The Black Dog Avataars – 01
‘What are you so busy with these days?’ asked Specky as she came in after a busy day in the office. Being a Taurean, I gave her a single word answer, ‘Black Dog.’ ‘Black Dog?’ she echoed. ‘Yes, I am writing a few researched posts on this wonderful brand of Scotch whisky.’ ‘Black Dog?’ she...
Rob Schneider and the art of vanillic sweetness
Rob Schneider, the 1963 born stand-up comic and veteran of the NBC sketch-comedy series Saturday Night Live has so much in common with the Black Dog 12 YO Scotch whisky. The Wikipedia points out that ‘in Schneider’s movies, the main character often undergoes some type of transformation, be it an unlikely career change, or a...
The prose and the rhyme of it all
It is a speech that I am going to quote here in this post… a whisky speech… and then I am going to try to write the same speech as if it were a poem. I’m sure all those who love their malt are going to be nodding in appreciation. Noah “Soggy” Sweat made his...
Water? I’m thirsty, not dirty!
Neil Fusillo recounts a personal story on the internet: My father often, on occasion, when asked if he’d like water added to his whisky, said something along the lines of, “Water?? I’m thirsty, not dirty!” I have taken the title of this post from his lines… however, I must clarify here that in this post...
Of malty tones and velvety textures
Words, aromas, and flavours have the power to evoke a sense of oneness if they are the right ones coming together. Almost like the time I sat with my wife on the terrace and opened a bottle of Black Dog 18 YO. ‘Deep, golden, glossy, and mahogany,’ I said softly. My wife looked on dreamily...
Sunlight held together by water
An approximately 130 years old brand, calling itself the perfect scotch is what Black Dog is all about. Yes, someone did once describe this scotch as sunlight held together by water… though I’m sure Sir Walter Millard, a Scot, might not have agreed to the technicalities of the phrase but would surely have loved the...
BD tasting: Talking of Seductive Aromas
It was one of those evenings when the intense amber gold of the setting sun decides not to hide behind the darkness of the night until it has seduced you completely. The intense amber gold and the shimmering highlights enter your mind and pervade all the senses… almost the way Black Dog does. We were...
The mantra of immortality
Just yesterday I was driving in the midst of a mad rush near PaharGanj in Delhi and was almost unnerved by all the furious honking going on around me. My wife was sitting beside me and had been observing the Celsius of my attitude going up. She calmly switched on the AC in the car...
Olive Qutub @ Chef Saby
Someone asked me recently, ‘Which place is great for eating and just being there.’ I replied, ‘Olive Qutub at Chef Saby.’ This fellow looked at me as if trying to see if it was Vodka in the afternoon that was the reason for my seemingly topsy-turvy reply. However, I certified my soberness when I added,...
Following the tracks of his mind. Review of ‘Shadows Chasing Light’
Yes, Justin Emeka, even I enjoyed following the tracks of Brian Bower’s mind as I read the lines and thoughts in this thin, trim, and suave looking volume of poetry. No, thin isn’t always malnourished… just as trim isn’t always civilized and literate. This volume with its less than fifty pages has more thoughts than...
Rural India gets 52 Kg: Review of ‘Survey of Rural India’
Are you aware that there are 6311 Community Development Blocks and 240,561 Gram Panchayats in our country? As per census report, about 72.2 per cent of the population lives in 638,588 villages… and how much do we know about this ‘majority’? Researchers, writers, students, teachers, bloggers, scholars, administrators, planners, tourists, librarians, and even the common...
As the night grew darker… Review of ‘RIP’
Nerves stretched to breaking point now. Then all four were on board. Now! ‘Zorawar,’ Krishna hissed into the headset. Along with the code word to commence strike, the flash bang in his hand was cast forward. Just like that, the operation attained critical mass. The flash bangs exploded with mind-numbing roars. Breaking out of the...
