, we boarded an Auto and started our journey, during which my buddies gave me some valuable tips I'd never heard before, such as:

a) Never take a girl along for Counter Shots.

b) Don't drink it all in one gulp. ('you dont have that capacity yet magaa')

c) 'Let us order for you this time. There are a lot of fakes in circulation. You'll get conned.'

We finally reached the place. Before entering, we took one look at each other: Formal Shirt & Pant - Check, Formal Shoes - Check, Laptop Backpacks - Check, and finally, Company ID Card - Check.

Yes, we were all set indeed.

We entered the shop, struggled through the elite crowd to reach the counter and asked for the nostalgic favorite of many - 'Old Monk'. Much to our dissappointment, he said 'we dont stock Old Monk sir'. So we went for plan B - Smirnoff. Nobody looked up from their drink, people were just going about their business. Its not like properly dressed folks never come to places like this. Most of the IT hotshots buy their liquor in these shops and then drink at their classy parties or at their homes.

It was when we said 'parcel alla, ille guru' (to drink here only, not for parcel) that people suddenly looked up, starting from the guy behind the counter, who had a half-stunned expression on his face for about 5 seconds. We took the drinks, stood by the counter and started drinking.. slowly.

In about 5 minutes, we realised that this place is a little too classy than we imagined. There were tables around where he served omelets and we heard some guy speaking English inside the shop. (English??)

Our fears were vindicated when we asked for 'touchings'. (which is a piece of pickle kept on a small coaster for you to lick with your fingers in between your sips. And by the way, the licks are not exclusive to you alone). The guy said they don't keep touchings, but he'll give 'mixture' for 2 rupees. We took them anyway.

We mustered up the courage to order an omelet from the kitchen which looked like it was last cleaned for diwali.  It was surprisingly good, although we suspected the oil used might be from 'Kannada Rajyotsava' days.

We tried to strike some interesting conversations with a couple of strangers, but they just minded their business. We asked the waiter (read: underage kid) to turn on the music, but he said they turn it on only for 'special ocassions'.

After 20 minutes, we gave up and walked out. We weren't really drunk. Not even properly buzzed to be honest. Just to keep the evening's spirit going, we smoked a 'King' outside for 5 minutes while we bitched about office politics.

Thus ended an interesting but uneventful evening at Lavanya Bar. By the end of it, we vowed to make the next one a more memorable affair. We've selected 'Famous Bar' near Woody's Jayanagar for it.

And when its over, you can be rest assured that you'll hear about it.

I know you're trembling with anticipation, dear reader. 

Patience!

We've Won! We've Won!!

What a match! What a win!!

Sachin, I bow to thee. I shall go ahead and eat my words now.

Take a bow Yuvi and Gambhir, nerves of steel you guys have.

But hats off to Virendar Sehwag. The man who set it all up. Incredible guy! One man destruction army. No team will ever declare with confidence against India!

My day is made! :)

(Picture courtesy: Getty Images)