--- On Thu, 13/5/10, Thaths <[email protected]> wrote:
> From: Thaths <[email protected]> > Subject: Re: [silk] Writing with the pack > To: [email protected] > Date: Thursday, 13 May, 2010, 23:11 > On Thu, May 13, 2010 at 10:22 AM, > Indrajit Gupta <[email protected]> > wrote: > > Commenting on the quality of the review is > meaningless; I am so biased that > > it would be laughable. The Hindu never ever > interfered. My wife, too, used > > to do pieces for the same Supplement (not when my > daughter was working with > > them; the two women were squeaky clean in avoiding > such situations). She, > > who also took me in tow on some occasions, has had the > same freedom. I > > don't know if it is radically different in Chennai; I > doubt it; but at > > Bangalore, most certainly what you describe was never > present. Never ever. > > And The Hindu correspondent was conspicuously the one > who never picked up > > the PR goodies. House policy, not to be trifled with. > > I am curious now. Do you happen to have links to (or scans > of) a > couple of these reviews? Did the reviews that were > published have > *anything* not positive to say about the restaurants? Say, > the napkins > were a tad soiled? Or the waiters were gossipy? Or the menu > had funny > typos? Or that some of the dishes were lukewarm when they > arrived at > your table? Was the chicken ever dry? The soup too salty? > > I don't mean to cast aspersions on the journalistic > integrity of the > Das Gupta women. Perhaps I have just had the misfortune of > reading one > too many completely-positive gushing reviews. > > Thaths > -- > "Lisa, Vampires are make-believe, like > elves, gremlins, and Eskimos." > > -- Homer J. Simpson > Sudhakar Chandra > > Slacker Without Borders > From memory, there were disaster restaurants, but that did not include the better restaurants. I'll try to get old reviews out for you, to see for yourself. In Italia in Bangalore, the wine selections were excellent wine paired with what I personally felt were inappropriate entrees. I remember getting into a low-key but intense discussion on that with the F&B Manager, to H's huge embarrassment. The review, as it turned out, was mixed; excellent food, excellent wine, but what the heck made you do these dopey combinations? There was also the stand-up comic reviewed, who turned out to have a stock in trade exclusively of the F word. He got panned; in fact, I asked my wife to let me write the review, as I was boiling at the crudity of the performance. I never thought you were doubting the integrity of the Gupta women (who's Das Gupta, btw?), how should you? But there wasn't editorial influence over the review writing; that was just the way the kids wrote the reviews. Incidentally, the Metro Plus people were separate from the regular paper correspondents, and reported to a separate head in Chennai, I think a guy called Mukund. I remember that he was quite particular about offering strong views, but was frustrated by never getting quite the right person to do these hard-hitting reviews. He was probably wrong; that kind of review wouldn't go down well in India. People want to know where to go, what's good to eat; they don't want to hear bad news, unduly emphasised. Emphasis on the unduly. That's why I think you were being unfair, because the general theme of these was information for the person planning an evening out, not a belles lettres piece a la NYT.
