Aurus, Juhu Road

This was long overdue!

First year of marriage completes and you want to celebrate every joyous second that passes by. You look out for a perfect place to spend the evening when the sound of your padding heartbeat grows on seeing the glint in each other's eye. The flickering light of the candle from your candle light dinner softly tunes new harmony and you see day following night like flapping of bird’s wing. To celebrate such pleased moments, we chose a place and thank God it was as fit as a fiddle. I had to write about one of the best restaurants I went to celebrate this togetherness.

Aurus is a fine dining restaurant and lounge bar on the beachfront of Juhu. It is difficult to locate Aurus since it is not even marked by any sign. My husband and I drove past the restaurant once since there was no sign/board anywhere. That is about locating the joint, which is actually just before the Reid and Taylor showroom, which can be easily missed.

The inside of Aurus is dimly lit, which is little uninviting compared to the well-lit outdoor area. The decor of the restaurant is gorgeous otherwise. There is a big hype about watching the sun down from Aurus. Almost all the tables get booked months before so there are few lucky tables, which can even gaze onto a quiet stretch of Juhu beach.

The food we ordered was good. The hospitality of our attendant was outstanding. We were timely attended to and were advised when needed. The dishes we tried had a really appealing name but I can’t remember it. My platter of peppered cottage cheese on organic broccoli tasted great with peach and strawberry daiquiri.  Our crusted potatoes and chicken were great starters. We enjoyed our food and indulged in rich chocolate dessert to rejoice the fainter moonlight of the growing night.

Aurus’ alluring open-air vibes make it a great place to wine and dine. 

"You need a chaos in your soul to give birth to a dancing star"

When I entered my hostel of Delhi, I thought I was on a mission to convince the city that I am also a part of them and I am not here as a representative of concentrated decrepitude made up of the decomposing remnants of my state, as they perceived. I used to think that it was impossible to induce the fact to these people that Bihar has relatively more intelligent, intellectually sound and suave people than they could decipher from the simplicity wrapped around us like the flag swathing at India Gate. A rebel is born when people get lost in the cobwebs of dust-shrouded profusion and an inflated sense of self. That rebel tries to pursue an objective, which they think is lame at the beginning, but accept it unswervingly towards the fading miasmas of their prejudice.

I remember the day I saw my hostel room, its stark white walls and miniature size bed and cupboard. The objects in my room looked like tiny moths retiring in the light of a white oil lamp. My attention wedged on something written in the corner of my bedside, “You need a chaos in your soul to give birth to a rising star”. The whole idea of individualism suddenly rose with the new spark and I knew it is time to leave dark abyss of fear and uncertainty.

********

I saw this quote again when I was watching ‘Dirty Pictures’ and felt the same kind of trepidation and aspiration emanating from the character of ‘Silk’. I was impressed with the dialogues, strength of characters and grunts of anguish pervaded precisely.

The movie is about a girl who comes to tinsel town to prove her worth. She is severely hit by poverty and is not convinced by the filmwallahs that she cannot do big in the industry. She performs raunchy numbers, knitting her brow silences the ugly bigots by her witty remarks and becomes a big shot. However, every star that brightens in a transitory manner also fades; she too succumbs to hideous plight of life.  

Her journey started with climbing the ladder of success, she fell prey to lust in disguise of love, tasted failure giant as titanic, felt the fear mounting on the edge, tried to shun criticism to live free of trammels of precision. However, towards the end feared falling in true love and chose a bridal adieu from worldly affairs.

The movie made me fret by the apathy people show, hypocrisy they shed at every point and that ignominy which silk had to bear. She did not deserve so much pain if we consider survival of the fittest. Ah! The indolent serenity of the phony world, everything is so cruel about you.