OK, so this Saturday didn't turn out to be as fun as I wanted it to be. I sit at the end of a day that began at 12.15pm with me being awoken because someone had come over and they wanted to meet me. Gah! This was a close friend of ours, so I didn't really mind because he makes himself at home… but my parents have loads of these really irritating acquaintances who just show up! Seriously, and they're not even like casual friends but people you see perhaps twice a year at most and they require the full Guest Treatment. Add to that the fact that they arrive at meal times (oh, how convenient) and you get to invite them to lunch or dinner. Lovely. Thankfully, no such formalities were due in this case because we had planned out our day in advance and we didn't have to cancel our plans due to an unexpected visitor.
We left for Not Just Paranthas (well, they actually spell it Parathas but I think this spelling is better) a decent 20 minutes behind (a spacious) schedule. However, once we're out and about, I'm informed by mother dearest that she doesn't really know the way to GK II, hasn't heard of an M-Block market in GK II anyway and so she'll just go to GK I M-Block market and that I was probably mistaken. Of course, I'm blamed for all the confusion (apparently, I'm supposed to have checked the map and printed directions or something). When we reached GK I (note how GK I is not equivalent to GK II - that's the key to this story), I pointed out the fact that it was not GK II and hence there was no Not Just Paranthas there. My point was quickly turned into realization by the clever process of asking random shopkeepers and bystanders.
At this point, another interesting thing occurred. We had pulled a window down to ask for directions and when we tried to push it back up, it just wouldn't budge. The rotating wheel had become free of its axle. Awesome. Mother dearest was worried that the car would get too warm as the AC would be ineffective against an open window. She didn't realize, until I pointed it out to her, that the more pressing issue was the fact that any potential car thief could now simply open up the car and drive it away once we parked it. She remarked at her own lack of thought and we drove on to GK II. Didn't reach there immediately because we somehow managed to take a wrong turn. We did end up at a car repair shop though and we tried to get the window fixed. After an hour of frustration (the "machine" under the window was apparently in need of replacement), in addition to the fact that I hadn't eaten a thing since yesterday and that our lunch-and-film plan was critically time-sensitive, the idiot trying to fix the window couldn't do zilch and eventually, a jugaad (temporary workaround) was instantiated with the window eventually being propped up using three metal wires and the tiniest branch snapped off a tree. It was quite amusing and my sister and I both said the word "photo" at exactly the same moment.
We were finally off to GK II M-Block market (whose existence my mother finally agreed to) and parked the ageing automobile. Not Just Paranthas is a good place with an immense selection of, well, paranthas to choose from. We ordered four of them in total: the classic Aloo Pyaaz, the Choor Choor Mix, the Besan Missi Mix and the Palak Tamatar. Perhaps it was just me, but the paranthas were just "good" and certainly didn't live up to my memory of "excellent" from the last time I came here. Also, we ordered Paneer Khurchan but it just never arrived! I mean, I asked the guy two times and he said "it was coming"; finally, I cancelled the order because I wanted to start eating my food and definitely couldn't wait for the dish to make its way from Old Delhi or wherever else they make it because they sure as hell weren't making it in their kitchens. Rs. 380-something for three people was, I think, a decent price. Overall, I'd tilt towards recommending the restaurant especially if you're looking for some place that's affordable but is also "different". This restaurant is Purani Dilli-themed and there's a message that says "Using spoons to eat is not permitted. Please use your hands." (of course, the message is in Hindi but I'm translating for the better of… people). To be fair, it would be an exercise in foolishness to try to eat a parantha with a spoon (or any kind of cutlery) anyway.
After lunch at NJP, we went to Gurgaon, where we saw Pyaar Ke Side Effects at the PVR Sahara Mall. We reached there precisely at 4.45pm and the movie was supposed to start at 4.50pm. I wasn't worrying about it because I'd gotten used to theatres elsewhere and had forgotten that the films actually started on time here. We missed an unimportant first five minutes or something… I didn't get the feel that I'd missed anything at all to be honest. It's a funny film with some really good jokes. For a "film with songs" (calling Hindi movies "musicals" just sounds ridiculous), it wrapped up in an admirably short 2 hours and 20 minutes… though I swear it felt like longer, possibly because they were stretching the story a bit too much. In certain love stories like this one, there's always this point of a "happy reunion" and everyone knows it's coming, and since we were all waiting for it to come, my guess is that this was the major factor in making the movie feel longer than it was. It's basically a pass time movie. Not something you'd see over and over again. I enjoyed the style of the movie and, for a light comedy, I'd give it four stars out of five. That's very watchable. But if I judge it against films that I've seen since the beginning of time, I'd have to give it an unworthy two or two-and-a-half. It's not going to win the National Awards any time soon. At the same time, if you're a regular movie-goer (unlike me), you'll want to see this. It's entertainment.
The traffic on the way back home was bad. Driving at night or even just sitting in the car when it's being driven at night is not enjoyable, leastways not in Delhi. I had a headache by the end of the whole day's affair and only now is it slightly ebbing away.
We left for Not Just Paranthas (well, they actually spell it Parathas but I think this spelling is better) a decent 20 minutes behind (a spacious) schedule. However, once we're out and about, I'm informed by mother dearest that she doesn't really know the way to GK II, hasn't heard of an M-Block market in GK II anyway and so she'll just go to GK I M-Block market and that I was probably mistaken. Of course, I'm blamed for all the confusion (apparently, I'm supposed to have checked the map and printed directions or something). When we reached GK I (note how GK I is not equivalent to GK II - that's the key to this story), I pointed out the fact that it was not GK II and hence there was no Not Just Paranthas there. My point was quickly turned into realization by the clever process of asking random shopkeepers and bystanders.
At this point, another interesting thing occurred. We had pulled a window down to ask for directions and when we tried to push it back up, it just wouldn't budge. The rotating wheel had become free of its axle. Awesome. Mother dearest was worried that the car would get too warm as the AC would be ineffective against an open window. She didn't realize, until I pointed it out to her, that the more pressing issue was the fact that any potential car thief could now simply open up the car and drive it away once we parked it. She remarked at her own lack of thought and we drove on to GK II. Didn't reach there immediately because we somehow managed to take a wrong turn. We did end up at a car repair shop though and we tried to get the window fixed. After an hour of frustration (the "machine" under the window was apparently in need of replacement), in addition to the fact that I hadn't eaten a thing since yesterday and that our lunch-and-film plan was critically time-sensitive, the idiot trying to fix the window couldn't do zilch and eventually, a jugaad (temporary workaround) was instantiated with the window eventually being propped up using three metal wires and the tiniest branch snapped off a tree. It was quite amusing and my sister and I both said the word "photo" at exactly the same moment.
We were finally off to GK II M-Block market (whose existence my mother finally agreed to) and parked the ageing automobile. Not Just Paranthas is a good place with an immense selection of, well, paranthas to choose from. We ordered four of them in total: the classic Aloo Pyaaz, the Choor Choor Mix, the Besan Missi Mix and the Palak Tamatar. Perhaps it was just me, but the paranthas were just "good" and certainly didn't live up to my memory of "excellent" from the last time I came here. Also, we ordered Paneer Khurchan but it just never arrived! I mean, I asked the guy two times and he said "it was coming"; finally, I cancelled the order because I wanted to start eating my food and definitely couldn't wait for the dish to make its way from Old Delhi or wherever else they make it because they sure as hell weren't making it in their kitchens. Rs. 380-something for three people was, I think, a decent price. Overall, I'd tilt towards recommending the restaurant especially if you're looking for some place that's affordable but is also "different". This restaurant is Purani Dilli-themed and there's a message that says "Using spoons to eat is not permitted. Please use your hands." (of course, the message is in Hindi but I'm translating for the better of… people). To be fair, it would be an exercise in foolishness to try to eat a parantha with a spoon (or any kind of cutlery) anyway.
After lunch at NJP, we went to Gurgaon, where we saw Pyaar Ke Side Effects at the PVR Sahara Mall. We reached there precisely at 4.45pm and the movie was supposed to start at 4.50pm. I wasn't worrying about it because I'd gotten used to theatres elsewhere and had forgotten that the films actually started on time here. We missed an unimportant first five minutes or something… I didn't get the feel that I'd missed anything at all to be honest. It's a funny film with some really good jokes. For a "film with songs" (calling Hindi movies "musicals" just sounds ridiculous), it wrapped up in an admirably short 2 hours and 20 minutes… though I swear it felt like longer, possibly because they were stretching the story a bit too much. In certain love stories like this one, there's always this point of a "happy reunion" and everyone knows it's coming, and since we were all waiting for it to come, my guess is that this was the major factor in making the movie feel longer than it was. It's basically a pass time movie. Not something you'd see over and over again. I enjoyed the style of the movie and, for a light comedy, I'd give it four stars out of five. That's very watchable. But if I judge it against films that I've seen since the beginning of time, I'd have to give it an unworthy two or two-and-a-half. It's not going to win the National Awards any time soon. At the same time, if you're a regular movie-goer (unlike me), you'll want to see this. It's entertainment.
The traffic on the way back home was bad. Driving at night or even just sitting in the car when it's being driven at night is not enjoyable, leastways not in Delhi. I had a headache by the end of the whole day's affair and only now is it slightly ebbing away.
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