Tianran Natural Health Vegetarian Restaurant

Off late, many chinese vegetarian ( yes! you heard it right) restaurants have cropped up in Shanghai. Some of them have become popular too. A couple of them mould their menu and dishes similar to the popular non-veg ones in color, flavor and shape. Some of the newer ones have authentic chinese veggie dishes.

Tianran Natural Veggie ( Nanhe Hotel - Named after a river near Nanjing) on Nanjing Dong Lu ( Nanhe Hotel, 442 Nanjing Rd. E., near Shanxi Rd. Tel: 63612059) ranks amongst one of the top veggie joints ( wonder if there has been a ranking of VG joints yet!). Though the restaurant getup is nothing ornate , the location, taste and cost of the dishes more than make up for the lack of ambience ( But lookout for the nice oil painting of erstwhile Nanjing lu, just as you get out of the lift on the 8th floor). We ordered Spicy soup, bamboo shoots, tofu ( 2 varities), chilli brinjol, fried rice, noodle soups..etc. The veggies in our group devoured everything and did acknowledge the spread laid out.

Xin Nian Kuai Le! 2007

Chinese New Year Eve is kinda like Diwali! All the similarities are there ( family get-together, gift exchanges, fruit baskets , Fireworks, gala-dinner etc). The roads of Shanghai are empty and streets are deserted. Incase someone lands up in Shanghai in CNY eve, they are sure to look around and suspect something amiss.

The chinese fireworks are 'la jawab' ..They are precise, cheap and give a good bang for the money spent. Good bye dog and welcome ye Pigs! The chinese population and wealth is all set to explode this year.

Roger Waters - The Dark Side of Moon - World Tour

The sixties rocked! There is some kind of magic about '60s music which still persists and manages to fill up a stadium. Eric Clapton and now Pink Floyd - both had the crowd eating out of their hands. The contrast between the 2 artists was quite pronounced. While EC (Eric Clapton) was clinical and stuck to his new music and guitaring feats, RG ( Roger Waters ) was humane , his show had a theme - America, Iran War, GB etc. The excellent video / lighting & acoustics ( not to mention the inflatable moon walker and pig) - was something which the Shanghainese may have come across for the first time. RG belted out all the popular numbers..people especially liked his new Lebanon song. THE WALL anthem was sung secong last - and when it came , all the people in the stadium sang along on the top of their voice..i call it an anthem 'coz everyone seems to know it by heart.