My week began in Pune where I had gone to visit my parents. My father turned 81 an important landmark in a lifetime. This according to Hindu belief is the age when a man has seen a 1000 full moons. We did nothing to commemorate this occasion but just get together as a family (those of us who could) and I for one thanked the Lord that I could still have the shelter of my parents at this age.
I am one of those blessed people with a spectacular view of my city. No matter how many times I stand outside my bed room, I never get tired of the ever changing sky. Each day the light shows up the city in different hues – sometimes peaceful, sometimes dirty, some times weary but always breathtakingly beautiful.
A long, long time ago there was a famous Chinese Restaurant in Colaba called Fredericks. Unfortunately that burnt down and a new one called LING’s PAVILLION came up in its place. Situated in the by lane of Colaba behind the Taj and Regal Cinema, this restaurant was very popular at one time among the high and mighty of Mumbai especially since it was rumoured that Baba Ling the owner of the restaurant was best buddies with Randhir Kapoor who could be spotted here occasionally. But that was before the mushrooming of several good Chinese eateries all over town and Ling’s soon fell off the favourite Mumbai restaurant list.
But last night we had a chance to re-visit the place and I wondered why we had stopped going there in the first place.
Unlike the China Garden which tells you that has a dress code and a strict ban on children below a certain age and strict times of working, Ling’s has no such restrictions. Once it opens at 11.30 in the morning , it stays open all the way through till 11.30 at night. Children are welcome and infact the fish in the pools provide them with a welcome diversion. And there are no long waiting lists to deal with!
We walked in to an empty restaurant at around 7.30 and were led to a table upstairs near the bar. There is always a faint musty smell in this restaurant – which is more pronounced upstairs but perhaps the other tables downstairs were reserved hence we were taken up. Within minutes of being seated, the order for drinks and starters were taken with helpful suggestions from the Maitre de. The boys wanted fish fingers and the rest of us had sui mai and spring rolls. Bassa seems to be the flavour of the day because the fish fingers were made with Bassa unlike the Ghol fish of yore. But I’m not complaining. The fish fingers were well crumbed and just melted in your mouth. And with the accompanying sweet sauce was simply out of this world. We ordered two kinds of Sui Mai – prawn and chicken. Both were passable. I don’t know why Indian chinese restaurants can’t get a translucent milky white covering like their counterparts in mainland China. But at any rate this is a better place for dim sum than China Garden which seems to permanently have its steamer under repair!
For our main course we ordered a passable chicken fried rice, average chicken noodles and a great fish in mongolian sauce. For the vegetarians we had veg spring rolls (ok) ,hakka noodles which in other places is known as Vhow Mein and a stri fried vegetables consisting of shitake mushroom, bean curd and pak choy. The greens were crisp and the fish excellent and over all the dining experience is far better than China Garden. Would I go there again? Definitely. The service was good, the portions generous and over all it was value for money.
With a limited choice of movies, my movie gang decided to watch “Vicky Donor”. SInce Kay as an HSBC card holder gets a discount at Inox, and since Inox has better samosa and sev batata puri we decided to catch the movie there. Unfortunately the HSBC offer has been withdrawn ( could it be related to their layoffs last month?) and we had to grudgingly pay up Rs.240 each instead of the Rs. 100 we would have had to shell out at PVR.
Luckily though, the movie made us laugh at least till the wedding of Vicky and Tuna and until Jo reminded us at the end, I’d quite forgotten about the price of the ticket! I don’t know why this movie is billed a Hindi movie – because it is mainly in Punjabi.
That apart, I thought the movie was a bit puerile at times with a weak story line. Vicky the wastrel, a swaggering stereotypical Punjabi boy lives in a typical Punjabi middle class family with a typical mom and a typical grandma. Similarly Tuna and her family are sterotypical Bengalis living in Delhi. Anu Kapoor as the slick Dr. Chaddha does a great job – in fact it is his typical greaseball act that saves the movie from being a typical urban “Hindi” movie making fun of stereotypical Indians. Frankly I don’t see why Indian humour has to resort to making fun of regional stereo types to have the audience in splits.
Vicky ,despite being a typical Indian boy, has a very untypical job of a sperm donor. While Dr. Chaddha woos him to become his Donor in Chief, Vicky woos Ashima the Ice Maiden in the Bank. Surprisingly the girl has a past which equally surprisingly Vicky’s old grandma accepts unquestioningly. But funnily enough Tuna’s father only objects to Vicky’s Punjabiness and doesn’t bother to do the most basic of background checks on Vicky’s “business”. However, the families manage to balle balle at the wedding in the midst of the ululating Bengalis and what should have ended then as happily ever after degenerates into sentimental drivel. Tunu finds out that her tubes are blocked and she can’t have children . Vicky spills the beans that he is a sperm donor and Tunu walks out shattered by this betrayal of trust. The family falls apart and predictably Dr. Chaddha steps in and sets things right at the end when Tunu and Vicky attend a specially organised “25th Jubilee Celebration ” of Dr. Chaddha’s infertility clinic where all of Vicky’s 53 off spring are on display. Seeing these happy families makes Tunu realise Vicky’s greatness and altruisim in helping out childless couples and goes back to his loving arms. The couple’s joy is complete by the opportunity of adopting one of Vicky’s sperm kids who is conveniently left in an orphanage by the grandparents who were too old to look after her.
Twenty- five Seven 