Latest EntryOct 14, 2008 Life in Mangalore Leave a comment
Well, here’s a T-Shirt for anyone who loves Mangalore. If you liked the design, and would like to buy this, please click on the T-Shirt picture, and it will take you to a page where you can order online.
Oct 9, 2008 Life in Mangalore 1 Comment
It’s been a real celebration here at Mangalore. Dussera has never been so colorful, with the main streets of Mangalore well illuminated with celebration lights for a whole week. Here’s a view from near where I live: (MG road, near Empire Mall)
The nine days of fun and celebrations came to an end yesterday, with the grand Dussera procession. Unfortunately, I couldn’t catch the whole celebrations, but managed to sneak in a few shots. (Below).
Aug 24, 2008 Uncategorized Leave a comment
Here’s a slice of Mangalore from wikimapia - Pretty well marked up. (if it doesnt load, try refreshing).
Jun 23, 2008 Life in Mangalore 4 Comments
This time, the monsoons haven’t been great. Its been dry mostly, and the characteristic downpour that one associates with Mangalore monsoons is missing. Not using this as an excuse for not putting up any monsoon pics as promised. (I was out of station last week). Anyways, we (gang-o-friends here) have planned for the annual ‘rain walk’ in July - Trekking up to some God forbidden place in the rains. Lets see if the monsoons hold up. Leeches - Your annual feast coming right up.
Jun 7, 2008 Work, buy/Sell 1 Comment
I have included 2 new service channels here, specially designed for Mangalore. I was looking for cheap options to advertise some of our job openings, and my used stuff for sale. Couldn’t find many, and hence thought of putting these up myself here. So, here’s ‘Job Board‘ and ‘Classifieds‘ .
Both these are easy to use, and very straight forward - Just basic, easy to use forms.
a) Job Listing: This you can see on the sidebar. You can see job listings from Karnataka, and specifically Mangalore. You could also advertise for open positions.
b) Classifieds: Very basic classifieds page where you could sell your used stuff, mobiles, list services you can offer, search for jobs etc.
Go ahead, use these. And do let me know your comments.
Note: for the technically inclined, job listing is a widget you could find <here>, and classifieds is another widget you could find <here>. Thanks to those folks who developed these, putting it up is a piece of cake.
Technorati Tags: Mangalore, job openings, used stuff, Job Board, Classifieds, Job Listing
May 31, 2008 Life in Mangalore 1 Comment
Here’s a list of things for timepass inside Mangalore. If you have any well kept secrets, please share
1. Get to the beaches: Panambur, Someswar, Thannirbhavi etc. Make it more exciting by taking a boat from Sultan Battery which takes you to Thannirbhavi. Try it. Caution: Get ready for wobbly boats, and to get your feet wet. When did you last play Frisbee at the beach? Thats another thing to try.
2. If you are looking for peace and quiet, (and a mock zoo, and lotsa marble), Kudroli temple.
3. Parks: Khadri park (May still have the train that takes you around the park). Gandhi park.
4. Ofcourse check out the malls (Bharat, Empire, Saibeen etc)
5. If you are a ‘feels good to have the wind thru your hair’ sorta person, get on a bike - ride around blueberry hills, airport road, Mangalore university road, or someswar. Now, with the highway construction, this may not be as enjoyable though
6. Water Park, Boating: Manasa waterpark, and pilikula nisargadama
7. Walk thru car street - Try the small shops that sell hot local snacks.
Technorati Tags: Sultan Battery, Kudroli temple, blueberry hills, someswar, Manasa waterpark, pilikula nisargadama, car street
May 31, 2008 Food 6 Comments
Fine Dining
The 3 best restaurants for fine dining, and where you could feel safe taking your hard-to-please customers for lunch or dinner would be:
- Pallkhi - Near Jyothi Cirle. Fantastic food. Place is not very spacious though. Service is good, but may slow down on busy days. Great for north Indian and local delicacies
- Taj Manjarun – Bandar. Quite unlike the usual Tajs though. They do have various theme buffets
- Gold Finch – Very new to Mangalore. I found the food a bit heavy. Corporates have started preferring this one over Taj for their employees stop over, given its new-ness, location, and the air being a lot more vegetarian friendly (ok, I have to explain this one. The air around Taj smells of fish since it is located very close to the waters and market. One of our vegetarian clients complained to us that he couldn’t stand the smell of fish)
The next best ones, where it would be good for you to test before you take your customers include:
- Royal Treat – Kankanady. One of my favourites. Great Moghul food. Very consistent on taste. Limited but well thought out menu.
- Madhuvan Village – Yeyyadi. Rustic setup, complete with a small waterfall and lake. Local and sea food tastes great.
- Madhuvan @ Moti Mahal – Falnir. The place has live music during dinner time, and has serves good local delicacies. Ambience is average, but ideal for people who like to take it slow.
- Abhiman – Bunts circle. Food is good. But place is not very spacious.
- Amazon – Empire mall, PVS Circle. Ambience and food average.
- Viceroy – Kadri. Good to sit outdoors. Beware of mosquitoes. Ask for a coil.
- Pegasus – On the NH to Kerala. Ambience is good. Food is average.
- Trishna – Airport road. Ambience is good, but that’s where I would stop. Food disappointed me
- Coconut Grove – I’ve gone there only once, and nothing there makes me want to go again. Found the food a bit too oily.
The next 3 serve good food, but I wouldn’t suggest taking your would be inlaws here if you want to impress them. Ambience is set more for a friends dinner party.
- Surabhi – Near KSRTC Bus stand. Food is good. Try Andhra Chicken only if you have a bag of sugar handy with you. Not for the weak or normal hearted. (I dig spicy stuff, but I wasn’t ready for this one)
- Maharaja – Near Jyothi Circle. Sea food is great. Good for fun with friends.
- Kavitha Residency – I go here when I feel like eating a plate of regular fried rice and butter chicken. If you want a room, try Kavitha. Rooms are clean and well priced, I hear
- Hao Ming - Balmatta. Undoubtedly the best Chinese restaurant in Mangalore. Or for that matter, the best I have gone to in South India.
Quick Eats
Here’s the list of places I like for quick eats (a burger, fish n chips etc)
- Diesel Café: Part of Prestige Hotel (I hear actor Suneil Shetty owns this place). Small, but has good continental menu
- Chefs: I love the burgers here, esp the chicken supreme.
- Cherry Square: Lovely little place. Great sandwiches.
- Pop Tates, Juice Junction: Try the Rotisserie chicken and Shawarma rolls. Lip smacking.
- Sizzler: Near Mangala Stadium: As the name suggests, specializes on sizzlers. I found them very average though.
Good Food. Period.
Following are places I go for just good food. No bells and whistles.
- Narayana’s: Bandar. A very small place near the Taj Manjarun that specializes in fried fish. People flock there to eat fish. As soon as you seat yourself, they serve you a plate of rice with couple of side dishes and fish curry. Then the waiters come around with a large platter of various types of fried fishes from which you could choose yours. I heard due to the success of Narayana’s, Diesel Café has included a ‘Narayana style fish fry’ in their menu.
-Woodlands: Bunts Circle. Regular Brahmin style lunch and dinner. One meal costs Rs 30, and includes poori or chappathi, rice and dishes. You will feel satisfied after having the meal. Guaranteed.
- Janatha Deluxe: KS Rao road. I love their breakfast and thalis here.
- Ayodhya: Near PVS Circle. Famous for authentic Mangalore food.
Now, I still have a few places I want to get to. Those include Hotel Taj Mahal (heard coffee is great here), Shetty’s Kori Rotti, Kudla, Temperature Biriyani place, Dinoos. And now, there’s a new hotel that has come up -Deepa Comfort, right near the place i live. Should try that once. Will keep you posted.
Technorati Tags: restaurants in Mangalore, Pallkhi, Taj Manjarun, Gold Finch, Royal Treat, Madhuvan Village, Hao Ming, Woodlands, Deepa Comfort
May 31, 2008 Life in Mangalore Leave a comment
Mangalore - A city that’s been home for me for the last eleven years (on and off). I’ve got so used to this place - I am here to stay!
Everyone (who is aware that such a place exists) has an opinion about the city, some positive ones that go like:
‘.. terrific beaches ..’
‘.. the rains are just awesome ..’
‘.. girls are beautiful!..’
‘.. the ice creams are so huge and cheap ..’
and some not so good ones like:
‘.. extremely slow paced. Being from Mumbai, I just cannot adjust to the slowness of life here..’
‘.. absolutely no night life…’
‘.. what the heck is kori rotti ..’
‘.. the weather is bad here. I am outta here ..’
‘.. air / road connectivity is bad ..’
Want my opinion? After living here for more than a decade, I have realized that this is the place where you can do just that: ‘Live’. People here actually do stuff you see in ads - be it idling time on the beach on a warm sunny afternoon, or watching the rains while sipping hot coffee, or trekking through jungles / steep terrains or just plain spending quality time with family on week days. Yep - People in certain parts of the world are fortunate enough to do these things. At least until ‘development’ catches up. (not to say that Mangalore ain’t developed. More on that later)
Here’s an initial list of my favorite places in Mangalore (Will add to this list. But at 11.30 PM, only one of my brain cells is awake (well, half awake). And I think it belongs to my food processing section, ‘cos most of these below are related to food.
Fav restaurants: Royal Darbar, Pallkhi
Fav hangouts: Woodlands hotel,
Fav cakes place: Smokies,Bourbourn
Fav offbeat stuff: There’s this place in Car Street where you get carbonated, herbs mixed buttermilk drinks.
Fav beach: Someshwar beach
Fav local delicacy: (no prizes for guessing this one) - Kori Rotti
zzzzzzzz…..
