You've gotta love, maska pav. It's succulent, small bite sized sanwiches that give the right fix when your stomach does the churn! Oh, and there's more actually, there's bakes, melt in your mouth garlic bread and i will not under any circumstances leave out the dates banana and cream. Mmmm Mmmm!
I hit upon this place, when iftar hours were offically in session. It's called the Midnight Cafe (and every mallu would understand this, like no other) and owned by a friend's wife's brother in law (like i said, only a mallu would understand the connection!). It's the smallest cafe and like it's punchline - with a lot! It's exactly one room small, houses a kitchen (fully equipped) with 3 staff, and two tables with four chairs on the pavement. What makes it's special is for one, the menu. And second, the kind of simple, yummy options and the fact that it's always open till midnight - no matter the occassion, the reason or the weather. I love that in a place.
So what have we got? western fast food menu with an indian twist. And so...we've got sandwichs, clubs, subs, hot dogs, meal deals (which consist of bakes and 4 different types of fried chicken), 2 soups on the menu, seven garlic bread options (chili cheese and salami - a must mention), salads, pizzas, burgers, beverage, dessert and a partridge in pear tree!
Now if you take a good look at that, you'd probably think that every single small shop has this on offer - and i'd say i'd beg to differ. Let me explain, and for those who get it, you're the only ones who deserve to enjoy the fruits of intellect. Take a walk down MG road, and past the blinking lights and the fast cars into the side roads that offer the real treasure of a quick bite, as you pass the savoury carts with roasting corn and spiced peanuts in paper cups, the waft of a small jazz cafe draws you unto the well loved and roamed Church street, and it is here, the many chilled out zones splays itself out unto the pavements with Brother Rozario's sax playing in the background, you get to pick on a menu that by far offers you a fare, that not only gets your palate bursting, but your senses waiting for a very familiar home-like ease, which no Johnny Carino, or India Palace can offer you. Trust me...this menu? is da bomb. Tis the real thing, yo.
And so, as you bite into the soft bread/the wheat wrap/the slush of beautiful juice that wraps around some of the most amazing concoctions you can think of; One gets that sense of jazz by the asphault, and man...it's good to be home.
Visit www.midnightcafe.ae
And oh, brotha/sista found Gafoorka's mess last night ;) - now this is da nuclear bomb, wot say?
I'm smiling like a cat that got more than it's fair share of creaaaammmm....;J
Other places we should do a round of:
Simran's Appam Kadai - those appams are to drool for and please (oh!please) try the mango prawn curry...tralaalalala!
Muah y'all...
Saturday, October 15, 2005
Monday, October 10, 2005
i'm all misty...sniff...
No, i'm not here to diss this whole concept. Apart from the fact that it's so outdated, it's also currently a fad to give it a thought. When loves runs out on you, what else do you do, but to take up your yoke and try out the method that you abhorr. Sure, it's embarrassing. It has to be, bad enough you have to swallow your pride. Ahem...
And so, the marriage markets open it's doors to your very sore being, as your trudge past the caskets of resumes and profiles, your parents (picture this in slow mo) are running amok in the crowds, dizzy from excitement, shaking hands with the vendors, clicking on free kiosks, uploading your details and smiling (widely) at everyone, nodding their heads toward you with pride, and probably hugging you more than they used to, kissing you, telling you what a good child you are.
Snap!
Urgh, well that isn't exactly the scenario really. Marriage is and always will be a step in the life of an individual. You run out of juice with the folks, you come of your own and the next natural biological, psychological step would be to look for a mate. Some find it on their own, other let the parents do it, and some others now use the technology we call the wide web. Some others, very different from the rest, mesh all the three to find love, acceptance, blessing and life together.
Hmmm...
Which one am i? Honestly, i'm a gazpacho of everything. i'm a wounded soldier, battle scarred and limping into a hospice where laid down to rest among the other brave, i battle it out with my mind wondering what the bloddy hell, just went wrong here? No answers so far. Ah well...
Well i wouldn't really relegate this little mishap to an Ah well status, but what can one honestly do, eh? I'm laid bare, inards scattered for all to see. I'v detested the whole arranged marriage concept really. Cause what i've seen of it, has been pretty pathetic, so i just assumed - it isn't for me.
Over time, it has changed, y'know. Things are a lot more open and discussed, and the good thing is your choice counts this time. And that's heartening. So, officially, i'm on the market. My profile is doing the rounds, and yet....i can't let some tuggy feeling out my mind. Maybe it's my fantasy person again, coming up from all the murky experiences, and sending out telepathic messages - hehehe.
I never did really let got of my fairy tale meeting. I can picture it.
I'm walking down this Hyde Park lookalike place (well maybe it is Hyde park, i'm not sure!).
It's lonely, the streets are packed with people strolling by with not a care for who's around them, i'm a nobody here, i've something in my hands, it could be an umbrella or maybe it's bag, and as i walk on the side streets, looking at the trees, and the occassional loner with a book, pet or lover - i suddenly stop look to the right and turn. No apparent reason. I start working (right turn taken) my way through the leaves, the dog poo and the occassional frisbee and then i see a tree, it's large, oaky (i'm not good with types of trees, flora and fauna scientifics!) and i stop.
There's a bench - and there's someone on it. It's a he of course!!!! (Geez). And then i don't know, it mists up again. Now i'm not sure, given NLP, and hypnotherapy being quite popular, whether it's from another lifetime, or whether it's the future. I can't really see his face, i can sense it, i kind of have a very hard boom booming of the heart, i feel like i've found something very significant (it's never happened before so i obviously know that it's a big deal). There's a smile, and i do sit down, it's like it was meant to happen. I haven't a clue after that. I just hope it's not after i'm married with kids, and a husband! I trust God wouldn't be that cruel to me. I know he wouldn't do that.
So if you're out there, i'll see you at Hyde Park, yeah?
And so, the marriage markets open it's doors to your very sore being, as your trudge past the caskets of resumes and profiles, your parents (picture this in slow mo) are running amok in the crowds, dizzy from excitement, shaking hands with the vendors, clicking on free kiosks, uploading your details and smiling (widely) at everyone, nodding their heads toward you with pride, and probably hugging you more than they used to, kissing you, telling you what a good child you are.
Snap!
Urgh, well that isn't exactly the scenario really. Marriage is and always will be a step in the life of an individual. You run out of juice with the folks, you come of your own and the next natural biological, psychological step would be to look for a mate. Some find it on their own, other let the parents do it, and some others now use the technology we call the wide web. Some others, very different from the rest, mesh all the three to find love, acceptance, blessing and life together.
Hmmm...
Which one am i? Honestly, i'm a gazpacho of everything. i'm a wounded soldier, battle scarred and limping into a hospice where laid down to rest among the other brave, i battle it out with my mind wondering what the bloddy hell, just went wrong here? No answers so far. Ah well...
Well i wouldn't really relegate this little mishap to an Ah well status, but what can one honestly do, eh? I'm laid bare, inards scattered for all to see. I'v detested the whole arranged marriage concept really. Cause what i've seen of it, has been pretty pathetic, so i just assumed - it isn't for me.
Over time, it has changed, y'know. Things are a lot more open and discussed, and the good thing is your choice counts this time. And that's heartening. So, officially, i'm on the market. My profile is doing the rounds, and yet....i can't let some tuggy feeling out my mind. Maybe it's my fantasy person again, coming up from all the murky experiences, and sending out telepathic messages - hehehe.
I never did really let got of my fairy tale meeting. I can picture it.
I'm walking down this Hyde Park lookalike place (well maybe it is Hyde park, i'm not sure!).
It's lonely, the streets are packed with people strolling by with not a care for who's around them, i'm a nobody here, i've something in my hands, it could be an umbrella or maybe it's bag, and as i walk on the side streets, looking at the trees, and the occassional loner with a book, pet or lover - i suddenly stop look to the right and turn. No apparent reason. I start working (right turn taken) my way through the leaves, the dog poo and the occassional frisbee and then i see a tree, it's large, oaky (i'm not good with types of trees, flora and fauna scientifics!) and i stop.
There's a bench - and there's someone on it. It's a he of course!!!! (Geez). And then i don't know, it mists up again. Now i'm not sure, given NLP, and hypnotherapy being quite popular, whether it's from another lifetime, or whether it's the future. I can't really see his face, i can sense it, i kind of have a very hard boom booming of the heart, i feel like i've found something very significant (it's never happened before so i obviously know that it's a big deal). There's a smile, and i do sit down, it's like it was meant to happen. I haven't a clue after that. I just hope it's not after i'm married with kids, and a husband! I trust God wouldn't be that cruel to me. I know he wouldn't do that.
So if you're out there, i'll see you at Hyde Park, yeah?
Thursday, October 06, 2005
Ah well! Camels to Cadillacs - wot can you expect?
Yeah, it's the age old sigh. We let loose those two words of pathetic every single time, life lets up on us. Ah well!
Did life let up on me? You betcha, it always does, doesn't it? I mean think about. Did something piss me off today? Of course it did, i mean why would i be in such prosaic mood, if something unfair didn't take place.
You know i'm sitting in a city veiled (don't mind me or the pun!), with a deep disrespect for core human values and people (south asian, and anyone else with a slower, weaker currency - freakonomics! The science of applying economics to everything makes total sense!). Sure, they've got it all right on the paper, and my apologies to the one's who practice what they preach, but truly,the rest of clan, here, isn't doing something right.
I could wax eloquent, but then why bother?; as this remains a rant, a cry into a ravine so deep, that ravine is not a word anymore, it's state of being. I'm falling in a city, where the colour rush is deeper than just a word or an attitude, it's practice(and my, with what open pride i might add)!
Your expertise and contribution could just be limited to the fact that you're baubled to the right degree, have a thick (ridiculous!) accent of exotica arablish, and enough jewellry to bling any fellow homosapien into kingdom come. One such creature got my job, the one i'm supposed to be working on and making a success (teeth in a clench - everytime i think about it!). I'm being blung (with the bling, remember?), right now, into the wide open spaces that i'd like to call 'Of No Recovery'. From what? How's inequality for starters? From deep set culture misconceptions and a blatant disregard for south asians. Heheeh...no, i'm not cleaning the slate...this is a mind war.
One waged with single minded determination and a very hard running approach to the way life unfolds itself in the deserts of the United Arab. You know, it's helpful. It's gotta be. The Oil, the camel to cadillac progression, the sheer disregard for the the ones with the dawdling foreign exchange (Hail white trash, dollars, euro and single minded focus to use the abused till they retaliate!).
Nice going on the unpaid wages for 6 months, by the way, i mean where else in the world do you get away with such injustice, or should i say, complacency? It took 1000s of starving ematiated workers to walk down the middle of Shiekh Zayed Road to drive the point home, eh? And gee, would you look at that - they're all south asians and pakistanis and your handful of other scorched in the inhumane conditions!
You're right, as long as you have control over the $ per barrel, why wouldn't you sit with your dresses pulled high, legs and feet a mesh of comfortable on your car dashboards while you let the air conditioning do what it needs to do. I have to tell ya, the seed bags really need some cooling, and the airconditioning isn't really cutting it for ya. No, really!
There is a cause and effect cycle though. The one i call sweet retribution, and it isn't far off. so go ahead choose the ditzy over the determined, choose the easy way while you can, obviously you're all on one big f*&^ing holiday ever since the bedouins divided and ruled, and lo behold a sky scraper! Hmmm...if it were only so easy.
I feel sorry for the multi nationals that operate in such slip shod conditions where the real jobs are veiled and underpaid, while the embellishments, walk in and out of their dreams, like it's one big stupid party. Some day....some sweet day, reality will bite, and i hope it bites down HARD.
Did life let up on me? You betcha, it always does, doesn't it? I mean think about. Did something piss me off today? Of course it did, i mean why would i be in such prosaic mood, if something unfair didn't take place.
You know i'm sitting in a city veiled (don't mind me or the pun!), with a deep disrespect for core human values and people (south asian, and anyone else with a slower, weaker currency - freakonomics! The science of applying economics to everything makes total sense!). Sure, they've got it all right on the paper, and my apologies to the one's who practice what they preach, but truly,the rest of clan, here, isn't doing something right.
I could wax eloquent, but then why bother?; as this remains a rant, a cry into a ravine so deep, that ravine is not a word anymore, it's state of being. I'm falling in a city, where the colour rush is deeper than just a word or an attitude, it's practice(and my, with what open pride i might add)!
Your expertise and contribution could just be limited to the fact that you're baubled to the right degree, have a thick (ridiculous!) accent of exotica arablish, and enough jewellry to bling any fellow homosapien into kingdom come. One such creature got my job, the one i'm supposed to be working on and making a success (teeth in a clench - everytime i think about it!). I'm being blung (with the bling, remember?), right now, into the wide open spaces that i'd like to call 'Of No Recovery'. From what? How's inequality for starters? From deep set culture misconceptions and a blatant disregard for south asians. Heheeh...no, i'm not cleaning the slate...this is a mind war.
One waged with single minded determination and a very hard running approach to the way life unfolds itself in the deserts of the United Arab. You know, it's helpful. It's gotta be. The Oil, the camel to cadillac progression, the sheer disregard for the the ones with the dawdling foreign exchange (Hail white trash, dollars, euro and single minded focus to use the abused till they retaliate!).
Nice going on the unpaid wages for 6 months, by the way, i mean where else in the world do you get away with such injustice, or should i say, complacency? It took 1000s of starving ematiated workers to walk down the middle of Shiekh Zayed Road to drive the point home, eh? And gee, would you look at that - they're all south asians and pakistanis and your handful of other scorched in the inhumane conditions!
You're right, as long as you have control over the $ per barrel, why wouldn't you sit with your dresses pulled high, legs and feet a mesh of comfortable on your car dashboards while you let the air conditioning do what it needs to do. I have to tell ya, the seed bags really need some cooling, and the airconditioning isn't really cutting it for ya. No, really!
There is a cause and effect cycle though. The one i call sweet retribution, and it isn't far off. so go ahead choose the ditzy over the determined, choose the easy way while you can, obviously you're all on one big f*&^ing holiday ever since the bedouins divided and ruled, and lo behold a sky scraper! Hmmm...if it were only so easy.
I feel sorry for the multi nationals that operate in such slip shod conditions where the real jobs are veiled and underpaid, while the embellishments, walk in and out of their dreams, like it's one big stupid party. Some day....some sweet day, reality will bite, and i hope it bites down HARD.
Monday, September 05, 2005
Reaching out
It's not every day, really. I mean think about it, here we are, most of the time existing in our own bubble wondering if we'll ever really, reach out and touch something meaningful in our lives, and sometimes life gets in the eay, yeah? So here we are in a state of limbo, my online radio stations refuse to cough up the music in one straight unadulterated speed, and between the bursts of music, i wax eloqunt, and continue with my white ear phones, stuck in my ears, with no music, but the 'ding' and 'blimp' of error messages, and other prescheduled tasks interupting me, on and off.
Recently, after the 2 and half months of sadness, and regret of coming to Dubai, i turned to a spirutual soloce that ironically one only finds when you're in the lowest low, and highest breach of sanity. I won't say that i was extremely jobless, i wasn't. employment, isn't the only way of keeping yourself occupied, and interestingly, i had lots to do, i could have wailed, bemoaned my fate, made life difficult for the people around me, but i chose to slump into solitude, and find a peice of myself i hardly knew. Now, before you think this is my testimony, i'd like to object and say that truthfully, it's not. I'm not about to go start a revolutionary, done to death DIY of how to find nirvana.
In essence i haven't found that, but i have found peace and a working knowledge of what exactly we should sweat it out for. And what matters. I haven't seen my brother in such a long time. And there are so many reasons why he broke off ties to start osmething on his own. He snapped. Nothing wrong about it, but why it happened, is serious. Reaching out is my way of telling him i care, telling him that i'm sorry that i've been so pushy and that i won't treat him like a child ever again. There are somethings people have the guts to do, that everyone was born to achieve and staying away from it is the only wrong you could do to yourself. Now, i am not in anyway, promoting one of those lose your control policies. But the journey you take, is a lonely one. You meet, greet, compete and co-exist with people along the way, and then you move on. But the ones that last are the ones you keep reaching out to.
My brother is the one who lasts, for me. He's a reason why i believe in miracles, in self sufficiency, in turning around the bad for the good. And so launched a blog. for him. In hope that sometime when he's surfing the web looking for posts, jobs or mails, he will go to this page, to see the things that have and are happening in his family, to make sure he comes back with the knowledge that he didn't miss out on anything, but is a part of it, even if he was far away. I know he'll be back with us, very soon. And that he'll want to come back and that we'll want to go to him as well. And so the love endures and that my friends is the true essence, no matter how swank, hip, or heartless you term yourself to be.
Cheers.
Recently, after the 2 and half months of sadness, and regret of coming to Dubai, i turned to a spirutual soloce that ironically one only finds when you're in the lowest low, and highest breach of sanity. I won't say that i was extremely jobless, i wasn't. employment, isn't the only way of keeping yourself occupied, and interestingly, i had lots to do, i could have wailed, bemoaned my fate, made life difficult for the people around me, but i chose to slump into solitude, and find a peice of myself i hardly knew. Now, before you think this is my testimony, i'd like to object and say that truthfully, it's not. I'm not about to go start a revolutionary, done to death DIY of how to find nirvana.
In essence i haven't found that, but i have found peace and a working knowledge of what exactly we should sweat it out for. And what matters. I haven't seen my brother in such a long time. And there are so many reasons why he broke off ties to start osmething on his own. He snapped. Nothing wrong about it, but why it happened, is serious. Reaching out is my way of telling him i care, telling him that i'm sorry that i've been so pushy and that i won't treat him like a child ever again. There are somethings people have the guts to do, that everyone was born to achieve and staying away from it is the only wrong you could do to yourself. Now, i am not in anyway, promoting one of those lose your control policies. But the journey you take, is a lonely one. You meet, greet, compete and co-exist with people along the way, and then you move on. But the ones that last are the ones you keep reaching out to.
My brother is the one who lasts, for me. He's a reason why i believe in miracles, in self sufficiency, in turning around the bad for the good. And so launched a blog. for him. In hope that sometime when he's surfing the web looking for posts, jobs or mails, he will go to this page, to see the things that have and are happening in his family, to make sure he comes back with the knowledge that he didn't miss out on anything, but is a part of it, even if he was far away. I know he'll be back with us, very soon. And that he'll want to come back and that we'll want to go to him as well. And so the love endures and that my friends is the true essence, no matter how swank, hip, or heartless you term yourself to be.
Cheers.
Friday, July 15, 2005
And so the story goes...
It's been quite awhile since my last diatribe. Yeah. And now here i am, stuck 3 and half hours in another time zone, surrounded by sand, heat (47 degrees on an avg!) and my parents. All shacked up in a small one bedroom studio. You may ask why i'm doing this to myself, and then a small voice out from an obscure hemisphere cries out, cause i had to...not exciting, i know.
But then think about it.
And so in my own conculsional way, i decided to give it up. It's my decision, and my blog, so i will gnaw away at my sorrow anyway. I'm okay (thanks for asking!) and somewhere deep down i have lost a chunky piece of me. I mean which one of you in your right mind wouldn't. I am wiser though (despite the wisdom, it does bite. Hard.) and i guess that should make up for it (?). I guess i'll never know.
I'm 26, quite full ideas and searching for a job in the Manhattan of the East. Where the whites and the extra European still enoy their fair share of new age colonialism. The whiter you are the better your chances. Money, lesser work hours and healthy work life balance are all yours in the Manhattan of the East.
If you're wheatish - well, bite down on your tongue. You don't qualify. Sure you could be limbing up a scaffold (masters degree, tucked safely under your sweaty armpit - don't forget the 47 degrees!), shoving cement into the needed crevice. I guess this is the only space you get the voice the pain really. We're in a global village now, so we have to say nice things about each other, or a war could break out and $60 per barrel wouldn't really matter as much as this. Trust me. We all have to smile through the bulls%*^. Cause Shit will Happen.
And so with that multimillion dollar phrase, we sit back and enjoy the blinking ride, because there's no else, who wants to be Gandhi, a Martin Luther or anyone else from that calibre, cause we're all One Big F*&^ing family, aren't we?
Don't get me wrong, it's not a hate mail. It's just what i feel, and i'll go back to respeccting mankind,and the cruel sum of all math that it humanity. Cause it's circle and there will (DEFINITELY) be a time in their scheme of things when it will all turn around, and when it does...oh sweet happy day...judgement day.
Until then, we fly and soar, not giving up, never giving up hope.
And so the story goes....
But then think about it.
And so in my own conculsional way, i decided to give it up. It's my decision, and my blog, so i will gnaw away at my sorrow anyway. I'm okay (thanks for asking!) and somewhere deep down i have lost a chunky piece of me. I mean which one of you in your right mind wouldn't. I am wiser though (despite the wisdom, it does bite. Hard.) and i guess that should make up for it (?). I guess i'll never know.
I'm 26, quite full ideas and searching for a job in the Manhattan of the East. Where the whites and the extra European still enoy their fair share of new age colonialism. The whiter you are the better your chances. Money, lesser work hours and healthy work life balance are all yours in the Manhattan of the East.
If you're wheatish - well, bite down on your tongue. You don't qualify. Sure you could be limbing up a scaffold (masters degree, tucked safely under your sweaty armpit - don't forget the 47 degrees!), shoving cement into the needed crevice. I guess this is the only space you get the voice the pain really. We're in a global village now, so we have to say nice things about each other, or a war could break out and $60 per barrel wouldn't really matter as much as this. Trust me. We all have to smile through the bulls%*^. Cause Shit will Happen.
And so with that multimillion dollar phrase, we sit back and enjoy the blinking ride, because there's no else, who wants to be Gandhi, a Martin Luther or anyone else from that calibre, cause we're all One Big F*&^ing family, aren't we?
Don't get me wrong, it's not a hate mail. It's just what i feel, and i'll go back to respeccting mankind,and the cruel sum of all math that it humanity. Cause it's circle and there will (DEFINITELY) be a time in their scheme of things when it will all turn around, and when it does...oh sweet happy day...judgement day.
Until then, we fly and soar, not giving up, never giving up hope.
And so the story goes....
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