Bangalore, Coffee, Restaurant biz and Everything else

2006-06-19T00:19:00.000+04:00

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Technorati Tags : Bangalore, Coffee, Restaurant, Biz, and, everything, else, Word, Press

Hyd Airport

2006-06-16T21:59:00.000+04:00

Technorati Tags : Hyderabad+International+Airport

Tandoor

2006-06-13T21:09:00.000+04:00

Fixed the tandoor and the rear access door yesterday. I didn't carry my cam yesterday to the site and hence have no pix to post - which is a shame actually. Many people would be curious on how it is done... well I shall list the sequence on how to fix a tandoor here shortly. I did take a few pix of the tandoor this morning which is posted below.

As for the other civil works we have begun fixing the wall tiles and the plumbing work has also commenced in the kitchen. The interiors for the restaurant also started today. Have also confirmed the hiring of the Genset with Prasad and signed the agreement to this effect today, which should be erected in the next 10 days hopefully. The genset for us has been the best deal so far...yeah, well we have had a few great deals done...but the genset tops them all.

Tandoor:   It was Wednesday 31 May that we, The chef and I went to pick the tandoor... Potters town as it is called is located a little distance from cantonment station and Mosque road. You will find many potters displaying their wares here.

We needed two pots for our restaurant and had decided on a large girth and a medium sized one. We had visited potters town on instruction form a colleague / friend of mine who works at the Windsor Manor. Spotted a nondescript house on the large alley showcasing a whole lot of wares...Pots of all shapes and sizes. We did a look about at the shops in the area to have a feel of what they had their tandoor pots priced at. Most shops had the clay ovens priced in the range from Rs 900 - 1500 per pot depending on the size.

We then moved to the shop we had the address for and our eyes fell on some very well displayed pots... we wanted 2 pots of size 2' 5" in girth and another for 2'. The color and the shape were of particular importance and we found the ones we were looking for. Those that we picked were burnt to a nice reddish brown tint and it didn't have and chipped ends or corners.

Negotiated with the owners for a flat fee to transport and install the same at site. Initially we had planned to pick up an extra tandoor just in case one of them gets damaged in transit. By negotiating for a total installation package we saved ourselves the burden of transporting the pots ourselves and then finding someone to install the same.

Tandoor installation requires a level of expertise and the contents used to pack the same while building the oven depends on the clay used to make the pots and the demand / usage.

Our dimensions are
                          Length - 70 "
                          Breadth - 36"
                          Height   - 37"

Procedure for fixing

Its a brick and mortar job. Each standard sized mud brick is of the size 3" X 4" X 9".

Steps.

Lay the base 36" X 70" with brick and cement
Pack the base with cement to form a stable platform with uniform sized bricks.
Raise the base platform to 2 brick level height.
Rough plaster the entire area
Carefully place the tandoor pots on top o the platform
Leave a gap of at least 8" ( two brick width from the side) while placing the pot.
Ensure that there is a slight forward tilt to the oven. This i for ease of operation while baking breads
The backs of the pots may be raised using wall tiles or other broken bricks. Make sure you give only a slight tilt to the front.
The side walls with one brick width are raise uniformly on all the four sides
The space this formed between the tandoor pot and the wall should be packed with packing materials
There would be very little space in the front of the tandoor. this is because of the slight tilt to the front. This is ok.
Corse river sand is poured into the space between and then packed lightly using a thick wooden stump or any suitable material.
Care to be taken as this can damage the tandoor is done carelessly.
On top of the sand one layer of broken glass pieces are poured
Sand is poured again and leveled followed by another layer of broken glass pieces.
Dried brown mud is then put over this followed by another layer of glass sand and mud
The top is then rough plastered leaving the mouth of the tandoor exposed.
The base on the inside of the pot, which is actually open to the ground is plastered with cement. this is to ensure that any glass pieces that may have fallen inside gets covered and plastered by cement.
The tandoor is then rough plastered on all sides
This is left for a day or two with proper curing done once or twice every day.
It is advised that this job is left to specialists to finish.

This is the rear door fixed yesterday and the partially finished tandoor

A pretty neat job I guess.

You will learn more on how to heat the tandoor initially when we do it shortly...

Technorati Tags : how+to+fix+a+tandoor

About Bangalore

2006-06-13T13:29:00.000+04:00

Here are some interesting facts about Bengaluru .... I am not sure if it is completely true. These statistics are without basis and hence debatable however it IS interesting read!!

1. Bangalore has the impeccable record of highest growth within a span of 20 years.

2. Bangalore has highest number of pubs in Asia .

3. Bangalore has highest number of cigarette smokers in India .

4. Bangalore has the highest number of software companies in India-212,followed by Hyderabad-108,Pune - 97. Hence called the silicon valley of India .

5. Bangalore has 21 engineering colleges, which is highest in the world in a given city. Bangaloreuniversity has 57 engineering colleges affiliated to it, which is highest in the world.

6. Bangalore is the only city in the world to have commercial and defence airport operating from the same strip.

7. Bangalore has highest number of public sectors and government organizations in India .

8. Bangalore university has highest number of students going abroad for higher studies taking the first place from IIT-Kanpur.

9. Bangalore has only 48% of local population (i.e.Kannadigas). Hence a true cosmopolitan with around 25% Tamilians, 14%Telugites, 10% Keralites,8% Europeans, 6% a mixture of all races. (This is a quite old figure, now local population is 30% kannadigas and others are increasing considerably)

10. Bangalore police has the reputation of being second best in India after Delhi .

11. Bangalore has the highest density of traffic in India .

12. Bangalore has the highest number of 2-wheelers in the world.

13. Bangalore is considered the fashion capital of east comparable to Paris .

14. Bangalore is rated the cleanest city in India .

15. Bangalore has produced the maximum international sportsmen in India for all sports ahead of even Mumbai & Delhi.

16. Bangalore has produced the maximum number of scientists considered for Nobel Prize nominations.

17. Bangalore has produced the highest number of professionals in USA almost 60% of the Indian population abroad is from Bangalore (except Gulf).

18. Bangalore is famous for THREE: Software Professionals, Girls and Dogs.

19. Bangalore is famous for its dog bites, an average of 12 people are bitten by stray dogs per MINUTE somewhere in Bangalore !

Work Starts on the interiors

2006-06-07T19:50:00.000+04:00

Civil work at the site began today. Work on the interiors start Monday. Traditionally as is customary work begins with the breaking of a coconut. For us it began with the breaking of a wall for the service access....:)

Spoke to Amit this morning and he had some difficulty in organizing his work force for the Interiors this week. He had informed us that it would start middle of this week. Our first delay...we are almost a week through June...every day from first of June will cost us money - 2000 bucks a day...Hmmm

Will be taking a metal fabricator to work on the fabrication of a metal door for the service access and for the Gas bank and charcoal bin. We plan to house them just below the stairway.

Spoke to P, the person who will install the Genset at our place. It was tough catching up with him. Finally got P to come to Lipton this morning and finalized proceedings. We sign off on the Genset tomorrow and I pay him the necessary advance. He has the Genset ready - a 20 KVA equipment. P says, he has to get the shell for soundproofing readied. I told him I'd pay the advance and he can get this organized. This has been agreed upon. I pay him an advance of 2 months tomorrow. Earlier last week I spoke to another gentleman from Bangalore to provide us with a Genset. He was charging us twice the amount we will be paying P. I have realised...negotiate without disclosing the location of the site for best deals....

Gunakar, my colleague from my previous job is visiting Bangalore next week.

Finalised on the tiles for the wall today. 12 x 8 white / offwhite tiles. we require ~600 sqft. Will pay an advance later tomorrow. Also took the chef and visited Pottery town on Monday last. Picked up two tandoors ( clay ovens) for the restaurant. Finalised the rate at Rs 10000/- for two tandoors. This rate is inclusive of transportation and installation at site. The chef will oversee its installation which in all probability shall happen on Wednesday next.

Placed the order for Kitchen equipments and the exhaust last week. Have to place the order for cutlery and crockery. This will happen on Friday or Saturday when John returns from Pondicherry.

We have worked on a few ideas for the logo. Sidharth, Sudhakars son, would be working on the logos for us. Find below a few of his workings...some Interesting designs...however these have not been chosen. We have decided to keep the logos simple, bold and without any confusion and yet must display an element of class...which is what we are striving to achieve.

Some Logos

1. Too stylish...very common...chocolate wrapping for valentines...no!

2.The tag line is a definite no no...

3. Although I liked the font and the structure...

4. A font similar to a Dashiell Hammet novel????

5. I liked this but the L and the F got too close for comfort

6. I liked this too...but...not just there yet Ok, people talk to me...

Technorati Tags : D A L F R Y D A Y, dalfryday

Day of days

2006-06-06T22:38:00.000+04:00

Found this interesting American calender listing called day of days on A plus forwards.

Newspapers

2006-05-31T23:03:00.000+04:00

It struck me today that I must tag all the newspapers I read on to the blog. Though I keep track of a few Indian dailies on a regular basis I am not a very regular reader of the international dailies. I have been looking at a few of them at times when looking up specific information. Then this thought that since I visit the blog quite often it would be easier to track the dailies from here instead of a longer route that I have always been using...

...and then I came across this great site while browsing...

Watching America - A compilation of news articles from the world over on America. A website that translates all news about America from the original posts into English. " translates foreign news about the U.S., to enable Americans (and all English speakers) to read what is being written about them and their country throughout the world. Much of our content is available nowhere else in English".

Technorati Tags : newspapers, watching+america

I.T debate

2006-05-31T20:39:00.000+04:00

I got this mail this evening in all its colourful glory. At first I thought it was a propaganda started by the machinery that always works in top gear whenever the Govt. that be, faces the wrath of a large section of the masses for its careless and insensitive policies. Having had that impression I read through the mail in full. Pretty scary I felt...I must admit...I read through the mail as a salaried employee of an organization and not as a person grappling with the machinery to find his feet as a self employed businessman.

I must say I felt, the benefits accrued through waivers and exceptions would disappear in one stroke if the policies were implemented. This was my first impression. I do not have any access to people well versed with the policies and IT act of 1961 to guide me through the implications of the mail, however I have set the ball rolling...the mail as instructed shall be forwarded to people in the know....so that I may be briefed appropriately.

I am also posting the mail here for the others to read....please leave your comments to the mail ID's listed below and also enlighten me on the ramifications if time permits you, dear reader.

Having read through the mail I also googled to see if this is another one of the Hoaxes in circulation. Luckily or unluckily, as some may call it, I didn't find anything on the web to list it as a hoax...in turn I found the complete list of tax exemptions in the website mentioned in the mail.

Pass the word around and let your voice be heard... Listed below is the copy of the email I received in original

Quote

Hi All,

It is heard that Congress government is planning to scrap tax exemptions on various policies like LIC, NSC, HRA, Mutual Funds & Other section 80C benefits (Exemptions Upto 1 lakh).

What does that mean:
- You cannot get tax exemtions on your HRA, i.e. No business of showing House rent agreement & receipts. You will be taxed on the whole HRA.
- You cannot claim tax exemptions by showing LIC Polocies or by having NSC Bonds.
- You wouldnt' be able to get tax exemtions on Housing loans.
- No Tax benefits on Mutual/Infrastructure bonds.

What does government wants:
Government is targeting the salaried people and is making sure that no tax exemptions can be availed and thereby collecting as much tax as possible from our salaries.

What does government wants us to do:
This is in discussion and government wants people to provide their feedback on these future decisions and will thereby decide by the number of feedbacks received.

** Your feedback is important and will decide how much of our Hard earned money is going to government. **

Please write a short email any one of these guys stating whether you want goverment to continue or discard these exsisting policies by 5th July 2006.

Ms. Anita Kapur, Joint Secretary, TPL-I, Room No. 147-B/I, North Block, New Delhi.
e-mail: jstpl1@nic.in or

Ms. Monica Bhatia, Director, TPL-I, Room No. 147-D, North Block, New Delhi.
e-mail: dirtpl1@nic.in or

Ms. Pragya S. Saxena, Director, TPL-II, Room No. 147-E, North Block, New Delhi.
e-mail: dirtpl2@nic.in

IT is also displayed in the running messages in the Incometax department of india website http://incometaxindia.gov.in ..

Your comments are very importent.

Please forward it to all u know.....

Remember guys its time to make difference, So please dont forget to email your comments and to Forward this email to as many people (Friends, colleagues, relatives).
The more the NO's , the lesser the chance of discarding these exisiting policies..

GUYS PLEASE PLEASE DO NOT IGNORE THIS MAIL, THIS IS QUESTION OF OUR HARD URNED MONEY!

Unquote

For more information on the above you may also read the forum opened on The Economic Times - ET Blogs and join the debate here

MySpace

2006-05-29T12:02:00.000+04:00

I have seen MySpace.com grow at such a rapid pace that recently I have decided to hop on to the bandwagon and not be left out...and today...

I have created a new group on myspace.com...If you would like to join please register for free at

http://groups.myspace.com/bangalorenewbies

This is a space is for Indians ,Bangaloreans, and people new to Bangalore to network and connect...

Happy Networking

About MySpace

This is what MySpace says about itself and find out if you are six degrees of separation from that popular Hollywood / Bollywood star crush of yours...;)

MySpace is an online community that lets you meet your friends' friends.
Create a private community on MySpace and you can share photos, journals and interests with your growing network of mutual friends!
See who knows who, or how you are connected. Find out if you really are six people away from Kevin Bacon.

MySpace is for everyone:

Friends who want to talk Online
Single people who want to meet other Singles
Matchmakers who want to connect their friends with other friends
Families who want to keep in touch--map your Family Tree
Business people and co-workers interested in networking
Classmates and study partners
Anyone looking for long lost friends!

If it is not too late, I guess you should also start networking....:)

Some useful Links to MySpace

http://www.profiletweaks.com/

Technorati Tags : MySpace, MySpace+Group, bangalorenewbies

Looking to start your own business?

2006-05-28T16:02:00.000+04:00

Ok, so you want to make a million dollars in 90 days...quite possible it says...Read the post here

We have, over the year, had personal experiences of people ready to invest in any project if you have a good story to tell. Not that we aren't any good at story telling... If you have been reading this blog for long you will agree...Jokes apart the folks who are ready to invest money in any good sounding project will not be willing to play their money expecting to get a return of say 20% and their principal investment back. They always want to come in as equity partners. Nothing less.

This would mean that any project that would be funded by a private party, the party shall come in with a stake in your company unlike a bank which will fund you giving you a rate of interest at which you will return the entire loan amount back in a fixed term period. Period.

Private investors stay on to rake in profits as long as the company stays on making them. You will do all the hard work and they will reap. Not a good position to be in right? Maybe yes and maybe not....Most banks refuse to fund a good idea on principles alone....they would like a collateral security first and then followed by your net worth to even consider reading your business proposal. However getting funded through banks are not always difficult if you have the requisites... most start ups don't, which is where private investors come into play.

We preferred the bank simply to prevent any dilution to the equity we will hold...but if you have a good story to tell...smiley's account could just be an ego boost for you... :)

BE radio

2006-05-28T11:39:00.000+04:00

I have been listening to BE(Blog Explosion) Radio recently. If you have a blog and been wondering how to have some exposure for your blog for free then suggest you have a look at Blog Explosion - its a blog traffic exchange site.

BE radio went live on 20th may and I have been hooked on to it ever since. It gives you mystery credits just for listening to BE radio which you may exchange for traffic to your site... all at no cost.

If you arent a member at Blog Explosion yet its easy and free click here...

You can also listen to BE Radio even if you dont have a blog

Technorati Tags : Blog+explosion, BE+Radio, blog+trafiic+exchange

SEVENTYMM

2006-05-27T21:17:00.000+04:00

Joined Seventymm today. Its an online DVD rental portal comparable to netflix offering services in India. This is what they say about themselves...

"Seventymm is India's largest online movie rental service, offering access to over 10,000 titles. We not only provide you with the most expansive selection of DVD/VCDs, but also an easy way to choose the movies. We deliver the movies that you choose to your doorstep and pick them up after you've watched them, shipping and pickup is absolutely FREE of cost." More...

It costs about Rs 199/- per month for 4 DVD movies a month (Rs 549/ month for unlimited DVD's) plus a registration fee of Rs 499/- and a refundable deposit of Rs 999/-

The above prices are valid till 30th May. They have a fairly good collection and hopefully it would grow... I took the early bird offer, if interested you may also Click here to join

Seventymm Bangalore Helpline : 41467070, 26620151

Technorati Tags : seventymm, online+DVD+rentals, Helpline+numbers

My blog is worth More...

2006-05-26T21:59:00.000+04:00

My blog is worth more....interesting...!!! :)

My blog is worth $564.54.
How much is your blog worth?

Earlier

My blog is worth $1,129.08.
How much is your blog worth?

Now

Technorati Tags : technorati+blog+worth

Movie

2006-05-26T21:30:00.000+04:00

Was a little disappointed today - wanted to catch The Da Vinci Code at Forum, on the day of its release. Unfortunately it was sold out. Hopefully will try catching the movie later next week. Also heard about the next cinematisation of a Dan Brown Novel. They are making Angels and Demons into a movie. I had enjoyed the novel, though not as much as I did reading The code...However I was impressed by the Ambigrams featured in the book...more on Ambigrams here

Being a vegetarian myself and with The De Vinci Code being so hot you might like to read an excellent article on Da Vinci: Leonardo da Vinci's Ethical Vegetarianism

Da Vinci Quotes:

"Truly man is the king of beasts, for his brutality exceeds theirs. We live by the death of others: We are burial places!"

"I have from an early age abjured the use of meat, and the time will come when men such as I will look upon the murder of animals as they now look upon the murder of men."

Bloglet to feedblitz

2006-05-16T12:18:00.000+04:00

Effective today the RSS feeds for this blog and its subscriber base has been moved from Bloglet to Feedblitz. Request my regular readers to note the change. Thank you for all your support.

Pradeep

Trade Licence

2006-05-14T09:19:00.000+04:00

Its tough to get a licence to setup shop in Bangalore. I realized that over the past months with an increased burden on my pockets, and finally the day before yesterday managed to receive the document also called as the trade licence. We are now legally permitted to set up shop in Bangalore. The other events of the past week included a trip by the logo designer to the site. Niranjan, may design our logos, signages and its mnemonics. He visited the site and had a first hand feel of the place and also took some measurements. Sudhakar's ( my prof.) son Sidharath who is also into designing logos for corporate's has shown interest is doing work with us. I have sent him our requirements and am awaiting his ideas. Our chef is in Bangalore now...met him yesterday...seems pretty excited about the whole project Gave him a few exercises to keep him occupied for the time before we start operations. Confirmed our order for 65 chairs for the restaurant with Wills & Wills. That should take 40 days for delivery at site.

Lipton Tea Place is closing

2006-05-10T07:54:00.000+04:00

The news is out - Liptons Tea place at Koramangala is closing down. My previous post talked about the location and a few things related. As of 1st may 2006 HLL has withdrawn the franchisor status from their first tea shop outlet in India, leaving the franchisee in a lurch. Strange as it may sound unlike the other coffee shop outlets like Barista nad Cafe Coffee Day that started their first outlets in the city, which was run and operated by themselves, HLL had given out their first outlet, the Lipton Tea Place to be run by a franchisee.

I have my doubts if HLL had lent any support to the LIpton Tea place to ensure its success at all. In a fiercely competitive market like Bangalore, I doubt if a franchisee can take a concept like a tea place and keep absorbing losses without any help from the franchisor. If it is true I hope this would be a lesson for anyone wnting to partner HLL with their future ventures as a franchisee.

Marry Brown would probably be a replacement at the site. Hopefully this should come through. Its a great location with tremendous potential for growth if marketted properly and am sure Marry Brown or any one else coming there would succeed.

Technorati Tags : Lipton+tea+place, Barista, cafe+Coffee+Day, HLL, Marry+Brown

Rear Service Access Ready

2006-05-04T23:41:00.000+04:00

The service access to the restaurant is ready. It took them two half days - yesterday and today to complete the fixing at the site. The stairs appears to be quite sturdy and ready to take the load.

A shot of the stair from above. ^

Also marked the equipment placement on the kitchen floor earlier today. We have managed to space in quite a few stuff comfortably...giving the kitchen a slightly uncramped feeling...Most restaurants try to cramp their kitchen just to increase the covers in the restaurant. We decided to go against this way of thinking... we have our own reasoning. I am sure we will be able to justify this decision as time goes by.

Met the new bank manager today. The earlier Manager was transferred to Madras a couple of weeks ago. I had called on him to discuss the loan terms once again... had a few points clarified...which was kind on the new manager to do so...This would certainly avoid some anxious moments later on. Will have to sit with the CA now to device strategy on the spending...which would happen soon.

Will also be placing the orders for the kitchen equipments next week. The fine tuning of the interior design is also complete...Have to give the go ahead to Amit. This is also expected to happen soon.

Bangalore of recent is seeing a spurt of new restaurants and activities in the city. I hope the high rentals dont kill of these restaurants.

Umerkot - Named after the Birth Place of Emperor Akbar is the name for a swanky new Indian Restaurant in Kormangala. It had its soft opening earlier this week and would be opening its doors to the general public very shortly.

Cool Joint...I have always wondered what gets the crowds to throngh this nodescript eatery in Jaya Nagar. I have blogged earlier on this joint when I heard for the first time that this eatery has a turnover of Rs 1.5 lakhs daily. I am skeptical, however the crowds I see infront of cool joint...when I pass through Jaya Nagar makes me wonder if that is really true...I am slowly getting conviced that this is highly likely.

A New Residential Landmark is coming up in bangalore on kasturbha Road. Rumour has it that a duplex here is priced at 7 crores. If that price tag got you gaping, lsten to this, even if you have deep pockes to shell out 7 crores for a Duplex here, chances still is that you may not be invited...yeah, you heard it right. Owner ship to an address here is by invitaion only...

Technorati Tags : Stair+case, Umerkot, Cool+joint

Some Links

2006-05-04T07:51:00.000+04:00

Toilets or TV sets

I found this piece in the Business Line about election promises quite amusing

How to excercise while sitting at your computer - Wiki How

civil work

2006-04-30T18:09:00.000+04:00

Its been almost a month since my last post, yeah well...ive moved into a house near the site and have settled there quite comfortably now. It makes it easier to access the site by living near it.

Work has stated on the interiors and we have completed a part of the civil work. The partition wall separating the kitchen from the dining area has been completed. The picture also shows a part of the open tandoor.The work on the rear stair case would start on Monday. Once that is fixed and ready...it would be easier to access the restaurant without having to use the main entrance. The civil work on the toilets have also been completed.

The prototype for the chair design is also ready. We tried to refine and recreate the dhabba and hence the seat for the chair reflects the dhabba cots with its weft and weaves. This looks great and is surprisingly very comfortable. it stands at the standard 36" in height and is made of Teak wood. We plan to give it a walnut coat along with a polyurethane coating.

The tables would have a wooden top finished with 3mm veneer in walnut and metal base which shall later be powder coated.

Last few days at Whispering Meadows

2006-04-02T16:18:00.000+04:00

Will be moving to Lakshmi Layout on Wednesday. Have been shopping for household stuff these past few days.
Paid the advance for rentals to the house yesterday.
Hopefully will get the private gas connected by Wednesday morning. Will get the indane connection hopefully in a months time.
Amma still wants me to do a lot more shopping.... Coming to think of it they will require the items more than I do when they stay with me. Amma keeps getting on to that guilt trip as to why she sold of all the stuff at home when they moved from coimbatore to kerala... In hindsight everything is probably a bad decision.
Went to Bharath Crockery, on Friday to take a look at the possible crockery designs for the restaurant. I am convinced that we should stick to white crockery and not go for the oak, taj green, black or any other coloured designs that was shown.
Got a few quotes for the kitchen equipments too. Its very cheap in Delhi...but then considering the transportation, VAT and all other extra levies..it would not be very different from the local market and the advantage as informed by john in buying from the local market is that if you need any service done the locals chaps would be able to get it done quickly that the outstation suppliers.
Have started my packing process...I am not using any movers and packers instead will get a tempo to shunt the stuff from here to the new home...would save me some cash.
Gave John a few design ideas for the logo. He would be getting it done at madras ( Chennai ). Tittu was supposed to have forwarded the file to John, which he hasn't. Should remind him.
We still haven't got the tax receipt from Fabmall yet. Thankfully they have agreed to extend the rent free period till such time the receipt and the khatha is handed over to us. This is fine by us.
Amit sent us a quote for the chairs which he is getting done through Indian Window. We have decided to go for Afromosa teak as against rubwood which Amit thinks may not be very durable. The design looks good... will post a pic of the chair next week. Stay tuned.
The work on the toilets and the central partition starts Monday.
Have asked Amit to send me the drawing for the rear access staircase. If he does then we can get a go ahead for the design and ask the fabricator to start work. the staircase ideally would take two weeks for completion.
Got a great deal for the genset. We decided against capitalizing the genset by purchasing a new one....but got someone ( need his contact details? email me) to install a genset on rental basis at a very nominal rate.

Labour license ready

2006-03-24T21:05:00.000+04:00

Finalised the kitchen design today. The waterproofing work would be completed tomorrow and also tomorrow, hopefully, we shall finalise the elements of the interiors and put a freeze on the design.
The Bankers wanted to know if Mantri has in their agreement with fabmall a clause which allows them to sublet the first floor to us. Sent an email of the principal lease deed to the bankers which clarifies this point. Hopefully this should do
Udaya shankar called me in the afternoon and informed me that he would be collecting the labour license today.
John would be taking the fabricator to the site tomorrow and preparing a design for the rear stairway and would also be obtaining a quotation.
(Beautiful shikha didn't have anything for me today...and that is sadly the end of her.)
I have requested an other manufacturer from madras to give a quote for the exhaust system. He has requested for the drawings of the kitchen and certain other tech specs which I would be sending him next week.

The Khatta extract would be delivered hopefully by Monday or Tuesday next. Udaya shankar had wisely held back our application for the trade license, till we get the Khatha extract (tax payer certification), which would mean that we would be saving 20 G's on that one...

useful tips

2006-03-24T17:14:00.000+04:00

1. Emergency Number worldwide for Mobile is 112. if you find yourself out of coverage area of your mobile network and there is an emergency, dial 112 and the mobile will search any existing network to establish the emergency number for you and interestingly this number 112 can be dialed even while the keypad is locked. Try it out.

2. Locked the keys in the car? (Applicable to remote lock) This May come in handy someday. Good reason to own a cell phone: If you lock your keys in the car and the spare keys are home, call someone on your cell phone. Hold your cell phone about a foot from your car door and have the other person at your home press the unlock button, holding it near the phone on their end. Your car will unlock. Saves someone from having to drive your keys to you. Distance is no object. You could be hundreds of miles away and if you can reach someone who has the other remote" for your car, you can unlock the doors (or the trunk). Editor's Note: *It works fine! We tried it out and it unlocked our car over a cell phone!"

3.Imagine your cell battery is very low, you are expecting an important call and you don't have a charger". Nokia instrument comes with a reserve battery. To activate, key is *3370# Your cell will restart with this reserve and your instrument will show a 50% increase in battery. This reserve will get charged when you charge your cell next time.

"Suffering produces endurance, and endurance produces character, and character produces hope (Romans 5:3-4)."

My Business Card

2006-03-23T15:47:00.000+04:00

Designed my business card today.

I kept details of the address private. Instead thought I should get the coordinates listed which was an interesting addition.

Designed this card for the blog. The final design of the card would differ vastly from what is seen here...

Technorati Tags : business+card

CIA

2006-03-23T06:51:00.000+04:00

A funny article on CIA featured in the Onion that I came across yesterday. via Krishna's blog

Technorati Tags : CIA

Anon

The CBI...??? They are smart they write with black highlighters....

P.S: Blogger snag doesnt allow me to post a reply so will have to do it here....

Yesterday at Anekal

2006-03-22T18:02:00.000+04:00

Received a set of conditions from our bankers along with the sanctioning of the loan last weekend. One of the conditions they laid out was to get the lease deed registered. Having figured out where to get the lease deed registered, I decided to go there myself and figure out how this could be done. Spoke to the Manager and she informed me that the deed should be registered at Anekal.

Left home for Bannerghata and stopped over at the site. Antony who was carrying out the waterproofing work had informed me that he would start the work at 10:30 am. My travel from where I stay right now to Bannerghata takes about a couple of hours with the heavy traffic. Told Antony I'd reach there at 12:30p.m. I reached there at 12:15p.m. and found Antony and his work men had still not arrived...

Dang! I told myself the first day at work and they are late. Anyways called up Antony and he said he'd be there in 10 minutes, which he did. Showed them around and went through the work they had to do. He told me that he'd take 4-5 days to complete the water proofing work.

Went into Pizza corner outlet which would be opening on the 25 of this month ( "hopefully") to sit down and discuss a few things with Antony. Gave him the advance cheque for the work, when, in walks Mr. Bhaskar Rao, the executive Director of S- Mart who is the franchisee for this pizza corner outlet.

Finished with Antony and waited for Mr. Rao. Spoke to his business development manager Sanaulla who was also there and told him that id like to meet Mr. Rao. Rao apparently was on the phone for a very long time...I knew I was getting late but then didn't want to leave without introducing myself to Mr Rao.
After a while I walked in into PC and introduced myself. Bhasker Rao is a very pleasant man. From what I could tell from our initial conversation, he was particularly gung-ho about his Bannerghata venture. Bhaskar owns four franchise outlets ( I think) of PC in Bangalore.

Told him we were opening an Indian and Tandoor restaurant next to him. "Thats good" he said smiling..."lots of North Indian residents in this locality." What about Charcoal?" he enquired referring to the small Indian restaurant located inside the Mantri complex itself. I just shook my ead didn't want to make a comment. was thinking to myself...We didn't want to compare ourselves with "Charcoal" and wouldn't want to bracket ourselves in that bracket...just smiled at him.

"Pizza Hut is desparately looking for a location in Bannerghata " he said. "Oh! well that doesn't matter as long as you ensure you take the first mover advantage and consolidate yourself" I said matter of factly. "Yeah, absolutely" he said.

Looking at the painting work that was going on there he said..."we decided to get the lobby painted...Fabmall has been a little slow on getting it done...we would deduct the costs from our first months rentals" he said.

Looking around it was obvious that PC has trying to take over the entire corridor walls for their adverts...he told me that fabmall didn't allow them to take the remaining part...Man! I thanked Vipul in my mind for not having let them...What if we wanted some space on the walls to put up a sign leading to our restaurant...? Well...it was good that they didn't get more than the space that they have managed to take control of...anyways it would be wiser if PC remembers that an advert overkill would be harmful for them...remember "Biriyani Merchant?" I thot.

Took leave and went to Anekal. Skipped lunch. The travel took me more and 90 minutes to reach there. Found the registrars office with ease. Went inside and asked a few officials on how to get the lease deed registered. They kept pointing me to different offices...all of which were exactly opposite to where I had gone enquiring. It then dawned on - mebbe they all work through touts...so I went outside looking for them "touts" just to get some information. Sitting outside where these guys who were selling various forms. Approached them and as it was the case with the officials inside...none of them spoke Hindi or English...and I do not speak Kannada...with great difficulty I managed to communicate what I wanted. he then with equal trouble told me that he needs to see the lease deed." told him I dont have the lease deed on me.

Not giving up hope I went inside again and stood next to an official who looked "educated enough" to answer my queries. Waited for about 10 minutes before getting to go inside. Spoke to the "guy" there who listened to what I had to say and replied in perfect English." Come with me" and took me outside and said " wait here for Sadashiv, who will answer you". After a short while 'sadashiv' came in. I told him what I wanted and he told me that I will have to go to Koramangala to get my lease deed registered. 'You are not in our jurisdiction' he said.

He also told me 'you will have to pay 5% of the yearly rentals for the period you want the lease deed to be registered ( 5 years) and an additional 1% as total registration fees".

That was a lot of money just to register a document for which the bank was not funding any payment I thot.

We have decided to go back to the bankers and inform them that we didn't want to spend such a large sum of money but instead maybe hand over the lease deed in original to the bank for safe keeping. We have also informed them that we have made fund transfers from the bank itself for the payments as advance for space rentals, therefore they must consider these as validations for the lease agreement itself instead of getting the lease deed registered.

The bank manager has agreed to look in to this and asked us to communicate our concerns to her in writing....this we did and are now awaiting their response. This should hopefully work.

Udaya shankar would be working on the license procurement only from tomorrow. This would mean another 15 days before we get our trade license.
Spoke to venkatesh about the power enhancement. PC has still not got their power enhanced. he said it would be happening soon.

I take Appa and Amma to show them the site and the new house tomorrow. That should take the whole day again.

Bindu my classmate from kochi called up...she's coming to Bangalore tomorrow. She lost her mother to cancer last week. It was tough on her these last many years...will meet her sometime next week.

...and for anyone who would be interested in traditional cures for the Big C. Ayurveda offers great help...its a long drawn process...and is completely natural unlike the harmful side effects of radio therapy.
This is an address I have got from people who have been cured miraculously of the Big C. May it be of of help to someone...
Ayurvedic Physician
Balaendu Prakash
Mandir Marg
Turner Road
Clemets Town
Dehradun - 248001
UP , India
Phone - (+91135) 2640792, 2640405

Technorati Tags : Bhasker+Rao, S, mart, Anekal, Sale+deed+registration, Bindu, Cancer, Cancer+cure+ayurveda

Licenses

2006-03-18T20:39:00.000+04:00

We have decided to use the services of one Mr. Uday to liaison between us and the licensing officials. Uday has experience in dealing with the local officials and since we have problems with the local language have collectively decided to go ahead and use him. Will hand over Uday an official letter asking him to go ahead with the licensing work. The electrical contractor has already started work on the powerenhancement from 3kva to 20 kva. Couriered the letter to this effect to him on Thursday. Wemay hire out a generator at 5k a month for 2 years to avoid capitalizing 3 lacs towards the purchase of a 20 kvagenset. We also contemplated getting a genset on 2nd sale....then decided against it when we got this offer on hiring it out. ( keep your winding up costs as low as possibly...sagely words of Sudhakar). Hiring a genset we found works in our favour cozthen the onus on keeping the genset in proper running order falls with the service provider. He would take care of the licences , maintenance, delivery etc. We would only have to provide for diesel and have to treat the expense as an operational expense. The water proofing starts on Monday. Will have to takepictures prior to the start of the work for our records. Almost finalized the interior design for the restaurant...will freeze theinterior and kitchen design by this week. work should commence on the interiors on Monday next. Will also be getting quotes for the kitchen equipmentsand finalising the same by the week.

Hopefully will move to Bannerghatta by then.

The beehive is back

2006-03-18T11:42:00.000+04:00

Shocking yet true...

the beehive that was detroyed last week is back again at the exact same point on the balcony. Is that a mock "B threat"...? I wonder...what are they telling me this time

Also seen is a picture of my niece, Antra, who put up a brave face when I asked for a picture of her in front of the hive..( of course she was safely inside the room behind locked doors her face clearly shows her fear. One reason why I had to destroy the hive last week and possibly again this week too.

Technorati Tags : Beehive, Antra, balcony

Funny emails is back on blogger

2006-03-15T21:48:00.000+04:00

Funny emails is back on Blogger....I shall also be retaining the new Funny email blog on eponym...

Post 18th March the posting shall be irregular for a week or 10 days as I would be moving to Bannerghatta and do not know when I would get my Broadband access at the new house.

Corruption and civil society

2006-03-15T21:43:00.000+04:00

Its been an eventful two days an eye opener really, The newspapers ( yeah, I am still reading the TOI) and am still not a big fan of the paper....neways the newspaper in question carried a story on the raids on police officials in Banaglore city. A police official with an official salary between Rs 16000 and Rs 20000 per month has wealth of over 68 crores (i.e Rs 680000000). Now thats unbelieveable... Ill tell you how it happens.

I do not want to belittle the efforts that the civic society is taking to clean up this rampant corruption in the city...but what are they going to do to all the other officials in government offices who are part of this highly corrupt society??? Now I will hear arguments that not everyone is corrupt...maybe yes, that is true, but in my experience so far every one has been very very corrupt. I started off by being straightforward upholding the rights of a true citizen...but now I tend to laugh at myself...what a load of bull crap the thought is... every one I have encountered in these offices have moved my file and processed it only after receiving "speed money".

It was also shocking when I heard this evening that someone near where we plan to set up shop had to pay 10 times more for obtaining a licence which only costs Rs 5000/-. Every one pays....every-single-businessman-pays....big organizations pay generously, they offer more...than what is required and people like us have to shell out a large chunk of money as a result. Its a shame really but who is to listen????

Also today the fares of the auto rickshaws have been revised in the city...The city police have given 3 months notice to all the Rickshaw drivers to re-caliberate their meters. the reason given was that there are only 500 service personnel who can re-caliberate the meters on these autos...I travelled by three autos today and what did I find...all the four autos have had their meters recaliberated...its quite easy...and the auto drivers can do it themselves....which means the meters are running at the new tariff...but the minimum charge is shown as Rs 10 for the first 2 km...whereas if the meter has been recaliberated this should show as Rs 12/-...What this means is that every auto in the city ( I will bet on this) will be charging the new rates on their meter but would charge an additional 20% for the next three months to all the passengers who would not check the fare properly claiming that their meter is not set to the new fares...a clean way to make money...Cheating, fraud...call it what you may...not one person will raise their voice and object to this...I have spoken to a few people....every one listened to me....I doubt if there would be any action....lets see

Its crazy...Sometimes I feel the corruption and its roots have grown so deep that maybe the powers that be consider it futile to even attempt to correct it...and that is such a shame!!!

Wanted

2006-03-12T07:53:00.001+04:00

Wanted for an Indian Restaurant in Bangalore

A soon to be opened Indian Restaurant in Bangalore requires the following -

Restaurant Chef

Restaurant Manager

Captain / Senior Captain

Tandoor Cook

Stewards / Cooks / Helpers

The restaurant would be ready for operation in 60 - 75 days and shall be located on Bannerghatta Road in Bangalore, India. If you are a interested in joining us and have the relevant experience, you may kindly send in your resumes to peterzblog@gmail.com

Note: We are only looking for candidates with experience of working in Indin restaurants and are based in bangalore or India

Technorati Tags : wanted, staff, Indian+Restaurant, Bangalore, India, edgeio

Bannerghatta House

2006-03-11T19:10:00.000+04:00

The day was not very eventful. I was to have paid the advance for the house and confirm it. But the landlord wanted me to confirm with the existing tenant when he is vacating the flat and then sign the agreement and pay the advances.

In a way it was alright with me...I just hope they dont give the house off to someone else who will be willing to pay a higher rent for the already high rentals they are charging.

Here are some pix...

The car parking...

The front view

A view of the inside

The Kitchen

The loan has been approved and we got the information today from the bankers...which means we are all set to roll...The initial hick ups have been cleared.

Took the waterproofing man today to show him the areas that have seepage...He has asured me that the work will have his written guarantee and that after treatment there will not be any seeepage for the next five years. At Rs 17/- per sqft for the application of the sealant I thought it was a fair price fro Bangalore...

Will be meeting John tomorrow to finalize the design for the kitchen...Thats scheduled at 11:30 am....

Joined edgeio( edgeio-key: 7fa375b3bd868c2c7144e50738a9b4c9cd281db8 )yesterday and claimed this blog for listings

Technorati Tags : Edgeio

House Hunting Contd...

2006-03-10T22:08:00.000+04:00

It is hereby recommended that any family or individuals choosing to move to Bannerghata road, in Bangalore should do better to buy a plot of land about 5 kms ( at this point in time) away from this area and build a home for themselves rather that look for houses, Flats, Apartments on rental basis...you will be thoroughly disappointed if you do not heed to this advice.

I have been house hunting for the past week to be near the project site, unfortunately every accommodation that was being shown to me was constructed in the last 12 months owing to the mad rush of the software 'junkies' looking for a pad.
The houses have been very badly constructed and they do not follow any building norms prevailing in the area. I did finally manage a decent accommodation...which would be vacated in the next 7 days and is being currently rented out by a major in the army.

Sheer providence to have found the house...I told myself. I must have seen atleast 20 houses...a few of them almost a shack...and surprisingly no let up on the rentals... I managed a fair price on the house that was finally shown to me which I liked....only because it was better than everything els ethat was shown to me...and the landlord took a liking for me I hope, and gave me a reduction on the advance... I would be paying up the advance tomorrow and then move in next week.

Also found a few houses that could accommodate the chef and a few others... will keep the posts updated when ever it happens.

After finalizing the apartment, I thought I would take a look at the Bannerghata National park which is about 12 Kms from the location of the restaurant...The moment I reached there got a call from the ID who wanted me to 'backtrack' immediately. "you can see the animals later" he said. So I did the "backtrack" and reached the site at 4pm. Amit wanted to discuss the part on waterproofing the seepage that was seen on the walls..he couldn't fit that into the budget for the interior design...It was not a heavy duty job so I agreed without a word...I only insisted that the guy he recommended to do the job did a good work and ensure d all the seepage was arrested completely.He said it could be done and that the contractor would be using a silicon sealant which would ensure it.

We start with the work on the toilets early next week. I would be visiting the site again tomorrow 1) to pay up the advance for the flat and 2) meet up with the waterproofing contractor...

Funny Emails Moved

2006-03-08T14:19:00.000+04:00

Funny emails has officially moved

With Blogger not releasing my blog I have no other option but to move it to Eponym

Funny emails shall hence forth be updated here

http://thosefunnymails.eponym.com

Technorati Tags : funny+emails, Funny+emails+moved, eponym

Beehive on the balcony

2006-03-08T10:33:00.000+04:00

Got a shock when I pulled open my window curtain this morning...A beehive...would you belive it...mebbe a 1000 or more of them clinging to one another to form a massive hive...I ve seen such hives in the forests getting to see it in close quarters man...Awesome

They are dangerous when they are disturbed...left to itself they tend to move to another location in a couple of days...I guess thats safer for all of us...I am againt torching them. A big risk, certainly...but leaving the balcony door closed should help right now...

Will keep you posted...

Technorati Tags : beehive, balcony

Thursday 9 march 2006 1020am

Latest News - The beehive has been destroyed...With several kids staying in the apartment block it was not a safe idea to remain adventurous...I guess it never is adventurous living with that monstrous beehive less than 10feet from your bed. So last night at around 9.30 pm we sprayed the hive...It was a crazy 15 minutes with the poisoned bees flying all ove the place. The guy who sprayed the hive did not have any protection on him...stood on the balcony and kept spraying....saw two bees sneak into my bedroom through a small gap in the window...and perish inside....well hers a snap thatw as taken at around 9:45pm last night

And This one was taken at 10 am this morning. Most of the hive feel of down what was left on the 7th floor is this.... I feel safe now...:)

Technorati Tags : beehive+destroyed

WARNING

2006-03-08T09:29:00.000+04:00

You should be alert during the next days:
Do not open any message with an attached filed called "Invitation" regardless of who sent it.

Technorati Tags : virus+warning, invitation

House hunting

2006-03-08T08:10:00.000+04:00

Was house hunting at Bannerghata yesterday...Saw some good houses...Was initially looking for a single bed room flat near Bannerghata but then decided to look for a twin bedroom flat considering maybe Appa ( Dad) and Amma ( Mom) could come and stay with me for 6 months and appa could help me out with the book keeping in the initial stages. The rentals are pretty Ok but its the advances that are killing. !0 to 12 months rental as advance and if it is through a broker then one months rentals as brokerage.... That's a tidy sum...when every penny I have saved over the years is going to the business..i cant take money out of the buffer to pay interest free advances towards house rentals!! Bannerghata is a developing commercial hub with a lot of IT companies in the area....so many bachelor pads and paying guest accommodations have come up due to this. In all probability I would take a cheaper flat till my cash flow settles down after which I can move into the other flat I've located at Mantri or maybe even at the vijaya enclave. I will also have to find accommodation for at least 3 of my key kitchen and accounting staff...now that would again be a pinch...lets see...how it goes.

Electrical contractor Met the electrical contractor who would assist us in getting the power enhancement done for the restaurant..he says the process may take more than 30 days when i said I would want to avoid paying the demand charges for a month if I can, when I am not using the additional power. Will ask him to fax me / john the quotation to take it forward.

Is anyone able to view my blog

2006-03-08T07:09:00.000+04:00

I hear that the problem still exists on blogger...but many have got the it fixed...Is anyone out there able to view my blog Funny emails???
or if they know how to fix it may kindly email me
Meanwhile I have moved the blog with all the archives also to eponym - a feature rich but slightly tough on adding link, free blog. You will find my funny email blog here
I am trying to learn the ropes at eponym...so please be patient...

Technical problem

2006-03-06T21:34:00.000+04:00

I guess it is a Blogger problem. Checked the Blogger forum....it seems quite a few posts have already come up there from people who have gone paranoid on not being able to publish their blogs... I got paranoid too...but then am a bit relieved now on the thought that Blogger hasn't banned me... Will wait till tomorrow and see how it goes...

Blogger Blocks my blog

2006-03-06T14:58:00.000+04:00

I feel furious today...BLOGGER has blocked my blog Funny Emails for - can you believe it Spamming ... It does not allow me to make new posts but leaves this message very time i post a new message

<$BlogItemTitle$>

<$BlogItemBody$>

posted by <$BlogItemAuthorNickname$> | <$BlogItemDateTime$> | ><$BlogItemCommentCount$> comments links to this post <$BlogItemControl$>
</Blogger>

I created this blog to stop sending emails to my friends and discourage spamming and look what I have got in return.

Every time I post a new post I am told that this is what it is...Spammer...I did check the blogger help and it says there they have a word verification feature. I used this feature and it posts the blog but I get the above code on the page...I have written to blogger help but I guess no one would reply

I am so frustrated...If you happen to visit this site from Funny Emails I regret this error on the page I am tring to fix it and if you know how it could be done please lemme know...Thanks

Technorati Tags : Blogger+Blocks+Blog, Spamming, why????

test

2006-03-06T09:31:00.000+04:00

test

Lease Agreement

2006-03-05T13:28:00.000+04:00

Finally we have something to star with...The lease agreement for the restaurant was signed yesterday, Saturday 4 March 2006.

Location id: N 12 53' 28.01" E 77 35' 55.05"

Went to the site yesterday with Jacob and John after signing the lease with Trinethra who was represented by Vipul. Went there to take a call on the location of the genset and Exhaust.... Found that Pizza corner would be ready and would start their operations as our neighbors in about a months time. We also re looked at the possibility of having the back area and the kitchen to the back of the available space as against the left corner which was planned earlier. Amit would be sending us the first draft of the interior design on Thursday. John said he would make a CAD of the new kitchen layout on Monday...lets see... Have begun the process of relocating to near Bannerghata..I hope that is completed by this week itself and then it would be easier to focus on work from being near to the site... Did make a few calls but nothing came through on the new residence...should make a few calls on the listings available in free ads later in the evening.

Watched the repeat of the Filmfare awards last night...thought the awards ceremony were hugely boring..except for Cyrus and Javed who were a riot...Am not sure how the new host Jon Stewart would turn out at the Oscars tomorrow...hope it stays entertaining...I shall be watching it live...( hehehe on television)

Sorry for the irregularity in the postings... as explained earlier, however the posts would be short and regular in the future...

BLOGMAD

2006-03-03T08:20:00.000+04:00

"Funny Emails" recommends BLOG MAD.
Had joined blog mad prior to its launch - It's great!!!. I have a hitch though...they gave me 75 odd credits for joining.... but took away 5 credits for informing them through the comments column that I cant surf blogs on BLOGMAD using an Opera Browser...
I have some 20 odd credits left for all the hits they sent me...and I cant earn any credits surfing!!!
I hope someone at BLOGMAD rectifies this snag quick

For the ladies

2006-03-02T15:15:00.000+04:00

Get your knockers under control

Click here

A Wipro Fan?

2006-02-23T17:23:00.000+04:00

Someone at Wipro really likes my blog...I do not know who that person is...Would he / she like to chat sometime?...I'd rather its a she...:) I know I haven't been posting of late...there is so much happening...Its mostly very stressful...I should hopefully get some relief this Friday...Hope to make some posts then... Till then enjoy your week...:) Ciao

A lesson:

2006-02-21T08:16:00.000+04:00

THE PERFUME

     As she stood in front of her 5th grade class on the very first day of school she told the children an untruth. Like most teachers, she looked at her students and said that she loved them all the same.
     However, that was impossible, because there in the front row, slumped in his seat, was a little boy named Teddy Stoddard. Mrs. Thompson had watched Teddy the year before and noticed that he did not play well with the other children, that his clothes were messy and that he constantly needed a bath. In addition, Teddy could be unpleasant. It got to the point where Mrs. Thompson would
actually take delight in marking his papers with a broad red pen, making bold X's and then putting a big "F" at the top of his papers.
     At the school where Mrs. Thompson taught, she was required to review each child's past records and she put Teddy's off until last. However, when she reviewed his file,! she was in for a surprise. Teddy's first grade teacher wrote,"Teddy is a bright child with a ready laugh. He does his work neatly and has good manners... he is a joy to be around." His second grade teacher wrote, "Teddy is an excellent student, well liked by his classmates, but he is troubled because his mother has a terminal illness and life at home must be a struggle." His third grade teacher wrote, "His mother's death has been hard on him. He tries to do his best, but his father doesn't show much interest and his home life will soon affect him if some steps aren't taken." Teddy's fourth grade teacher wrote, "Teddy is withdrawn and doesn't show much interest in school. He doesn't have many friends and he sometimes sleeps in class." By now, Mrs.
Thompson realized the problem and she was ashamed of herself.
     She felt even worse when her students brought her Christmas presents, wrapped in beautiful ribbons and bright paper, except for Teddy's. His present was clumsily wrapped in the heavy, brown paper that he got from a grocery bag. Mrs. Thompson took pains to open it in the middle of the other presents. Some of the children started to laugh when she found a rhinestone bracelet with some of the stones missing, and a bottle that was one-quarter full of perfume. But she stifled the children's laughter when she exclaimed how pretty the bracelet was, putting it on, and dabbing some of the perfume on her wrist. Teddy Stoddard stayed after school that day just long enough to say,"Mrs.Thompson, today you smelled just like my Mom used to."
     After the children left, she cried for at least an hour. On that very day, she quit teaching reading, writing and arithmetic. Instead, she began to teach children. Mrs. Thompson paid particular attention to Teddy. As she worked with him, his mind seemed to come alive. The more she encouraged him, the faster he responded. By the end of the year Teddy had become one of the smartest children
in the class and, despite her lie that she would love all the children the same, Teddy became one of her teacher's pets."
     A year later, she found a note under her door, from Teddy, telling her that she was still the best teacher he ever had in his whole life. Six years went by before she got another note from Teddy. He then wrote that he had finished high school, third in his class, and she was still the best teacher he ever had in his whole life.
     Four years after that, she got another letter, saying that while things had been tough at times, he'd stayed in school, had stuck with it, and would soon graduate from college with the highest of honors. He assured Mrs. Thompson that she was still the best and favorite teacher he had ever had in his whole life.
     Then four more years passed and yet another letter came. This time he explained that after he got his bachelor's degree, he decided to go a little further. The letter explained that she was still the best and favorite teacher he ever had. But now his name was a little longer.... The letter was signed, Theodore F. Stoddard MD.
     The story does not end there. You see, there was yet another letter that spring. Teddy said he had met this girl and was going to be married. He explained that his father had died a couple of years ago and he was wondering if Mrs. Thompson might agree to sit at the wedding in the place that was usually reserved for the mother of the groom.
     Of course, Mrs. Thompson did. And guess what? She wore that bracelet, the one with several rhinestones missing. Moreover, she made sure she was wearing the perfume that Teddy remembered his mother wearing on their last Christmas together. They hugged each other, and Dr. Stoddard whispered in Mrs. Thompson's ear, "Thank you Mrs.Thompson for believing in me. Thank you so much for making me feel important and showing me that I could make a difference."
     Mrs. Thompson, with tears in her eyes, whispered back. She said, "Teddy, you have it all wrong. You were the one who taught me that I could make a difference. I didn't know how to teach until I met you.

The Scare

2006-02-15T09:25:00.000+04:00

Camera Tossing
http://cameratoss.blogspot.com/
http://www.satugo.com/

Want to paint online?
http://artpad.art.com/artpad/painter/

or
I made my first online PicassoArt called 'Egg Head' here...take a look
http://www.mrpicassohead.com/canvas.html?id=1ff0026

Find your birthday star
http://outreach.jach.hawaii.edu/birthstars/index.html

Last week the property owners reverted with a yes on our queries regarding the gas bank and genset location - they however remained silent on the rear access that we wanted created. We received an email from vipul stating that the owners were skeptical on any structural modification to the exterior of the building.

This was giving us a lot of anxiety...

We e-mailed him a photograph of the stairway that we proposed to build, also stating that it was a temporary and modular structure that can be easily installed and dismantled. We also requested they suggest an alternate, as a service access is very vital for the restaurant.

I was with the interior designer at her residence going through the seating plan and the design for the interior that she had envisaged. It was nothing striking as far as her ideas were concerned. I was also disappointed with the interiors of her residence...I have been having thoughts running through my head if she is an interior designer after all...

While at her residence... got a call from tittu stating that Vipul / the landlord has okayed the rear access. He apparently got as sms to this effect. Suggested he ask Vipul to email to his for records. Now thats eased some of the stress...:)

The bankers have requested for another couple or more days to get back to us.

Also made a mental note to contact Amit Benegal for his ideas on the interiors.

Last week Roop Chand Yadav came down from Surat and gave us a food trial. We gave him a menu of his choice and he came up with

Pepper pot soup and Dal shorba
Adhraki Chicken ( Ginger chicken)
Veg. Jal Freizi
Lucknowi Biriyani
Sag Kitchidi
Punjabi Kadi

The food came out really well except for the soups which were a huge disappointment. We were impressed. The vegetable Jal freizi was extremely delicious. Jal freizi is one of my least favorite dishes but this one was just up there....The chef mentioned that the jal freizi was cooked without a drop of water. The Lucknowi Biriyani is traditionally prepared in a dum (curried rice cooked along with the meat in the stock) but this one was not made so....however the outcome was quite good. Balanced in spices...low on fat...with the meat cooked just right and it tasted yum... In all a good meal which didn't feel heavy at all...quite what we have in mind for the restaurant...

John came with his wife and daughter for the food trials. They were also pretty impressed with the food Chef Yadav dished out.

We are hopeful of a few more food trials soon. Roop Chand was referred by an ex colleague of mine who works for Blue Moon foods in Bombay.

Saleem called on Monday - his friend, who apparently works for a company which plans to diversify into the hospitality business...have a piece of land on Hosur road. he wants me to take a look at it and give him some inputs. We were to go there today but something came up on their side. Will go there probably tomorrow.

Kris and Chinappa came down from Hyderabad on Saturday last...I am meeting Chinaapa for the first time after 1990. We were at Loyola together. Also Chinappa's wife had referred Amit Benegal to us...

It was great fun jamming up with them after so long... here is a pic of them

2006-02-14T16:51:00.000+04:00

Poignant thought for this valentine

Time is too slow for those who wait, too swift for those who fear, too long for those who grieve, too short for those who rejoice, but for those who love, time is eternity.

Nothing justifies your decision...Kuljeet

2006-02-10T11:00:00.000+04:00

IN MEMORIUM

Kuljeet Randhawa
Expired - 8 Feb 2006
Age - 29 years

Technorati Tags : Kuljeet+Randhawa

Cartoons and the Outrage

2006-02-09T18:08:00.000+04:00

Ok so i decided I will have a little something to dabble on politics. Although I am not a serious thinker on world politics the recent controversy on the Charlie Hebedo cartoons have captured my imagination. I have briefly mentioned in my earlier post the Prophet of Doom e-book, banned in this country which is increasingly getting me convinced on the message it portrays, initially I trashed all what it said...without commenting on it to be blasphemous, but I am seriously doing a rethink now.

So what is troubling the Islamic community. - that these cartoons portray Prophet Mohammed in bad light?. I dont think so...If freedom of speech is to be tolerated, then I strongly feel the world community should rise against this biased and illogical uprising - the eye for an eye policy that is propagated viciously in many Islamic countries.Does that mean everyone who has been touched by the Daniel Pearl incident should remain quiet?.

Somebody even remarked on the cartoons and equated it with the policies of Nazi Germany. Mebbe he has a point there...but then again if we look at the cartoons it just reflects what is happening around you...I don't see why there should be so much hell raised on some silly caricatures.

I have a reasoning...no matter what you do...the Islamic fundamentalists, if they decide, can raise the flimsiest of reasons to fan hatred and indulge in violence.

For all the weird cartoons I get in my email on George Bush...If the islamic ( read saudi arabian) logic is extended to me...I should be shot. Thankfully the Americans laugh at it...I would be stoking the fire if I were to ask them to think any differently.
It shocks me to realize that the world we live in is quietly loosing whatever innocence is left of it. War, Epidemics, Pornography, Hatred, Violence, Killings is slowly part of our everyday life...and you cannot ignore it anymore. It just comes looking for you....for a relatively peaceful country like Denmark also to be challenged now...well I hope something gets done...Ah! wishful thinking!!! or is it?

So what are those guys in middle east reading Danish newspapers for...??? Bharath asks A pertinent question and Oz replies

Technorati Tags : Charlie+hebedo, Prophet+of+doom, Daniel+Pearl, Danish+Newspaper

Interview with GOD

2006-02-09T16:12:00.000+04:00

This is so beautiful to ignore, please double click the following link:

Interview with God

(Requires your popup to be enabled to view)

Did you Know

2006-02-07T10:25:00.000+04:00

Did you know chemicals released by plastic water bottles can cause cancer??? (It is not the water that affects you but the chemical released from the bottle)

How to avoid: Check the bottom of the bottle there should be a triangle sign with a number on it. If the number is higher than or equal to 5 --> then this bottle is safe to use. Numbers under 5 will release these carcinogenic chemicals.

Remember to check and stop reusing those bottles.

Please pass on this information to your friends

Jethro Tull - Live at Bangalore

2006-02-04T00:10:00.000+04:00

A Short review - .

Home
0130hrs

Just got back from the concert 30 minutes ago...

Man, what a show!!!!

Guys, if you decide to see just one concert in a year...and if Jethro Tull plays anywhere even remotely near...DO NOT MISS IT!!!

Thank you (IA) and Goodnight.

The Jethro Tull concert - Bangalore ( the outsourcing capital of the world)

Reached the concert venue much earlier than the scheduled time of opening. Yeah am a tull head with time to spare. Back in 94 it was - when I had travelled, with a friend, overnight to Madras ( as it was called then) from Ooty with no tickets in hand hoping to beg, borrow or steal a ticket for the show. Did manage to buy tickets from a guy then who had a couple to spare. I realised it then the folly of being late at the venue. Had high prized tickets but managed to stand about four rows ahead of the lower prized tickets.

It wouldnt be so this time I had told myself....reached there early only to find there was no queue at the venue. there was a small queue forming for the 600bucks ticket. It was 4.30 pm then, realised that it wouldnt be much of a problem getting in and finding a good spot.

The TICKET...Picked up a 1200 bucks ticket from the pizza hut outlet on 2 Feb. Was hoping there would be somebody to go with for the show. I couldnt think of anyone who would come for a TULL show...with me...:). - Got one ticket for myself.

Friday morning at around 9 called up Manoj asking him if he was going for the TULL show..."Why, of course machan...you want to come...?I have a few tickets to spare. Hemant said he was flying down from Hyderabad...just heard that he is not. You want to join us we are about six of us...including the girls...Even frenchie is coming". I didnt tell him I had just bought the ticket...but instead i said..."Hey cool machan...I'm game..." "O.K call me at four and we'll work the rest..."he said. Hey thanks machan...you are a cool dude..." I said...

Yogi - its been a while since I met him...Thoght I'd ask him if he wanted to come along. rang him. Got an sms back from him which said. " Am in a class will call back at Lunch time". Which he promptly did... "

"Hey machan how are you da?" "I'm cool man, how are you?"I enquired... "Good da machan... So what's happening...you coming for the Tull show tonite?" I asked him. "No da machan...wife is not in town and the kid wont want to see a rock show" he said. Yogi is not a Tull fan...he is the Bryan Adams type... ( who by the way is playing in Bangalore tonite... 5 feb 2006. Uriah Heep plays in Bangalore on 8 Feb......and quite a few other local gigs happening) not that he would go for the BA concert either. Had a ticket - thought Id ask him if he wanted to come along...He was the only guy in 94 who knew that I was going for the show from Ooty and he covered up for me then. I doubt if he remembered...neways wanted to tell him and also offering to take him for the show...well...mebbe another time. Hey thanks Yogi machan...thanks for covering for me in 94... " who are you going with da?" Yogi enquired..."Manoj, his friends, frenchie and maybe Hemant" I said...just for effect..." Hemant, machan, that guy will fly to Dubai if he wants to...impress somebody..."I laughed... " Imagine da... those days Tull concert was so huge...people travel from all over the country just to watch Tull play...( well it does happen even now...in Arif alladin's case...more about him later)...but now...I continued...You have colleges sponsoring a Tull concert for their culturals..." "Man how times change...illeda...?" I could hear him laugh at the other end. " So you not coming ?" "No da...you have a blast tonite....bye..we'll catch up sometime " he said.

The venue... IIM Bangalore is about about 200 meters from where our restaurant is coming up. One of the finest management institutins in the country. The Jethro Tull concert was part of their cultural festivities called Unmaad 2006. (Hey did you know they once opened for Pink floyd?) There were a few cultural activities on at 4.30 pm and sinse there was no queue for the Tull show I thought i'd spend some time watching the culturals. Even managed to sell the ticket I had bought to guy there who was looking for one. He bought the ticket from me...for the value of the ticket and I also gave him the Aqualung Live CD that came along.

Cyrus Barocha was the MC for a programme called Wall of Fame which was a intercollege Jam session or something like that... The session was interesting with Cyrus managing a few laughs with his crappy sense

of humour. The programme was well attended... with a fair amout of SHE breeze blowing...

Murali called at around 4.30. he said he'd just reached home from office and wolud be there in about an hours time.

He reached the venue at around 6pm. He too had a spare ticket...apparantly manoj had got an invitee pass for him too. He sold his ticket at the gate...minus the CD...The guy who bought the ticket from him also was looking for an additional ticke..."Yaar, Thanks I have 6 CD's with me." he said when Murali had offered to give him the CD later as he was not carrying it with him then. Hey! you get to see the show on an invitee pass and keep the CD too...good show...:) I thought.

Thermal and a Quarter (TAAQ) a pathbreaking Bangalore band celebrating its 10th Anniversary was the Opening act for the Tull show...Apparantly they were the opening act for Deep Purple when they played in Bangalore in 2001. Their third album was given away as a freebie at the venue...I am told that its also available as a free download at their site... I like the way the band sounded on CD...Although I was not impressed with thier live act...that probably was because of the poor sound that was used for the show...Hey check out Thermal and a quarter...Their CD Plan B is quite cool. I liked the song that they sung Live from their album Jupiter cafe too... neways it was fun.

TAAQ ended their act at 8.15...they had a fairly decent show...got booed a bit by the impatient crowd...but then thats quite normal...Manoj, Frenchie and the other guys stayed away from the TAAQ act...I had to take the girls and keep them company till they came in after their beers. It was tough for me to explain TULL to the girls who were about to witness their fist TULL act...I surely sounded excited which probably got them a lil uppity too...

The Band took stage at 8.30 pm sharp with the patient yet 'inTULLigent' crowd sending a minor roar when the first backstage test of his flute by IA came through the speakers...the "MAGIC" was about to begin!

"Good evening ladies and Gentlemen...It's good to be here once again" he said to a rousing roar and kicked off the show with 'My Sunday Feeling' followed by Life's a long song. The young kid in the picture sure had a whale of a time especially when she heard Bouree. Murali and I had managed to get to about 10 rows from the stage pushing a pulling.....lol. till a loud short lady stopped us in our tracks. So that was were we stayed for those next magical 120 minutes. As I mentioned earlier...this was my first show where I got to stand so close...There were about 10000 people in Madras in 94. I guess it was far too low a head count this time around...possibly 4000(?? )Tull heads were present this time. looking at the pictures I made i told myself...i will get myself a new camera shortly... The Camedia C-150 that I used gave me a whole lotta problems this time...Its slow to reload and gave me quite a few stills that were out of focus. Actually I was a lot worried this time coz the last time around they took off my batteries when I objected to them wanting to keep my Camera.They werent allowing anyone to enter the venue with cameras then. This time around they were objecting only cigarettes and lighters. anyways I was prepared this time with a spare set of batteries in my socks. they did feel my pockets and let me in without a word...I guess with so many cameraphones they thought it wiser not to object at all. I mentioned the poor sound quality...although the sound from instruments came out pretty OK...the vocals were hardly audible...I mean I was not expecting CD quality sound ouput or anything... but the sound from the vocals just sucked!!!. Even Frenchie ( yeah he taught me French in college) asked me a couple of times 'what did he say?...what did he say??'...here he is mesmerized by the Jethro Tull magic. This is his first time at a Live TULL act. he was at the Buddy guy show which was held at the Center for Performing Arts...he told me earlier that day that he managed to sit in the first row at the show and during the concert stood up and asked buddy... " Hey Buddy can I have the plucker man?" and Buddy stretched his hand and handed him the plucker he way playing his guitar with... and I thought WOW!!!!

IA then went on to play the following ( listed in noproper order) Jack In the Green , Mother goose , MOZ ART , Cross Eyed Mary, Bouree.... (This was just taken after the flute solo...She was impressed too)

The Bouree was greeted to a loud roar from the very appreciative crownd and he rendered an awesome variation to the original...I lapped it up all. Gawd u are never too old to rock and roll...ever.!!!

Bouree was followed by A Christmas song ( 'we are not too far from another christmas are we'...he joked in his inimtable style. Read this blog for more Tull wit at the show)and followed by one of my all time favorites Budapest and Aqualung Oh!yeah and he played My God and Thick as a brick earlier too. He ended the show with a fiery rendition of Locomotive breath Jethro Tull played minus Barre and Giddings...which was possibly a reason for a low turn out...however a rocking show indeed. Jethro Tull...Ian Anderson thank you very much indeed!!

Oh! yeah and maybe the next time around...hope I would be lucky to hear The whistler, Cheerio, One brown mouse, a Small cigar, Fire at Midnight and Bradford bazaar

Arif Alladin...He was the winner of the castrol contest and won a prize to meet Ian Anderson Back stage. I met Arif on 4th Feb. Arif happens to be the guy who would possibly be installing the exhaust system for our restaurant. I heard that he wanted to ask Anderson what keeps him going after all these years...Dunno what answer he got to that cliched question...lol... Anyways Arif has a company called sweetech engineers and his name gets mentioned in the TOI write up on the TULL show the next day.

Technorati Tags : Jethro+tull+live+Bangalore, Unmaad+2006, IIM, Thermal+and+a+quarter, TAAQ, Cyrus+Barocha, inTULLigent, Arif+Alladin

Jethro Tull Live

2006-02-02T21:02:00.000+04:00

Jethro Tull - Live

3 Feb 2006, IIM Campus Grounds, Bangalore.

I will be there...

Technorati Tags : Jethro+Tull+Live+Bangalore, 3+Feb+2006, IIM+Grounds

How to disable a STOLEN mobile phone?

2006-01-30T15:12:00.000+04:00

Mobile users - Suppose your cell phone is stolen. What will you do?

Here are some tips. Read it. Please forward it to as many people you can.

How to disable a STOLEN mobile phone?

A bit of useful information. Just in case you happen to lose your mobile or it gets flogged.

To check your Mobile phone's serial number, key in the following digits on your phone:

* # 0 6 #

A 15 digit code will appear on the screen. This number is unique to your handset write it down and keep it somewhere safe.

Should your phone get stolen, you can phone your service provider and give them this code. They will then be able to block your handset so even if the thief changes the SIM card your phone will be totally useless. ( However it would be a better idea if you could verify this statement with your service provider before hand as there could be technical difficulties in them)

You probably won't get your phone back, but at least you know that whoever stole it can't use/sell it either.

If everybody did this, there would be no point in stealing mobile phones. Send this to as many people as possible.

Technorati Tags : Mobile+phone+theft, safeguard, Tips+for+mobile+phone+users

Chandni Chowk and Ponnusamy

2006-01-26T13:29:00.000+04:00

Weekly links

What the world looks like with all the lights on in a 24 hour period
http://antwrp.gsfc.nasa.gov/apod/image/0011/earthlights_dmsp_big.jpg

Never too early to start planning your next April Fool?s jokes:
http://www.museumofhoaxes.com/hoax/aprilfool/

Craigs list - Bangalore - Hope more people start to use this site in India...
http://bangalore.craigslist.org/

Ehow - ever wanted to know how things are done...
http://www.ehow.com

Its Republic day today... am a lot relaxed...The funding for the restaurant has been assured by the bankers but of course with a reminder that it would be delayed due to some internal difficulties in their operations. The bank has recently acquired an other bank therefore the decision making people are busy with re organizing work at the bank...was the explanation offered to us.

We were however very thrilled by the guarantee that was offered to us.

Fabmall wanted us to sign the lease agreement on 1st February. With the agreement coming into effect from 15th February. It's quite tricky...anyways will wait for a couple or more days.

Tried to call up the interior designers that kris had sent me.... was able to reach only one... Amit Benegal...others were old numbers or wrong numbers. Amit had apparently done just one restaurant in Belgaum ( Karnataka) which he also claimed has won some awards. He said he would email me the photographs tomorrow....

Kris also said he knows another lady who designs interiors in Hyderabad...apparently she is in Hong Kong right now and is expected later this week. He said he would contact her and let me know.

We got a lot of work done yesterday...and I am surprised how easily a lot of work gets done these days... I had been to the BSNL office yesterday to apply for a land line...although this is not and everyday work routine...i was pleasantly surprised when the whole process for applying for it was completed in just 20 minutes...I remembered when there was a time not so long ago that I had to spend three whole days running from one office to the other just to get this work done...Yeah! but that was in a different state ( Kerala) a few years ago...i guess things would have improved there too. Even getting a mobile phone connection does not take too long here...and am sure it must be the least expensive among all the nations to own a mobile phone in this country. I didn't have a mobile number on my name when i was in Kerala as they didn't have enough SIM cards to issue to ever increasing subscriber base....although i was offered to be given one by a tout by paying Rs 3000.00. I refused...so I borrowed one from a guy who had two cards on him.

The manager at the bank also told me yesterday that you could apply for a SIM card by giving details of your bank account....which she said has the required proof of residence. That was quite cool...especially for people who are new in the state and havent got their residence proof yet. Transfer your back account to the nearest branch in the new state and give an address where you stay and get your account number allotted and use this for obtaining your mobile SIM card. I guess your bank account could be useful for other essentials too like your Gas connection etc.

I still haven't found the exhaust system manufacturers although I have got just one reply to all the mails I sent them. Ranjeet sent me details of a couple more manufacturers. They are the high end dealers...Continental equipments and diverse hospitality. I mailed them too.

Haven't got the CAD drawings yet. John said he had mailed it on Tuesday...there must be some technical snag somewhere...Pravina also said she emailed me and one of the emails keeps bouncing back from my ID. I dunno the reason mebbe in Pravinas case the mail could have a malicious code which my anti virus keeps blocking or which mebbe even gmail keeps out...I dunno. neways...

Last three days was fun...Met Sapna... a ravishing beauty....OMG....mmmmmm :) She was sweet and smart... wonderful...mebbe I will tell her ' that's what I thot about you' some day soon...:)

John told me on Monday last to take a look at Chandini Chowk at Koramangala... he had told me to take a look at that restaurant earlier...but Monday it was that I decided to go there. It's an Indian / Punjabi restaurant at Koramangala 6th Block very near to Kwiky's, Pizza Hut etc. it was around 7:30 pm when I got there...I had a to ask a few people for the land mark...but then its easily accessible and its on the main road in a huge vacant spot very close to DAL ROTI, also an Indian restaurant on the first floor at Koramangala.

I spotted it quite easily...actually one wouldn't miss it i you were looking for it... It was lit up on the outside with a lot of serial bulbs giving it an appearance of a house where a wedding was taking place... there were a few cars parked outside the restaurant which had a fairly large parking space. You couldn't see any of the interiors from the outside...mebbe it was a clever ploy...It had a huge door with a guard seated outside....he rushed up greeted me and opened the door for me...the first thing that struck me was a gravel that was lying on the floor in the inside...wow...surprise!!! The floor was just loose gravel.

It had huge red curtains on the inside and a mud wall that separated the outer section on the inside of the restaurant with an other inner section...I moved towards it...it had stone slab seating and wooded tables...that contrasted beautifully with the red curtains and the funny chandeliers that hung from the roof. i looked up and saw a thatched ceiling wow i thought again...A perfect Dhabba.

I sat down on the outer section as i didnt want to eat anything - I had a very late lunch ( 4 pm to be precise). On one table i saw Madhuri Dixit ( Chandini - Sri Devi..did they miss the link???) staring at me from a tray mat with her trade mark smile....which obviously was very infectious...I smiled...the music was a tad loud but came from large earthenware pots hung on the ceilings into which the speakers were placed... ordered a glass of sweet lassi ( again). It was served quite quick but in a regular glass... something like an old fashioned glass a tad narrower at the bottom...It was....hmmmmmmm just ok...had a funny taste to it...but I was soaking in the excitement of the ambience that I forgot how crappy the lassi actually was. The restaurant actually shocks you...coz you least expect the interiors to be the way it is...Like a DHABBA i mean...I saw a few girls come in a get shocked themselves...Yeah but that's because some people expect it to be presented in a certain way in their minds ...which leads to disappointment or maybe they just dont have the taste to appreciate good things...I wouldn't know...

Chatted up with a waiter...who didn't know what he was being paid...he has put in 20 days work...said he'd know what they would pay him
when he gets his salary...Thats weird... I thot...anyways..

The surprise didn't stop there...I asked for the bill and it came in a jewelry box...hehehe... Got me thinking...the people who designed this place must have surely been on some kinda "trip". I was told the owners were two ladies... hey that's an incentive to go back there and try their food sometime...bet I will...id love eating there...;)

Spotted a DVD lending library near Chandini Chowk called Cinema Paradiso. Has some very cool titles...and a very good space design...was also very crowded...

And yesterday after the meeting with the bankers...took tittu to see chandini chowk...he was also impressed...Also went to Copper chimney... Though we went after lunch hours...Shankar Managed to get us some lunch...They close shop at 3:20 he said...I didn't know that...mebbe we were 10 minutes too late...

Dinner was at Ponnusawmy... A restaurant serving Tamil cuisine...Although Andhra cuisine rules in Bangalore...it would do good if people start venturing and try the awesome spread that Tamil cuisine offers. Although I am a vegetarian these days...there was a time when a visit to any Chettinad restaurant was immediately grabbed leaving aside all those other choices however exciting they were. Sadly the Tamil cuisine in Bangalore has not taken off probably because of the anti tamil pulse that lies dormant in the state. The Cauvery issue still touches a raw chord with the Kannadigas here... well having said all that, unlike the other Andhra restaurants who have focused on bringing in elements of fine dining at least in terms of decor and ambience and not necessarily service...they have managed to bring into their fold all the experimental diners who would not venture into a restaurant that does not have the ambience that they have now so used to.

Ponnusamy I thought has some real good stuff on their menu but, sadly I noticed it was only the Tamil speaking people chose to dine there...Unlike the cosmopolitan crowd you get to see in the Andhra joints....which was sad in a way.

Well...he ordered a non veg Thali...(traditionally served on a Plantain leaf)The foodie that he obviously is and I played safe with Roti and paneer and was hugely disappointed... NEVER order North Indian food at a South Indian Restaurant if you can help it...I couldn't therefore I was...

Technorati Tags : weekly+links, april+fool+jokes, ehow, republic+day, Amit+benegal, BSNL, SIM+card, Chandni+chowk, Dal+roti, cinema+paradiso, copper+chimney, ponnusamy, Thali, meal

Stress Analyser...Ok Ok..Mebbe it IS a Hoax!!!

2006-01-23T08:59:00.000+04:00

The pictures attached are used to test the level of stress a person can handle.One teacher said, "I felt like they were all moving...but slowly. Kind of like, they were breathing." The slower the pictures move, the better your ability of handling stress.Alleged criminals that were tested see them spinning around madly; however,senior citizens and kids see them standing still.
FYI ... None of these images are animated - they are perfectly static!

Technorati Tags : Stress, Stress+analyser

Trade Licence

2006-01-22T11:20:00.000+04:00

I haven't been browsing last week to post any "cool" sites.

Sunday Morning

Started of with Brian's often hilarious musings on his travels. I loved his posts on India from 2003. He has just posted a new one on his travels in Peru.

Did some travelling myself too last week. Had been to Kochi and unlike last time I took my camera, but slept through most of the journey...so dunno what I missed. I remember having told myself to click some pix of the colorful lorries of Kerala and other stuff. I didn't - so that's it...as always there's always another time.

Met Amrita after a month. She looked different...but very happy...

Miruim said Hi! yesterday after more than a month. Chatted with her too for a long time last night...It was fun...

We probably may end up giving the work on the interiors at the restaurant to Swati. She has done work in the kitchen here and also has some experience of designing a couple of restaurants in Bombay. I doubt we will use the designers that Kris forwarded me...which is a shame...I will try and meet them some day....

Sarwarker called, so did Ranjeet Pandey. It was the turn of the big Chefs to contact. Pandey has been having trouble sending me emails so he used the phone. I haven't received any emails he said he sent me regarding the exhaust. Apparently he has sourced some manufacturers in Pune. I hope they have branches in Bangalore.... neways he said I'll get the details tomorrow. Sawarkar had called to tell me that he has found a chef for me...His name is Yadav. He had called me on Friday night. I was unable to speak as it was very loud and couldn't hear him. Told him I'd call on Saturday. I called but he was off the hook. Will call him again later today or tomorrow.

Ranjeet also told me to speak to a guy named Aloke who is also with Sodexho ( every one seems to have moved there). I called him....he sounded inebriated at 6:30 pm, which Ranjeet had warned me earlier,the he would be, but also said that he''s a nice guy to talk to...." dont offer him a job" He had warned me...:). I think I would meet him later this week....Would sure like to pick his brains.

The C.A, I forgot to mention in my previous blog gave me the report that I had to submit to the bank in a very shabby state...It wasn't aligned many columns were hidden. etc., which kinda really pissed me off....It wasn't his fault...he wanted to get that fixed for me...I had said Ok but the assistants he has was not able to do much....they had limited experience is what I felt and that guy was doing too many different things at one time...I wish these guys have at least one DTP specialist working for them instead of some snotty secretaries who was trying to get me to buy her lunch showing some non existent cleavage...neways...I had to go some 300 mts away to find someone who dabbled with DTP work and get the whole thing formatted and spiral bound and submitted to the bank...only to find that the Manager at the bank just wanted a photocopy of the format... I thought that was weird...Submitted the copy that I had taken as a back up and retained the spiral bounded one....lol

The Manager, she also told me to get two seals done 1. A Common seal and 2. A rubber stamp with the company name and authorized signatories. I found that this can be done at Ulsoor Police station and elsewhere...will get it done on Monday.

Picked up a double burner gas cooking range, a few tables and some other stuff from the restaurant that closed down. Asked John to keep the stuff for me. He said 'OK at a nominal rent'. I agreed. Will get details on the pricing tomorrow. I still haven't got the stairway drawing from him yet. I wonder what's wrong.

Vipul wants us to sign the lease agreement by Feb 1st. He is silent on the 60 day moratorium that we have asked for. He hasn't given us the agreement papers to go through as yet....Mebbe he wants us to submit the drawings...Dunno what...will ask John to speed upon the drawings...hopefully I can email it to Vipul tomorrow.

John sent an email regarding the details we need from the landlord. I also picked up the agreement form from the BMP for the trade and Power Licence. It costs Rs 50/- and is a detailed list of all that is required to be done to obtain or renew a trade licence. A very handy booklet. Suresh a guy I met at Lipton said Id have to pay 25K extra to the HI for the licence. I doubt. The nation is so darn corrupt nothing gets done without a bribe. 25 K is a fairly large sum of money, mebbe he had included his cut thinking i'd ask him to get it done for me. I will do it myself - lets put to good use my negotiation skills. 25 K I will not pay.

That's all then for the week...will post again sometime during the week

Technorati Tags : electronic+foolishness, Amrita, Mirium, Swati, Kris, Ranjeet+Pandey, Sawarkar, Sodexho, Aloke, Balamurali, Kanchana, Common+seal, Rubber+stamp, tade+licence

Stairway for service entrance.

2006-01-18T21:14:00.000+04:00

Met john and travelled with him to the site in his car (a chauffeured Maruti Esteem).We left lipton tea house at 12:30 pm .It was a sunday was hoping there would be lesser traffic. Dang - its madness 7 days of the week. I guess Sundays the Chaos only start a little late. Didn't see too many buses on the road is all.

Reached Bannerghetta at around 1pm.

The drive was pretty interesting.

John had a friend...the owner of Appachi ( featured in last weeks Outlook Magazine)the Chettinad restaurant in Pondicherry, who happened to be in Delhi for the Auto Expo, go visit Punjab by Nature,(the Restuarant Tittu was raving about)... apparently he told John that dining at Punjab by Nature was as expensive as a return Air fare to chennai. I think he meant that the pricing was ridiculous. "I don't know if I would get reimbursed for this" he had also told John.
I remained silent. Obviously he meant that such weird / obscene pricing was not good economics...anyways...he told me he wanted to have a look at the menu...I kept quiet for a while and after a few minutes remembered that I was carrying the Menu with me. Took it out and handed it to him. He looked at the two page menu and Laughed.... "245 bucks for a Tandoori Brocolli???? Damn the menu doesn't even say anything about the Dish here!!!!. How many pieces would there be in a dish.Oh! Ok at least it says 500 grams for a Tandoori pomfret." (375 bucks!!!!). "Get me a copy of this Menu will you?" I nodded silently. "45 bucks for a Masala pappad...??"he was laughing.
We reached the last flyover before bannerghetta, that's under construction. "Oh! I have seen a stairway near here...i'll show you when we drive back." "Look on the left side and stop if you see a hardware shop...I'll buy a measuring tape". We spotted one a short while later but it didnt have the tape, so we drove straight to Bannerghetta.

Stopped to take a look at the new joint Mr. Sudhakar of fabmall was referring to. It was named Mast Kalandar and its located on the first left after Poorva Heights...the residential apartments a couple of kms before Mantri and fabmall. It appeared as a nondescript location situated about less than 100 mts after you turn left from the Bannerghetta main road. I clicked a few pictures of the outside when a neatly dressed waiter came outside and enquired saying "May I help you?". Oh! we are just looking around I mumbled. "Came lets have a Lassi", John said and we walked in. The restaurant was a shocking Orange on the inside...It has its walls painted in orange had plastic chairs...also in orange...To the right on the inside there was a 5 cheffing dishes laid out for a buffet ( they had weekend Buffets for lunch and dinner the waiter said). It was a Biriyani buffet spread priced at Rs 125/- plus taxes per head. We ordered for two lassis both sweetened. I was hoping they would surprise me with its garnish. Clicked a few pictures of the menu...the flash was too bright. anyways...I was recovering from the orange shock when john pointed out that they didn't have any non vegetarian items on the menu. Now that's surprising. I wanted to be sure so I asked the waiter there and he confirmed. A vegetarian restaurant built like a cafeteria/ coffee shop. " I am a vegetarian...maybe I will come here for my lunch and Dinner while we get our restaurant up." I said laughing.

Just then I spotted the false ceiling...It already had a large black spot on it and some places where the cracks were showing up. John nodded..."Told you" he said...we should just stick to doing up the ceiling with good wall mounted fitting and not go for the false ceiling. it made sense...Its just been 8 months that Mast kalandar has been up and already its begun to age.
I dunno about the quality of food they serve here...mebbe i will try it some day soon. Sudhakar obviously had rated it high...and It's pricing...at Rs 67 bucks a Veg Thali I thought was moderately priced considering the location. The Lassi came rightly in a Tom Collins glass however without any garnish - It didn't have cream on top nor sugar. So that ended Mast Kalandar.
Reached fabmall took measurements for the staircase ( rear entry) after buying a tailoring tape ( :) ) from a nearby departmental store. We also found a couple of Indian restaurants nearby....all in the middle or lower bracket.

At the site we found there was ample space for the stairway. We have decided to execute a simple design as below.

This design would have already gone through the process of getting the necessary approvals from the fire and other local departments.
Its modular in its design
Cost effective as compared with civil work.

Clicked a few pix of the stairway as we returned. It looked pretty decent almost exactly what I had in mind for the service entrance...good work John!. Now wait for the design approval from the mall guys.

We might use Mrs.Swati as out Interior designer. She would just design the layout we will have to get technicalities like the tables chairs and other peripherals done ourselves through manufacturers. She would be visiting the site tomorrow.

17th Jan
Took Shankar - the Manager at Copper Chimney to show the Bnghta location...he has begun to rave...:). We took an ex senior captain from Sahib Sind aur Sultan who is now with Copper chimney also along...

18th Jan

Submitted the documents to the bank. Hopefully 2 weeks...she has noted that the advance towards rentals shall not be part of the approved loan....:(

Kris sent me a few contacts of interior designers through Chinappas wife.

Am visiting Bnghta again tomorrow...Tandoori nights a restaurant there closed down 6 months ago. Will look at picking up some kitchen equipments from them.

Leaving for Kochi tomorrow will be back on Saturday.

Sify broadband was installed today and am back online....

Sudhakar - CEO Fabmall

2006-01-14T21:21:00.000+04:00

Some new links for the week...I use the stable Windows 98 therefore I cannot guarantee the performance of Google accelerator. But like the other Google warez I think this would also be cool. Atleast this is what I hear

Google web accelerator (requires win 2000 or XP)

TLC - What not to wear

The Best photos of 2005

The top 10 weirdest case mods

The top 10 weirdest USB drives

The best rejected Ads

Top 10 websites you should know about

15 Tech. concepts you will need to know in 2006
Make any website a mobile site, with Google
Clusty the search engine that's worth a look
Pandora - A cool music discovery site Check it out now***** Lets you play all songs from your favorite stars or discover new ones

Last week was fun...The family has moved into their new flat on the 12th. I stayed back in the house till the shifting was complete. Will move in mostly tomorrow till the time the flat in Bannerghetta near the restaurant is ready.

Also we had a meeting with Mr. Sudhakar - CEO Fabmall. Mr.Sudhakar happened to be in Microland when tittu was there. They happened to have met "just once" as he chose to put it. "He has agreed to see us" he had said sounding very excited last week...the meeting was fixed for Friday last at 3 pm. We arrived on time although we had a little trouble finding Trinethra - their corporate office. Mr. Sudhakar is an IIM - A grad, quit his job at Microland in 1998 to start a company what is now call 'Fabmall' - the food store chain. Also the building were we plan to house the restaurant.

The meeting lasted an hour and he gave us fantastic insights into how he planned the beginning of Fabmall. It was so gracious of him to have given us the time to pick his brains. So humbling an experience.

In brief he suggested the following.

To ensure that you have an adequate back up plan in place in case the location does not deliver.
To prepare a Modular business. By which he meant that incase you have to move to a different location it would be easier to relocate.
To give ourselves at least 12 months to settle into the business and not be ready to wind up in a short time of 3 months in a worst case scenario.
Must be willing to say tell yourself that this is how far deep I am willing to go before I "pull the plugs" and be very very clear about that.

Wise thoughts...and deep insights many of which will be presented in my later blogs. Finally we asked Sudhakar to increase the rent free period from 30 to 60 days. He said he would speak to Vipul. We feel that should be agreeable.

We have a name finally for the restaurant...its a play on an English word and it came from Mr S.K.Bitta....If chosen you, Mr.Bitta, would be entitled for a life time of free meals at the restaurant for the two of you.

I will be at the site again in the afternoon tomorrow. We need the measurements taken for the stairway. Should be back by the evening

Manoj had called he gave me the name of an interior designer who claims to have done the interiors for Pizza Hut in their early days. The guy said he will send me his portfolio....Dunno what happened he never did nor did he take any of my calls.

Kris called...wanted his refund for a cancelled airline ticket checked with the airline office. Checked it for him - apparently there was some technical snag in their system - said they would revert in 7 working days....will do next week.

Kris gave me the number of Ryan who manages a Bar in Hyderabad. he spoke very highly of him so I called him....sounded like a smart chap...said he would look for a chef for me...he wasn't willing to relocate from Hyderabad to Bangalore....said he had a lot of problems when he stayed away from his family for 7 months last year...huh???? neways gave him a brief of what we were looking for. he asked me if I would be visiting Hyderabad any time. i said Yes, if I have to come there to interview people I wouldn't mind. He said he needed two weeks to find the right chef. I said fine.

Kris has some serious shit lined up for him at his domestic front. They are separating...he claims she got him "locked up" for dowry harassment....Huh!!!. He claims she wants to get back to her previous boyfriend...It is a tragedy however I look at it. One of my closest pals at Loyola, Madras....Think the bitch wouldn't get anyone better than him...was weird slapping a dowry case and putting your husband behind bars just to bail out quickly...

Saleem called...told him I was looking for an Indian chef...he said he had one in mind..."How much would you pay?" he asked...When I told him he said..."WOW!...you would pay so much???" "Yes" I said thinking to myself you get monkeys if you pay peanuts....he said the executive sous chef at Holiday Inn may be willing...I said sure...ask him. He said he'd call back in two days.

The bankers have agreed in principle with the loan - we shall be making our final presentation to them on Monday. I hope that goes well.

I am refining my thoughts on the interiors for the restaurant right now. Have fixed on the final design for the chairs. I am working on the tables and lighting right now. I shall post the pictures later.

Technorati Tags : links+for+the+week, sudhakar, fabmall, clusty, Pandora, make+any+website+mobile+with+google

Meezhau

2006-01-11T21:47:00.000+04:00

The last three hours has got my mind churning...I have been asking myself since 7 pm - why?...why did she call? Why did she call me today of all the days??? I have not been able to get my mind off that one conversation this evening.

Though I do not blog about women in my public blogs...I told myself I should put this episode on my blog.

Its 5 past 10 in the evening and I just got back home. i wasn't planning to blog tonite...but then who knew...

I had gone to meet john to discuss about the plan for the restaurant. The meeting was scheduled at 5:30 and I had reached there at 5:15...discussed parts of the design. It was the first serious discussion on the design...neways...this blog is not about that.

The meeting got over at 7pm. I had a scheduled meeting again with Madhukar whom I had called on to discuss regarding the staffing at 8pm. I was near the pizza corner when my phone rang. It has a 988 mobile number. Of late I have been getting a few calls from a 081 number code. i didnt have the 988 number on my phone and therefore assumed it was a wrong number. However I picked the phone...I always do...always pick up the phone except when I am in a meeting. i probably would not have picked up the phone had it come half an hour earlier. in that way it was fortunate the call came later.

'Hello" I said Picking up the phone.
'Hi..this is Meechau' I heard (or at least I thought I heard a feminine) a voice on the other side. The traffic was loud and I was just about to enter the pizza corner outlet when the call had come through. The voice stopped me in my tracks...It was difficult hearing with all the horns blaring. the traffic in front of forum is always way too loud. neways...

"Hi this is Meechau' the voice went on...women with accents are not new. I get a few calls...( with the call center booming in Bangalore...people with accents are everywhere) and it didn't sound like Cynthia...this voice had a very strong accent and i couldn't place it. It wasn't Cynthia...it wasn't her time to call... she calls in the morning and I had a long talk with her this morning which had drained my charge on the phone earlier. We had then talked for atleast 30-40 minutes...neways. With the traffic loud and me not hearing the call too welll..I told the 'lady' it was a wrong call and politely disconnected the phone...I was inside the PC outlet browsing the Menu...I didnt want to eat pizzzza...was trying to decide what to drink when the phone rang again....It had the same 998...number...I picked the phone again and went on, not saying hello this time..."I think you got a wrong number" I said with my finger on the 'red' button when the other said went. "Is this Pradeep Peter?". There was no accent whatsoever when those words came to my ears...'yes' i said...'Hi this is Meechau" The voice...with the thick accent once again but this time around...BANG it all came back...

It all came back in a flash...the thick accent not withstanding all those memories came back in that just one instant...those dear memories of the not so distant past....those memories till a few years back used to flash before me and just shine. It was beautiful...it still is...sadly only in memories...neways...

"Jeez...MIchelle...is that you?' I mumbled...surprised, delighted...I dont know what (IDK....when was the last time I typed IDK...dont remember).I always dreaded the day when that would happen...and it happened today...I didn't recognize the voice...Michelle's voice...Jeez... hmmmmmm

"Yeah..." what the rest of the conversation was I will not put in here...It's all there ringing in my ears right now...every word...neways...

What troubled me after the conversation was...

Why did she call me today of all the days...? Why couldn't she just have emailed or what ever the heck she could have done.
Why did she not send me birthday wishes, Christmas or new Year greeting every year post 2000, even when I never failed to send her one. (I never sent her those greetings ever, expecting her to send me one in return, but then why today...just a few hours before she took her flight back to Canada after her holidays at yercaud...)
It doesn't matter...I have moved on...those memories don't trouble me anymore...although it did for a very long time till a few years back. (trouble is a wrong word to use...her memories never troubled...it never will...)

mebbe she just wanted to say Hi because she was in Bangalore...(she said she'd reached the Central just then...)Mebbe she did try calling me earlier...

mebbe all the emails I sent her was really in her junk folder ( as she said it may have been). mebbe she just chose to remain silent till today...mebbe I'm really the fool...and mebbe...am just a little wiser now.

Thank you Michelle...mebbe your voice has changed and mebbe there is a part of you that hasn't changed...which is why you callled...I will never know...

But hey if you read this some day...I did not to say all the things I wanted to tell you...a good wish, some more thank yous...a bon voyage, a happy life...because i simply chose not to and i know it was gloriously stupid of me...

Nevertheless...you have a great life...lots of happiness a safe flight back and mebbe...just mebbe...like you said...after 2 years...when you come back again...just remember to give me a buzz a lil earlier...if thats not asking for too much...even if you plan to spend only a few hours in Bangalore.

Thanks and take care
"Peter"

P.S And if you really did read this post someday...Your Dad just called....:). Mebbe...he was trying to figure out whom you called in Bangalore on his phone... I think so, coz he was silent on the other side. I thought it was you and I said "Michelle?" twice. he then said Hello...and it sounded like your bro and I go "TOMMY!!! :)" and he goess...who is this...? I wanted to say...."whom do you want?" but said instead..."uncle?" Hi! this is "Peter". "Oh! Peter...PEDRO...how are you Pedro?" and then we got talking...it was nice talking to him...it always was.

Technorati Tags : Michelle, Yercaud, Canada, Bangalore, Meezhau

Copper Chimney - Bangalore

2006-01-10T23:09:00.000+04:00

Copper Chimney - Bangalore

5th Floor / roof top - Central

4 pm Tuesday 10 jan 2006.

No time to blog but I had to put this up. Visited a highly recommended Indian Restaurant today....Great food...awesome ambience... Someone by the name Nichani must be worried...I hear! The Restaurant is just 15 days old...but there's a lot of BUZZ. Go and enjoy a meal. Downside no bar... yet

A few Pictures from last week.

Andhra Style Chinese...

A comfortable Restaurant...Its all happening in Bangalore!!!!

Powered By Qumana

Sunday Links

2006-01-08T12:27:00.000+04:00

No detailed blogs last week. Just a few emails uploaded to my funny emails blog. A good tidy part of those emails I receive dont get published...probably because they have adult content and many of them are images which is a tad frustrating to upload. I wish they allowed Qumana to upload photographs to blogger directly. I have to upload pix using Picasa and then post the link through the HTML link available on Qumana...which like i said has been frustrating.

I have come across a few sites that may impress you folks...take a look

Tools that can help you with English writing

How to solve a Rubik's Cube

100 things we didn't know this time last year

I have been browsing blogs over the last week whenever i had time...Its been great fun...I have come across a few awesome blogs which I have not tagged yet but told myself I'd check them as often as I can. There is also a contest on at indibloggies take a look you will find some very kewl Indiblogs there (Oh! yeah am not listed there yet. remember this is a personal blog...you just happened to be here!!! :) )

Michael Higgins sent me an email last week to a reply I had posted at his blog. Suggested Shiok's blog ( Does Madhu Menon really know that he had a popular blog...pity he doesn't blog as much). He suggested Aquamarine (has a great template) and Sujatha and Minal though I wasn't looking for blogs with just recipes....anyways.

Spoke to Ambrose yesterday. He had some news for me...Gave him a brief on what was happening on the biz front...he is looking at an opening at Sodexho. he said he'd be visiting bangy for an interview by the 20th of this month. He also informed me that manohar that bastard who assaulted me in 2003 got a 6 year imprisonment slapped on him...well that's the end of that story...Nah i don't intent to blog on it...just wanted to tell myself that he got nailed finally...although I never thought that it would happen to a Marxist thug....neways...good things do happen.

I hope Amby gets out of that godforsaken place too asap. Would be glad if he joins us...but i doubt he will take the option...not too much of a risk taker that he is....neways good luck to him in whatever he decides to do.

Oh! yeah Wednesday last Anujas parents came from Delhi. They will be here till the 14th by then the family would move into the new flat. I dunno if id have the internet ready there...or mebbe will have to blog in from a cafe or wait till the cable gets activated at the flat or till I move to Bnghta...

We meet Vipul again, Monday and the Chartered accountant...Have got the business plan partially readied for presentation to the bank. It only needs some fine tuning by the CA. Although the bankers have agreed in principal for the loan...we will have to make a few presentations again to them. Hopefully the loan should be sanctioned in 2 weeks hopefully.

John, hopefully will have the rear staircase and the gas bank drawings ready by Tuesday. Have to submit the same to the locations owners asap. We plan to confirm our willingness to sign an agreement for the site tomorrow. However we need some areas to be fine tuned before we sign. Tittu knows the big boss...Mr Sudhakar ( not my prof) he worked with him during their days at Microland. He would pitch for some relaxation on the lock in period. Anyways will wait...

Damn got an sms from haja that he plans to open a restaurant on ECR in Chennai...some 150 pax restaurant...or some bull like that...He says he's got some guy who is willing to fund the project...I plan to remain silent on the issue for a while.

No emails / contacts on the interior designer ad posted...I got some hits from website designers...which is kinda funny...:)...Met a guy named Mani at Forum on friday..He said he knew some people...who is a student of Design...no news from him too...mebbe id get one over the next week.

Wanted an Interior designer...to Design the Dining space for a Fine Dining restaurant in Bangalore. If you know anyone...please forward this ad...thanks.

I have been getting some tips and helps from a few people who have been following this blog...Tx H, L, D and A for the tips...keep the mails coming... and to the sailor lady...the yahoo personals are not active in this country...so...:)

Indibloggies

2006-01-07T23:03:00.000+04:00

The Indian weblog awards for the year 2005 is on. Its India's first and very own desi blog awards. If you are an Indian residing in India or elsewhere and have been blogging, or even remotely interested in it take a look and vote for your favorite blogs or what you think has it in them to be the best blogs for the year.

You may cast your votes in the open poll starting today till 10 January 2005 (IST). There are 110 blogs in 18 different categories to vote for.

Alternately, register for free and vote by clicking here

Technorati Tags : indibloggies, Indian+weblog+awards, 2005

~ Interior Designer Wanted ~ ( Thank you we have sourced one)

2006-01-06T08:29:00.000+04:00

An interior designer with fresh ideas to design a fine dining Indian restaurant in Bangalore, India. Please send in your C.V. / resume to peterzblog@gmail.com

I am posting this ad on my blog hoping I would find a candidate ( Fresh Interior designing students may also forward their C.V) to design approximately 1200 sqft of restaurant space which excludes the kitchen area for a restaurant to be opened in the next 120 days. Interested candidates should mention any projects completed by them in their resumes. Students of Interior Designing in their final year of college may also send in their C.V.

We have a restaurant with a simple and elegant design in mind which is adequately sophisticated without being overbearing.

The chosen design shall be appropriately remunerated.

Technorati Tags : Wanted, Interior+designer, Fine+dining, Indian+restaurant, project, job, email, Bangalore, India

~ 2006 - The first blog ~

2006-01-04T22:38:00.000+04:00

The new year and its a whole new feeling...I was reading about the passing of the new year festivties, for some have led to levels of depression...I wonder what do people need to get depressed these days...As for me it was a very unique year end of sorts. Being in the hospitality industry for more than a decade had kept me away from home for Christmas and New Year since 1993. Yeah, that long...and finally all of family with a couple of new additions together for the first time in 13 years...what could beat that!!!

It was quiet - the celebrations...New year Eve was a special and quiet stay at home party...It was tittu's idea... and a good one too...I got to hear from many over the past week that many in Bangalore stayed at home this year and there was a considerable drop in the number of people partying outside...well, did it have anything to do with the incidents at IISc...not for us...that's for sure.

Appa was in good spirits for the year end...he had Johnny Walker to 'keep walking' with him into the new year. It was strange and a lil weird too watching him drink alone...I got some non alchoholic bubblies to pop for the new year. Amma too had a go at it...lol how times change...Anuja refused at first but did give it a try...The bubbly was Ok...nothing to rave home about...but then what choice do non alchoholics have at home...Do I hear apple juice...???

The Menu was a simple home cooked meal which the meat eaters termed as "delieeeeeeeecious". Anuja cooked some mean mutton dish...As for yours truly...I almost thought of ordering a few veggie dishes for myself the next time there was a party at home...lol
The new morn of another new year dawned on us quietly yet surely...

The past couple of days I had been nursing a soar throat which had turned into sneezing bouts on the first day...It wasn't very sever.... although I felt quite drained and mellow on the New Year.

The Family went out for the traditional new year's Lunch outside sans me...I was later told that they had been to Garden Spice - A Chinese eatery. No reviews - you know the reason, But the food they said was good...I take their word.

My New year wishes on my blogs have been creating quite a buzz...lol...a small slice of crazy me for the new year was expected...i am glad it was well received...Frenchie even called it the best New year greeting this year that he had received...lol...mebbe the others were too sloshed to send him one...neways...

Hey! and the prestige trousers came as a perfect fit...For 350 bucks per trouser as stitching charges I was telling my self it better be done well and I wasn't disappointed.

But something else Disappointed / Shocked me that day. My Grandfathers cot which is now an antique piece, alsoclose to a 100 years old and made of Teak wood is being planned to be cut and reduced in size by a family member. I am shocked...I just couldn't believe it when I heard it. Do people not have any idea what an ancestral property is worth??? Not in monetary value, of course...How could anyone even think of putting a saw on something which is as valuable as this...

>>>

Jeez...someone please drill some sense into them...I just hope good sense prevail. Oh! as if I would allow it to be sawed...watch more on this...am sure you will hear more. There are a few more antique pieces. An table made from a 400 year old tea bush. A drift wood weighing closed to a ton...which was appa's throne.>>>. The tea bush and the throne would find their way into the restaurant where it would remain...hey! it already has a price tag to it...PRICELESS!!

The last few days in this were pretty hectic...Appa and Amma left for Kerala on Monday...they would leave for Amman on 14th...I am thinking of visiting them before they leave...I don't think that would work now with developments on the restaurant front happening fast. Met Gopi, Frenchie, Manoj, phillip and a few others later that evening...Was good fun watching the guys get drunk. Also met a guy named Sudhakar - works at Lufthansa he is also a trained chef and manages the kitchen at "Club cabana" jovial chap...promised me he'd also look for a good Indian chef for me. ranjeet pandey never replied to my email nor sms'. I presume he is not willing to help...Thats the way the cookie crumbles I guess...Reached home at 4 am...for a change that was new...Tittu was surprised when he heard that....lol

Had met Vipul of Fab Mall for a detailed discussions on the bannerghatta site. If we are able to get to it in time it should be a whopper of a deal at 20 bucks a square feet for 2700 sq ft super built up area...I have been pretty excited right from the start...the others only now realize what i have been saying all this while... Mebbe it was coz they were looking at something in the city or something closer to home.

The meeting

Vipul wanted us to close the deal for the location in a weeks time.
No power. we will have to apply for power. that would take 45 days minimum ( with speed money)
No generator...Captive power limited to existing site. We will have to get our own power. He agreed to introduce us to his supplier who he said could get us a very good deal.
Service entrance - Asked us to submit the drawings for him to get necessary approvals
Gas bank - Same as above.
Pizza corner will do the external facade including our site with glass frontage giving high visibility.
Available space is 2700 sqft ( super built up) and 2300 sq ft floor space which is way higher than our estimation.
Tough nut wont reduce rates. But then it is a good deal any day for the rate offered.
Pizza corner also paying same rate. But they have taken a smaller location
No internal parking.
Vipul has agreed to give us supplies of provisions, perishables and MFP through their delivery chain at reduced prices on a contractual basis. ( must do a market survey and then take a call)
The above offer is very exciting for one we would not have to maintain high levels of stock.
Bankers want Project plan along with financials immediately.
Ignatius has been briefed of the meeting. Will meet him tomorrow to discuss terms of engagement
Gave Ignatius the floor plan of the location for additional drawing on service entrance and gas bank.

Will meet Ignatius tomorrow...thats should set the ball in motion and we's know where we stand as of now...
Technorati Tags : new, year, Johnny, walker, scotch, keepwalkinggarden, spice, antique, bed, tea, table, club, cabana, vipul, fabmall

What Id like to see blogs have

2006-01-04T18:09:00.000+04:00

I havent been blogging for the past many days...Reasons

a) the New Year has started off with a bang

b) been tied up with work that i am almost sloshed to sit down to blog

c) The Cable was down for the past two days...

d) the restaurant has been taking up a lot of time...But a blog is soon expected...:)

I must say its a kewl feature that bloglet and others have introduced viz-a-viz "Subscribe to my blog entries". Honestly I would like every blog site to have this feature on them.

Technorati Tags : bloglet, subscribe, to, my, blog

Happy New Year

2005-12-31T16:52:00.000+04:00

For all friends and family who intend to send me greetings / luv this year as they did in 2005, let me tell you last year it didn't do F#@%a#l. I would appreciate this year if you would send CASH.

Lakshmi Mittal

2005-12-31T07:57:00.000+04:00

I had to post this email I received yesterday for public viewing...Its an article written by the Steel Baron Lakshmi MIttal after his visit to TATA STEEL in Jarkhand, Jamshedpur, India.

Apparantly this is not a leter written by Mr. Mittal...but was written by Suhel Seth, CEO, Equua Redcell and appears on The Asian Age on May 5th 2004.A good read anyways
Please read...

" I visited Jamshedpur over the weekend to see for myself an India that is fast disappearing despite all the wolf-cries of people like Narayanamurthy and his ilk. It is one thing to talk and quite another to
do and I am delighted to tell you that Ratan Tata has kept alive the legacy of perhaps Indias finest industrialist J.N. Tata. Something that some people doubted when Ratan took over the House of the Tatas but in hindsight, the best thing to have happened to the Tatas is unquestionably Ratan. I was amazed to see the extent of corporate philanthropy and this is no exaggeration.

For the breed that talks about corporate social responsibility and talks about the role of corporate India, a visit to Jamshedpur is a must. Go there and see the amount of money they pump into keeping the town going; see the smiling faces of workers in a region known for industrial unrest; see the standard of living in a city that is almost isolated from the mess in the rest of the country.

This is not meant to be a puff piece. I have nothing to do with Tata Steel, but I strongly believe the message of hope and the message of goodness that they are spreading is worth sharing. The fact that you do have companies in India which look at workers as human beings and who do not blow their software trumpet of having changed lives. In fact, I asked Mr Muthurman, the managing director, as to why he was so quiet about all they had done and all he could offer in return was a smile wrapped in humility, which said it all. They have done so much more since I last visited Jamshedpur, which was in 1992. The town has
obviously got busier but the values thankfully haven't changed. The food is still as amazing as it always was and I gorged, as I would normally do. I visited the plant and the last time I did that was with Russi
Mody.

But the plant this time was gleaming and far from what it used to be. Greener and cleaner and a tribute to environment management. You could have been in the mountains. Such was the quality of air I inhaled! There was no belching smoke; no tired faces and so many more women workers, even on the shop floor. This is true gender equality and not the kind that is often espoused at seminars organised by angry activists. I met so many old friends. Most of them have aged but not grown old. There was a spring in the air which came from a certain calmness which has always been the hallmark of Jamshedpur and something I savoured for a full two days in between receiving messages of how boring and decrepit the Lacklustre Fashion Weak was.

It is at times such as this that our city lives seem so meaningless. Jamsetji Nusserwanji Tata had created an edifice that is today a robust company and it is not about profits and about valuation. It is not about who becomes a millionaire and who doesnt'. It is about getting the job done with dignity and respect keeping the age-old values intact and this is what I learnt.

I jokingly asked someone as to whether they ever thought of joining an Infosys or a Wipro and pat came the reply: "We are not interested in becoming crorepatis but in making others crorepatis."

Which is exactly what the Tatas have done for years in and around Jamshedpur. Very few people know that Jamshedpur has been selected as a UN Global Compact City, edging out the other nominee from India,
Bangalore. Selected because of the quality of life, because of the conditions of sanitation and roads and welfare. If this is not a tribute to industrial India, then what is? Today, Indian needs several Jamshedpurs but it also needs this Jamshedpur to be given its fair due, its recognition. I am tired of campus visits being publicised to the Infosys and the Wipros of the world. Modern India is being built in
Jamshedpur as we speak. An India built on the strength of core convictions and nothing was more apparent about that than the experiment with truth and reality that Tata Steel is conducting at Pipla.

Forty-eight tribal girls (yes, tribal girls who these corrupt and evil politicians only talk about but do nothing for) are being educated through a residential program over nine months. I went to visit them and
I spoke to them in a language that they have just learnt: Bengali. Eight weeks ago, they could only speak in Sainthali, their local dialect. But today, they are brimming with a confidence that will bring tears to your eyes. It did to mine.

One of them has just been selected to represent Jharkand in the state archery competition. They have their own womens football team and whats more they are now fond of education. It is a passion and not a burden. This was possible because I guess people like Ratan Tata and Muthurman havent sold their souls to some business management drivel, which tells us that we must only do business and nothing else. The fact that not one Tata executive has been touched by the Naxalites in that area talks about the social respect that the Tatas have earned.

The Tatas do not need this piece to be praised and lauded. My intent is to share the larger picture that we so often miss in the haze of the slime and sleaze that politics imparts. My submission to those who use phrases such as "feel-good" and "India Shining" is first visit Jamshedpur to understand what it all means. See Tata Steel in action to know what companies can do if they wish to. And what corporate India
needs to do. Murli Manohar Joshi would be better off seeing what Tata Steel has done by creating the Xavier Institute of Tribal Education rather than by proffering excuses for the imbroglio in the IIMs. This is where the Advanis and Vajpayees need to pay homage. Not to all the Sai Babas and the Hugging saints that they are so busy with. India is changing inspite of them and they need to realise that.

I couldn't have spent a more humane and wonderful weekend. Jamshedpur is an eye-opener and a role model, which should be made mandatory for replication. I saw corporate India actually participate in basic
nation-building, for when these tribal girls go back to their villages, they will return with knowledge that will truly be life-altering.

Corporate India can do it but most of the time is willing to shy away. For those corporate leaders who are happier winning awards and being interviewed on their choice of clothes, my advise is visit Tata Steel, spend some days at Jamshedpur and see a nation's transformation. That is true service and true nationalism.

Tata Steel will celebrate 100 years of existence in 2007. It won't be just a milestone in this company's history. It will be a milestone, to my mind of corporate transparency and generosity in this country. It is indeed fitting that Ratan Tata today heads a group which has people who are committed to nation-building than just building inflluence and power. JRD must be smiling wherever he is. And so must Jamsetji Nusserwanji. These people today, have literally climbed every last blue mountain. And continue to do so with vigour and passion. Thank god for the Tata "

Technorati Tags : RatanTata, J.N.Tata, Lakshmi, Mittal, Infosys, Narayanmoorthy, Wipro, Mr., Muthuraman, Bangalore, Naxalites

~ Last Blog 2005 ? ~

2005-12-31T05:34:00.000+04:00

Finally, its those last few hours before we pass on to another realm of a New year. My blog started pretty late in the year and so far its been good fun. The year has been good so far. I completed my tenure as a working professional in the service Industry - can proudly say got off from the high chair in a resort at its peak. I wonder if they miss me there...sometimes I do miss it...but mostly I don't. I have moved on. Now I am an aspiring entrepreneur in the restaurant biz. The year 2006 should most definitely see the form of a fine dining Indian Restaurant taking shape and being fully operational. What's in store for the year 2006? 'The Restaurant' - Read my previous post, A new Residence, New friends...hopefully. Then there is a technology wish list for the year ahead which is more on the lines of some of what I want for the next year. The Week ~ Bangalore shaken by terror attacks Commercial street Banerghatta House warming Eating out Movies Bangalore shaken by terror attacks - Wednesday evening saw terror strike Bangalore. Gunman opens fire at IISc campus in Bangalore throwing out of the window what was known till then as a garden city of peace and tranquility. This blog condemns such dastardly acts of cowards vehemently. It should be known that such acts anywhere in the country only makes the resolves of its people stronger. History stands as a witness to it. Today's news I wouldn't want to elaborate on this inhuman act and give those fundamentalist terrorists any unwanted mileage. But I must say these words here. Bomb blasts in Mumbai in 1993 and 2003 shocked the nation then...stock markets bounce back within three days. Bomb blasts in Coimbatore again in 1998, shook the nation. As always the region and the nation gets on with its chores putting behind the incident. I am of the opinion the resolve of the nation and it's people are not so easily shaken. Bangalore...too would not be too different either. Commercial Street - Monday last, I saw myself in one of the busiest commercial streets of Bangalore also known by the same name. Although I have been there a few times in the past I got to spend a lot more time soaking in the activities of the street this time around. The last time it was a brief visit to the street with Anchit to visit a ladies tailor to collect a gaghra for his lady friend. Well this time around too it was a tailor that brought us here. I am not too fond of ready made trousers - I am a lil old fashioned that Id like my trousers custom made. I am not very particular about my shirt's though. I have noticed that ready made trousers never give me that perfect fit...lol, yeah. My Funny ass looks funnier in ready made trousers. I ran into Rafi Ahmed that day. He probably was coming back after his afternoon prayers. He is currently the Vice President operations of A.J hospitality (P) ltd. A company that operates a few Serviced apartments. He had two business cards to go with, one for A.J International and the other for Intimate Inn another Guest house & serviced apartment. The funny part was the email on one it said getintimate@anisp.com which I thought was kinda naughty. Rafi Ahmed was my Boss when I worked in Goa. ( mebbe I should blog about Goa some day). It used to be weird then working with him....some good times too in that story in that story. Rafi told me that his "Hotel' was just around the corner and asked me to visit him sometime. Introduced Appa to Rafi as 'My Boss from Goa". I didn't want to get too technical. Just for the blog's sake Rafi was the General Manager - West, which we corrupted quite aptly to "General Manager - 'Waste' " - for him and his predecessor a chap called Chikki Raghavan. Oh yeah we had quite a few characters as boss' / HOD's at Goa another I wouldn't forget in Nimmi Knox whom chikki used to call 'quite silently' as Nimmi no Knox( get the picture?) I briefed Rafi on what we were planning to do in Bangalore - "We are setting up a Restaurant in Bangalore" I said - which got him pretty excited... he saw the colour of money...I guess. Some people get so excited they become transparent...neways...he told me " we are into the consulting business ourselves...you can contact us if you need any help with licences and other things" he said. I shook my head and said "sure...will do" We then went about asking some stores for a good tailor...most of them had a tailoring cell but were unable to deliver it to us before Monday. ( Appa & Amma leave for Kochi then). Strangely all of them instructed us to visit "Prestige". Prestige was amazing - by the space they had on the busy commercial street. It must have been close to 5000 sqft. I was wondering why would a tailoring showroom require such large space? What I would hear later that evening would blow my mind away... Appa and Amma are off to a Pilgrimage to the Holy land on 14 January. I gifted Appa 3 trouser lengths which he wanted stitched. This had got us to Prestige. It didn't start off too well- an old man in a Safari suit sitting at the far end of the showroom greeted us. "We would like some trousers stitched "Appa started the conversation quite earnestly. The Old man wasn't amused he must have heard that a million times." Would it be possible to get them stitched before the weekend?" Appa was asking him. "Sorry sir, we can deliver it only on the 10th". he replied. "We are from Kerala" Appa Continued " and we will be leaving Bangalore on Monday next. We have been told that you are the 'best' tailors in Bangalore...I am sure you could do something for us." Appa was at his charming best, I thought. The Old man stood up and had a wry smile on his face. He liked the way he was being handled by appa. " We have lots of work to be completed before the year end and our tailors are not free" he was saying. " But you could try" I said. "Look here...I know that...but we are very busy" he said sounding very animated. I was a lil surprised and so was Appa by his outburst. " Of course you can try...and I know you will do something..." Appa said with laughter in his voice. I thought he was probably very cheesed at me...I wouldn't know...mebbe it was the way i was dressed..."SMARTLY"...lol. The next I knew was he was calling for one of those guys dressed in half sleeved shirts and ties. A guy with a pot belly came over with a measuring tape...Appa was beginning to smile again and I was getting over my surprise that he had agreed to give us the trousers in a week. I still do not know what made him do that...Was it a show that he had put on. Coz it was around 11 in the morning and I hardly saw anyone else come in there to get any clothes stitched. The measurements were taken. I told him what I wanted. Appa was given a size 38 to wear and he was comfortable with it...they did that coz he was wearing a Kurtha Pyjama and they wanted him to wear a trouser to take measurements. The Old man was smiling more often now. He agreed to deliver the trousers by Saturday 31st December and called us to come for a trial on Wednesday. We agreed and Appa, I think was quite relieved. That over we went around and shopped for some woollens for Amma. She is quite disturbed after I told her that it would be about 8 degrees in Amman and Jordan. More so because after their visit to Delhi in November she came down with a very bad flu...she had recovered from it only last week. that I guess was on the back of her mind. I did catch some very good "She Breeze" on commercial street...being single and also a 'villager' these past several years has made some of my animal instincts come right in the open. I was ogling at women...so many pretty women at one time all around you...Damn, I wished I was in bed with everyone of them...Wishful thinking yes...I did manage to catch a few smiles too...Bangalore is a beautiful city...very beautiful indeed...that one in the purple saree...wow...neways... Appa walked ahead of me all the time giving me some good moments of my own...neways...Called Ignatius and asked him if he was free to take a look at the Banerghatta site...he agreed that we meet him around 3pm. that gave us some more time to kill. I went around taking pictures of some good moments on commercial street. Looking at the pictures I feel I have a leather fetish...here are some pix.

I was impressed by the guy who did embroidery on the street with small silver trinklets...I wanted to stay and watch but then...had other things to do...It was amazing what that guy did with a small piece of cloth. Kolhapuri Chappals displayed in another shop also caught my eye so did some cheap crockery...impressive indeed. Appa wanted to try some chat before we moved on so we went to Anand sweets. Damn that place was crowded. The food was awful...I ordered for two samosa chats...too damn pricey for cold food they served...The samosas should have been served hot...I was screaming to myself...but then that sexy aunty rubbing her back on me kinda eased my anger...I waited a few extra moments before i stepped to the side...It was Crowded you see...;)

I wanted to get my cellphone recharged...The networks were down for so long that Sharief tried doing it for me when we went into prestige...but couldn't. Had to therefore walk back to the car. Sharief had found a nice spot to park the car...It was nicer still coz it had attracted a few pretty lil things to lean their swanky backsides on it...They smiled when we reached there and politely moved away one of them smiled a fraction longer and I am sure I saw a twinkle in her eyes...hmmmmmmm...I sighed getting into the car. An Indian hour ~ We reached the Lipton tea house by 2 pm. i went to the nearby Airtell office and got my mobile recharged. He said it would be recharged in an hour. I got them recharged at 9 pm that day. I wanted to go visit that 'bomb' in Paper Planet but decided against it. Appa and I spent the next hour at Lipton chatting about a lot of things...I found to my surprise Appa knows V.K.A.Menon, who headed the Taj hotels airline division, very well. " He is from Trichur" Appa said quite convincingly. I figured they were on first name basis...neways...I dunno where he is now...the last I heard was he has set up a hotel and lives near Guruvayoor( famous for its temple) in Kerala. Dunno if that is true. Ignatius came at 3 and we left immediately...I quizzed him about all the old folks of "our Company". "Most guys from 'your' Company are in Bangalore" He said naming Nathan, Prakash and a few others who i didnt know. He said he spoke to Mukesh kumar earlier that day. Mukesh was my Boss when I was a Management trainee way back in 1993. Mukesh now works for Raheja Hospitality. Banerghatta as usual was very busy...heavy traffic on the roads and quite dusty too. Ignatius gave us a some mind food he said..."there are many IT firms on Banerghatta road and there aren't any good restaurants on this road." On an average these IT companies have atleast 200 visitors every day who are from different cities in the country and abroad. They are put up in good city hotels and sometimes even their food is ordered from good city hotels." Take your time " he added " get ready, get set and then announce to these companies that your are ready to service them". I thout that was a pretty interesting thought. we reached the site and we rushed straight upstairs. Pizza corner had already started work in the site next to what we plan for ourselves. They were breaking he tiles aid there...I was told by the contractor there that they were laying a granite flooring. Pizza corner, we learnt later has given the outlet to a franchisee...The project cost was a whopping 82 lakhs...I wonder how would that guy ever recover such huge costs...and with Pizza hut coming to Banerghatta pretty soon...?? welll it would be good that there is a lot of activity happening there. Ignatius was pretty impressed with the site...I saw him looking around in great enthusiasm. "I see no service entrance' he said..."I had noticed that before...but it didn't matter then coz we had a coffee shop in mind then. " Ask the landlord if they will provide a service entrance from the side.. and also find out ifthe landlord has obtained an NOC ( No Objection certificate) from the residents nearby" he said " A NOC is required to get the required licences." What about a beer and Wine Licence?" I asked. He dialed a friend of his and asked him if it would be possible to get a beer and wine licence. He told me he'd get back to me about that soon. I later learnt that there are two licence in the state of Karnataka - the liquor licence which costs about 15 lakhs per annum...same as in Kerala, quite atrocious i thought and then the beer and wine licence which is called the Pub licence which costs less. "I think we could be able to manage these licence with some speed money" he said.referring to the Pub Licence. Clicked some pix of the Banerghatta site...

>>> "What in your opinion would be a good option if you were given a choice between Banerghatta road and new BEL road?" I asked him as we drove back. " Banerghatta, Most definitely" he said " you see, in new BEL road you don't have a Lunch crowd...takes away half the potential of earning straight away. You could offer special menus for lunch at banerghatta and then also taget the Posh crowd in Mantri apartments and the others for Dinner." he said " and then there would be the first mover advantage' I added. He nodded approvingly. " You will have to give yourself some serious time and energy to maintain quality. The first two or three months would be tough but be prepared for it and keep at it..." I think you should be able to make it " he said. " We are meeting the landlords later this week or early next week...any question you would want us to ask him...?" I asked john. "Yeah, i'll email you a simple questionnaire. Get a feed back on it." He said. We drove via Jaya Nagar and i showed him another site which he rejected straight away. Not a good location for what you have in Mind he said. i nodded and left it at that. We dropped him at Lipton Tea shop - he invited us for tea which we gracefully accepted. I saw a pretty decent crowd at his tea shop. talking to Appa he said "We have to do 15K a day to break even". Appa's jaw dropped...Appa said later as were leaving..there is no value for money these days... I added Of course there is value appa but that value has changed from what it was during your time and now...he seemed to agree...I think...but he was not sure how to. John continues..."of the 15K the first 5K goes for the rent for the place, the next 5K goes for the operating costs and the third 5 K foes for the indirect expenses. its only after u make this 15K u start counting your profits for the day. Its tough but we are getting there..." Keep your break even low...I heard those sagely words again in my mind.. Tittu had called us twice wanting to know where we were. We left John at the tea shop and left there at around 5:30 pm. Reached Tittu's office at 6. they came a while later. "So how did your day go?" he asked me. As was the practice with him I gave a brief of the above events in 5 lines....We laughed aloud...Anuja looked tired and dozed of straight away on tittu's arm. I told him about our visit to the Prestige tailors in commercial road..."Oh!" Tittu said. " Did you know who the building that houses our office belongs to?" he asked. " Well this might surprise you he said...It belongs to those tailoring chaps. prestige tailors. And so does those other prestige Buildings." There was a moment of stunned silence in the car and Appa went..MY! My! My! My! My! all that from a tailoring shop??? He just couldn't believe it. "Yes". Tittu said curtly. Take a look at these pix...

We drove home briefing tittu about our discussions with John and our visit to Banerghtta. With Appa adding his views. he liked theplace too...but wanted us to check out why the place has not been taken for so long. That was a point I had asked john to look into if he could. " "So, john thinks Banerghatta is a better location huh?" Tittu asked. "Yeah" I said citing the reasons john gave.."Then lets go ahead and do it. he said. Later that evening Tittu spoke to Aloke of Coffee world and Got to speak to Vipul who handles the fabmall location. Spoke to Vipul and he said we should meet him. He was in principle Ok with letting the outlet to us for a restaurant provided we treat the exhaust thoroughly. That was his only precondition. I spoke to John and he said he will have to check if there are people in India who would manufacture those carbon exhausts. He said he had installed one in Dubai....said he would get back to me on that too. Emailed AB with a request to find out more about the exhausts if he could. he mailed back saying he'd get back after the new years weekend. Now that reminds me what plans for the new year. too weird...No parties after 11:30 in Bangalore.... too risky buying expensive tickets for those bashes and then having to spend the new year on te road...not a good idea. Mebbe we'd all go to a fancy restaurant and have a blast...keep watching this post. Went and met Saleh who was referred to by AB, a good friend of his That happened on Wednesday after we did the trial...The trousers needed some realignment which was done. Saleh was the chief executive of an import Export business that dealt primarily with antiques...I saw some cool stuff at his place. He put us on to a friend of his named Farooq who owns the Juke box Restaurant in bangy. Should meet him on Wednesday next. He also put us on to a broker named Akash who would help us with locating a site if the banerghatta or new BEL sites don't materialise. Srinivas with whom we are coordinating the New BEL road site has not been coming onto the phone. he was rather curt the last time I spoke to him...We are busy people "tell us a time and we can meet" he had said and had been unavailable on the phone ever since. I wanted to ask him if he wasn't interested he could tell us and not waste our time...anyways I've asked Tittu to try him one more time again today. let's see. The house warming of Tittu's new flat was done early today. As a tradition we had a prayer in the new flat and then boiled milk which we then drank. Traditionally we are supposed to stay overnight at the house and the "milk ceremony" is done after all the work in the house is completed. Since it was an auspicious day today we had decided to go ahead and do the customary milk boiling ceremony prior to the full completion of the work in the flat. I guess there would be an elaborate ceremony sometime later after all the work is complete. Shall keep y'all posted on it. The ceremony began at 5:45 am and got over at 6:15 am. Prayers were conducted by Antra's grandmother, the milk boiled by her mother and all photographs of the event captured on digital film by yours truly, her uncle.

After the ceremony we had plans of returning home for breakfast when Tittu had a brain storm that we would go to MTR for break fast. I have never been there...We reached MTR or the Mavalli Tiffin Rooms as it is called at around 7 am. MTR is located very close to lalbagh and it was crowded when we got there. the average age of the patrons at MTR seemed to me to be around their 50's. probably would have grown up visiting it since their childhood, I thought. It was an unassuming place very humble in its setting...the waiters dressed casually and not in any form of traditional attire that you would find at the old woodlands hotel in Chennai or else where. It had old photographs of its history displayed on the stairway to the upper floor, I couldn't recognise anyone in them pictures. I guess there were three floors. I found red coloured plastic chairs, many of them were empty. We settled down, looking around I found the wash basin which had the tap as a foot pedal which i thought was unique and amusing. We ordered Idlis, Upma and Dosas for everyone. It was served in 10 minutes. Idlis were served with Ghee so were the Dosas which were cooked in it. The food didn't look appealing...Id go for the Saravana Bhavans any day. The chutney and sambar were way too spicy and hot...I just couldn't take it... Bangalore the food had been shocking so far...every where I have eaten thus far has been way below average and I am still surprised...I am beginning to wonder with such a cosmopolitan crowd living in Bangalore what have they been saying about food. I am sure there must be some elementary level of good standard of food available in Bangalore...But where is it...????I am so eager to find out...??? I reckon MTR has realised that they are on their downward curve which probably is why they have branched out in to manufacturing packaged spices and masala mixes...MTR as a restaurant was a total disappointment....Damn!! I was reading in the papers today that Time magazine has rated Black starring Amitabh Bachchan and Rani Mukherjee as one of the finest movies to come out of Bollywood. I personally didnt like the movie...mebbe because I had seen a pirated version of the movie on Video CD. A few of my favorite Indian movies are listed below. Nayakan - Tamil - Also rated very highly by time magazine Parinda - Hindi Arjun - Hindi Ek Rukha Hua Faisla - Hindi Sholay - Hindi Munna Bhai M.B.B.S - Hindi - I hear a rumour they are remaking this one in hollywood... Yavanika - Malayalam Vaishali - Malayalam Kireedom - Malayalam So long then...See y'all again in the next year...Hope you all have a blast this new year's eve...I sure will...and also wish you a glorious and successful year ahead.

Technorati Tags : Bangaloreterrorattacks, Commercial, strret, Banerghatta, Housewarming, Eating, Out, Prestige, tailors, Movies

Some Kewl Links...Take a look

2005-12-28T10:10:00.000+04:00

I have been contemplating for a while now to put up a list of kewl sites and blogs that i think needs more people to look at. not that the sites deserve any publicity. But then most people who read my blogs wouldn't be surfing to see them anyway...Oh just kidding...well, if you have any sites that I should look at do post a comment and I shall let you know what I think...So go have a look. if You think it is a good idea leave a post or email me and I shall put up more links...Ciao then.

My Christmas Gift
Some cool freewares for downloads...I have been visiting them for ages now...Highly recommended.

Christmas lights
Take a look at what this dude has done to his home with Christmas Lighting...Its a >4mb download...but it sure flipped me

Pope John Paul
Even the new pope has a blog.

50 Greatest gadgets in the last 50 years
PC worlds listings of the 50 greatest Inventions in the last 5 decades. Take a look and see how many you own. Well if you are in India most of them aren't available here and you know why...

White House Tapes - The Kennedy Assassination
A secret audio tape recording that I came across on the web on the JFK assassination...check it out if you are a conspiracy buff

Curry n Rice Video
Take a look at this funny video...I promise a few laughs...I thought it was a tad too long...funny nevertheless.

George Bush - A Poem
The Poem on Dubya in the Pakistani alimentary School text books. The First alphabet in the poem and Dubya's pic however isn't highlighted in the text books.

Lowest fare Airline Tickets - International
A blog that gives you details on how to get the lowest fares on airline tickets in the Americas. Gives some useful insight. I do not guarantee any authenticity, but worth taking a look.

Pirate Translator
If you liked Johnny Depp (One of my favorites) in Pirates of the Caribbean and you would like to talk like capt. Jack Sparrow. Then this would be a cool site...I guess.

Visual Depiction of our world
A good illustration of the world around us.

Dante's Inferno test
Want to know where you are going in your after life?. Take this quiz.

Forgot a Birthday?
Don't worry if you forgot a birthday. Heres a website that will list out names from a database (they claim) of 120 million people. While you are at it you may also want to check out the names database

Learn Poker
"Learn poker through the bad experiences of others because you won't live long enough to make all of the mistakes yourself."

Finally my Christmas Blog is up

2005-12-26T18:12:00.000+04:00

Its Christmas eve...and am home with family for the first time since 1993...now that is something...this was the time when during the last 12 years I would always feel down instead of being happy...but then it shall not be so this time...happy is the mood right now... Ironically this is time every year I would have been at my wits end working at the resort. Would the band come on time...would we sell more tickers than the previous year? Would the turkey be cooked well enough. Would my suit get crumpled...would the power stay put without failing at the nth hour...Name the stress it was there...then...But today I feel free as a bird. I hope the guys at the resort have a good Christmas.

We have decided to stay home for Christmas...I preferred that too...Although we had plans to go out...it was a wise decision to stay back home. Mum wants me to eat meat tonight. I have refused...Oh! I haven't blogged that part of me I guess. Yes, I am a VEGETARIAN and have been one from September 2003. Its been a decision of my choosing...and I am glad I made that choice. atleast I am not part of any killing. Although I must be honest that I did want a bite of that meat or a taste of that fleshy fish sometimes, I have always managed to stay clear of all meat products since Sept 2003. I also feel very good after I quit eating meat...my bowels are never in an uproar in the mornings I have deep comfortable sleep and I have been feeling a lot different in a many ways...I am able to wake up early...think faster and I don't get tired too easily. In short I feel a lot healthier.

Chatted with Sharon yesterday after many months. She says she was busy...yeah I guess she must be...But it was wonderful chatting with her after so long...

25 December 2005
MeRry Christmas everyone

It's Christmas day...wish yall a very merry Christmas...a season of joy and sharing...It sure is a joyous day...last night was fun, everyone stayed at home and laughed out loud...for a change it was a whole lot different from the drab years I spent away from family...It always is the same from all the times past that we had spend Christmas at home...well i remember appa used to hit the sack early...thats cause there was never any drinks then...not last night...hey last night I even poured him a drink...heheheh yeah well mebbe I did pour him drinks way back in 1990 if i remember, at home that night with Prakash uncle rocking and being outrageously funny...don't remember much of it except...being sober and watching appa and his colleagues getting sloshed which was not all that bad...considering the fact that drink was my favorite next only to women, music cigarettes, Video movies, comics, porn etc... somewhere in that order.

Anuja , I must say - she is a gifted cook...she turns out some delicious stuff if she puts her mind to it...but she doesn't like to...well, she had to yesterday and did a 'meen' job...Her chicken looked quite appealing to me and everyone praised her for it....well i stayed veggie ( yahoo , i controlled my urge again) and surprisingly i didn't feel bad about it...although deep inside Amma was a bit disappointed. The Meen (fish) fry didn't last much longer either...everyone said...YUM.

I baked the chocolate cake based on an Anuja's recipe yesterday. Although I would have preferred Plum cake for Christmas....Tittu doesn't like nuts or anything else in his cake...so we had to stick to chocolate...The last I saw of it was Antra stuffing her mouth with it...That pretty much says a lot about it.

I had coke last night for the toast...so did Amma, Anchit and Anuja did the Bacardi breezers, Appa did the Royal Challenge...I guess this was a year after so many that the drinks served on Christmas was so discouraging...yeah but I wasn't complaining...neither was anyone else...Amma was especially happy coz Appa didn't have company...Tittu and antra just sucked air.

Antra turned cranky around 9 ish last night but she got over it when we played her game...some version of passing the parcel....everyone took turns to do some singing and dancing. (Amma changed thrice...hehe she was in a saree to begin at around 6 pm with a gorgeous peach colored one, then had to go civil as she was wanted in the kitchen when Anuja beckoned her. and later turned into a Punjaban...in a reddish pink salwar... I wanted to be traditional in a kurta but decided and wore a blue shirt and a khaki trousers.) I had to do a crazy Butt dance...tittu did a Bangra nautch, Anuja a balle balle song...Anchit had to sing a Tamil song and a pretty good job he did at that...surprised all of us...Amma danced, Appa did a Tiger dance and Antra cried....

We played word builder for a couple of hours...Anuja sat next to tittu and paid heavily for having to build words with "Y"and soon every one started it. Appa began getting words from me ending with 'y'.Amma surprisingly got enough words on 'y' when anchit tossed "googly" to her. Paru mama was the first to make peace, Then Anuja, followed by Amma. Tittu fell for the ploy he stated after appa passed on a Y and it was left to Anchit and me... Anchit got the word Yogi and passed it on to me i gave it back to him with the word incidently...hooking him....and remaining unbeaten...I still had two words...Yolky and then Yiddish. both which tittu claimed was not usable words...Oh! yeah...????

Oh Yeah and anchit faked being drunk quite well...

Morning was fun we opened our Christmas presents everyone seemed excited and Happy.

Anchit slowly began feeling depressed. he couldn't find his car keys. All of us then had to search for it...but couldn't find it. Now that the car is parked right in front of the gates we cannot take the other cars out. Now that could turn out to be a dampner coz we had plans to go out for lunch. I guess we will order in the Christmas Lunch today.

Sent out close to 60 sms' today....and received to closed to as many...I still haven't wished all of my family and friends...but am sure they'd all be enjoying a Merry Christmas as I have...

Blogger has been behaving and I am unable to post my blog today...which means my Christmas wishes would reach the readers a day late...my apologies.

We did manage to find the keys...Antra we think had put the keys some where near the shoe rack....Mani the cleaning lady found the keys but didnt bother to tell us because she heard that we had lost a "small key". Well I guess the house is full of "corporate communicators". Later when I told her to search for the keys she said I had found it and its here she said going to the shoe rack...Dang!!!

Anchit had almost gone to the workshop to get "the work" done on the car when we managed to reach him over phone...anyways the Christams was not all that bad for him after all.

We stayed back for Lunch at home....

I slept in the afernoon...which is why its well past 11 pm and Iam here typing a post.

Dinner was at Big Chef in Sadashi nagar....I guess we have realised tonite that bright signages are no indication of Good food....It was tittu's idea that we have Chinese...I wanted something lighter...mebbe he is currently the sloppy decision maker...hehehe...and he decided on the Restaurant ... which as of tonite equates directly to bad food, crazy ambience (Paint on walls peeling....wash room visible from your table...yeaaaaaaaaaaauuuuuckkkkkkkkkk)...The talumien soup came coloured as Mulligatwany ( millagu thani) The fried rice and the noodles were greasy....aginomoto rich....i guess I shudnt waste anymore words it.

Thse happy pix say nothing about the food...it simply talks about the festive spirit

We decided to try Crust and Cream a new pastry cafe in sadashiv nagar near the coffee day outlet.. Its run by a 'pretty lil thing' I couldnt chat up with her and i doubt if i ever will...however i did manage to chat up with a guy...who was there and somehow was a part of the happenings. He said the out let started on October 5th. I wouldn't want to be too harsh on them but...I felt mebbe they were over doing it a bit...i terms of preparations..the output quantity....The eclairs tasted...well it didnt taste much coz Anuja didnt eat what she ordered. I tried a kwality walls cookie crunch icecream...which was kinda average. Appa and Amma ofcourse loved there desserts a mocha and a chocolate cone respectively.

I didn't get the name of that guy at cream and crust which didn't matter anyways...he told me that the 'pretty lil thing' has a bakery background....so I presumed she was in charge...didn't want to push my luck too much so I continued the chat with that dude...he told me about when they opened the cafe and that they pay about 30 bucks a sqft for their location. I guess They are part of Prakash orchards...mebbe got that place revamped and redisgned....well like I said earlier...Signages dont make a brand.

My quest for good food related blogs still continue...I got a mail from a kishan thomas today he suggested Copper chimney as a name for the restuarant...I am glad people are reading my blogs....I get at least 3 mails everyday for the funnay email blog...which is like quite cool...sometimes I wish they post their commenst on the blog...well anyways...Replied to Kishan about Copper Chimney not being so original - well neways...he suggested I read Chef Madhu Menon of shiok restaurant in indira Nagar - I did visit the website earlier when we had plans of bringing yo china to Bangalore...and havent gone back to his blog after than...however I did check his website again today. made a note to check out that restaurant sometime later.

Meanwhile if you are still reading this you should also check out India's most expensive eateries

I have managed to find some listings on rediff about Dining out in Banaglore...

Culinery hot spots in Bangalore

More Culinery hot spots in Bangalore

Surprisingly, Chef Sawarkar called up today. I had last spoken to him in August this year. He left Le Meridien in Tivandrum after Leela's took over the property. He now manages the central kitchen of Blue foods...the brands that operates Copper chimney that Kishan Thomas mentioned....Well, I truly believe its a small world. Copper chimney has recently opened their outlet in Bangalore and operates around 18 outlets in Mumbai. I sent him a detail on our business plan earlier today...lets see.

Spoke to Ranjeet Pandey - Executive chef Holiday inn Goa a few days back., i dont recollect having blogged that..Ranjeet was my Junior in college and a very good friend.... Ive asked him to recommend a chef for me...I believe its good to weigh all available options and make a well informed decision...again,lets see....

Tomorrows P.O.A
Meet Saleh at 11am
Meet Srinivas...and fix an appointment to schedule a meet with the property developer.
Discuss Banerghatta option with Ignatius

Technorati Tags : Christmas, vegetarian, Sharon, AnnaNagar, Madras, Bacardi Breezers, Presents, Big, Chef, Sadashiv, Nagar, Cream and Crust, Shiok Restaurant, Culinery+Hot Spots+in+Bangalore, Chef Ranjeet Pandey, Chef Sawarkar

A blog with my funny definitions

2005-12-22T06:29:00.000+04:00

A big long blog is due...mebbe not...Kochi happened last week without much buzz...came back and decided i will spend time in compiling 1) a list of quotes which are witty and 2) some funny definitions I have come across over the years. I succeeded in starting both...resulting a new blog called FQ (though sounding profane...which it was meant to...is an acronym for Funny Quotes) and listed below are the funny definitions Abstinence - is defined as a couple who don't drink, don't smoke and have adopted children. Accident - A condition where presence of mind is good ; but absence of body is better. Acquaintance : A person whom we know well enough to borrow from but not well enough to lend to Adolescents - Children old enough to dress themselves if they could just remember where they last saw their clothes. Advice - That the wise do not need and the fools do not take. Age - A very high price to pay for maturity. Alchoholic - A guy you don't like who drinks as much as you do. Anatomy - Something everybody has, but it looks better on a girl. Archeologist - One who has a career always in ruins. Atheist - A person who has no invisible means of support. Baby - A loud noise at one end and no sense of responsibility at the other. Bachelor - A man who never makes the same mistake once. - A person who doesn't have to leave the party when he starts to have fun. - A man who has been lucky in love. - One who is foot loose and fiance free. Bank - A place where they rent you an Umbrella in fair weather and ask it back when it begins to rain. - A place that will lend you money if you can prove that you dont need it. Bore - Somebody who when you ask him how he is, describes it. Brain - The apparatus with which we think we think. Calamity - These are of two kinds ones that are misfortune to ourselves and good fortune to others. Celebrity - A personality who works very hard all his life to become known, then wears dark glasses to avoid being recognized. Collaboration - The process where two people create something which each thinks is his own College - A fountain of knowledge where everyone goes to drink. Compliment - A verbal sunshine. Conclusion - A place were you get tired of thinking. Conference - A gathering of important people who singly can do nothing but together can decide that nothing can be done. Cooperation - An exchange between a man and a woman in which she coos and he operates. Dancing - A perpendicular expression of a horizontal desire. Democracy - A form of religion where jackals are worshiped by jackasses. Diplomat - A person who always remembers a girls birthday but never her age. Drive in Movie - Wall to wall car petting. Economy - Art of cutting down other peoples age. Egotist- Someone who is always me-deep in conversation. ETC. - A three lettered word used by more than a few to make people think that they know more than they do. Experience - The wonderful knowledge that enables you to recognize a mistake when you make it again Fad - Something that goes in one era and out in the other. Fame - When you dominate the conversation and you are not there. Familiarity - Something that breeds contempt and children. Fashion - Something that goes in one year and out the other. Flirtation - Attention without intention. Friendship - Is more tragic than love It lasts longer. Gambling - The sure way of getting nothing from something. Gardener - Someone who thinks that what goes down must come up. Genius - One who can do anything except make a living. Good Housekeeper - Woman every time she gets divorced, keeps the house. Gossip - When you hear something you like about someone you dont. Happiness - The pursuit of something not the catching of it. ( have you ever chased the last bus on a rainy night?) - Is finding the owner of a lost bikini. Happy married couple - Husband out with another man's wife. Heaven - Where the Englishmen are the policemen, The Germans are the engineers, The Italians are the lovers, The Swiss are the organisers and the french are the cooks - Where you have an American salary, a Chinese cook, an English home, and a Japanese wife. Hell - Where the Germans are the policemen, the English are the cooks, the French are the engineers, the Italians are the organisers and the Swiss are the lovers. - Where you have a Chinese salary, a japanese home, an English cook and an American wife. Hollywood - A place where they shoot too many pictures but not enough actors Humility - A quality that disappears the moment you think you have it. Ideal wife - A beautiful sex starved deaf mute who owns a liquor store. Idealist - One who tries to keep politics out of politics. Income - Something you cannot live without or within Intelligent girl - One who can think up excuses that her boyfriends wife will believe. Intoxication - The physical state in which one feels sophisticated without being able to pronounce it. Laughter - A tranquilizer with no side effects. Logic - It is the art of going wrong with confidence. Love - It is a temporary insanity curable by marriage. - A delusion that one woman differs from the other. Love letters - State of the heart correspondence Man - A creature made at the end of the week when God was tired. - Simple things that can survive a week end with just three things - Beer, Boxer shorts and batteries for their remote. - A creature of supreme intelligence who elects creatures of inferior intelligence to govern him. Majority - A large group of people who have gotten tired of thinking and have decided to accept somebody else's opinion. Marriage - A community consisting of a master a mistress and two slaves making in all two. - Is give and take, you better give it to her or she'll take it anyway - Is a process of finding out what sort of a guy your wife would have preferred to marry. Martyrdom - The only way a man can become famous without ability. Memory - What tells a man that her birthday was yesterday. Metallurgist - A person who can differentiate a virgin metal from a common ore. Middle age - When your narrow waist and your broader mind exchange places. Mother - Someone who thinks that girls who go after her son are brazen and the ones who don't are stupid. Necessity - Almost any luxury you see in the house of a neighbour. Neurotic - Someone who worries about things that didnt happen in the past instead of worring about something that wont happen in the future, like normal people. Parents - People who bear infants, bore teenagers and board newlyweds. Paristroika - Economic restructuring of France Patriot - The fellow who gets a parking ticket and rejoices that the system works. Pedestrian - One who has 3 cars, a wife and 2 teenage kids. Pessimist - Someone who's never happy unless he's miserable. - Someone who wears a suspenders as well as a belt. - One who would complain about the noise if opportunity knocked. Petting party - An affair that lasts until someone gives in, gives up or gives out. Politics - Is a combination of two words Poly - meaning Many and Tics - a blood sucking insect. Politician - A man who approaches every question with an open mouth. Prayer - Om work Proposal - A proposition that lost its nerve. Public Opinion - what people think people think Sailor - One who makes his living on water but never touches it on shore. Senior citizen - One who doesn't miss the good old days as much as he misses the good old nights Sex - An emotion in motion. Smile - A curve that sets many things straight. Sympathy - What one woman offers another in exchange for the details. Tack - Intelligence of the heart. Teacher - He who can does. He who cannot teaches. Time - That which man is always trying to kill but which ends up killing him. Truth - Something stranger than fiction, but not as popular. Ulcers - Something you get not from what you eat but from whats eating you. Vacation - When you spend thousands of rupees to see what rain looks like in different parts of the world. Vice versa - Dirty poems. Vision - The art of seeing things invisible - Jonathan Swift. Well proportioned girl - One with a narrow waist and a broad mind Wrinkles - What all men have in their pants that no woman wants. I rue the fact that i gave my cam to tittu asking him to get me some pictures of punjabi by nature restaurant. He did manage a visit to the restaurant to meet my ex boss Amitabha Bose (AB) and also manage to click some pictures, though very inferior. He raved about the restaurant...so much but I am still wondering what it was all about. I couldn't make anything out of them photographs. Well, what I did miss not taking the cam with me was some stunning pix of my road trip to Kerala. Yeah, I decided to do the road this time...I was lazy to book myself online 21 days in advance...( that's what I guess people would like to read) not the case coz I had made the plan on short notice.. and since there is only one daily train (strange) to Kochi...its difficult to get a confirmed ticket on short notice...Mebbe you should fly...yeah I sure hear that a lot...neways...Now, what the plan was for I am not going to disclose now...hehehe... Ok I did miss some pictures of the spectacular crash of a Volvo bus ( not the one I travelled in) knocked on the side by a speeding lorry...another crash between two lorries...both of them not resulting in any serious causalities...thank God!. A picture of two large boats being sent to south Tamil Nadu for the tsunami affected fishermen. A large Fin of a Windmill to be set up somewhere in Tamil Nadu for their wind energy project. A humorous write up on the back of an oil tanker that spelt everything wrong ( even 'petrolaium'). Some extraordinarily beautiful women and the hand painted Lorries of Kerala. About the hand painted art on lorries I will put that up in a blog sometime later. Tittu, however did get a copy of the menu of Punjabi by Nature restaurant... Its a case of pure hype, I thought and the deliwalas sure like a lot of hype...I didn't tell that to tittu...1) because I don't know if it is a case of over hype and 2) I didn't want to disappoint him by saying it. The restaurant he said looked lush and expensive...and its a tidy bit to pay for dining there... I am sure the restaurant would be doing and APC ( average per cover) of nothing less than Rs 500/-. From the photos it didn't look full...but he says they do roaring business...Any hyped up business does roaring business in the first few years... but to sustain that you should have class...all else in purely incidental. The meeting between tittu and AB, went of well...Tittu sms'd me after his luncheon meet with him and put it succinctly in one word "Interesting". AB wanted us to start a continental restaurant with some retro funk music...whoops...mebbe that tossed the coin for him...he didn't talk much about that meeting to me...I guess its good that tittu is sticking to his ( or his better half) conviction that we do an Indian restaurant. Well, I guess we are right. We cant afford to make mistakes on the type of cuisine for the restaurant... I spoke to AB later coz the brief I got from Tittu about the meet was kinda "brief"...Oh! yeah he said the same thing...start a conti restaurant with retro music. He also gave me some contacts of some friends of his who have been in the business for now. Saaleh, was then name. "He mentioned. he is a foodie." he said "mebbe you should meet up with him sometime. That man has some very good contacts, people with money wanting to invest in business'" I said I will. Coming to think about it...wouldn't the house in Panampilly Nagar be a great choice for a conti restaurant. Mebbe even a continental and Malabar cuisine. I am excited about that possibility. Appa keeps telling me to start something on the lines of Fanoos (Bangalore) from our Panampilly Nagar house. "you can run the restaurant downstairs and stay upstairs...yeah that's a possibility but Fanoos...naaah...I want class...not Mass. So I let that rest for the while...Mebbe I would do that someday...and Panampilly nagar should attract some real high profile clientele if you can get the ambience and pricing right. Should discuss that with Sudhakar. Sudhakar had emailed me last week saying he would be coming to Bangalore soon.This was prior to my trip to Kochi...had mailed him back saying id be out of town...haven't heard from him since...Is he thinking Iam trying to avoid him...I dunno...must contact him. Mebbe the bug is getting the doubts into Tittu. When everyone talks about continental food...yeah mebbe he is a bit reluctant to meet Sudhakar also thinking he would go the Conti way...I understand his feeling...Yeah mebbe we should do the Indian Restaurant. Knowing Sudhakar...I think he would disagree too...He is so pro South...yeah well...whatever...let's see. I got the plans for the New BEL plot. We have decided to take the mezzanine floor too. Met John a couple of days back and submitted out vision document. He was leaving for Pondicherry that night...would be coming back today to Bangalore...He was mentioning about Aangan...the chain of successful restaurants his friend owns...Made a mental note to visit it this weekend..."You should see what he has done with the space" he had said referring to Aangan...Yeah I made a mental note of it...Saturday mostly. "There are 360 restaurants in Koramangala..." he said with a snap that evening..."I feel a bit relaxed now...there aren't 36 in new BEL road" I said..."True...All the better." he said.... "Hey, and make sure you get a copy of the BMP's master plan for the region" he said " you wouldn't want a fly over coming somewhere there in the next couple of years" he said " is it a download able format?" I asked. "No...I dont Think so...It costs 100 bucks I think..." he said.Told myself to pick it up. I guess we are moving now...and hopefully, by God's grace we are in the right direction. Appa and Amma will be here with us for Christmas and New Year. Anuja Parents would later join after the 2nd...So its pretty much a hectic month ahead...

2005-12-15T12:01:00.000+04:00

Names for the Restaurant

I thought it would be a good idea to start thinking on a name for the restaurant...it would make things a lot easier...we have come up with a few names that sound real cool and is in sync with our idea of the restaurant

"Saffron Haveli" , " Cinnamon Courtyard" "Tamarind Temple" ,"Ginger Kitchen",
"Ajmeri Gate", "Dilli Chutney", "Tandoori - Dil Se" ,
"Spice Surprise, " Magic Garlic"
Except for Magic Garlic (I really like the name ) which has already been taken all other names sound very original...Do you have any names for us...do write in...I know of a few people who are already working on it...including 'Pravina'

Heres what you should remember while sending us names

send us a name for a fine dining Indian restaurant in Bangalore, India serving North Indian Cuisine
Try being original ( its so easy these days...just google it...lol...yeah i am amazed myself on what google does...really!)
The name should preferably have a combination of two words which rhyme or has a good ring to it. One Indian and the other "English"
Avoid using slang and words that do not relate to food.
If we choose your name...I promise a free meal for two any day at your convenience at the restaurant...:)

I am leaving for kochi...later tonite...i wouldn't be blogging for a couple o nights or mebbe even more...

2005-12-13T10:36:00.000+04:00

Do you know any blogs on Indian restaurants in India???

I have been wanting to read blogs by Indian restaurant owners and others related to the restaurant business...If you are reading this and you know of any such a blog please post the link as a comment or email me, I would be very grateful.

Did a tour of Sadashiv Nager and New BEL road sites with John yesterday...It was a bit disappointing...Sadashiv Nagar location is gone... Someone had hired it already. I saw pooja materials on the second floor. Man sites just disappear faster than they in Bangalore these dates...BE QUICK OR BE DEAD!!! "Yeah only sites where the business' have failed stay available for longer" John said

John liked the Sadashiv Nagar location... He said that the area is not 750 sqft as mentioned to me...I felt the same too yesterday...probably the morning light had made the site appear large the last time I saw it. Yeah and I was in a hurry too that day. However he was really impressed by the location. His wives family stays very near Bashim circle.

We then visited "Neel" and then went to the New BEL road site. "Yeah this would be 2200 sq ft. So how long would it take for the site to be ready?" he asked " mebbe another three months." I said " or even sooner if we approach the builder. Pizza Hut ( which is about 300 mts from the site) came up in just a month..." I added. "Pizza Hut..they have the money..."he let that hang.

He didnt say much about the restaurant...It was around 4 pm and they were closing down after lunch...We saw a the last people leave the restaurant while we entered the restaurant. Neel serves only buffet lunch... and It looked pretty impressive...even when it was empty.... I was told when we had dined there that the restaurant was owned by some people in the movie business. Since I was new then the name didn't stick....Some Art director if I remember correctly...neways

There is a restaurant very similar to this on the ring road...I heard John say...This would be about 5000 sq ft. The guy would have had the land for sometime and decided on the restaurant. I said the food was bad here...but the ambience more or less makes up for it. Neel had close to 100 foot falls every night i guessed and that would go far higher on weekends...

I remember the visit to Pizza Hut on Sunday evening...Its been about a couple of weeks since they opened this outlet on New BEL road. I spoke to a steward there he said we do aound Rs 40000 per day on week days and Rs 80000/- on weekends....Roughly put thats 1600000 a month... phenomenal stuff. I had jumped when i heard that...but then they are a brand...established and spend a lot of money on advertising....would like to see their numbers after about 4 months....Tittu had said...I personally had felt a little queasy in my belly after that veggie cheese shock. Pizza hut was rocking though it was packed when we were there.

Coming back to "Neel" That does a good turnover too. But how much of it is related to the sale of liquor i wonder...."It costs about 15 lakhs to get a liquor licence" John said..."and its very difficult to get one...But I have a friend maybe we can use him..I dont know if he would be willing to help...."well...I guess thats just another way of saying buddy it would cost a helluva lot more than 15 if u wanted a liquor licence...if you are thinking of one. "Do they give out just beer and wine licence...?" I asked....Maybe will have to check"... i heard him say.

We reached home a while later...Tittu was feeding Antra. She had just got back from school...he had worked from home yesterday as the maid was on leave... Had got Jonh home to introduce him to Tittu (Jacob)

Tittu was a tad disappointed when John said that the New BEL road had some disadvantage as in parking space...We found it difficult to cross to the other side of the road when we had gone "site seeing".

Tittu wanted to know how we could take it forward with John.Having told John that we were deliberating on weather to have a North Indian cuisine ( tittu) or a continental and chinese cuisine (me) restaurant he was pretty clear - he wanted us to finalise the cuisine the location and what we wanted to do first before he could take it forward. Knowing John...he wanted to do it professionally....he asked us to prepare a business plan and give him a hard copy before he would take it forward...." list down all that you would like to do...deliberate on them and eliminate what you think is not feasible" he said.

He said he had 3 assignments on currently but he would be willing to take it forward if we were interested.

So the business plan it is...I have already started work on it....Tittu would be putting in his thoughts...I hope that is ready asap...

Tittu is off to Mumbai and Delhi for the week...mebbe he would visit Punjabi by nature that classy Punjabi restaurant that he so raves about and wants to replicate....lets see...am waiting for the pix with my fingers crossed.

Gopi called...they have planned a trip to karwar on Jan 2nd... He only named Hemanth...he probably wanted to keep the names of the women a secret. Would have been fun joining them but then this would be my first Christmas and new year with folks since 1993...Wouldn't want to miss out on it...Appa and Amma would be visiting Bangalore later this week and staying on till 2nd...and tittu would be having the housewarming also then. Have got work to do now...will have to move my stuff to the other bedroom. Appa and Amma would be using this for their stay. I guess Karwar is Out...mebbe later....another time...

Spoke to Sudhakar yesterday...told him some cock about loosing his number...but briefed him about our plans...he didnt believe it then....i guess hes started to believe now. "Are you serious...?" he asked me..."you would have a lot of spade work to do...wouldn't you?" Yeah....so much work ahead. Told him to check on the mail i sent him and revert...He wants me to use Sidharth, his son to design our logo and mebbe even give him the work for the interiors....I felt some sadness in his voice....I think i know why frenchi bad mouthed him....yeah but then i will never fully know the reasons...

Put up the Christmas tree last Sunday...I have pix of everyone chipping in, unfortunately theres nothing of the photographer...heres a couple...

Srikanth my senior from School came by today - he works with tittu at Sun Microsystems...Laughed about school and other things for half an hour...he is doing well for himself...I think he got the jitters after the last flooding in Bangalore...he is leaving for Mumbai tonight so he came to park his car here - fearing floods...

Antra, my niece...

2005-12-10T18:16:00.000+04:00

Antra my niece at her home in Bangalore. She is 5 Years old. She loves Cartoons, Icecreams and her favorite songs are Schnappie - the krocodile, and Bob the builder This pic was taken last week Notice the antique chair she sits on...Thats her great Grandfathers office chair...it's pure teak and also has an awesome design

This is a painting she did today...she's named it "flowers in a banana lake"

Coffee World is Dead!!!!

2005-12-09T20:17:00.000+04:00

Date Time: Friday. Dec. 9. 2005, 1030 hrs Another business meeting today…scheduled with Mr Ignatius John at the Lipton tea shop at Koramangala 7th block Reached the new Lipton tea shop at 10:30 am sharp…was running late and the driver did not know the location nevertheless reached there on time even after having taken a few wrong turns. John, the last I saw him was in 1994 when he was the resort manager and I was a management trainee. We all remember John, for being the Resort Manager who walked away from a Resort Managers budget meet in 94 when he was asked by V.K.A.Menon, I think, to inflate the Budget figures for 94-95 for Ooty Fernhill resort which he refused...I guess he doesn’t want to be remembered for that although he raised the point himself fleetingly during our talk. John, invited me into his office which was located in the Lipton tea shop itself. I did not understand why he called it the Lipton tea “shop” or did he mean shoppe…I wonder. It doesn’t have the ring as does a coffee shop. The place looked a blend of casual elegance and quiet sophistication. It was tastefully done up and not fully operational but in a soft opening mode. I was ushered in by a smart steward. John was on the phone… Sat down and was offered “coffee?” or “tea?”. I was surprised when he gave me a choice of coffee. But I took the offer for tea. He said people drink more coffee than tea in South India…which was true, I thot…Tea is only slowly but defineely catching up. Good for him I thought again. Classic tea for us he told the steward and a while later it was served…dark tea in a borosil bowl with a transparent tea cup. He had to call for another cup for himself’. ‘Let it seep for sometime’ he told me when I offered to pour myself the brew…I let it be… John has got himself a goatee I thought to myself. I remembered him as a wiry young chap way back in ’94, who moved real quick. I always knew he had a sharp mind and stood his ground, when he believed in something. We got chatting… I briefed him on my visit to see him…told him that we were interested in setting up a coffee shop or a restaurant in Bangalore. ‘Who are “we”…?’ he asked… “My brother and I…” I said… Told him that we have been weighing the two options that we had - one is the franchise route and the other setting up a stand alone restaurant on our own. He was listening…Also told him that we have been looking at “coffee world” and…“who, Parag?” he interjected…yeah I said “but we have been in touch with another senior from our college…Anoop”. I said, and a person named aloke. Anoop Sequiera…he seemed to be nodding. “We were also looking at bringing Yo! China to Bangalore”. I said He had heard the names…it looked like a good begining. I poured the tea for myself and also for John…I took a satchet of sugar in mine…resisting the urge to ask for a wedge of lime… John then went about on what was happening to the market in Bangalore…he said coffee shops have reached a level of saturation…way too many of them…u got to be a part of a chain if u wish to survive in the business…he told me that he had a few people come to him asking to run their shops after 3 months in the business…”they think they can earn their money by just opening a shop…its not so” he was saying…Coffee day and Barista are doing ‘well’ he continued without mentioning coffee world. “Coffee day opens so may outlets…yeah, and I guess they price themselves effectively and with mebbe 4-5 staff er outlet they are able to breakeven at Rs 5000/- per day”. “It does not make sense to open a stand alone coffee shop in Bangalore anymore…”he said…“too many of them…I have a coffee shop myself called café prime time…I am able to breakeven coz I have a bakery which I run…most coffee shops outsource their food and then mark it up for a profit…which does not make too much of sense”, although he agreed that “youngsters spend about 50/- bucks on coffee these days without a ‘hitch’”. “What about coffee world?” I asked him… “Coffee world is dead” he said…almost knocking me off… “The Koramangala outlet…hardly anybody goes there…” “the building is owned by the person who has taken a franchise for that outlet so…mebbe he has his own reasons for running it the way it is…”I said… “yeah but they are not doing too well…their other outlet at mota arcade is doing well…I hear” he said… I told him I saw the outlet in July and then again in November…“I thought they were not maintaining it well…” “You need to have backing if you need to survive, stand alone coffee shops don’t do well…” he was saying. “Alternatively you can start a restaurant and apportion an area as a coffee lounge and have some unique element that forms a part of the set up…which would be ideal”. But then again what ever you do…any restaurant would do well…with a certain amount of luck….yeah whatever you do you need some amount of luck…surely…MexChic in forum for example, they are not doing too well…” He then went on to list a few guys who set up restaurants and one of them opened several more outlets of his own and now is setting up a hotel with the money he made. ( I don’t recollect the name of the restaurant chain…) So, Sir, would you be interested in helping us set up a restaurant…? I asked…“We have identified a few locations…” “where?”...he asked… “Indira Nagar, Koramangala, Banarghatta, Jaya Nagar, New BEL road, Sadashiv Nagar…” I said. “Banarghatta is booming…That’s should be a great location for a restaurant…where have you seen?” He asked… “Fab mall” I said… “Above it…Pizza corner has taken the space to the left and there is 1500 sq ft available there now”. He seemed to know the place. “Banarghatta has tremendous potential he said…they have the IT crowd, big spenders…Mantri apartments…”. “You know” he was saying… “Those apartments are owned by people in their 30’s and most of them have the apartments fully paid for…and then there is a healthy evening crowd…yes I agree the road is bad but then again it has huge potential…Pizza hut is also opening there shortly”. “Ideally how much space would you require for a restaurant…?” I asked. “Nothing less than 1700sqft” he was saying… “What about new BEL road…?” I asked. “Thats near dollars colony no? yeah…lots of potential…” I told him I did a bit of survey there and found that not too many people from the RMC come to dine outside…but then coffee day does roaring business and so does Pizza hut which is newly opened…” he didn’t have the statistics of how Pizza hut was doing but he said…”Pizza hut is opening 9 outlets in Bangalore…I know this because they have recruited 9 managers for their chain…there are several other people looking for franchisees in Bangalore…I can scout for you” he said… “McDonalds have spend 8 years in Bangalore its only now that they have begun to expand…Bangalore is booming and there is always a demand for food” he said. “This Pizza corner in koramangala…they weren’t doing well till now…they were thinking of winding up long back. But now business is good. There were pubs a few years back who were will to sell off…now u wudnt get to buy a single one each make something like 40 lakhs” he said… “New BEL road is an interesting option…”he said I asked him if he would like to see the place someday. “Yeah sure…”he said…“and how would you like to take this forward…?”I asked… “there are two ways…”he said “one, you pay me a fixed fee for my services or 2, you pay me a percentage of the project cost…most people prefer the first option” he added…”now, since you are from this industry you may want my services only for certain areas for which I could offer you a quote…”I told him that “I would like to avail his services right from conceptualization to the opening of the restaurant and finally if required use his services even after, on a retainer ship basis wherein in you will take a look at the operations of the restaurant on a monthly basis or on a fortnightly basis for a fee…” I said, which he agreed to. “I am right now finishing a project in Pondicherry where I was yesterday…that place too has tremendous potential” he said “yeah with the ECR and all” I said… “yeah…coming to think of it there are only some 4 or 5 restaurants in Pondicherry, all serving some form of French Cuisine.” “It has tremendous potential…” I added “even if you buy some land just outside Pondicherry along the ECR it would appreciate considerably in the next 10 years”. “Yeah…” he agreed. “There is this new Hotel called promenade which has come up recently...I was surprised to see women from Bombay attending to guests in that Hotel. Their owner had got these girls from a few catering colleges in Mumbai…provided them with accommodation and they are there doing a fairly good job.” (and look at the publicity I thot… John is telling me that story) “Mebbe we could also look at hiring a house and setting up a restaurant there…It could save us on rentals” I said… “yeah he agreed….” “Ideally what would setting up a restaurant cost if we avoided the franchise route…?” I asked. “If you have a fair idea for a restaurant theme…” I said… “I would prefer an ethnic theme…something that blends with the food you serve…” “yeah” he continued… “if you have an idea, a good consultant and a decent interior chap you could set up a good restaurant with a budget of 12 – 15 lakhs max…” “What is the cost of franchise…” he asked me “…for lets say Yo! China…” I said “about 6 lakhs…” “and whats the monthly costs…” “6%” I said…. “Of gross??” “Yeah” “…Hmmm” he said. “You know I had toyed with the idea of setting up a restaurant in Bangalore about 7 years ago…here take a look at this…”he said turning his laptop to me… “It was an old house built in 1932…” he said… “I had paid an advance for the house…” It looked classy with its high ceilings…I thot “we had it all planned out…one of the three rooms would have been a gallery…and the restaurant in the other two rooms and the courtyard…we would also have had jam sessions in the evenings…but then the neighbour he acted pricey…he said no activity there after 9 pm…yeah, I had even thought of the cuisine we’d serve there…Anglo Indian cuisine…We even had a great address…No.4, King street…” “Wow!”…I said… “yeah but it didn’t work…we had some tuff time getting the advance back…he didn’t give us the full amount saying he spent it”. “Mebbe we could make it work now…” I said… “why don’t we look at some house for rent?” I asked him. “Lets see…will look…there are quite a few business’ available for sale…but then the location…that’s were it… its not good locations…”Anyways will look… “What if we look at setting up a quality restaurant (excluding the advance for rentals) like the little Italy in Goa or Moshes in Mumbai…?” “Well” he saod pausing to think “It should not cost you more than 20- 25 lakhs if you really work at it…You see this table he said…poiting to a 2 seater table with a granite top and a steel stand…This cost me just Rs4000/-…you may be paying double or more…Id say u find a good design take a picture and take it to one of there fabricators…( I don’t remember the street he mentioned) he’d make and excellent replica for half the cost what ud be paying if you got them made from any store….”I agreed with him totally. “The point is…you will have to look for suppliers and do a lot of running around…I think you could easily set a good stylish restaurant for 25 lakhs”…he said….I have for the first time in 6 months felt a little easy…compared to what it was before when I heard that sum. “How is Sadashiv nagar..?” “Where in Sadashiv Nagar…?” he asked… “Near Bashim circle besides the swimming pool - you take a left turn on the road that leads to the park”. I said…” “Hey, yeah that’s a good location…Do you see the lake from there…?” he asked…”No, we don’t have a view of the lake…”I said….”OK.” “Yeah…there is a building on the right side next to the Ayur health center…” “Ayush” he corrected me… “Yeah…on the ground floor there is this Standard Chartered ATM - the two floors above it are available and it has an open roof too…You get a view of the swimming pool though” I added… “Too many trees there?” he asked…”Yeah.” I said… “That again is a very good location for a restaurant…”he said… “There is very good traffic at night on that road.” I said… “Ok, lets look at it…” “When do we do it…?I would like you to meet my brother too…”I said. “Oh! Yeah, sure” he said… “I am not free this weekend…my brother is coming from Canada…so I am pretty tied up but Monday or Tuesday is fine… “Monday Afternoon…?” “Yeah fine…”he said “I will call him by 2 pm and fix a schedule…” “That’s good” he said. “So how is business at this place?” I asked… “We haven’t opened it yet…and we haven’t publicized it yet…we are doing a soft run…its ok….we plan to open it in a few weeks…”I asked him if I could take a look around the place and take a few pix…”Yeah sure” he said…Took a few pics… “ Could I see your kitchen?” I asked…“We have a pantry…”he said taking me in…Yeah it was only as big as a hotel pantry…sometimes we are so tuned with our words I thought…It was a decently equipped pantry...and I didn’t see a microwave…: We cook our food here unlike the trend of microwaving everything…” he said…”We make our sandwiches and all the other snacks we serve, here.” I also saw him tasting the food in his office while we were chatting up…Good work… “I am working here as a consultant for HLL…my role was just to plan and execute the tea shop and getting it going…but now I am practically running the whole show even the day to day operations…”“Well, I am doing it coz I shall have a larger role to play when this set up grows…” “Is HLL planning to offer franchises…?” “Not right now…They would be running their own outlets initially, till the brand is established…they plan to open a few outlets of their own before they think of selling franchises…which would definitely happen in the near future…” “What are you immediate plans for your restaurant…?”I asked “Are u planning to organize Jam sessions here too” I asked him pointing to the new amphitheatre that was being painted… “No…” he laughed… “That’s just for an informal seating area…(aimed at the college kids I thot) for the young crowd we expect…”” We are planning to put up umbrellas for these tables here” he continued… “and over here we would get an astro turf laid for putt putt golf…” “Hey yeah that’s a great idea…” I said “…and am planning to put up some bamboo shoots up in front” he said… “As in Feng Shui…?” I asked him… “No, not Feng Shui…its just to prevent dust from coming in….” “In that case id suggest you use columns of those Bangalore stone and erect them here” I said pointing to the place “and then keep these palms raised on a platform…with the stone columns hiding the pots…that should do the trick” I said…I dunno if he got what I had in mind…neways if he is interested I will draw it out for him…Its crazy putting bamboo right in front I thot…it would obstruct all his view…well its his call… “So, whats the rent here?” I asked him looking at the new place that’s available for rent just across the street…he said they were asking for 120…and how much are you paying for this place… “100 bucks” he said… “we are paying 1.25 / month for this place” he added… I was feeling good then…and I feel much better as I finish this blog…it was a good day…called up tittu just after I left John which was around 12 noon…he said he was busy…he called me back 30 mins later and gave him a brief…I had called him to tell him that he not make any plans for we would be meeting Ignatius John again.

Some mail I received today

2005-12-09T15:23:00.000+04:00

Received this mail today...better safe than sorry...huh? ;)

Extremely Important - NO JOKE

D uring the next several weeks be VERY cautious about opening or launching any e-mails that refer to the World Trade Center or 9/11 in any way, regardless of who sent it. PLEASE FORWARD TO ALL YOUR FRIENDS AND FAMILY. FOR THOSE WHO DON'T KNOW, "WTC" STANDS FOR THE WORLD TRADE CENTER. REALLY DANGEROUS BECAUSE PEOPLE WILL OPEN IT RIGHT AWAY, THINKING ! ITS A STORY RELATING TO 9/11!

BIGGGG TROUBLE !!!! DO NOT OPEN "WTC Survivor" It is a virus that will erase your whole "C" drive.. It will come to you in the form of an E-Mail from a familiar person. I repeat, a friend sent it to me, but called and warned me before I opened it. He was not so lucky and now he can't even start his computer!

Forward this to everyone in your address book. I would rather receive this 25 times than not at all. So, if you receive an email called "WTC Survivor", do not open it. Delete it right away! This virus removes all dynamic link libraries (all files) from your computer.

PLEASE FORWARD THIS MESSAGE

Is New BEL road a sound Option?

2005-12-03T08:18:00.000+04:00

Now that’s a question that has suddenly creeped into my mind…it has been giving me some anxiety…having changed focus of setting shop on New BEL road, had to do a recce of the local market and decided to visit Chung’s opp. Ramaiah Med. College and do a bit of a survey.

Visited Chung’s on Wednesday evening and was hoping to meet the owner. It was around 7:30pm, took the car, which was eventually a bad idea…neways….The guy at the cash desk was a mallu named Rakesh…I got his name as Rajesh…did some pleasant verbal volley with him…. I was surprised to find the cashier in the middle of things…Obviously the guy who ran the place did not have any formal training in the biz…

We’ve had food earlier at Chung’s and it was nothing to take home about. Put in one word it was “crap”.

Neways did chat up with Rakesh who came across as a friendly guy…The restaurant is about one year and three months old…Its been maintained fairly well… although I found paint peel and furniture marks in some places…My first meeting was a bonding thing I did…didn’t ask too many questions…just made him comfortable talking to him in mallu tongue. Sure made him comfortable…he agreed that he gets around 100 people every day…that was a fair sound bite from him and I started my number crunching…

Asked him for his takeaway menu card…Strangely it did not have any pricing on it. (I wondered if he was serious about home deliveries) would find out soon.

I got the restaurant menu card and made a note of their pricing. It was steep. Madan used to bring these noodles when he returned from Darjeeling…I had known the taste of that noodle…these guys calling it Chinese made no sense…Mebbe the Chinese did eat their noodles that way…but you cant be serving boiled egg noodles with some kind of taste maker and calling them a fancy vegetable szechuan chowmein. It had sounded appropriate on the menu…but ughhhhh...it had tasted yuck.

Well, my visit was never to review whether the food tasted any better. That chapter was closed long back…and am pretty sure it could never get better than that…will tell you why later…

I did visit Chungs again yesterday, calling Rakesh and fixing an appointment with him hoping to see Ajay who owned that place. I had an appointment at 2:30. I reached there on time…I decided to pedal it up…made a mental note to pedal push more often.

Chungs was fairly full…I mean it looked occupied…there were 10 people sitting on different tables…was not expecting too many people there in the afternoon anyways. Had to wait…and wait I did…read Asian age and killed time…tried to ogle at some chicks there…but felt them boring…they were too loud.

I waited…ordered for a coke which he didn’t have…“pepsi only” Rakesh said…I almost said O.K and quickly decided against it when I realized that I didn’t have my wallet…Dang!!!

Ajay came in at around 3:15…said Hi to him to let him know that I wanted to meet him. He had his mouth full with paan or supari…I dunno…well neways. I think he had come to check on the business…stood near the cashier and went through the billing. You really need to trust the cashier guy if u decide to stay away from the business and visit just to check on the collection. I did not see the cashier maintain a KOT or BOT…I saw him write on a slip of paper - 1 soft drink when the waiter ordered one…well in that case there was no control I thought…not my problem…I said to myself.

Ajay came to my table at 3:30. He had washed his mouth…which I appreciated…imagine otherwise. He came across as a decent chap… he had his fingers on the pulse of the restaurant…but I thought he could do more.

Introduced myself…told him…that I was planning to start a restaurant in Sanjay Nagar, on new BEL road or elsewhere…I didn’t want him going defensive straight away…He told me there were about 3 chinese restaurants in the area and that “Neel” also served Chinese…Neel…yeah more about that later…

He was more forthcoming than I expected him to be…and these were what he told me

I do about 4.5 lakhs every month {(i.e) Rs15000/- every day…not enough at all for us I thought}
On Fridays, Saturdays and Sundays he does 20000/- per day ( even worse news coz then you average daily sale drops to less than 15000/- per day)
He had expected good business from the Ramiah college students…before he took up the venture…but then it did not work that way.
All the doctors from the hospital does not give him more than Rs4000 per week. The students spend more he emphasized.
They spend more money at the coffee day than at his restaurant.
Pizza hut just opened…they seem to be looking at 17 lacs per month in gross sales…which was highly unlikely he felt. I told him that it was a possible number with their pricing and their focus on home delivery.
I said the only reason for them to put a swanky outlet next to his was becoz there was potential in the area.
He gave me his reasons for not focusing on home deliveries. – he said most people order Chinese at home when they are drinking ( I dunno) so they order their food and eat it later and chinese food needs to be eaten hot ( I agree) or else it would taste lousy…( and if it is Darjeeling noodles…the trouble is double)
Pizza guys promise delivery in 30 mins…so people expect him to deliver chinese also within 30 mins…very unfair, I agreed…people did not realize that Chinese is not precooked microwaved food and it takes time…for preparation…hey, if ur reading this blog and u did not know it takes 20 – 30 mins for preparation alone delivery time excluded…and you cannot deliver it hot..i mean u can but the costs mebbe high.
No he has not raised his pricing since inception coz he feeds mostly a budget concious crowd wudnt be happy with increased pricing on (an already fancy) current price list.
Prices have gone up, Gas was Rs 450??? last year is now Rs 720 this year.
Vegetables are delivered on daily rates.
Not gone into a contract with supplier coz not all that he wants is delivered by the same supplier. So, daily market price…he says he gets a good deal…(debatable).
Costs...salaries Rs 40000. Electricity and water Rs 28000 in summer and Rs 25000/- now. His a/c’s weren’t running while I was there.
Restaurant size 3000 sq ft pays Rs30000 as monthly rent. Coffee day pays Rs 38000/- rent for ground floor including the small open frontage. Pizza hut he tells me pays Rs 30 per sq ft. ( they always end up hiking market value…I thot)
Duty meals cooked for the staff in the main kitchen.
Uniform laundered by staff themselves.
Regular staff paid decent salaries…junior staff does not stay long…they are paid Rs 1500 or less.
Pays COT? and not VAT. He pays 4% of his total turnover and not 12.5% as VAT and bother about apply for returns. I also agree…coz most suppliers are not registered… and VAT insists on buying for registered suppliers only or else damages/ penalty is levied. He said “I have no problem…who will wait for applying for returns etc”
“I Pay my taxes regularly” ( good idea) “or after 2-3 years the tax guys will come…in which case u will still have to pay taxes with penalty and give them guys 15-20k extra”.
Pays PF he says through his CA… (I doubt)…mebbe he pays for a few and shows lesser number of staff and shows remaining as casuals.
Has 22 staff working in the restaurant.…I thought…isn’t that high…jeez. 80 covers…2 sessions…break shift…why 22 staff???
Most staff are from Calcutta, Darjeeling, Nepal...Obviously...
Timings…Breakshit…12 noon to 3pm (I saw him refuse an order at 3.30pm) 7:30 to 10.30pm.
He has one guy for soup one guy for main course…one guy for noodles…etc…Man, think in terms of money…I wanted to tell him.
Who indents for raw materials for the kitchen…I asked…He has three guys to do it for him…I doubt if he will be able to maintain a 30% food cost.
What about garbage…? Corporation cleans up owner takes care of that - pays 6000 once in 6 months to the owner…I dunno if I heard that correct…6000 or Rs1000 every 6 months.
What was the average spend I asked…? He laughed for the first time and said…I have had 9 girls come to my restaurant once and their bill was Rs 252/-…my mouth opened too…Students don’t spend more than 100 bucks per meal otherwise. They order for one portion and share it…Yeah probably your portioning is large I thought.
He was also pissed off at coffee day…“letting people hang out there…but not doing ‘real business’. That’s why I don’t have a TV in here” he said. “They’d just come and sit here and order for 100 bucks and stay for 2 hours if there is a match. Affects my serious diners”. he said.
The maximum I have made from a table is Rs 4000/- which again was from a group.
This outlet is not a franchise of Chung Hua on residency road. I am running it on a partnership basis…20% of my profits go to them.
So who measures quality…I asked? They send their people to check on quality he said but if you are a franchisee you will have to find your staff and practically run the business yourself.
The disadvantages of this location…Purely residential - a big disadvantage…take mainland china…u will not spend less than 500 bucks there for small portions…he is the highest selling Chinese restaurant in the city…IT guys have money and they don’t have problems shelling money…There is no IT biz here…so only family biz which was mostly at night.
I realized that when the cashier told him that lunch collection was Rs 5100/-.
He says it would be a good idea opening near hebbal or near the new airport…lost of new IT’s cos coming there…
My back ground he says…I am a Bsc grad…I worked for club Mahinrda on their time share sales…there goes…I thought.. I am ful time with this business now.

I assumed he should be making about 60 thou a month…which is again unlikely becoz he has limited controls in place… anyways wished him luck and took leave at around 4:15.

Its true I was thinking…if he did 5 thou in a afternoon and 12 g as daily average sales… (which again is very low) purely through a residential crowd…he could possibly have been looking at higher sales if he was located in a commercial area…although rentals there would be high…his turn over could also have compounded…and it would have been possible to get better rates and increased profits if he took care to control his variable costs.

It doesn't matter if we have to spend more time deciding...but the location must be absolutely right...!!!

New locations, Yo! China and other stuff

2005-12-01T04:31:00.000+04:00

Was away from this blog for a few days…what do you mean why…I just stayed away…lol I wish people were reading this blog.

It’s been a slow week…checked out a couple of new sites at Sadashiv Nagar and New BEL road yesterday. The Sadashiv Nagar site has a Stan Chart ATM on the grnd flr. I thought the entrance from the side street was a downer and also the big tree that stands in front of the site obstructs all view. Flooring was done- the two floors together is between 1500 – 1800 sqft a lil too much for a coffee shop…although that’s been ruled out coz its not on the grnd floor. Can we look at Yo! China??? Mebbe yes…

Took some pix of the building…I thought it looked good..It had the AYUSH health center as a neighbour. The site is a few or mebbe just 100 mts from Sanki tank and sits overlooking the Sadhashiv Nagar swimming pool. Everything here depends on the rentals.

Checked out the traffic on the road again last night…Its pretty heavy…there is a slight curve on the road…I am wondering if the visibility would be affected because of this. I was impressed by the traffic… All we needed was a good advert campaign if we choose this site. As I said - rentals. Shanth sounded off optimistic and wanted me to speak to Srinivas. I will do that today. So what’s a ball park figure on rent- looking at a 2^nd 3^rd floor and terrace…Not more that 30 bucks a sqft with the roof thrown in. the view from the roof isn’t stunning neways...

The Positives I noted about this site…

Just 100 mts from the busy Bashim circle
Flooring completed
Corner plot
Stan Chart Signage gives great visibility to the building.
Awesome traffic on the road at night ( 8 pm)
Popular landmark – Ayush Health center.
No classy restaurants near by

The negatives I noted about this site…

Entrance from the side on 11^th cross and behind Stan chart ATM
No parking in site but (+) parking available nearby.
Genset will have to go to the roof…will that be a good idea??? I wonder.
View not too great and visibility obstructed by the tree in front

The other location was on New BEL road. This site is coming up about 300 mts away from the new pizza hut outlet near Ramaiah college towards BEL circle. Its right next to the IOC fuel station. Construction just started. Site belongs to Srinivas and was again referred to me by Shanth. He said the site would take 6 months to be completed but if we were interested it could be readied sooner. Yeah that’s possible because last month there was nothing where the new Pizza hut is today. That place looks stunning… Tittu feels it would bite into coffee day’s business but I doubt that very much. I haven’t been inside pizza hut yet…But I think I will…The mural on the entrance just inside looks stunning from the road and I saw some 20 odd people inside on my onward and return…which is great for a new outlet.

Yeah, mebbe I shud quit thinking about Pizza hut and focus… Tittu would be talking to the yo! China guys on Saturday..He is leaving for Delhi shortly…has some official work…there… Have given him my cam to take some stills of their gurgaon or other outlets… I am surprised how a buggerall outlet like chungs just above CCD on new BEL road could do such brisk business… I think it’s the people…Bangaloreans are not fussy about the food they eat. I mean anything goes as long as they don’t have to travel too far. I know that’s generalization…also is the fact that its students mostly who frequent Chungs and Casino. Also Chungs has the advantage of the location… Seriously…If the plot next to IOC fuel station is decided am sure we could get off to a good start… With prices like Chilly Chicken(gravy),Chicken Hot Garlic Sauce, Kimchee Salad, Veg Spring Roll & Steamed Rice for a Non Veg combo attractively priced at Rs. 119.00, I think it would be a steal. We should Cater to Dollars colony…RMV extn and the new residential complex coming up nearby…Should focus on deliveries…that’s were the money would be…looks exciting. CHINESE FOOD AT CHINESE PRICES…Unbeatable.

So Dalmia and SA lost this week…it’s a nice feeling…not that it was a surprise…both the outcomes were comfortably predicted…As for the match nothing can be taken away from the South Africans… The bowling and fielding display was outstanding however they lost the mind game when they had to bat…turning pitches give them a tummy roll I guess… Kallis played a great innings but then again 221 was far too small a score to defend at Wankede…I thought. Dravid I see is emerging as a guy with Character worth emulating…Disciplined and head strong…rarely have I seen someone play with such conviction as seen in Dravid that day…playing to the finish…I thought Yuvraj was a tad unlucky…such a supreme talent…elegant, graceful, and that wonderfully enjoyable arrogance he displays while whacking the lather to the fence. The Butcher from Nazafgarh did his cameo…treating Pollock with such distaste that I sat up to watch from my always slopped down position on bed…Man those 6 deliveries oooohhhhh...babyyyy.

I meet P online almost regularly…she’s good fun…am beginning to like her…but not all the time…Yesterday she showed her darkside…but then plane Janes are boring I think…what do you say…?

Time to go do something else…

Hey, I’ve been getting loads of funnies this week…go check out my funny emails blog…. The one on Inzy was hilarious…take care and be good..

POD, PJOR, commies and BCCI

2005-11-27T19:49:00.000+04:00

I have just begun reading Prophet of Doom by Craig Winn, I must say if Islam bashers need any source…here is one…This book I am told is banned in India. Well, so was the Santanic Verses, but these books are readily available if one would look for it. It is advisable that if one would like something banned then it be done with the least publicity. India was one of the first nations to ban the Santanic verses. However the publicity it generated early got many in the country to source a copy for themselves. I have seen people in Bangalore, with hard bound editions, proudly display it to me. I have never had the urge to read its contents though.

POD has no literary style and the contents of the book are highly debatable. Not being an Islamic scholar and with limited knowledge of The Quran, Sira, Hadith, I rest my judgments. I am currently reading two books at one go…POD and 25 years of P.J.O’Rourke.

POD deals with Islam’s terrorist dogma in Prophet Mohammed’s own words…and highlights the reasons for the violence it perpetrates while 25 years of P.J has a collection of his previously unpublished works…which of course is hilarious!

Sample this…P.J writes on the virtues of automobiles… “…We are told that cars should be replaced with mass transportation. But it’s hard to reach the drive through window at McDonald’s from a speeding train. And we’re told cars cause pollution. A hundred years ago city streets were ankle deep in horse excrement. What kind of pollution do u want? Would you rather die of cancer at eighty or typhoid fever at nine?”

It’s riotous humour… I particularly enjoyed the Boxer shorts rebellion –An exclusive look at sex behind the bamboo curtain. That’s a fictitious take of his visit to communist china with Nixon.

Back home, we are poor loosers and kolkatta mush be its champions…The red state must learn and learn very quickly. Public display of anger at eden gardens the other day was a big shame…I’m embarrassed. I was expecting some kind of a showdown to take place when team India went there…I presume with all the security nothing grave happened. The press however went ballistics with Chappell’s finger salute. It’s a shame and must be condoned very strongly if he did it however I doubt if all the stories being published really hold water and I doubt if the coach would have done it at all or even intended it as a rebuke.

Public anger against a team for its poor performance is justifiable. But why is Kolkatta over reacting. The nation never booed at Ganguly when he failed continuously. I doubt if he would be booed at again if he fails against Srilanka - which again is highly likely. Why then a highly literate state and a fine venue as Eden Gardens always display seething anger and negative sentiments. I am ashamed. I have never really forgiven the Eden gardens crowd for their public display of anger when India played the world cup match against Srilanka and finished the game to an empty stadium. I still believe the pitch was doctored then as it was now…was the intention the same as were the results…arguable.

Mumbai would be another story. The score line would read 2-2 by tomorrow evening. I cannot see it happening any other way. If eden gardens had grass Mumbai would take vicious turn. The public spat within BCCI is dreadfully shameful while the spectators painfully ignorant of the events being played out with their hard earned money. Bring some sanity to the game BCCI…What a pity you are…you let gambling and illegal betting rule the game for ages, till you couldn’t stay away without getting some muck on your face…all the while making tons of money…and now you take the decay creeping in your roots to another level and sling slime at each other in the guise of a preparing a resurgent Indian team. I shudder at the mere thought of you taking away whatever charm there is left of the game and sully the victories of team which so rarely comes by it’s way. Pray, God help Indian cricket and all those who aspire to be a part of it.

Coffee with C

2005-11-26T20:51:00.000+04:00

How do you blog about people you meet…would they really be interested in reading what you think of them? If you have spent a couple of hours with them would the impression they had of you change dimensionally after they read your blog about them? I wonder…

Would they have been happier knowing what they thot about you before reading what you thot about them or what u thot about them thinking about you??? I really would like to know…

Saturday…I would have jumped at that thought if I were in school. This last week had turned out to be so different from what I had imagined it would be…Seriously…I would be happier getting the project started at least that way I would have something to focus. But hey what the heck enjoy the break while it lasts…I tell myself sometimes.

Have been giving some serious thought on making public my private blogs…but then again it has all the bullyrags, middle finger flag downs, piss-a-carton salutes, daily bitching, mad ramblings, scoffing, slandering, weird take offs and a hell of a lot of psychobabble about all and sundry that am sure would piss of all those ardent “fans” or casual net walkers who have been generous enough to visit my blogs…to casually amble through my musings… wouldn’t want to shoo them off…therefore some of my thots and bushwhacked ramblings shall, albeit disappointing to some, remain absolutely private...at least for now.

Sms’d C yesterday asking her if she’d like to have coffee with me. Silence!. Sent her another today…and voila…pat cam the reply…sure when and where…she’d asked. We met at Coffee day. It was fun… I had a cappuccino with cream ( coffee with C) and she chose a hot chocolate. She looked different from the pic she had put up online…she appeared a lot “younger” in that pic. Must say she had groovy assets…hehehe. Yeah I did letch…always tell myself not to…but sometimes…I just cannot help it…lol. She came across as a pretty decent conversationalist.

[<<Expunged to private blog>>]

She came along with me for the book fair at the cricket stadium. My eyes popped ( seeing the display) when I went inside…Am not sure though if they were offering the discounts they had mentioned in the ads…what the heck. Picked up Eldest and “age and guile beat youth, innocence and a bad hair cut - 25 years of P.J.O’Rourke” by P.J.O’Rrourke…I have never thanked Sudhakar enough for having introduced me to P.J…Even appa loved Holidays in Hell which is quite strange coz he never comments on any book that he has read…although he was a prolific reader in his times…I remember seeing him read 3-4 books a week…week after week…in Panampilly Nagar

Spent a couple of hours at the fair…almost picked up the entire calvin and hobbes set, before I decided against it and made a mental note to suck it down from limewire. It was surprising that the paperback edition of eldest was not on display…I had seen a copy on the pavements a few days back.. Rampant Piracy…I thot.

I finished Ralph Steadmans Photostory on Hunter Thompsons cat at the fair…It had some stunning sketches…Dunno if C was pissed off coz I took so much time…apparently she told me she picked up something for herself too…

Minium called at three…said she’d meet me today…It wasn’t possible…so mebbe we’d meet another day.

Bangalore pops up so many strange questions into my head. Why are there no Veggie joints in Bangalore…? Are most people going meat in Bangalore city…?Am I part of a minority group now? Are the Brahmins still eating at home? I couldn’t find a single veggie joint near the stadium…strange…Chennai has a lot more options…Lots of good options I must add.

[<< EPB >>]

Came back home at 6…covered 2 chapters of P.J…He has a gift…thoroughly enjoyable…I will go back to reading him after I finish this.

No Mails.

Met Pravina online…She’s Chilled with me now I guess…but she still wouldn’t let me see her pic…I did get her yahoo email id...although that was not a difficult task…neways…Was nice knowing that she reads…she suggested Craig Winn…downloaded a few chapters and I am reading him now…its blasphemous… and has a school boyish narrative…well mebbe I will read a few more chapters and decide.

She likes Santa Esmeralda…dotes on him I gather…she’s didn’t know where to find his songs...doesn’t want to try Limewire…its too risky she says…NO GUTS NO GLORY young lady:) She’s sweet actually in that sweet kind of way…Told her I’d download the songs for her write them on a cd and mail it to a post box number if shed care to get one…“DON’T TEASE ME…” she said…“Don’t make me…” I said…She promised she’d mail me the list of songs she wanted and her postal address…Good! She’s finally seeing me as a human…and not some dangerous…cyber stalker or psychotic weirdo… and I think I am doing well…

I started putting up my paperbacks online…started with Elmore Leonard…It’s a tuff task…But I’m loving it…:)