Indian Stores

For some strange reason, I notice a lot lesser Indian stores here than I did in Geneva, maybe its just because I have not explored properly yet..

I rely on two places currently for my Masala, pickle, ready to eat food needs from the subcontient:

• Barkat Cash and Carry : It has two stores in Zurich, the one I visit is on Badenerstrasse 530 8048 Zürich. The way to approach the place is by taking Tram 2 and getting down at Freehofstrasse, the store is next to a Singpore cuisine restaurant. You can get Indian/Asian veggies, masalas, rotis/paranthas, meat and odds and ends there. I feel that price wise Barkat is better than other places.
• Agarwal Indian Food: Writing this because everyone else recommends it, I have never seen the store open (maybe I was late). Quality of food products is recommended by various people I know. The store is on Langstrasse 62, 8004 Zurich
• Sher e Punjab: Now this is more of a section to a small eating joint, where one can purchase indian products. Limited things are available but basic spices, atta, maggi noodles, pulses etc… are available. Pricewise its not the best place to be. One nifty addition is the movie section where you can rent Indian films from them. Visit http://punjab.ch/
• Coop/Migros: One thing to notice, common spices can be found in Coop and Migros, all one should know is the german/french name of the spices.

Indian Food

Being a bachelor who is staying alone, cooking is not the most desirable task for me. Some days I tend to eat out, but then eating out in an Indian restaurant is much more expensive than one thinks. In the last 26 days, I have sampled out 5 different Indian eating joints, and can give a review on those. One disclaimer is that I am a vegetarian, so cannot comment on the food for the non-vegetarian junta.

• Sher e Punjab: This small eatery is located at Sihlfeldstrasse 45, its a small place, you may even miss it out as there is a tiny board out there. To get there take Tram 2 or 3 and get down at Lochergut. The eatery is run by a sikh gentleman and it also has a store section (mentioned above), the food has a variety of punjabi dishes for both vegetarians and non vegetarians. Average dinner for a single person could cost around 20 CHF (or more), but the flavor and quantity  provided makes up for the price, food is homely and prompt. I would like to return to the place as I like the food and can get home-style phulkas (roti) there. There is little to speak in terms of ambiance, but then its a no nonsense eatery. The link is mentioned above. Note: Its closed on Sundays
• King’s Kurry Little India: This is a restaurant on the left side of the Bahnhof Weidikon, you can also take Tram 14 to get there. The restaurant has an outside eating area as well in the garden. Unfortunately on the day I went, it was raining, so we had to be seated inside. The ambiance is good, and the place is usually crowded with plenty of locals eating here. Prices are a bit high, the service is prompt, but a dinner for two will cost upwards of 75 CHF. Taste of food is good, however the quantity is not as good as Sher e Punjab, but just adequate. It would be a good idea to make prior bookings before visiting. Visit: http://www.kingskurry.ch/e/india/index.htm
• King’s Kurry Thali: This is a Thali style eatery just off the Schaffhauserplatz tram stop (next to the Credit Suisse office), it is a recently opened restaurant. Each day there is a different Thali offering, and the same is served to you. One can choose between a vegetarian thali, chicken or lamb. A Thali is provided with two curries, raita, dal and rice (you can order naan/rotis too). Vegetarian thali is for 19 CHF, Chicken thali for 21 CHF and Lamb for 23 CHF. Food was above average, the key advantage is that one cannot find a thali at this price easily in Zurich, the restaurant folks are helpful but new to business. There is a rebate on takeaway and a student lunch box for 10 CHF. Good place to visit specially for lunches.
• Restaurant Kerala: Restaurant Kerala is not only a south Indian restaurant, it offers Punjabi cuisine as well. In terms of ambience this rates the highest amongst all the places I have visited, just off the Radiostudio tram stop (Tram 11), the restaurant offers a variety of food from appams to chicken tikka. Service is cordial but a bit slow, a dinner for two will cost upwards of 75 CHF, the good part is that the servings are tasty and sufficient. Make a booking before visiting as the place gets crowded in the evenings. Visit: http://www.keralarestaurant.ch/pages/eng/index_e.htm
• Karachi and Bombay Take away: I just visited the place 2 days ago, its a small takeaway but has some sitting area too. Patrons can select from a combination of three curries and take a thali with rice or roti(phulka). Vegetarian meal was 13 CHF and Non-veg starts from 17 CHF. Flavorwise the food was really impressive, I relished the homely feel of the food, to top it one can take any amount of raita, chutney, pickle and candies with the food. The place plays Bollywood/Pakistani music videos and is a nice change from the regular sophisticated restaurants. Limited ambiance but good food at a very good price make this place a favorite. You can visit the place by getting down at Stampfenbachplatz tram stop (Tram 14) and walk to Stampfenbachstrasse 32, 8006 Zürich.

Hope this mini food guide helps a lot of people in figuring out the places in Zurich

I started reading a couple of months ago, it took me a bit more time than usual owing to work pressures and general lethargy. However, I finished it last night and have already updated http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/City_of_Joy, my first real Wiki edit.

The book revolves around a slum in Calcutta called Anand Nagar, based on the real life slum known as Pilkhana. Stephen Kovalski is a Polish priest who arrives in India with an aim to embrace the sufferings of his fellow humans. In a parallel story, Hasari Lal, a peasant farmer, arrives in Calcutta with his family in search of a living as monsoons fail year after year leaving his family in abject poverty.

Kovalski evolves as Brother Stephan for the slum dwellers who fight for everyday survival, and he amongst others are a source of good deeds in a harsh and uncaring world. The story talks about the value of human life in a hellhole like Anand Nagar (City of Joy), the mishmash of culture, religion and the horrors of the slum life.

While Kovalski attempts to help his fellow beings, Hasari Lal becomes a rickshaw puller, the human horses who still ply in the streets of this city, in order to earn his daily bread.

The book describes environment in a visually stunning in horrifying way, there were moments where I wept at the torrent of human tragedy. It made it all the more difficult to ignore this because I am a resident of this unforgiving city, and I know that the book has been based on real places and real heroes. But the book is not about tragedy, it is about the human endeavor which survives in the midst of misfortune, its about those people who make the world a better place in-spite of all odds.

Strangely even after 25 years of its being published, the city seems the same wretched place as described. A must read, for peace shall arrive in the end.

‘Misfortune is great, but man is greater than misfortune.’ – Tagore

PS-There is a movie based on the book, but the story seems very different.

Happens to the best of us.

I am normally one of those who would read the fine print before signing the dotted line. But well, Kotak Bank’s Credit Cards department managed to take me for a ride.

A couple of months ago, they were really selling this series of ‘Trump’ credit cards which offered you 10% cash back on dining and movies at all establishments listed by VISA. They also tried to sell using words like hassle-free, value and benefits

Looking to do away with a card from another bank and wishing to take over a new one, I promptly jumped on this offer. Everything seemed fine with it, but in the last two weeks Kotak Cards has ensured that I’d leave  them soon…

• Fraud Protection cover – Sometime in October, a gentleman called from the Bank offering me a fraud protection cover at around 350 bucks which would ensure that nothing goes wrong if I lose the credit card including any transactions which might happen before I report the loss. I signed up for it (and immediately regretted doing it too!). 10 days later another gentleman called from the bank offering me same protection for all my cards across banks, he added that earlier insurance would offer only a 12 hour safety but this one would give a week’s safety from the fraudulent transactions! I was unimpressed, and miffed, barely 10 days later a man from the same bank is telling me that my earlier insurance was not a good deal and I should sign up for the next one! Proving that my earlier choice wasn’t good enough! Of course that call didn’t go well.

• 10% Cash back for life (or is it?) – Now this happened today morning, was reading my credit card statement. Whaaat?! No cashback? Why? In September I got cash back from the same restaurant. What happened? Like any other intelligent customer I called up the customer care, the nice person on the other side of the phone explained that ‘Sir, the terms and conditions have changed since 20 September 2010, now you need to have atleast 5k bill on the card, <2.5k(or whatever) on the restaurant bill, VISA establishment proof, no more than 600 cash back and no more than 6 such transactions in a month’ to be eligible for the cashback. Only after completing all of these seemingly impossible conditions shall I get that cashback! I was like WTF, I got cashback earlier why this now? He said(in almost the same words),’We have mentioned our terms and conditions  that card conditions are subject to change without notice. You can view the terms on the website’ (it was definitely a polite way of telling me to f**k off!). So I barked at him, ‘So whenever you change your terms and conditions you’d imagine me to surf off to your website after a divine realisation would strike me?’ Anyways, the discussion had met its end.

So while Kotak Bank is busy celebrating its 25^th birthday, I am planning to dump them soon. This is one of those examples of ruining a neutral customer experience by you own doing. In short just letting them know that they have been taken for a ride.

It’s great to be 25, isn’t it?

PS – Tried copying this post to www.twitter.com/kotakcards, and twitter tells me that the account has been suspended!

Snaptu

Snaptu is a Java based client and as a result supported on a variety of phones, which makes it an attractive application. Another key advantage being that it is more like a mashup of different applications like Facebook, Weather, Twitter, Picasa at a single place. The user can add or remove his favorite applications as provided by Snaptu.

I have been a loyal Snaptu user since I bought my phone and have been using it primarily for Twitter.  The biggest issue which I faced with Snaptu is on screen rotate, in order to fit in to the rotated screen the application tries hard to fit in but almost always gets stuck at ‘Rotating…’ and I ended up restarting my cell to get the app back on. This is quite annoying if your phone has an accelerometer and supports screen rotate.

Advantages

• Java application, runs on many phones including older N Series phones
• Wide range of apps can run through Snaptu, making it a powerful single point of access
• Auto updates silently as key app runtimes are downloaded on runtime
• Good Interface
• Supports Retweet, DM, URL access
• Separately shows Updates and @ tweets, which makes it a very powerful twitter client

Disadvantages

• Gets stuck at screen rotate
• Speed

Tweets60

As the name goes, Tweets60 is for Symbian 6 OS. It is a very light client, particularly quick to install and use on Nokia phones. Touted as the next big thing after Gravity, I tested TweetS60 Lite on my phone, hoping that it could just be the end of the search.

Post login the application doesn’t show any signs of trying to update my timeline. It’s a long wait as the polling settings are manual. This enables you to save GPRS bandwidth if its expensive on your side of the world.

Ok so I now selected the Refresh setting from the Options Menu(not as navigable as Snaptu), but this User Interface would definitely be very useful on a non-touch phone where two menu options at the bottom are to be used for almost everything.

The application did refresh my timeline, but scrolling is painful, not as smooth as Snaptu and I ended up using the stylus. The Profile images never refreshed and while the timeline is updated I cannot scroll through.

Advantages

• Made for Symbian
• Light
• Supports all basic functionalities including following, unfollowing, RT etc…
• Can easily minimize the application to background
• Stable

Disadvantages

• Interface not as colorful/cool as other clients
• Does not fully utilize touch features of your phone, although rotating works well.

STEW

STEW is a widget for Nokia phones and can be easily integrated on the main screen shortcuts of your phone. I had read amazing reviews about STEW on the net, so decided to test it out myself.

STEW opens through the browser of your phone, although this may not be noticeable.

I dab the application to open it, and wait…the screen goes blank! I get a feeling that it is hung up but no, it comes back to life…a good 7-8 seconds of staring at the blank screen. Okay so here I got, entering my login credentials, and the screen pops a warning that the login details are being sent as plain text and would not be encrypted!

Then the cool STEW interface pops up. I love the color theme and cool icons, but the application doesn’t support most of the common twitter features. All I can do is update status, search for tweets or view the refresh settings. Moreover, on screen rotate the timeline text does not justify within the screen edges, thus not readable.

Advantages

• None really, except the interface

Disadvantages

• Very slow load times
• Very limited tweeting support, unless you with to type @ or RT yourself
• Text justification goes for a toss when the screen is rotated

Nokia Messaging for Social Networks (BETA)

The is the last application I tested on my Phone. As you can see it is still in BETA, and is freely downloadable on Ovi.

The communities application supports facebook and MySpace too, the user needs to add his account details and can simultaneously login into these services.

The loading time is slick and the interface is quite comfortable. The best feature is a right side pane on the screen which has shortcuts for DM, RT, @ and favorites. It makes it very easy to use the application, it also has a planned support for uploading images directly from the phone and tweet them. There is also a drop down which can be used to select twitter pages as on the website.

One downside of the application is the constant popups requests for internet connection authentication which renders it almost impossible to use on my phone. Maybe other users do not get those popups.

Advantages

• Nokia’s native application
• Supports Facebook and Myspace too
• Smooth interface
• Supports most common twitter features
• Screen shortcuts

Disadvantages

• Still in Beta
• No option to save login details
• Annoying Internet authentication popups

Installing/Upgrading Nokia Ovi Maps on my Nokia 5230, and then downloading India Maps data on it was not an easy job. This deserves a DIY post.

I believe this installation process would atleast help Nokia 5230, 5530, 5800 XpressMusic users, maybe others too.

Before we begin, the pre-requisites for this are:

• Microsoft .NET 3.0 framework or higher must be installed on your computer
• Nokia PC Suite must be installed
• Data Cable (needless to say here, but you’d need that) for your Nokia model

A lot of readers would tell me that the process I mention below is longer, and I could have done the updates via the Nokia Ovi Suite instead (which I did try to do, but the India map data would never download properly, even after 5-6 attempts).

So here’s are the two applications you need to download, and everything shall be fine:

• Nokia Maps Updater – Download this to install latest version of Nokia Maps on your phone
• Nokia Maps Loader – This one is critical to download the Map data for your country on your Nokia phone (the advantage is that you’d use less of your data bandwidth while using GPS now, as the map data would already be on your phone)

Once you are done installing the above applications, do this:

• Run Nokia Maps Updater, connect your phone to the computer, download the latest version of Ovi Maps. Let it sync and install on your phone.
• Keep the phone connected, now Run Nokia Maps Loader, Select your country and click on download maps. It’ll download map data from the web onto your computer and then sync it up on your phone.

Only disadvantage is that your phone needs to be connected all the time, and it screws up when you get a call in between the updates! Hope this posting is of help.

3D Artwork at the Kala Ghoda arts Festival

A few months ago, a friend of mine, a Xaverian (hope thats how they are known as) told me not to miss the Kala Ghoda Arts festival. I was less than enthusiastic about it, afterall Mumbai has its fair share of concerts, theatre and art events. What I didn’t realize was that no other event could blend all of this together and cook it into a delicious offering served to you within a few square miles in South Mumbai!

This is the 10th year of Kala Ghoda Arts Festival (or KGAF), it is a week long street festival where visitors can be a part everything for free! I visited the festival area on the first two days, and cannot wait to go back this weekend for more. There is so much happening there that you cannot be bored…concerts, workshops, film festival, plays, photography, street plays, heritage walks…okay thats all I remember.

Handmade accessories at Kala Ghoda Arts Festival 2010

There there, enough of advertising, I’d just summarize what all I did and missed too! I missed being a part of a literature workshop on getting one’s work published…well, was waitlisted for the workshop, I couldn’t go for the heritage walk, missed the plays as well!

I did go for the Heritage bus ride across South Bombay(Mumbai!) which had a dash of history, architecture, British India and of course heritage. Never knew that Nariman Point and the likes is on reclaimed land, or that VT Terminus was built over 10 years at 16 lakh bucks!

I absolutely loved the photo exhibits right next to Jehangir art gallery and Museum Gallery.  The pictures of Project Dharavi, Blind Photographers, Diti Kotecha and Shekhar Sidaye were absolutely amazing. I wish I could take pictures like that.

The festival has plenty of visual art as you move around in the Kala Ghoda area, the themes are focused on nature, water conversation and education for children. Unfortunately, I did witness extremes right there in the vicinity which took away the true essence of the messages.

I’ll just add up the pictures below, for words cannot describe the atmosphere…the colors and the creativity which flow freely during Kala Ghoda Arts Festival.

Used a bit of my camera's defect for this image

Odd one Out!

Its on till 14th Feb 2010, do visit.

To the uninitiated (really? You haven’t heard of the Apple iPad yet? Wake up!), an Apple iPad is a 9.7″x7″ touch device which is barely half-an-inch thick and allows you to play audio, watch TV, video, run applications off App Store and surf the internet on 3G, cellular networks and of course Wi Fi. It comes in capacities of 16GB, 32GB and 64GB and runs a 1 GB processor.

It also boasts of a finger print resistant coating (oh yeah, now i could kill someone with an iPad and not worry about those nasty prints for CSI) on the screen.

Well the price is pretty high $499 to $899

Honestly, I feel that my 16GB iPod touch is just a smaller iPad!! Features aren’t too different, maybe applications later would make all the difference! Carrying the device maybe a pain, afterall it isn’t a netbook and it can’t fit in your pocket.

On the marketing front, Apple got plenty of free Internet Buzz…lucky them! But naming could have been different iPad sounds like a sanitary pad!

Even though it doesn’t have a camera, is over priced, cannot multitask, is just a bigger iPod touch…i’d still want it ‘coz its cool and its from Apple (sigh! I can already head Admiral Ackabar screaming: It’s a  ’Marketing’ trap!)

The traditional Malai Makkhan in Lucknow

Malai Makkhan or cream butter is one of the most amazing sweet snacks sold during the winters in Lucknow and Kanpur (and also some other parts of UP). While the name may scare the diet conscious, the true product is much much lighter and devoid of any noticeable fat content.

I normally had trouble describing how it looks like, and thus the picture above. Incidently, I have been buying this amazing sweet from the same seller (who comes on a bicycle singing along makkhan malai on the streets) for over a decade! 

The best description of the recipe of this treat is  - saffron flavoured frothed cream, made by hanging unsalted butter overnight in dew and then aerating it by beating it.

Dew being an important factor to manufacture this delicacy, its only during the winters and early spring that we Lucknow-ites are blessed with this. I has a slightly sweet flavor of  frothy cream which just vanishes in your mouth tickling your taste buds wanting for more.

For those who have seen Memento, it is a nicely inspired version where Aamir takes up the role of Guy Pierce. However, while Guy was much more icy in Memento, Aamir has brought human anger and emotions to Sanjay Singhania’s character.

I guess the next fashion fad after his hairdo would be the rolled up sleeved shirts (already being sold by a leading fashion label). Anyways, so Sanjay aka Sachin suffers from antiretrograde amensia and forgets his memory every 15 minutes. He is searching for his beloved’s killer with all the tatoos and Polaroid pictures helping him add up the clues to find the man.

Asin could have waited for a meaty role, all she does in this movie is being chirpy and a good samaritan…which is quite unbelieveable at times. But she has done justice to the role and has looked pretty in all the right places.

What the movie lacks is pace and bad placement of songs which drag it down in patches. Another element worth mentioning are the action scenes which look unbelievable and are shot in a unique fast forward way…may remind you of Rajnikanth action style even.

All in all I liked the movie and would recommend it..its better than the current fare available and Aamir, as always, has delivered the goods.

The striking observation on the first start of the browser would be the placement of Tabs on the top, there is no File Menu (hidden or otherwise) instead you have a file icon on the right side of the Address Bar.

The interface is uncluttered and sleek, and the browser opens in a jiffy quite faster than Internet Explorer 7.0 or Flock on my computer, which is very admirable.

Another great feature is that every tab exists as an individual process, so in case of an application crash (which IE seems to have often with Adobe Acrobat) only that tab dies and the rest are saved from annihilation.

There is no search tab  you do it only from the address bar, also I cannot figure out where to change my default search engine. Apart from this, this baby is loaded with all bells and whistles like Popup Blocker, Icognito tab (the browsing history is hidden in this case, something which we can notice in IE 8 BETA).

What it lacks is that most Advanced Options are so well tucked away that it can be a bit uncomfortable for seasoned users. It also has this constantly running process GoogleUpdate running in the background all the time, which seems utterly not critical to be running all the while.

I could also not see any support for add-ons the way Firefox does, hope its still on the cards.

Would I use it regularly? Well, I dont know…atleast till the honeymoon’s over. I do love the fact that this browser opens up in a split second.

The verdict is that Chrome shows a lot of promise, but then it doesn’t offer anything out of the world which would make you switch. Also, I am tired of Google’s perpetual BETA versions of services and software like Gmail(since 2004), Gtalk(2005) and now Chrome(2008)…what if they never cross the beta stage again?

You may download Chrome from http://www.google.com/chrome