Dreamers can fascinate about the shooting stars, poets can immortalize incomplete love tales and painters can paint their imagination. But mediocre people like me (I doubt if I qualify for even that for I’m an engineering student!) who can live a lifetime in that much awaited day after every grueling paper, can only pen down the real world (That’s a concept you would be privileged enough to learn if by misfortune you happen to be a computer professional) and believe me unlike the assignments which are yet another way of honing your writing skills, this one’s the original master copy! So here I was at the Indian bistro- Urban Tadka. And yes, it deserves every bit of sizzle in its name!
They say, ‘Winners don’t do different things, they just do it differently!’ That is the success formula of this very ‘Indian’ restaurant that’s become the hot favorite of foodies like me. Good bye to dim lights, spanking white linen, fresh rose buds on table, a maitre d’hotel whose tie is better matched to his shirt than in your case and that sweet saxophone music playing in the background amidst the chime of crockery (almost a sedative when I was kid) coupled with clandestine whispers of people who are fervently battling against the last grain of rice armed with half a dozen pieces of cutlery! Let’s get wild. Let’s do away with pretences. Let’s celebrate! Let’s smell the soil of Punjab and feel the pulsating vibes of the land of makkai di roti and sarsoon da saag! Oye chukk de patte!
A narrow alley with sawdust in lieu of a red carpet welcomes me to this tinsel world where dining is truly an ‘experience.’ From behind the mysteriously huge heavy wooden door a whole new world waits for this aesthetic with wacky tones in her idea of beauty. And try as I may, I can’t help but flash a spontaneous ‘kya aap closeup karte hai’ smile on my face while admiring the knick-knacks that embellish the craggy walls- sewing machines, kites (not of the bird kinfolk…thank Heavens for that!) and tawdry posters of movies that are best suited for stumping your opponents in a game of dumb charades! The magic just keeps unfolding at every twist and turn of that lane (a crazy walk on the wild side should I say?)
This tavern-like restaurant will take you back to simplicity with all opulence and lavishness! Sounds antithetical, doesn’t it? (It was meant to be!). All those elite kids who have been born and brought up in bustling metropolises to mutate them into city slickers to the extent of being tired of the cliché hangout zones of coffee bars and pizza parlors could definitely buy the idea of substituting a glass of refreshing chilled lassi for a cup of lip smacking hot mocha or a stuffed paratha for a stuffed thick base extra cheese double topping (are these meant to be tongue twisters?) piece of Italian cuisine (and then of course dig into it with fork and knives…why not try chopsticks next time? Globalization on the plate! Don’t know about the world, but the plate sure is flat enough to prove the point!) And all though you must have steered you way to this place in your Mercedes Benz, the ambience would leave no stone unturned to make you imagine you have your ‘horn OK please’ parked just outside. Let me refrain myself from enlisting all the curios and animated culture that one comes across here, for although some may have told more than they can see, I can see, feel and experience more than I can tell! And about the ‘Meenu’ etched on the wooden slate you can ‘seafood’ like rotis and kebabs and enjoy ‘child bear’ too amidst some desi foot-tapping Punjabi ‘musik’ with a touch of folklore interspersed with the sound of drums which in my opinion are a cool way of replacing the bell at the pizza parlor and yes the Punjab-de -puttars in their colorful jazzy jacketed kurtas offer the Ritz Carlton pause too!
So, the only way to be distinctive is to be you. Do not jump on to the bandwagon and follow a blind alley for what may look like a light at the end of the tunnel could be that of an incoming train! See what makes you special, what you can offer to set you apart, to be recognized, to be known, to be heard, and to be understood by others and most importantly by you yourself. We all dream, but how many of us wake up to live them? Furthermore, let’s stop bickering about everything and anything Indian. No, I wouldn’t mention those great Indian achievers and contributions, which flood your inboxes and you still have no clue what they talk about. Personally, I haven’t read them either, for it’s time we stop rejoicing in our past glory and work out the present to change the picture of what seems like a bleak dogmatic future. How can a nation that has half a billion people without an ounce of vanity, ever make it big? Of denizens who would know what the 50 stars on the flag of the US of A represent but are oblivious to what the 24 spokes of the Ashoka Chakra are for?
Confluence of ideas, cultures and practices never demands the slaughter of nativity and self-worth at the altar of foreign hysteria. Why can’t it be hep to go out for an evening of classical dance recital once in a while rather than to groove at a discotheque so regularly? Why do our souls no longer spiritually connect to the beats of the tabla but follow a rock concert so religiously? Why have we stopped watching the national channels on the television, which once got us so addicted to the He-Man series and the Mahabharata? Why are we unaware of the importance of the red-letter days on our regional calendars except for that they guarantee a day off? Yes, agreed that the grass does look, and may be at times even is, greener on the other side of the fence. But while we kept looking there, we forgot to even scythe the one our side! All it calls for is a self-renaissance, to have a vision of our own, a mind that can think rather than blindly ape, and most importantly to search within than to search around. Well that restaurant quite provided me with food for thought! Burp!
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