MAD Magazines (and Moghul Library, Hyderabad)

Comics were an important part of my childhood like my first blogpost which was dedicated to ACK comics showed.

MAD called itself a ‘magazine’ and was fairly popular both in the US and India and this success in itself was a surprise.

ANNOUNCING MY BOOK - Our Quizzing Journey

Have great pleasure in announcing the launch of my book co-authored with my brothers "Our Quizzing Journey"

Available on Amazon and you can buy it here.

Also available in paperback which you can buy here.  

The Dhabas of India

My experience with Dhabas is very very very limited.  But whatever I had experienced was good enough for me to be a fan.

The popularity of Dhabas in India soared only in the last few decades.  No, people knew about this earlier, but they were only accessible when you were on the road - and therefore it is only post-liberalization with the growth of personal vehicles and with a lot more people on the road that Dhabas became the in-thing.

Satyajit Ray Presents 1 & 2

Doordarshan is India’s legacy national TV channel, owned and managed by the Government.  This was the only TV station available for my generation in our childhood and we therefore had mostly limited choice and terrible stuff to watch.

Yet, sometimes they’d get it right.

One such was when the almighty Satyajit Ray, possibly India’s greatest film director, collaborated with his Son Sandip Ray, to produce a TV series aptly named… “Satyajit Ray Presents” (SPR)  They produced another sequel a few years later named SPR2.

Avaakai - the mango pickle

Avaakai  is the name for the raw mango pickle prepared in Andhra, and is possibly the BEST pickle in India and the world - at least for me.

My memory of Avaakai and why its so good is because it was made at home by my mom and her neighbor, and the batch they produced (lasted nearly a decade) was the BESTEST one ever ever produced in the world.

My CTR Adventure & its Benne Masala Dosa

I have written about my experience and feelings for Bengaluru and my sojourn in Malleswaram before.  

And while I write about my favorite foods, I wouldn't call myself a ‘foodie’.  In fact I personally do not like the idea of going early or standing in a long queue - however great the food might be, sorry thats not me.   In Bengaluru, sadly that’s how it is.

Thats one of the reasons I missed out eating at CTR the last time I was at Malleswaram as CTR, a popular landmark restaurant was always crowded.

Derek O'Brien - my favorite quizmaster

I wish I’d written this post before Derek became a politician, anyways it still holds true - as a quizmaster, he is a big part of the faves in my life.

Most people I know do not like Derek O’Brien as a quizmaster.  But I absolutely loved his quizzes, and he was one quizmaster whose questions were closest to what I’d have set myself.

Lata Mangeshkar - the soul of India

As a kid I strongly believed that If God had to speak she’d sound just like Lata Mangeshkar.

In the Western coastal belt - Maharashtra, Goa, Karnataka - most of my generation grew up listening to bhajans of Bhimsen Joshi and Lata Mangeshkar.  The great Bhimsen Joshi renowned for classical music was at stratospheric levels that seemed beyond reach. Even singing his Bhajans was impossible.  Lata Mangeshkar on the other hand seemed part of everyone’s family and a voice that soothed everyone.

The Dharwad Peda

The Dharwad Peda is one of my favorites I discovered later in life, but its unique and I think what makes it also special is its unlikely to be available outside some parts of India.

Curiously, I had it first when I was a kid and didn't like it. But then I didn't pretty much like anything when I was a sickly skinny kid who could barely eat much food and was too tired most of the time.  

“Freedom At Midnight” and “The Men Who Killed Gandhi”

I am lumping these two books together as they are on the same subject and I thought offered a different perspective from what I knew about or was taught about history.  Both were great reads - only I read them nearly two decades apart.

India & Indians are quite open about hypocrisy in our lives, inevitable since the system is geared up towards that.  A honest discussion is almost rare and shied upon - we are more queasy than the Brits on a lot of subject.

The food served at Temple festivals

Each temple in the South Kanara district of Karnataka has its own annual festival that usually involves some festivities and popular customs & rituals.  This usually lasts for a couple of days and sometimes up to a week. What is notable is that meals are served to all devotees attending this festivities usually in the evenings, but in some temples also during afternoons.

What I have found very distinct is the food served at these temple festivals (and I can only talk about the temples thronged by the GSB community).  This food is treated as offerings to the Deity and taken as blessed ‘Prasad’ by the community.

Yes Minister and Yes Prime Minister series

There are very very few books converted into TV series or films where you can say the TV series/ film was as good or better than the book. 

IMO the Yes Minister and Yes Prime Minister TV series is one such rare example.

Sai Paranjpye and her “Jaadu ka Shankh”

If you belong to my generation or the prevous, there’s a good chance that you have seen and enjoyed the works of Sai Paranjpye but an equally good chance that you barely knew who she was. Since DoorDarshan was the only channel available those days, and Sai Paranjpye somehow had cracked how to deal with bureaucrats from both the films division departments as well as the Doordarshan, she did a lot of work with them which we got to see on television and boy was it good!.

Coffee, Tea or Me?

You need to be of a certain age to know this phrase – and also to have to know that this is the title of an absolutely wonderful book (for adults and mature audiences).

It also belongs to a different era and unlikely to be popular or even relate-able – seriously in terms of the advances and fast pace of change we are witnessing, it truly is a snapshot of the glorious past.

There are several reasons I liked it, one of them primarily because it was written in the glory days of airline travel when it still was a luxury and for the privileged few.  In fact when I read it, it already was two decades old.

ETV Marathi, ZEE Marathi and Home Minister

The language Marathi is part of my culture and something I am immensely fond of, even though I cant speak it. My mom’s from Aurangabad, and this was the lingua franca at her home, even though Konkani was our mother tongue (Konkani, which is very very very similar to Marathi)

But the influence of Marathi was everywhere. Most of the best Bhajans (IMO) are in Marathi.  I have spent a lot of time in Maharashtra, and the neighbouring Goa has similar cultures to my community of the GSBs

Michael crichton’s books and Disclosure the movie

For my generation Michael Crichton was a genius who made science and its latest developments accessible.  (Sorry couldn’t get Asimov – plus his books were not easily available).

Crichton’s genius was making Science easily understood as well as marketing this suitably.

Bhajans – devotional music

Singing Bhajans – devotional songs, have been an integral part of my family.  It was a ritual, a daily practice even, when we were kids.  In my community (the GSB – Gowd Saraswat Brahmans) this used to be a common practice in my father’s generations.  In the evening when the lamps were lit, there would be a short session of Bhajans.

For me, it started off as an unwanted discipline and chore that I couldn’t avoid, to now something I genuinely enjoy and is one of my favourite things to do.

My new love - Haruki Murakami (and art films)

Being a late laggard has its advantages.  I discover Haruki Murakami thanks to Scheherazade in the New Yorker and am instantly hooked.  The advantage is that there is a great, and big body of work to now savour given how prolific this author has been (writing since the 1980s).

However, Haruki is not everyone’s cup of tea and can be challenging – and perhaps that challenge is the very thing that makes his short stories and novels interesting.

Haruki’s stories can have various effects – right from melancholy, to surprise, regret, an epiphany, nostalgia, interest – the whole panoply of emotions can come through at any point. As you go through them. But the one which is inevitable is a strong desire to discuss this immediately.

Haruki Murakami's “Scheherazade" in the New Yorker

Short stories can be tricky and I think the jury is out on what really makes a good short story.  When I got around to reading the short stories outside my textbooks -  This is very different, I realized,  from what I read in school - which were mostly reeeeally short as in SHORT stories. Most of the stuff I read in school were the shorter ones by RK Narayan (malgudi) and O Henry etc.

So, some very good ones would actually not be very short at all. I quite liked reading Maugham's stories from the orient, and expatriate life back in the days when colonization was in its last days. Jeffrey archer, Roald Dahl, Jhumpa Lahiri etc. were some of my favourites (and I think the entire list would be difficult to put down ehre)

Quizzing - perhaps my only real hobby past time ever

I was never really into much sports, neither indoors nor outdoors.

So the only competitive activity I indulged in was quizzing, and you could call it a hobby or a sport.

Even if I am not taking part I usually find it fun to watch either on TV, or in person live quizzing events.