"God's gift to the gastric juices"

“God’s gift to the gastric juices”                                     31.3.2011

 Crisp and soft? Sounds an oxymoron.  But that is what the CTR Masala Dosa is.   Crisp on the outside, soft inside. The hot golden brown crust  with  the  soft interior,   packing  in the potato  stuffing (palya)   sans red garlic  chutney,  but coming with two different chutneys outside , green and white,   gives you  the experience of heavenly bliss.  Lip smacking, finger licking good, mouth watering-  expressions  bandied  about  loosely  elsewhere assume all seriousness at CTR.  The CTR butter (benne) masala dosa is all this, and much more.  In a poll conducted some time back, the CTR masala dosa was voted the best masala dosa in Bangalore. And rightly so.    For the staunchly loyal  clientele,    ranging from local cart pushing vegetable sellers to celebrities  to visiting NRIs,  visit to CTR is “an enterprise of great pith and moment”.  The pilgrims  await   their turn  with patience. . And finally  when the dosa arrives at the table, all else is forgotten. There is a sense of sadness and resignation  as the plate is getting empty,  except for those who decide to continue with a second one. Change is inevitable. The CTR is  now also  known as Sriraj, the décor has changed, melamine plates have replaced steel plates, the floor and wall are tiled, hand tissues have replaced old  newspapers. But the butter masala dosa remains unchanged. Same crispness, and softness, the same quality.   For  those Bangaloreans  who have not had exposure to the CTR dosa, education is incomplete

India shining or India sinking

India shining or India sinking?

Today’s newspaper, ( the TOI again!)  carries an article by Pritish Nandy.  “A ship about to sink” appears , not in the main section,  but  in the  B T supplement  under “Leisure”,  (of all things).   Serious readers may have missed this beautiful piece. In my opinion, the article  should have found place on the front  page, or at least the edit page. But that is TOI. Now about  the article. The writer  talks of  the unbridled corruption in the nation’s polity. The Indian Political Philharmonic   Orchestra must be the world’s most amazing cacophony of rouges, rascals and robbers. Couldn’t be truer.   Ofcourse  the choice epithets  remind you what    Winston   Churchill  in his  hubris  said before independence,   power was being handed over to a set of rascals, thieves and men of straw.   Nandy’s piece merits reading by all Indians.  Reminds what  Gandhi  said about    Katherine Mayo’s book.  “A gutter inspector’s report” , but to be read   only  by  Indians. Coming to the fundamental question. Is India shining, or sinking? The eminent  98 year old Kannada litterateur, Prof G. Venkatasubbiah  in a recent  interview  was asked whether he had hope for the country. He said  as things could not be worse than what it is now, it can only get better. India will rise. That is the message.

at the lowest ebb?

Prasad-pointofview

Mainstream journalism at the lowest ebb?

Today’s Monday 14 March 2011)  “national newspaper”, the Times of India  (founded 1838!) makes my blood boil. Go to  the page covering world news, you will know why. On one side you have the report covering the Japan earthquake, tsunami and nuclear radiation hazard tragedy of horrendous dimension. Immediately  adjacent to this are snippets of some pop  star’s wardrobe malfunction, some celeb  cutting her hair and so on. This is simply nauseating. Why? Why has this old lady of Bori Bunder degenerated into peddling mostly such rubbish? To be the largest circulated newspaper in the country?   This riles. On most days, it takes half a minute to skim through the supplement and not more than five minutes to go through the main pages. The profound and the profane? The sublime and the  ridiculous?   Pursuit of trivia is overcoming everything else.