Ghar ka khaana zindabad

A Bong friend recently dragged me to have lunch at an eatery here in Aurobindo Street called 'Jubilee'. The chief attraction here is that the food served is 'just like what we once had at home'.

So, in a fancy setting we had 'home food', at less than homely prices. With each mouthful my friend was going over the moon, while I was wondering - as I chewed on rice with banana flower ki sabzi - whether there were any leftovers in my fridge.

OK - it wasn't THAT bad but really, I wouldn't have wanted to pay 500 bucks for a meal like that. Because I am not from Calcutta and it did not bring back any fond memories.

But it set me thinking... The wheel has turned full circle.

When we were kids, going to a restaurant was the ultimate treat. It happened only a couple of times an year - on birthdays and anniversaries or even guests coming from outside. (In fact, we waited for such Bhagwaan's to come) and we'd usually visit only Nataraj or Neelam or for that matter if the the Devtas or Devis were that great, we would move to Shilpi which was an open air restaurant or may be sometimes Park View. But those were days you looked forward to.

But the tide turned when we moved out of the circumference of mom's cooking - and started living on our own. Cut to the present. After years of trial and error I have (at last) learnt to take care of the daily 'paapi pet ka sawaal'. I carry a dabba to office, and usually eat at home.

Of course we still do eat out a couple of times a week to:
a) Catch up with friends over a meal.
b) Try out some new place/ kind of food - for the experience.

Home economics
I think 'ghar ka khaana' will be the Next Big Luxury for many of us. As two-income families mushroom the question is - will they survive on ready-to-eat/ junk food/ Udipi meals?

Pondy has always had enterprising ladies who send lunch and even dinner dabbas with home-cooked food. But I think the next step is actually a chain of take-aways, located in office complexes/ malls from where you can pick up home-cooked mix n match meals.

So you could pick up 6 chapatis, 100 gms alu-tamatar ki sabzi and 100 gms moong ki daal + some dahi on your way home - enough for a couple.

The smart thing would be to have - the way dabba ladies do - a variety of cuisine. ie Gujarati, Punjabi, south Indian - more styles depending on demand.

Someone will of course have to study how to make on a mass scale food that tastes just like ghar ka. While no two moms cook alike, there is a generally accepted spectrum in which home food falls.

The menu would be more 'pedestrian' - tindi, turai, alu-gobi, tuar daal. Even if there's paneer - it would be home-style and not swathed in heavy gravies and spices like restaurants normally serve.

I read somewhere that Food Bazaar has started something similar on an experimental basis all over India, but haven't had a chance to visit. If anyone has - and can vouch for taste/ hygiene do lemme know!

I think custom has been dying a slow death in most walks of life ever since mankind got Henry Forded...and all ghars are not blessed with this aura of ghar ka khana.... some ghars .. they avoid khana :)and best are the mothers / wives who know how to plan their menu... so that their charges... keep asking for more... forever 

Reminds me of this little place tucked away in one of the busy by-lanes in Madras which serves food in small take-away-friendly portions. I think it is called The Spicy and is purely geared towards office deliveries, serving (almost) homemade Gujarati stuff like theplas and khichdi with kadhi, etc. Even those who wanted to 'eat-in' were served in the same Styrofoam boxes.

Talking of pay-by-weight, there is a Saravana Bhavan also which has got a buffet-by-weight concept ('don't load your plate and then waste, we'll charge you for refills only by weight, thank you'). OK, if economy is the criteria then you are better off doing the unlimited meals in the ground-floor dining hall at the other Saravana Bhavans.

Ad world mein DHOOM....

Last night I saw year 2004's megahit Dhoom. What struck me was :"If only Yashraj films had reflected on what they did right with Dhoom - and done the same with Bunty aur Babli".

Dhoom was hyped as a boys n bikes film and lived upto that promise. It was cops vs robbers story where we weren't given much time to think. No background info on WHY John Abraham is a bad guy or why Abhishek is a good one. Bas, they are what they are - you just sit back and enjoy the high speed chase sequences. And for the comic element there was Uday Chopra.

Another smart thing was the using just a few really good songs and repeating them several times through the film. The same would've worked wonders for Bunty aur Babli.

Ad-ding it all up
But what this post is really about is John Abraham. In the year since Dhoom's release this guy's stars have really started shining brightly. He was, in fact, the reason the girls went to see the film (Abhishek bhi hai, par is picture mein John pretty much overshadows him). Casting him was a very good idea - he fit the role to a 'T'.

Now, John is the new hot favourite for product endorsements. He was endorsed for :
a) Wrangler jeans
b) Titan Fastrack eye gear
c) Yamaha bikes

All the products are good fits with his image and personality. Especially Yamaha - because the ad he features in is promising the 'next revolution' in biking . John adds source credibility as a guy with a passion for bikes even off-screen.

Now one just hopes he does not go and sign up a dozen more commercials and ruin it all. Being an ex-advertising guy (he was a media planner with Enterprise advertising before ramp modelling and films beckoned) I think John has the right fundas on how to manage his personal positioning. And I hope that good sense prevails over greed.

Really, seeing Prerna (of Kasautii fame) in a B grade commercial for P P Design Estate or Salman Khan plugging Dollar Club banians you have to wonder... Surely certain kinds of endorsements end up costing you more in image terms than they earn you in cash!