Desi Daniel Recommends: Ching's Noodles

 Yes, all of us grew up on Maggi Noodles. I was part of the brigade who would collect the Maggi logo cutouts to send it to Nestle so that they'd send me things like foam caps, comic books, etc. Of course, Maggi was heavily priced (at INR 4) and because of the general consensus amongst mommies that any packed food was unhealthy, Maggi was almost equal to chocolates - it was the ultimate prize for being good in my young life. 

Of course, as and when I grew up and had a decidedly better say in what I eat and what I do not, I began eating more Maggi and liking it. I should also confess that by the time I began working, I rarely had Maggi and my only contact with it was a 'Welcome to the Gang' nod that I would give if I saw some friend eating it while I was on a visit. 

It was only after a lot many years, lets say five years, that I was on a work from home stint again and I had a chance to taste Maggi. I was on a old times rush when I went to the nearest grocery shop and and bought a eight pack of Maggi, just because I knew how addicted I was to it's taste. I didn't want to run down one day at 12 in the night because I wanted to bow down to the yellow and red logo. 

Preparing Maggi is like preparing eggs - everyone knows how to. Of course, the connesuirs or Maggi (trust me, there are some) will tell you about the right amount of water and the right amount of time and the right amount of other ingredients to put in and such - but back then the actual Maggi taste was so lipsmackingly spicy that you wouldn't need anything else. And yes, when I was younger half a packet of Maggi would fill me up. It was only after a while that I began having them full packs.

You could guess my 'am going to heaven look' when I first took the aroma of a steaming, piping hot cup of Maggi noodles just a moment away from my eyes, my nose and of course, my mouth. I pinched in the first stringy noodle and began munching - and boy was I surprised!

The taste of Maggi noodles had changed! From a meaty, heavy duty and robust Salman Khan it had turned into Vivek Oberoi - looking good to begin with, but having a bitter taste as soon as consumed! I checked, I double checked, believe me I even tried them recipes... one cup of water, one and one fourth cup of water, ten minutes, seven minutes, nothing worked - the taste was simply awful. 

As for me, I am someone who is one bitten twice shy, and I rarely ventured onto the Maggi turf after that - but you know, sometimes one is caught between the devil and the deep sea, and so was I - and I had to buy Maggi again. This time, I tried the taste again and I was flummoxed, as it dawned onto me -

Maggi was using us as Guinea Pigs

Every time I had a taste of Maggi noodles, the taste changed. Sometimes it would be like onions drenched in water, other times it would like tomatoes clung together with and lashed with some kind of exotic Asian spices - Yuck. The taste was rank bad. The only saving grace, of course, was the tomato flavor, which somehow had withstood the evil genius who was changing the recipe of India's favorite noodles. Actually speaking, it put me off instant noodles for quite a while. Every time I saw someone having instant noodles - and by that time there were several brands available, Maggi had brought in the aspect of instant food so dominantly that any third rate noodle maker could piggy back into the market - I would yearn for that taste of Maggi to once again fill me up.

Until I discovered Chings. 

Chings was in the market for quite some while, but it didn't begin with instant noodles. Instead, it used to provide with noodles and one would have to put in oil and stuff - something that worked out to be quite expensive and cumbersome. I mean, if I had to work with oil and stuff and add vegetables, wouldn't I just cut up some vegetables and prepare some lunch or dinner? 

However, as companies normally do, Ching's launched its noodles pretty soon, and I should confess that looking at the package and remembering that one solitary experience I had with the Ching's Noodles, I gave it a miss for several years.  Then one day, I finally gave in and tried to check whether the taste was anywhere near what it said. 

I was surprised! 

Ching's tastes good, make no mistake about it. It has the taste to even wean the most hardcore of Maggi fans, simply because Maggi does not have the robust taste that it had back then. Maybe it is catering to the meterosexual male, and does not want the getting down and dirty boys anywhere near their yard - but for now, Ching's has a good place in my kitchen.

Desi Daniel Recommends: Coastal Restaurant and Bar (Evershine Nagar, Malad West, Mumbai)

Believe me when I tell you this - it is difficult to find an economic and goodwatering hole in Malad, East or West.  Well, at least it isn't impossible now, but I remember ten years ago, I actually had to go to a skanky bar in Malad East to get  a chicken biryani, simply because there was no restaurant in Malad that would prepare a chicken dish at 1 in the afternoon. 

However, things are looking up now, with the Malad Link Road coming up and Malad East connected to Malad West and Evershine Nagar quite nicely. Evershine Nagar and Link Road have several watering holes, but these watering holes burn a hole in your pocket! It's too expensive! I mean, it's expensive for the casual drinker as well as the daily drinker. So, where do we go when we need a tipple and do not want to spend too much - and not stand the risk of mild diarrhea the next day? - Coastal Restaurant and Bar in Evershine Nagar. 

Placed in the lane just behind the uber expensive and always full Pop Tates, Jugheads and Slice of Lime, Coastal Restaurant and Bar brings back to mind those old days when having a drink and having good food outside did not mean double checking your wallet. The food is excellent, the beers are always chilled and you get almost every liquor or wine that you might desire. 

To reach there, you need to first reach the Movietime theater. Go inside the lane and take a right, and once you can see People's Gym, take the immediate left. You will come across some shops, and right bang in the middle of the road is Coastal. 

As the name suggests, the hotel really has some good sea food. Though I am not a fan of sea food, I have had the 'surmai' there and I can tell you that I tolerated it quite well. So the next time you are in Malad, and looking for a drink - look for Coastal!

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Two Reasons the Indian Rickshaw Wallah Refuses You.

Go anywhere in Mumbai today and you will see people having a harrowing time trying to get a rickshaw to their destination. If you have not been to India you might not know the exact meaning of an Indian autorickshaw - sometimes shortened to 'auto' or 'rickshaw'.  Here is a picture of the rickshaw: 

This three wheeler, rugged and most times rusty vehicle has been the answer to a Mumbaiite's prayer sometime or the other in their lives. Whether it is the person who has to reach his office in time, or whether its the student who has to reach his school, who hasn't heaved a sigh of relief when they see these soda-can-for-safety vehicles whizzing past the most expensive of vehicles with gay abandon?

Well, that was then, and today we have a scenario where the rickshaw wallahs do not whizz towards us, but they whizz away from us. And make no mistake about it,  this isn't about a 'high fare' 'low fare' thing... I have had rickshaw wallahs refuse to ply me even from Bandra to Malad - which is almost 3/4th of the total fare on can make in the suburbs. 

So bad is the situation that some of the newspapers have actually started a campaign against rickshaw and cab drivers who do not ply passengers from one place to another. Here is the reason why: 

It is illegal for rickshaw wallahs to refuse to ply a passenger. If the traffic inspector is informed of it, the rickshaw driver can be fined an amount of 3000 INR ($60) and he can even be put in prison for a very brief stint.  Remember, a rickshaw wallah denying your service is equal to a grocery shop owner denying you the sale of anything because he doesn't want to.

The situation was not always like this.  I still remember, back in the days when I used to go to school (that was in the '90s) hiring a rickshaw to go anywhere was something that one would do when:

• They are going with family
• They are going with their girlfriend/boyfriend
• They are going somewhere 'important'. 

And dare the rickshaw wallah ever say no to a customer. The rickshaw wallah of the nineties will remember the time when they used to pass entire days without having a single customer, and would therefore have to do dual jobs  - one in the day shift and one in the night shift. 

So, what is the reason that everyday we have a seething population who is denied service by even the tenth rickshaw wallah that they flag down? - Actually there are many. Here are just some of them: 

The Insane Traffic of Mumbai: 

The amount of traffic has increased manifold in Mumbai. And that is because of the raising standards of living amongst the intelligent and hardworking more. For example, ten years ago a person would buy a scooter if they had a stable job - today they buy a vehicle.  And with the costs of vehicles coming down like a windfall, the rise of the car owning Mumbaiite is something quite obvious. 

Therefore, it is quite simple that driving a vehicle is quite difficult in Mumbai, and even in the whole of India. Lane discipline is something that we are yet to get acquainted with - the highways have tens and hundreds of connecting roads at every corner which making driving at speeds quite risky for the driver as well as others on the road.  Nothing that should bother a rickshaw wallah, but all the same - they are as irritated by the traffic as we are.

The Rising Living Standards of the People in Mumbai: 

Come to think of it, Mumbai is still considered to be the land of dreams by many Indians living in non metro areas as well as people who are living in other, under developed countries. So, don't you think that the rickshaw wallah who came to Mumbai a good twenty years back and started driving rickshaws back when having an automobile was something we saw in movies would have made enough money so that he can refuse to ply whenever his little heart wishes?

Teacher Fired Over Student Beating Video - Alternative Thoughts

The big news today is about a teacher who is supposed to be sacked because she was a mother - or something like that.  Here's the lowdown about what happened a few days ago at the Jamie's House Charter School in Houston. Apparently, a teacher who has a mentally handicapped child had the courage to have her daughter put up a dance show for the school. As is the case with all public appearances, there were some of the children who laughed as she danced. And that was when all hell broke loose - something that has been captured by the cell phone camera of a student, which was in turn given to the school authorities, and which is now being held as the reason for the sacking of the teacher. While the populist media has decided to treat this as an open and shut case of teacher brutality, there are several aspects that they forget - or do not wish to touch upon.  Here are the reasons why I think people should look at this in a new light:

The Reason of the So Called 'Assault': 

 Ok, this was not about some teacher who lost it when she saw that one of her students hadn't done his homework or something. This was because a part of the students had laughed at her mentally ill daughter - at what might have been one of her first dance performances - it takes a lot to have one's child perform at a public appearance, and it takes a lot more to have a mentally child to garner the guts to dance at a school function.  I agree that the teacher should have been a teacher first and then a parent, but who of us have not have emotional surges and forgot common sense for a while?  

The Basic Loss of Human Emotions:   

Come to think of it, the teacher hit the student because he laughed when her daughter danced - and the other students were laughing when he was hit by the teacher. What we are combating here is not a scenario where the a teacher has hit a student for some personal reason, but are combating a scenario where a entire generation of kids are about to become laughing and jeering crowds whenever somebody is in an embarrassing position.  The laughs and the jibes can be heard in the background - something that has been so blatantly ignored by the media all around the world. 

Alternate Scenario:  

The entire world is raising a toast to the thought that they have once again succeeded in shielding the meek from the people in power who have been corrupted. And that is because the mother of the daughter took the task in her own hands and delivered some swift, justice-albeit a bit above the head. What if the jibing and the jeering had gone out of hand, what if the daughter had gone further into depression because of the jeering, or worse still, did something to herself. Would the boy who is giving staccatto statements to media hungry people today be treated as the fallen hero that he is today? 

At the end of it all, I do not for a moment support what the teacher did. What I do not support is the action that the school is taking against the teacher and the daughter. What will happen of the teacher and the daughter now? What will the mother say to the daughter if she asks why she isn't around in the school any longer? Apparently the woman does have some aggression issues, how would the mother handle this situation?  How would the authorities handle this situation? This is a simple blogpost posted at my new blog. I know I cannot change the world for you, but whatever you name is, if you are reading this  - I understand what you went through.