Twenty- five Seven

Personally speaking

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  • Ling’s Pavillion

    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.

    p.s. the photo was taken from burrp.com

  • Vicky Donor – A light hearted approach to infertility




    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.  

  • It’s truly a sad day when men start wearing skirts

    Matriarchy is not a new concept in our society. In fact in several homes the mother traditionally rules the roost. “Just wait till your father comes home”, is a threat which all of us have heard knowing fully well that while Daddy may actually whack our butts, it is mom whom we have to watch out for. Yet, our mothers have managed to balance this equation, wielding a quiet behind the scenes power while remaining feminine, compliant  and subservient to her Lord & Master at the same time.

    Yesterday I actually saw a role reversal for the first time in action – where the father was an “intermittently employed actor and a hands-on Dad” while the mother was the “Power Lady” bringing home the bacon. Power ladies with husbands who lag behind in both ambition and status are not a new phenomenon either – the Queen of England is a prime example of a powerful lady who had no option but to marry the man she did simply because there was no one who could match her in status. Similarly, there are several powerful corporate CEO’s who have house husbands, happily dusting shelves and picking up the kids while the mother climbs up the ladder. The choice of a spouse is purely personal so who am I to judge?

    Still, yesterday I actually felt uncomfortable when I saw Daddy literally play Mommy. While it was obvious he would help them change after their swim, I was quite taken aback when he actually played ball with his boys on the field in much the same way a mother would keep her children entertained when in company. Similarly over dinner, the little fellow was looked after by his father who clucked over him like a mother hen, patting his back, ruffling his hair and feeding him while Mommy was busy talking.

    With more and more women entering the work force, it is to be expected that they won’t find a fitting husband  but surely Power Lady can prevent her husband from wearing a skirt? Even if there are no grandparents to play nursemaid, there is no need to reduce a husband to looking after home and hearth :  Power Lady can definitely employ a maid to do her task!

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