Tamil writers and Spirits

The idea for this post came to me when tasting Glen Fiddich for the first time. It felt profound, as does any thought while under the influence of alcohol.

First come the Beer writers - with lots of fizz, bubbly and gregarious. They are fun to have on a hot summer afternoon and don't tax you much. Kalki is the doyen of this kind of writers, like Kingfisher (I am sticking only to Indian beers). Then there are Rajeshkumars of the world, godawful but they sell a lot. Like Haywards 5000.

The IMFL (Indian made Foreigh Liquors) writers - pretending to be the real stuff, falling short and found out after repeated tasting. I put Balakumaran, Stella Bruce and others in this category.

The Toddy writers - Nanjil Nadan and Ki Rajaranayanan are my choices. They are honest and their earthly flavor leaves you wanting more.

The Blended Scotch whiskey writers - they are influenced and inspired by a variety of sources, but the final mix has their indelible stamp. Sujata makes this category his own.

The Single Malt writers - each one has a unique taste, and they aren't easy to like. They require the consumer to put in efforts to appreciate their quality. They are to be taken in small sips. Let their taste linger and engulf your being and they will take you to another level. I will put Pudumai Pithan, Thi Ja, La Sa Ra, Sundara Ramaswamy (his two novels and poems alone), Jeyamohan, Pa Singaram (he wrote one and a half novels, but that was enough for him to top this category).

Where does that leave my favorite writer Asoka Mithran? He is like the finest of vodkas, colorless, odorless, transparent but he pulls you into his orbit without you even recognising it. You start noticing the black humor, the irony, the satire - all done without any dazzle.

P.S. - I haven't included Charu Nivedita, S Ramakrishnan and many others as I haven't read much of their fiction. This is a list of those writers whom I have read.

Being paid in kind

I never knew that stock picking could be such an enjoyable experience.

Reliance Petroleum - I recommended a buy at Rs.180.00. And timed the exit to perfection at Rs. 270.00.

IFCI - Enter at Rs. 79.00 - exit at Rs. 106.00

And all this within a month. The only person to whom I gave these recommendations decided to pay me in kind. This is what I received.

Vodkathon 2.0

Vodkathon 2.0 happened at Shiok on 31st March. There were forces that tried their best to make it not happen. The Tamilnadu Government declared a bandh on 31st and cancelled all trains. But we are made of sterner stuff. We rescheduled our travel plans so that we were in the land of good booze (aka Bengalooru) before the bandh started. But even my commitment to the ideals of the vodkathon were overshadowed by our Kurosowa of Kodambakkam who flew in at the last minute especially for the vodkathon.

Release of the agenda for Vodkathon 2.0

Those who participated in the experiment were Prabhu, Aadisht, Anand, Arun, Zero, Suman and Aditya. Many blogs were dissected, bloggers were lampooned, secrets were shared, gossips were gossipped, and above all Vodka was drunk. My experiments this time were limited to Green Apple Martini, Blue unpronounceable name Berry Caipirioshka, Almond Vodka and one more Salty Dog. Photos will be uploaded as soon as the photographers get over their hangovers.


The participants, from Left to right - Madman (with shaven head), Anand (with a head full of hair), Aadisht Khanna, Myself, Zero, Arun, Prabhu
Vodkathon version 1.0 was held a year ago, in case you didn't know.

Without Vodka

A Polish solider, captured by the Soviets during World War II, spends three years in Soviet Prisons, sees death and destruction all round him. What does he name his prison memoir? Read the title again. I particularly liked this passage from the book

The newly formed Polish regiment encounters a trainload of Soviet soldiers returning from the front. The emaciated and bloodied Soviets are dumbfounded at the Poles’ fighting trim. "A Polish Army dressed like staff officers, well fed. The devil take it! They always lie to us! The sons of bitches. But it’s not for our brains to ponder these things. Besides, it’s dangerous. Without Vodka you can’t figure it out."

Pop Tates, Mumbai

1 Mojito + 1 Screwdriver + 1 Bloody Mary + 2 Margaritas + Meeting old college friends = Bliss

Smirnoff Tastemaker Sessions

As a registered user of India's best website, I get regular mails from them on their programs and activities. One such mail yesterday led me to Smirnoff Tastemaker Session, to be held in Hyderabad on Nov 19.

I checked the cities where these sessions would be held, even dusty Vizag was there, but not Chennai. I was happy that the boozards decided not to spoil the pristine purity of my conservative city.

All vodka lovers in Hyderabad, you know where to be on Nov 19th. Nostalgia attacks, thinking about the Vodkathon we organised last April.

Absolut Ice Bar

My partner in vodkathon, Prabhu is going to the Absolut Ice Bar. I am envious.

Vodkathon - A summary

Sorry folks, for not updating the blog. It wasn't I who went flat, but the laptop. So my posts Vodkathon 3,4, 5 and 6 (I am not sure whether it was 6 or 7, I will go with the conservative estimate) were lost in an alcoholic daze. There are not many photos, not because we were drunk but because our sober photographer pulled out in the last minute. But we had the patron saint at hand.


Sathish, myself and Shyam

For the statistically inclined, there were total of 13 vodkathon warriers. Myself, Prabhu,Sathish,Shyam, Newton, Anita Bora, Rajiv Poddar, his friend, Jayakrishnan (a) Boonie, his friend, Geetha, Muthu and our Patron Saint.

Anita Bora and Muthu


Madman's special


Sathish, Myself, Shyam, Prabhu, Newton and Geetha


Prabhu enjoying his drink


Sathish having his shot


Patron saint aka The Devil

More photos here

When we started at 8.00 PM there were only 4 of us and we were a little worried. But by 9.00 the crowd started coming in and the party started in full swing. As I said, I was able to put up two posts before the laptop conked off. It was 00.30 by the time we finished all of us in a suitably drunk state. Thankfully there was no puking in the restaurant. I went one drink too many and had to stop over on the way back and puke it out. But still I was sober enough to wake up by 05.00 AM and catch the Shatabdi back to Chennai.

So what's the conclusion based on the Vodkathon? Upto three rounds, your blogging quality will increase because of the vodka. But beyond that, it is better to concentrate on the drink than the blog :-).

P.S. The lone Vodkathon warrier from Chennai - Sudhish Kamath on his own

Other reports
Prabhu
Muthu
Anita Bora
Newton

Vodkathon - 2

I was hunched over a book as I was travelling from Chennai to Bangalore by train. As I was turning page after page, suddenly I caught sight of the foot of the girl sitting opposite to me. Just her foot, without blemish, nicely curved with upturned toes. Such a beautiful sight, a perfect foot. I fell in love with the foot. For a few moments, it was me with a book and her foot, nothing else in the world. Then she shifted her foot and the spell is broken. No, I don't have a foot fetish. I was thinking about it for a long time, I don't even remember her face, but I remember with pleasure the sight of her foot. It was the pleasure of seeing something perfect.

P.S. I had a Black Russian

Vodkathon - 1

Well, the vodkathon has started. The first round for me consisted of Melon Ball, that inviting cocktail you saw in the video promo. It is good for a first drink. And all those who doubted us and thought this was an April Fool prank, well the joke is on you. Cheers

Vodkathon - a preview

Vodkathon - a reminder

Just to remind you people that our plans of Vodkathon are still on. The venue has been shifted to a swanky, hep, classy, great, cool restaurant in Bangalore. (Yeah, Madman pays me per adjective). Watch Prabhu's blog tomorrow for a preview of the event.

Some people can't wait - Vodkathon off to a soft launch

The Vodkathon started off with a soft launch a week earlier than planned. Don't blame me. While I was waiting in the Chennai Anna International Airport Arrivals Lounge for the midnight flight on 25th March, Anand of the long locks fame had already kickstarted the vodkathon, early by a week.



None of the smart ones are me. The long locks one is Anand. He has a point when he says he was adhering to the Universal Bloggers Code of Conduct. We aren't sticklers to any regulation even when we are sober, so go ahead and have the vodkathon on any convenient time during this week, but do update us with the photos.

The Dry Run (or was it wet)

Planning a vodkathon is no simple job. So many things to work out, so many schedules to make, believe me it is a really time consuming process. Like any good supply chain management specialist (in other words a trucker) I wanted to do a dry run before the event. So I went to Bangalore and met up with Prabhu, the other organiser. We checked out the place, decided the props needed, the schedule and the tech support needed. And you people thought that we were just a bunch of sophomorish, binge drinking, immature guys. Tsk, tsk.

Anyway, we contacted the patron saint of the cartel, Madman to counsel us on the conduct of the event. The venue for the dry run was his awesome restaurant Shiok. It is simply the best Far Eastern Cuisine Restaurant I have been to. We started of with Black Russian, a cocktail of Vodka and Kahlua. Kahlua, I learnt yesterday, is a Mexican Coffee extract liquer. It was just great, Vodka with a taste of coffee beans.


That's me and Prabhu cheering up with Black Russian.

Next we moved on to White Russian - Vodka, Kahlua and Cream. Somehow the cream didn't go well with vodka. It was an average drink for me.

Then Madhu suggested Pick me Up -- Vodka, Apple Juice and Red Wine. I have been partial to Screw Driver -- Vodka with Orange juice and had never tried this. And am sorry for not trying this earlier. It was even better than Black Russian for me.

Then came the Flaming Lamborghini, (I thik that was the name). It consisted of Vodka plus some special ingreadients (truth be told, by now I wasn't very sharp) and they put two invered cups on top of the glass and light up the vodka from the side. So as you drink the vodka, there is a flame going on in this set up. It gives a feeling and taste of drinking fire.

And I thought I was in heaven, having had a delightful evening. But there was still the icing to come. Our patron saint decided that we needed to top it up with a shot of Almond Vodka.

The Patron saint mixing our drinks.

With that ended an enjoyable evening. I had to catch the train at 22.45 hours, so couldn't taste the culinary delights of Shiok.

Of course we discussed about blogging. I remember slipping the name of Elsworth Toohey in connection with some blogger. We also made fun of some bloggers. If you think we made fun of you, you are right.

Vodkathon

Couple of days back I was chatting with Prabhu, a fellow connoisseur of Vodka and suddenly an idea popped into my mind - Vodkathon. Idea is pretty simple, a bunch of bloggers get together, and test the concept of whether Vodka enhances the blogging quality.

1. After each round, the blogger has to write a post. This has to be published along with a photo of the blogger as he is then.

2. YDYP and YPYC - You Drink You Pay and You Puke You Clean.

3. And if you puke, you will be photographed and the photo will be sent to Nilu's pukefest.

But we hit a block in getting a house with PC and internet connection in Chennai where the inhabitants would not mind a bunch of boozy bloggers. Then Prabhu came with the idea of shifting it to Bangalore where he has promised to meet all the requirements. The date is set - 1 April, around 8.00 PM. Contact Prabhu for further details. And if you think this is a prank, check our blogs on that day.

Haywards 5000 beats them all

Ok, I am fudging the result a bit, but Haywards 5000 and Kingfisher Super Strong are judged the least offensive of Super Strong Indian Beers by our friendly consulate officer Prince Roy. These are the kind of posts that make blogs lively.

Considering I started my drinking with Haywards 5000 before moving on to white spirits, I am happy that a childhood pal has won. More power to you Haywards.

Chennai Diwali Blogger Meet

After about 90 mails, historic rains and uncertainty till last minute, the Chennai Blogers Meet happened on 30th Oct. Blogger Vee-Jay was kind enough to lend us her new flat, unfurnished and fresh for the meet. The flat is on the fourth floor with a private terrace, ideal for the Chennai practice of the roof top cocktail party :-). The meet was attended by Vaijayanthi, Prabhu, CCG, Krithiga, Shekar, Shyam K, Balaji, Vatsan, Nirenjan, Somu and myself.

Started off at the flat, moved to the terrace as the sun was setting down and after liquid refreshments went to the beach for some show of light and sound. My camera was with CCG and since he likes to click inanimate objects more, you won't find much of our photos here. Krithiga had brought the traditional Diwali Sweet of Ukra (that's what we call it in Chettinadu area, she called it differently) which she had prepared herself for the meet. It was surprisingly good :-).


Krithiga, Prabhu, Vee Jay, Shekar and Shyam K


Prabhu getting ready


Sun Set


The elixir


Every cloud has a silver lining


Let the light shine


And up goes the rocket

The Beauties from Russia, Sweden, US and France

Lest you think that I am drunk only on Madras History, there are other things that I am drunk on too. If you are sober, you can see Grey Goose, Smirnoff, Stolichnaya, Absolut and Skyy Vodka bottles in the pitcure above. My friend splurged on Vodka during his recent trip to Dubai. I prefer to have my drink in a cozy, pleasant atmosphere, preferably at home. Living in a two bedroom apartment with parents effectively precludes this possibility. So last saturday when I was invited to my friend's place to taste these beauties, it was an opportunity not to be missed. I skipped the movie for this, anyways I am not much into movies.

So how was it? Stoli, Grey Goose and Skyy were tasted and ranked in the same order. Tried out a cocktail of Vodka with Buttermilk, and found that it was great. By the time we finished it was 2.30 AM and life has never been better.

Grey Goose

Grey Goose is costlier than other vodkas, smells great, is very smooth and is best when had neat. When you have it as a cocktail, it is almost invisible, but starts working into you slowly. 2005 is turning out to be a great year for me, first I tasted Stolichnaya, now Grey Goose. What next?

Saturday Night

- No plans for the evening till the call from college friends at 07.00 PM

- Meeting at the friend's apartment with a view of Thiruvanmiyur Beach, just 500 mtrs away

- Drinking session starting at 11.00 PM that went on till 02.30 AM

- Jamming session with the lead guitarist and drummer from college and two hopeless singers (one was me)

- Strumming Ilayaraja's melodies from the 80s

- Finishing a quarter of vodka

- Taking a barefoot walk in the beach at 03.00 AM

- Playing songs for the early morning walkers at 04.00 AM

- Steaming hot rice dinner at 05.00 AM

It was a truly great Saturday night.