In 1979, Basu Chatterjee made Baaton Baaton Mein and unobtrusively brought to us the dating and courtship rituals of a community that was till then either caricatured or just overlooked in Hindi cinema. Nancy Perreira and Tony Braganza…
Read More
Matriarchal manipulation in a patriarchal world is depicted unsparingly in Usha Priyamwada’s Pachpan Khambe Laal Deewarein (Now playing on Prasar Bharti). The mother resentful of her lecturer daughter’s comfortable life in her college residence because the younger daughters…
Read More
“Start with hope..always start with hope. We went from being a shitty team to become one of the biggest dynasties in the sport and all it needed was one match to light this fire,” says Michael Jordan at…
Read More
In 1947, my grandparents brought three children and the remains of an uprooted life from Pakistan to India in a train. One of those children was my mother. I grew up hearing a lot of stories about the…
Read More
Three documentaries streaming right now show the ultimate culmination of the Bois Locker Room culture. And what happens when one gender is taught to mistrust its instincts of self-preservation and the other does not even learn something as…
Read More
In Sudip Sharma’s Paatal Lok (Now streaming on Amazon. Co written by Sharma, Sagar Haveli, Hardik Mehta and Gunjit Chopra. Directed by Avinash Arun and Prosit Roy), India’s disowned inhabit the headlines we turn away from. A young…
Read More
You are browsing archives for
Spices, herbs, fruits, vegetables, pulses, grains, nuts, family favourites, history in a whiff and a mouthful. That sums up the experience of Syrian Christian food served recently in course after course at Karavalli (The Gateway Hotel), Bangalore’s favourite coastal food restaurant. The only thing missing was the wood fire smoke filling up the senses. […]
He is a conjurer of narratives. The story teller who brings to life the rising of spring sap in a winter-struck tree and then creates the moment when the silence of months gushes out as maple syrup. ** He paints with his gestures the journey in a canoe of a man and a woman as […]
Every successful brand has a bite. A bar of Magnum literally lives up to that premise. You bite, it crackles..obliging you with a molten rush of Belgian chocolate. Simple idea. Vanilla purity. And the sinfulness of chocolate. And a business, that according to report published in 2013 has doubled by a billion Euros in the […]
Some chefs cook. Others create. Drawing inspiration from influences that may or may not have anything to do with food. And when they finish a plate, it is like finishing a poem or a story or a journey through the world of senses, memory, desire for something beyond immediate gratification and one dimensional pleasure. A […]
In the Kamal Haasan starrer Pushpaka Vimana (1987), the story unfolded in the suites, balconies and gardens of a five star hotel. The idea was to pit a few ordinary mundane lives against excessive luxury. The idea of luxury then was limited to carpetted rooms, fluffy beds, marble floors and blinding chandeliers. Over the years however the idea of […]
What is the meaning of life? Why are we here? Is there a God? I wouldn’t know. I live for the here and now, by which I don’t mean I plan for the weekend, but that I can only rely on this moment right here. So when I found myself at Edo, (meaning estuary, also […]
A dear friend recently went to Switzerland and took a chiffon saree with her just in case a Yash Chopra moment struck her. And she is not even a Hindi film aficionado like me. Just goes to show, doesn’t it? How in a moment when memory meets reality, a snatch from a loved film comes […]
The first Chinese restaurant in Bangalore to open in a five star hotel. A restaurant that has since 1986, been associated with memories, yes, of China and of countless loyal guests who are treated by the staff as members of an extended family with personalised napkins and engraved chopsticks and even their favourite menus […]
Vivanta by Taj, Whitefield, Bangalore acquires a new dimension at night. The dimension of light as the fluid glass shell of the hotel glows, tall lamps come to life and the lung spaces connecting various areas twinkle.Terracotta, the signature Indian restaurant of the hotel has the most ambient lighting of all the spaces with just […]
If you know me, you know I am a huge Pizza Express fan. I love their pizzas, those airy, puffy, light, soft like a wad of cotton dough balls with a pat of herb butter to go and God help you if you ever promise to treat me to desserts from their menu because even […]
On a star-lit evening, Chef Naren Thimmaya, as iconic as Karavalli, the show-piece restaurant of Bangalore’s Gateway Hotel, watches a guest take pictures of the ambience. He smiles without knowing he is smiling. He is now an intrinsic part of the restaurant that has been widely celebrated for its culinary legacy of over two decades […]
On the day of the launch of The Gateway Hotel Lakeside Hubli, the majestic Unkal lake in the distance is an endless silver sprawl. Hotel rooms do not usually open to views such as this. Nor do many hotels have nine acres of greens wrapped around them. No wonder then that an early riser is jogging around the […]