It's good to be back after a small break.

This is my first post since I shifted to Bangalore.One of the most interesting experiences I have had in Bangalore so far, has been visiting the local kirana stores.I have just returned from the US where retail is in a very mature state. I was living close to a regional retailer called Wegmans and was very impressed with their structure. I wanted to see the how the scenario was in Bangalore, which borrows heavily from the US.

The US retail experience

The retail format in US is always about variety. Super stores like WAL-MART pride themsleves on having a variety of goods under one roof. No one bothers you as you shop for these basic goods and there is always an offer on. To add to this you are never far away from a local superstore like Wegmans or WAL-MART. They also come with ample parking and sometimes a food court so that you can recover the calories you lost pushing the cart.


I wanted to compare stores like Spenser's and Total with their counter parts in the US. Also standalone local Kirana shops like 'Aishwarya' based in Sarjapur. Not too long ago, there was a big debate on whether organized retail could destroy the local businesses. Delhi, for example, has about 7.5 lakh local kirana stores. All of these were under threat from organized retail. But unfortunately for the doomsday analysts, nothing of that sort happened.

Both formats co-exist with each other today and the ultimate beneficiary has been the consumer.

--------LOCAL KIRANA STORES --------

The local kirana store has been the conrner stone of the Indian economy since Independence. There are many reasons for it. Economists have often blamed the license raj for the lack of opportunities and hence, driven by circumstances, kirana shops had been opened. Others like Minister Kapil Sibal blame our education system for it, which produces many more B.As , B.Coms and now Engineers, than the economy can incorporate. Most of them end up running small shops.One of the vendors who used to sell me apples during my stay at Manipal, was an M.Sc in Statistics.

These kirana stores often offer many value added services. Most of them offer credit, some upto a period of 6 months. Others offer free delivery and phone orders. Some even go to the extent of helping procure an item that was not easily available.

But still a visit to a kirana store is not an experience one would look forward to. During my childhood days, my siblings and I would play "Stone- Paper-Scissors" to decide who would be the unfortunate one to make the trip to the kirana store.The store in particular was 'Sree Rama Stores', which every self respecting South Indian in South Delhi visits , at least once a month.

The experience itself is very nerve wrecking. As you walk towards the store, you are greeted by a mob, already waiting their turn at the store,jostling with each other for a good vantage point, from where they could shout out orders to one of the store helpers inside. The store helpers, experts at multi tasking, would be carrying out multiple orders , often with disastrous results. To add to this cacophony, the big tickets would be "phoning in" and the shop owners would be shouting out orders to the over stretched helpers. I used to dread losing that game of "Stone-Paper- Scissors".

But the local kirana store today has come a long way from the dingy, dusty stores of the past. Stores like 'Aishwarya' despite being local are set up in the same format as organised retail. All goods are displayed and the shoppers can walk along the aisles, withour being disturbed. To add to this they still give credit and free home delivery.

--------RETAIL FORMATS--------

Fast forward to 2009, it was with great reluctance that I entered a retail shop again., And this was Spencer's on Sarjapur Road, Bangalore. This was at the behest of my best friend, my wife, who tried to make sure I was in a good mood so I did not refuse.

The first thing I noticed, was there were clowns on long wooden stilts and a big banner syaing Happy Children's Day. A guard saluted very smartly and handed me a shoopping cart. Wow! What a difference.

As I walk inside, I noticed aisles and aisles of FMCG. Nestle, Hindustan Lever, ITC and the likes competing with each other to attract my attention. Most people were very well dressed and were walking about with a keen sense of purpose. The kids too were having a ball.

These shoppers had come for the experience. Experience at a grocery store?! As I looked around, there seemed to be a sense of achievement in the faces of most of these shoppers. The kids had found their own play area, the youngsters were busy at the cosmetics section while the men were reading various labels on food content. The women, needless to say, were checking out the prices. There was also a local MC who was shouting out all the latest offers at the store, just in case people had not seen the un-missable boards and placards placed around the store.

Retail formats like Spencer's are also excellent sources of cross sell. As I walked towards the counter, a young man walked up tp me and asked if I had a visiting card. I thought he was looking for a job. But he was the local agent for HSBC,trying to sell me a retail credit card. Now, what the hell id a retail credit card?!

There are credit cards and there are debit cards. But HSBC has decided to launch a retail credit card that offers you points and 5% cash back when you shop at a Spencer's retail store. I am sure there will be similar offers from other banks soon.

There were also outlets from Baskin Robbins, Marry Brown, Mr and Mrs Idly and Hyderabad House within the store.

--------THE FINAL VERDICT--------

Both formats are here to co-exist.And one will never give way to the other. It's not every day that one feels like dressing up and going to a grocery store. For those rainy days, there is always your local kirana store who will deliver the goods to you at your doorstep with a smile. And for thoe who want to live it up, there is always organized retail.

Almost Twelfth Night by Katkatha Puppet Arts Trust at Chandralekha's Spaces Besant Nagar, Chennai

Almost Twelfth Night by the theatre group Katkatha, part of the Hamara Shakespeare Festival, is a unique combination of man and machine. In this case, puppets. To be honest, I was very wary of watching a play , rather a puppet show, that too based on Shakespeare. Incidentally, the twelfth night was the first play by Shakespeare I had read.

The play was staged in Hinglish and I suspect that was to cater to a larger audience. Finally the mighty North recognises that there are other languages in the country besides Hindi.

The central idea behind the play was that the principal characters were puppets and the fringe characters were human. It is very rare to see an actor-par-excellence in such a subservient role contributing to the success of a play dominated by puppets. Let me explain.

Let us take the case of Viola. For those who haven't read Twelfth Night, she was the twin who impersonated her look-alike brother. Viola was played by a puppet as was her brother Sebastian and other prime characters Duke Orsino, Lady Olivia and butler Malvolio. Director Anurupa Roy and her troupe -- Manish Haldar, Choiti Ghosh and Sunil Gupta -- played all the servants in the houses of the Royals, namely Mariam, Anna and two unnamed servants in the Duke's house.

The coordination between the puppets and humans was excellent and you forgot that it was the humans powering the puppets -- with their voices and hands. All the puppets had a personality of their own. Malvolio, voiced by Haldar was larger than all other characters. Also the transformation of Viola into Cicero was amazing. The puppet Viola broke all the shackles represented by womanhood , when she turned into Cicero, the Duke's pageboy, sending out a message about the bondages that exist in the human world. She is reluctant to turn into Viola because Viola cannot do the things Cicero can.

The lighting and the music (especially the Opera piece whenever any of the two characters are shown to be falling in love) were excellent choices. The fact that adults were queuing up post show to touch and feel the rod puppets , shows how under explored yet exciting the world of puppetry is.

I googled some information about the play on the Katkatha website and discovered that it was a 2002 production. Surprisingly, the team gave no hint of that. The humour was fresh and in line with current times. Watching this group perform was like watching Manchester United play at Old Trafford in the Theatre of Dreams. A feast for the eyes with a twist in the end (hence the title "Almost Twelfth Night").

Crimson Chakra, Gandhi Nagar, Adyar Chennai -- an Experience to remember

Come Saturday afternoon, I had finally fulfilled my desire to dine at Crimson Chakra in Gandhi Nagar, Adyar. Now, a slight disclaimer. If The Woodlands on RK Salai is your idea of a restaurant, then you are probably a better off giving the Crimson Chakra a miss.

The concept, as I understood, behind Crimson Chakra, is the entire experience of a six course meal in a very relaxed setting that reminds you of the days of the Raj. The first thing you will notice as you step in are the very cordial and polite staff who will greet you at the door and seat you down -- a very good touch for a fine dining restaurant.

As you sit, you cannot miss the sound of water which is a constant theme around the restaurant. No matter where you sit , you are never too far away from the sound of water -- flowing or splashing. This further relaxes the atmosphere. At the heart of the restaurant, in the non-AC section outdoors, I discovered a small swimming pool with a miniature catamaran and water falling off the tiled roof of a wall into the pool.

Now to the food. You have a choice between an executive veg/ non veg lunch and a-la-carte (where you can order anything from Indian to Italian food). My friends and I ordered the executive veg lunch. What unfolded was like a Ram Gopal Verma movie.

Excitement started with the soup , where we had a choice of tomato or cabbage. As I was in a mood for experimenting I ordered Cabbage soup. I have never had cabbage soup before so I have no way of benchmarking this. All I can say is that it was delightful. It was a thin soup with a dash of spice and a flavour that was undoubtedly cabbage. The soup came with 2 large salads -- vegetable and fruit, besides a bowl of crispies and a hotly baked bun.

After the soup came the appetizers. We were served an array of fried paneer, baked yam, tandoori potatoes and fried raw bananas fritters. These were to be served with an array of 5 sauces -- garlic, mint, grated coconut, fresh cream, tomatoe chilly-- which, unfortunately came much later. Our waiter had forgotten to serve the sauce and decided to serve us with another course of the appetisers, this time with sauce. This was a dampener after the soup. Perhaps we would not have noticed the missing sauces.

The biggest surprise was to follow. we were served a very soft rice pancake resembling the Adai, followed by Idiappam served with 3 gravies -- a bland north Indian masoor dal, spicy potato masala and a stew with vegetables laced with cheese. This was an unusual combo. Traditionally dosa and its variants are served with sambhar or coconut based preparations like chutney and stew.

This was clearly not a place for the faint hearted. Sanity returned a few minutes later with roti and vegetable biryani (served with tangy raita).

The dessert was cotton seed soufle' and gooseberry halwa -- both of which were excellently prepared and presented.

At Rs 350 per head, the food can definitely be improved. But what the food lacks is made up by the ambience.

Those looking for more exclusivity can opt for the unique candle room (a room with scented candles) overlooking the pool. It costs Rs 3,000 only to reserve the room in advance depending on availability.

Deccan Plaza Olives' Amritsari Punjabi Food festival-- Nothing Punjabi about it

Yesterday I landed up at The Olives restaurant at Deccan Plaza, Royapettah, to sample their much advertised Amritsari Food festival. It had been a while since I had genuine Punjabi food like that available at Ahuja Dhaba on the way to Chandigarh. Olives had got chefs from Ludhiana for this festival and with my mouth already watering, I landed up at the venue 5 minutes before the proposed start of lunch at 12 pm.

To my amusement, the place was not even set up and a lady with a mop and broom was cleaning the lunch area. I saw a very irritated chef standing on the floor, with all the waiters and manager running around him. I was told rather brusquely that would have to wait for 15-20 minutes before coming in. This was unusual, as most food festivals I have gone to are set up and open at least half an hour before the designated time.

As I walked in for the second time at 12.20 pm, the chef was clearly irritated and told me that I should probably wait for another 15 minutes. At this point in time one of the managers noticed me and reluctantly asked me to take a seat inside the restaurant, much to the disapproval of the chef. As I sat waiting for the menu card, I cannot but describe the scene in front of me. It was straight out of a B-Grade war movie. There were some 20 people on the floor—some managers, some chefs and some waiters. All their energy was being taken up by this one stand at the entrance, which would eventually house the ‘welcome drink’. So my friends had set up the dessert first and the starters and welcome drink last—A classic mistake.

It was already 12.30 and I was getting tired of watching this mayhem and got up to leave for good. Then one of the senior managers woke up to the fact they had a customer in the restaurant and ran up to me. He asked me to sit, pacifying me with soup and starters. It was 12.35 now. These guys were 35 minutes behind schedule for a Saturday lunch buffet in Chennai where most things concerning food run on time. Chef Gordon Ramsey would have thrown a fit by now. But the chef here was not Gordon Ramsey and Olives is definitely not competing for a Michelin star.

I had ordered for a Bajra soup and my wife Tomato soup. The Bajra soup is a delicacy in parts of Punjab, Kashmir and Himachal Pradesh, especially in winters. The one I received was tepid, a bit more salty than what I expected, but overall palatable. The tomato soup on the other hand was just not up to the mark. The starters – vegetable Vada and Corn Pakoda (don’t ask me if this forms part of Punjabi food, unless you want to start a conspiracy that Vada actually originated in Punjab and the South Indians stole it and made it their own) were just o.k.

Now to the main course. There were close to 17 dishes to choose from including some very distinct Marwari dishes cooked in Jain style! Add to that Kashmiri Naan, Kabuli Pulav and Kundru Biryani (I have to check if this is a new dish in Punjabi cooking). A Punjabi food festival without non-vegetarian food itself comes with many challenges. To add a religious dimension to it, is simply a catastrophe. Some dishes had names I had not heard of before like Achaari Sabzi, which my wife said tasted predictably like cooked pickles.

Sample this – Sarson ka saag but no makki ki roti. Pretzel sized Naan. No laccha Paratha or rumaali roti or Amritsari Kulcha or Alu Paratha or even the common Paneer Tikka or Dal Makhni. Giant round plates with cut banana leaves (I was stumped on this! Punjabis, with all due respect to South Indians, do not eat on leaves as these leaves are not commonly found in Punjab!!), accompanied with small bowls and tumblers. Waiters with Rajasthani padgi, a Khalsa symbol on a Darbaan uniform. And most importantly -- No Sardarji anywhere in sight!! That itself dampened spirits.

Let me come to the good part. If there was one dish that stood out in the entire crowd, it was the humble rajma. Dum Aloo was cooked to perfection. The lassi, was a gut chiller. The Rabdi was great and so was the Doodhi Halwa, but the Jalebi sucked! It tasted more like Jaggery.

The ultimate non-Punjabi item was a parting gift given to my wife -- a very south indian looking agarbathi stand and a sweet that tasted suspicioulsy like a hyrbid between Maharashtrian Sheera and Tirunelveli Halwa.

At Rs 375+ taxes per head, one can sample better food on an a-la-carte option. Too many dishes, mediocrely cooked, spoilt the buffet.

Mast Kalandar in Shastri Nagar, Adyar, Chennai

Today I had the opportunity to visit the newest restaurant in South Madras 'Mast Kalandar'. The outlet is the brainchild of IT professionals who wanted to start something on their own. So after successfully establishing 8 outlets in Bangalore, they have now entered Chennai.

My first impression of the place was that it was bright and vibrant. The colours were inviting and there was peppy music in the air. But what struck me was the relatively unseen format to order and serve food. You walk in to Mast Kalandar, pick up one of the massive menu cards and order at a counter. The order is then served at your table. The hospitality industry refers to this as the Quick Service Restaurant (QSR) format.

I had seen this model in the USA, but not in India and was therefore very curious to know how it was working in India. I had the chance to speak to Gaurav who is one of the founders of the restaurant. He says this format helps reduce costs and that benefit can be passed to the customer. This is how it works.

A normal restaurant with seating for 50-75 people would need at the least 8 order takers/ waiters. By adopting the QSR format Mast Kalandar has been able to cut this number down to 3-- Two order takers at a counter and one on the floor. Only the initial order needs to be placed at the counter. All running orders are taken at the table by the one on-floor waiter/ order taker, explained Gaurav.

Now, coming to the food.

We ordered a Thali, Kebab platter and Punjabi Paneer which came with Dal Makhni and Naan. The thing that stands out about Mast Kalandar is the Dal – both the yellow dal and the dal makhni. Both were light yet tasty. You couldn’t say if they were home cooked or restaurant made. Gaurav later told me that Mast Kalandar does not add any additives or preservatives and that dishes are freshly made every few hours. That explained why I could finish an entire generous portion of dal makhni – No baking soda or salts in the food. Same is true of the mixed vegetable that came with the thali. The kebabs were well done.

However, one item did not quite satisfy my taste buds. The Paneer. Hailing from Delhi, I am partial and almost fanatical about how my Paneer needs to taste. Therefore, both the Punjabi paneer and the tandoori paneer (part of the kebab platter) did not make the cut. They did not match the standards set by the other dishes on the palate.

A meal for two comes to about Rs 300. Add the appetizer and dessert, and you could be paying between Rs 400 and Rs 500 a couple. Infact, except for one Thali meal no dish at this restaurant is priced over Rs 100.

Compare this with a restaurant like The Dhaba (which is a few km down the road from Mast Kalandar) that charges you Rs 700- 800 (meal for two) and you know why Mast Kalandar will become popular. And yes, they take orders for takeaways too.

20 Cigarettes

I hate this public ban on smoking. I just don't understand how the ban on smoking would ever work especially in India. First of all India is a land of many health issues. let me give you an example, there are more deaths every year in India due to typhoid and cholera than what Swine flu could ever kill. What Dr Ramdoss the then health minister did was throw his lot with the developed nations(Read US of A)and went ahead and banned public smoking. Well first of all it was a rash ill thought of move, so apart from chasing few thousand odd terrorist groups all over India and upholding the law and order the desi police now have an interesting target the average joe smoker....

When have smokers ever troubled anyone? In my honest opinion they are the most harmless of the lot....ever heard of a smoker creating ruckus because he has had a few cigarettes too many....Unlike alcoholics...Doing lafda just because they have had a few drinks too many... I can go on for hours on this but the point is its ok to act cool and copy the west but do we even have basic de-addiction mechanisms in place? Just imagine most chemists have not even heard of nicotine chewing gums or nicotine patches. There are no national schemes to help smokers to recover and overcome their affliction.

There are many challenges that we face as a nation, and trust me public smoking is way down on the list......

Love Aaj Kal...then what about parson and tarson

(Image taken from www.bollywoodhott.com)

Well I will admit it....guilty as charged. I wanted to see a mindless masala bollywood flick and I got more than what I had bargained for. Now the movie in question is Imitiaz Ali's 'Love Aaj Kal' starring Saif Ali Khan and Deepika Padukone. There was some comic relief from Chintuji (Rishi Kapoor) who was getting irritating as the movie wore on. The high point of the movie was the comparison between the concept of love yesterday and today. So we have a Sikh Saif pursuing a girl all over India from Delhi to Kolkatta. This part I felt was inspired by many such local love stories I have heard during my growing up years in Delhi. Fast forward to the 21st century we have a non-sikh Saif who bumps into Deepika at a disco in London and then they hook up. But once they feel their relationship would interfear with their career and aspirations they simply call it quits.

Man why would anyone want to make a movie on this concept.I don't know the answer to that but I felt connected to a particular segment of the mvoie which depicted Saif in the US. He goes to work and come back and pretty much the initial euphoria fades away and he is mugged on the street, beaten to pulp and finally realises that love is more than aspirations and career. Now I can relate to the monotony of the life working in the US. I have just survived the ordeal for the last year.

There were many reasons for my coming back to India but one of the main reasons was that life was very monotonous there. There was a grind Monday to Friday and even the weekends were not that interesting. Now i was not pining away for the love of my life, my love Archana was with me during my time there, but I always felt there was something missing. I beleive that there is more to life than career and aspirations. I would call it hapiness and satisfaction. In Saif's case it was Deepika but in my case it was the exciting life I had in India. My friends, my social networks and all the little things that I took for granted in India were missing in the US. No money could get me the satisfaction of having a cigarette (thanks to Dr Ramdoss it is now an activity that is fraught with danger) and a chai at a local ghumti or tea stall. Life is all about these small things that we take for granted, and when they are taken away we really miss them.

The movie does make a couple of interesting points though

One is the monotony of the life in places like the US but a lot of Indians simply accept it and move along without any satisfaction or happiness. Maybe its the dollars and the associated exchange rate or simply the honor of living in a first world nation.

Secondly it depicts the shallowness of the characters especially when it comes to commitment. They were afraid to commit Saif more than Deepika, but still they were very shallow characters and maybe increasingly as we aspire to climb the corporate ladder we become shallow.

Thirdly the sanctitiy of the institution of marraige was nullified by the actions of the female protagonist (Deepika). Jumping in and out of a marraige shows lack of maturity in understanding something very serious at least in this part of the world.

Otherwise an avoidable flick I would go with a 2 out of 5. The music is forgettable as well.