The Kite Runner

‘The Kite Runner’ is a touching yet powerful tale of an unlikely friendship between Amir, the son of a wealthy Pasthun and Hasan, the son of his father’s servant, a Hazara.

The story begins in 1970s, before the soviet invasion of Aghanistan. Amir, the protagonist through whom the author tells the story attends school while Hasan completes his chores around the house. Like their parents, Baba and Ali, Amir and Hasan become fast friends with Hasan standing up for Amir many a time. Having lost their mothers and being breast fed by the same lady, they take their first steps in the same yard and speak their first words there – with Amir’s being “Baba” and Hasan’s “Amir”.

At the age of 12, to impress his father, Amir with the help of Hasan wins the annual kite tournament. His victory is short lived when he witness a vicious assault against his friend and fails to stand up for him. Amir’s faintheartedness combined by a later act of betrayal causes Hasan and Ali to leave their home.

With the soviet attacks, Amir and Baba leave Afghanistan to San Fransisco, where Baba works in a gas station while Amir continues studying to become a writer. He falls in love with Shoya and soon they get married. Life goes on for them until he gets a call from his father’s close friend Rahim.

The book depicts the change that has taken place in Afghanistan from before the Soviet Invasion to the Tabilan ruling it in a an excellent way. Though the most impressive theme is the friendship between them, the book also illustrates love, marriage, religion and life under the talibans.

An extremely remarkable book.

P.S. Adult fiction – potrays child molestation.

Woodlands Indian Kitchen

Based on a friend’s suggestion, we tried “Woodlands Indian Kitchen” in Chandler, AZ. I am writing this review after visiting this place twice.

This place offers a complete vegetarian menu and is kind of the fast-food restaurant with a small dining area – not the usual Indian style restaurant. They carried most of the south Indian breakfast items. My friend was disappointed that they didn’t carry one of the popular items, pesarattu-upma, though they did have it as two different items. The dosa we ordered was good, but I  best liked the thalis at this place, the curries were delectable and I felt that it might be sufficient for 2 (i.e if you aren’t starving). The thali came with 4 curries, 1 chutney, rasam, sambar,curd,  papad, rice and chapati. The gobi manchuria was yummy too. The only con was the mango lassi – it was crappy.

The prices are decent and less when compared to other vegetarian restaurants.

On the whole I think its a good place to try vegetarian Indian food, there are many varieties to pick from and most of the items we tried were great.

P.S. This place doesn’t have buffets.

Rating: 4/5

Sweet Life Gelateria

Wanting to try a new gelato place, I visited the Sweet Life Gelateria located in North Scottsdale. This place had fewer flavors when compared to other gelato places I visited in the valley. Among the ones they carried there were very few fruit flavors and they weren’t great either. All the flavors I tried were lacking natural taste and had strong syrup kind of taste to them. After trying a few flavors I decided to have chocolate, banana and coffee.

The prices were similar to the prices at other gelato places (3 scoops for $4.95) but the quantity was comparatively less.

On the whole, I was disappointed with this place and I wouldn’t recommend it.

Rating – 1.5/5

The Chuckbox, tempe

This place has AWESOME burgers – the best I have tasted yet!!

The place is close to ASU and is on the E. University drive. Parking wasn’t an issue for us even on a Friday night. This place only accepts cash and they have an ATM machine inside if you don’t have enough cash.

I tried the chicken teriyaki, BBQ chicken and hot & spicy chicken sandwiches here along with their french fries and jalapeno poppers. The burgers were priced below $5 and the taste and quantity excelled my expectations for that price. The french fries and jalapeno poppers are also good. The chicken/ meat was grilled and veggies could be picked from the condiment bar.

The place looks like an old shack and they have wooden boxes to sit on. It gave this place a different feel because of its old look.

A great place for burgers. I still have to check out their chicken wings (the next time I visit). I would recommend this place to those who would like to taste freshly grilled burgers.

Rating – 5/5

Priya Indian Cuisine

Priya, an Indian Restaurant located in Tempe which serves both North and South Indian cuisines. The buffet for lunch costs $11 on weekends and $8 on weekdays.

The restaurant for the lunch buffet carries 2-3 breakfast items, 2-3 vegetarian curries, 3 non-vegetarian curries, naans, chicken or mutton biryani, plain rice, curd rice, 2 desserts and 1-2 chutneys. The last time we visited the restaurant, the naan’s and the deserts were bad. But the idli, vaada (breakfast items), biryani and the vegeterian curries were good. Also, they have more dishes when compared to other Indian restaurants especially for vegetarians (excluding Udipi as it is an exclusively vegetarian restaurant).

On the other hand if you are ordering from the menu, then I would suggest biryani’s. They are really good. The breakfasts on the menu are also pretty decent.

Though Priya quotes to carry both North Indian and South Indian Cuisines – I would say almost all their dishes are in the South Indian style. Of all the dishes that I have tasted here, I like the chicken biryani, idli and vaada with their chutneys a lot. Ambience is not great but is no less when compared to many Indian restaurants.Though I wouldn’t say Priya has the best Indian food, its neither terrible. 

Rating – 3/5

Gelato Spot

Gelato Spot has a great ambience and also has more chocolate flavors when compared to Gelato 64.

Having loved the mango flavor in Gelato 64, it was the first one I tried. Though it wasn’t bad, it wasn’t as great as the one at Gelato 64. Over a few visits I tried different flavors that include – coconut, caramelo, strawberry, stracciatella, almond snickers, amaerna, roche, banana, nikki’s cookies ‘n’ cream and chocolate. I did like all of them and have no complaints about any of these flavors.

Also, the gelato here appeared somewhat thicker and closer to ice cream than the gelato at other places. The cup size is based on the number of flavors you are interested in - 1 flavor, 2 flavors and 3 flavors. Each flavor will be given in one scoop.

Prices aren’t bad though they are a little more when compared to Gelato 64. The 3 flavors cup (large) costs under $5 which is comparitively less than the $7 for large at cold stone. If the amount of gelato is also important, then you should prefer Gelato 64 as they fill the cup and you can choose any number of flavors instead of getting the gelato based on the scoops.

Rating – 4/5

Gelato 64

Gelato popularly known as the ”Italian” Ice cream is said to contain less air incorporated into it and also has less fat compared to the general ice creams.

Gelato 64 has a wide range of varities. I love the mango flavor at this place and so do most of my friends. I have tried quite a few flavors at this place - strawberry, strawberry cheese cake, coconut, strawberry banana. berried mango, snickers, pistachio, Double Fudge chocolate brownie, coffee, chocolate, cafe mocha, Toblerone. Of all these flavors I would say the best are the Double Fudge chocolate brownie and mango.

Gelato 64 has more fruit flavors when compared to other places but has few chocolate flavors. If you have a liking towards the fruit flavors then I would suggest you to give this place a try. If you prefer chocolate flavors then I would suggest the Gelato Spot as they have more chocolate flavors.

Prices here are decent (large cup comes for under $5) and you can select any number of flavors you like. The quantity is also “lot” more than what you would get at other places.

Rating – 4.5/5

Nothing Lasts Forever

When I started reading the book, I thought this one would be different from other Sheldon books. Even though the book starts of on a great note with a court room scence where Paige is being prosecuted for mercy killing, it slowly take the similar path that Sheldon’s books usually follow.

The book revolves around the lifes of three women doctors – Paige Taylor, Kate Hunter and Betty Lou Taft. After describing the court scence and the case against Paige for a few pages, the book rolls back from 1995 to 1990, the first day of arrival of the three women doctors to the Embarcadero County Hospital. Being the only women, the 3 become friends and also rent an apartment together. As residents they quickly get busy with their tight schedules. The books revolves around their past, their love lifes and their work at the hospital.

Paige’s childhood goes through travelling and living in different developing countries as her father works for the WHO. There she falls in love with Alfred Turner, her childhood sweetheart whom she decides to marry. But when he visits her during the summer after she joins the hospital, he is already married. This devastates Paige and she involves herself more into work until she accidentally encounters Jason Curtis.

Kate on the other hand comes from a poor background. Having run-away from home, she feels its her mistake that her younger brother turned up badly. So, she tries arranging for money whenever he calls asking for it. During one of her schedules in the emergency ward Kate comes across Dinetto, a mobster who gets impressed by her independent attitude and skill. Based on a bet, Kate gets involved with Ken Mallory, falls for him and plans to marry him when suddenly things take a drastic change.

Honey (Betty Lou Taft), born into a family of over-achievers wanted to be a nurse but ends up being a doctor so as not to disappoint her father. She comes to Embarcadero County Hospital with a glowing recommendation. But honey doesn’t perform very well in the daily routines. She has a dark secret which explains her performance.

Their life’s gets displaced with Kate being found dead in their apartment and then Paige is charged with man slaughter of John Cronin.

Wouldn’t say its a great book, but if you like Sidney Sheldon’s books, then I think you would enjoy this one.

Tell me your dreams

The book begins with the introduction of 3 girls – Ashley Patterson, Toni Prescott and Alette Peters. All of them work for Global Computer Graphics. Toni has a great interest in singing and sings really well while Alette is a great painter.

Ashley feels that she is being stalked and when she ends up in Chicago without a clue of how she got there and what she did the last 2 days, she feels her co-employee, Dennis Tibble might have drugged her and had gotten her there. But, Dennis Tribble is found murdered in his apartment. Jean Claude Parent, a guy with whom Toni chats online and meets in Qubec City and Richard, a painter whom Alette is dating also get murdered in the same way as Dennis.

Sam Blake leads the investigation in the murder of Dennis Tribble. One evening after taking a polygraph test when Ashley returns home she finds “YOU WILL DIE” written on her bathroom mirror. Hysteric she calls Deputy Sam Blake and when he suggests that he would send someone to her place to stay overnight, she requests him to come over. The next morning, Sam Blake is found dead and all the proof points to Ashley being the murderer.

Who really committed the crime – Ashley, Toni, Alette or Ashley’s Dad, Dr. Patterson? Ashley is put to trial and this leads to a number of revelations.

The book is based on MPD (Multiple Personality Disorder). When I first read this book 3 or 4 years back, I was awed by it as I had no idea about MPD. But probably if I would have read the book now, I might not be that impressed with it as we are seeing and hearing so many stories and serials based on this subject.

A great ending which keeps you wondering about what Sheldon meant. Read through the last few pages carefully.

P.S. I still can’t decide on which stand to take – Is Ashley cured completely or not?

P.F.Chang’s China Bistro

If you are looking for authentic Chinese food, then this is not the place. But if you are looking for the American version of the Chineese food, then its a great place to visit.

The Chicken Lettuce Wraps and the Fried Beans in the appetizers are a great choice and I like them a lot. Having tried the Chicken Lettuce Wraps at other places, I would say they are the best at P.F.Chang’s. In the main course, I did try most of the chicken dishes they have and of all the dishes I feel Kung Pao and Ground Chicken with Egg plant are the best. The Orange peel chicken was really bad. Also, there’s nothing special about their desserts.

The place has a great ambience and good service. But the dishes are a little pricey.

A good place if you don’t mind the the extra price.

Rating – 3.5/5