Exploring Thane - Prashant Chaat Corner

I wanted to become a journalist long back. In fact when I used to pass the TOI building on way to my college many years back, I would look at it quite wistfully. Later I even wrote some articles and sent it. For weeks I waited for some response but the mailbox would not bring any pleasantries, and that was the end of it!!

Now, when I go around doing reviews of my favourite chaat corners in cities asking for permission to take pictures and write about restaurants I live a little bit of that dream. I started my first review from Prashant Corner. It was done in August, but I never got around to posting it till now!

Prashant Corner started off some 6 to 7 years back as a small one room shop and now it has grown so much that it has branches in other parts of Thane too. More than the main sweet shop what it is famous for is the Chaat Corner which dishes out Mumbai Street Food in a very hygienic atmosphere.

Location: Panch Pakhadi, Thane. Next to GKB Eye Care.

Timing: 4:00p.m. to 9:00p.m. every day.

Age:6 and 1/2 years old

Owner of the Chaat Counter : Mr.Mani, a Tamilian from Salem!!

Famous dishes: Panipuri, Sevpuri, Dahivada, and Tikki Chhole/Ragda Pattice.

The Chaat Corner is run by Mr.Mani. Mani and his Tamilian entourage used to work for the once famous Gurukrupa Chaat Bhandar in Sion. Due to personal reasons Mr.Mani split from the owner of Gurukrupa, and so did all the other Tamilian workers. They started with two outlets in Thane right outside Prashant Corner, and another one which has now closed down at Brindavan which houses most of the South Indian, and Sindhi population of Thane.

However, the Brindavan outlet has closed down, and now opened at Vasant Vihar (going great guns!).

USP of Prashant Corner:
The use of disposable gloves and caps while working, and clean counters. Tasty Dishes at reasonable rates. Clean water dispenser with disposable glasses, and huge dustbins.

For some of you this may be normal but here it is not! In fact you will find that many good fast food centres too do not have basic facilities such as clean counters which they conveniently hide behind big boxes, containers etc.

Price Tag:
A plate of ragda pattice costs about Rs.17/- and contains two big aloo tikkis smothered with lots of chhole. You also get beet coated onion rings, dhania and dahi(if you ask).

Parcels: They provide take aways too. The food gets packed in individual food grade disposable plastic containers at an additional cost of Rs.5/-, along with tissues and plastic spoons.

Home delivery: Home deliveries, and party orders are taken a day before. Delivery is provided only for bulk orders.

Quality of food: Yummmmmo!! Lip smacking:)

Diclaimer - I do not have any contacts there nor have I been assigned to review them. I did this because the food is so good, it deserves to be recognized!!

What would you expect from a review like this? Is there any other information you would like? Please leave a comment or mail me at sunshinemomsblog[at]gmail[dot]com, and I shall be as always 'happy to hear', and respond to your queries:)

Exploring Bengaluru - The Bookworm

What would you do if won a lottery ticket? I would head to the nearest bookshop and treat myself to a favourite novel, and if I was anywhere near Bookworm I would end up buying the 'almost as good as new' as well as some of the 'very old and well thumbed' edition of Blondies, Phantoms, the whole set of Calvin and Hobbes, and the entire Tintin collection as well!

For me old books open up a new world - the book may not be mine and yet it takes me back in time. The time when 'Gollywog' still existed in Enid Blyton's books, and the time when Blondie was the 'in' thing in comics. There is something about the smell of old books that elates and perks me up as if I have hit upon a treasure - and that is what happens to me every time I visit Bookworm.

How we discovered bookworm is rather amusing! We were browsing through books at Higgins n Bothams on M.G Road when one of the kids got a 'potty' urge. I guess Mums of pre-teen kids are the best guides in any town to tell you all about the 'public toilet' locations! It was during the 'toilet' search that my sister stumbled upon a small, dark shop literally splashed with columns of books - old and new, rare and common at Shrungar Shopping Arcade! She returned and announced her discovery, and that day started this new 'regular' addition to our shopping sites in Bangalore.

'The Bookworm' is a small shop located in the gully next to India Coffee House on M.G.Road, and is housed in 'Shrungar Complex'. The young man - Manoj Gowda who mans the counter is most helpful and quite well informed about all kinds of books. You just have to name the author or the book or a little bit of the story line and he will fish out the whole collection. Since the shop is small and stacked to capacity it is sometimes difficult to locate the book you want, but I think it is this very thing which gives it life, and though there are no couches to sit on and luxuriously read the books, we just love shopping here - to touch the old books, smell them, and get total value for money.

The good thing about Bookworm is that they are always ready to send you the books by parcel if you end up purchasing more than you can lug (which will happen every time!), provided you pay the money in advance. The first time we (sis & I) went there, we both ran crazy and ended up buying about 30 to 40 books!! We were pondering half heartedly on which ones to retain and which ones to put back when Mr.Gowda told us their 'home delivery' system. We carried a few books for the journey and parceled the rest immediately after paying up the amount + half the postage fee.

The shop at Shrungar Complex is only the tip of the iceberg! Seeing that he had caught some big fish, Gowda took us to their other shop located quite nearby at
No.32, Basement
Brigade Road, Bangalore - 560001
Landmark - Behind Shoe Track
Phone No. - 080 411 26755

Look at my loot!! (These were bought during the Summer Hols)

This time I bought one more pile of books! So when are you raiding 'the bookworm'? If there are some places you know of in Bangalore running on similar lines, please leave a comment or drop me a mail.

Always happy to hear:)

Next, I shall bring you the flavors of 'Mast Kalandar' - a North Indian chain of restaurants!

From Bangalore to Bengaluru

Ever since I can recall I have associated Summers with Bangalore [not Bengaluru;)], and even now April brings fresh goosebumps on my arms as I remember the rush for tickets three months before, the frenzied packing, and the mixed anticipation of spending two whole months in the company of my cousins. Mixed - because one year changed us a lot, and we knew that others had gone through changes - similar or dissimilar?!! Every Summer Holiday our parents would ritually take us to Bangalore to my Grandparents house. This used to be the general tradition during my childhood - most of my classmates (except some who had rebellious or adventurous parents) too had the same kind of vacation. Vacation was a time for meeting and bonding with relatives, and not discovering different places. The routine was set perhaps because the income was restricted to one person and middle class families could not afford to waste money on extravagant holidays especially with one earning member. My Dad's family is huge - they are over a dozen siblings and we are now more than two dozen cousins [the last head count touched eighty;)]. Except for some ten cousins who have migrated to the US of A, most of us are here in India! You can imagine the chaos, the commotion and above all the joyous mood that sets in when we all meet! Why, we could form two teams and have a full fledged cricket match complete with an audience:).

Those were days when pollution was still at its infancy, and Bangalore was deservingly monikered - The Garden City - with green avenues, pretty rose gardens separating rows of houses, and characterized by pleasant climate throughout the year. The British laid drainage system was still in working condition in contrast to the dismal condition of Bengaluru's open sewers (how long does the Government expect the age old pipes to hold!). The pace was relaxed and Bangalore more closely resembled Mahabaleshwar during afternoons. My Mom often used to say - Bangalore is all about "oota maadu, nidra maadu" (eat, sleep).

Not any more! That is all in the past. These days it is hot and dry in April, the everchanging one-ways pose perennial confusion, the traffic is always at its 'peak' be it a working day or holiday. The IT industry has secured a permanent foothold and shaved the landscape off its greenery. The greenery that is left is restricted to Old Bangalore or The Defence Area which remain a treat for sore eyes. As you go towards the old airport (Near HAL) and beyond, all you find is the concrete remains of a once beautiful land. It is the price Bangalore paid to become 'Bengaluru'. The slogan is 'kelsa maadu' (work)! Even Pamela Anderson has realized that silicon is not the only way to go, when will we learn that India requires employment for the masses, and not Silicon Cities catering to a select few!! I am all for progress but when education leads to cliched 'rich growing richer' syndrome, generates a few high salaried MNC employees, kills creativity and indigenous production there is definitely a lesson there - are we willing to take cue? Like a Tee-shirt liner said 'there is life beyond . com', and we need to encourage the alternate path too!


What remains the same about Bangalore is the food. The quality has not changed much over the years. While many good restaurants have given way to multi-cuisine restaurants, some of the old eateries still manage to survive and impart the same kind of food as they did years ago - when my Dad was in college!! On the flip side you find most restaurants have a post lunch siesta break (quite unheard of in Mumbai!) and after two in the afternoon it is quite difficult to find a good restaurant open if you opt for a late lunch. You will have to wait till four in the evening when they start serving snacks. This trend appears to be slowly changing - this time I found some of the recently opened North Indian restaurants keeping their doors open for late grubbers.

In this series, I will be introducing my favourite eateries in Bangalore, and review places I have visited and found interesting. I would like my readers to leave comments or add places they know of so that I can see them in my future visits. I generally take pictures - always with permission of the owner, but sometimes you may not find any due to lack of approval. If you are looking for proper tourist places you could visit one of the many Indian Government's tourism sites. This review is for those who enjoy delving into the gullies and nukkads - places not usually reviewed but places which have built the character of Bangalore, and will remain the essence of 'Bengaluru'.

My passion is reading and I thought it would be most appropriate to start with 'Book Worm' - A treasure trove my sisters and I have been raiding since the time we discovered it - about three years back!! My visits to Bangalore are incomplete without visiting this haven of new and old books:)

Stay tuned for 'The Bookworm', and for stepping into Bangalore and out on Bengaluru time and again!

Daddy Dearest

When I was a kid my Dad was someone distant, and unreachable. We looked up to him as the sole bread earner. He used to go to work early every morning and come back with a grim face every evening. He spoke no nonsense, and we were taught not to raise his temper. He never knew, and was always confused over which of us was the younger kid, and I mistook this for aloofness.

Now a mother myself, I realize, during all the time he was transferred and we traveled, we had no worries because we knew Daddy knew his way about, and we knew we were safe as long as he was around. The only time we knew he cared for us was when we fell asleep in the car, and yet woke up in our beds the next morning. I always thought it was an angel that dropped me there but Mum told us it was Dad who lifted us!

Now with his daughters married, settled and having their own homes my Daddy is older. When we call he talks less, and I am surprised at times when the line cracks because even as I am talking to Mother, I know he is holding on to the parallel line and listening to us. Somehow it has always been heartwarming to know he does that! It shows he cares.

I cannot understand how children grow up and desert their parents at old age to fend for themselves!! Do they not know that it is their turn to play angel?