I've been a fan of Madge ever since I can remember. I used to have the cassettes of her very first albums, straight from the 'Holiday' days, graduating to 'True Blue' and 'Like a Virgin' and then 'Like a Prayer' and I even did a 'Bedtime Story'. I was reduced to opera-like tears when I heard her rendition of
Don't Cry For Me Argentina... and I was giggling in bubblegum glee when she went all
Material Girl. Madge is the Indisputable Queen of Pop - I am sooooooo
Hung Up on her! :)
This was then the (very blurry) Hall of Fame at the
Hard Rock Cafe, of which Madge is a part - together with Bono and who I think is a very young Billy Idol up there. The occassion was the birthday party of a dear little boy, so the rest of us dear little boys decided to go and drink ourselves silly in a way that our dear little mothers would surely have disapproved. And I was also taking dear little drunken photographs of the gigantic arty-farty chandelier that was hanging from the reeeeeaaalllly high ceiling - a bit of artful photoshop strokes and filters and here you have a suitably arty-farty blemished representation of the same -
And then of course, there was the very surreal snap of the Alice Cooper outfit - note to self: must wear a tuz over leather pants and vest at next basement S&M party.
Nothing else will do.
Hard Rock Review:The place is completely fantastic - great music that keeps you jiving at the bar for hours with your drink, even though the seating area may be full. Little chance of
that happening though - the place is
huge, situated as it is in an absolutely cavernous erstwhile mill in Worli - and chances are, you'll be telling the head steward to postpone your table reservation for just a feeeewwww minutes more while you keep on rocking at the bar. The decor is very
TGIF - but bigger and better, with loads of rock and pop memorabilia strung around The prices are on the higher side (just like TGIF) but seems worth it. And if you're a sap for old world goofiness, you have the entire band of waiters getting up on the bar space and dancing to Y-M-C-A. A rip-roaring time!
Blues in Connaught Place used to be a favourite hangout when we used to live in Delhi - so this time, we planned to meet up. Me and Mallu (Kunal), Sharon and Tilak who was down from Nepal. Red wine and Tandoori Platter for me - and it was great, even though they screwed up and got me the veg platter at first, and not non-veg.
And no, Tilak cannot afford me! :)
Waiting at Agra station for the Rajdhani. The city is cooooold. Easily worse than Delhi. I thought the station was great for snaps, though. The pic above is from Stephen's collection.
The Sports Bar in Phoenix Mills used to be a regular haunt, at one point of time. Especially when we used to work at CNBC. The boss used to take us there a coupla times for 'treats' and all, and we would sit one this huge couch at one corner, throw darts, play pool, drink beer and exchange silly jokes. Then the CNBC days got over, and Sports Bar kinbda became... distant. Even though I still worked and lived a stone's throw away... And so later it became a kind of a feel-good factor, a memory thing - of when all of us would get together, pop some corn, chug a few beers, not worry about potbellies and sing along with Paul Young.
I love the song Aaj ki raat from the movie Don, SRK Version. Something so Damn Sixties about it - can just imagine the John Travolta-style finger dance action (you know which one I'm talkin' about, don't look so mortified!) and it completely gets your groove thang rockin! So that's why I also luuurrrve shiny disco balls - both the thingy, and the song. Clicked this one at a Goa pub, and then took a retake in 'night' mode below.
And then, the other day, I'm going though Bandra, and I see in an ironing shop (of all places!) the most gorgeous, the most divine, the most lustrous silver shiny disco ball, hanging from the hutment ceiling at a corner.
This place was called the Hanuman Bar, of all places, at Anjuna. And while we were drinking coffee (too many beers during the daytime already), Binay here started playing with the lamp hanging overhead. I took three snaps of him - what I labelled as Arty, Intense and Playful. Up there is Intense. Down there is Arty and Playful.
I've been a fan of Madge ever since I can remember. I used to have the cassettes of her very first albums, straight from the 'Holiday' days, graduating to 'True Blue' and 'Like a Virgin' and then 'Like a Prayer' and I even did a 'Bedtime Story'. I was reduced to opera-like tears when I heard her rendition of Don't Cry For Me Argentina... and I was giggling in bubblegum glee when she went all Material Girl. Madge is the Indisputable Queen of Pop - I am sooooooo Hung Up on her! :)
This was then the (very blurry) Hall of Fame at the Hard Rock Cafe, of which Madge is a part - together with Bono and who I think is a very young Billy Idol up there. The occassion was the birthday party of a dear little boy, so the rest of us dear little boys decided to go and drink ourselves silly in a way that our dear little mothers would surely have disapproved. And I was also taking dear little drunken photographs of the gigantic arty-farty chandelier that was hanging from the reeeeeaaalllly high ceiling - a bit of artful photoshop strokes and filters and here you have a suitably arty-farty blemished representation of the same -
