Restaurant Review - Punjab Restaurant.

Delhi is especially known for Punjabi cuisine. And this restaurant does full justuce to that. This place has been there since long time in Ajmal Khan road, Karol Bagh and one of my favorites. I remember my hay days when I used to buy samosas in the evenings whenever snacks was not available at home. At that time there used to be a non-AC restaurant and a place for making and serving chats and sweets. It was initially called Punjab sweets corner.



Now it has grown into a biggie. Now called Punjab Restautant, this has all the needs of a good restaurant, superb food, quick service, couteous staff etc. Dont go by its name because it does not only serve Punjabi food but also South Indian items, chats and chinese cuisine.

Apart from a-la-carte items, you can also oget deluxe thali (Punjabi meal) for INR 150 which is reasonable enough. The meal includes 2 pieces bread, 3 tandoori side-dishes, one rice item, sweet, papad, salad, pickle etc.

Problems: Crowded, being in main area and a commercial centre, and at the corner which is the intersection of Ajmal Khan Road and Valmiki marg. Service may become a little bit slow during peak hours.

But as it is for any other restaurant in Delhi, the superior food quality will make sure you would complain neither about the crowd nor about the slower service.

Interesting read - Stocks and bonds to become hazardous to wealth?

Within the next 20 years, the most profound changes in economic history will sweep the globe. The economic chaos and turbulence that we are now experiencing are merely the opening salvos in what will prove to be a long, disruptive period of adjustment.

At least that's my theory, and careful investors owe it to themselves to hear me out. If I'm right, long-term investing in stocks and bonds will deliver lackluster returns at best and be destroyers of wealth at worst.

To explain why, I need to tell you about how "Three Es" -- the economy, energy and the environment -- are interconnected and why we need to consider all three at once.

The first "E" refers to the economy. Even if we were to limit our analysis to this realm only, I could make a compelling case that stocks and bonds face the most daunting structural headwinds seen in generations. As I argued in The Great Asset Bubble, as baby boomers transition from being net savers to net spenders, this will have a dramatic downward effect on the value of the stocks, bonds and real estate that they will need to sell.

Further, we might note that the developed world has doubled its debt load over the past 10 years and seems unlikely to be able to do so again. Even more dramatically, there has been an explosive expansion in unmatched pension and entitlement liabilities. Without these increases in debt and unfunded liabilities, global growth over the past decade would have been a great deal less than it was.

Source: Federal Reserve

Figure 1: Total credit market debt in the U.S. doubled from $26 trillion to $52 trillion between Jan 2000 and Jan 2009. It also doubled in the 1990's, as it did in the 1980's. Can it double again? To continue the trend, it would need to go to $104 trillion in the 'twenty-teens' somehow piling on an incremental $52 trillion, or more than $5 trillion a year.

Can debt continue its parabolic growth? If it doesn't, it's safe to say that the behavior of the economy that most investors accept as "the way things work" will change, and probably quite dramatically. By extension, much of what we've learned about investing in stocks and bonds during this period will mislead rather than guide.

The Second "E" -- Energy

When we bring in the second "E," energy, the story quickly compounds in urgency. Our economy is dependent on growth. Not just any kind of growth, but some percentage growth every year. Not much, just three or four percent -- but such growth is an absolute requirement for stocks to grow and for bonds to get paid back, at least in aggregate.

Petroleum -- oil -- is the undisputed king of fuels that drive economic expansion. It has no substitutes and no replacements. And it is depleting. There is growing alignment between various government and private institutions in predicting the date when an irreversible peak of oil production will occur. This does not mean "running out," mind you, just that slightly less and less will be available each year -- though at increasing extraction costs, despite our best efforts.

Some say the peak has already happened (not me), some say it will happen by 2015 (I'm with them), and a shrinking few say it will be around 2020. We have no substitutes ready to take its place. Alternative fuels are decades away from being able to operate at a scale sufficient to make up for the gap left by depleting oil.

To a long-term investor, none of these are acceptable outcomes because they all indicate that the mechanism of economic growth and wealth creation will profoundly change within zero to 10 years.

It's easy to model, predict or even intuit that a peak in oil will coincide with a peak in economic output. After Peak Oil, when there is incrementally less oil to divvy up across the global landscape, economic growth will stagnate and then decline.

The Third "E" -- The Environment

What else comes with Peak Oil? A peak in everything that depends on oil, which brings us to the minerals and other resources that we secure from the environment. Again, this is not a story of "running out" -- this is a story where things get just a little bit harder and a little bit more expensive. As a result, fewer and fewer resources will come up out of the ground and course through our economic body.

We can already see the possibility of reserve depletion of five key mineral ores over the next 15 years:

Source: www.theoildrum.com

Figure 2: Left to right, the first five elements are: Strontium, Silver, Antimony, Gold and Zinc.

Does all economic activity cease with the depletion of a few key elements? No, of course not. But neither does our economy continue to operate in precisely the same way that it did when demand alone dictated supply.

And that's my key message here. There is a wealth of data suggesting that a period of profound change is either already upon us or coming soon enough to capture the attention of any serious long-term investor. We can no longer constrain our thinking to just one "E," the economy.

Conclusion

If my thesis and data are correct, corporate earnings will falter in the coming years. The vital ingredients needed for economic growth will be in short supply, and stocks will fail to grow. Similarly, bonds require repayment of both the principal and the interest components, which means that, in aggregate, bond values are explicitly dependent on growth. Yet Peak Oil looms in the near distance.

With this in mind, our financial models go straight out the window. We'll need new thoughts, tools and expertise to guide us towards wealth creation and maintenance. Stocks and bonds in general simply will not behave as they have in the past as we enter a new world of constant economic shrinkage. Current discount models feed on earnings growth and compounding interest that will no longer be obtainable.

In a world without continuous economic growth, we'll need a lot more than a formulaic approach allocating assets into broad market categories. Investing will have to transition away from following time-tested formulas that no longer apply. It will require a good understanding of the changing circumstances and their effects. We'll need an exceptional amount of due diligence in order to pick out the individual winners from the losers.

As I see it, trends in energy and the environment have gained too much momentum to mitigate, and global economic stagnation is the new normal. Though more effort will be required than in the past, those who can understand this and adapt have a good chance of preserving and even growing their wealth. Unfortunately, most will miss the turn. Don't be among them.

(Source: Yahoo Finance)

Funny Video 2.

Compilation fo funny video. Enjoy your week-end.

Restaurant Review - Saravana Bhawan, Chennai.

In my opinion and as far as I have heard, this is the best south Indian restaurant in terms of food quality and uniform standards of food preparation and service. Saravana Bhavan is a chain of restaurants head-quartered in Chennai and located at many places in India and around the world. There is one in Connaught Place in Delhi and many in Chennai.

The best thing about this is that they are time-tested. They have rendered quality since day 1 and are continuing to maintain and striving to improve quality even to this date. They also have diversified into Italian, Gujrati and Rajasthani cuisines wherein they have performed decently well. But South Indian cuisine is their forte. The yummy dosas, uttappams, vadais, rice items, meals etc are hallmarks of this chain of eateries. 14 idly is a speciality of this place. It is nothing but 14 small idlies in a small tray drowned in yummy sambar. A more recent addition has been paneer dosa. It serves masala milk in the evening which is again a Saravana Bhavan speciality. It has self-service as well as full-fledged service restaurants. So, this caters to all segments of people.

Pluses: Quality, standard, good service, self as well as full service and diversification into other cuisines.

Limitations: Some people, especially Chennai's locals find this place too costly. They have another complaint, viz. quantity of food has reduced considerably over the years vis-a-vis the cost. For example the size of Dosa or uttapam or quantity of rice has reduced.

But still, they have maintained the same flavour and taste in their delicacies over a period of time, which many restaurants have failed to do.

Video of the week - Murali magic !

Kumble speaks on Muthiah Muralitharan's magic on his retirement...

(Source: NDTV)

Travelogue - Madurai and Kodaikanal: Part 2.

We then went to Kurinji andavar temple which is a temple of lord Kartikeya who is the main deity in Kodaikanal.

The temple: It is said to be a sub-temple of Palani which is one of the six sacred abodes or Arupadaivedu of lord Kartikeya.

The handsome lord:

Image: Kurinjiandavar, Kodaikanal.

Lord Dandayutapani, Palani.

Our next target was to reach Berijam lake which is a high altitude lake located more than 20 kms from Kodaikanal:

For this we needed to get permission from the forest rangers which we got. The route to this lake was through dense forests, but I was stunned by the nature's beauty and bounty there. There was no question of any pollution or big crowd there, though there were some vehicles going towards the lake.

These are the sort of the places I am talking about, totally stress relieving and pure. See this ......

This is the view of the lake from one of the view points on the side of the road leading to the lake:





And then we reached the lake ........





Rest in the next post. Meanwhile do keep visiting.

Interesting read - Fake court and fake police station.

'Fake' is a big industry in Indian cities. But while fake medicine or fake mark sheets are common place, a bunch of conmen took the art of faking to quite another level. They ran a fake police station and a fake court in the heart of Chennai.

The modus operandi was to target innocent victims looking for legal succour. Pretending to help them, the gang would extort money from the other party threatening police and legal action. The gang had even appointed inspectors and a judge to fool gullible people.

The racket was busted with the arrest of two members of the gang. Ten others are absconding.

The police are red-faced. "When greed takes over man anything may happen...But whenever it comes to our notice we act ruthlessly," offered Shakeel Akther, Additional Commissioner of Police, Chennai. But the Chennai Police are hard put to explain the sheer audacity with which the gang went about its business in the city.

(Source: NDTV).

Video of the week - Funny video.

So here are our funny videos for this week so that you can just enjoy your week-end happily. Here we go...

Restaurant review - Gyan Vaishnav Dhaba, Chennai.

This mini Punjab in Chennai has big history of its own. Earlier, Vellore (In Tamil Nadu, South India) lacked good restaurants. There were not many restaurants near the bus stand and railway station. This dhaba was started initially in Vellore. For this reason, this dhaba is also called Vellore's Gyan Vaishnav.

The owner, a sardarji is wonderful and courteous. Gyan Vaishnav dhaba is a specialist Punjabi joint. I bet this is one of the best dhabas in Chennai. And am big fan of this.

You can find lot of portraits in the dhaba- One features the owner standing with Shah Rukh Khan, and the other, with Amitabh Bachhan doing the grand gala innauguration of the great dhaba.

I have probably diverted too much away from the topic 'food'. Ok ok... Let's come back to the main matter. The dhaba is pure veg as the name 'Vaishnav' suggests. It is completely air-conditioned. It attracts huge crowds during lunch and evening times of the weekdays and week-end evenings.

The menu consists of a sum total of all Punjabi veg items. You can start with one or more of the manchurians and 65s (Gobi, Paneer). Some prime dishes being Tandoori breads like Naan (Plain, butter, garlic, kashmiri), Roti (plain, ghee, romali, makki), Parantha (Tava, Tandoori, Paneer, Aloo, Gobi, Meti) , Kulcha, Chole Bhature. The sidedishes are malai kofta, chilly paneer, kaju paneer, paneer butter masala, kadai vegetable, bhindi do pyaza, baingan bharta and scores of others. Apart from the a-la-carte items, the dhaba also offers thali or meals. Apart from Punjabi thali, a special Jain thali is also available. Jain thali does not have onion and garlic. Still the dhaba has expertise in bringing flavour and taste to the Jain thali.

You can finish your delicious lunch or dinner by having badam kheer or lassi. These two dishes, though not being part of the meal, is irresistible because of the flavour.

This dhaba is also not devoid of its limitations. Some people may find it a bit costly. You may find it crowded almost daily. Lassi is sometimes a bit too sweet than required.

But all in all, this dhaba has some really good authentic punjabi cuisine. It is located in mount road (anna salai) in Chennai near Anand theatre.

Video of the week - The 'peepl'e person

It's Aamir at music launch of 'peepli', his new film. Watch him as he plays drums and sings !

(Source: NDTV)

Travelogue - Madurai and Kodaikanal: Part 1.

Madurai:

Also called the city of temples, it is located in the south Indian state of Tamil Nadu. It is one of the major pilgrimage centres. The most famous amongst the temples is the goddess Meenakshi temple. There is also one St. Joseph’s church but we couldn’t find time to visit there. Nor could we visit Meenakshi temple because of some big festival held there.

I am giving details of the places we visited in this post. The first place we visited was the temple of lord Azhagar (also called Sundararaja Perumal temple or Kallazhagar temple). It is one of the 108 Divya desamsdivya desams is said to have been done by Ramanuja who is placed in the level just below lord Vishnu himself. or sacred shrines of Vishnu. The classification of

So, here are few snaps of the temple:

The Rajagopuram or the spire in the main gate.




A view of the temple complex:

You can find lots of Monkeys outside the temple complex.



Beware of these dangerous human predecessors. They can snatch away your belongings. They sit in trees as a clout.



Our next visit was to the Murugan or Kartikeya temple at Pazhamudircholai which is the sixth amongst the six sacred abodes of the lord which are also called Arupadaiveedu.





We then went to Vedanta Desikar temple.......



and then to Koodalazhagar temple




After this we went to Kodaikanal by road, the next day. The route we took was the Madurai-Vathlakkundu-Kodai Road-Kodaikanal. One normally pass through only one hill while climbing to a hill station due to which there is a constant increase in altitude. But while going to Kodaikanal, one passes through many hills. One needs to climb up and down a hill and then sevral such hills might make one feel giddy. So just be careful in this route.

Rest everything seems to be totally fine in this place - much less commercialized as compared to Ooty. You may not have much siteseeing to be done at Kodaikanal but can find much of the nature's beauty in and around the city.

Here you can find the places we visited and their snaps.

Kodai lake:










There have been occasions earlier when wild bulls have attacked the Kodai lake region from open unfenced jungles along the corner of the lake like these.



More snaps........




Part 2 of this post will appear the coming week. Please do keep visiting.

Interesting read - Solar storms.

The sun is about to get a lot more active, which could have ill effects on earth. So to prepare, top sun scientists met Tuesday to discuss the best ways to protect Earth's satellites and other vital systems from the coming solar storms that can damage power systems. The sun's activity typically follows an 11-year cycle, and it looks to be coming out of a slump and gearing up for an active period.Solar storms occur when sunspots on our star erupt and spew out flumes of charged particles.

"The sun is waking up from a deep slumber, and in the next few years we expect to see much higher levels of solar activity," said Richard Fisher, head of NASA's Heliophysics division "At the same time, our technological society has developed an unprecedented sensitivity to solar storms. The intersection of these two issues is what we're getting together to discuss."

Bad news for gizmos

People of the 21st century rely on high-tech systems for the basics of daily life. But smart power grids, GPS navigation, air travel, financial services and emergency radio communications can all be knocked out by intense soilar activity.

A major solar storm could cause twenty times more economic damage than Hurricane Katrina, warned the National Academy of Sciences in a 2008 report, "Severe Space Weather Event —Societal and Economic Impacts." [Photos: Sun storms.]

Luckily, much of the damage can be mitigated if managers know a storm is coming. That's why better understanding of solar weather, and the ability to give advance warning, is especially important.

Putting satellites in 'safe mode' and disconnecting transformers can protect electronics from damaging electrical surges.

"Space weather forecasting is still in its infancy, but we're making rapid progress," said Thomas Bogdan, director of the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA)'s Space weather prediction centre in Boulder, Colo.

Eyes on the sun

NASA and NOAA work together to manage a fleet of satellites that monitor the sun and help to predict its changes.

A pair of spacecraft called STEREO (Solar Terrestrial Relations Observatory) is stationed on opposite sides of the sun, offering a combined view of 90 percent of the solar surface. In addition, SDO (the Solar Dynamics Observatory), which just launched in February 2010, is able to photograph solar active regions with unprecedented spectral, temporal and spatial resolution. Also, an old satellite called the Advanced Composition Explorer (ACE), which launched in 1997, is still chugging along monitoring winds coming off the sun. And there are dozens more dedicated to solar science.

"I believe we're on the threshold of a new era in which space weather can be as influential in our daily lives as ordinary terrestrial weather." Fisher said. "We take this very seriously indeed."

Click here for a video on the solar storm.

(Source: Yahoo news)

The new world order of football.

Octopus Paul gets it right this year also. As per his predictions, Germany won the third spot as consolation for not being able to make it big this year. But the real change has been brought about by Spain. With a thumping win in yesterday's grand finale, they have not only become this year's football champs but also ending an era of Brazil and Argentina's dominion in this game.

So, Spain has created a new world order of football !!

We also have a non-human Nostra Damas in the form of a tentacled creature.

The grand finale !

Octopus Paul gets one of his predictions for this year right. Germany beat Uruguay by 3 goals to 2 yesterday. Today is the D Day. Will Spain able to win as expected, or Holland spring up a surprise? Who will win - the Octopus Paul or the Bhagat, the Parrot? That will be decided tonight.

Video of the week: Of octopus and parakeet.

The world cup football is as exciting as it is. On the field as well as off the field. It's Spain Vs Holland tommorrow on the field and Octupus Vs Parakeet off the field. Paul, the octopus predicts Spain's win in the WC whilst Mani, the Parakeet predicts the opposite. With on and off field competitions getting tighter, it would be good to see as to really who finally wins this year's WC.




And Bhagat, the parrot has predicted a win for Spain. Here you go....



Hmm. I thought Indians are superstitious, but I find that westerners are as superstitious as the Indians are.

A really inspiring interview by The Dalai Lama on the occasion of his birthday

The Dalai Lama is truly an inspiration since he has struck the right balance between spirituality and science. This great legendary philisopher is and will always be my inspiration.

(Source: NDTV).

Restaurant review - Udupi Restaurant, Delhi

This seems to be one amongst the most inspiring restaurants I can find in Delhi. Not only in terms of the food available but also the ambience. Specialities start from the very entry point. The below pictures show the way in to this place of food:

Udupi restaurant hosts an open-air garden restaurant and two air-conditioned restaurants.

This is a pure veg restaurant specializing in both North Indian and South Indian cuisines. You can order A-la-carte (individual items) or Thali (Meals). You can have North Indian as well as South Indian meals. You can have a mega North indian meal for INR 150. This meal would contain tandoori naan (with or without ghee), rice, Dal Makhni, Paneer side-dish, Raita, Salad, Pickle, Sweet, Papad etc. You can order Tandoori dishes A-la-carte.

South Indian meals include Rice, Kootu, Poriyal, Sambar, Rasam, Curd, Appalam, Pickle, Roti, Sweet etc. You can also order items individually, like Dosa (Plain, Masala, Rava, Onion Rava, Paneer, Ghee dosas), Uttapam (Plain, Onion etc), Rice items (Sambar, Curd rice).

Chat items like Bhel Puri, Masala Puri, Dahi Puri, Dahi Papdi, Kachodi, Samosa etc are also available. Do remember to get the taste of the delicious and variety Indian sweets like Halwa (North indian) and Mysore Pak (South Indian).

Though the name of the restaurant is of South Indian origin (Udupi is a place in Karnataka, South India), you can find a mix of Indian delicacies in this heaven of food on earth. This is located in Munirka near Munirka market in Delhi. This would surely be one of my all time favorites for long time to come.