The 'Master Of The Game'.... Sidney Sheldon!

A novel is something that anyone loves to read anyday.. anytime, as it is one tool that can transform you into a whole new world. There are many novelists out there who have made a remarkable reputation with the kind of creations they have churned out to entertain their readers. Amidst all these writing powerhouses, there are certain novelists who have gained phenomenal success and fame with the amazing books they have contributed to avid readers over the years. The one legend, who has offered the ultimate reading experience that has been revealing and mysterious at the same time is none other than, Sidney Sheldon.

Sidney Sheldon's books have been a source of great entertainment for one and all as these novels are written thoughtfully and always have a riveting storyline. Though Sidney Sheldon had done some really impressive work in the past in the television and the musical industry, true fame came to him from his novels. Famous TV series like ‘I Dream of Jeannie’ and ‘The Patty Duke Show’ were also created by him. He broke into the writing scene with the novel, ‘The Naked Face’ that was a smashing success. After this novel, he came out with several best selling novels that have been successfully adapted into movies and TV series.

One of his greatest creations was ‘The Other side of Midnight’ that told the story of two fascinating women Noelle Page and Catherine Alexander. The way he showcased these women as being unique, victims of life’s tragedies but also having distinctly strong personalities was just incredible. ‘Windmills of the Gods’ was another masterpiece by this creative story teller that entailed the life of a fictional character, Mary Ashley and how she struggles with life after her husband’s demise. This novel also had details about how the central character had to adapt in a country as an ambassador and the detailed work in the story was the mark of pure genius.

Of all Sheldon novels, another bestseller that too was cherished by readers from around the globe was ‘Master of the game’ that told the tale of a businesswoman called Kate Blackwell. This story focused on how a business minded person manipulates the lives of his or her loved ones all for the bigger picture to be rosy. If you had to buy a Sidney Sheldon book that you would never forget, then a must read is ‘Tell Me Your Dreams’. This was a one of a kind novel that was about a central character who is suffering from multiple personality disorder. The elusiveness and the dangerous nature of this disorder, has been reflected beautifully in this novel.

Because of the sort of success that was achieved by this mastermind, several inspired books like ‘After the darkness’ have been conceived by other writers. All these wonderful novels have been written to add on to the collection of Sidney Sheldon novels that everyone loves to catch up on an idyllic evening. Though this man of unpredictable talent isn’t around anymore, his legacy lives on with novels that are applauded by the harshest critics.

Seriously.... WTF!!

To say that I am a foodie.. is a serious understatement! There are people who eat to live and then there are certain people who live to eat.. Obviously, I belong in the latter category. Going out to some of the latest, newest and the most interesting food and drink joints around my city is one of those things I just love to do. After hearing a whole lot about the casual joint WTF at Versova, I finally decided to check it out.

One thing I have to point out is their ridiculous no stags policy for weekend nights.. Some months back I had experienced it when a huge group of male friends and I decided on WTF versova and this policy truly irked us! Nonetheless, this time I went there on a weekend with some friends (read-FEMALE friends) and we finally got a chance to check this place out.

If I look at the ambience, it is just about fine. There is nothing that makes you remember the place and nothing about it is too ghastly either. They have tried to come up with a casual look for the place that exudes a very relaxed vibe and they have done that well. However, Dirty yellow umbrellas hanging upside down from the ceiling that displays the dirt it has accumulated over the years is quite disturbing and needs to be changed.

It was time for drinks and I ended up ordering a Long island iced tea and a simple martini. The Long island iced tea was just about average and the quality of alcohol wasnt impressive at all (I know its not Hard Rock Cafe but a man can have expectations). The martini was what really disappointed me.. It had a pungent pepper like flavor that really killed the drink (The only enjoyable aspect of the martini were the fresh olives!)

Then the glutton inside me was screaming for food and we ordered quite a few dishes.. The food menu of WTF Versova is full of starters, food that you can munch on with drinks and they dont serve main courses per say.. We ordered the teriyaki sausages and they were surprising full of flavor and quite delicious. Next we went on with Jalapeno poppers and they were quite mediocre as they didnt have the usual spicy kick that you get with any Jalapeno preparation. I have also checked out WTF Khar in the past and my common observation is that they dont know how to prepare red meat preparations like South indian and Sri lankan beef! Nonetheless, their menu is comparatively limited but you will have many options to try out if you keep an open mind to order vegetarian entrees.

Till here, my experience of WTF Versova was just about alright but it went all downhill from here. We all ended up chatting up till late hours and the place had to close down. Though the place was packed at closing time, the waiter got the check without asking us which got us a little irked. Later, the waiter also rudely reminded us twice to pay up and we ended up giving him a piece of our mind.

The management has to improve its service!!!! (The extra exclamation marks are a testament of how strongly I feel about it) WTF Versova doesnt have the best ambience, food or drinks and in this scenario, if your service doesnt improve.. It is going to lead to a loss in business. The next time I want to have great food and drinks I wont hesitate in skipping WTF Versova and opting for Indigo Cafe in its vicinity or Alfredos in Juhu to name a few.. The western suburbs in mumbai are full of great joints that service their patrons well and WTF Versova just didnt make the cut...

Yummy times assured at Sammy's!

A friend of mine had been raving about this Mexican joint ‘Sammy Sosa’ since he ate there. Being the crazy foodie I am, I just had to check it out. Though I had missed a couple of good opportunities to visit it in the past, I finally decided to go for it. The only cause of my disappointment is that I checked it out too late... It’s a breath of fresh air compared to many other eateries out there.

A friend and I went there recently and found that it was fully occupied on a weekday! The staff was really friendly and considerate and they asked us to wait for a half hour for our table but made place for us in 15-20 mins. Initally, we were seated outside, but we shifted indoors soon as their indoors area is quite vivid and colorful (in a good way). They have a good variety in drinks and we surely indulged ourselves after scanning through the options available. The quality of the booze was quite good and we found ourselves ordering consecutive rounds ;)

I was pleasantly surprised with the variety and the taste of the food. The food had extremely fresh flavors and I was able to savor all the spices distinctly. It was a wonderful surprise as I do check out quite a lot of restaurants and I have been disappointed more often than not. It has a great selection of starters, salads and varied main course offerings. The negatives if I would have to point out, are that sitting outside is a nice option but not next to the plants as mosquitoes are as common there as foodies like me. Also, the menu was written in really small fonts which might pose some trouble for the elderly and they definitely need more choices in their offered deserts.

Something rare - The senior waiters are quite knowledgeable about the drinks offered in the menu, so feel free to ask them for tips on the spirit for you or for info on apt mixers!

Overall this place is really good for food lovers. The service and the cuisine is amazing and I am looking forward to go back soon and try more dishes. While leaving I heard a kid telling his mother how yummy the food was, and I couldn’t agree more! Sammy Sosa’s (at Oshiwara, Mumbai) surely knows how to indulge its patrons!

Vishal Bhardwaj's Gaffe.... 7 Khoon Maaf!

Its a rare occurence for me to actually look forward to watching a particular movie. I am a movie buff for sure as I end up watching a good number of movies in a month. Due to the sort of repute that had been built up by Vishal Bhardwaj with movies like Omkara and Kaminey, I was waiting for the release of '7 Khoon Maaf' with crossed fingers.

The mere fact that Priyanka Chopra was going to enact the role of Suzanna in the movie was enough of a reason for me to be excited. Based on Ruskin Bond's novel 'Suzanna's seven husbands', the story is about a woman who ends up killing 7 husbands (Neil Nitin Mukesh, John Abraham, Irfan Khan, Annu Kapoor, Aleksandr Dyachenko, Naseeruddin Shah) one after other in search of love. While Ruskin Bond's novel was well appreciated by critics and masses, Vishal Bhardwaj wasn't quite able to impress audiences.

Priyanka Chopra is the finest actress in Bollywood right now but her portrayal of Suzanna is theatrical and incomplete at times. Suzanna is a really deep character and while Priyanka does act well, her range of emotions fall short in certain scenarios. Nonetheless, it is a brilliant showcase for her to display her acting talents for which she should be applauded. As was expected, Naseeruddin Shah, Irfan Khan and Annu Kapoor shine in their performances. John Abraham has hardly been given any dialogues and his limited acting potential is frankly disappointing. Neil Nitin Mukesh isn't too impressive in his acting skills but does put some genuine effort in the character.

The surprises in the movie are the russian actor Aleksandr Dyachenko whose portrayal of the two timing husband is refreshing and Vivaan Shah's (Naseeruddin Shah's real life son) acting talents are pleasantly surprising. Vivaan essays the character of an orphan child who is adopted and cared for by Priyanka Chopra's character. His character narrates the story and the young actor shines in the role of the one man who loves Suzanna unconditionally and secretly. The talents of Konkona Sen Sharma (Plays the role of Vivaan Shah's characters wife) and Usha Uthup (Plays Suzanna maid) are wasted in the film.

The movie doesn't give any space for Suzanna's character to reflect upon her actions and decisions. This leaves a weird feeling among audiences about Suzanna's personality and character. Certain scenes and sequences involving Irfan Khan and Naseeruddin Shah's storylines are intense and mentally stirring while many scenes are lifeless or simply unnecessary. Vishal Bhardwaj's attempt to recreate a fantastic story created by master storyteller Ruskin Bond is quite daring. However, he hasn't been able to do justice to the story making you wonder if this story needed a more experienced film maker or a virtually flawless actress like Meryl Streep. If you love Priyanka Chopra, you can sit through this movie comfortably or else you are better off saying 'Maaf karo' to '7 Khoon Maaf'.

A warm reception for 'Inception'

Movies are a favorite pastime for one and all. I always considered myself extremely critical of movies. That is probably the reason why i always went for any movie with negligible expectations and came out reasonably satisfied or sane (FYI - the no expectations rule works wonders incase you have to endure some of the most ridiculous hindi movies). Nonetheless, I am quite a bit of a movie buff and love to go for movies with friends regardless of the ratings or the banners who make them. However, the one movie that really made me write a blog on it was none other than Christopher Nolan's conception, 'Inception'.

To be really honest, I hadn't heard much about the movie until a friend told me that there was this interesting english movie that was released recently. Nonetheless, I went for it with the same no expectations rule. The movie starts off with an intention to grab the interest of the viewer with the dramatic entry of the film's lead 'Leonardo Di Caprio' who plays the mysterious dreamer Cobb. After the initial sequence with Saito (Played by talented actor 'Ken Watanbe'), the movie jumps from sequence to sequence which you later realize are all dreams. This is where the concept of the inception becomes more clear.

After all, its all about Inception or the birth of an idea. It becomes apparent after a while that this movie is about dreams and how dream extractors like Cobb and Arthur (Joseph Gordon-Levitt of '3rd Rock from the Sun' TV series fame) use their technology to learn secrets that are virtually impossible to learn otherwise. The film's plot is quite simple and revolves around the fact that these dream surfers have to use their dream making technology to enter the subconscience of Robert Fisher (Son of Saito's rival) and learn the secrets needed to help Saito destroy the competition and claim the entire market. The movie also involves an 'architect' Ariadne (Ellen Page who shot to fame with critically acclaimed movie 'Juno') who has to design the dream land without letting the dreamer know about it. Along with everything else, Cobb has an interesting angle in the movie with his dead wife and that angle takes an interesting turn as the movie progresses.

This movie uses amazing special effects in the dream sequences and the photography and the scenes in the multi level dream sequence in the climax are also great. Overall, all the actors have done a fair job and Leonardo Di Caprio definitely has gotten lucky with movies like 'Shutter island' (I am still kicking myself for not reviewing it) and Inception. Ellen Page and Joseph Gordon have gotten meaty roles but Ken Watanbe has few dialogues. Veteran actor 'Micheal Caine' also has a cameo of sorts as Cobb's father. The concept of the Totem (A small heavy metallic object that makes you differentiate between reality and dreamland) in the movie is interesting and the spinning top totem of Cobb is the right level of mysterious.

I was able to connect with the story of this movie about dreams and how people can get to your secrets through a virtual safe is really interesting. Being in dreamland is also like being a god as you are in control and this sets off another thought process altogether. But the one aspect about the movie that I really loved was the delicate balance between reality and dreams that all characters seem to struggle with is very real and imaginable. This movie is a definite watch and if you are an imaginative person who loves to make stories in his head, go watch it now. This is one movie that has an impact strong enough to keep your mind swinging from the real to the reel long after the movie has ended!

To ape the wild wild west!

One of my regular late night coffee meets with a close friend got me thinking... He was just telling me how shocked he had been when he heard someone say 'XOXO' without even knowing what it's true meaning was. I reminded him that the person probably didn't know of it's origins since the olden times as an official (X) or an affectionate (O) signature written at the end of a letter and they could have picked it up from the television series 'Gossip Girl'. This got me thinking of India as an eastern country and how badly we were aping the west.

The 'west' as we call the developed countries like USA, canada and the european countries have had a strong influence on the mild and the shy east. There have been many areas like the culture and lifesyle of the western countries through which developing countries of the eastern hemisphere have been strongly influenced by the west. Though it has played an instrumental role in our development, on many occasions it also made me feel like we were acting like copy cats.

This is when I realised that I probably wasn't thinking this through. We as the fascinating east have had many intriguing things to teach the west and our cultural and industrial developments too were things that were worth boasting of. Thanks to our interesting way of life, the west was able to find something to add a little spice in their comparatively 'Vanila' existence, be it Indian festivals or Chinese food!

The tug of war between the east and the west and the question as to who has been able to influence the other in a more meaningful and a revolutionary way is always going to be there. Both have a unique and a strong quality about the way in which they have evolved and their importance just cannot be undermined if one tries to ape the other from time to time. Lets face it, the world has become a whole lot more fascinating with this fusion and this crossover of east meets west is going to occur. So, the next time you hear a clueless teenage girl say 'XOXO', share a little secret about this code. Finally.. XOXO! ;)

A new face of facebook

Technology sure is the one thing that doesnt cease to surprise us. Since decades we have been able to better our lives with the advent of the latest technological standards and the results have been remarkable. Of all the things that have been able to make an impact in our lives, the internet and the tools it has given us surely have made an incredible difference. Social networking sites are the one such gift of the internet that has gotten us addicted and they have changed our lives dramatically!

Websites like Facebook, orkut, twitter and the applications associated with them are some of the key areas of our discussions in day to day life. Much to the chagrin of the elders of our society, uploading pics, updating status lines and posting tweets is a part of regular life now. These social networking sites might find their popular uses as fun and entertainment activities but they have more professional uses too that dont claim the spotlight.

Thanks to these social networking websites, artists can showcase their talents to others in their industry in a more casual manner that initiates discussions that could lead to great projects. Also the aspect of social media monitoring has been able to help many organizations in understanding more about their brand image. After all there is nothing as good as direct feedback obtained from consumers thanks to heart to heart discussions on a website.

Whether you are checking out the latest pictures of your friends beach party or networking with someone whose work you are interested in, these social networking websites are a great platform to get connected. This is the one aspect of technology that is going to keep surprising us from time to time. With these new aspects of the online world taking giant leaps towards a brand new world, websites like facebook will give us more reasons to smile about.