Dear Air India,

Why do you have to go on strike all the time and ruin people’s trips? I mean, get a grip.

We won’t fly you, ever. We prefer to fly Qatar because their airport lounge has playstation 3 terminals and a fooseball table. Really, its because we can fly into Kochi and skip the mayhem of Mumbai.

According to the National newspaper, India gets Starbucks and IKEA. Now they too can sit on unnecessary furniture while drinking sub-par coffee instead of the amazing coffee houses in the villages that have served sublime affordable food and hot caffeine for centuries. The National also reports, “India is ranked as one of the world’s most lucrative markets for retailers because of increasing consumption by its growing middle class.”

All this food for less than ONE US dollar per person at the Barath Coffee Shop in Tricur, Kerala.

When politicians and economists speak of undeveloped countries, they refer to the business climate, possibly infrastructure, insinuating the United States and Western culture is more developed. Does consumerism make humans more developed? Or, does a civilization that has prospered for millenniums dating back to way BC have more experience than a 235 year old insolent toddler? I remember a time in the 70s or 80s when India put an embargo to western imports such as soda. As a teenager, I’d NEED the Coke or Pepsi, and they’d serve up a Thumbs Up or Limka. In a selfish way, I wish it would go back to a local economy, where the bottle is worth more than the liquid inside.

my cousin raju’s band, mushroom lake, from thrissur (trichur) Kerala india starting to play out a lot!

New song from superstar malayalam playback singer (and my cousin), Gayatri Asokan, the sweet voice in this melodic dreamy rainsong, ghan ghan garajte…

The song has an old world Krishna era charm to it says Gayatri. Translated ghan ghan garajte hai baadal means the cloud is blessing us with showers.

at the music store w/ anu and gayatri

bajans by gayatri produced by the Art of Living, the ambitious and progressive non-governmental organization with a philosophy of peace, “Unless we have a stress-free mind and a violence-free society, we cannot achieve world Peace.”

India is always a trip in the real sense of the word, trip.

My father’s family has been living on the same land near Trichur, Kerala for over 700 years. Next month a small gaggle of us are going back. We will attempt to tell our story here on bag in a bag thru a series of photos and observations and an in-depth look at the hindu temples that dot the landscape, and the legendary newly recoiled snake temple we respectfully renovated on the family land.

Legend has it, the temple has the power to fix depression, anxiety, and other mental disorders with regular prayer to the serpent deity that lives on the temple grounds.

Found a pulse between japan and korea in the asian art museum in san francisco.

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sanjay patel :: asian art museum : san francisco

BIG SAD NEWS!!! Udipi Atlanta is closed. Sign on the door said, “Sorry. We are closed.”  You will be missed.

GOOD NEWS BAD NEWS!!!

One of the former Udipi Raleigh partners opened Sai Krisna Bhavan, an all vegetarian South Indian restaurant in Morrisville, North Carolina.

as far as strip malls go, this one ain't bad

Our south indian coffee came out hot, but not hot enough. The masala wada was fried then reheated. Had a great cumin seed flavor, if you like that, I do. Coconut chutney had too much Urad lentils and therefore was crunchy, but edible. We asked for mulagapodi and it arrived in a pickle tray in powder form with a texture reminiscent of vacuum cleaner dust.

we fought over this upma though

Mom’s rava dosa was not cooked enough on one side, the onions were still almost raw. They brought me a rava dosa when I ordered a butter masala dosa, the masala had too many green peas. The upma had peas too. Indian food normally doesn’t normally have peas.

interesting buffet:: 20+ items including baby corn pakora, jackfruit, and kerala fry

I cut them a break because they opened less than a month ago and are still getting their routines and system down. The chef let too many details slide and they were off on too many staples like sambar. It tasted OK, but it wasn’t sambar.  I’m guessing the buffet kicks ass though, and I’d go back to try it out. Next time I’m in town for sure.

Last post on bag-in-a-bag was August 2010!!!

What happened? Who cares.

What’s happening?!  Holy Crap.

We’re going back to India. Febrary 2012.

Yesterday was a historic day!!!!!!!

by  SK Asokan

In India, Mutzzi, the bag, is never far away.

When I looked at my favorite  traveling  bag/companion …  it was a sad sight. The dirty, old and aging burgundy- reddish bag who has traveled to every city around the globe and even stolen and returned in Vallarta was showing  its skeleton through the broken skin.

The thirty year old was refurbished about twenty years ago.  Despite my transient flirtations with a Gucchi  or Zegna, I  always came back to Mutzzi.

A trip to India just two months away it was do or die time for Mutzzi…   So I tried.

went to  the internet…..two hours later no one.. one politely suggested  I get some financial advice.  No one could understand why someone will spend up to two hundred dollars to rehab a thirty dolla bag!…. “Have you heard of luggage stores?”

So I went to yellow pages…nobody looks at it anymore…Found four ads around  Raleigh  most of them shoe repair shops who moonlights as luggage repair when times are tough… not  at X-mas time!!!!!!

I got in my car and drove in rain and sleet…to the ritziest mall shoe repair/luggage repair shop only to find they never did luggage repair…….

Saddened…..  I ate two hot dogs… Boy.. it beats Cymbalta.

Next stop …other side of Raleigh…sorry …..we cant do it….the chorus…..

Finally dusk came…Time to put  Mutzzi on permanent retirement…. in storage room… surely not to garbage yet…….

A mile away from home….. decided to pick up cheap socks at the mall.

at the center islands next to the pretzel vendors…..

Though the corner of my eye see ” Cobbler Express.”…and a fifty something.. time weathered  Korean minding the store.   His kindness in the eyes gave me some security that at least he wont insult me, or worse Mutzzi..

Then he said the unthinkable…………YES I CAN FIX IT…………….

He got his Christmas gift from me immediately before we settled on the cost…

We exchanged our immigrant stories…  me  how I came with seven dollars and a dream …

He about his boat ride with no food and toilets………

Time froze for a moment…. America was good then….

We finished the details………. Left …….Mutzzy in trusted and loving hands…….

On Dec 30th…..she will be back at her home for good and ready for the next trip..

Proud and ready to sit next to a fully reclining seat in Singapore Air….

Only on one condition……that I don’t spill  any caviar on her new  skin……

mutzzi under seat or overhead

Part 2 coming soon

excerpt :: Raju KP, the KP stands for Kuzhiparambil Prasad
works: IT professsional
lives: Kochi, India
age: 23
languages: English, Malayalam and Hindi
instruments: Guitar, Bass guitar, Piano and yeah, little bit of drums
influences: Metallica, Joe Satriani, Jason Becker, Steve Vai, Pink Floyd, Iron Maiden, Dream Theater and a  hell lot of other European metal bands.

dead serious

“Well, the rock music scene in Kerala is not as big as other major cities in India like Bangalore, Mumbai, Chennai. Indian music scene is confined to movies and majority of people in here are into movie songs. Rock music followers are a minority, so the exposure for local bands and musicians is less.

Talking about local bands, there are many especially in schools and colleges. Very few are genuinely good. Most of them try to play extreme metal and start with covering metalcore bands like Lamb of God and Slipknot. Maybe just to show off their skills. Drummers concentrate on playing double pedals as fast as they can, guitarists on shreding, etc. like that.  Most follow the same style, metal-core that is. Very few experiment with classic rock, blues, heavy metal etc. A problem I’ve seen with the local bands is the vocals. Most of them sing in English and the accent is horrible, not to mention the so-called growls and screams. I mean the instrumentation would be good but as the vocals start, it ruins whatever they’d played so far.

There are really good bands too and of course they go professional. Very few bands sing in the native language.  Avial is are the only band in Kerala who sings in Malayalam. Their music is awesome and their guitarist Rex Vijayan was sought out by Gibson, USA  for a deal to play their guitars. Motherjane is another famous band in India and they are from Cochin. Their guitarist has incorporated metal with Indian carnatic style slides in guitar. Local bands do not get much platform for performance other than yearly competitions held in college art festivals

The rock scene is on its development stage in and there are people working to organize shows. There had been efforts, but ended up in failure. “

kochi kerala india 2009