CTR’s Benne Masale no longer the world’s best Masala Dosa?

                                                         I have always endorsed to everyone that the best place in the world to have Masala Dosa is in Bangalore & the best Dosa in Bangalore is the crispily-soft juicy Benne Masale at CTR (Sri Sagar) – Malleshwaram. I wasn’t the only one with this opinion. The certificates from Burrp & Radio city, have ‘officially’ given great credit to this 6 decade old, small yet famous joint’s Benne Masale. A quick ‘blog Search’ on the web shows CTR is getting many first timers even now & who are raving about it (Like 

this and this). But sadly, time seems to have done its transformation bit. L

                

                                    The first turn of steering on my opinion came a couple of months ago when my best friend was in town. He has been living out of the country since a couple of years & every time he was  in town we made it a point to pay a visit to CTR. We had fallen in love with their Dosa right since school days. This time after sweeping thru two Dosas he said “I feel the Dosa has lost quality, I don’t get the same old taste anymore, neither of the two I had tasted the same”. Even though in my mind I had the same feeling about the lost taste, I dismissed his opinion. I was thinking more on statistical lines & giving room for some Standard Error rate. Not all Dosas can be achieved of the same quality, there can & will be variations – I thought.

                Since then, everytime I was in CTR my mind involuntarily was running the rating scale, checking if the ‘World’s Best Masala Dosa’ credit was slipping out of CTR or not. Unfortunately, each time the result was what I dint want it to be. Last weekend broke all barriers though! I had hesitantly suggested the place for a few friends endorsing my ever favorite ‘Benne Masale’. Since Dosa takes time 

to come after the order was placed, We first had the usual stop gap ‘Mangalore Bajji’ and that was quite good & in the usual standards. The shocker was when the Dosa actually arrived. I know ‘Yellar Mane Dosenu thoothu’ and all that. But the ones at CTR always had smooth, clear, crispy, juicy, brownish golden outer surface. Almost as if it had just been polished to the last shine by a professional makeup artist. However what I got this day wasn’t the same, it was roasted to near charcoal & had many large holes! It was looking worse than a homemade Dosa. The usual crispy outside & soft inside feature was, ofcourse, not to be seen. Thanks to the deep roast. I just couldn’t accept the fact that it could be so bad. I even shamelessly dug into the plates of everyone who had come with me & had the same disappointment waving at me.

                Deeply saddened, disappointed & with hopelessness I left ‘Sri Sagar’ without even ordering a coffee. I don’t even feel like calling it CTR anymore, to me it’s now just Sri Sagar – just another little eatery. The place where my Grand Father had ‘Masale’ since his young days & had passed on the custom to me is now eroding. Eroding from the best places in town, eroding from my list of most revered places.

Simple aagond love story Review

You must have read my earlier post (Not So) Simple aagondh movie making Story, In which I had told to you about how well the movie ”Simple aagond Love Story” is being marketed. I had said I was set in with expectations and was eager to watch the movie. Well, I did. With their excellent marketing strategy, they had set very high expectations, which is generally difficult to keep up. I must say they have done quite a good job of living up to the expectations.

                Exhilarating – monotonous – elating – inching towards boredom –  entertaining, that is how the 140 minutes of screen time flow. A thorough roller coaster ride. Dialogues are the USP of this movie. A lot of new ideas are pumped in all along. When I say all along, starting right from the Govt. mandated Quit Smoking message until the projectors are turned off. Yeah, that is right. Who would have thought of innovativeness in the usually boring, 100 times seen, anti-smoking campaign too?

The movie opens with my favorite RJ Rachna & her show. The first half hour or so is a treat for your eyes & ears. Excellent cinematography that will stop your eye from blinking, butt kicking dialogues and unimaginably tickling metaphors. However, soon somewhere along the lines, law of marginal utility hits your face and you begin to feel a little wearying out with an overdose of metaphors. It is like the 1000^th ride of a roller coaster, an overdose would kill the excitement. But you are not let to sink deep in though. As it begins to get monotonous, you are immediately pulled back in for some kind of a new twist in the tale & of course with the continued treat for the eye.  And this roller coaster ride continues until the end with new twist or a song or something pulling you high up from the slide. And be warned that you might be taking on more fun than what you can handle. I had to jump out of the seat & walk around to avoid falling on the floor laughing. And, So that qualifies for my most enjoyed part – ‘Purohitar Panche’ dialogue.

The story in itself isn’t from the stars & is just a simple story, as the name says it. There have been many movies in the past which have run on similar story lines. Again, ‘Similar’. But of course even with the simple & not-uncommon story there is a lot this movie has to offer. The characters are well placed & projected, everyone has done a good job living up to their roles. The share given to Rachna & other RJs and the radio show is slightly excess but within acceptable range, doesn’t hamper the entertainment.

A very good entertainer. A promise of joyous time. I would say it is a perfect stress buster, a 140 mins of “forget the stress of life & enjoy your brains out”. I would personally recommend.

Pasteurized Bengaluru!

Pasteurization is a process of heating up food to real high temperatures & then immediately bring it down to under the floor temperatures. It is usually done in Milk & you can see that printed on the milk packets you use everyday. Bengaluru weather is doing something similar to us! And that is probably why we all love to live here. Temperatures had been high up on scale cross touching 33 to 34C in the last few days. The scorching sun was unbearable until yesterday late evening. A single thought on everyone’s mind - ‘If this is the heat in start of March, what will we do in April/May’. While the fears were beginning to rise, the weather decided to remind that we are in BangaloreJ. Cloudy, Temperatures of around 21C & even drizzles! J. Oh boy can it get better than this to enjoy the day?

                There is one question left unanswered in my comparison though. According to Wikipedia Pasteurization “aims to reduce the number of viable pathogens so they are unlikely to cause disease”. So the question unanswered is, who are the ‘Viable Pathogens of the city who need to be reduced?. Well, I cannot say that for sure, but I have just (finally) got my voters ID issued. If you still haven’t gotten yours, go to the nearest BBMP office, the process is now real easy J

Go out enjoy the weather before its lost.

Panparaag Pichkoo on the streets!

An irritating experience that I had today on the streets. A first hand experience on how the city is being dirtied. I was just peacefully walking on the street lost in thought, on how to solve a problem in a code I was writing. About two steps ahead in the direction I was walking, was an old man dressed in clear white shirt, golden frame galsses. Standing with his back to me. Lost deep in the thought, little did I realize what was about to come my way. While I was right behind him, he turned around, sightlessly let out a chuck from his mouth that was filled with Panparaag, or whatever he was chewing. The trash came out of his mouth and directly landed on my shoulder. Making a clear red mark on my green Levis tee shirt, that I had bought to wear in my wedding.

                I could feel bubble popping out in my blood & my heart said to smash the man in his face & break his nose. I could feel hot breath under my nose. It wasn’t just my most valued t-shirt that was running in my mind. This fellow has been spitting all over the city all the while long. He was the reason for many of us to walk with nose closed, he was one of the reasons for us to walk doing long jumps on the road, he was one of the reason for people saying ‘Bangalore is dirty’.

                He instantly apologized & offered to clean my t-shirt. He took out his clear white napkin and came towards me. That instant I decided not to punch him in the face & rather give him a harder blow. I asked ‘you can clean my shirt, but who will clean the city’? His eyes went wide, he looked baffled by what I asked. The street was crowded with many people walking, we were being noticed. I continued, you can clean up my shirt but what about all the dirt you have been spitting on the street until now? ‘You want to look clean & are wearing a clean white shirt & even have a clean white napkin in your pocket, but what about the city you live in?’ He realized where this was going, his surprised face turned apologetic & he stepped towards me again with the napkin in his hand & mouth still full with the crap. I stepped back, ‘No, I don’t want you to clean my shirt. I will do it myself. I want you to clean the city, will you? You look like a well educated man, speak such good English. Will you do the same in your house? Will you spit on the floor in your house? Or atleast in your balcony? Isnt this our city, isn’t it our responsibility to keep it clean’ Now we had people walking around stop by & staring at us & giggling. I wanted to cushion it off, ‘You look much elder to me, you have seen more of life than I have, I shouldn’t be saying this to you, you must be teaching people from our generation’. He was getting more n more embarrassed & I was feeling more and more happier within. With his mouth still 3/4^th full he stepped closer to me again apologizing & wanting to clean it off my shirt. But I wasn’t done yet, the icing was still left. I said ‘No I dont wantyou to clean it.If you are really sorry I want you to do something else for me! ’ His eyes widened, he probably was expecting that I will ask him to pay me or something. Without really giving much time I continued, ‘Atleast now that you have realized how bad things can be, I want you to promise me that you wont spit on the roads again. Its our city, we have to keep it clean. Not dirty it ourselves & blame the government that the city is not clean. Let us be more responsible ’ The ride was coming to an end & I had to sandwich in a more softer format, so it was time for we! I had become a hero in the by standing crowd & him the villain ;). He now bore a wide smile on his face, looking at me as if I had just eaten him raw & put him out. Then I stood close showing my shoulder to him. With smile taking an even bigger turn he stepped closer & cleaned off my shirt. I patiently waited until he was done completely  cleaning off my shirt and then as a closing note, looked around and asked him ‘Is there a shop nearby where I can buy a new shirt’ and without waiting for his reply walked away saying ‘That’s okay, let me find it’.    Behind me I could feel the man climbing up from a thousand feet he had sunk into.

                I once again, with no making fun intention, ask everyone to be more responsible. This is the city we live in, eat in, sleep in. Lets not dirty it guys. This is our bigger home & so it is for a 1 crore more people.             

(Not So) Simple aagondh movie making Story....

Like any other day, I was on my way to office this morning listening to my favorite RJ Rachna on Radio City. Playing in the background of her lovely voice was the jingle ‘Hale Gujuri, hosa battery…’. It was a song from the latest, to-be released, movie ‘Simple aagondh Love Story’. On the show today was a special program promoting the movie. The deal of the day was that, you answer a ‘Simpleag ondh’ question she asks, and you can win couple tickets to the movie releasing this week. I was quite eager to participate & win the tickets, but I had already reached office by the time I could hear the question. Alas, my new phone doesn’t have FM either. So I couldn’t continue being hooked to the show.

However ever since I got out of the car, that jingle & the movie scenes have just been stuck in my mind. A lasting impression of all the movie promo images, the video trailer, the lyrics and the kicking dialogues. There is something about this movie, which makes them stand out in the crowd. To me the team is a great example of unconventional dare. They are probably marking a new era of film making & taking it to the public. Movie spend isn’t a highlight here at all. The first thing to start with was the 8-minute promo that they gave off at the Muhurta of the film shoot. Ever heard of anything like that? I agree that the video was probably a little too long, but haven’t you watched it in full & watched it again & shared too? I confess to have watched it atleast 10 times & once even today J. The credit doesn’t just stop there for being innovative. The movie is coming out in less than a week, not a single poster on the walls that I have seen, yet most of us know about it. Ever wondered how? I haven’t seen any other movie being marketed so well on Facebook, no other movie’s FB-page that is so active. A full length program on Radio City & giving away 1000 free movie tickets! All the new bowl media used so efficiently. I give a 10/10 for the marketing team of this movie.

Its not just the way the movie is being sold. There are some others in the team doing a great job too. The movie posters and the scenes are an eye candy. I have no clue what camera they are using or what lighting they have got, but the images makes me real happy. The most liked part of the promos until now are the dialogues. Slangy, pun intended parallel meant lines are really making the rounds. ‘Swarga rap antha pass aythu’ is, I am sure, what is running on your mind now. The songs, though, haven’t kept equal pace.

Although, all these have given quite a hype & set high expectations, they are enough only to keep the houses full for the first weekend at max. What can keep the movie on success lines is the actual story line by itself & that is a wait and watch. Personally though, I am set in with expectations and waiting for the movie. Deep within hoping for the success of the movie. Lets wish these folks luck, for their dare on not following the much driven old school path.