So we Bangalore Metbloggers have been in a foodie mood lately, all fuelled by my desire to get some posts going out of the gang!

I started off the chain with the search for the perfect momo - part one and two. Usha writes about the delightful café at the Alliance. Sujatha reviews Herbs & Spices, the rather cosy delightful place in Indiranagar. Looking for a quick roll? Ravi tells you that Fanoos is a good choice. He also takes my 2 post threat to heart and visits Annachi in 100 feet Road, Koramangala, and says he can cook better! We are going to take him up on that soon! Shruthi writes about one of my favourite tea places, called Infinitea. And btw, you do get a lot more than just tea there! Rubic_Cube goes looking for the perfect idly and Kanth gives us a sampling of more Chettinad in Koramangala at Ponnuswamy’s. Where apparently, you also get rabbit!

Okay, don’t complain that I haven’t given you enough food for thought (and the stomach) to get you through the weekend!

Shibs and I go to this place often until last month, we saw a closing down sign. That was quite upsetting since we loved the waffles in this place. But last week I got a forward from a friend with some good news that two enterprising folks were taking up the tough ask of reviving the place!

The place is none other than De Lekkerbek, the Belgian Café, on 80 feet road, Koramangala.

So the other day, along with Shibs, and a few others, it was time to revisit…

It’s a nice and quiet place to sit and catch up with friends. The waffles were great as usual and we also tried the banana crepe. Besides that, we ordered the chicken scallopini, Belgian fries and a vegetarian dish, whose name I forget.

Ranjeet and Riad, the two folks who are going to try and revive the place need your support! So do visit it as soon as you get a chance! Both of them are doing this along with their work, so it’s definitely going to be challenging for them. I also did an interview with Ranjeet, which should go on Bangalore Metblogs tomorrow.

If you’re in the area, passing by or want a quiet and cosy place to catch up with friends over some yummy treats, I’d recommend you visit the place pronto! Don’t forget to please do pass the word around to your friends, relatives and countrymen (heck, even your enemies, after all they shouldn’t be denied waffles!)!

And bon appétit!

Landmark: The crossing leading to Raheja Residency. From there you need to go just about 200 meters towards the Sony World junction side. On the right is Band Box, a drycleaning place, and on the first floor is the café.

Updates on the blog ban controversy at the end of this post, including the latest (encouraging news) from Shivam Vij writing @ rediff.com…

Reading this conversation in the papers kept me in splits on my way to work in the morning. I always wondered what kind of high brow conversation these leaders indulge in when converging for fancy summits like the G-8. Well, the mystery solved.

Leaving the mic on (the man is smarter than you think, you have to admit!) Bush refered to Condoleeza Rice as ‘Condi’, swore about Hezbollah until Blair realised and switched their mics off!!

Too funny, watch it!

This is shocking! I thought one site was down till I read this story. I hope it gets resolved soon. I can’t access any blogspot blogs as of now…

And till then, you can use this URL to access blogspot blogs.

From Mutiny.in: “Two sources, one inside the Government of India and the other kind of inside/outside have confirmed to the Mutiny, that ISPs are being instructed to ‘control’ access to blogspot. It seems that some blogs are being used by some terror units (read SIMI) to communicate.”

Here’s the blogger collective group that has been formed.

Jace is following the ban and writes: “Get this, folks. This isn’t about censoring bloggers. This is about curtailment of civil rights of all internet users. That is what we should be fighting against.”

More on Boing-Boing.

Shivam Vij is following through on the phone.

A list of ISPs that seem to have blocked blogspot blogs.

And Anand manages to cling on to his sense of humour and the Great Bong hasn’t lost all his reasoning either! Don’t we need in the face of what’s going on?

A huge collection of links and discussion on Neha’s blog.

This from a Hindustan Times report that I found a little hard to swallow: “Sources in the government said that a circular was issued by the Home Affairs Ministry three days back asking the Ministry of Information and Technology to block the 12 websites which posted content maligning India….” Officials defended the decision saying, “We would like those people to come forward who access these (the 12) radical websites and please explain to us what are they missing from their lives in the absence of these sites.”

DNA India reports: “The blocking of the blogs seems to be the result of well-intentioned policing gone awry. Sources say the list of blocked websites included the names of specific blogs, but ISPs seemed to have blocked the service all together.”

Amit Varma writes: “Now, internet users across India have been unable since this weekend to access any sites hosted on Blogspot or Typepad, two popular domains for India-based blogs. (Geocities is also blocked.) Again, it seems that there isn’t a blanket ban on these blogs, merely a government order to block of couple of blogs that has gone awry.”

I am still shocked that they can take a decision to block blogs without any warning whatsoever. And more so because of the absolutely baseless reason given (SIMI activists passing information via blogs?!) So shouldn’t they be banning emails, going by that logic? And maybe even news sites which terrorists use to send subliminal messages to unsuspecting readers?

Also, it’s not just Indian blogs. It’s blogs on the blogspot domain which have been targetted. The reassurance however is that everything will be back to normal soon. But the very fact that they’ve been able to do something like this brings to the fore the fact that we can take nothing for granted in this country. We might as well be living in a Communist China or a Saudi Arabia or Pakistan for that matter. They might as well tell us to stay indoors (no crime), not watch television (no evil influences) and stay off the internet, email (no terrorism!). And there you go, the government would have done its job. Right.

What next?

Update (July 19): I’ve been offline the whole day until now but Ravi tipped me off the fact that metblogs.com is also down. Metblogs.com is a community of city based blogs and some of us belong to the Bangalore community. I do sincerely hope that this is not a part of the whole blocking/banning exercise and I’m also wondering if they are going to ban anything with the word blog on it now. It all gets more and more unbelievable by the day!

Here is a detailed post about “Using the Right To Information Act to find out if and why the GOI has blocked blogs in India”.

Update as of 9.45 pm: Metblogs.com servers have been down so that seems to be another unrelated problem and we can heave a sigh of relief.

Just watched over NDTV, (around 9.15 pm report), which interviewed a few bloggers including Dilip D’Souza. The DoT apparently is now transferring responsibility to the ISPs now. According to the news report, the government had asked a few web pages on certain domains to be blocked (hinduunity.org and exposingtheleft.blogspot.com being named as a few of them in a TOI report today), while the ISPs decided to implement a blanket ban on the domains instead.

Either out of their laziness or out of ignorance (both of which are a little difficult to believe). It seems to be a case of cat and mouse, with no one now wanting to take responsibility or decisions to revert the ban. While they try and work out who’s responsible, bloggers can in the meanwhile use the Right of Information Act (link above) to ask for some justification for this unwarranted and totally undemocratic action.

Kiran Karnik is reported to have said on the sidelines of the HR summit of Nasscom that the Internet being a free media, any attempts to block out some websites is not desirable.

I hope more influential folks are able to put pressure on the government to stop this undesirable and uncalled for action on blogs. In fact, if they are doing it with blogs today, what are the chances that they will not turn to all websites tomorrow? In fact, what is the guarantee that they don’t stop all email services so we can no longer communicate. And maybe they should stop telephones too going by their totally screwed up logic.

Jace has also written an article for the TOI about circumventing censorship. He’s written in detail about how to deal with your ISP blocking sites using Torpark. Another way, he writes, is to use Shy Surfer if you are behind a corporate firewall. More guides are available here.

As of now (10.15 pm) I am not able to access pkblogs.com or inblogs.net. Have they gotten to those too?

July 20 - Update: 12.11 am: Shivam Vij has some encouraging news at rediff.com, which reports that the blog ban will be lifted in 48 hours. This is according to what Amitabh Singhal, a spokesperson of the Internet Service Providers Association of India (ISPAI) told him today. Quoting from the article: “Singhal said representatives of various ISPs met on Wednesday to discuss the issue after the media took it up earlier this week. He acknowledged that some ISPs — he insisted it wasn’t all — mistook the Department of Telecommunications (DoT) notice and blocked entire blog domains, adding that it was technically feasible to block a sub-domain and leave others still accessible.”

A list of 17 sites on the blocked list, with a few strange inclusions like princesskimberley.blogspot.com
which apparently has not been updated for a few years. And Exposing the Left, written by someone in Southern Illinois.

Read the whole report here.

It did not deserve this surely.

Close on the heels of the furore of the monsoons, it now has another terrorist attack to deal with. If it gives in, it’s broken. If it goes about its business, it’s uncaring.

Sometimes, I think that it’s so unfair that a city that gives its residents so unselfishly, has to endure so much from some half crazed bunch of fools, who go about killing innocent people, for god knows what purpose. I can’t believe these people seriously think they’re sent to earth with a purpose to kill others. What kind of lunatics are they and what drives them? Not religion surely, because I don’t know any on earth that actually condones this kind of nonsensical, demented behaviour.

(more…)

There’s more to Tibet than just Tibetan momos. This was a slow and eventual realization over a few years as I was exposed to the land and its people.

Through my sister, I came to know of Tenzin Tsundue (whom she befriended in Mumbai) and who had climbed the 14th floor of the Oberoi Hotel in Nariman Point some years ago to unfurl a flag saying “Free Tibet” as the Chinese premier was visiting.

A few years ago, my sister and I also went and visited Tawang in Arunachal Pradesh, home to one of India’s most beautiful (and largest) monasteries. Situated on a hill-top with its bright yellow and red paint, it stands out from anywhere, its beauty unsurpassed in this small hilly kingdom.

In Bangalore, I met the dreamy Aqua through whom I was exposed to more of this country.

Last year in Kushalnagar, I had a chance to visit one of South India’s largest Tibetan settlements in the South of India. It is also home to a beautiful Namdroling monastery.

Then this year, I got a chance to visit the abode of His Highness the Dalai Lama at McLeodganj in Dharamsala. His heavily guarded residence is just in front of the main monastery and I try and peep in through the thick iron gate only to encounter a suspicious security guy. There is a huge sign at the monastery that talks about the Panchem Lama (and successor to the Dalai Lama), who was taken by the Chinese authorities when he was about eight years old and no one has any idea as to where he is today.

I often wonder what it will be like not to be able to return to your homeland? What if I went abroad and was told I could never come back to India. What if some other country takes over and does not allow me to come back? It’s unimaginable. And yet, it’s living reality for the thousands of exiled Tibetans living in all parts of the world including India.

Some excerpts from the World Tibet Day site:

• Since the Chinese Army invaded Tibet in 1949, and under Chinese occupation, over 1.2 million Tibetans have died and more than 6000 monasteries have been destroyed.

• Forced to flee his homeland in 1959, the Dalai Lama has lived in exile since then in northern India, working with his countrymen and Tibet supporters to keep alive the culture and religion of his people, while trying to establish a peaceful dialogue with the Chinese government.

Politics apart, just talking to those Tibetans you encounter is heart-breaking when they express a desire to see their country (some of them are born outside and can’t go back or even visit) and you can sense their sadness as they speak about never being able to return to Tibet. You’d think that freedom is every human’s right but you realise how far we have to go in this struggle for freedom when you look at what’s happening in this country.

I do hope, for every Tibetan out there, that their dreams of a ‘free Tibet’ comes true someday soon.

If you feel the same way, please do post about it on your blog too. If you do, please leave a link so I can add it here:

- Aqua’s post

- Support peace, support Tibet - Usha

- Dilip’s post on Free Tibet

- Joy’s original post

Watching Superman fly around looking cool (his locks always in place) was an awesome jaw dropping experience.

I mean which other man can look so cool wearing his undies inside out? I am totally in love with Brandon Routh and I won’t go into details of the movie, but just to say that Aqua and I spent most of the time drooling over the super man (!) – his eyes, his voice, his locks and other such assets.

So don’t ask me what the story is, because we didn’t really pay much attention to it! Women, please rush to your nearest movie halls, get tickets and watch it. It’s rare that you’ll find such a gorgeous package and one that flies around without getting his hair out of place! And read Aqua’s review too… (of the man again, and not the movie!).