After much thought and analysis, I have finally decided to move from wordpress.com to a separate hosting. We were earlier at http://indiareviews.wordpress.com.

The concept is to keep things simple, hence the name: India + Reviews + Blog. So, I hope the name itself describes everything about the blog.

IR is back ! Now to inform my co-blogger

All three leads (no, Bobby Deol aint a lead) ooze sexiness. And more sexiness. And boy, do Priyanka and John show of their well-toned/muscled bodies. In one of the scenes when Abhishek goes “bum?” look at Pri’s derriere, one reckons that he could have done it over and over and still meant it for Priyanka’s derriere looks that fabulous (and who’s the costume designer for such fab clothes?). John of course, wears the least clothes, and displays oodles of musckle (note: if going with your lover, make sure you both get seats at different ends – you’d both wanna enjoy the display of all that opposite sex rather exclusively)

Now that I have finished with the sexiness bit, lets talk about the other bits that I did like – moojik. And forget the current chartbusters – look at Maa ka ladla – if that aint a situational song, nothing is. And boy are the lyrics great! Loved the way all the songs are written, pictured – acted/directed, of course. Talking of cinematography – lovely. Camera just hugs the skin (tones) although in someplaces I felt it could have been better – but top notch.

The movie moves fast – and doesn’t bore one at all – not even the faux gay bits – in fact the entire movie pretty much moves without a blip and boredom – with the faux gay bits being very funny cos of the inside joke ‘tween John and Abhishek’s characters.

The only flaws? Bobby Deol, and the ending.

Everything else rocks – especially the ideas of including some Hindi film superhits in the dialogues – whodathunk! (wont give away too much though – except that I found Jhumma Chumma the funniest of ‘em)

Enjoi the movie!

Not an experience I’ll forget anytime soon. It was totally one to savour for some time! The first hurdles were locating a place that’d lend hogs at a decent rate – and also be close enough to my hotel. It took a bit of time, but I finally got there – after half a dozen phone calls!

The eve of the day (weekend) of reckoning, comes news that weather’s gonna be not so good – and 80% chances of rain. Ah great! Rain. Just the thing I was hoping for. But, there was this tiny voice that said “wait a minute, your last ride which was highly enjoyable was partly in the wet too…”. But a 140 kilo 180cc animal is slightly different from a 250+kilo Hog with 6 times engine capakitty, innit?

Well, Saturday morning opened to a nice surprise – it was sunny!! for the first time in a week nearly! And the change in weather signaled a good ride – in nice sunny weather.
So out I went to get the hog – got all the paperwork done, which, by now, it was kinda familiar to me.

Well, it was only till getting onto the bike that it was familiar territory. From then on, it was unexplored and very, very sensory. They don’t say “you know its a Harley when you hear it” for no reason! (more cliches found true, but we’ll come to that l8r) And I discovered the pleasure of hearing the hot-rod throbbing when I fired it up. Now THAT sounded sweet!  As were the vibes from the bike – I’d gone there expecting a bike that threatened to throw me off at first start-up, but the vibes were muted, pleasant -and gave the right amount of feel. Perfect!

The first ten miles back to the hotel, were SWEET. I had a mile wide grin plastered over my face for the whole journey. My cheeks didn’t hurt even after having that grin plastered over my face for ten miles. The initial turn-in seemed a bit laborious, from the Pulsar’s sporty stance – which’s what I was used to. After the first couple of turns trying to figure if I was on the right street, the rest of the time was spent, cruising, being stared at. (Helped that I’d dressed as a propah “biker” – leather n denims). Cruising on the hog with a full lane for me, hogging the attention of folks around me, in cages – was sweet. The cool Pacific Ocean draft set it out to be the perfect ride. (That the draft might be a bit too cool, I found out later).

Lunch dispensed with, maps printed from G-maps, and all-set to go, only to see the sky opening up. Rain. A short nap was beckoning when I discovered that the rain had stopped.  For good. Hoo-hah! Time to hit the California-1.

But now it was time for a bit of reality check. The first was the IRON of the clutch. Eooww! If someone wants to build up(?)/exercise their palm muscles, nothing better than the Harley’s clutch. It’s not so apparent when in normal traffic, but a 3-car pile-up meant I was forced to use the clutch a lot, and as a result my left palm took a good beating. Round 1 to the Sportster, for reminding me to have got some gloves along as well. Should try it Bangalore’s traffic. Palms and fingers sure to toughen up, and we can just junk the protective gloves after that, maybe.

But, the pile-up was soon dispensed with, and I was now onto CA-1, or the Pacific Coast Highway. One of the best roads I have been on, till now – ocean and beach on one side, tiny hamlets on either and the mountains opposite the ocean. Add in the ocean draft and it was perfect weather for cruising. Or so I thought.

Trouble was, I didn’t have gloves. And at a steady 50mph, that ocean draft bites in a while(and it was 8 deg C). But a Pizza/coffee /directions stop kinda took a bit of the sting away, and we’re on the road again – trying to find my way to the temple located amongst the hills in Malibu – which I’d heard about from my pals of being located in an awesome location.

Turned out that the temple amongst the hills, or, the Malibu Venkateshwara temple, if you so prefer, was just a couple of turns from the PCH. Ah nice, that meant not so long a ride – and an easy ride. Or so, I thought. Trouble was, one turn was into the hill country, the second one put me bang on the hills, with a signboard reading, in a rather friendly manner, “Landslide zone, next 4.6 miles”. 4.6 miles? Ah, not so bad. I’d get off the road in that time. Time to check the map again. “4.6 miles on that road, before the turn to the temple”. Yeah, so much for calculations. The first few corners were spent trying to avoid my fear of heights, and thinking of the rock that might send me and a 250kilo hog plummeting down. After those initial fears seemed a bit too much, out came a small tunnel to set things in sweet motion again – Nice! The roar of the bike on the tunnel was good. My hands were somewhere between being numb and totally numb, but trying to pull the levers made of IRON helped in bringing them back to life, in bits.

And finally, there it was, nestled in the hills, amongst the best locations for a temple that I’ve ever seen. The most delightful part of it, of course, nestled inside. And that was the tap with hot water streaming out of it. With fingers back in motion, and paying my respects to the deity there, I headed back home, er, to my hotel. The ride back was mostly eventless, and an actual cruise with just one break to see a panoramic view of the coastline all through Malibu up until Santa Monica(or so I guessed). The only sad part was that I didn’t have enough time to snap it – a slight drizzle and a cloudy sky meant I didn’t want to tempt the gods into dousing me with water.

The Sportster’s lights were just about okay. If I had one, I’d complain about it as much as I’d complain about my 180′s lights, or maybe slightly lesser.

Fuel consumed: 1.8 gallons

Rental paid : 106$

The Experience : Priceless.

First stop: Hidesign, 1st Floor, Garuda Mall
There were 4-5 Jackets and I found exactly what I wanted, great styling, exact color, thick leather.. But alas! Rs. 9000 (Hidesign, does it go on sale anytime ?)

Next stop: Shopper’s Stop, Garuda Mall
Surprise, Surprise.. We were sent to the 2nd floor by a salesman in the ground floor.. When we reached there, we were shown few denim jackets.. I spelt it out again, “L-E-A-T-H-E-R” jacket.. Then, he came out with it, they didn’t have any..

Next: Lifestyle, Richmond Road
We were sure, they would have good ones there, suspected that the price would be out of the budget, but you never know.. Surprise again, just one brand and one jacket to show for the “grand” Lifestyle. I was very disappointed..

Next: Bangalore Central Mall, Near Mayo Hall, Residency Road
Took the slow escalator towards the third floor. Just two brands, pathetic design and material is not the word..

Next: Brown Shop, Commercial Street
The guy showed us three basic designs. It cost around 3k. Had elastic at the bottom and not very well-designed. He over-heard us telling that and pulled out an in-fashion leather jacket. The ones with metal rivets that you see the road romeos wear. Not exactly what I wanted..

Next: <Forgot the name>, Commercial Street
He had a good collection of jackets in the top store-room. But alas, nothing in brown.. Sold out, I guess.. Price: Rs. 4k

Next: Thunderbird (exclusive leather store)
#118, 1st Floor, Commercial Street (Opposite Westside) Ph. 080-255979971, 080-41472673
As we entered the store on the 1st floor, I saw a lot of jackets in the corner of the store. Ding ding ding, Jackpot !!
We had hit the mother-ship, found quite a good collection of well-crafted jackets. Found the jacket we wanted.. a bit thin though. Price: Rs. 4500 (after 10% discount). Good choice of jackets and good service !!

Some trivia (you may or may not know):

Hidesign, a premium leather product brand from India has made clear its ambitions to become one of the top brands in the world. A strong competitive position in the domestic market, coupled with a global presence in retail stores like the House of Fraser, Selfridges, and John Lewis. Hidesign could boast of celebrity clients like Nelson Mandela and Steven Spielberg.. “Too cool or what !!” [Source: www.icmrindia.org]

Lifestyle is part of the Landmark Group, a Dubai-based retail chain. With over 30 years’ experience in retailing, the Group has become the foremost retailer in the Gulf. Positioned as a trendy, youthful and vibrant brand that offers customers a wide variety of merchandise at exceptional value for money, Lifestyle began operations in 1998 with its first store in Chennai in 1999 and now has 12 Lifestyle stores, 5 Home Centres and 1 Babyshop store across Chennai, Hyderabad, Bangalore, Gurgaon, Delhi, Mumbai and Ahmedabad. [Source: www.lifestylestores.com]

If you know of other stores in bangalore, do add a comment.

The Airwave is a station wagon model based on the Jazz platform – and its ordinary at best, boring at worst.

The Airwave is a model exclusive to Japan, but based on the Jazz platform, pretty much like the City. Except, that its got a boot, a big boot.

How’s it like to drive? Well I drove it for a lil over 200kms and following are my observations.

When I started out, I feathered the loud pedal as we’d just been caught speeding (wasn’t me!) and the acceleration was generally sluggish – not all that unexpected from an automatic – importantly, it wasn’t progressive at all. But when the revs built up, i.e., I hit the loud pedal hard, the acceleration was marked, with a kick at the neck(but still not progressive).

The engine really didn’t exhibit the “smoothness” that’s apparently Honda’ strength. It was actually a pretty unrefined unit. NVH characteristics were rather bad, considering that the windows were up – and a lot of noise filtered through. A lot more than even in any small car! Getting maybe 4/10 in my book.

The dynamics of the car, would be slightly different I suppose. Being the first stationwagon I’ve driven – and fully loaded with 5 people and lots of luggage, I was careful not to upset the applecart.

It was nothing great to write home about though – having driven it among the twisties on the way to Fuji, it was okay – didn’t corner like on rails, but didn’t really give too much cause for concern either. Was generally okay (was on unassisted brakes and steering as we’d nearly run outta fuel!) .

One thing I really hated abt the car was the driver’s seating – everytime I had to get out, my legs fouled with the steering stalk – a real pain, adjustin the seat back and then forward again. The Jazz better have decent seat positioning!
And the driver’s seating was kinda okay when driving, but the “auto gear” lever did not fall to the hand well. The armrest fouled with the left arm (thank god, it was auto!). Imagine driving in an Indian city where every so often you get a thump on your elbow because you’re trying to shift gears!!

It was slated to seat 5, but, thats only if the people sitting on the 2nd row are all of slight build. Add even person of slightly heavier build and it began to get cramped – very cramped – more so than most Indian hatchbacks (Santro, Wagon R et al) Not a good thing for a stationwagon.

We didnt really test the fuel economy as it was our Japanese colleague who was managing that.

But there was one awesome feature of the car – and that is its sunroof – or a glass roof at the top. I’m not sure how safe it is, in a crash, but boy, it gives you an awesome view. The whole of the top of the car above the passenger rows would open up to a glassy roof – great thing on a ride! I wish they bring it to India too – subject to safety constraints, of course!

The looks were nothing to write home about – it was an average stationwagon, with the modern angular lights, curves. Nothing that distinguishes it from any other car. And the design of some parts – and especially the illumination provided by the headlights was nothing to write home about. The lights were absolutely useless – most Indian compacts have better lights!

Overall, its a just about okay car, that doesnt simulate ones senses, nor the brain. If the Jazz or equivalent is similar, then I’d say buy it only if you have no other choice!

The movie is a must watch for every mom, every dad, every teacher, every kid and everyone who has ever been a kid.. It will mostly make you cry at moments when the characters are sad or even happy.. You most probably will identify with the kid “Ishaan Awasthi” played by Darsheel Safary in the movie in some way or the other.. The kid has acted really well and will mostly win a few awards this year for this performance..

This movie breaks away from the usual singing and dancing around trees sequences of bollywood.. This movie will definitely increase the awareness of dyslexia in India.. But I suspect it will definitely change the outlook of parents towards their misunderstood (so called academically weak) kids in this unforgiving materialistic competitive world..

The music and songs for the film are just brilliant and very moving.. Especially the song “Maa” will have your tears rolling down your cheeks.. Super stuff “Ehsaan Ehsaan Loy” !! I was crying and foot-tapping while seeing the songs

Debut director & Actor Aamir Khan and all the members of the crew.. hats-off to you guys !!

What is Dyslexia ?

Source: wikipedia

Recommendations to parents/teachers: http://www.ldonline.org/article/14907

Watched movie at Fun Cinemas, Cunningham Road, Bangalore

Official movie site: http://www.taarezameenpar.com/

Updates:

Found this good review on the reviews of this movie by the GreatIndianMutiny guys !!

Also read Review Rip Off – II by Sanjukta

Guess the (paintbrushed) image says it all..

Happy New Year Folks !!

Hope you succeed in finally finding the happiness you always were seeking this year..

Hmm.. 2008 New Year’s Resolution: Must post more often..

Are these terms are alien to you ?

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Spiderman’s bestfriend becomes enemy.Spiderman loses girlfriend.
Spiderman goes bad, er. black. Spidey’s girl gets ‘napped.
Spidey fights 2 enemies at once – and gets the arse kicked all over the place.
Ex-Best Friend turned enemy comes to the rescue, dies saving Spidey. (Friends again?)
Spidey’s Enemy says “sorry!”. Spidey gets girl back.

like the movie? hate it?
cant decide – it was interesting all right, but walking out of the theatre, those lines above were my reaction. The start has some of the haziest graphics I have seen. I could hardly make out what happened – just goblin and spidey flying thick and fast, in blurs. Spidey black, I like – entertaining, uncool-ly cool, and quite funny. If Spidey is supposed to project innocence, then Goblin Junior beats him hands down. He looks like an innocent lost puppy thru’out. Heck, even dies for the best friend!
Sandman, Sandman, Sandman – what do I say about such a boring character? I said too much already.
And Venom is fun – before, he becomes venom.
In fact, the best, most interesting “villian” of the piece is Spidey himself, in black.
CG aint to spectacular, the score’s okay. There’s some doses of being “good” in the movie, which are okey-dokey. But, Bollywood handles it better anyday!
If you havent watched it, maybe watch it wid yer pardner… if you’re out with friends, watch it for the smartass comments u gonna get/make!

I am sure everybody in Bangalore has been to the Corner House ice cream parlours and also had the very famous mouth-watering DBC (Death By Chocolate). But few know about this hidden dessert parlour called Painted Platters in Koramangala, Bangalore.

Here, each plate used to serve the desserts is spray painted with chocolate paint and comes decorated with witty messages like “You can never make a crab walk straight” (on our plates), “My reality check has bounced,” “If there’s a will, I want to be in it,” etc.. Hence the name, Painted Platters.

Painted Platters was founded by Joe Manavalan of Oberoi Hotels. Joe’s passion for food and desserts (especially the presentation of it) is palpable from the article on Hindu:

Style, the visual appeal of food, is important because it is the first impression. To be a good stylist, you’ve to know your food well. It is like architecture, where the architect has to know the materials well. “The right side of a plate (like the right hand page of a book/newspaper) is the high visibility one. So, put the main or most colourful item there. I also use odd numbers regarding food articles on a plate or chairs for a table, number of colours in the food, interior décor of restaurants and whereever there is mix and match.”

[Image above: the very unique menu printed on cds]

The must try desserts here are Mississipi Mudpie (a favorite of mine), Champagne & Berry Mousse, Cherry & White Wine Mousse, Dark & White Chocolate Sushi, Apple Pie and Mango Mousse.. Its also priced quite reasonably at around Rs. 100, which make them a must try, if you are around Koramangala.

[Image above: champagne and berry mousse]

I found the ambiance to be just right too, with very good light music playing in the background. But all this only adds to the very yummy desserts (see the photos, but obviously you need to taste them and find the melting in your mouth to really appreciate them)

[Image above: new york baked cheese cake]

Address: 1st B Main Road, 7th Block, Koramangala, Bangalore (near Adyar Ananda Bhavan and opposite The legend)

FYI, there is another Painted Platters at Jayanagar too. I’ve heard that the first one at Indiranagar is closed now.

For more info: good detailed articles on Hindu and Hindu Business Line.