Thursday, February 28, 2008

A Serpent in Paradise

Yesterday, to celebrate Black Mamba's visit to Hyderabad, BM, Ludwig and I went to Paradise.

Paradise even has a tree. It grows through several floors and instead of apples, what you get there is biryani. Which, though you wouldn't know it reading the previous sentence, doesn't grow on the tree.

When BM called, I asked her if she had a cellphone.

"No," she said. It was a long story, apparently.

"Then how will I recognise you?"

"I'm wearing pink."

No, really. That's what she said. This after Veena assured me that actually BM didn't like pink, therefore I should be sure to wear it when we meet.

So. Many parcels exchanged hands and Ludwig turned up and we went off to sample Paradise biryani. BM was very thrilled with the fingerbowls at the end of the meal and was indignant when I sent away mine untouched (I rolled up my roti and ate the sabzi with a fork. What can I say?)

Before that we went for a drink and were invited by young man with very straight hair to flirt with one of three VJs of our choice. BM won a White Mischief glass and Ludwig and I won coasters. His said, "take me home?" and mine said, "Take a shot. Ask him out." But this was after the exchange, because Ludwig flatly refused to ask any man out and I declined to sound as paavam as the coaster made me sound. Turned out, though, that we had several of these things inside. We were also promised free drinks as a reward for answering four stupid questions but the drinks never arrived. Instead those guys got our email ids. Good thing we've all created special ids for just this sort of thing.

There are a couple of photographs but I'm too lazy to post them.

16 comments:

SUR NOTES said...

and you will take me to paradise, right?

and the drinking after?

and you mean to say you dont give fake email ids??? whats wrong with you girl. your id for these dolts from now on is pinkserpant@.......

Space Bar said...

sur: of course! (and the drinking was before. i just did a flashback to One Hour Earlier)!

well, it wasn't fake...but i use it only for stuff like this.

Banno said...

Looks like I missed Paradise. Had some ghastly, and mind-bogglingly expensive food at Novotel. How sad!

Unknown said...

I am disappointed. You had to wear pink to recognise each other? Whatever happened to the "saadhanam kayilundo?" line?

Luddo, you could have taught them. Atleast they have an excuse - they aren't Mallu. Whats yours?

Ludwig said...

I don't know where the saadhanam kayilundo line is from, but it is cracking me up tremendously. This is from one of those Ramji Rao Speaking type movies that I haven't seen end-to-end, innit?

They were doing fine, the pink wasn't necessary ultimately. I almost wore a white T-shirt which had been corrupted by the washing machine and turned into one of those titration shades of pink, so as to aid the process.

Then it occurred to me that all I had to do was make sure that the Long Key recognized the Serpent, and since I'd had lunch with the Long Key only the day before, odds are we would've recognized each other.

So I ceased and desisted. Nevertheless, fun came. The coasters are eyeing me suggestively from the bed (yes, that's where everything first lands when carried into this house).

Anonymous said...

spacebar, you missed the bit where you son called you a party animal :)

and veena, now that you mention it,we did have packages in our hands. How many times do you see people in hotel lobbies carrying bags full of books.. it wasn't hard spotting us.

- bm

ps: I loved the serpent on a tree in paradise image... sweet. slither slither... :)

Space Bar said...

Banno: the next time you're here.

veena: i'm the only one who has an excuse. now that bm has read this, i'm sure she's totally getting it, like ludwig. bah.

ludwig: i see an illustrious pseudonymous career ahead for myself - as Long Key Hi.

and i'm trying not to think of the coasters beckoning you from bed. and there you were being envious of falsie.

bm: now let's not drag my son into this. paradise is supposed to be childless. prelapsarian and all that.

yes, if you'd draped yourself round the trunk of the tree i'd have totally taken a photograph.

Unknown said...

People people: How will we ever meet if you don't know password?

SB: Yeah I suggest you and Luddo get together and watch this movie and then you will have no excuse. I still can't believe that he hasn't seen the movie.

But in the interests of killing a few minutes, I shall attempt to educate The Long Key:

Back in the 80s / early 90s they made all these funny Mallu movies. Very diff from the kind they make nowadays in that these were actually funny. (Some of these are apparently being remade in Bollywood nowadays) There was a particular series which starred Mohanlal and chap called Sreenivasan which belongs to this genre. In the first movie, our intrepid heroes get conned by one of these travel agents who promises to take them to Dubai and drops them off somewhere off the coast of Bay of Bengal. So these two are all dressed in "Sheikh vesham" (Sheikh garb) and they are walking streets of Madras wondering why the rest of Dubai is dressed like they dress in, you know, India. Anyway, somehow at the end of the movie they become CID inspectors and the next two movies are about their CID adventures. In one of these, they have to come to the States (I think) to solve a case. At NY airport, they have to meet the CID station head and since they haven't seen him, they have to have a password. The password is "saadhanam kayilundo?" which translates to "do you have the thing/package/ whatever?" So obviously there are drug dealers who are also looking for their friends at JFK with the same password and our heroes get kidnapped by drug dealers while Nedumudi Venu goes up and down esclator asking everyone "saadanam kayilundo?"

Trust me, its actually funny if you see the movie!

Unknown said...

Discount previous comment. The movie is not meant for people like you. Going to watch Jodhaa Akbar!! Arrghh. Arrgh. I don't know any of you.

You too, SB?

Space Bar said...

veena: ok, very little of that made sense. i think i needed to be there.

and bm and ludwig have hooked off to watch roshan and rai. i refused to watch a four hour long film (with roshan/rai, esp) that starts at a quarter to ten when i have to wake up at five the next morning.

km said...

Mmm..Paradise. Damn that's a good biryani place.

Falstaff said...

"Do you have the package?" forsooth. As everyone knows, the proper password for these occasions, especially when books are involved is:

I hear the gooseberries are doing well this year, and so are the mangoes"

Ludwig said...

1. Have seen the Sheikh movie!! But not all of it. Bits and pieces. V. hilarious. Also, "In Harihar Nagar" and so on... ekaanta chandrike...

2. Jodhaa Akbar is not all that bad. We quite likey like. BM even shed a tear or two, so by her standards it's a masterpiece, apparently. Fun came.

Space Bar said...

km: yes, it is! it's when i go to places like paradise that i wish i hadn't turned veg.

falsie: true, true. and how appropriate to quote monty python for this post!

ludwig: i give up on you. and bm...you cried?!

Ludwig said...

OK, OK. I was kidding. On a few counts. Before I am burnt in effigy:

1. No crying. Not so much as a whimper. Promise.

2. In the cold, pearly, insipid light of dawn, the movie isn't perhaps that great. But Baradwaj's review is very fair and lovely, I thought. Especially spot on about the tacky "special" effects, battles, sets, political intrigue.

But Krithik keeps becoming more and more plausible as an emperor, starting from callow youth and so on. And Aish has that "I've swallowed an incandescent bulb" glow we were talking about most of the time. Hadn't heard any of the songs before, so went with an open-ish mind. Didn't think the khwaja song was great or even very good (sacrilege!). But kehne ko jashn-e-bahara hain and in lamhon ke daman mein are fantastic, and picturijation kooda chaala baagundi, nice style of taking andi as they say here. The shahenshah song is basically a blend of dappankuttu and Republic Day parade.

Some of the small touches were very nice. It definitely exceeded my expectations going in, so paisa vasool raja.

3. Might as well have reviewed the whole movie, innit?

4. Don't give up on me. My mother gave up on me once.

Once.

Anonymous said...

To add to Veena's "saadhanam kayilundo?" and related mallu-ization, here is a klassique from that era of mallu movies

http://youtube.com/watch?v=rFJk0tO1YIk


For folks who don't understand the language, sorry, all you see is an overweight, hairy bare-chested mallu guy