When the concept of union strikes and such came into being in India, it was a non violent manner of creating a forum to address the issues of workers. But in Kerala, it has come to be such a despondent tool that is a blemish to our state. From being a laughing stock to creating uneasiness to tourists and fellow citizens, now the Hindalco farce is looming on the fine lines of National Security. It would have been a pride to say that this factory is the only one in India to produce the AK6 alloy required by the wheels of the T-90 tanks, but now it is just an unfortunate handicap to say the least.
After failing to meet any sort of agreement between the management & the employees, the crisis has just broken down even further. Even police intervention on trying to get these wheels to Bharat forge was foiled by the employees. Are the our people so short-sighted and so into themselves that they failed to see the repercussions of their actions? I can understand their point of view on trying to find a decent understanding on the wage issue which is their source of living. But for our defence forces’ lives may depend on these alloys lying useless at Hindalco. I have always heard people say Kerala act as though they are a separate nation since the attitude and mindset portray such an image. Which is not to bother much with how the rest of India operates, this kind of affirms that opinion. It is high time our people change this and the Government dealt this issue with an ‘iron hand’ before things get ‘out of hand’.

The Chef

We had the delight to experience the Thai Fest that is going on at Le Meridien. Having experienced the Italian Food Fest a couple of months ago, we had similar expectations. And we sure weren’t disappointed. On entering the Treasure Trove restaurant we were lead to our seat and we met with the Thai chef who was specially flown down to personally manage the fest. He explained the whole array of foods and his selection of the night’s menu. Thai food can be quite sublime and straight up at the same time. But he had a selection of Indian food to suit his Indian and international patrons as not all will be able to appreciate the Thai flavors.

The Tenderloin

But it takes just a little ‘trying out new things’ to actually enjoy things like this. We started off with the Tom Yum Soup, it was looking too clear from what we were used to from the local Chinese restaurants. We had our first spoon with an aura of doubt, but when the first spoon crossed our lips, the blend of flavors that hit my tongue was excellent! There was a live Som Tam counter, which btw is a spicy blend of a salad made from Papaya, but we diverted paths seeing the pieces of Tenderloin being cooked.
The main course seemed more appealing. Most of the people being unfamiliar with Thai cuisine or atleast the terminologies, the staff had nicely placed their English description underneath each dish tag. It was very helpful in identifying each food item. Starting off the main course, the Pla Sam Rod was very nice, deep fried fish, tasted like fish fritters with a nice subtle sauce splashed all around it. Fish was a commonplace on the menu, but the next dish, was the highlight. Beautifully grilled Tenderloins or Paneang Neu with Panang sauce, which melts in your mouth, the meat was so soft and you could bite through it like butter. We even stayed to watch the next set being grilled. Poetry in motion, hats off to the chefs for this masterful creation! Other notable dishes was the Kai Pad Med Ma Meung, stir fried chicken with cashewnuts, black mushrooms, huge and juicy. Even the Tofu was nice; it was mushy and had a well balanced flavor. To go with these dishes were a choice of Thai fried rice, stir fried noodles and a mix of breads. And there was live grill section which had a Thai version of our chilli chutney with grilled prawns…a must try.
This was not the end of the dinner, the desserts looked similarly impressive. Although their descriptions sort of confused us, a Mr Arun Stepfen was very patient and helpful in getting us the names of various dishes and their literal translations. The king of the desserts was the humble Thai custard, made with wheat flour and duck eggs. Sublime, mellow and wholesome, it tastes just about right; the perfect end to a good meal. Other desserts like the Pisang Goreng or banana pancakes tasted fruity, the Thong Yip a mango mousse was a contrast of sweet and milky tastes.

Thai Desserts are a innovative

The fest is running till the 13th of Feb and it will set you back 850 bucks excl taxes. But if you want to try some real nice Thai cuisine, definitely head to Le Meridien for a different experience!

Courtesy - business-fundas.com

This is not a sequel to Gabriel Marquez’ classic ‘Love in the times of Cholera’.  But it is nevertheless nothing less important, if I may say so myself . Most of us, who are in the right side of 30 really live in the internet. Social networking sites have taken our lives in the most revolutionary way. And no wonder this extends to our friendships and relationships. There are people who “meet up” on Facebook, orkut or other social networking sites and become friends over the internet. Some of these friendships die an early death, some of them last forever (forever being till the next fascinating or revolutionary thing come around.) Some people actually make an effort to meet up in real and give it a different dimension to their facebook friendship. Yet there are others who know each other, but rarely exchange a word or even pleasantries when they meet face-to-face, but they are such bumchums in the online world. Weird ain’t it?  It becomes weirder when it is a romantic relationships. Social networking sites, along with the emails, chat options, and mobile phones make dating easy for the youngsters. Asking a girl out for coffee can be simply done over a text message. There is no stuttering, sweaty palms, pounding heart or  going week in the knees. Or even if there is, nobody knows as you get to do it  (texting, I mean) in the comforts of your home. There is no trouble of  getting the age old “love letter” to the  recipient of your affections, no days of wondering if your  little brother’s , friends’ cousin delivered the letter to your love or to her dad, no days of anticipation and sleeplessness waiting for a reply. You can direct your message to the right person at the right time  and get an immediate reply (unless your recipient chose to do otherwise). Even those who are having long –distance relationships find it easier because they can stay in touch easily.

Just as technology made loving so easy, it has made breaking up that much more difficult. In the olden days, it took courage to fall in love, to be at the receiving end of the parental wrath and flak of the society (apparently good girls from good families don’t fall in love because the bad boys are just taking them for a ride) , the fear of getting caught and all that angst of being in love. Breaking up with your love or even being ditched was so much easier. All you had to do was make sure you don’t bump into the said love. After few days of silence and few nights of weeping into the pillow, you are good to go.  Break ups are not so easy today. To begin with, you should control that urge to contact your ditcher (yeah, new word coined by me). The most important step would be to erase your ex-lover from your memory and the first step in this direction would be to make sure you do not see each other. But that is not enough. You need to delete his contact number from your mobile, lest you contact him in a moment of weekness. You are happy about this smart move and give yourself a pat on your back. But the moments of weakness do appear at the most inappropriate times and in that desperation, you frantically search your text messages for his message and find his number in the recipient details. That is when it hits you that you should delete all his messages too. But being the smart woman that you are, you delete them too. But you read every mail you exchanged with each other, every chat conversation you had and cry buckets. That is when you realize that you need to delete the mails and chats too. But only once you deleted them, you realize that you have nothing to hold on to. That is when you start obsessively checking his facebook and orkut for new pics, new updates, new comments etc. When the obsession reaches psychotic levels, you delete him from your social networking sites as well. Loving is easy in the times of facebook, breaking up is not.

Another year down the lane. Check out the party at Micheal’s Island, a hot spot for some of the happening parties of the New Year. Are you game for some island partying?
Check the poster below for more details.

New Year’s party at Trine Green Lagoon. End the 2010 with a bang by celebrating New Year’s eve at a different sort of set up, amongst the Kochi backwaters. Featuring the Goan DJ Wavell, he is bound to set the dance floor on fire.
This is a private party, so only limited entries are available. Hurry before they run out.

Call 09809926294 for entry details.

Get ready for the Mega Event New Year party for this year at IMA house, Kochi. Celebrate the New Year with fashion shows and DJs and get treated to some of the best dance sequences.
Dance to the music of DJ Harry from Mumbai.
Hosted by celebrity MC Ms. Priyadarshini, this is an event to check out for.
Kochivibe readers have a special offer, they get a whopping 10% discount!

Ticket Prices are given below:

Couple Entry: Rs. 2,800 (Including Food & Drinks)
Single Entry: Rs. 1,500 (Including Food & Drink)

That idiot box in the corner of our living rooms is getting outdated. Maybe they’re bigger and meaner and awesome to watch blu-ray dvds of sfx-intensive movies on, but the fact remains that the vast majority of us rarely watch TV (on TV, that is) anymore. Who wants to sit through miles of ads anyway?

That’s where Web TV comes in. A lot of big names, HBO, CNN, and even Cartoon Network among them, have begun to actively prepare for this revolution in communication. And in India, this movement is being spearheaded in our very own Kochi!

The up-and-coming Vibes Media will soon launch Indiavibes, a one-stop entertainment portal that is sure to be global in its appeal.  Although English would be its primary language, multilingual programs would be subsequently added.

This would be an ideal way to get a finger on the pulse of a new generation, and a totally new form of communication: Internet Entertainment. It is backed by an passionate young team that lives and breathes innovation, tempered by the wise hands of experience.

They’re also looking for fresh young faces, so heads up models! This could be your ticket to stardom!

Check it out at: www.indiavibes.tv

Or find them on facebook at www.facebook.com/indiavibes and twitter at www.twitter.com/indiavibestv . Know more about the Indiavibes.tv  Team here.

It is while pursuing her interests in baking, icing and sugar craft that Maria George Tharakan, heard about the ‘ Air- drying clay’ that could be molded into permanent figurines, as against the icing sugar, which is more temporary.

Soon, this translucent clay turned into fascinating, ethereal figurines and festive tree- trinkets, at her touch. Singing angels, cuddly teddys, charming snowmen, rocking horses, pretty penguins, among snowflakes, wreaths, Santa faces, candle bearing toy trains, bows, reindeers, evolved out of her work table and most of them thumb- sized!!!

There has been no looking back since.’Olive Arts’ emerged as a result of months of her effort.

Maria’s work will be showcased and sold at her Kerala residence on 4th and 5TH December, 2010.

She also has a special offer for Kochivibe readers, buy for Rs 1500 and get a discount of 5%! So readers hurry and have a look.

Address: 31/311, Reshmi, Junior Janatha Rd, Vytilla -682019
Contact No: 9447017170

The city has gone to the dogs, literally and I bet even they would not consider taking it up. When is the last time any of us has drove over a decent ‘road’ in our city? I am not talking about the odd, rare stretch of road that’s usable, I am talking about the roads that we travel through each and every day. Studded with potholes, abandoned or uncompleted works the city’s ‘arteries’ are worse than a obese person’s disease clogged coronaries.
I think the City administration is making a gross neglect of its citizen’s needs and the city’s infrastructure. I would be disgusted to visit a city of such standards and the name Queen of the Arabian would be inept for Kochi. Its high time, the concerned authorities really take radical action and fix our roads. The absolute mess of a work they have done at the South overbridge over the past few weeks are but the signs of, well lets put it lightly, Idiocracy. The bridge as it is has more than enough traffic it can handle, now with the genius of a thing they have done at the bridge by scrapping of whatever road area was left, its like a ride through hell for most commuters. And this but one of the many and the countless. Wouldn’t be amazing if we had good roads? Decent roads at the least? It would increase productivity, decrease frustration and hypertension, accidents and all that time wasted trying to get through the ‘warzone’ like roads. Wonder why they take Road Tax when there are no public roads that we can utilize for our money spent.

Well I feel its time we bring proper light to this whole situation, upload (to sites like imageshack) snaps of wherever you seen horrible roads and post the link as a comment along with where you took the snap. We will update this post with all the snaps. I have put two snaps of the stretch after the Kaloor Signal, when you are heading towards the stadium.

Pardon the low light snaps, more will be following as I shall be updating the posts with snaps too, but you guys can send it across too.

If the new party wants to make an impact, they sure as heck can get a move on fixing the roads!

Title : Guzaarish
Cast: Hrithik Roshan, Aishwarya Rai, Aditya Roy Kapoor, Monikangana Dutta, Suhel Seth
Director: Sanjay Leela Bhansali

Guzaarish, its story revolves around Ethan(Hrithik Roshan) an immobile artiste, can be quite a ‘moving’ movie for many. Being a Sanjay Leela Bhansali I was half expecting something along the lines of Saawariya(2007) and his other works, laced with melodrama and unending dialogues. But surprisingly the delivery for this film was pleasant. A quest for death has not been so elegantly and beautifully portrayed as in Guzaarish.

The story in itself is a beautifully constructed one, slow yet mesmerizing, heart touching yet witty and its takes you on a journey that seeks and end. It weaves around the fine life that Ethan had and no longer can due to his Quadriplegic state. His journey to peace and making a choice that is his own and not the society’s moral inspectors to take is heavily marked in the film. The movie surely strikes a moral chord,on the mercy killing part and many would leave the theater wondering if the character had a valid case and in real life does this hold true too.

A huge wild card that was revealed in this film was Hrithik Roshan’s performance. I am not a fan, but this movie certainly gave me a different perspective for me on his acting. There were times in the movie where Ethan’s pain and his inability to express anger and such emotions and the ensuing frustration being passed onto me. Now a decent actor is one who plays the character well, a good actor is someone who can actually get you to connect with his/her character and create empathy or any such feeling.

Sophie played by Aishwarya Rai, is another character that played a mainstay in the film. Aishwarya carried that role marvelously. Sophie has a quiet, strong demeanor about her, elegance oozes subtly and her loyalty and love towards Ethan so painfully obvious and beautifully expressed. This is one of the movie’s where she has played her character with a strong hold and the best part is that it was not corny like some of her many previous performances.

The supporting characters all play their parts quite solidly, the close friend, the helping hands, the adviser and the student. They all hold their role and support the story striking a delicate balance with the main story.

Visually, it is a delight; the colors, the tones and the locations are marvelous. It has a ‘period’ movie look to it and I was half reveling in the shots from the movie. Colors are deep, dark, subtle and has life to it. The Goan style is lightly shown with a balance of the Portuguese influence, the visuals can take you a different journey. Photography is something you can marvel in the film. The music has some beautiful scores, some can be painfully slow but each plays its part for the movie in whole.

The storyline from the beginning to the end is gracefully captured and if you are out for a pretty good movie out from Bollywood in recent times, Guzaarish can be it. Its different, it is relevant, its is tastefully done and it will keep you wanting for more as the movie progresses. I do not wish to give out much about the story as you must watch it to really enjoy it.