Catch the review of Wenger's Deli

Catch the latest food related review at my food related blog - http://gluttonous-me.blogspot.in/2015/06/wengers-deli-connaught-place-new-delhi.html

Read the latest restuarant review on my food blog

Just wrote a new restaurant reviews on my food blog. Trying to get more regular on the blogs.

You can read the review at http://gluttonous-me.blogspot.in/2015/06/mumbai-matinee-bollywood-cafe-sector-18.html

One Liner

While driving back to Delhi on a recent trip to Jaipur, read this one liner written behind a truck

बुरी नज़र वाले पाकिस्तान चला जा 

Although we all must have read more funnier (or strange) ones behind trucks but this was one was unique for me. Haven't read something like this till now - why the hell are we getting our neighbors into this. They have their own set of problems, so let them be alone. :)

Sometimes, I do think that people should do research on some of the things which are unexplained till now. One of them is the 'Origin and History of One Liners written behind Trucks'. I also wonder whether such a thing happens only in India or is this a phenomenon in other countries as well.

A Visit To National Museum Of Natural History, New Delhi

Sometime back, on a Sunday, we made a trip to National Museum Of Natural History. The museum is location in the FICCI building on Barakhamba Road. Looking through their site, they boasted of several things spread across four floors. The museum has four exhibit galleries, namely: The Introduction of Natural History, Nature's Network Ecology, Conservation and Cell - The Basic Unit of Life.

But on reaching there, we were all very much disappointed. First of all, there are no lifts for the visitors - they are only for the staff. You have to actually climb stairs through the floors to view the exhibits on different floors. The air conditioning at nearly all the floors was not working; and with the whole floor a closed area, there was very stuffy environment inside. The exhibits on display were ill-maintained - some were looking like they have never been maintained from the time the museum was opened (in 1978).

Overall, a bad experience. What does the government expects from people if their museums are so ill maintained? Looks like nobody cares about these things anymore in India.

Details:-
National Museum of Natural History,
FICCI Museum Building,
Barakhamba Road,
New Delhi-110001
Telephone: 91-11-23314849

Book Review: Desperately Seeking Paradise By Ziauddin Sardar

"Desperately Seeking Paradise" is a spiritual-cum-philosophical autobiography by British author and scholar, Ziauddin Sardar. In this book, the author is in search of the right approach for paradise (and please do not take it literally) - one notion which is termed as the prime objective for every Muslim. In his search, he joins one sect (or thought of school) and then gets dejected by its approach/thoughts/people etc... and then leaves it to join another and same thing happens there as well and then another and so on... His search takes him from Mecca to Bejing and all the other places, in between meeting with people like Zia-ul-Haq to Anwar Ibrahim, even attending a mujaheddin meeting with Osama Bin Laden in attendance, and him running into Iran's military police in times of Ayotollah. There is an entire chapter dedicated on 'The Satanic Verses' controversy - talking about how the author felt bad about 'The Satanic Verses' and the Ayotollah's fatwa as well. Here the author regrets that the core issue was buried under whatever political drama that took place around the controversy.

The book is filled with lots of information about various aspects of Islam, ranging from different terms associated with it to the current as well as traditional interpretation of different things associated. He also looks into different school of thoughts and poses a not-so-rosy picture of things. This book was written in pre-Iran, pre-Iraq, pre-Afghanistan era and with his descriptions one can relate to what is happening now and how its roots are related to those times only. The authors quest for a new initiative about "paradise-seeking" is not accepted in the traditionalist societies where the true meaning of Islam has been confined to having a beard sometimes. He also tries to understand what does Sharia means in actual terms and how it should be adapted in modern times - again he finds that societies just want Islam in totality but are never open to understand the totality itself.

I am not sure what to make out of this book - I am as confused about this book as the author is about his search. The main problem as seen by the author is that nobody is willing to listen to modernist Islamic views. Overall, a nice read for me at least - for understanding more about Islam and another face of it where there are modernist thoughts in plenty.

A Visit To International Dolls Museum, Delhi

On the weekend, thinking about a place to go in the summer heat of Delhi, we zeroed-in at Shankar's International Dolls Museum at Bahadur Shah Zafar Marg. Since, there is no photography allowed inside it, I would not be able to share photos here but I would try my best to describe the place.

It was set up by cartoonist K. Shankar Pillai in 1965 with around 1000 dolls. It now has 6,500 dolls from 87 countries across the world making it probably one of the largest collection of costume dolls anywhere in the world. They have dolls from nearly every part of the world - including special sections on Indian dolls from different states as well as depicting different events through dolls (like Mahatma Gandhi's Dandi Yatra, Man's landing on Moon and much more). There are some very interesting dolls like Boys and Girls Festival dolls from Japan, replica Dolls of the Queen’s collection (UK), Maypole Dance from Hungary, Kabuki and Samurai dolls from Japan and Flamenco dancers from Spain.

For more information, visit their website by clicking here.

Contact Info:-
Shankar’s International Dolls Museum
Nehru House
4, Bahadur Shah Zafar Marg
New Delhi 110002
Phone 91-11-3316970–74 (5 lines)

Timings:- 10 A.M. to 6 P.M. (Ticket counter closes at 5:30 P.M.)
Weekly Off:- Monday
Tickets:- Rs. 15 for Adults and Rs. 5 for Kids (below 12 years)

Book Review: From The Holy Mountain By William Dalrymple

William Dalrymple is that sort of a writer you would love to read just because he has written it. For me, he will always be such a writer. Every book of his has been good than the other one. He surely writes a lot about Middle East and Indian Subcontinent. In "From The Holy Mountain: A Journey Among The Christians Of The Middle East", he travels the Silk Route of ancient Byzantium through the present day Middle East retracing the AD 578 journey of John Moschos, a well known Byzantine monk, traveller and historian. All along the way he only sees a dying heritage in form of neglected monasteries, declining number of Christians and great sort of confusion among different religions in the region.

He begins his journey on Mt. Athos after seeing the older manuscript of 'The Spiritual Meadow' (the book by John Moschos), travels to Istanbul, eastern Turkey, Tur Abdin, then on to Syria, Lebanon, Israel and Egypt. Wherever he went, he retraces Moshos' route, visits remains of his era and tries to stay in the same monasteries as Mochos has done centuries ago.

All the while he notices that early Christian presence in the area was very significant and it has been declining steadily ever since. It has been sometime due to political suppression or sometimes just due to better opportunities outside - but in nearly each instance it has taken its toll on the region's culture and heritage. Some of the monasteries mentioned by Mochos are now extinct or destroyed either by time or governments. On the one hand, he notices the differences between Islam and Christianity getting wider and wider down the ages. On the other hand, he still find these religions intermingled together at some holy places praying together for miracles or babies.

Certainly worth a read for its rich description of the place, early times and understanding of current scenarios.

Moonrise @ Satvik Resort, Bhimtal

A shot of moonrise as seen from The Satvik Resort in Bhimtal on 21st March 2008 at about 7 P.M. (courtesy Pulak Ranjan Shukla, founder of Satvik Resort). As per his observation over the past decade, before and after poornima (full moon night) near holi, the spectacular moon rise is visible and it appears very much coloured on Holi night.

Book Review: "Notes From A Small Island" By Bill Bryson

Notes From A Small Island is a travelogue by Bill Bryson about his farewell journey through England, Wales and Scotland before leaving for U.S. so that to "give his children the opportunity to live in another country, his wife the ability to go shopping after 10 P.M., and rescue Americans from the delusion that they were being abducted by aliens" (all is his own words). He travels through his adopted homeland by rail, bus or foot and captures, as usual, the details wherever he goes.

The best part about Bill Bryson is his eye for detail and his laugh-out-loud humor. This book has the details part intact but the laugh-out-loud factor is somewhat subdued. If you are truly a Bill Bryson fan, you will be a little disappointed by this one - at least I was. The book is more about his experiences rather than the history, people and other local things for the places he visits. Also, the second part of the book goes rather boring with his same type of rant about hotels he stays in, strange place names, identical places etc. Maybe it is because, as he says, there is everything identical in all the British places.

Overall, single time read. Not as good as "Walk in the Woods" or "Down Under" but still it has its own moments.

Book Review: "The Age Of Kali" By William Dalrymple

William Dalrymple's fourth book, published in 1998, is again on Indian subcontinent (mostly India but also touches upon Pakistan & Sri Lanka plus a brief visit to Réunion, an French island in the Indian). It is a collection of essays collected through his nearly a decade of travel around the Indian subcontinent. The name, Age Of Kali, is a reference to KaliYuga - which is the time (as per Hindu cosmology) when world's imperfection's become so big that there comes a need to start the whole cycle of life afresh. He is surely an Indophile Scotsman, which become more evident after reading this book - where he (despite all the essays of political corruption, ethnic violence, and social disintegration) does feel for India's diversity and the will to survive all times. Nearly half of the essays in the book are not written in his usual travel chronicle style - they are more like interviews and interactions with people. And nearly, in each chapter, he asks some tough questions which the subcontinent is still facing. I would not say that the book is dark, but it would still make you think "why did not he found any happy stories to tell in India?".

Dalrymple covers a lot of ground including Bihar, Rajasthan, Vrindavan, Bombay, Bangalore, Hyderabad, Cochin, Madurai, Goa, Sri Lanka, Réunion Island, & Pakistan: Islamabad, Peshawar. He starts with Bihar, where he finds corruption, caste conflict, government breakdown, and general lawlessness to alarming extent. He then moves to Lucknow, once a beautiful pre-Raj city, where he finds its heritage decaying due to poverty, neglect, corruption, and being replaced by ugly concrete towers. Next is Vrindavan in Uttar Pradesh, a "temple town" where many devout Hindus believe Krishna still lives, and also heartbreakingly a place for many thousands of widows, who live lives of terrible poverty and suffering, the result of traditional Hindu society views on widows. Next significant essay is from Rajasthan, a tale of informal social workers among village women struggling to stop infanticide and child marriages and promote education for all children, focusing on a social worker who was raped and faced both caste and gender-based bias. Another good essay is about sati (the act of a widow throwing herself on her husband's funeral pyre); and his visit of the village where a famous sati case was reported in 80s. Then there are some essays on Bombay, Bangalore, Madurai, and Cochin. Next significant essay is a wonderful summation of his interactions with Tamil Tiger - he went to their core areas and met a significant leader as well. The most turning part of this essay is his meeting with the 20-somethings Tiger girls who were trained to give life for the cause. The essays on Pakistan consists of his interactions with Imran Khan, ultra-famous sports star turned politician; the ruins of the fascinating Gandhara civilization (a composite civilization influenced by the Alexander the Great), and an interview with and account of Benazir Bhutto and her family.

It is a good book, written with honesty and dedication towards India. Although some of the initial essays are depressing - but then India is not what you see on travel books.

Book Review: "Neither Here Nor There: Travels In Europe" By Bill Bryson

In this book, Bill Bryson attempts to recreate the travel itinerary of his youth some seventeen years earlier when he backpacked across Europe with one of his high school friend; He is alone this time with rucksack and notebook. This book a mixture of his lively anecdotes, sharp observations, and flashbacks to his earlier tour.

The book covers Norway (Hammerfest, Oslo), France (Paris), Belgium (Brussels, Bruges, Spa, Durbuy), Germany (Aachen, Cologne, Hamburg), Holland (Amsterdam), Denmark (Copenhagen), Sweden (Gothenburg, Stockholm), Italy (Rome, Naples, Sorrento, Capri, Florence, Milan, Como), Switzerland (Brig, Geneva, Bern), Liechtenstein, Austria (Innsbruck, Salzburg, Vienna), Yugoslavia (Split, Sarajevo, Belgrade), Bulgaria (Sofia), and Turkey (Istanbul).

The book is pure entertainment (provided you must not fail to catch the humor there). He is quite honest about what he liked or what he did not liked. And he was prompt is downgrading his rating for a "well-known" place once he reached there and did not found it up to the mark. He also diligently lavishes praises on lesser known places. He surely avoids the usual travel writer obligation to adore every place (read famous places) they visit.

I know that some of you may find this book rather strangely funny - or, even absurd at times. But only if you're obsessed with political correctness, he may offend you, but he is democratic in his targets. He has some quite interesting observations to make. Although most of the observations are now out of the date (he wrote the book in 1990) but they are funny and a refreshing change from the breathless romanticism of so many guidebooks and travel brochures. He also shows that Europe and Britain aren't as perfect as they look from the windows of a tour bus.

Book Review: In Xanadu - A Quest by William Dalrymple

Most of us must have heard following opening lines of a poem by Samuel Taylor Coleridge:

In Xanadu did Kubla Khan
A stately pleasure-dome decree:
Where Alph, the sacred river, ran
Through caverns measureless to man
Down to a sunless sea.

The poem references Mongol and Chinese emperor Kublai Khan of the Yuan dynasty and his summer capital Xanadu or Shangdu (as popularly known). Xanadu has a significant place in western history as well because it was the destination of the most famous Marco Polo's trip from Jerusalem to China (which he called Cathay) carrying oil from Holy Sepulcher & presents from Pope Gregory X for Kublai Khan between 1271 & 1274.

In his book by name of 'In Xanadu - A Quest', William Dalrymple retraces the epic journey of Marco Polo from Jerusalem to Xanadu, the ruins of the palace of Kubla Khan, north of Peking carrying oil from Holy Sepulcher, in the summer of 1986. He calls this book as a quest - not a vacation - just because it involves hardship and suffering not accompanied by a vacation. An intrepid traveler, and entertaining writer, Dalrymple offers an anecdotal history of the people and places he encounters en route through Israel, Cyprus, Turkey, Syria, Iran, Pakistan, and the breadth of China. An overland passage through these closed countries is an incredible travel feat in itself.

Although I did not found this book to be as engrossing or interesting as some of the other ones by William Dalrymple. But still, this is not a great book; it is an interesting book. Much of the book is the usual stuff of travel: difficulties in getting official clearance; locals speaking funny (read faulty) English; stomach upsets due to eating strange food at various roadside eateries; staying at inns which are sometimes as dirty as roads outside; and so on. However, in some sections he writes about more interesting things like how dull Polo's own account really is, developments in Islamic architecture, the history of some of the places, recognizing Marco's Polo description of a place and mapping it into current state of affairs. In totality, an interesting enough book by a 22 year old (remember this was his first book).

Read this book if:
1. You love reading travel books which are not like essays.
2. You are on a vacation which has turned wrong - in this book you will find that it could have been worse :)

Satvik Resort, Bhimtal – Experience of a lifetime

I visited Satvik Resort (http://www.thesatvik.com/) with my family & my in-laws during 29 Sep – 1 Oct 2007. We traveled from Delhi to Rampur through train and from there on we hired a cab. The road from Rampur to Rudrapur is pretty bad – full of potholes especially around Bilaspur. But after that, it is quite smooth. We got stuck in a traffic jam due to mud slide just after Haldwani (and eventually covered Rampur – Bhimtal distance in 7 hours), it was a respite to reach Satvik Resort and be greeted with herbal tea and warm home cooked food.

The Satvik Resort is a no-fuss, no-frill resort founded by Yoga Guru Pulak Ranjan Shukla. The USP is ‘experience of Satvik lifestyle’. It offers complete peace as it is half-a-kilometer before Bhimtal. The rooms are airy, well maintained, simple-yet-elegant & clean. We were pretty happy to find our rooms very clean and the bathrooms spacious plus clean. This is one thing which I personally like a lot in a hotel/resort.


Our room filled with morning sunlight

Never have I thought that food can be so tempting even when it has no garlic, onion & no meat. Yes, as per their Satvik experience, the cooking staff does not serves foods containing “tamsik” elements. The sitting in their restaurant is on low height chairs & food is served on low height tables as well. Food is served on “pattals” & copper bowl/glasses. And it is always served hot. They did a special lunch for us with focus on Kumaoni food during our stay.

Food was served in tradition Indian style

All the rooms face East direction, so we could see sunrise each day. On the first day, there were clouds and hence sunrise was not that spectacular but on next day it was pretty clear and I got several shots of sun rising from between of two mountains. It was much like how I used to draw it during my childhood. Our rooms were on 5th floor and there is a big balcony in front of rooms where we used to sit and have our morning or evening tea enjoying the views. The resort faces a valley and then mountains so it gives a feeling of openness.

Sitting area in front of our room

There are several excursion around like Naukuchiatal, Sattal, Nainital & others but we just visited the Bhimtal Lake & Naukuchiatal.

Go there for
- Relaxation
- Different living experience
- Tasty vegetarian food
- Beautiful sunrise

Panaromic view from our balcony