Deadly Cabbage

I now have a stomach that is quite sensitive to very spicy food. It has been almost 4 months since i had the chilli chicken from the neighbourhood Andhra restaurant. Last sunday, i had been to Prashant's place, where Siju decided to cook for us. The occasion was quite simple. Another friend, Arvind, was visiting Grenoble on business.

The dal was great, and so was the rice.
However, the object of attention was the cabbage. Turns out it was too spicy, even to taste !
Most of us had running noses by the end of the meal. Siju was beaming, i should have put my foot in his smile !

Prashant woke up later that night to calm his burning stomach.

My visit to the loo the next morning was not too pleasant.

Murali didnt go to work on Monday.

We haven't heard from Arvind since.... maybe he decided that the guys in Grenoble are a bunch of chilly-eating, masala-guzzling bunch of freaks.

My french colleagues had a good laugh, and i can think of a couple of others who will be laughing as they read this.

It's a bomb !

I was at the supermarket yesterday, buying some veggies and fruits.

Turns out, the French word for Pomegranate is "Grenade"
What????
Is it just me, or is this highly misplaced ! In effect, i picked up some grenades at the supermarket yesterday ! I suppose tomorrow, after i'm done eating one, i'll have shrapnel inside my tummy.

I hope, since France is like a second home to me now, that the French Troops deployed in Lebanon are not lobbing pomegranates at the Hezbollah, while we are busy eating grenades back in France !

What a lame excuse !

Staying in touch with what is happening back home is a bit of a challenge, when you're overseas. I try my best to keep up with the latest news from India, and i manage it to a certain extent.

The tough part is to keep up with Bollywood. The rate at which films (ahem...) are churned out is absolutely insane, and watching the films is almost impossible. I decided however that i'll try my best to watch the occasional Indian film.

I downloaded and watched "Don", with Shahrukh Khan in it, remake of the original 70's super hit starrring Amitabh Bachchan.

Well, what can i say? Shall i start with the good or the bad? I think i'll start with the good. There's less of that, you see, so its easy to get it out of the way.

So the film is slick. Really slick. The look of the film is great, and is executed well. No purple pants, no yellow shirts, no jumping around trees, no fake love scenes (in fact no love scenes at all). Of course, the slickness is derived from Hollywood. A fine mix of Matrix (the fights are all kung fu style), Mission Impossible (do all theives wear a black skull cap?), James Bond (who the hell detonates a bomb from a watch?) and Con Air (do they really have those planes with caged seats?)

Period. There is nothing else watchable in this film. Khan cannot act, and the film only re-affirmed my long standing conviction that if you take off his eyebrows, he is like a blind man in a dark alley. No one, repeat, no one can step into the shoes of the BigB as Don, and halfway through the film, Shahrukh makes you cringe, keel over and puke your guts out. His portrayal of any negative character is stuck in the time warp of "Darr" !

There is absolutely no characterisation in the film. The other actors are just walking zombies. I lost all respect for Boman Irani after seeing him play the wuss-iest villain ever. Priyanka Chopra should hang herself, even if without reason !

The biggest disappointment : Farhan Akhtar !
Dude, what happened? I loved Dil Chahta Hai, and you gave us a superb film in Lakshya.
What even made you think you could re-create Don?
Some things are best left untouched, especially the classics. I hope you have learnt that now !


On the other hand, Casino Royale will release soon in France. I'm waiting to see Daniel Craig as Bond, especially after someone said that if he wants to continue playing Bond, he should get a botox injection to relax his furrowed brow. Figures, considering Bond is supposed to be a cool customer even if Russia is going to fry the globe with a death ray from space.

I want to watch this film in English, and i hope i can. As funny as it may sound, i do not fancy hearing Bond go "Je m'appele Bond, James Bond", or "Martini... agité, pas remué"

France Strikes

So thousands of Grenobloises (people of Grenoble), were stranded yesterday after TAG (transportation de l'agglomération grenobloise) the transport company that handles the very very efficient bus and tram service, went on a typical French strike...

Cause - Effect :
The employees demanded a raise in salary ---> small protest last week, lasting a few hours ---> Bus service interrupted for a while ---> Pissed off commuters ---> 2 idiots rough up a tram driver ---> Angry employees ---> BIG Strike.

And yes, i walked to and from French class yesterday, 25 minutes each way with a bone chilling wind blowing across my already frozen nose*

* - read earlier entry "Frozen!"

Renault F1

I went back to Paris on 4th, to meet a friend who is in Germany on business, and was visiting Paris.

The Louvre sucks (i'm not the art type), and believe me, Mona Lisa is just another painting on the wall !

However, i took a walk down Champs Elysees, and boy oh boy!
On display at the Renault showroom, was a real Renault F1 car, used by Fernando Alonso for one of the races this season ! Totally made my day !

Frozen !

I've never been in sub-zero temperatures. Bangalore never sees less than 10°C, and the lowest i've been in is 2°C, in Pune during the winter of 2000.

Grenoble set a new record for me today. Last night recorded -4°C. I left home this morning for work, as the thermometer in the neighbourhood pharmacy stood at 0°C. As i arrived at work, my workplace being well outside the city limits, the temperature was even lower. The usual morning dew had frozen on the grass, and the cars in the parking lot had a film of ice on their windshields.

Apparently every day from now on will record lower and lower temperatures. In the meantime, i've stopped feeling my nose. It now resembles a kulfi stick, of course, blue in colour !

I'm also reminded of a short poem (in hindi, "shayaree") which i heard when i was in Pune, during that cold winter of 2000. Of course, the content of this poem is highly objectionable, and is best not written in this blog. I did, however, send out an email to a few friends, reminding them of the low temperature, and the shady jokes we cracked !

-4°C... and counting...