Hoysala – Manna from Heaven in New Jersey

If the poet William Wordsworth had dined at Hoysala in Somerset (New Jersey), he’d have modified the famous lines in his poem to read: Bliss was it in that dawn to be alive but to be hungry at Hoysala was very heaven. Most Indian restaurants in the U.S. are like our Bollywood movies. The skimpily-clad […]

The Bicycle Thief – A Minor Italian Classic

In an age of $400 iPods, $300 iPhones and $200 Nikes, nobody gives a flying f*@# for a bicycle anymore. Not even a desperate Italian thief. But there was a time and day in Italy – in the not too distant past – when a bicycle was a big draw for a thief in Italy. […]

U.S. Screws Indian Drug Firm Ranbaxy; Bans 30 Drugs on Safety, Quality Grounds

Citing “serious manufacturing deficiencies” at plants belonging to Indian drug manufacturer Ranbaxy, the U.S. Food and Drug Administration has banned import of over 30 different generic drugs from the company. The Ranbaxy plants under fire are located at Dewas and Paonta Sahib in India. The FDA also sent out two warning letters to Ranbaxy, the […]

Paul Theroux – Only Toothbrushing Silences Tamils

Travel writer Paul Theroux is in the news again – for his new book Ghost Train to the Eastern Star, which re-creates the epic 25,000 mile train odyssey the author first undertook in the mid-1970s and chronicled in the bestseller The Great Railway Bazaar (published in 1975). Around 1975, Theroux rode trains across India including a trip […]

Is Rajini’s Trashy Kuselan in Trouble?

Ever the skeptics, we are beginning to think that movie-goers have rejected superstar Rajinikanth’s trashy new film Kuselan, at least in the U.S. Why do we say that? Because we’ve read reports that the promoters of Kuselan in the U.S. have drastically slashed the price of Kuselan movie tickets to $10 (We paid $16 on […]

Chinese Mirch – Indian Chinese Delight in NYC

Like most Indians, there are two things we’re passionate about – Bollywood and food (no, cricket is not that hot on our list). In a long life, we’ve watched several hundred Bollywood movies (Hindi and Tamil) and dined at scores of Indian restaurants in Asia, Europe and North America. North Indian or South Indian, Gujarati or […]