A new paradise for chocolate lovers in Bangalore: The Chocolate Room

When you visit a specialist chocolate place you expect to find something new, something that will surprise you. Because, if you love chocolate,  then whatever your favourite chocolate grub you still yearn for something new. That's the allure of chocolate. After all it is the food of the gods isn't it; called so, literally, because of the natural ingredient theobromine. No wonder then 'the chocolate room' believes that 'chocolate is good for you'.

As of this writing, the one of its kind in Bangalore, a wonderful place for chocolate lovers, 'the chocolate room' is nestled between and within looking distance of The Forum Mall and Christ College off Hosur Road. The first surprise for you would be that the place offers ample parking for your car or bike, something really useful in that locale and something increasingly rare in Bangalore. So, don't worry about how you will go to the place.

One of the first things you will notice when you enter the chocolate room is the soft and comfy ambiance which is both modern and young. While at the far end you will see a Graffiti Wall and Gifts Window, at the other you will see a counter with exquisite chocolate bites and chocolate thins. The conflated smell of chocolate and coffee wafts towards you as you walk in making you more eager for something chocolatey. As your eyes move around the place, you are sure to catch sight of one of the seven wonders of the world... entirely made out of chocolate!

The menu is interesting and offers you several new ways of eating chocolate like the flavoured chocolate shots if you are in the mood for a quick doze of chocolate. There is a host of options to eat chocolate as a blend or a cocktail, as a shake, mixed with coffee and you will find several options of chocolate served hot and served ice cold, with and without cream. There are several interesting non-chocolate options as well, if you simply want to fill up lightly or cool yourself down with a quick cooler.

If you like chocolate and coffee cold, be sure to try the Coffee Nirvana. I will not spoil the surprise by telling you what they are but be sure to bite into one of those little coffee coloured thingies you will see floating on top. Among the shake options, try the unique Tiramisu; it is sure to leave you breathless with the impeccable Tiramisu flavour. If you have had the cake, it's time you tried something drinkable. Seriously.

If you are someone who likes to mix two fine flavours, you might like strawberry with chocolate. Your tastebuds  'graduate' to a new level with the blend. If you get the drift of what I am saying, go try the Death By Pancake. This is a unique dish I have eaten in a long time.

Here, you can simply relax with a book and sandwich & coffee or chocolate, or connect your laptop or phone to the complimentary wi-fi this place offers and go about your business. The staff will simply take your order, fill it and let you be, attending to you with care as needed.

Like they like to say here, chocolate is good for you, whichever way you like it. You will discover it in the chocolate room.This is a must visit place if you love chocolate.

Next phase: A thousand suns

Well into my first week of 'officially' doing nothing, but otherwise doing a lot I can say I have discovered a few things. Foremost among them is the fact that Bangalore does not have that much traffic at all! Surprised? Even I was, because rarely, if ever at all, have I ventured into the heart of the city between 11 AM and 5 PM on a working day.THIS is the time, Bangalore has no traffic at all.

In the process of learning the ropes of Financial Reporting and Accounting from pre-course learning material, at least I have figured out the difference between Expense and Expenditure. Being a layman to the domain, I should say it is no less than a discovery, albeit a technical one.

One of the first things that hits me when I converse with people is my inability to say I work for so and so. A momentary lapse of identity is quickly replaced by the realisation of what it meant before and what it will mean in future.

My break, simply, has started in uncertain times. Overall, there is a lot of grimness about how the events will unfold in the next eighteen months. Indian Banks' revelation on exposure to Sub-Prime Funds, recession fears(? or!) stalking Indian and global markets have started a ebbing phase which will be sustained by impending elections in the US and carried over by elections in India. Bolstering the fears are falling industrial output in Indian manufacturing, sky rocketing oil and gold prices,5.1%-nine-month high Inflation rate in India, 0.6% fall in US retail spending and analyst opinions that US recession could muster enough rubble to match the recession of the twenties.Yesterday's Bear Stearns bailout story is just another nail in the coffin. This is going to be one long year if not a longer eighteen months.

So, while the next twelve months will test a lot of new waters,cause there is bound to be many a storm, on the personal front optimism is rife because behind the dark clouds are a thousand suns.

Nano-voce-philia: Defined as...

...love of talking about Nano!

I am not a fanatic for the car per se but am for the principle behind it, for the alternatives Nano provides (still saying that it will be a big hot potato to swallow), the fundamentals it will change, utilitarian concept it embodies and frugal manufacturing technology it testifies. But for the record, I must admit that despite my fears about Nano, Nano is all over my mind. Nano is having an 'in your face' effect on me.

Nano is bound to change our lives and the signs are already showing. Here are some samples.

A recent article in the newspaper prophesied about the peripheral,in several meanings of the word,industries that will flourish in the shadow of Nano. Will not cheap (economical) accessories well embellish a cheap car? It also took a shot at how our conversations and attitudes and jargon would change to accommodate the shifts in paradigms that Nano would trigger. You might say I am progressively becoming a Nano-voce-philic (For good or bad, such people as yours truly like talking about Nano!). Now that is a word I made up. Is there a "Nano" word for someone who makes up Nano words? Nana-verbo-philic, perhaps? If you are getting the hang of it and think I am getting carried away, I have made my point.

If the masses get their bread should the 'nouveau' as well as the 'riche' not get their cakes? Dilip Chabbria has unveiled his impression of a car that could buy a hundred Nanos. Pegged at 1 crore, the rich man's space age answer to Nano will snub the masses with its antiNano philosphy. There in lies the irony: For the rich India, an answer to a frugal car is an extravagant car of similar dimensions with little else in common.

The irony also represents the socio-economic divide that has manifested in different forms in different cities. Be it the Bangalore-commons' quasi-despisal of those working in, literally, glass houses that are IT complexes. Opportunism, crime, harassment and verbal abuse against techies in Bangalore, Pune and other cities. It also shows up in the amplified pillage caused by mobs incited by any issue, the damage in which is mosty incommensurate to what one would expect in response(!) to the problem which triggered it in the first place.

Here is a more significant example of how Nano is raising its hydra-head even before it juggernauts onto the road ten months down the line. Read here about how Nano has upset another automobile manufacturer's grand plans. Electrotherm had a big idea of a small priced AutoRickshaw, but Nano would allow none of it. But as you would have read in the quoted article, ElectroTherm has plans of salvaging their project by converting the prototype into one that is electric and at the same time cheaper. Now, that is innovation driven by market forces. How often do we get witness that so closely and in the live?

We are in exciting times in India and, going by the international pulse, beyond. The show has just began. Nano has just entered the building.

PS: Now, would you call me a Nano-blogo-philic for that matter? Apologies to OUP for misusing the poetic license. For, officially, Oxford has done away with hyphenated words.

Fueled by stupidity, we drive nowhere

An article in today's newspaper talks of certain obscene measures the local goevernment is contemplating in order to 'beat' the traffic woes that bring down every Bangalorean. Let's begin with how well you can recall your car number? Stumped? You will be, when you will need to remember what day it is and match it with the fact whether your car number is odd or even. Am I kidding? Apparently not, according to this article.

This is a clear case of the government trying to pass the buck to the already frustrated commuter of the Silicon Swamp that Bangalore has become. Traveling in your car even on weekends is akin to bicycling through a desert- slow and tiring and it doesn't take you far. After decades of lethargy, lack of planning and conservatism that translated into apathy to infrastructure requirements, the government has given the people of Bangalore what can be considered as an ever-make-shift arrangement around traffic. Caught in the sudden limelight of explosive growth driven by IT and ITeS influx and a never ending scramble between anti-development opposition 'leaders' and pro-development incumbents, the latter fails to deliver anything. Left headless without a government, the local authorities have come up with this stupid solution of letting people drive on alternative days. Some audacity that, taking people of Bangalore for a ride (no pun intended).

But is curtailing people from driving in a city that has no public transportation except bursting-at-the-seams, almost never on time, never ever enough bus system a befitting solution?

Some questions arise. Let's say your car has an even number and an emergency at home requires you to take your car out on a odd-car day. What should you do? Should you be allowed since a life is at risk? How easily can someone not fake an emergency? Would government vehicles be exempt from this rule? If people can be expected to fend for themselves, should the minister not lead the way and travel in a bus?

Why could the government be not thinking of ideas like that implemented in London? Out there, toll zones have been identified and the cars need to pay a steep toll to just drive through congested areas. The presence of technology companies seemed to have made no impact on the retrograde authorities of Bangalore.

The whole plan of alternate-day driving stinks of escapism and will lead to another series of half-hearted attempts to solve the problems that should have been addressed decades ago.

Quality of life in Bangalore in terms of commute is steadily declining with lot of help from the backward-looking attitude and indecisiveness of the powers that be. Impractical suggestions like curbing driving privileges only add insult to injury. Hiding behind the shield of 'it has worked in some European countries' the local bodies seemed to be pleading to be forgiven for failing to come up with practical ideas. This is the cost we pay for throwing out the corporates (PPP) with social-conciousness from the game.

This is exactly when I want to thank Ratan Tata for his Nano. Now, all I need to do is to buy a Nano, get it registered with an even number and I am good to go. I will drive my regular car on Mondays, Wednesdays and Fridays and the Nano on Tuesdays and Thursdays.

Hush, don't tell anyone about the Nano!

Review of "creEper":

A guy and girl and a box. A narrator, a Sutradhar (puppeteer) and a story. Any which way, the one hour performance of creEper at the Rangashankara ( here) is worth a watch. The narrative style is impressive and the message well emphasized, even if it is not new. The play connected with the audience with its familiar theme of loss of soul in an imploding city with what better example for Bangaloreans than that of Bangalore.

The performance by the two protagonists (this is the entire cast, by the way) was intense at moments but overall touching. The play had its moments of 'I know what you mean' and 'let me finish your sentence' with a third of the audience that comprised of a college-going crowd, and therefore involving them. Because, many of the juvenile fears and indulgences of the young (and some of ours) found their way into the script, which was supposed to look like an impromptu one. The 'extemporary' goal well achieved while trying to tell a story all the while agreeing to disagree on how they would tell it.

The first part of this play, which is based on the 'Vikram and Betal' lore, 'generally screws around with the audience' (as also conceded by the Sutradhar at halftime) as the storytellers confuse the audience with their bipolar approach to narration, confide with them their fears and demons and while not convince the audience, set an open platform to put on it whatever they want to achieve in the second half. One of the story tellers is a rationalist while the other is a sentimentalist and very dramatic, just enough to keep the audience interested and sometimes agitated.

The impact of lighting on a low-key (photographically, one that involved less exposure to light) stage performance such as this is lasting. The shadows added the key ingredient of proxy-characters while the two actors played out their moves on the stage.During some moments of musing by the characters in the story-inside-the-story , one could see the third and fourth characters in shadows. The interplay of characters and shadows aided by the lighting kept me interested throughout the play with eyes and ears overwhelmed by the effect. That way, there was a lot to see in the play.

So, at the end of first half, by when the audience know that the story is about memories, loss and separation of two souls (not two people) born in Bangalore, the story unfolds itself into one that gives snapshots of same experience that could have been had by a middle-class couple at different times in Bangalore. First one at the turn of the 80s decade of the last millennium, another that happened at turn of the millennium and the last one 'yesterday', if not 'today'. The experiences are no doubt accompanied by the dreads that lurk around them. With quotidian samples to indicate the timeline, someone who has lived in Bangalore for, say, even 15 years (if attentive, even so much is not required) will relate to the game played out by the two and catch on to the fears that gripped, or still grip, Bangaloreans in their daily life, because 'people are being ripped apart for everything'.

You are reminded in the end that 'where grows a tree, a creEper grows', leading the audience to the moral of the story (Not so sure about the camelback used in the name). The end is supposed to be full of hope, but the audience is left unsure of it, because the 'rational and detached' narrator herself succumbs to the dark forces. At a very basic level this play could be construed as a reality-check, if one agrees that doing so does not take the juice out of it.

By the way: This article was posted using w.blogger (here), a first for me. I am quite pleased with the result, while I am still confused over whether or how I can include labels from my desktop.

O' DBC, thou art great!

Sometimes people tell you. Sometimes you see it yourself, And sometimes you just know it.I know, now, I am really over the hill.

Corner House has been a part of growing up in Bangalore for at least a few decades. People who went there during their days at school and college return to try and capture a whiff of their own youthful exuberance. Well,that may be a tad too romantic for a few. But the fact remains that the place serves an amazing variety of no-frills ice cream based delectable goodies. Boys, girls, men and women, kids and seniors throng these parlours.

We -many of my family and friends- have been enamoured by the sensual pleasure of the creamy, chocolaty and dewy treats of this small but growing chain of ice cream parlours. The pièce de résistance of Corner House is 'Death By Chocolate'. The name says it all. One serving of this sundae is one too many. A couple of scoops of vanilla, two slices of warm chocolate brownies, oodles of chocolate sauce, a few soft sweet cherries and tablespoon of assorted nuts. The simple combination is too chocolaty for even the best fans of chocolate. The sweetest tooths (sic) of the world could be humbled by the deadly concoction that goes by the nickname 'DBC'. Not any kind of preparation can ready you for the DBC. Half-way into the chocolaty binge, you feel you have had enough chocolate for a lifetime. Your pride takes you a couple of spoonfuls further. Your determination takes you ahead a little more and only the strongest can claim to have downed the full serving of the cocktail.

After almost five months, the yearning for some tasty ice cream at the good ol' parlour brought a smile on me and a smirk on my wife's face. Battling a sudden downpour to which even visitors to Bangalore have gotten used to, we drove eagerly towards the local mecca of ice cream desserts. I had not tried my hand at DBC in over two years. The last time I had was during our courtship, when I was familiarising S with Bangalore's hidden charms. S had failed miserably at the DBC challenge. I had had to finish the serving then. My eagerness and determination to overcome the DBC challenge was growing, as we parked the car.

At half past nine, even in a rainy evening, the place was busy. We were greeted by the chatter and laughter that thrives in this place. Surely, people don't visit a dessert place if they have nothing to celebrate, however small. I remembered the many visits to this place even as S was finding it difficult to make up her mind. I kept pointing at DBC even as she kept ignoring the direction of my fingers. But DBC it had to be for me. While S started on her Black Forest and mocha combination, I chatted up with the owner. He asked if I wanted DBC packed. NO! I will have it here, I said pompously. S shook her head in revulsion, when I placed the half-liter bowl on the table.

I will not delve into my scrambles...But a few minutes later I was at the counter asking the tender to give me a lid for the ice-cream bowl he had given me. He nodded and turned around to pick one up. 'I could do this in college, now it is too much' I said shaking my head. A couple of other guys and the owner just laughed. He knows what DBC stands for. He has seen many whimper down to their knees in their fight with DBC. It's a fight they invite themselves too. Only a few prevail.

Earlier, when I was at the counter DBC, a geeky chap in his early twenties had been placing an order for a DBC. The fellow had proudly exclaimed to his friends 'Come on guys, I have ordered DBC. Let's attack!'. I could see this fellow happily winning his challenge today. I remembered such days when DBC would have had a predetermined result; my win. I could have done that then, but not anymore, I thought as I carried home an almost full serving of DBC. A couple of spoonfuls or three and I had had it. I needed help or time or both. This is what I mean when I say that I know I am over the hill.

DBC has taken a new meaning for me- 'Duped by chocolate' or 'Defeated by Chocolate'.

O'DBC, thou art great! I secede.

S had the last laugh today.Yours truly went home sad but wiser.