Mixed bag!

The blog has been dormant for sometime. Blame it on my comfort zone with travelogues. No weekend travel for sometime meant no updating the blog – bad Cheshire I say! My blog conscience was catching up , so I sacrificed on a lazy weekend afternoon siesta (sigh!) to blog on a couple of random things:

A week's vacation to Calcutta in March – Pure bliss:). My parents finally settled in Cal , which helps resolve the following issues (in no particular order):

1. I have a permanent address now , Yippee!
2. No more racking brains to answer “so where are you from” conundrum.
3. No more “whattay nut” look when I mention I dont know where home is exactly located since my parents just moved places and I havent visited them ever since.

The vacation turned out to be what a Cal vacation is supposed to be anyways – eat-sleep-eat marathon. The air conditioned volvos plying from the airport were a pleasant surprise. The Bedouin rolls at Gariahat market taste the same , my aunt continues to admonish me for not gaining weight and discussions around where to get the best fish from still gain centrestage. Thank God for things in life which never change!

Speaking of food,some epicurean adventures in Bangalore at:

• Ruh , a mediterranean restaurant located at a stone's throw away from office, forced out of extortion for winning the HSBC annual debate. Sprawling area comprising of an open mediterranean set up and a lounge like version with a Dracula theme – red curtains , waiters with pin tailed coats et all. Food is just about ok , music is incongrous.I liked the bar though, and also added bartending to my dream profession list:).
• Jukebox, Koramanagala – a colleague's suggestion for a team dinner. Jukebox is a rundown version of an American diner.Don't expect a TGIF for the ambience , but a good place to get some great steaks. Serves only beer for drinks. And the cheese toasts for starters are really yummy!

Great starters for thought at the HSBC annual debate where it was back to Keynes-“In the long run we are all dead”. (or the grateful dead as Krugman puts it in an interesting but slightly dated article here ) Eclectic arguments drawn from economics to the Gita. Also heated debates over the womens' reservation bill issue , Sachin versus Beckham etc. An enthusiastic audience and some out of the box questions:). A thoroughly interesting evening and a clean sweep by the marketing analytics team.

Oh and yes - a first tryst with Bangalore theatre – Girish Karnad's Bikhre Bimb at Rangashankara. If it ever happens to be staged in your city , do not miss it. A brilliantly executed monologue by the protagonist Arundhati Nag , the play explores the dilemma of Indian writers who choose to write in English and serves as a moving story of conflict and the desire for fame. I also liked the theatre ambience at Rangashankara , somewhat similar to Prithvi in Mumbai (not sure if they have the same cutting chai though). A successful first tryst for sure, and hopefully I will end up catching more of Bangalore theatre there!