The Wonder Years - My reflection of being a Georgian

During a recent visit to Bengaluru (the erstwhile Bangalore), on a rather fateful night, my enthusiastic friend decided to take me for a spin on the battered Hosur road. After driving around for about an hour on that lonely yet fun filled night, we were finally parked right in front of the main gate of Military School, Bangalore and suddenly as I looked at the signboard, in a split moment of sheer nostalgia, it all came back to me. Those truly wonderful years as a Georgian.

 

Back in the 80’s, Bangalore still sported the tag of the ‘Garden City’ and with it’s rich cosmopolitan lifestyle, it was pretty overwhelming for a juvenile kid like me who came from a small town modest family that had a much disciplined army background spanning two generations of folks eating cornflakes and porridge for breakfast.

 

What’s amazing though is that in spite of the school’s vastness in size, it is nestled   right in the heart of the most ‘happening’ southern city. It always felt as though we lived on a separate planet secured by its own big concrete walls with barbed wire completely cut off from active civilization and the vicious forces of this burgeoning metropolis. It seemed as though we were all in constant rebellion to get out. So much so that even to get an out pass for a boy’s day out on a lazy Sunday afternoon was a frustrating task of pleading in front of our beloved housemaster, Mr. Pandey.

 

The constant torture of being ragged by our overpowering seniors. The adventurous NCC camps in the valleys of Nainital where we would all pile up into a human pyramid during a mid winter night to avoid the biting cold in our tiny little tent. The arduous task of running a few kilometers on frost bitten barren streets of a sleeping city just to lose a few kilos body weight and qualify for the ‘Bubble’ weight category at the inter-house Boxing championship. The nerve biting episode of listening to scary ghost stories narrated with virtual life-like manifestation by our warden Mr. Jamboolingum. The ultra cool and laidback attitude of our Hindi Teacher, Mr. Pathak, the mundane yet poetic renditions of Mr. Manav.  The flamboyant English teaching style of Mr. GopalaKrishna. The constant sneaking out of the back gate at night to grab a hot and delicious ‘Dil Kush’ at the Iyengar bakery. The impatient waiting in a long queue at the Galaxy Cinema to watch the school sponsored Hollywood blockbuster Superman 1 or for that matter being dragged to Rex theatre on a late evening to watch ‘Kramer Vs Kramer’ (I never really got over that one) with the house captain because his date failed to show up.

 

My five year stint at this exceptional institution with its countless experiences has always been one of the most cherished and memorable periods of my childhood days.

 

In a silent moment on that eventful night, as I stared out of the window of my friend’s car at the big black gate, I reflected. There's something about the good old’ school days and the wonder years that passed and will never come back. And as I reminisce on the past and thank my stars, I feel I have finally arrived.

 

To All The Amazing Georgians...

 

I originally wrote this article for the Georgian Magazine back in late 2006 (actually on November 10, 2006). 

And for all the Georgians who are wondering who I am, this is Shekhar ChikkiReddy, Roll No. 2175, Rajaji House, Class of ‘87.

Photo Courtesy - The Wonder Years on screenrant.com

Capital Punishment, Khandani Style!

We all love to celebrate Birthdays of our loved ones and wives birthdays are no exceptions since it’s that one day in the year when you actually get the opportunity to truly thank them for their unflinching love and affection to you and your family. And after the usual ritual of cake cutting, gifting etc., you want to take them out to a new restaurant in town and treat them to a nice lunch or dinner, whatever maybe the case. So here I was on my dear wife’s birthday last weekend and we decided to check out this new restaurant in town for a lazy afternoon lunch. I went there with my wife and parents and as unexpected as it was, the whole experience turned out to be a big disappointment and one of the most frustrating dining experiences of ours in a long time.

And since both my wife and I are ardent foodies, I could not help but rant and unleash my frustration on this particular restaurant’s home page on Burrp.com where it was featured in painted glory.

Here’s my review of this place, read on...

The most annoying aspect (apart from many others) of this place is the way one gets served. As you are contemplating to get a place and are in the process of settling down, and trying to get a hang of a large oval shaped steel plate with about 15 odd bowls (katoris), a bevy of khandani waiters in their garish khandani attire will attack you with khandani food, literally. About 30 odd khandani items are served in about 3 minutes flat. There is no particular order or sequence in which you get served. They throw in all the khandani items whether you like them or not. A lot of ‘shuddh’ khandani ghee is poured on all the stuff repeatedly, the khandani waiters keep attacking you constantly every second minute giving you no time whatsoever to enjoy the 10% of the khandani items that you realize are actually nice for your palate and liking. The good khandani stuff like say rotis are miniature in size with about 2 inch diameter, literally a single piece if you were to eat a normal sized roti.

They have small glasses (actually earthenware kullads if you know what I mean) to serve khandani ‘butter milk’  served in small quantities, and an even smaller glasses of khandani Jalzeera (served almost towards the end of the meal), again with less than half the quantity. The miniature malpoa was excessively deep fried reeking in oil and served with just a pinch of khandani and bland tasting rabdi. The fruit custard (wonder what is khandani about his exotic pudding) was served without any fruit and tasted weird with loads of strong essence flavour.

The place is noisy, very cramped, with rather ordinary looking cheap interiors and furniture, overly crowded with lots of hustle and bustle and with hardly any sense of genuine hospitality. It’s all part of the Khandani Parampara which they announce with such aplomb.

And finally to add insult to injury, we were billed an average of Rs.375 per thali of this Khandani hospitality and vegetarian food of 1001 items to be served and eaten in 20 odd minutes. In my honest opinion it’s a total rip off by any standards. They even went on to charge a ‘service charge’ of 7.5% (about 100 odd Rupees) to pay the attacking khandani waiters their meagre monthly wages.

I had first visited another branch of this khandani joint back in Bangalore about 4 or 5 years ago when it had opened in UB city right in the middle of a Subway and a Toscanos(A plush Italian eatery).  I thought it was a very bold move by these guys to actually open one in such a place. But when my dear Mom-In-Law insisted, we try it out, it was absolutely fabulous. For starters, the outdoor ‘cafe’ seating with wrought iron tables and chairs and the ambience of the UB city mall’s open courtyard added to the experience and the food was delicious. I think we paid about Rs.225 per plate all inclusive then and I thought it was a great deal considering the ambience, the impeccable service and the authentic taste of the food they served with a true sense of khandani hospitality.

Fast forward to 2012, I was thoroughly and sadly disappointed (and ruined my dear wife’s birthday afternoon) by every means. If you are a true foodie and really want to get pampered and eat the ‘real’ khandani / marwadi / gujarati / rajasthani vegetarian food, you should check out this very non descript obscure place in Rani Ganj, Secunderabad called Ram Vilas Bhavan. They charge you about Rs.100 or less for their Thali and literally pamper you with their authentic simple food, love, affection and their genuine hospitality. I have been going there for about 15 odd years now and nothing has changed except maybe the price which has kind of kept pace with annual inflation which is alright and acceptable.

As we left the place, I swore to my family that I will not allow any more of this Capital(‘That’s English for Rajdhani) Punishment, ever.

#Rajdhani

#RajdhaniRestaurant

#VegeterianFood

#VegeterianRestaurant

#Khandani

#KhandaniParampara

The Indian impersonating Entrepreneur

I wrote this comment in response to an article in Forbes online about the rising Indian immigrant Entrepreneurs in the US. But as I started writing, it became sort of a very lengthy comment and I thought I will publish it on my blog. Here’s how it goes...

Very informative and incisive but I am not too surprised at the findings. I think one of the greatest traits that Indians have is their ability to adapt and this is what makes them successful in any environment or country, let alone the US.

So while the number of successful entrepreneurial Indian immigrants is on the rise in the US, the only problem I think is that a very small fractional number of these entrepreneurs end up starting new enterprises that are actually innovative and bring new concepts, ideas, services and products that are completely out-of-the-box and revolutionary.

A lot of Indians I know that run corporations in the US are all very run of the mill ‘consulting’ shops or businesses and are able to capitalize (read exploit) on the whole off-shoring and outsourcing bandwagon. Because of their Indian roots, upbringing and business knowhow, they are able to start and successfully run US based corporations depending completely on India based back office staff and services model.

And now we have a new breed of India based entrepreneurs who are riding the e-commerce wave in India by starting a plethora of websites selling everything under the sun and practically replicating (read copying) models and businesses which have been prevalent and evolved in the US for over a decade now. You have a Flipkart.com based on Amazon.com or a Bestylish.com based on the hugely successful Zappos.com started by Tony Hsieh who also happens to be an Immigrant but from Taiwan.  

What is interesting however is that none of these new Indian websites or online businesses are sued by their American corporation counterparts from whom they are blatantly replicated. It appears to be some sort of a carefully planned conspiracy by the American giants to let them be so as to ‘test the Indian waters’ and if successful eventually acquire them for millions of dollars.

So the point I am trying to make here is that while we have a lot of Indians starting new tech companies in the US (or in India), it will be rare or near impossible to see an Indian immigrant to start something like Zappos.com in the US.

But then again, I recently read an online article in Business Insider featuring the sexiest start-up entrepreneurs in the US under 30 and it surprisingly had an Indian (Arshad Chowdhury who started Cleargears) included in the list. That felt really good and I think there’s still some hope.

And by the way, I am happy to be back on my Blog after a long unintended haitus (read Bloggers Block).

 

In closing, here’s a link to that Forbes article:

http://www.forbes.com/sites/singularity/2012/10/15/how-indians-defied-gravity-and-achieved-success-in-silicon-valley/

#Impersonation

#Impersonating

#ImpersonatingEntrepreneur

#ForbesArticles

#ForbesMagazine