Fort Food Street

Lahore has always attracted gourmands from its suburbs, and it won’t be an overstatement that Lahore have been citadel of food for centuries. Lahore have abundance of eateries scattered all over its geography, but it would be amazing to know that only last decade or so, modernization hit them. Once old ‘dhabbas’ or shabby places,which were unaware of importance of ambiance, cutlery,etc and were just getting business because of their excellent food, but now it is imperative to have all these features to run any eatery. The food street at Gowal Mandi, Old Anarkali and an array of fancy restaurants at M.M Alam road were overwhelmingly accepted by Lahorites and it was evident that how long they wanted to have proper and decent place for eating and hanging out.
Punjab Government closed the Gowal Mandi Food Street, and after some time opened a well planned and well architected food street at Fort Road just within the vicinity of majestic and commendable Badshahi Mosque and Lahore Fort.
Yesterday my brother and I, after doing some shopping, decided to visit the new food street and quench our taste buds with delicacies there. We parked the car in well managed parking lot, which occupies the lane on the back and western side of the Badshahi mosque. The enterance for food street was well secured by walk through metal detector and security guards.
After entering the street, we decided to stroll around. The street was packed with people enjoying their meal with friends and family. After meandering we decided to sit at the beginning of the street, just a furlong away from the musicians. I wished that i would had brought some buds to jam my ears, the music was horrible there, and most ironic thing was that this place was famous famous for its music.
Second shocked came to me when the manager told me that they don’t have any pos for plastic money, and I thank my stars that out of curiosity I asked him whether they accept card or not because I was short on cash that day. Than I realize that in hurriedness of inaugurating the food street (and many other projects ) in unrealistic deadlines set by Punjab Government , some major things are overlooked. Well with the budget of meager cash, i didn't played much with my luck and put my bet on Tawa Chicken. I don’t know the origin of this dish, but i am aware of the fact that this place epitomized Tawa Chicken. Tawa Chicken is prepared in two phases, first the chicken is slowly grilled on coals and than this half done chicken is saute on huge pan (‘Tawa’) with yogurt, spicy masala and then garnished with julienne ginger, lemon, green chillies and coriander. Well I was anticipating something marvelous, but when we were served with our meal, i was very much disappointed. The dish have no sense of presentation, and it looked like it was prepared by making chicken wear a suicide jacket filled with masala and just blast it on our platter. Well I won’t recommend anyone to eat the overpriced food there, nor will I reevaluate my impression by going there to try something different because anything they were offering their, i know better place to get it!

The Artist and Hugo.

I won’t say that I am avid movie watcher, but I am advocate of the fact that movies can be an effective way for oozing depression. For last couple of years I was not able to watch Oscars, which I used to follow dearly, but professional life doesn't give me that luxury, in fact software industry strips you from many. I won’t be whining about horrendous field I am working in, this will be the topic of some other blog maybe when I resign or get fired.
Well I intended to write about 2 movies I watched which shined at Oscars this year, one was “The Artist”, bagging 5 golden statues in prestigious categories;  best picture, director and best actor, where second move “Hugo” also bagged 5 Oscars from 11 nominations.
The Artist was a very significant movie because of the fact that it was first silent movie in 80 years to win best picture at Oscars. The movie depicted an actor going through the transition period from silent to talkies. Imbued by his silent euphoria, confront by conundrum that whether go for talkies or not. The movie’s plot was not a new one, many movies have been made on such a topic, and I don’t know why all of them have intact the same stereotype for actors going through the transition. Means why a silent protagonist thinks that he will outshine the talkies by his charisma, why he thinks that he will make a great silent movie by risking every dime he earned and that movie will be a reason for his glorious comeback and audiences will hark back to silent movies once again. And I can’t comprehend the fact that why in the whole world, the only person loyal to technology stricken out of job actors is their butler. I think writers and directors should really work on this stereotype. Overall 'The Artist' was a nice attempt, I won’t say that it would be my favorite movie, but it rightfully deserved the entire accolade showered on it.
Now the second movie, “Hugo” was directed by one of my favorite director. The movie was adapted from historical fiction ’The Invention of Hugo Cabret’. The movie is about a lonely boy living with his inebriated uncle in a railway station. Jim Morrison  said, “We are thrown into this world”, same was the case with this movie, audience were thrown into it. The movie lacks a proper build up, and this happens with a lot of movies which where based on a epic book. But for me the treat to watch was Ben Kingsely’s portrayal of great George Melies. According to me he was more convincing as Melies than he was as Gandhi. I know not many people will digest this but it’s my personal opinion. The other best thing about movie was its majestic art direction and cinematography, for which it bagged Oscars too. Well in the end I would say that it was not best by Martin and he would do better.