Fishy Luscious Kerala Meals in Bangalore

~ bjcharles ~ Leave a comment
Train Food Pack

Lucky Me – Fish Curry today

Fish Fry for Today! 

Though I’m in Bangalore for the last 10 or more years, what I don’t miss is the fish curry lunch. Thanks to my spouse, I’m glad to enjoy food to my heart’s content. And, every time I have tasty meal in Bangalore, I think of many who are away from home – missing their home cooked fish curry.

So, where do the fish lovers in Bangalore visit to have a decent fish curry meals? What are the restaurants or Kerala mess which has fish curry meals in its menu.

1. Achayans at Tippasandra
Address: 2209, Thrikanya Building, 80ft Road, Next to BSNL Signal, HAL 3rd Stage, Kodihalli, Bengaluru, Karnataka 560008
Hours: Closed ⋅ Opens 12PM Sun
Phone: 096202 84809

2. Little Home at Koramangala
Address
1015, 1st Block, 80 Feet Road, Koramangala 1st Block,
Near Wipro Park
Phone # 08025631504, 08025525950

3. Kairali at Koramangala
Address: no 3, 2nd B Cross Road, 1, 1st Main Rd, Zuzuvadi, Maruti Nagar, 1st Stage, BTM Layout,
Hours: Closed ⋅ Opens 7AM Sun
Phone: 080 2553 4034

4. The Paramount Hotel
Address: 177/178, Amarjyoti Layout, Domlur,
Hours: Open ⋅ Closes 2:30AM
Phone: 097435 20000

5. Kerala Pavallion at Domlur
Address: #765,, 1st Main Road,, Domlur Layout,
Hours: Closed ⋅ Opens 7:30AM Sun
Phone: 080 2535 6829

6. Shaap
Address
83/4,13th, Main Road, HAL 2nd Stage, Doopanahalli, Indiranagar, Bangalore
Phone number
080 49598061

7 New Life Kerala Mess
Address: 3790, 7th Main Rd, Motappapalya, Indiranagar,
Hours: Closed ⋅ Opens 7AM Sun
Phone: 087921 75265

8. Kerala Mess
Address: Plot No. 36, Venkatapura Road, 7th A Cross Road, 1st Block, Koramangala,
Hours: Closed ⋅ Opens 8AM Sun
Phone: 077600 93800

9 Angel Kerala Restaurant
Address: 1st Cross , Bilekahalli,
Phone: 098807 14970

10 Jose Mess
Address: 9th Cross Road, Maruthi Nagar Main Rd, Near Padmavathi Public School, Nagar,

Phone: 080 2684 0905

11 Kumarakom Restaurant
Address: No-23, 14th Main Road, 4th Sector, Opp BDA Complex, HSR Layout,

Phone: 080 6500 0118

12 Kerala mess upahar
Address: 1b, Outer Ring Rd, Adarsh Palm Retreat, Bellandur

Phone: 099862 08080

13 Kuttanad Restaurant
Address: #1157, 5th Cross, KRC Road, Kothanur, Vyalikaval HBCS Layout, Nagawara,
Phone: 097427 41836

14. Thalassery Restaurant
Address: No.143, 5th Block, Munireddy Kalyana Mandappa Road, Koramangala,

Phone: 080 2552 6969

15 God’s Own Cafe
Address: 72, 1st Main,4th Cross Road,7th Block, Koramangala, Near HDFC Bank
Phone: 099807 39700

————————-

Mangalore Fish Specialty Restaurants in Bangalore

It’s not just the Malayalee’s who are craving for boiled rice and coconut based fish curry. There are other brethren who have similar fishy taste. Well, all coastal towns have liking to sea food. So, here’s the list of handful of restaurants serving Mangalore fish dishes

Mangalore Pearls

Coast to Coast at Koramangala

Goan Fish Thali – 

Splendid St Patrick Church in Bangalore

~ bjcharles ~ Leave a comment
St Patrick Church – 

Marble Plaque 

Live Isabel – Marble Plaque

Pic From I sat 

Hugh Luxa – How did he look like?

Every Church Has a Story!
About all those who have visited, prayed, baptized, married and was given final goodbye in this church. Well, ask the church walls about what all it has seen from its’ foundation stone to all current renovation.

From what I know, St Patrick church is one of the oldest church in Bangalore. For all the priests, parishioners, choir teams has come and gone. I wish their website has the pics in chronological way. I feel the church has done their bit by publishing a hard bound book which catalogs the journey so far.

People and Church
I remember the lady who used to play the piano. She has used to be accompanied her husband and her daughter. After the mass I used to see them at Koshy’s.

Later one day, I heard during a mass, that she had was called to final abode. I miss them!

What’s the little idea!

Here’s what I think. There should be a tea stall which serves some light refreshments for church goers – like water, a cup of tea and sandwich. The earning from such a stall can go for some welfare. Also, there are many people who can’t go hungry for a long time. At least this stall should open after every mass.

St Patrick’s Church on the Web

Church website http://www.stpatricksblr.com/

Tripadvisor reviews says this is a must see church if you’re visiting Bangalore.

Mass Timings
Weekdays

Morning
6:00 AM – English
6:30 AM – Tamil
7:00 AM – English

Click here for detailed mass timing

My two cents about St Patrick church website!

Good Points

Easy navigation and information is given upfront
Relevant tabs takes visitors to the relevant page.
Fast loading of pages.

These are few suggestions:

History tab –  Give an option to visitors to buy the book about St Patrick’s Church. Or just give excerpts about the book

Also, on the choir tab, pics of the current choir team, or the old team will be interesting. \

News and Events – a visual calendar will be good for people to understand the upcoming events.

Homepage Menu “Donation” is essential.
 On this page, church can solicit  help from public about some project or get crowd-sourced funds to help any parishioner. Donation page should include the bank account number of the church. Just imagine, a generous giver comes to know about a cause and funds the project. It could be fan for the parish to roof for a parishioner or even funding higher studies for a person.

To quote the Bible – So I say to you: Ask and it will be given to you; seek and you will find; knock and the door will be opened to you .

St Patrick’s Cemetry

If you like to read old epitaphs, then St Patrick’s cemetery is a must visit one. I have made couple of visits, and I wouldn’t joining you for another visit. 

Remembering Ole House I’ve Lived

~ bjcharles ~ Leave a comment

“This Ole House” Lyrics

This ole house once knew his children
This ole house once knew a wife
This ole house was home and comfort
As we fought the storms of life
This old house once rang with laughter
This old house heard many shouts
Now she trembles in the darkness
When the lightnin’ walks about….

About this post
I saw this FB post while browsing through a friend’s post. As I played this song by Colet Selvan on Youtube, I was struck with this voice, the voice that lit hope and gave me company on a lonely Sunday.

What a mesmerizing voice and as one of the comment on Youtube goes – just close your eyes and hear this song, you’ll think it’s from a old White man.

Flashback…
Also, when I heard this song with the lyrics, it took me to the houses where I have stayed and which has lost it’s sheen after we had moved out. It’s so, so sad to see the house that’s broken, in a bad shape, after all, the time I had spend in that house has so much memories of my life in that phase of life.

Well, nothing is permenant in this word….all things crumbles. 

Fading Fortunes of Many Biz in Kerala

~ bjcharles ~ Leave a comment
Who is Ready For the Change

We are living in an era like no other era. Some call it the age of disruption.  It’s the time of new smart machines, seamless connectivity, cheaper communications, faster Internet, and all things between real and virtual is blurred.

There are umpteen examples on how new biz or technology has changed the equation and our lifestyle into a different orbit. One example is how Jio made data dirt cheap for consumers. Also, services like Ola and Uber has changed the way we hire and hail taxi.

 Despite all these changes, most of us, especially our political leaders are neither mute, nor alerting the public of what lies ahead for most people. Probably, they are short-sighted like the ones before, not giving a clue of what lies ahead.

Changes are there forever – Question is – Are you Prepared?

Whether you like it or not, these changes can rob your job or displace your income stream, or take controls from your life. If you need proof, just check the newspapers about the impact of automation or AI which are currently impacting the IT sector and making other manufacturing sectors. The perils of these intelligent system is not what we have perceived, but it’s real and it’s coming to your door or cubicle.

Awake Kerala – Let’s Do Something New & Novel  

When I see the typical biz attitudes of people in Kerala, I feel an urge to tell them that it’s time to life their lungi’s and dash for a new sanctuary. From poor customer service to arrogant and ignorance sales staff,  Kerala has a long way to go in building their business practices.

Also, the old way of life we have known is fading. For instance, the assured salary of govt staffer, or the long tenure as a bank clerk or work as a sales person in a electronic show room are all shrinking.

Special ALERT to These Business owners in Kerala

#1 If you’re running a private college ( Engg College or Medical college or Nursing college), then take a second look at the dwindling admission rates. Do you think it will be viable to run a institution with fewer students? Or do you have plans to develop your college as a top place for learning or you still has plans to keep it as a mediocre one?

Tip: Either you close it down, or face the heat staying as a average learning academy. Or, choose to improve the quality of education and increase the outcome.

#2 If you’re working as a cashier, then it’s time to change the habit. What habit – the way you deal with customers. As I mentioned in an earlier blog, I feel Kerala, in particular, Trivandrum is known for it’s sloppy treatment towards customers. If this continue, your job will be taken by shops like Kada.in or Amazon or some freshtohome.com which has an excellent customer interaction service.

#3 For people working in travel and tourism business know how much the tourist inflow to Kerala has gone down. While there’re reasons beyond your control, like liquor ban or control, to waste litter or unclean surrounding, there’re few things you make an impact. Here’re few – don’t see travelers like money bags, but as visitors looking for experience with a limited budget. Also, see to it that you provide excellent service while they are staying in your hotel or resort.

Kareemen Now Reared in Ponds

~ bjcharles ~ Leave a comment
Karemeen at a Fish Stall at Domlur, Bangalore

I remember a very old trip when I went for fishing with my Uncle, big cousins, and dad to the backwater part ( Veli) in Trivandrum. The previous day of the fishing trip, I hardly had any sleep. I kept rolling on the bed with the excitement of my first fishing trip till I saw daylight sweeping through the wooden windows.

Fishing Trip Day
With all eagerness I accompanied them to Veli lagoon area for fishing. We had carried bamboo sticks which was prepared for holding the fishing line, specially made fish bait, to start our fishing trip. However, with all the excitement, my line hardly got a bite. At times I thought that the float was pulled by a fish, but each time I took the line out, the bait was gone and so is the fish. The star of the day was my uncle, we got many small karemmen. Though the fish caught on the line was small, it brought all the excitement for the team.

Karemmen in Bangalore Markets

Karemmen was recently named as the state fish of Kerala is a sought after fish. The most favoured preperation is Karemeen pullechathi. In Bangalore fish stalls, this fish is a regular sight. I think, the Karemeen reaching here are the ones reared in ponds. So, gone are the fish caught in the line.

To this day, I haven’t bought Karemeen from the market. I stick to sardines or the typical sankara ( Pink Perch) from the fish stall.

Micro Sponsorship from Corporates

~ bjcharles ~ Leave a comment
All governments and quasi-govt agencies spend good amount money for its day-to-day activities. The money spend is obviously from the tax-payer’s kitty. At times I wonder if these agencies can save some cash or get sponsorship from private companies.

Example – How KSRTC can Tap Sponsorship

Cut Corners – Call for Sponsorship
Apart from the advertising space used on the body of buses, hoarding, etc, there are few areas to get sponsors. Here are few ideas to ponder:

Ticket Printing – Get Sponsors

Have you noticed the tickets issued by the conductors. These days they use a machine which prints the ticket on a white roll paper. When it prints, one side is the ticket information, and back side is blank. So, this blank part could be used to print an add or a sponsor’s brand, etc.

On the same lines, I have noticed that govt hospitals use lot of stationery to issue OP tickets. So, is there a way to save few pennies on stationery cost. Yes. Get a medical company to sponsor the cost of printing all these forms. Also, get the sponsor to issue quality paper, not the govt issued ones from Stationery department.

Tender Coconut Stalls in KSRTC Stands

All parts of Kerala is very humid. Due to this there’s always demand for tender coconut in every KSRTC bus depot. Imagine, if every KSRTC depot has a booth to sell tender coconut.

Each depot must be managed by staff or retired staff or should be given to handicap people or off-duty employee. For KSRTC, it will be a channel to get some money from its premises.

Regarding tender coconut procurement, it can get tender coconut from one depot or the other. Just like tender coconut water, they can start a booth selling fresh curd milk. Imagine, how happy customers will be to drink a chill curd milk on a hot sweaty day. For KSRTC employees, it will be sold at half the price.

Get sponsorship to maintain Loos

Public toilet inside any of the KSRTC bus stand is the last place you want to go for a pee. But, most often travelers and tourists end up in this messy place to relieve. We know it’s no easy to maintain a loo with 2 rs contribution. This is where super clean loo come into the picture.

To make this happen, get a sponsor ( Sanifresh, Godrej Aer, Paryware), or any company who’s into selling toilet cleaning liquids or accessories to sponsor a loo. While they will maintain two or more staff, and bear the cost of cleaning the loo, in return their logo will be displayed inside the loo. The customers will know that this clean loo is managed by a company and will be thankful for that.

Other brands or biz which would be interested in promotion inside the loo would be hospitals who solicit ads like ” Erection Problem”, Having difficulty in satisfying your partner”, or it could be immigration company, Start a new life in Canada!

Just sharing!

Kerala Transport Corporation Tender Coconut Stall Idea

~ bjcharles ~ Leave a comment
Kerala transport corporation a white elephant corporation run buservices in Kerala and also inter-state services. This one time, well functioning service is facing problems with regard to the payment of salary to staff, to vendors, and it’s incurring heavy losses every year.

All the plans by successive govt hasn’t yielded any result or does it show any sign of revival. Often in the paper, there are reports of how it’s taking loan after loan to remain afloat. Well, that’s the picture I have.

So, it’s natural to think of a way to make things better for this organization. So, here’s my plan to the Managing Director or the Manager or the political rep or for the staff of KURTC.

Sell Tender Coconut Water -What if it utilizes it’s premises to sell tender coconut water.

Imagine a booth selling tender coconut water in all the KSRTC depots in Kerala, from Varkala to Nedumangadu or a major stop like Ernakulam. Think of the commuters paying Rs 30 for a fresh coconut water. I feel this along will bring a minimum of 1000 bucks for the company a day.

The revenue from this venture will at-least fund some part of the cost, expense, etc. Also, the booth must be run either by retired KSRTC employees or it should be given to physically challenged people. What say?

How Buses can Help in Transporting Coconuts

One of the problem with getting coconut to various depots can be solved by this – each station should have a place to stock coconuts. Buses to other bus stands will transport the tender coconuts on the carrier and makes it reduce cost. From the rural areas, farmers will be able to sell coconuts to outlets in buses. Imagine, if a farmer or a home-maker can sell tender coconut and exchange it in the form of ticket fare! Such a barter system will be good for KSRTC as it can acquire the product at a cheaper price and issue a coupon to ride certain number of rides.

Worth Thinking.  Probably, it will also help the rural households to earn 100 or 200 rs worth of ticket fare which they can utilize in a month’s time.

Well, a Paytm kind of application should be used by KSRTC to track the credits and funds.

KSRTC MARKETPLACE
While I was writing this, I thought how KSRTC depots and rural station can act as a market place for people to buy and sell local produce. Just a suggestion.

Using a part of the premises, farmers can take their produce and right there, they can get a buyer for the produce.

Another suggestion to KSRTC is about bus location tracking mobile App

Railway Toilet Experience

~ bjcharles ~ Leave a comment
Toilet Fails

DO YOU SEE WHAT I SAW… HERE’S A PIC FROM THE KOCHU VELI TRAIN LOO! It’s not  about the commode without the toilet seat…see the human feces on the floor!

Now, what should I do? What will you do?
Close to the toilet door quietly and try the next loo. Well, I did the same, not before I took a pic.
So, other than choosing a different loo, what option do I have. Do you think it railway authorities has a system to clean the loo, especially on the basic of a complaint? And who should you tell your grievances? TT or railway attendant?

Simple Option to File a Complaint
Here’s an alternative! Create a mobile app to post the complaint. Imagine an app, which gives power to commuter to post any compliant – from used bed rolls, to rattling noise or even an unruly behavior of fellow commuter or report about a flasher, etc.

Well, making an app would be a hassle for IRTC team. Probably, they can make a new menu inside the current IRCTC mobile app. Well, app should be supported by backend responsive team. The app will have the option where in people can see the resolved complaints, or the pending ones.

Swatch Rail Campaign – Spl Request to Commuters
Seeing all these, I bet we have a long, long way to go as a swatch nation. We might show our might by dispatching hundred satellites on the right orbit from one rocket, but on the ground we fail miserably. The campaigns like Swatch Bharat was nice to hear, but it’s not easy to get the idea etch in the mind of common man.

One more thing about the pic – did you notice the flimsy metal rode used to fix the toilet seat. I wonder if the railway engineers has studied how this rod can hot fat arse.

Ideally any product used by the railway should be backed by a research:

What’s the average life of the product – in the case the toilet seat
Do real time testing ( In this case testing would be ideal)
Find the toilet seat cover used in trains across the world – Trans Siberian Train to ones in Peru! ( Competitor study)

Limitation with Indian Railway

Well, considering the scale of operation of Indian Railway and the budget, it’s not easy to fix everything. However, there are ways to make progress and how to get these little things fixed.

I remember the adage I had once written on a whiteboard – SMALL THINGS MAKE PERFECTION BUT PERFECTION IS NOT A SMALL THING.

How Does Indian Railway Track – Repairs and Fittings? What Kind of Dashboard is Used?
Just wondering if they use a ERP or SAP package to monitor these stuffs?

Probably, IRCTC app should have an option to upload pics so that the problem is rectified in the next station. Having such a facility would make things move on a faster scale than  complaining to TT or bogey attendant.

Another point here!
Maybe, there must be a Lightning Maintenance Squad at every railway station who can do a replacement within the duration of the train stop! It must be like a pit stop crew of Formula 1 team.

Just wishing for a cleaner railway loo!

P.S: Does railway have a job where a persons travels in different railway and takes pics, spy pics of each and every part of bogey, captures the service, best practices, etc. If there’s, I’ll be happy to be globe trotting as the first employee who does clandestine employee of Indian Railway. 

Trail of Old News and Stories

~ bjcharles ~ 1 Comment
Missing Techie – Ajitabh

Pic Source: Financialexpress

It’s been more than 3 months since this young chap has disappeared or kidnapped in Bangalore. Along with him, his Maruti Ciaz car has gone into thin air. It’s hard to believe how an innocent ad can cause such a consequence to a person. These days when I see a Maruti Ciaz, I think of this young chap, his family who’s still hoping for a news and what has gone terribly wrong.

NEWS – SHORT LIFE

With each passing day, the news around him has lost it’s pace. Well, we can’t blame these news agencies as new events, stories takes centerstage and old news becomes less popular.

In this short-life era, I wished there was an option to follow the trail of news as it progress it’s news cycle.

Imagine about a crime or a racket or a corruption case. Initially there’s a hoopla over it. But within in few days the pace of news gets cold. Soon the public looses interest in the case, and next breaking news takes on.

In such as case, how will we get to know all the updates in one place? Is there a site which will provide news in a chronological manner, so we can follow all the events around one story.

Now, it’s difficult to get updates from one news source. Only way is to scourge the net, looking for any mention of the keyword or incident and then get into the story. It’s hard work, and sometimes its not practical to get the complete picture.

Even in the case of this incident, I googled and found couple of stories from different news media.

ALTERNATIVE

Create a portal which tracks news about each such sensational news and lists in a dated format. For instance, the latest news I found was from Deccan Chronicle.

Point is this…..Get it listed.

1. Date – News ( Source) ( With a 2 line brief about the report)
2  Date  – News ( source)

 For instance, if a person who is short of time wants to know all the articles on a topic or incident – like the updates on the case relating to Fodder Scam or a celebrity case, and get it in a report format, then w

The best part is that it, takes your time to search and lists everything in one place. So, it’s better if there’s a third part to do this for you.

This could be done either through an algorithm and some manual filtering process.  I remember how much I used to search the news for any news about the hospitalization of then CM of TN Jayalalitha. Well, I was just curious, and I spend my office house to search, search and search for updates.

What do you think? Does this make sense? Will it work?

Suppose someone collates all the news from a topic, what’s it for them? Is there any payback?  I leave those things to you to think…probably suggest someone to think about it.

Btw, news aggregators can add this as a new tab in their offering.

P.S  It was mentioned in one of the article that the man who took the mobile SIM asked the shopkeeper on how long the CCTV recording is maintained. He seems to have said 30 days. And the crime was committed 30 days after it. 

So, naturally the data get’s erased. However, we can retrieve the erased data. It’s not an impossible task.  This is just my suggestion. 

Another side business out of this idea is this…..

Suppose I like to know all the popular news around a dozen topics, then is there a agency to help me do this. Will someone spend their time digging around the net looking for those keywords and help me list all these in an Excel sheet.

SEO companies are known to track search ranking for a client. On the same way, some agency or individual can take the task of searching information and collate in a meaningful way ( minus the dirt).  Just another service you can thing of starting!!!

Recycle Glass Bottles

~ bjcharles ~ Leave a comment

Empty Bottles by the Road Side

Not long ago in Trivandrum, waste collection was managed byKudambashree ladies. These people used to come daily to collect waste and it was done meticulously. But, one fine morning, Government shelved the plan of waste collection in Trivandrum, without any backup plan.

After Effects of Not Collecting Waste

Once government machinery stopped collecting waste, public started a new habit or rather they were forced to dispose waste by the road side. Any empty plot in the neighborhood is seen as a convenient place to dump waste or through old booze bottles. It’s a normal sight to see plastic covers with waste being thrown in these plots or even a corners where it can be disposed without any seeing the act.

Sadly, the public is just mute over the issue. Why don’t we demand a time bound answer to this problem? How can we just let things be?

Well, as typical Indian behavior, we do lot of adjustment or pretend that we haven’t seen this. We just While successive elected reps in Tvm are sleeping over waste collection, our side roads are the dumping ground of empty booze bottles.
Just wondering if there’s a way to monetize discarded beer/booze bottles.

Probably ideas like these or better ones:
1. Collect, clean and smelt. Then, make jewellery or arty stuff
2. Cut bottle into half to make cups.
3. Stack it to make a boundary wall
4. Make lamp shades
5. Flatten it to make decoration items
6. Conduct classes in bottle cutting.
Plus, a thousand more ideas that could add value to glass bottles.

There in Lies the Opportunity – Bottle Cutting Lessons