Love is mundane

Love is mundane
Its no art
There are no strokes of brushes
No sense of a lovely, spectacular frame
No heart wrenching beautiful words
No great poet's verses
There is no insane imagination
There are no gypsies, there are no dwarfs
No feeling of daze, no feeling of floating
No holy smoke out of a fake saint's mouth
Smiles are extended through lipsticks
Tears through rain water
There is no freedom
There are no dreams

It is life at its root level
Low, low, really low
You had reached so high
I saw you there
What made you come back?
Did I hear you say love!
Oh!
Sad!
Told you
Loneliness is the most common excuse
Oh, so love made you less lonely.
Or more?
Go figure...

Food Addas

One of the big advantages and luxuries of coming to Mumbai is my tryst with Mumbai eating addas of all sizes and luxuries. I have divided my experience broadly into three parts and have included the places that my memory cooperated in remembering!

My first phase in Mumbai after I arrived and survived with a very meagre and limited pocket money from my loving dad was the Anna’s mess/ Xavier’s canteen/ Krishna Vihar/ Food Inn/ Jaffer Bhai/ Boiled egg wala/ Sasanian/ Five Spice/ Kayani/Mama Mia/ Monginis phase/Leopold/Mondegar.

Highly recommended: Anna’s mess and Xavier’s canteen (simple and sweet and super easy on pocket). Me and my ex-roomie were obsessed with Food Inn in Colaba. We would dig on Chicken Manchurian and egg fried rice EVERY Sunday and then walk back home to Marine Lines and doze off! Five Spice has maintained its charms for me even till date. Yum Chinese food. Leos and Mondys: I dont even need to spell out the reasons!

Avoidable: Sasanian, Krishna Vihar

The second phase was when I had just stepped out from Xavier’s comfortable existence to the big bad world of work. This was the Picaddily/ Candies/ Stadium/Indian Express canteen/ Janta/Ambience/Delhi Darbar/Sports Bar/Spaghetti Kitchen/Bombay Blues phase

Highly recommended: Candies (Had my first date in Mumbai there) and its obviously one of the coolest places ever. Janta and Ambience have decent food if u wana accompany it with binge drinking. It wouldn’t taste so nice sans the alcohol. And ofcourse, Delhi Darbar for some good old nostalgic Punjabi food. Delicious!

Avoidable: Indian Express canteen, Stadium

The third phase was more about discovering and sometimes, splurging. Britannia Café/ Mainland China/ Madras Café/ Mia Cucina/ Crepe Station/ Blue Frog/ Hard Rock Café/Café Goa/ Swati Snacks/Mini Punjab phase.

Highly recommended: Most of them actually. Britannia Café for some super authentic Parsi food, Madras Café for binging on sasta, tikau and super tasty south India VEG food, Swati Snacks for some fun gujju veg food..Mia Cucina for food+wine_ambience (my current fav place), Hard Rock for lunches. Blue Frog (when u really have loadza money) and Crepe Station for a fun-filled lazy Sunday brunch. Mainland China for a fancier and more bland version of Five Spice!

Avoidable: Mini Punjab (I personally don’t like their super oily food. But go check it for yourself)

Road,Movie

The time has come. When random is fun. When fun is random. When it’s about letting your passions flow the way they want to. When you just know the best part about life is open-endedness. I wont say that Road, Movie is one of the most experimental movies ever but it is definitely one of the purest form of genuine creativity. It's simply lovely and enchanting.

Dev D Abhay Deol wants to get the hell out of the messy oil family business. He takes a friend’s truck which is to be delivered to Samudrabad…what a beautiful name for Mumbai…The road to Samudrabad is this vast expanse of desert and varied people and love and dacoits and water scarcity and water and gypsy woman and life and most importantly cinema which is ironically the junk inside the truck. There are nights of ganja, rum and pure magical classic cinema. Truly enthralling. There is a little bit of everything: Cinema, water problem and oil that can make you look young, really young...

For me, the last scene takes away the cake when Dev D Deol gets the truck into the sea and sits and stares and then eventually zooms in a motorbike. Sheer brilliance. Defies cliches. I like.

And ofcourse, thanks to the firang woman for reviving one of the most outstanding classics 'Sar jo tera chakraya'.

Tanishtha Chatterji was quite cool as the gypsy woman and the child actor is the next great find after the child actor in Ishqiya...Sorry, I am too lazy to Google the names. Satish Kaushik's performance is ok, breezy.

Good cinematography and great background music.

Mediocre

There is something about me that makes me mediocre
Benchmarks are hazy and that's a virtue
Living through the great
Laughing through the mundane
Escaping through the ubiquitous air
Trapped in a frothy bubble
I asked you if I am mediocre
You agreed to be my muse
And now begins a quest to rise above it
The pigeons rested at the two tier pillar
Symmetrical and linear
I scared them away
That was a good start
The night ended with a dream to rise
Die and then live again next day
I am happy that you are always there
Inspire me, take me closest to where you are
This mediocre life exudes predictability
I know you hate it
And I hate it too
Let me give it another try
Let me dance through the shadow
Let me dream through my senses
Let me breathe it and swallow it deep inside
This one is especially for you
Inspiration to put the stars back into the night
Inspiration to put the moon back into the sea
Inspiration to dedicate words to my muse
Thanks
Love.

karthik calling karthik

There are some people who rediscover themselves at every step and some who make people rediscover them. Err…that was a rather twisted sentence to describe what I wanted to say about one of my favorite directors and now one of the favorite actors-Farhan Akhtar.

First few lines about the movie. Firstly, I don’t know if the concept is taken from a Hollywood flick and secondly even if it is, it simply doesn’t matter. Even if this movie was a scene to scene copy of a movie, I would have given it equal quantity and quality words of appreciation. It is a brilliantly directed semi-thriller and suspense flick. The direction is almost flawless. Not even a single scene is wasted. Seamless editing. Great cinematography. My favorite scene (in terms of the camera work et al) is the last scene where Farhan collapses on the floor…Love the red flickering light and the composition.

In terms of performances, do I need to say that Farhan has outdone himself? He sort of defines brilliance through the enactment of an extremely difficult and challenging character. He switches from a loser to a charmer and vice-versa with an amazing sense of fluidity. I wouldn’t go much into his character because that could give away a little bit of the plot. Love the part when he flirts with Deepika…Soooo cute…hehe..

Nothing much to say about Deepika Padukone (who is becoming an archetypal urban working woman by repeatedly portraying the same sort of character), Ram Kapoor and Shefali Shah. All average-decent performances and all obviously overshadowed by Farhan.

Please go catch the movie asap…Just not worth missing!