Aroma of philter kaapi....

Am back at my favorite topic again -- raving about filter coffee.
I don’t know how many of you remember the Narasus coffee advertisement with 'Thengaai' Srinivasan explaining the preparation mode for filter coffee to his wife 'Chachu'…that particular variety of filter coffee, I crave for it! As such, there was no dearth of such a wonderful coffee for me when I was in Chennai.
A fantastic coffee would always be brewed at our home - thanks to my amma and wife. Most importantly to Saravana Coffee in Triplicane - he knew what ratio of chicory-peaberry went into mixture for our home. They knew I needed that caffeine drip down by blood thrice a day and knew the timing as well.
Morning -- Nothing like sipping a fresh coffee, breathing in the aroma of decoction and drinking that coffee from a super hot level to a mildly warm level - it takes min 30 minutes, mind you, to complete that session of coffee…accompanied by that day's HINDU or Ananda Vikatan or some Sujatha novel - Madras A/Vividhbharathi channel in background on radio. After that, like the Cheshire cat effect, a tinge of bitter coffee taste will be waddling in the inner tongue - enough to keep one motivated to go to work!
Afternoon -- Best had around 3:30 or 4 pm, when I am on the brink of falling asleep after a good lunch.(Having a ceremonious lunch is the item for a new post altogether!!) This coffee wakes me up. Tough to get the same home-level-quality while at work, but nevertheless, something better than a Nescafe!
Evening -- back home around 7pm or so, I would delight myself with a mildly hot, little diluted version of morning's filter coffee. Here the essence of coffee powder would have blended nicely into decoction. This settled down (mature???) coffee is apt for a relaxing evening ahead. When my work schedule started getting heavier, it is this evening home coffee that started getting affected. I needed a nice, frothy filter coffee someplace nearby, so that I could have it and get back to work again for another hour or so.
Hotel Saravana bhavan was the only place that catered to this varying taste levels of mine. Then it became kind of habit that whenever I used to pass by Saravana Bhavan, I will simply have a cup of coffee.
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Back to present. I came to UK bravely armed with 1Kg of Saravana Coffee Works filter coffee powder with chicory mixed. I even got an eversilver filter to brew the decoction. It lasted for 3 months. In the initial fervour, I would invite colleagues to home and proudly serve a cup of authentic filter coffee. But when the dwindling started, and I couldn't generally find someone who was willing to get me another KG of filter coffee powder from Madras, it was a complete debacle. I started getting desperate. Nescafe Gold Blend came a bit close, but not close enough.
Highly unsettling!
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Cut to the future...
HOTEL SARAVANA BHAVAN is opening two branches in LONDON, UK -- next week. One at East Ham and another one at Wembley Central.

As white as...

Last time I saw snow in my life, was in a movie song, where Amala will be dancing barefooted on the snow, while Rajinikanth will be completely clad in nice, warm clothes walking with nice boots, watching Amala dance & sing - "Vaa vaa vaaaaaa vaa, kanna vaa";
before that, it was Mandhira wooing Prabhu with low-neck, mini-skirt dress, singing "Alps malai kaatru vanthu, ennai killutho"; Prabhu not so much really amused by song or snow, perhaps because of cold weather despite the fact that he is totally wrapped up in nice thermal wear, and Mandhira barely covering herself;
First time, I saw snow was when our Puratchi Thalaivar MGR would sing "Puthiya vaanam, puthiya bhoomi, engum pani mazhai pozhigirathu" with a suitcase and stick in his hand!
But all these were on "Velli thirai" - silver screen.
A fortnight ago it started snowing here in UK. It was so fascinating and amusing to watch little white flurries of ice, floating in air and falling on pavement; after some hours of snowing, everything outside the window totally covered with snow. It was so exciting to watch it for real. I rang up from office to home to tell my wife to watch it, and show it to my son!!!
We were very excitedly talking about snow! A fortnight later, it is still snowing…and, we are pretty bored! Cant go out, always at home; road is very slippery, and it is painful to wait at a bus stop or a railway station…and to go out anywhere, even to a nearby potti kadai, I have to wear thermals, normal dress, gloves, insuation kulla, scarf, coat, thermal socks, shoes, apply vaseline….
Nowhere near the comfort of simple shorts and a t-shirt and a hawai seruppu to just walk to a nearby shop…
Boy, I long for the scorching Chennai sun…
Any fellow blogger from chennai, can you upload some?

Settling in UK-2

Ok, no great suspense! I did not have time to complete what I was writing on that day. So, put the "thodarum".
Karthik met me and took me to an Indian restaurant along with his friend's family. It was not a great gesture to say 'NO' when we met after a long time. I warned him though, wouldn’t be able to eat large portions, as I was already full. He ordered a masala dosa. Not bad!
Fine, coming to live in UK, few of the things I observed:
1. People here are extremely courteous (in actions), and expect you to be so to them. If you don’t, they clearly wince at you. Reminds me of convent schools
2. British people are quite fond of Indian food, and there is atleast one Indian take-away in every small town
3. And the take-aways are run by Bangladeshis mostly
4. Interest in cricket is clearly out. Ashes series supposed to start in summer is evoking enough interests in lots of Indians and Pakistanis than English people.
5. They care a lot about very very small thing too and are very sensitive
6. Many British IT guys take life cool and lead a laid back life, unlike Indian IT pros who want to be given the mantle and role of Proj Mgr within their first 7 years of experience, and do not want to code anymore!!!
7. Technology in terms of low-cost is not popular here in UK. It is possible to get a really freaky gadget and of good quality in India for a relatively 40% lesser cost than what is available in UK
8. This does not include mobile phones or their pricing plans
9. Public libraries are fantastic here. They house a great collection. One can take 14 books in one's card and can retain for 21 days.
10. It is freaky to observe that people do not cross lanes whole driving, and almost stop always at signals -- even if no one to cross the road. Driving here would be a nightmare for people who drive to Tidel park and beyond in Chennai

Settling in UK!

After a brief vacation at India during christmas, and trysts with Tsunami & Tirupati, am back to UK and kind of settled down! Got a house and moving in on Wednesday -- paal kaaichi kudikkaren!

Came back last Sunday by Srilankan airlines with 2 stops from Chennai -- Colombo and Madlives. In-flight entertainment wasn't all that good. Gilli was the movie screened. It was really hilarious to see the English sub-titles for songs like "Kokkarakokkarako" and "Apdi podu, apdi podu". Best one was ttitle song "Gilli, gilli". Sun TV must start airing such songs with similar english sub-titles during "Comedy Time"

Its cold out here; cold wind blows but temperature doesn't drop; it's at lowest 5; That’s ok in winter - I understand. Foodwise - not an issue at all; There are Indian restaurants run by Bangladeshis and Pakistanis all round UK. Some Tamil restaurants that I saw in East Ham part of London. We even got a warm "vaanga annay" in one of the south indian restaurants in East Ham. Indian spices are available in all supermarkets. If you want pure authentic "made in India" spices, you can always get in East Ham. There are also many Londis shops that have "Made in India" spices.

Last weekend, I went to Kensington Palace garden with my close friend from Pondy Univ days -- Karthik, and another Pondy Univ friend of Karthik -- Vignesh. First on that Sunday, I thought of going to office to complete some work, so cooked some chapathis and got some ready-to-cook onion bajjis alongwith side-dish -- Tamizh guys ever-handy food item -- Pulikaaichal. There is no bus service from Brentwood on sundays -- athu oru kugiramam --, normally, there is a change of train from an intermediary station called Romford to another by name Upminster. From Upminster to Basildon, it is 20 minutes. On reaching Romford station, I was told there are no trains between Romford-Upminster on sundays. Fantastic! No work. In railway station, finished the chapathi-pulikaaichal and the bajji. Had an apple. Gobbled that too. And waited for Karthik's call.

Karthik called up and said "Guru, let us meet at Liverpool street station by 2pm?". It was 1:30. I asked him the agenda. Karthik said "you come over to Liverpool street. Am with Vignesh and his family at Gloucester. Let us catch up from there". Off to Liverpool street.

(To be continued In next part)

Who is Nero - Ganguly or BCCI chairman?

• Aussie cricketers donate their second test prize money for Tsunami relief.
• Muthiah Muralidharan escapes Tsunami narrowly. The report states - He had hoped to join the team for next month's Test series but said it would now be difficult for him to join his team mates.
  "Something like this has never happened in my country," Muralitharan said. "In my opinion it is not the right time for cricket ... there is a lot of organising to do, a lot of feeding people."
• Srilanka puts the tour on hold...Srilankan cricket board added that all matches, whether international or domestic, would be postponed in recognition of a five-day period of national mourning in Sri Lanka
• Not wanting to miss the game money and an opportunity to grab a few winning feathers under cap, Indian cricket team and BCCI -- bunch of Nero -- play two successive matches both on Sunday and Monday - day of Tsunami and the next day. They happily gather their prize money, wear a black strap -- like those Dravidian parties, and come hom with a cup.

Do we still need to be crazy and fanatic about cricket?

I only pray God that cine actors and cricketers do not take out a procession or visit the affected areas to offer their "empathy" for the Tsunami victims...

Maybe we are not new to Tsunami...

If people of Madras can recall, the Kapaleeswarar temple in Mylapore is not in its original location. Initially it was well-behind the place which is now Santhome church. There are legends that sea ate the old temple, and new one was restored in current location.
Next Mahabalipuram, we know that the temples were submerged under sea.
We also know about the stories of Chola kings, how they went on to establish their kingdoms in now known areas like Sumatra, Bali, Java islands. And the legends of sea fury also have been narrated so many times.
Maybe we had all along been in the belt of sea fury - only we were not aware...the tectonic movements rendered the land movement that we currently have the chunk of land called Indian subcontinent.
Can any geophysicist/geologist track such movements? Is there any geographical shift happening? Is South India coastal line becoming one of those furious wave-filled beaches that we have heard in stories?

Essex's Perambur - Basildon

(NOTE FOR CYBER PATROL -- Essex is an area/council in UK -- My work location for a year. Hello cyber patrol, don't come behind me because my last post mentioned Trisha, the title of this post contains s*x, Delhi is going to be referred here and am going to write about MMS too…am not 'that' type, okay?)

Essex's Perambur - Basildon -- That's how the place looks like - very lively, and lots of shops around in the day time. When the clock strikes six, the place wears an eerie atmosphere, with pub brats hanging around and giving you stares. Very typical like Perambur. There is even a big bus stand here, and it is a common sight to see buses suddenly arriving one after another, and the correct bus does not stand in the bay. When a driver comes and takes the bus, and you rush to have a seat, the driver says, "I am taking it to the shed…wait till another bus arrives"…well, if you cant draw a parallel to Perambur atleast here, would it interest you to know that a railway station is very close to this bus stand?

Maybe the only difference is that a distance of 14 miles is commuted by the UK driver in nearly 50 minutes, while at Perambur you know the time within which 29c would cover that distance, and also, how many people experience a near death to take a quick peek into their chamber in the upper world, when 29c covers that distance.

Whether it is the UK bus or the MTC bus, skipping stops is not uncommon. Did someone say the British people are known for their punctuality and stuffs like that? The British people know, but the bus drivers don't. Not that there is any traffic hold-up to delay them, but they just take their sweet time - atleast in Basildon. It happens quite often that a bus leaves either before time, or arrives to bus stand/stop very late.

Lots of pubs, workers and the places known for robbery and theft. A sign outside a shop in Basildon's famous shopping center sums it all - "No cash is kept inside the shop." And then, there is a beware card in the bus stand - "Thieves and pickpockets operating in this vicinity". Council is not too active, and it is rumored that the council is known for acts of corruption and swindling of funds/taxpayer's money. But then, the council members have been the long-living members in the area - read local dadhas - and they have their say and way. Recent incident being a local newspaper reporting that council staff seem to taking too many sick leaves, while there has been no instances of any epidemic. They were spotted in pubs.

The train line from London on the entire Basildon line stretch is a bit like North Madras. One would think twice, before thinking twice about looking for a house in these areas. There are few good places around, connected with Basildon by bus. Like Brentwood - I would deem it equivalent to Alwarpet. Posh area, supposed to be housing well-to-do educated families. And then, you have Billericay - like Besantnagar, and there is Wickford - like Mylapore - mix of both good and bad elements.

Am still looking for a house to rent in these areas. Yeah, yeah, I am registered with many letting agents, and also a regular browser of rightmove, primelocation, letalife, teamprop etc…don't give me the same load of information again please.

If any of you happen to know good residential areas on Basildon line itself, pls let me know, so that I can look for a house there. My MMS (Maximum Monthly Spend) limit is 650pounds for a 2 Bedroom.

Later, More on UK,
OK?

Blogging from UK

Its been 9 days since I landed in Queen's land on the job. (Innikki pathu)
After getting internet connections and sorting out the convenient times for browsing and blogging, here is my post.
It was interesting to see Kiruba's post on Trisha, Karthik's bashing and Cogito Ergo Bala's geeky angle to it all. Followed up Jayendrar's case, looks like lot of things have happened. People like Anuradha Ramanan pouring out her bottled up emotions, and people bashing her for doing so - asking what she was doing so long.

Am to work in a place called Basildon which is around 30 minutes from London's Tambaram called 'Fenchurch street'. Looking out for a place to stay around here. Need to sort whole lot of things right from bank account to house to mobile to internet connections to food to visa processing for family!!!

Well, enough of my brag for today, will catch up in next post!

The only Indian channel that didnt...

...carry any news item or even mention about high-profile star wedding of Rajini's daughter Aishwarya with budding star Dhanush was SUN Network.

Karunanidhi proves his cheapskatedness once again!

The J(ailing) Factor

First it was JJ
After some time, it was Jeevajyothi case on Saravana Bhavan Annachi
Soon to follow, Jayalakshmi
Now it is Jayendrar...
Looks like J and Jail go well together...

Some of the books waiting to be written...

..by me, of course.

Here is a sneaky preview of my would-be-books...to be precise, might-be-books.

Desi Dilbert -- This will be the Indianized Dilbert who will deal with the ingenuities of Indian corporate do(o)m. Ofcourse, the book will feature many short anecdotes of funny thins happening in our Indian company bored-rooms. This book is withheld right now, because knowing Scott Adams through his web site where he tries selling everything, we would wait until Scott Adams can allow us to use his t(i)rademark Dilbert...else, we will try sneaking a different name on this character. If we have the name Dilbert,, it will be easier to con people into buying this book.
Some cartoons / anecdotes are all ready. Few of my colleagues will co-author this book. We also plan to release a PPS file of this book, so that our usual Indian crowd can flood everyone's inboxes - specifically all gmail and yahoo mail accounts.

Who moved my underwear? or Catching the boss in the bathroom - Haven't finalized on the name yet. These are the suggested titles of the self-help (in Tamizh, suya uthavi) book that am planning to write. The theme will be based on the famous tamil saying - Bazarla uzaara illaina nijaar avuthuduvaango. And this book teaches you how not to lose your confidence in event of such a thing happening. It is most likely that such things are initiated by higher-ups, you will be able to corner them in bathroom and how you can be prevertive...I mean, persuasive!

Of boobs and asses - No this is defintely not any sex book that I plan to author, nor any biological book. This is the management book that I plan to affix an obscene price and sell them. Am sure the title itself would make people buy the book as(s) those buyers would think, "if a management book has such a fantastic, novel title, there must be something great in the book". All other smart buggers would borrow from these guys and read them. Or will download the e-Book from that Russian site or buy from outside Spencer Plaza. (Un-smart alecs would buy the same at an obscene price from inside Spence Plaza from the Landmark - this is called product-positioning - catering to both smart and unsmart people). The theme of the book is how to identify the boobheads (and hence the BOOBS in the title) that block your career-growth and assholes (well, you get the connection) who make your career stink, and how to get away from them, and still manage to obtain internet connection, browse job-sites and move to a new job.

Also have few more titles in the offing - Milagu Rasam for the soul, A dummy's guide to understanding dummy's guide, Konaar Notes written by Karunanidhi on How to find fifty faults in fifty seconds in a fifty letter sentence uttered by Jayalalitha.

Quality surveys at TIDEL

All those folks stationed at TIDEL PARK know about the dismal quality of RKHS - the one and only caterer allowed inside TIDEL and their high-handed, tyrannical, obscenely priced food (if you could call them).

Now is a quality survey being conducted about RKHS service (or rather lack of it). Given the cynic I am, the survey and service puts even me at utter dismay. For one, in the past 14 months of my stay at TIDEL, this is the second quality survey. First one's resuts or actions taken were never revelaed to us. Nor has anyone seen remarkable improvement in service or food quality. I guess CBRE (which runs TIDEL) owes a change in caterer and visibility of survey results and actions taken.

Wonder what real action is going to be taken apart from mere fulfilment of process with such surveys! (simple reason for non-confidence in the survey is - The survey had just 3 ratings scale - Good, fair, average)

RKHS leelaigal at TIDEL:
1. As per the contract/agreement, RKHS is supposed to run the regular counters and snacks counters till 8pm, and provide all such items. BUT most of items including chutney would get over by 730pm itself. The chat counter will not stack samosa mostly. BY 7:30. the man would simply close the counter and go, no matter that the billing person billed people for some chat item.
2. At any given point of time, the coffee and tea counter will have just 20 tumblers(max) to serve the TIDEL coffee-seeking crowd of over 2000. The paper cups will not be available mostly. And the quality of cups - The cups are so flimsy that getting a hot beverage in the cup and taking it to a table is like watching a hindu pop-music video...you never know when, what would fall down! (ok, ok if that was a poor analogy, leave it - enjoy the pun about Hindi pop-video...)
3. Unlimited lunch costs Rs 30 - you have both North Indian and South Indian. In North Indian, you get chapathi and variety rice (multi-colored one - new color every day), and close to 4-5 sabjis. The person who serves the chapathi would place only 4 at a time, if you ask him to place more, he will give such a look and keep it. Mind you, this is supposed to be an unlimited meals. Similar is the case of south-indian food.
4. On floor one, they also serve limited meals - for Rs 23. It is so limited, that you limit your hunger. The serving spoons - only one scoop of any item - would be small, and half of it would have the food sticking to them. Effectively you get only half the scoop. You prompt the person to drop everything off, he will stare at you before doing it.
5. The hygiene factor! Tables would never be cleaned immediately. Worse, if some company hosts a special meal session. The tables would not be cleaned until end of the day.
6. Water - RKHS cannot invest in a bubble top mineral water cans. CBRE supplies ground water - bore - through its supposed-to-be-working-water-purifier.
7. The take-away juice cups in the juice counter are not provided with a juice-cup cap. Once again very flimsy cups.

Can go on and on...and am sure many more things can be added.

Worst part - RKHS has no competition in TIDEL Park. No other eat-outs are also nearby TIDEL for one to go and have a decent food. (Do I see a good business opportunity there?)

The point is none of the companies administrators (inside TIDEL) take any concern towards this dismal, sub-standard service from RKHS. "Its all in CBRE hands" So ask them to make a representation to CBRE in company letter head, as is the usual practice, the admins vanish out of sight. When you make a representation to CBRE personally, you get a survey!

No wonder...

(Via Instant Kaapi)
Indian farmers, instead of paying hefty fees to international chemical companies for patented pesticides, are reportedly spraying their chilli and cotton fields with Coca-Cola.

Down in the article, Anupam Verma, Pepsi sales manager in Chhattisgarh, states
"If there was any truth in these claims then we would rather be selling our product as a pesticide rather than soft drinks. "

But isnt that what a study revealed close to a year back? That pepsi/coke are mixed with insecticide???

No wonder, Anupam Verma contemplates selling Pepsi as a pesticide rather than soft drinks!!!

Blogally yours...

Chakkarai inikkira chakkarai...
Had been reading Chakra's blogs since the time I started reading dubukku's blogs. On and off, he would also leave comments on my blog. Until recently I read a post of his where he mentioned about Ramco, something was connecting. Went through his site completely, and found out this Chakra is none other than my school buddy - Chakkarapani. This guy is at UK blogging. And what a time to connect with! Am off to UK soon on workpermit, and was looking for some known people.

Another friend of mine - Venkataraman CHivukula who for some inane reason wants to call himself as CVRaman had met up with Venkat at Grenoble in France. This Venkat got known to me by having a collision with my blog name. He wanted to name his blog as "aham brahmasmi", since I had taken the name already, he made it "Tattvamasi". WHile I sent a mail to CVRaman, telling him about my acquaintance with Venkat, CVRaman sends a mail stating that this guy Venkat is dubukku's friend, and they struck a chord being Tamil guys at France and blogs being the next common factors - apart from the glaring fact that both have deceiving innocent faces which has 'n' number of pranks behind them.

Deepavaliyum TNagarum

Inspired by varied experiences of Chakra and many people who are not in India, I thought, let me narrate how it is now in TNagar. And it ended up in almost flooding chakra's comments...here is a reproduction (I am good in that - no pun intended)

Guys, you must be at TNagar to know what it is to do a deepavali purchase! Let me narrate the TNagar for sake of you guys -Offlate there have been heavy showers in the Chennai Maanagaram (Nallor oruvar ularael avar poruttu ellarkkum peiyum mazhai...antha nallor ullooril ullaar), so Deepavali purchase was a bit shadowed down prev week. Not so, in this week.

Last week it was rain and floods, but this week in TNagar it is flooded by people.

Pothys, RmKv, Nalli, Chennai Silks and Kumaran contribute to the kolakalam of Deepavali purchase. WHile RmKv proves out to be the shop for affluent and for elite middle class with their zodiac style sarees, cinderella pattu pavadai et al, Pothys is at the other end wooing the lower middle class with throwaway prices. At Pothys entrance, if you stand (even when you dont intend buying anything) you will automatically be pushed inside the shop and mostly to the first floor. Ellu potta yennai kuda vizhadhu, ellaar muthugilum poi otti kollum. Pothys and RmKv are diagonally opposite each other at Panagal park. So much crowd. And then there is Nalli and Kumaran for those traditionally inclined. Nalli 100 is also crowded with not so elite but affluent middle class.

Lot of thalai deepavali purchases at Kumaran and Nalli. (Nanna border agalama oru shaaree eduthudungo...enna athimber sherithaanay, umakku pattu vetti?). And again Kumaran and Nalli are diagonally opposite to each other. Together, Pothys, RmKv, Nalli and Kumaran contribute to the densely populated polygon of TNagar. ANd not to be left behind, if you walk (get pushed) inside the street of no return namely, the Usman Road, Chennai Silks and GRT welcome you with much bigger crowd that will put a Bryan Adams concert crowd to shame. And then comes famous and liked by the poor class - Saravana stores, Saravana Thanga maligai, Saravana this and Saravana that.

You are exhausted and tired after the nostalgic trip to TNagar. Come, let us sit, relax and have a coffee - thooya philter kaapi - at Gitanjali or Saravana Bhavan. You must be really naive to think, we will have a seat at these hotels. You must be really lucky to first get a seat in these hotels. And then, if you are luckier, one of the suppliers will come to ask you for order. No guarantee, what you ordered is what you get. I recently ordered a coffee and got a falooda, and got the bill for Panneer butter Masala and naan!!!