Penang

I love visiting places with the right mix of history ,culture ,food ,and sights is a delight .
Most of my travels has focused on these and they prod me on ,
Penang in Malaysia has been in my list for long but somehow I kept missing it ,I knew it would be right up my alley and I was proved right after my visit to Penang .
It was just a weekend that I had to spend in this treasure house of travel but it satiated my senses by then .

 Air Asia flight took more than two hours to fly into Kuala Lumpur by now quite familiar to me having visited more than a dozen times ,I had a connecting flight to Penang after two hours but had enough time to saunter into the lounge and refresh myself ,the short hop to Penang was over in an hour from the domestic KLIA II airport 
I had booked a hotel in Georgetown the happening heritage town of Penang its capital and arranged for a cab to pick me up ,in no time I was in the hotel ,the talkative driver giving me tips on the way .
after checking in I went for a night walk as the area itself was full of food places and shops of all descriptions ,I was amazed at the number of thriving food stalls in the street and people gorging themselves on food and drinks no wonder Penang is known for its street food culture 

komtar building

 The next day morning I took a cab to the touristy part of George town .
It resembled Fort Cochin in kerala a lot ,with British rule in both places for more than three hundred years it wasn't surprising at all ,
the streets were narrow filled with antique colonial houses which were well preserved 
The Armenian street was known for its street art by a Lithuanian artist commissioned by the Penang authorities ,
some of the wall painting s were very famously photographed and passed off as souvenirs ,the paintings had a three dimensional touch by real objects cleverly placed for example on the bicycle girls there was a sketch of two girls on a cycle and a real cycle was placed in the correct spot and one could take photos in front of the sketch 
walking around the multitude of boutique shops restaurants Buddhist ,Hindu temples churches and mosques the place was a great meld of culture and religion 
It was warm once the sun came up and walking was an effort but I manged to reach fort Cornwallis became the the biggest fort of British Penang ,Sir Francis light was the soldier officer who built this fort and it had erected canons protecting it in the beach front the chapel the barracks the cemetery I took a rickshaw to escape the heat and felt a little bad at my man pedaling in the heat but he was happy to do his job and took my extra tip with delight .
The heat sapped me of further adventures and I managed to return to the air conditioned comforts of my room after a quick lunch in an Indian restaurant  run by local Tamils called mamak hotel

bicycle path in tourist area

famous mosque

in rickshaw

 After sundown I ventured out again and this time I took a long bus journey form the central bus stand near komtar building  the highest 66 storeyed one in Penang 
Penang itself had done well as an investment hub and was the silicon valley of Malaysia
 It had three bridges connecting to the mainland and one could see this well from the Penang hill to which I was going 
The bus goes up half way upto the hill and there was a well known Buddhist temple with huge pagodas I decided to visit it one my return unfortunately I would be late and would miss the place 
there was a funicular train to go up the Penang hill and there was a long que to get ticket after waiting patiently in the que for more than an hour I found it was for locals and the foreigner que was very short and ticket quite costly too as I had to buy that foolishly I joined the short que after wasting a lot of time but the trip up made it up !
From the top the whole of Penang island and the Malay mainland could be seen quite clearly I walked up the hill for more than a kilometer 
well planned with lot of shops hotels ice cream places and at the end an uphill climb to reach the Murugan temple it was too early to open but I did a round and admired the ingenuity of the local Tamils 

hop on hop off buses

from penang hill

as in Malaysia Penang too has a mixed population of Chinese Malays and Tamils the Chinese Malay combos were the pernagakans and their culinary specialty was the non ya type of food 
After gawking at the setting sun I returned  down and got into a bus to go back to George town ,
I was pretty hungry by then and ventured into a very busy street food area ,I found a very big crowd around one particular stall making kar cheow teow or flat noodles and prawns so I too stood in the que and took videos of how he made the delicacy ,the chef had a trained and easy way of doing it he had a huge burning stove and he would dunk flat noodles in some boiling oil later some prawns a couple of sauces break a couple of eggs all the while stirring it with vigour as the fire would burnish the food later he added a few bits of cooked pork some spring onions sprouted beans some more sauces and handed  the mix in a paper plate with a flourish 

one could find a local table as I did and using a spoon and fork instead of chopstick used by most I tasted the delightful mix and washed it down with a nice beer !

metal art

Next day I  would again visit George town to make a leisurely walk and this time see an old man  making paper planes another one making seas shell paintings ,every local art were encouraged 
By afternoon I left in a cab to go tot he snake temple which was a monastery where snakes frequented all I could see were some sleepy coiled green snakes in a branch and a couple of pythons which were used for photographs with visitors 
I wisely turned  down the endearing offers for a picture with those slimy reptiles and just left the  much hyphed snake temple and walked in the afternoon sun to see a neighboring Hindu temple for Lord Shiva but since it was afternoon the Gods and the priests were having their beauty sleeps and I did not want to disturb  them any more so I walked past a closed church and found a sardar standing with a mobile phone in front a huge new Gurudwara

 ,he invited me in and gave me scarf to cover my head he took me up in a lift and showed me the prayer hall where I closed my eyed for a second  and wished him  Sat sree Akaal Darjee and left to the airport in the cab .

street art in Armeninan street

snake temple

Gurudwara

cool mojhito

fort cornwallis

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The Penang airport was quite big with a lovely duty free bit and i spent some time before my flight to kuala lumpur 
aa quicjick hop to Penang my long standing wish was done thus .

Dare to Stare

I like police chief Rishi raj singh Sir if not for anything for his penchant in giving politicians a hard time !!
wherever hes transferred either into a prison dept or traffic dept or excise dept for his cool remarks or decisions create ripples ,he creates news for not standing up when a political joker walks around !
he keeps getting their goats !

Now he seems to have upset all mallu men by telling them that its a crime to stare at a a women in Kerala for more than fourteen seconds ,
cant blame the average mallu man !
how can one count the seconds when one stares at the lovely lasses of kerala ?
the only way out should be to wear dark sunglasses ,

so one can imagine future kerala with most men walking around like blind men but safely staring !

Now law also needs to differentiate the faraway look which some men have when they are looking at objects beyond the horizon as their thoughts may fly beyond the mundane countenance of females sitting in front of them ,
Their minds could be on lofty perches of philosophy or may be ruminating on the economic downslide of japan or even the udupi way of making a good sambhar but they cannot be booked for staring at Anamma or Manju bhargavi sitting across can they ?

is it not blatantly unfair ?

Kerala women have all the fun from now on
all they have to do against someone is to say he stared at me
yes for fifteen seconds !!
the fourteen makes a difference you see !
one has to stop the stare at fourteen or get into trouble with the law
thirteen is a safe bet and mallu men can get trained for staring nothing more than thirteen
so we have a state full of men staring at women yes you are right only for thirteen unlucky seconds

Wazir

Rajni kanth the sixty four year old superstar has created a box office record in India collecting more than six hundred crores for his film Kabali ,
i for one was not impressed at all by the directorial skill of the movie maker though Rajnikanth himself has still not lost all charm .

Its time Rajinikanth learnt lessons from his oft repeated mentor Amitabh Bachan the global phenomenon and great actor of India .

Having grown with the Bachan from his early introvert Anand days transforming into the angry young man of Deewar and reigning the box office as an one man industry for years Bachan transformed himself gently into a fine actor taking roles so varied and different and making a mark in all of them .

Wazir is one such recent film where he shines as a crippled chess Grand master with a private axe to grind and befriends an young special agent in anti terrorist force who too has the same target

how this is achieved is the film and the director deftly weaves a plot with pawns and queens of a chess board ,shots of vodka ,destruction ,mayhem, marital discords ,black mail, terror and finally the Grandmaster preaches even from the after life and all is well .

no Iam not at all cynical it is taken quite well and the easy camaraderie that develops between the old man and the young is shown well specially in the song yaari
Farhan Akthar the immensely talented actor ,singer director musician is a good match tot he doyen in this film

subtelity is its hallmark unlike the crass kabali that which made a splash in the box office

goes to show the tastes of the common

Patiyaar the Paradise

Kerala my native place located in south India is called Gods own country because of its scenic beauty ,its under the 50 places to be visited in the world  according to National Geographic magazine ,it has a long coastline with some good beaches ,rivers ,hills and hill stations ,plenty of thick forests .
the western ghats which border the states inner parts  is a fertile Greenland and known for its flora and fauna .
We had visited most of Kerala but this time we went to an exotic place rarely seen as it was inside a core forest .
The Agali ranges of hillocks border the state of tamil nadu and the Siruvani river and lake have been blocked by a dam of the same name and this water reaches the people living in Coimbatore .

Right on the banks of this pristine lake there was a lovely bungalow which was built by the British for stay by officials in their work or  for leisure ,but over the years disuse had damaged the place and it needed a lot of repairs ,the former forest minister and cine actor Ganesh once visited this place once and gave orders for its renovation .
Paatiyar bungalow is reached from Palghat town via Mannarkhad area

it took us more than two hours to drive into the beginning of the forest ,we stopped our vehicle in a gaurds room ,where after scrutinising our documents and asking us to pay the tariff for our stay we were allowed to proceed with a friendly warning to be on the lookout for a lone elephant said to frequent the road nearing the dam .
My co brother Pramodh a senior Airline executive has been visiting core forests for decades as it was his passion and it was pramodh who brought us this plan of this exotic trip .

We were in two cars ,one being driven by Pramodh and the other by our niece and his daughter as I had been abroad for long I was vetoed down to be the driver as I may lack the reflexes needed for a driver in india !
Pramodh told us in the event of a sighting of an elephant ( the lonely ones are more dangerous ) or a bear or a bull or a a rare tiger ,not to panic just put  off the car ignition  and  keep quiet ,generally the wild animal wants to avoid humans as much as we want to avoid them ,so they just find a clearing into the forest and slink away ,the problem happens when they find no gap to get away that could be a reason for an attack ,
So pramodh told us if I start reversing the other car  please do so too without any panic or horns and if the animal comes very near or tries to hit the car just open the  door and run for your life ,

that was a scary advise indeed and I had sordid imaginations of us running with a furious elephant on our heels !!
on way through the forest it slowly became darker as the trees were closer together there was an eerie silence with an occasional catcall of a deer or a peacock or a friendly monkey we found fresh dungs on the road which sherlock holmes pramodh observed with great professionalism and declared its yes him ,he just passed through as if he knew him whoever it was for years as a close friend !!

I was the one person smitten with anxiety while the rest of the family seemed to enjoy the fun and shortly I was labelled as  an alarmist .
The way was scenic and as we climbed it became cooler and more pleasant ,suddenly we were on the dam ,its gates were closed and we could not enter it ,we took some photographs from the spot and later continued our way 
we had to make a detour of around ten km to reach the cottage , if only the dam was a public thoroughfare we cold have avoided that ,
the roads became more narrower and the forests thicker and dungs more frequent .
 we were wary of the rogue elephant as he was said to be in this area ,
we did reach the cottage safely ,it had a huge moat around it
we drove in and parked in the back yard as a huge peacock flew into the roof in welcome ,it had started drizzling a bit we walked into the front of the nice bungalow and we were stunned by its beauty it overlooked the mountains and the dam and was perched in an excellent location after its recent refurbi it looked neat and nice ,

Reggie the man friday of the place came around to welcome us with a broad smile and brought us red hot chai which we had sitting in the open verandah enjoying the breeze and rain .
He told us the electric  current would be there only  for some time in the early evening as it was from solar powers ,there was no mobile network or TV hence we were free of all civilisational trappings to enjoy nature in totality .
we had brought all provisions as we came including some fish and meat ,as there was no shops nearby ,
Reggie got these from the cars and went into the kitchen to do his job
Some went for a walk in the evening which I avoided but spent my time gazing at he scene I saw a flying squirrel but could not click it in time .

later over candle light we had an excellent dinner cooked by Reggie post cocktails and were in a mellow mood to go to sleep which was fitful
Early next morning we took a small tour of nearby places ,

again we found very fresh dung and for once my alarms were heeded by others and we decided to move back to safer areas ,
We had a lazy lunch and later we started our return drive back

a few km on our way we stopped as a huge bison stood in the road in front of us staring at us ,we were quiet ,the bison looked at us for some time then slowly came towards us but veered off into the trees on our side and disappeared from sight ,we quietly moved off and as we did so we could see a pair of burning ember like eyes peeping at us behind the bushes ,well that was a fitting send off from an inmate of the jungle who just wanted us humans to get away from their land
 Patiyar was a real spell of relaxation and exotic too .

Kargil vijay diwas

July26 th 1999, the day the Kargil conflict was inflicted on India by a frustrated Pakistan ended once again with a victory for India ,

This day is celebrated as Vijay Diwas in India, when homage is paid and gratitude offered to thousands of our brave soldiers,

more than 500 had perished some killed and maimed inhumanly by an army which had no sense of moral right or wrong .

After losing wars in 1947, 1965 and 1971 a section of Pakistan specially in its Army and the ISI had always nursed hatred and frustration at not achieving its ends of taking over Kashmir valley and also to take revenge for its losing all the conventional wars it had inflicted on India, on all occasions in the past the country had been beat soundly but never learnt its lesson, it continued its low key support of cross border terrorism and prepared itself with nuclear arsenal in an arms race.

 

It was 1999 when PM Atal Bihari Vajpayee made his historic bus visit to Lahore and met his Pakistani counterpart Nawas Shariff and both parted amicably.

The two countries looked like they were on the anvil of a period of friendship,around the same time unknown to India regular Pakistani army forces were quietly occupying the icy heights of Kargil , a Himalayan hilly border overlooking the NH 1 from Srinagar to Leh strategically important for India as the only access to the Siachen glacier and to Leh ,

the tall and steep peaks more than 15000 to 18000 feet  above sea level were generally loosely protected as both sides found it difficult to occupy those heights ,but Pakistani army plotted to quietly take over the heights and cut off India’s lifeline ,

 

By the time Indian army realized the enormity of the infiltration it had suffered causalities,its initial scouting army of five were murdered and maimed and it was easy for the Pakistanis to fire from those heights ,to recapture the peaks India would suffer a lot of casualties and logistics was also very difficult because of the terrain but in two months Indian army had cleared every single peak,

 The enemy was chased away and international pressure did the rest.

Once again Pakistan for all its wily acts lost the battle and we all remember this day as the Vijay divas.

Kabali movie review

Rajninikanth the superhero of Mollywood is a phenomenon ,having seen him grow from his first film I could write about him reasonably well .
Discovered by the legendary K Balachander this bus conductor turned film actor from the film institute was low key in the beginning enacting a bearded somber sad antihero in his first film Apporva ragangal in front of a shining Kamalahassan ,in the next Padinaru vayadhinille he burst into film world as a villain totally different from any seen earlier ,

we all those days still remember the swagger of his delivery idhepedi irruku  ? as his wily cunning mannerisms took to work with the sly grin ,these  would earn him a charisma to die for and to get labelled as the style king would surface right from then ,
slowly and steadily Rajinikant would metamorphose into a super hero and reach a peak not heard of much which he carries even to this day at the ripe age of sixty five though a few of his recent films hasn't done well in the box office ,

Rajinis charm never stopped with his films ,his off screen image as the man who was not bothered to patch up his appearance ,to  the large scale adulation not only in India but in countries like japan etc
rajnis movies are events and are multi million affairs a whole industry is built on his films and so when Rajni announced a new film with a one film wonder called P Ranjith it was a bit of a surprise ,it was said he moved away from his tried and tested directors like Mani ratnam ,Sankar etc to try out creativity fresh and  youthful
Ranjith had earlier taken  Madras a very popular film and it was said this movie was the reason for his being selected by the great Rajnini !
I  did see the movie Madras and was suitably unimpressed as it was just another confused Chennai based film with countless youngsters getting drunk falling to girls or stalking them and finally getting into fights with street dances thrown in ,i found no spark of creativity
 in fact I started wondering how could anyone seeing this film take up its creator and I was proved right after seeing kabali
After so much hyphe and build up the movie I feel is dismal ,
poor script ,sad screenplay ,confused director who appears bewildered that he was made to take a movie of this order and did not know what to do and tried to make a copy of his previous one adulated about ( wonder for what ) with almost all the crew of his precious film

Rajinikanth the win win package of the film industry could be called the saving grace of the film in spite of his age ,he to a small extent does continue his swagger and his style to impress though he does look jaded and aged and a bit slow too
He definitely cannot continue this for long even with the best wigs in town !

Its all about an underworld don in Kuala lumpur ,Malaysia out to save the local Tamils getting released from  a 20 year prison sentence and like the legendary phoenix dusting off his past to get back at this perpetrators ,in the process he discovers he has a daughter who now is a skilled sharpshooter and much in demand in the udnerworld and also finds out his  dead wife was still alive in Pondicherry where our man flies in Air Asia ( Air Asia painted a plane for the movie publicity  )and gets her back strangely the wife seems not to have aged a bit and looks just the same as she was twenty years back Radhika Apte does an excellent job in spite of the director !!

then followed a litany of violent orgies in Malaysia and some in Bangkok where a confusing  number of villains in several garbs with one wearing obscene jewelry with a china man added for safety's sake ,
A lot of kuala lumpur is shown in excellent shots but then if only that was there at least it would have been a god documentary
Santosh Narayanan the music director should also have been in a trance after creating the one epic piece of welcome music when the don returns which has become catchy ,after this rhyme  he goes into a cocoon losing whatever talent he has to produce noises  !

with Rajini around fights are a must the fights but here that too wasnt  much to write about .
 even old malayalam films like idha ivide vare had more authentic ones ,not to talk of the many neweer films in all languages

The theme was a good one and Rajni could still have hit off as an new Brandon in a Godfather like film but for that  we needed a good story teller to create a good symphony from a bad story one needs a good director

the story lost its life by intermission and viewers were getting fidgety
post intermission it was a long short haul of endless shootouts and exhausted actors and disappointed viewers

Neruppuda ( that means I am fire )was the great catch phrase
sorry this was more like cheruppuda ( sipper thrown on viewers )

Rajni sir

please select a good man to direct your films the next time

my uncle OUK Nair

Use of telegram ( not the recent IT application in the news ) but the clickety clack Morse code way of conveying messages which only people of my generation would remember ,not the younger ones

Those days the telegram always heralded an emergency and one was tense to find out what it revealed ,if it just said a congratulatory or greeting message or an appointment order or a transfer order etc one was a little revealed ,it could say somebody was arriving by the morning train ,etc

the message we are sorry to inform that .......expired is the worst a telegram can bring ,

I got more than three WA and FB message at a speed no telegram could reach ,telling me that my fathers brother Oootil.Unnikrishnan Nair had passed away early today morning ,and in minutes i had also passed it to relevant people i knew .

Uncle had lived a full life of ninety seven years or more .

I talked of Telegram here is because my uncle unnimamma as i have always called him , on retirement was the Director of post and telegraph Department southern division in Hyderabad ,

that was four decades back .

Tall ,lean ,handsome with a royal visage he was the youngest of my fathers three brothers and two sisters ,their father parameswaran moos was a well known traditional Ayurvedic physician of Malappuram district ,

Unnimamma joined P and T during the early fifties i think and made his way up steadily up .

He always had been my hero as he used to dress so well ,at any time , even in his ripe old age .

Unnimamma was dapper in neatly ironed shirts pants or dhoti ,he was stylish in his habits ,i remember he used to travel in first class only in the in the Railways

i also remember most houses he stayed ,Jolly cottage in Kallayi ,the huge official quarters on top of the P and T head office in Calicut beach .

At that time there was a P and T strike on and no one was allowed to enter the office ,we were staying for a few days then ,in the night Unnimamma was busy as he got phone calls from many ,i could hear his soft but stern voice handling the whole issue with no fear or favor but strictly as it should be ,all this made an impression of my young mind that sincerity and honesty and courage could deal with any obstacles and all we need is a clear conscience ,he never told me all this in so many words but his behavior conveyed ti to me and to all of us in the family

he had a soft corner for me as i had lost my father at ten years

unnimamma had great respect for my dad as he was his eldest brother and had taken care of him and other siblings in their younger age as they too lost their father when young,

i remember him in front of my father standing with great respect and speaking softly but they loved each other a lot

later in recent years whenever possible when in India i would make a point to visit uncle in Calicut ,

He was very interesting as a conversationist and had definite views on the political trash in Kerala which was more or less similar to mine and his sarcasm was greatly enjoyed by me !

he always used to comment on my growing tummy as he was fit as a fiddle .

to know that the karnavar or oldest member of our family is no more is sad ,but to me today is a day of remembrance rather than pain .

,Remembering him when he caught me a ten year old as i swooned after my dads cremation ,

remembering being taken to a doctor in Calicut for some problem i had ,

remembering him when he was so glad i got into medicine

so many small things i could recollect

may your soul rest in peace my dear uncle

please give my hellos to my beloved dad when you meet him wherever !

Doctor bashing

Doctor bashing seems to be the latest of fads in India ,with the media and the law and the political leadership giving no support doctors do a thankless job with inadequately maintained hospitals and suffer from wrath of patients and their families who are spurred on by anti social elements .
Kerala a state where people call themselves literate but are silent against labor terrorism like Attimari and Nokkuooli namely blackmail by thugs on unloading and getting paid for looking at jobs ,both illegal ,but the people of the state who do not dare to whisper against such absurdities because they are cowards know that they can vent their fury on doctors who do their job sincerely .

Recently one more doctor who was brought a patient with chest pain and who gave him first aid  in his small set up and referred him to a higher center to be managed , faced the wrath of an unruly crowd ,when the patient died of his medical condition and no fault of the doctor ,the crowd bashed him destroyed his house and clinic and barred him inside the house for more than six hours and no law enforcing agency helped him till the IMA and other medical officer associations demanded justice to higher authorities ,the media too ignored the incident as none of the TV channels covered it much.

After threat of a strike by the IMA the police finally arrested by the perpetrators 

why should doctors be indebted to a society which treats them like this ? 

A society which has faith in illiterates who say vaccines are bad for health and consequent deaths of little children with Diphtheria and one doctor who herself got infected recently.
A society which believes in quacks and alternate medicines and relies on spurious supplements made by charlatans and has no question to ask them when they realize that they  have been duped by them as they land up in renal failure and other complications and run to the modern medical doctors for succor .

what kind of reaction does one expect from this indignant community treated so shabbily ?

one immediately gets answers like 

are you saying all doctors are above board ? is there no medical negligence ?

 nobody can vouch for those things as there could be many such instances but there are procedures of respite for all such cases ,taking over the law by anti socials is not the answer !

why are the political leaders who grace most association functions to give their lengthy speeches not uttering a word against this gross injustice ?

why is the media so silent ?

why are the people who benefit from the expertise and hard work of doctors against all odds expect doctors to be self sacrificing when they bash up doctors for any death or complications which are very common in medical practice !

its high time the medical associations took this very seriously and stopped all work and demanded they be given protection if they have to work and stop calling politicians to grace their functions till they support their cause .

The associations also have to legally move the courts which has been fair to the medical community always .

The associations also need to start a campaign that the community will not keep quiet anymore if their members are harassed like this ,they need to meet the local police officers and higher ups and get assurances on what action will be taken in case of such emergencies ?
Its not a question of whether there is medical negligence or not ,it is a question of people taking justice into their own hands when avenues for complaints against doctors like consumer courts or even civil or criminal case filings exist ,
if people who are naturally docile when it comes to corrupt politicians bureaucrats are able to do do anything they want with doctors it is the failure of the government to protect its subjects the medical profession and if the Government does not care for that then the medical community should also stop doing anything extra for the society till they learn their lesson ,

so the medical associations should consider this as an important agenda more than their CME and local functions as anyone of them could suffer this fate any time so they need to unite and stand firm at this juncture
doctors standing alone cannot be expected to fight this on thier own steam

Dr Harimohan

Todays special

Food movies to me is particularly appealing since I have a passion for food as well as for cooking .
There have been a lot of Indian films based on food ,the legendary Bawarchi of Rajesh Khanna ,later  Amithabs cheeni kum,, the lunch box ,etc.
In Holly wood there have been plenty ,A matter of tastes ,Ratotulle ,No reservations ,Chef ,
A hundred foot journey,Fast food nation ,Just deserts ,etc 

I happened to chance upon Today's special in Netflix and went through it in one stretch as it was very absorbing .
The reason was the philosophy of the film was rhyming with my views on Desi cooking !

Yes its all about an Indian restaurant in downtown New York one of the hundreds one sees in Queens in the little India run by suit clad rheumy Indians eulogizing on  their curry .

Tandoori palace is one such restaurant run by an obese Hakim ( Harish patel ) ,
having lost one of his sons on whom he had great hopes of his becoming  a doctor he was depressed his son Samir (Aaasif mandvi who incidentally also wrote the screen play of the film directed well by David Kaplan )  is only a sous chef in an upmarket French specialty restaurant ,

Samir  quits one day when passed over for promotion unfairly !
He   plans to go to Paris to apprentice under someone to become a specialist in French cuisine but it wasn't to happen as he finds his dad go into an apoplexy on hearing Samir had lost his job and promptly has a heart attack and becomes bedridden .
His three uncles  play cards there most of the time ,the place is unhygienic , ill organised  with a crude clout of an immigrant with a spittoon as the resident cook 
 when Samir puts his foot down on the spittoon the man walks away leaving Samir with no chef .

Samir  remembers his meeting  a talkative cab driver Akbar once who prides himself as an expert Indian cook who knew  all the secrets of a Nawabi kitchen.
He manages to trace him down .
Thus Akbar brilliantly portrayed by Naseeruddin Shah comes to help out Tandoor palace 
Samir is amused at Akbars way of making the masala  powder ,definitely beyond his trained and professional knowledge as Akbar relies on no recipes but has everything in his mind ,
Akbar pontificates that   cooking rises from  three places ,the head ,the heart and the stomach 
He introduces Samir to the world of cooking with passion !
Madhur Jeffery the world famous cook expert and authour acts as Samirs mother in the film who gets impressed by Akbar and his panache .
The restaurant makes a U turn and crowds start pouring in and after a dust down it looks nice too ,

Samir becomes closer to Carrie his love interest , a fellow chef who comes to work for him to later become his fiancee .

And the day a star reviewer eulogizes on his restaurant he becomes suddenly  famous and there is a big line waiting to get into the restaurant 
His dad and mum who come then are  amazed at the change and Hakim hugs his son and Samir  is very happy at last his dad had appreciated him 
Akbar does the disappearing act as he is a man on the move but gives the masala pan to Samir and giving  him the confidence to go on  alone and succeed and Samir  just does that 
I would recommend this film  to all