Dinner at Vishala

Today evening we went to Vishala for dinner. We were accompanied by two of our friend’s family also. My car had a narrow escape from a close kiss by a big truck lorry. Thankfully we reached safely all in one piece.

It was a dimly lit place. Most of the light was coming from kerosene lit lanterns. After long long time I saw a real lantern. I have seen lots of lanterns used in many of the restaurants. It has become a fad for resorts and restaurants to use lanterns. Most of the time these lanterns have electric lamps in them to provide illumination. As per me this is grave injustice to the pure soul of lantern. Lantern is meant to be illuminated with kerosene and not with Edison’s Electricity.

Searching our way we reached inside this spacious place. A man in traditional headgear welcomed us with rose sprinkled with synthetic aroma. I think this is again injustice with the soul of rose. Its original sweet smell deserves more respect. I have suddenly started behaving like film critic. I am talking more about souls and originality. May be operations management class at IIMA PGPX is having more than it’s share of influence on the poor soul (once again.. I told you…) of mine.

We were asked to pay in advance. Now this is never heard of in Indian style restaurants. Vishala is supposed to be a restaurant showcasing Indian traditional culture, craft and cuisine. It also boasts of a utensil museum. We were too hungry to be bothered by matters of history.

Our next stop was at puppet show. Kids had a great laugh at this. All of them enjoyed this thoroughly. Of all the arts showcased at Vishala this was in true traditional style. After this we stopped for some time at this central place where some local artists were trying to enthuse patrons with garba, ghazals and bhangra. Now this is truly something to cover all the different hues of Indian music in one setting. I was by this time almost starving for some mouth watering fair. I had already gulped 3 glasses of raw mango “panna”.

We were made to sit on ground to enjoy our dinner. Now it’s not easy for ladies to maintain this posture for a long time however slim they may be. When the serving started it was like avlanche of food items being served on the pattal(leaf dish). Initially I was impressed by sheer variety of dishes. Slowly I started tasting one dish after the other. Now I have to be very honest here. Truly speaking I wasn’t impressed with any dish in particular. I was constantly searching for a dish, which I could feast upon. Sadly I just kept roaming from one dish to another. Service was good and prompt.

After this came the best part of the evening. We once again went to the central place where local artistes were trying to serve potpourri of Indian music laced with western beats. We made demand for some old ghazals. The singer was not prepared for those numbers. He tried to impress us with best of the numbers in his repertoire. We also joined in chorus to enjoy the best part of evening. After this a bunch of young hip crowd came with guys in funny hair does and gals in skimpy revealing clothes. I think to be hip you have to follow these basic traits. They demanded some disco garba and bhangra. The artisans obliged promptly with whatever they could do. Suddenly everybody was dancing there. Kids, spouses everyone had their share of latkas and jhatkas.

We had meetha pan to put icing on our dinner expedition. Home journey back was uneventful. Overall an enjoyable evening in company of friends and family…. It’s surprising to have this kind of relaxed evening for a serious PGPX student at IIM Ahmedabad…

Second Degree

I just finished reading “Second degree” by Prashant John. Before I say something on this book let me describe how I chanced upon this book. After putting my papers I have been doing nothing worthwhile for last couple of weeks. I was forced by my family to accompany my Father to Jayanagar 4th block to get our travel bags repaired. While my Father was busy with the repair shop, I went to near by Sapana book house to glance through some of the new arrivals.

In the display section of new arrivals I could see this book “Second Degree” displayed very prominently. Seeing IIM-A on the cover page caught my attention instantly. I must confess that the book got me hooked immediately.

PGPX program from IIMA is a relatively new one. Having started in 2006 it’s still in its nascent stage. Prashant john was member of the first batch of PGPX. He comes out as someone with a very unassuming personality and a chilled out attitude. His main motto is to be out of rat race when everyone is there to be in the same rat race. This provides for a strong narration and objectivity of the book.

“Second degree” can be treated as Bible for any PGPX aspirant. It provides chronological description of all the PGPX modules and the very interesting student life at IIM-A campus. This book is very different from books such as ‘Five Point Someone’ written on campus life. Even though there is some fiction interlaced in the writing, it’s basically to make the reading more interesting. Fiction never overtakes the factual description in whole of the book. One gets to know small details like classroom seating position of students as well as difficulty level encountered in some specific subjects like cost accounting. Reader becomes completely familiar with assignments, quizzes, CPs and end term tests effortlessly while navigating through the book.

Prashant has a strong hold on humor and this comes out very beautifully all throughout the book. All his characters like Sweety, Subbu, Berrywala, Prasad, Bongo, Jignesh and Daddu add the humor quotient to the book in their unique ways. They also provide insight into student life at campus and everyday struggle of a typical business school student.

Prashant develops the plot of the book quite nicely by introducing all his characters elaborately and describing the induction session in detail. This provides for some engrossing reading. He seems to be in somewhat hurry during the later part of the book. Sometimes he comes out as a very bored soul and tries to rush through in the end chapters. He could have provided more substance and retained his magic as in initial chapters. Nevertheless by this time reader is fully immersed and so doesn’t mind these blips.

PGPX is relatively unknown entity in corporate World. A very fascinating reading like “Second degree” is sure to make it very visible. Prashant has done a great service to his Alma matter by coming up with something like this. I recommend this book to anybody looking out for some fast paced instant fun with lots of insider stuff on IIM-A PGP