Karpagambal thunai

Boli, Kichadi & Dosai were my choices from the menu last week when i visited this place. Dosai is ok, but the other two are sure repeats for many. Also their Uthappam is good.

Basic space, clean waiters, slightly larger non-A/c section and a smaller A/c section. The menu is quite vast in south indian varieties, especially tamil and brahmin items i presume.

Thats Mylai Karpagambal Mess, opp. Rasi Silks, and almost opp Kapaleeswarar temple & its Car (why is the தேர் , called Car?).

A must go place for veggie, south indian loving people.

Tickets & Chennai Open

This was at 930 am on 25h Dec’08 morning, the queue standing in front of the Nungambakkam Corporation Tennis Stadium to get their tickets for the upcoming Chennai Open 2009.

And your truly was also waiting alongwith my son there becasue of my lats years experience for the same tourney. The tickets were sold out and the stadium was empty, what an irony last year it was. Because the Corporate Sponsors and Tennis academies bought tickets in bulk and gave / sold to many and none turned out. Hence the Top seeds palyed for an empty (almost) stadia.

The organisers (IMG) should follow the “The Hindu” way, TheHindu when they organise these Theatre Festivals or Music Festivals give away x No.s of invites to Corporate sponsors as letters and the same should be redeemed atleast 15 minutes before the event starts. Else the same goes for sale to people waiting outside and interested in that event. Nice idea. I think IMG & Ravi should take a note of this.

Ended up getting two season tickets for ourselves and returned home.

taxi taxi

Apart from the Mishti Dhoi, the Roshgolla’s what i loved about this city was

These lovely YELLOW coloured Taxi’s in Kolkata.

Rainy mumbai

I was travelling to Mumbai last week and the rainy season welcomed one and all there ……

Some of the changed and unchanged parts of Mumbai ……

from the wings

to bumper to bumper traffic

the old and ugly

Mostly TVC hoardings

to the new 2.5 Kms walkway to BKC

the rainy Mumbai

and lastly the precarious workers on a new hoarding

Out an out travel to mumbai is always a mix of all these elements, but still i like the city better than a trip to the Nations capital.

Customer service …. and more

Customer service is always expected and never available.

This is the feeling most of us carry. Couple of incidents in the last few weeks brought the memories back about this as a subject.

When you order just a Paneer Achari Roll & a tomato soup in a busy restaurant on a Saturday afternoon, and you are all alone, you are not going to be among the well serviced tables. When the soup turns out to be a Chicken soup for a veggie like me you are too sure the way the service is going to be.

But “Bay Leaf” and its Steward (probably i’m wrong on his designation) Mr. Sundar from that moment onwards changed my “I-know-it-all & i’ve-seen-it-all” attitude. The soup got changed without a blink, no arguments like “i thought it was chicken soup” varieties. When i tried calling one of their bearers (who incidentally was a oriya person), Sundar again interfered and said he might not understand me as he doesn’t know the language to avoid embarrassments. These guys where very courteous and where on the ball.

I was also liking the table mat (nice quick fix Numerology on first letters of your name and thereby your character), but was hesitant to ask for one. While i was on the way out he came running with the table mat and the menu as a give away. (How did he know i was interested, no idea!)

Sum of it … all small things made/make a wonderful experience. A goof-up in service offers more opportunity to win over many than a regular service offering. (My armchair management idea i guess).

Did i say a “couple of incidents”? Yes, but i forgot the other unpleasant experiences now ……. but this one stays on ……. (contrary to my belief that negative experiences stays in your mind more than its opposite).