Latte with Phoenix

                 Indian cuisine is liked the world over and to cater to the hungry people,   restaurants with Indian sounding names have sprung up all over, even in remote corners where you least expect them. Foreign nationals unless they have been to India or dined at an Indian’s home, hardly know the correct taste of Indian dishes. They do not know any better. This is where the con takes place, with various non-Indians taking   advantage and dishing   out rubbish to unsuspecting foreigners; giving a bad name to Indian food in the bargain. The scam comes to light when   Indians travelling abroad or newly gone to reside there   become homesick for Indian food see a restaurant proclaiming itself as serving ‘Indian food’, visit these ‘Indian’ restaurants   in their outings,   to enjoy the dishes offered. In nearly every case, the food served there does not meet their expectations, and later on the...

                 Cinema halls all over India not very long ago used to be stand alone buildings. Their owners took pride in making beautiful structures, with something unique in each hall, to make it famous. Early cinema hall had English names, no doubt influenced by the British rulers of the time, with names such as :   Palace, Capitol, Odeon, Eros, Ritz, Regal, Plaza, Jubilee, Rivoli, Orient, Mayfair, Minerva, Novelty, Excelsior, Delite, West End, Imperial etc. With Independence names took a drastic change to Indian-ness, and we saw such names come up :   Maratha Mandir, Umrao, Moti, Liberty, Golcha, Filmistan, Sheila, Khanna, Jagat, Shekhawati, Amar, Raj Mandir etc. 'Maratha Mandir', Bombay. courtsy - Twitter The public felt pride in visiting and watching their favourite film in these halls. People used to boast that they have seen a film in the famous hall of Delhi, Jaipur or Mumbai. A visit to these famous halls was ph...

                 The present crisis in Ukraine has vividly brought into public knowledge the shortage of an item which was under wraps for half a century:   viz-   Shortages of seats in Professional studies in India: mainly seats in Medical Colleges. Majority population of India were surprised to know that literally lakhs of our children have to slog it out in obscure countries to acquire a professional degree for their career, for continuing their dreams of life. If we go by the number of students studying medicine who had to be evacuated from Ukraine alone; the total figure of such students in 15 odd countries would definitely run into several lakhs. courtsy - Punjab Kesari Why do they go abroad for medical education ? Numbers tell the real story. Total medical colleges in India : 595 (302 govt, 218 private, 19 AIIMS, rest deemed etc). That gives 88,370 seats. 44,555 in government, 43,815 in private, rest others. ...

                 Visitors to my house, if they are observant enough, would find several wall clocks and time pieces in the place. Wall clocks being useful; have been put up in every room just to use them. One can just glance up to see the time without the trouble of turning your head or getting up. I find them useful. Some have been put up in the bathrooms, where you can time your singing skills. The table time pieces were in use on the children’s study table, but with their going away there is only my desk top table to put up a time piece. The others are therefore in storage. A valid question can be asked here as to why so many wall clocks etc have come into this house ? Well the answer is simple enough. With birthdays and anniversary, relatives and friends gifted us these items. Wall clocks are economical, make a large packet when gift wrapped and are useful too – so the gift giver thinks. This thinking is one of the reasons of i...

               I wrote a blog on this topic on 7 th May 2019 in this blogger, and feel that the topic has to be revisited by all. The blog post of that date can be viewed here … https://lattewithphoenix.blogspot.com/2019/05/why-voting-percentage-is-less.html   Elections to five states are in progress nowadays, with counting and results on 10 th March 2022. It would be worthwhile to have a look on the voting.   As in every election, there is an appeal by the government, Election Commission to check your name in the voters list. First time eligible youth are urged, mobilized to get their name in the voters list. Camps are held all around to facilitate this. Polling days come nearer and everybody from the government, Election Commission, Schools & Colleges, Corporate ads et-all urges everyone to be a good citizen and Vote on your polling date. Polling Day arrives. All offices, Schools, Colleges, Universities etc are...

                 Lights, fan, AC etc., left on in an unoccupied room is sheer wastage of electricity, for which you are paying. It is not free. Lights are kept on in passages, courtyards or outdoors, but those are for safety purpose. It does not take any prolonged effort to put off a light; just a flick of the switch does the trick, compared to the effort of lighting a kerosene lamp or a candle just a few decades ago. Even the government exhorts everyone not to waste electricity, as whatever saved can light up another’s home. But some people, when on tour or holidaying, and staying in a hotel, “forget” to switch off the lights, fan etc when going out. Whatever their thinking, the hotel was the sufferer, so hotels started to install a master switch outside every room which would cut-off electricity to that room. The hotel staff had to go to each floor to do this. Personnel were involved, and some rooms could be left out. Very soon, ma...

                 Requirement of air flow changes with seasons; more being required in peak summer, less required in milder or rainy weather. Regulators which are used for adjusting the speed of ceiling fans, used to be provided free with the fans in the good old days, but you have to pay extra for them now. These regulators in the good old days were solidly built and are still working in old houses, bungalows etc. The smaller electronic ones are in trend nowadays. They are fitted in line with the switches on the board, and mostly behave erratically. With time the manufacturers have used ‘new technology, cost reduction, etc’ in these regulators, and therein lies the problem. Mostly they run the fan at either full or some lesser speed, no matter which setting you switch them to.                                       The older resistance var...