service at sangeetha

It is puja time so time for meeting friends and relatives. It was one such occasion when two cousins I and S called on us a few days back. They came at an ungodly hour of 2 pm when I was just settling into an afternoon of quiet time. As an explanation, they said they just finished lunch at Sangeetha restaurant in Gandhi Nagar and came here straight. They made particular mention about the very good and tasty food there and also at fairly reasonable rates.
I have tried to avoid that place as I have always seen it very crowded on the couple of occasions that I have visited that restaurant. They said they had an a la carte meal of both south indian and north indian and also chinese dishes and highly recommended the same.
An opportunity arose immediately yesterday when friend J and family called on us. I had no doubt in my mind that Sangeetha it shall be for our dinner that day.It was peak time 8.30 pm, but still we made a beeline for the same.
The crowd was spilling over on the pavement and on the road. But nothing can stop me when I set my mind on something. So I went in and was told that there was a non ac hall in the ground floor and an ac hall on the first floor. Waiting time for a group of seven was 10 minutes in the non ac hall and half an hour in the ac hall. A quick consultation made us pitch for the non ac hall. The system of waiting list was different in both the dining halls. In the ground floor it was the good old 'customer face recall' whereas in the first floor one had a floor manager with a small note pad, noting down the names of potential customers.There was also a large waiting hall on the first floor! S remarked if the place can have such a large waiting hall, why can they not convert it into more dining tables to accomodate the guests? Good question!He was also regaling us with the system of token in MTR in Bangalore and the waiting room was anyday much larger and had more customers than the actual dining hall.
I was told the kitchen is the same for both the floors and since in an ac room customers tend to take a little more time relaxing and having their dinner the turnaround time is more.
We had to wait for less than 10 minutes and we got a table for seven conveniently located near the kitchen! Junior j remarked that was the reason for getting our seats so early! We took a while placing our order. It went like this; saada dosa, aloo pepper special masala dosa, ada avial, aappam kurma, aappam tenga paal, naan panner korma, idiappam and dahi vada.The south Indian dishes all got very good ratings but the panneer side dish was ordinary, while the naan and rotis were very tasty. They also arrived quite late. Otherwise the service was excellent, a floor manager who actually was available at hand and responded to our requests in double quick time. I am particularly mentioning this, as usually the waiters have a habit of avoiding to look at the customer whom they are servicing.
Coffee was discussed as S mentioned about the very good quality coffee in that restaurant and highly recommended a try. But it was nearing 10 pm and the place was hot, so it was given a go by.
A good location with a valet parking facility and excellent service and good food. Highly recommended for a quick bite and rushing off to wherever you are rushing off to!

Achuvinte a malayalam movie

I was channel surfing on a lazy sunday afternoon and saw urvashi and meera jasmine in a very jolly mood in a malayalam movie on asianet. Stopped the surfing and started viewing. The scene that captivated me was urvashi and meera, the mother daughter combine were having some fun talking in English without mixing any malayalam in it. The scene was shot so naturally in a normal home setting without any affectations. The conversations (little that I could follow) were also devoid of cliches and had liberal dose of jokes and funny situations. Both the actresses were doing a fine portrayal of their roles an with a nd it was a treat watching and trying to guess who was outwitting the other. Urvashi is a class unto herself and Meera jasmine is a natural with a very expressive face and dancing eyes.
It was such a big relief to see a heroine play the role of a civil engineer and actually working at a construction site. No such luck in any Tamil movie.There will be nothing real about the heroines (neither the heros for that matter) and they will be at best eye candy and at worst witches and scheming villains.Here Meera's boss is another lady with two children, who does a very professional job at work and is caring to her subordinate (meera jasmine) and also a good mother relaxing with the kiddoos! How very dull and real life like. Wrong, it was entertaining and could relate to without any difficulty.
The hero did a good enough portrayal. Dont know his name but, No, he was not mohanlal or mamooty or jayaram. He is the actor who came as collector in the movie 'pallikoodam'.
The supporting actors were all playing their role in a very likeable manner as a pleasant extention of our everyday life. There is no need to bring in make believe to make an interesting movie.
Blossoming of love between the hero and heroine which is usually a high point in tamil movies, is usually a very crude or loud affair. Here it evolves from a casual acquaintance to chance meeting in ordinary spots and later to some affection and much later it becomes a stronger emotion. NO theatrics or undesirable or awkward situations juxtaposed just to 'excite' the audience.
God bless malayalam movie makers and let them continue to make such 'feel good' movies with such wonderful actresses!