Durga Puja Pandal @ Powai Mumbai 2011

Got a sneak preview of the Durga Puja pandal under construction near my home ... this year the Puja venue has been shifted as the original ground has been converted to a bus stand ...

A smaller ground but lets hope the scale of the Puja is not compromised.

Looking forward to the week of 2nd October !!!

The Agneepath Coincidence !!!

A remake of Agneepath is on the cards, to be released later this year ... got me reflecting that I'd not seen the orginal as yet ...

The late 80s / early 90s were not the best of times for the big B ... he had a string of flops ... Toofan, Krodh, Ajooba etc ... none of which I've ever seen either.

Movies from this period which fared better were Shahenshah ( Rishte me hum tumhare baap lagete hain ... ) and Hum ( Jumma chumma de de ... ) both of which I'd seen and of course Agneepath ( Vijay Dinanath Chauhan ... poora naam ... ) which had somehow eluded me over the years ... cant fathom why though !!!

Anyway decided to rent the DVD over the weekend and realized that Agneepath is such a treasure trove of Big-B dialogue gems !!! Had it realeased in the Bachchan heydays of mid 70s it could have potentially dethroned Deewar ( Mere paas XYZ hai ... tumhare paas kya hai ... ) for sheer dialogue recall if not Sholay !!!

( paused the movie to click this !!! )

While watching the movie I was casually checking for facebook updates and found an old friend (

Shashi don - who loves his single malts these days ) of mine half way across the world was also watching Agneepath at the same time ... some coincidence !!!

Thought I'd post our facebook chat text on my blog for posterity ... also whats a blog on Mumbai without a smattering of Bollywood !!!

the young foodie

photo 1) restless wait for the food to arrive.
photo 2) relentless focus on gulping it all down !!!

jigsaw puzzle

One of deep's favourite puzzles probably because of the animal theme -
tnx adi !!!

Anand : Serving Mumbai's best Vada Pav !!!

Assembling a Vada Pav - Bun (pav ), Butter, Green Chutney, Masala powder, Potato patty ( vada ) takes less than 10 seconds ...

"Vada Pav" is the street food Mumbai survives on ... and "Anand Vada Pav" opposite Mithibhai College, near Narsee Monjee is definitely the best I've had.

Bombay Times official annual Vada Pao ranking gives it the runner's up position ... which is not bad considering there are over 5,000 Vada Pav street stalls in Mumbai !!!

There's even been an attempt to McDonaldize the humble Vada Pav with the launch of Jumbo King ... should be an interesting case study on how to sustain a business with razor thin margins competing with street vendors who have almost no overhead costs. While they may have scale ... their product lacks the necessary zing which titillates the taste buds ... street vendors like Anand know how to pack in that punch !!!