A Box of Chocolates? No, you Dumb Ass it’s the Check!

As out time to leave Hyderabad approaches, we were keen to visit the ones that we haven’t visited till now. Dimple suggested 70 MM and that’s where we were headed, with Binoy and Nimmy who had agreed to spend thei5r Saturday evening with us. For the ill-informed, 70 MM is located on Necklace Road and is owned by the Ohri’s group of Hotels, who already have about 15 eateries in the city.

What welcomed us was a spacious campus which had the breeze from Hussain Sagar lake flowing through it. The Ohri’s management always likes to theme their eateries, 70MM was no different and it was based on the Bollywood theme. On stepping inside we were welcomed by a mannequin of Helen in her all revealing outfit, right opposite to an Amitabh Bachchan mannequin replicating that famous scene from “Amar, Akbar, Anthony” when he appears out of an egg shell. The walls were lined with posters from Bollywood movies of yesteryear’s.
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How About Doing a Madoff to Raju

It’s been over six months since the Raju scandal came to light. But we are nowhere near to a decision. It wouldn’t be wrong to say that whatever is happening with Raju right now is just an eye wash. Ultimately he will get off cheap, and I won’t be surprised if he starts another company on his release. If anyone can do this, it is him. Irrespective of his criminal acts he has a very sharp brain, if he could do it once, he can very well do it again.

Compare this to the Bernard Madoff scandal. Madoff admitted that his fraud exceeded $50 billion, making it the largest Ponzi scheme that the world has ever witnessed. He ran this fraud for almost thirty years, during which time he defrauded European royalty, hedge funds from across the world, America’s top businessman and executives, and even a US Senator. If the Madoff scandal had happened in India, the trial itself would have lasted at least 15 years considering that the victims were from across the world. But this isn’t how things work in the US.
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Happy Birthday Mom

Mom with one of us three

Yes, this would have been Mom’s 63rd birthday if she were here with us. Mom was very fond of eating out. On birthdays, anniversaries, or at times when w e didn’t have any reason to celebrate, we all would pack ourselves into Papa’s Maruti 800 and head to a restaurant for a nice meal, which of course was followed by ice cream at Milkfood Sec.17, at Aroma’s after Milfood closed down, or towards the end, at the roundabout of Sectors 9, 10,16, & 17 .

For as long as I can remember, this is precisely h0ow we celebrated most occasions.These small celebrations were so gratifying that we never thought of other ways to celebrate. You may find this boring, but to us this meant the world.

Now, that Papa and Anu are in Chandigarh, Tina and I in Hyderabad, and our dear sister Radha all alone in Canada, we couldn’t repeat our ritual together. So while Papa and Anu headed to one of Mom’s favorite eateries, the Coffee House in Chandigarh’;s Sector 17, Tina and I went out for ice cream, something mom was crazy about and could have it at anytime of the day. Haven’t had a chance to talk to Radha so really don’t know what she did. But I guess she too would have done something that would make Mom smile.

Happy Birthday Mom, we all miss you.