Tunga International, MIDC Central Road, Andheri (E) Mumbai Ph 66921212, 66726672

One of the oldest around the area. Between the 2 tunga’s we had to survive till the recent past when the other restaurants opened & the 5 stars came in.

Good decent punjabi food, with lightening fast service, typical of the shetty motto of Velocity is what drives the business, the nos of times they manage to change customers on one table, so you will always have someone hovering around asking if they can bring a repeat.

The service may have been slack late afternoons or early evenings & if only food:)

A long time since we had a Single Malt evening with friends over, so the date was decided & friends came over in the evening…..

Macallan 30 YO was opened…the bouquet just spreading across. Each to his own Choice I say, but it was mostly 45 ml of water & 45 ml of whiskey, though I tried it with a chill water chaser too myself.

Surprisingly, we tried out some vegetarian starters such as specially made pattice - aloo covering with peas stuffing; some dry bhel etc. which went surprisingly well with the whiskey.

Whilst the non vegetarian starters also brought by Tushar were good, the meat did not go well with the whiskey….maybe try it with a little less masala the next time (oops there is no next time since the whiskey is over)

The Menu went something like this:

Drinks:

Macallan 30 YO brought by Mehul Some lovely Argentinian Red Wine provided by Dharti.

The rest was from the well stocked bar of yours truly.

Starters:

Dry starters & salads were at home, Whilst Tushar & Sonal brought in some lovely Pattice as also some non veg kababs & chicken.

Main Course:

Kadhi & Rice were obviously home made; 2 vegetables; Dal; Chappati were outsourced this time around since Maid has done a disappearing act.

Dessert:

Kulfi from Taj Kulfi brought by Tushar & Sonal; whilst Wajid got some lovely Halwa puri which is normally available only during Ramzaan.

So the final tally of people went something like this

Wajid & Family;  Mehul & Family; Dharti.& Family; Sumir; Netra; Tushar & Family: Naren & Family; Husseni & Family; Neil & family.

Taking my wife shopping, decided to try out this service in Mega mall. For just Rs. 1250/- I got my car, washed, shampooed, buffed & shiney within just an hour & half….quite a useful service, that is now more or less at all malls

I have been seeing a lot of these over the past couple of months & always wonder, whether does it matter to the Traffic Police or RTO or even more importantly the fine of Rs. 100/- probably is too little to make a difference to anybody; BUT then WTF do ordinary citizens keep getting caught on such matters?

A couple of months back, the wife had gone for a play at Mithibai. After dropping her & my parents, the driver parked the car in a by lane & was getting down; when Bam a car came from outside of the society compound & hit the car.

The driver was caught - a cleaner gurkha without license, from a business man’s family, taking the car for a joy ride, mistress fast asleep in the air conditioned house. He was taken to the Juhu Police Station for registering a complaint & there the following Learning came to light from the Head Constable -

• Not too much damage (WTF, if it had been your car? what would you have done?)
• Why did you bring him here? (So, did you expect us to take him for a movie or award night?)
• Do you want to register a complaint (Nope, just came to meet my in laws)
• Mandavli Karun Taaka (Take the money for repairs & finish the matter - What’s wrong with you?)
• Oh, you want to claim more insurance etc.

All this while, my wife is explaining to him that the issue here is driving without a license coupled with the carelessness of the owners. Finally, an Inspector intervened, having understood the matter & asked the constable to do the needful quickly.

His owner was asked to come, but he was out of station, so a constable was sent to get the lady, who finally landed up herself, having realized that the car had disappeared….full of attitude, not even being worried about what had happened.

Net result - FIR was lodged, copy collected after a week & obviously the nepali boy is still roaming around with his mistresses car, maybe even having damaged more & the owners - rich though they are have no civic sense, but will be the first person to shout & ask for justice, if the same boy does something to them…..Such is Life!

Not as great as the Colaba one. But the Pani Puri’s are the same served with chilled mineral water. The aloo tuk, dahi vada are to die for. You can always round it off with sweets, gulab jamun with kulfi…..

7A, Crystal Plaza, Opp. Infinity Mall, New Link Road, Andheri (W) Mumbai Ph 67023300

A couple of days ago, some men took away covers from the drainage in our society. Whilst the watchmen chased them, they ran away & nothing much could be done, since it was 3.30 am

The very next day one of them returned to do some more damage & was caught by the watchmen on duty. Being the chairperson of the society was called down to decide what could be done with the person who was caught….since he claimed to be a “Khabri” (informer) of the Oshiwara police station.

Salim - the so called Khabri of Police

So I called 100 from my cell phone - took 3 tries but managed to get through. Impressed with the efficiency of the constable who took down the details & said somebody would be there within 10 minutes.

Whilst, the druggie kept shouting, I decided to call the local police station - Oshiwara - in this case, just to be on the safe side, After 15 rings some constable picked up the phone. Upon explaining, he asked for the address & then began my problem - we supposedly fell into Amboli Police Station - No amount of arguing, cajoling, GPS, Google convinced him that it was not the case.

So finally took the number from him & called Amboli Police Station, which gave the same run around, with finally telling me that both the police stations are next door to each other in the same compound!

Back, to Oshiwara & managed to convince them to send someone.

20 minutes later finally a cop walked in & started firing questions to everyone generally:

• Who is this?
• Who called?
• Why did you waste time unnecessarily
• These druggies are useless

When I spoke tough with him, saying that the said druggie also claimed to be a murderer & asked for his ID, he said Ok Ok, I’ll take him, but send the watchmen to write a complaint.

Just as they were going out, a police vehicle came up, sent by 100 control inquiring about the incident, upon which our man tried to impress that he had everything under control.

The entire episode took an hour & half, but I was most impressed by the control 100…..with just a bit of more manpower & automation, they can do wonders.

Keep it going Mumbai Police

Don’t get tempted by what others are doing & saying but, if you look closely, you should recognise that talk & reality are not always the same.

An important facet of business today is Learning to compete on “unlevel” playing fields….something which a lot of managers do not wish to.

Remember the time when we said, “Let’s meet & plan something.”  Now are the days where we say, ” Let’s plan & meet someday.”  Friends remain the same, it’s just that priorities have changed.