Part One: Thimphu

Preamble

The mobile phone rings. As ever, I try to do two things at the same time- switch off the gas, and switch on the phone. It’s my travel agent from Mumbai..

With an unusual warmth and glow, she drags out, “Hiiiiiii, Deepak! You had called? How are you?”

Perfect, except that the milk has boiled over, and the ‘parna’ (mop)with which I was holding nearly caught fire. I let it be. “Fine, yes, I did call…a small request…”

“Yaaaa…tell me naaaaa” she goes…the same heart-filling, confidence building lovely friendly tone.

“I need a ticket to Paro in Bhutan, and an early return. Plus arrange for a taxi to Thimphu, and a decent hotel stay, with a taxi for the next day to Pheuntsholing!”

[...]

For those visiting Kathmandu, a trip to the restaurant Banchcha Ghar is a must. Housed in a building that is nearly 100 years old off the main Darbar Marg, Banchcha Ghar preserves the traditional Newari food in its authenticity. Newaris were the original inhabitants of the Kathmandu valley.

The must haves there are Sukuti (spicy, dried deer meat) and the wild boar dish(slices, served with an array of masalas/salt/mirchi), the preparation of which was one of the best that I ever had.

[...]

(I wrote this at the airport before departure; I am reproducing this piece, without editing or changing the tense and sequence. I had thought I would get time in Mumbai to post it, but it was quite hectic and jam-packed, hence, could not…)

I am waiting at the airport writing this post; by the time it reaches you, I would be in Mumbai, sucked irrevocably in a slush of meetings.

Hell, I always get the timing wrong- the last time I was stuck at a lengthy immigration counter, and caught the plane nearly the sameway as one catches a DTC bus at rush hours! This time, chastened, I have reached airport earlier; lo, it’s absolutely empty- had my coffee, loitered at the duty free, done my immigration, over with the security check…and still have some one hour to spare. The sequential number on my boarding pass wickedly grins that I was the first to check in.

[...]

Madhur Bhandarkar attempts a true blue musical in his film on glamour and the glamorous; for this, he has unexpectedly chosen a relatively new Shamir Tandon, rather than rely on an established name in the industry. Tandon has earlier given us a few bloopers in Rakth.

[...]