Dulquer Salman

Dulquer Salman son of Superstar Mamooty who is a versatile actor and a legend in Malayalam films ,has proved himself as a true son of a lion.

In his very first film in Ustad Hotel he came across as a genial likeable actor  .

I recently saw his latest film Kurup and an older one Vikramadityan .

Kurup is based on the true story of Sukumara kurup the James Bond of Kerala almost a folklore though a conman and criminal .

He schemed to kill a person covered up as himself to claim a huge life insurance taken abroad and lived to tell the tale .

A street smart con man with devious ways of living and making money was up his alley and his greed would increase as he cheated and grew more .

Iam not going into the story ,its worth seeing .

Vikramadityan is on friendship and competition amongst two childhood  local boys who grow older and with love to the third a girl .

Even though its a triangle it gives ample oppurtunities for effortless acting by Dulquer and Unni mukundan .

The prize of course went to Nivin pouly who comes in a guest role to deliver the punch with panache .

Truly another good movie available online .

 

Manhattan cocktail

Its minus 3 degree c in New york 

No snow or rain like in Clevland but the cold here was more bone chilling as the wind bores through.

Once when we went to Kedarnath temple the 17000 ft temple was colder and created a mild shortness of breath and headache due to altitude sickness .

Of course New york did nothing of that kind but to those used to warmer climates below zero are uncomfortable .

I had a ticket to go up the iconic Empire state building 

I reached the place after a brisk walk but was disappointed at the big line to enter .

As it was xmas and new year week a lot of Americans had made the trip too .

After feeling like being in Tirpati temple que as it grudgingly moved i thought of all the high rises i had climbed .

Kuala lumpurs Petronas tower 

Kuala lumpurs KL tower 

Sydney city tower

Hong kong victoria gardens 

Burj khaleefa in Dubai 

Viennas Danube tower

But they were all less crowded .

We reached 82 floor view which was awesome 

Then i joined a que thinking it was for coming down but was fooled when it went to 86 !

Once again I joined a que only to quit in time as it was going to 102 😁

finally i did descend but they cleverly routed us  through  a souvenuir shop .

Finally I did manage to come out to face a fresh blast of freezer wind .

I literally hid between buildings to escape the chill .

I had a couple of hours to kill .

Best place to beat the cold and spend time was a bar I thought ,and so I walked into a crowded Manhattan bar .

The bar had lot of highly fashionable men and women in cosy stylish overcoats and leather jerkins ,handsome men and women .

 Some were huge tall and muscular, some were fat with big bellies .

There were animated discussions , laughter ,and clink of glasses .

I slinked inside ,feeling tired and shabby in my huge overcoat ,muffler ,and cap but no one noticed me .

I sat on a table .

A waitress asked me what would you have Sir ?

I said I wanted a drink ,so she suggested maybe I could sit on the high stool in the bar itself !

So i perched myself in one almost feeling I was in a Hollywood film .

I imagined the black American next to me would shortly draw his weapon at the Indian who dared to sit near him .😏

But nothing like that 😁

They just were immersed in small talk and didnt even look at me 

Slowly i gained confidence and told the barman I would have a Manhattan cocktail with some nuts .

Yes sirr coming ..... he said .

He did the shakes with the ice and in minutes I was sipping the cold cocktail beating the heat and smiling for a picture taken by a by now friendly barman .

A warm glow suffused into me !😂

 

My Daughter

 Madras today's Chennai was always known for its sultry humidity ,imagine if one could get a glass of cool milk flavored by rose syrup there it would be ambrosia itself .

So was the rose milk sold by the famous Kalathi and sons which was a small newspaper mart in East mada street corner near Kapaleeswarar temple the downtown of Mylapore itself .

Even after five decades I find kalathi continues with the same popularity ,of course the original owners have handed it over to their sons and nephews ,

The rose milk of kalathi was made of pure milk with no additives and rose syrup and powdered ice and churned well ,those days I remember the ice used to be in saw dust laden sacks as Refrigerators were yet to make an appearance and the owner himself would take a big rock like piece of ice and put it in a sack and hit it with a hammer like handle and then put the crushed pieces into the glass and give it a quick whisk with his spoon and hand over the glass of rose milk ,it used to cost 25 paise and today too it isnt very costly it is fifteen rupees for a glass of paradise .

As the cool milk flavored in rose touched out tongue myriad sensations would well up and the icy coldness would spread a pleasant chill into our souls and all the stress and heat would seep off ,it would taste till the last drop the same .

which is why the rose milk was so popular ,

Actors like Sivaji Ganesan were regular visitors and fans ,the nearby R R Sabha was a well known theater for live dramas and most drama personalities were also aficionados ,

once when I was in eight standard I think I  had gone to a drama with a friend and found Nagesh the well known comedian who came as a guest for the day walking out with AP Nagarajan the very famous director ,

we watched them sending their car off telling the driver 

we want a walk and we will reach home ,

there was literally no one in the streets and we followed them to the shop ,they were very surprised at Nagesh who was very popular then ,they did not have a rose milk but bought a cigarette which Nagesh lightened with cinematic elegance looking at us children following him ,later he whistled for  an auto and they both went off .

I found an article in the Hindu on this shop 

It had a phone number and I called up the owner and told him of my nostalgia for his rose milk he was thrilled to hear it though he wasn't born when I had taken  rose milk from his shop .

So when you go to Chennai dont forget to take a rose milk from Kalathi stores in East mada street Mylapore .

Today we found thier Rose milk sold in plastic bottles ..a bit more diluted

You can easily make this at home

Use unwatered fresh or refrigerated milk use rose milk syp some ice and a spoon of sugar .

NASA Space Center

 

Space center NASA Houston Texas is a science exhibition that showcases the space achievements of the US of A which is sizeable indeed and impressive .

In the early days of space frontier exploration man tried to break free of the orbit into space where the protective oxygen which we all need wasno more there and the gravity to our motger esrth which holds us all down no more exists but this was not a simple matter .

Man deciding and designing to fly itself was an achievment but its limits was the sky .

To go beyond the glass celing one needed massive boost of energy to project the vehicle out of the earths gravitational belt which in turn needs great qauantities of fuel and its obviously understood lighter vehicles need less energy to do this .

Slowly and steadily this was achieved with unmanned vehicles later with animals and finally man .

Yuri Gagarin was first man in space and  USSR  unremarkably the leaders in space exploration .

This was also the post second world war period of cold war between USSR and USA .

The winner would have an advantage militarily too .

So there was great competition in putting a man on the moon .

The moon shot was the name given to the accelarated  space exploration of USA and it did it phenomenally through Apollo 11 in 1969 and stole an one up on USSR .by Appolo 17 the heat of competition had come down as USSR crumbled into a much weaker Russia  

A period of companionship and cooperation in space exploration is there now though competition still exists for space is a vista of oppurtunities militarily and matireally .

The period of Skylab later the International space station made man stay in space longer periods and reusable shuttles were built .

Plan for travel to Mars by humans is on and as we learn more on space and how to manage it our frontiers become wider .

The Space center chronicles this achievement of the USA .

it has replica models ,some real ones of shuttles ,rockets,simulation xhambers,space suits ,equipments pictures moonstones which could be touched ,Astronaut talks ,films ,shows all .

Rocket station is where one could go into shuttle skylabs and rockets learn on them 

20 $ tickets are definitely worth the visit .

Mother of all Mezcals

Mother of all Mezcals 

This is a story that happened in the colourful streets of grafiteed Oaxaca a Mexican tourist haven .

We spent three days in this lovely place with picture postcard Spanish houses ,crimson horizons a delight to any photographer and exotic food which  belched out any decent foodie .

Well to leave out Mezcal ,in anything on Oaxaca is criminal under IPC ie International Penal Code 

Mind you .

When thousands of years back yelping Aztec warriors climbing down from thier Pyramids gathered thier spiny cactuses and buried them in pits to make them steamy hot and fermented into liquid gold their magical potion of Mezcal which they would gulp like fire itself before they yooped their war cries to ride their galloping wonders hair strewn ready to battle .

But imagine what if the same liquid was gulped by a plumpy spectactacled senior citizen with no wars to fight but with his beevi !

Well he will buy one bottle for amchi ghar .

Which is exactly what we did luckily in the Beneve Mescal companys outlet .

Having travelled so much both of us forgot that liquids above 100 ml even if it was thier own soma rasam is never allowed in  a carry bag .

Something made us think we can convert it into a check in bag and all will be fine .

But enquiries before leaving to airport told us that would be as costly as four bottles we had bought .

Not to fail but try options in dead ends is the duty of any self respecting mescal guzzling general .

So I tried several options .

Called the shop who said ....no no we cant return the purchase .

Talked to a taxi driver in pidgin Spanish of how we would grant him a bottle of Mezcal three times his fare to barter us to the airport 

He said a bored NO .

Resigning ourselves to destiny we reached the airport and they repeated same things .

Wife was looking at me strangely .

Why dont you just drink it off instead of wasting it !!!!

Typical of an Indian housewife used to eat leftovers .

But this wasnt yesterdays Biriyani this was  49 % alcohol by volume and if I even take a part of bottle I would need a stretcher but by then I may drive the plane to Mexico city myself .

The only option was to call out if anyone wanted to buy Mezcal

Mezcal Mezcal 

The cops would lock me up in a Mexican prison for 100 years .

Suddenly wife spotted a Beneve Mescal outlet in Airport meant for those arriving to buy it .

We went told the lady our sob story of how we bought a bottle of her brand and now coudlnt take it home !!

Would you buy it back for half price please ?

She said I will do better.

You give bottle to me .

I will scan bill and give you a note and you collect a new bottle in duty free outlet of our shop which was after security so legally we can take things bought sealed there in cabin bag !!

Zo simble .

And thats how it happened .

Almost an anti climax to the mother of all Mezcals story .

Incidentally Mezcal was father of Tequila .

In Malayalam that is 

Tequileda Thandha 😉