Stimulating & Mundane
I was having a deep-rooted conversation with my young friend KK Raghava, who is an artiste extraordinaire, a musician and an intellectual enfant-terrible of our times and my general sense of ennui just vanished! It occurred to me that I was missing some serious theoretical stimulation and a sense of being irrévérencieuse (irreverent). We talked, laughed, reminisced and made plans for catch ups amidst, poetry-reading and music sessions. My heart lifted and I knew that I had kept away from this type of cerebral stimulation for too long. I am a restless soul, have always been one. But now when I move away from responsibilities and social-shenanigans, my heart longs to connect with things other than the mundane. I was born I think, with an innate sense of restlessness and the urge to move on to another project quickly. This was until a good friend told me I was a proverbial ‘Jack of all trades’, and that is when I started using a fashionable word ‘ennui’ (literally meaning boredom) to describe my state of mind!
An instant elevation of my ‘ennuiness’ happens when I get to meet my munchkin. She was turning three and I was flying down to Mumbai to meet her and deliver her cache of presents. I had ordered a ‘mother-of-all’ big red battery-operated car for her and a red (her current fave colour) bicycle with a basket and training wheels for her. My daughter protested, tore her hair and ultimately gave up trying to convince me there was no place in her beautiful (but little, according to me) flat in Mumbai and either they kept the stuff and shifted out or didn’t get the stuff and stay in! Her stuff won but naturallement and so far, everyone is still in the house. Viva to tenacious ‘glammas’ and their ‘glamkids’!
Before I flew away to muggy Mumbai, I had a chat with my old friend Jagdish Menda, who owned the iconic Hunan restaurant in Koramangala. He immediately invited me to his new outlet in the upmarket environs of Indiranagar. I looked forward to this as Hakkasan was one of my favourite restaurants to eat at as the food was consistently good and the desserts (which Jagdish’s mom personally makes) were outstanding. We landed up at the intimate 50-seater restaurant, with tastefully-done interiors and an open bar and kitchen where the aromas hitting our nostrils had us drooling! Jagdish, the ever-savvy restaurateur, hasn’t changed the taste profile of the restaurant, but upped his game by introducing top-of-the-line produce and adding a few SE Asian and Japanese dishes in his taste profile. A smart and astute couple, both Diya and Jagdish Menda are passionate foodies and restaurateurs. And yes, his mom still makes the ‘to-die-for’ desserts!
I had met Sumeet Sharma a while back but recently met him in Bengaluru in his new avatar as Head-Operations F&B – Aditya Birla New-Age Hospitality. The ever-popular Nara-Thai was ‘popping-up’ (a famous pastime) in Bengaluru with their signature Thai food and cocktails, and Sumeet invited us over. The restaurant was bursting at its seams with local socialites and celebrities and it was great to be in an ambiance of good food and buzz. The food was fabulous and the cocktails even better. As for the ambiance… sometimes the just social-stimulations are just fine!
(The writer’s views are personal)