29

May

Book Review: ‘Down The Road’, a short story collection


Editor(s): Ahmed Faiyaz, Rohini Kejriwal
Format: Paperback
Language: English
ISBN: 9788192040301
Pages: 225
Price: Rs. 195.00

We mentioned in our review of ‘Urban Shots‘, the first short story collection of Urban tales in India published by Grey Oak Publications, that we will come up with the review of ‘Down The Road‘, their next anthology soon. And here we are.

‘Down The Road‘, co-edited by Ahmed Faiyaz and Rohini Kejriwal, is a collection of ‘28 campus tales by 16 authors‘, as the well-adorned cover reads. Since the success of ‘Urban Shots‘, it was quite natural for Grey Oak Publications to come out with another anthology of the same type, and ‘Down The Road‘ is their second offering to the short story lovers of the country.

Like the way we reviewed ‘Urban Shots‘ according to the sectional divisions done in the book, we are going to take the same stance for this book also. Since ‘Down The Road‘ is a collection of campus related short stories, the sectional divisions are well-expected, and aptly done as well:
‘Attendance is Compulsory‘, ‘Festivals, Elections & Placements‘, ‘Lights Out‘ and ‘Looking Back‘. Two ‘Essays‘ are also included under the section under the same title.

The section-wise dissection is as done below:

Section 1: ‘Attendance is Compulsory‘

This section contains ten stories by six writers, with four from Ahmed Faiyaz and two from Ira Trivedi.
The way the stories have been ordered in this section is impressive.
Suppose, you’re in a foul mood in the evening, with a bottle of beer in your hand, your girl gone out for shopping to the nearest mall; and you take out your copy of ‘Down The Road‘ to distract yourself from the impending problems surrounding your life. You receive a jolt after going through the first story itself. All the memories of your college life, the campus, the romance – your life seems to rush back to you, and for the first time in the evening you thank yourself for your loneliness.
Hats off to the stories in this section for the perfect start possible. Stories by Naman Saraiya and Sahil Khan, who were also featured on ‘Urban Shots‘ were also there in this section, but none of the two shorts managed to stand out. Naman’s ‘One Bump does no Harm‘ is a much better rendition than his contribution to the previous anthology, whereas, Sahil’s ‘That’s it?‘ was too much abstract for few readers who have gone through it.
We did a survey of few of the stories mentioned in this review by asking random readers to go through them. This review reflects much of the feedbacks we received from the survey.
Stand out Numbers: ‘The Music Room‘ and ‘Rishi and Me‘, both by Ira Trivedi.

Section 2: ‘Festivals, Elections & Placements‘

Seven stories by six writers – this section is a very balanced one with respect to the author:story ratio, the only repetition being from Ahmed Faiyaz.
The stories have been very meticulously written, with different aspects of a matured campus life being portrayed perfectly.
Though we didn’t like the re-entry of ‘Between Friends‘ by Paritosh Uttam as a contribution, and also Ranjani Iyer’s introduction to the readers as a mean of creating some hype for her debut novel, albeit published by Grey Oaks. These two stories did not do justice to the collection. For readers who have not read the ‘Urban Shots‘, things may not matter much, but for critical reviewers these redundancies are something which fail to provide positive impression. As a standalone shortie, ‘Dimples and Cute Smiles‘ can’t be complained about, but the disclaimer at the end of the story manages to wear off all the feel-goodness associated with it. And ‘Between Friends‘ seemed to be a waste of resources, for all we did was to skip it.
Stand out Numbers: After a strong tussle among two shorts, we decided to go with both. ‘Well Placed‘ by Ahmed Faiyaz and ‘The Cafe with no name‘ by Sneh Thakur deserve equal applause.

Section 3: ‘Lights Out‘

This section boasts of six shorts, contributed by five writers, with the only double from Malathi Jaikumar.
Again a very well-selected and well-edited collection of stories, this section shows intense maturity, the maturity that we gain from life, from the various ups and downs.
Stand out Numbers: ‘Just a Moment‘ by Nikhil Rajagopalan, anyday.

Section 4: ‘Looking Back‘

The title of the section indicates nostalgia, and we expected some serious doses of heart wrenching stories, but alas, this section turned out to be the weakest section in the total anthology. Five stories by four writers later, only two turned out to be worth mentioning – ‘Time‘ by Ahmed Faiyaz and ‘An Accidental Start‘ by Kunal Dhabalia. Kunal’s short this time is a much better one than his only contribution for ‘Urban Shots’.
Stand out Number: ‘An Accidental Start‘ by Kunal Dhabalia.

Last Section(?): ‘Essays‘

It’s not sure why the editors decided to go with this section, but whatever the reason maybe (of which ‘awareness’ seems to be the most apt word to describe), the two ‘essays’ featured here read as if they were forced contributions. For the uninitiateds, ‘Fiction On Campus‘ maybe a ‘little’ helpful, but ‘Bollywood on Campus‘ just does not suit a bit to the taste and feel of the quality of short stories included in the collection.
In another word, lacking simulating characteristics? Yeah.

Overall Impression: After the role of Paritosh Uttam as the editor for ‘Urban Shots‘, this time Ahmed Faiyaz and Rohini Kejriwal are the ones who made ‘Down The Road‘ happen. A very well selected collection of short stories, with its share of follies and’ Thumbs-Up’s, this collection does not disappoint much, if seen from a larger point of view of a reviewer. Not many anthologies of short stories, or essays, or poems are being published in our country, and the effort of Grey Oak Publications that way is much vital for the current English writing scenario of India.
As a change, the foreword has been written this time by Sahil Khan, with Rohini Kejriwal taking up a more responsible position as a co-editor and contributor for the collection. The writers have been kept more or less unchanged from ‘Urban Shots‘, and with repeated multiple entries by the some writers, one wonders if there is any dearth of quality English short story writers in the country.
The stories have tried to touch every nooks and corners of campus life – be it in school or college. Ragging, first-crush to first-love, intricacies of campus politics, placements related complexes, crush on class teacher, et al – a huge spectrum has been covered. But somehow, somewhere, the readers fail to be nostalgic the way this collection was meant to make them.
Just when one was starting to relive his own journey from the first days of stepping in the college campus, to proposing the girl he can do anything for, to churning out the dream offer from his dream company; he falls face-down on the ground with a loud thump. Somehow, the strings of the guitar does not seem well-tuned to him, somehow the stories does not make him shiver for the fear of ragging he could have faced the next day in college, somehow the stories fail to make him shed a tear or two for his first crush in school that is his cute 21ish class teacher, somehow the stories forgets to instil in him the passion of his first kiss – ‘Down The Road’ fails to live up to the expectations.

Best Stories of the lot:
1. ‘Just a Moment‘ by Nikhil Rajagopalan
2. ‘Rishi & Me‘ by Ira Trivedi
3. ‘The Cafe with No Name‘ by Sneh Thakur

Overall Rating: 8/10

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More Details:
The editors on Facebook: Ahmed Faiyaz, Rohini Kejriwal
The book on publisher’s website: Down The Road

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13

May

Cafe Review: Cuppa Java

As we mentioned in this post before, the visit to Cuppa Java was a part of the plan to hit as many interesting places in the city possible, to celebrate 11th’s ‘Eat what you want day‘. We visited ‘Victoria Junction‘ first, and then, went to ‘Cuppa Java‘, adjacent to it.

We have had some experiences of well-known cafes from all over Kolkata, and hence, we had expectations from Cuppa Java on aspects like the food we can have there and their services, as well as, most importantly, the ambience they can offer. When you are going to visit a cafe, it’s always the ambience that is being put at the top of the priority list. At least, that’s how we, the coffee fanatics, work.

Cuppa Java offers a wide range of choices when you tend to take up your perfect beverage. With witty coffee related quotes marqueeing in and out in the front panel in their website, you will be happy to realize that the staffs and the people associated with this place is as much a coffee lover as you are. This was our first visit to Cuppa Java and within minutes of entering the place, the way we were being welcomed, the way we were guided with the menus, the orders; we already started regretting why we did not visit the place earlier.

The store has a very simple appearance, situated at the northern fringes of the city, on the long stretched Sevoke Road. Though the placement could have been much better had it been nearer to the central area of the city, but then again, on second thoughts it became clear to us that it’s the silence and the aloofness of the place that has made it such a good experience. Maybe the hustle-bustles of the city would have broken the peacefulness that is connected with the place.

Cuppa Java has two sections – the outer section serving coffee, cookies and other baked goods, and the inner section boasting of a hookah parlor. We tried out both the sections. The outer section was more common to the serious coffee lovers who use to hit the place simply to gorge on the blended goodness. Various offerings of cold coffee, moccaccino, cappuccino, espresso – you say it, and you will have to wait for hardly five minutes before you are being served.

The inner section was the hookah parlor. It was a dark room, as lengthy as a club room, with pool table set at one end, bean bags all around, and cushioned seating arrangements along the wall. A 26-inch LCD mounted on the central wall of the room plays video songs all throughout the day, and the best part, it’s accompanied by a really rich collection of contemporary and all time hit English numbers. The semi-darkness inside, along with the music gives a psychedelic appearance to the room, and you will never feel like coming out of it.

The best part of Cuppa Java, as it seemed to us, is their customer service arrangements. Since we were the first timers there (which the staffs surprisingly noticed), we were in awe by the help we got from the staffs. They did a quick briefing of their offerings, and helped us choose our orders. The quality of the food was quite good, and the service time lightening fast. We ordered Fudge American Brownie with chocolate sauce add-on, Black Forest Fudge et al. And turned out that we relished all of them equally.

Though Cuppa Java, as a chain, is not as popular as the likes of Cafe Coffee Day in small towns like this, but we liked the way it has managed to create a niche of its own. In the 1.5-2 hours we were inside, we saw a steady stream of customers flowing in and out of the eatery, and seemed to us that each of the them were regulars there.

Cuppa Java was an experience in itself. We liked their offerings, the services, the ambience, the food, everything. Of course a recommended place, if you talk about both their cafe as well as hookah parlor services.

According to us, best points regarding Cuppa Java:
1. Ambience.
2. Free Wi-fi zone.
3. Musical Den.
4. Quick and efficient customer service.

Overall Rating: 8.5/10.

Website: http://www.cuppajava.in/home.html
Cuppa Java on Facebook: Cuppa Java
Contact: siliguri(at)cuppajava(dot)in

381 days ago Short URL Comments

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12

May

Eatery Review: Victoria Junction

Our main intention was to celebrate ‘Eat what you want day’ in as good a way as possible. And what can be better than to hit new eateries in town and eat what all you want!

Yesterday was the day we are mentioning here, and two of our team members took up the aim of visiting at least four eat-out joints in the city. Turned out that we could visit two of them – one being a little disappointing visit, and the later one an experience of a life time. This post is about the first joint – Victoria Junction, a live bakery.

When we entered Victoria Junction, it was in the middle phase of the day’s business in the early afternoon. Seeing us enter geared with cameras and note-taking pads surely seemed not to be a very good idea to them. Though that did not deter us from taking our independence of moving all around of the place taking pictures, scan the menu books, peek into the adjoining hookah parlour etc.

Victoria Junction is well known in this city as a live bakery and patisserie where you can get patties, pastries, cakes and other baked goods and also beverages of various types. They also have an adjoining Hookah Parlor with cushions and couch which seemed to be an ideal place for hangouts with friends, and strictly not with family. Seeing cameras in our hand made two of the young guys inside it throw us suspecting looks. But anyhow, they decided to carry off with their hookah-jobs with ease.

Though the staffing and attending system seemed to be unsatisfactory in Victoria Junction, I liked the fact that the visitors are given complete independence there. We moved all around the place, checked out the bookracks, took numerous pictures (without not even a single complain from the attendees) and finally settled down with some baked goodness.

Food was okayish. The donuts were not soft enough, but anyhow tasted nice. Victoria Junction has this delivery service of cakes for various parties and celebrations. We saw two customers picking up their orders and also two other coming up to place new orders. It seemed to us that the USP of the place is their system of delivery of cakes and party foods. Other than that, the regular items sold are not too much in demand. We were there for around 30-45 minutes, and saw only one another customer come and settle down in a table a little away from ours.

Overall, Victoria Junction may not score well in areas like customer service and quality of regular food items; but seemed the live bakery section working hard all through the day serving the delivery orders is what keeps their business running.

About Victoria Junction, we most liked:
1.The latest ‘Kindle’ magazines put on the tables for the customers to go through.
2.The book racks. Though they really had a very bad choice for the collection, but I don’t remember getting to see much of these bookracks in other eateries.
3.The interior decoration of the Hookah Parlor, which they fondly call ‘Kafe adda’.
4.The beautiful paintings on the walls.
5.Pricing. Very reasonable.

We disliked:
1.The customer attending system.
2.Quality of foods. We, obviously, could not taste all of their items, so this non-likeliness can well be restricted to the items we had.

Overall Rating: 7/10.
Website: http://www.victoriajunction.in
Victoria Junction on Facebook: Victoria Junction
For more pictures of Victoria Junction, visit BTL on Facebook here: Between The Lines
Contact: +91 353 6500167
Services:
Takes Reservations
Walk-Ins Welcome
Good For Groups
Good For Kids
Delivery
Catering
Waiter Service

382 days ago Short URL 5 Comments

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12

May

Gig Review: Solo performances by Durjoy Choudhury

As we slowly and languidly entered the mall, faint traces of a harmonica accompanied by the strumming of an acoustic guitar touched us. It reminded me of my childhood days when I heard Bob Dylan for the first time in a local radio channel. We were unaware of the event, instead met with it quite luckily. Mani Square, Kolkata, April 22nd, 2011.

We were all taken aback by the fantastic use of harmonica, the smooth strumming of a guitar and the prominent voice of Durjoy. In simpler terms he was fantastic on stage, sometimes sounding like a Greek God. In a single breath, Durjoy, the singer-songwriter, performed for an hour and a half. His lyrics seemed to have the touch of the 1960s but yet they sounded afresh and energetic at the same time. It had been a great pleasure to watch him on stage, singing 15 songs among which there were only a handful of covers, like Leonard Cohen’s “Take this Waltz” and “Suzanne”, Louis Armstrong’s “What a Wonderful World”, Arlo Guthrie’s “Comin’ into Los Angeles” and the concluding song, Billy Joel’s “Pianoman”. He moved through a variety of genres throughout the show, with his Blues original, “You Know Who I Am!”, a rock ‘n’ roll number called “A Love Song in D-Major”, and some songs in the country rhythm like, “Back on the Road Again”, “Song for the Girl with Weary Eyes” etc. In the concluding session, Durjoy had been accompanied by Tathagata on the solo guitar, who really added an extra zeal to a couple of his songs.

It had really been a great pleasure to witness Durjoy, live on stage in Mani Square, with his fantastic set of original music and his extraordinary use of harmonica. It had been a long time since someone with such promising and prominent song writing capabilities hit the stage in Kolkata. It had been a rocking evening witnessing the masterpiece of such class.

About the singer: Durjoy started taking music seriously since 2004 and it was from then that he started composing his own songs and his only accompaniment at that time was his guitar. Initially, he was excessively influenced by the songs of Bob Dylan and it was then that he took up the harmonica as his second instrument, and started playing both simultaneously. Today, Durjoy has over eighty originals and he likes to control the stage single-handedly doing that “one-man-band” act.

Equipments: Takamine LTD 2008 Acoustic Guitar
Hohner Harmonicas – Models – ‘Blues Harp’ and ‘Pro Harp’

Solo Acts:
1.“U-Turn ’07”, Jadavpur University, September 2007
2.“Mileu 2008”, Presidency College, January 2008
3.Reunion, Dept. of Economics, JNU, New Delhi, March 2008
4.Panjim Pharmaceutical Institute, Panjim, Goa, March 2008
5.“Fresher’s Welcome” Dept. of Comparative Literature, September 2008
6.“Xavotsav ’09”, St. Xavier’s College, Kolkata, January 2009
7.“Sanskriti 2009”, SFSU, Jadavpur University, March 2009
8.“Open Mic.”, Someplace Else, November 2009
9.“Open Mic.”, Someplace Else, January 2010
10.“Open Mic.”, Someplace Else, February 2010
11.“Sanskriti 2010”, FETSU, Jadavpur University, March 2010
12.“Best of Open Mic.”, Someplace Else, April 2010
13.“Soundcheck” Jadavpur University, February 2011
14.Mani Square, April 2011

[Note from BTL team: As planned, BTL has now started reviewing for gigs happening at Kolkata too. Not all of them are possible, but as much as time and money and contacts approve, guest reviewers from Kolkata are now allowed to send updates in the form of write-ups and pictures to BTL.
As the first one of these new developments, we hosted musician Durjoy Choudhury on BTL today. Reviewed by none other than his close friend and manager Aniruddha Das.]

383 days ago Short URL 4 Comments

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08

May

Street Food Review: Dimick’s Momo

If you come to Siliguri ever, ask anyone about the best Momo shop around. For the uninitiated, many options may arise, but for the ones who know the city well, ‘Dimick Momo Shop’ undoubtedly the reply is.

‘Dimick Momo Shop’, fondly known as ‘Dimick’, is situated in the western fringes of the city. Siliguri is well known for the large number of Nepali population thronging all through out the city. These Nepalis are an extension of the huge numbers of the same community living in the nearby hills. The majority starts from Sukna, and spreads upwards to the hills. As is well-known, Momo is a famous snack of the Nepalese as well as Chinese countries. And little wonder that it has become such a sought after food item to us too, thanks to the Nepalese people who have migrated to our country for good. Siliguri being the gateway of business as well as other sorts of transactions with North-Eastern India as well as with the northern neighboring countries, namely Nepal, Bhutan etc., it’s natural that the trend will be picked up from this place. And now, every city and metro of our country has a famous Momo eatery. And people crowd to these places, not even aware of whether they are having the original recipe Momos or the Indian adaptation of the same.

Whenever I return to my native city Kolkata, this confusion about the cooking procedures bothers me the most. And most of the times, I end up avoiding having momos from places where:
Firstly, I don’t find any Nepali or Chinese cook preparing it,
Secondly, I don’t get enough convinced about the ingredients even after talking to the proprietors.

Dimick’s speciality are their original recipes. With two Nepali cooks from the same family, being helped by four-five helpers making the doughs, Dimick is the place if you want to have a taste of what momos should ideally taste like. Every evening the same picture gets repeated in front of the eatery, which is a small shop with an outlet in the front and few benches stuffed against each other inside. The benches inside can hardly make places for more than seven-eight people, and most of the times are kept occupied by young couples slogging their ways through the many dishes available at Dimick.

Momos are found in two varieties – chicken and mutton, among which the chicken ones are more sought after, and naturally the ones which are finished within two-three hours of the opening of the shop. The mutton variations are as tasty as its chicken counterpart, but the smaller size of it with respect to the chicken momos places it in the second position in popularity among the eaters. Other than momos, the popular orders are for noodles, thukpas (another pro-Nepalese/Chinese soupy dish), chicken fried rice, chicken manchurian, chicken chilli etc. If you want to have Thukpa in Dimick, you will need to have a taste for soupy dishes, and more importantly, will need to know exactly what amount of add-ons of salt and sauces suit you. The original recipe they supply are the ones prepared with a little amount of salt and sauces, keeping in mind the large numbers of Nepali people visiting the shop on a daily basis, who prefer to have the original recipes in an original way.

The price range of the dishes in Dimick are easy on the pocket. But the worst part of this eatery is the huge crowd always thronging the shop, making the place not suitable enough to hit on a daily basis. If only the Dimick owners can think of an extension of the shop, or a proper seating as well serving system for the visitors, Dimick will be a much better place. The food quality, if not outstanding, of course is one a higher side of the city. And if you only consider momos with a bowl of soup with it, Dimick may be the place you will like to have a taste of!

387 days ago Short URL 3 Comments

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16

Apr

Facebook Page: Another milestone

Yesterday, this blog crossed the 10,000 hits milestone. And in a fit of fake(?) satisfaction, I updated my status both in FB and Twitter that I will gift myself a ‘Page’ specific for @BetweenTL, i.e. this blog. @BetweenTL is as it is known in Twitter.

So, here it is, the page I mean: Between The Lines

Spent some considerable amount of time designing the logo, at the end which is surely the sucky part of everything. I asked S to design one for me,but somehow she could not manage it. Anyways, I took up the daunting task on myself only, consulted few friends, and finally came up with this:

Good to know that from now on I’ll not always need to post my own status updates for BTL on my profile. RSS Grafitti or Networked Blogs may do the same for me. Hoping to make things work out in a better way.

Badge is here too:
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