The crown jewel of BengaLooru.

It had never crossed our minds to go in there, but now that we were so close, it would be ridiculous to pass it by. So we sat down inside the winding tunnel. The fans were running at full throttle, but nothing could clear the room of the smells. It will not be hard for the average Bangalorean to imagine this setting immediately after I give away the spoiler; beNNe masaale?


Vidyaarthi Bhavan might have made news lately with it's 2 minute flashes on BBC and Udaya, but it goes back in time to 1938.

Our waiter eased his way in the narrow aisle between the tables. All the while I was counting the plates he was carrying. Considering he was already a quarter way through the aisle of neatly stacked 4 seaters, he must have started out from the kitchen with atleast 20 plates balancing on his left hand. This must be a good assumption, as most people come there only for the beNNe masaale dOse, and rarely have enough tummy space to try anything else after a couple of dOses.

A crisp dOse was placed beside me, and immediately followed by a generous dollop of kaai chutney serving. The beNNe on my dOse was already melting. My restraint was melting too. Yet another story can be written about the mashed potato masaale inside, and the freshly spiced chutney.. but I deem it in my welfare to stop, and let you go and have a taste yourself..

No. 32, Gandhi Bazaar, Bangalore. Bon appétit.

Pronunciation tips for the uninitiated:

beNNe
bεNNε. Fresh butter.

masaale
mŭsälε. Boiled and mashed potatoes seasoned with spice mixture.

dOse.
thōsε. The crowning glory of South Indian breakfast. Simply indescribable!

kaai.
käĭ. Grated and seasoned coconut used for chutney.

The Corrupt: Worse than the world's oldest professionals. Are you one?

The bloody scenes of Rang De Basanti have still not been fully cleared off our memories. The students on national television werent made to scream "The fire you have ignited will burn in our hearts" just for a different climax. It's not for a whim or fancy that such a supreme effort has been made.

The Post Graduate Entrance Test, Karnataka (PGET2006) recently conducted by the health university, has shown the kind of totally unwholesome and sick levels of immorality that both officials and students have lowered themselves to. The glaring fraud is evident from a simple glance at the top 100 rankers themselves.

See this:

1. Student x gets a rank in the top 10 (inspite of 5 answer keys found wrong)
2. RGUHS re-publishes answer key, and re-arranges ranks.
3. Student x's rank slips to within top 20. (note here that new answer key has 15 wrong keys)
4. RGUHS re-re-publishes answer key and re-re-arranges ranks.
5. Student x's rank remains within top 20.
6. Punchline: x never was a topper or high scorer in the course or degree exams.
   

Does it need Einstein to scream humbug at this 'doctored' arithmetic?
It does not take the wisdom of a doctor, or the calculative ability of an engineer to smell out all these x's???

It's amusing to say this, but I am reminded of KCET that I took in 2000. That year too, we saw many 'toppers' never losing their position even when the wrong answer keys were withdrawn and correctly re-published.

The root of the evil lies in the students who are readily forking out lakhs to get their hands on answer keys. It's a shame on the schools that made such monsters who don't mind spending their parents' money to get a coveted PG seat.

If you personally know someone who has done this I challenge you to turn them in. Better still turn in the person who took the money. You owe it to this country.