From the food to the interior, everything is eye-candy at Mrs. Magpie. Very warm atmosphere. Great Darjeeling tea that is served in a beautiful glass tea-pot. Bite sized eatables – perfect to keep the conversation going! The miniloafs and teacakes taste amazing and go great with the tea. For those with a sweet tooth, there is an array of cupcakes.
The city finally gets its Feluda-themed cafe on Rajani Sen Road – Baithak. Don’t I just love the concept of it! The cafe is very neat, not too bright and shiny – a small and cosy place to have an informal adda with your friends (and enjoy the free WiFi too!) While you are at it, you can choose from a variety of tea and coffee and leaf through the Sandesh magazine. An overwhelming list comprising myriads of sandwiches and shakes is in the offering. The ‘Meghraj’ chocolate shake or the ‘Brown Saheber Rohosso’ (bread based fritata) are interesting names on the menu that any Feluda reader will be thrilled to find. The very charming Swaralipi, who runs the place with her husband, was present herself on Saptami evening and she helped us decide what to order. We had Nathmull’s second flush tea and the crabmeat sandwich, mysteriously named as ‘Kankrar Khutinati’. The second time I visited the place was after a long day and Soumya (Swaralipi’s better half) recommended the refreshing Kokum shake. ‘Very berry Kokum’!
I first visited Bohemian during Pujo last year. And what an amazing experience it was! Each and every item on the menu reflected sheer brilliance and, thanks to our large group of school friends, we had tasted and savoured almost everything on the menu. Well, almost! I also had the opportunity to talk to Chef Joy Banerjee then, the man behind the adventure. I revisited Bohemian on last Sunday, only to be pleasantly surprised again.
Bohemian is clearly different from other Bengali eateries, for it is at Bohemian that the global adventure of Bengali cuisine begins! The adventure comes at a price though, but the incredible experience makes up for it. Where else would you get a delightfully tasting concoction of chicken, pomegranate and spicy mustard! Delicacies like bacon wrapped chickens, served in a tangy gravy of aam kasundi, to choose from. Or the Mutton Vindaloo for that matter. And desserts like Gondhoraj Julep to wash it down with. Then there is also the Gondhoraj Souffle of course, and, if you are not the calorie freak, you could also order your ‘Death by Chocolate’. The menu in fact can be a bit overwhelming and the knowledgeable staff do give some helpful pointers.
On my third visit, I got to taste two Bekti dishes: Gondhoraj Bhetki and grilled Bhetki with Bengal berry sauce. The Malpua Cheesecake turned out to be a soul-filling dessert. I am yet to try their pastas and hope to try on my next visit.
The theme of the place could be labelled Gothic, as someone has pointed out in a review, yet very tasteful; it only gets louder on the walls of the washroom! What I don’t like though is how the washroom door opens right into the seating area, something you may not really appreciate while occupying the two-seater at the far end of the restaurant.
15 minutes into the movie and a mindless bollywood song starts, and I am thinking what I am doing here. Another one hour into the movie, I already regret my decision!
It is a good thing that Bollywood is making movies based on real heroes. Legends like Milkha Singh should be revered and celebrated. But in a movie like this, realism took a backseat. And people going “balle balle” every fifteen minutes made it a horrible watch! A story that could have been told in two hours straight, went on like forever. The flashbacks to Milkha’s childhood were okay but the intolerable filmy romance was not. (Nor was the predictable wronged-lad-getting-recruited-
A few words on the actors. Nehru was amusing – he looked more like one of the villains from those old Bond flicks! Sonam Kapoor looked pretty and, as a saving grace, din’t have much dialog to deliver. Farhan Akhtar quite got into the character, with his chiseled look.
Last month, I received a good many books as birthday gift from friends and family.
In my hostel years, I have misplaced a few books and lost track of a good many. Now it is the time to consolidate my book collection!
Recently on the occasion of Noboborsho, the Bengali New Year, I gifted myself an array of books. Most of these are modern classics.
Here is the list of books. Let the good times roll!
A doctor writes about an unfortunate incident which is not only depressing but really alarming. It is sad that such incidents have become quite common in Bengal, if not the entire country. In my brief medical career so far, I have seen that in every such incident of harassment of medical staff, there has been little or no legal action against the perpetrators of the crime and blatant distortion of facts by the local media. The following note is yet another example that will further discourage bright students to embrace the noble profession.
I want to share something very unfortunate happening to my family the day before yesterday. By profession my husband is an anaesthesiologist posted in midnapore medical college. But due to acute crisis of anaesthesiologist in other places he was posted in kharagpur sub divisional hospital on detailment temporarily. On 6th of may a young unmarried, handicapped girl had been admitted in Kharagpur hospital with 99% burn. Doctors tried to refer the case as there was no burn unit but the party refuse to take her. Within 10 to 12 hours the girl died. The authority asked my husband to do the post mortem. Being an anaesthesiologist for the past few months he is doing the postmortem of many cases and referring many serious cases to midnapore medical college for expert opinion. For this particular case first he has asked for the dying declaration , which was unavailable. After that he went through the inquest report and had a lot of doubt regarding the case . That is why he refer this case to MMC. After this incidence when he was out for his lunch he was mobbed by some local yuva congress people. He took shelter in a local nursing home where some local known doctors help him to take shelter. at this time when he called up the super, he said it is beyond his jurisdiction. a group of 25-30 people have pulled him out of that place and beaten him badly and taken him to the local police station. The police have taken a prompt action by arresting them for assaulting an on duty medical officer.
The unfortunate day was not yet over. Media have represented this case as “doctor beaten on negligence”.
My family and friends who really cares about me, i want to ask u a few questions through FB.
- Can an anaesthesiologist be beaten and assaulted for not doing post mortem?
- Can it be called negligence when he assessed and refer the case for expert opinion?
- Can it be called a case of negligence when the girl is already dead? Where was these guys when the girl was alive and being referred to mmc for better treatment as there was no such unit in kharagpur?
- Does the authority have any role to play to save their staff when they are in danger. (My husband is the junior most staff. Only 2.5 yrs of experience)
- Does audiovisual media have got any commitment to the society to show and tell the true story?
- Does print media have any role to play to write the genuine things? (It has been written that my husband was not beaten, but in the video taken by those guys only it has been clearly shown the fact. In ABP link every common people can see this).
- He is disturbed, traumatized and mentally fatigued. We need genuine support and advice at this moment.
It was well before dawn. The watch tower at Tiger Hill had only started filling up with a handful of tourists when we arrived there, and the three of us managed to find seats in the second row. Our excitement in anticipation of the year’s first sunrise had dampened a bit by then as we found the arrangement in the watch tower to be shabby at best. We almost mistook it to be a relic from the British era for its inadequate size and threadbare state, but that is not the case I am told.
At a height of 8482 feet, it was a lot colder than Darjeeling and we were glad to have donned heavy woolens, complete with monkey caps and gloves. The seating area of the watch tower was painted a pallid yellow and lit by an equally monotonous yellow light. The small area was soon choc-a-bloc with people and as we feared, a man, with a foolish grin plastered on his face, flouted all civil manners and conveniently placed himself right at the front before one of the glass panes, blocking the view of the others. When another tourist bickered with him, the man showed no signs of budging from his spot, instead just widened his grin.
The collective murmur of the crowd rose, as the first red hue of daylight touched the eastern sky ever so lightly, announcing the breaking dawn. People jostled, pushed and shoved their way to the front for a better view. It was only 5.40 AM and still dark everywhere, save for the eastern horizon. Speculation about the possible timing of sunrise was on, while we shared a good laugh for Google clearly pegged the time at 6.25 AM. We sat back patiently and watched the circus. Let’s not be cynics here, but it was quite a sight as everyone shouted and fought for space to get a footing in front of the windows, armed with cameras, eager to get the perfect Facebook cover photo. While we were more amused than irritated, a few serious photographers sat with glum faces, SLR cameras perched on their laps, clearly miffed by all the frivolity around us. Men and women of all ages manoeuvred their way past us, nearly dislodging us from our chairs. In all the noise and scuffle, we did not even realize when Rajarshi’s muffler went missing.
Finally the sun’s upper edge showed up above the horizon, painting the mighty Kanchenjhunga a brilliant shade of crimson. A huge cheer arose. We rose from our seats and took turns peeking out of the window to catch a glimpse of the rising sun. Luckily the crowd had thinned out and moved to the far side of the hall that probably offered a better view, and we had a clear view for us. The rapid change of colours across the snow capped peaks of Kanchenjungha – from a touch of red to a golden yellow – was a treat for the eyes. There was daylight everywhere and we breathed in the fresh and crisp morning air.
While drinking in the not so refreshing coffee sold there, Rajarshi discovered his muffler was not with him. I quickly went into Byomkesh mode and – voilà! – there it was, hanging precariously from a lady’s handbag, without her knowledge! More surprise was in store for Rajarshi. Who would have known that the idea of the local teenagers to celebrate the new year was to plant a chocolate bomb at his feet! Kaboom! What a way to start the new year.
So the year started on a high note for us. Yet we were not too pleased with how the crowd behaved. We met a friend, one who has been to many treks, the following evening at Siliguri; he told us it is a total waste of time: going through all the trouble of getting up in the middle of the night, travelling in the biting cold and then enduring two hours of indiscipline and craziness is not worth it. Looking back, I am glad I went through all the trouble and got to witness the first sunrise of the year.
Today morning I had breakfast with a friend at Mrs. Magpie. We were truly mesmerized by the sheer beauty of the place and its assortment of delectable bite-sized cupcakes. I ordered a Darjeeling tea for myself while she had the coffee.
“Don’t voluntarily deny yourself the restorative power of sleep. A good nap is the order of the day – and for the nights, sleep as long as possible. Remember that sleep is our natural state, in which we were first created, and we only wake to feed our dreams.” – Oxford Handbook of Clinical Medicine