Aashray Hariharan

There are no good or bad balls in cricket. There are just balls. A batter can be out or hit a six of the same ball. Labelling balls is just psychobabble...

Beware of @makemytrip gift cards. It's a complete scam! They give you invalid vouchers and then indefinitely "work to resolve your query". Your money of course, is gone. Completely untrustworthy, forget unprofessional.

A tirade. Against @Indian_Accent, Delhi’s much-lauded temple of gastronomy, where the well-heeled and the well-fed go to stroke their palates with innovation. A couple of days back, they were found peddling a culinary sleight of hand.   The offending dish, an offering on the tasting menu, promised morel, water chestnut, and asparagus, hidden beneath a ‘paper roast dosai’ (Exhibit A). One is always excited at the prospect of encountering a well-sourced morel, the truffle of the East—that decadent jewel from from the forests of J & K that costs more than an Indian family’s grocery bill for half a month. What arrived under the dosa cone, was not the morel, but a drab cluster of the most ordinary button mushrooms, the kind one might expect in a roadside stir-fry, the fungal equivalent of a counterfeit handbag. If you’re going to list morels on the menu, then there better be morels on the plate, not the fungal detritus scraped from the bottom of a vegetable box (Exhibit B).   This wasn’t an error. It was a deliberate act of chicanery. A calculated decision. Someone in the kitchen, or perhaps in the higher echelons of the restaurant, took it upon themselves to substitute the expensive morel with a far cheaper imposter, fully believing that these particular patrons, who probably didn’t look like the sort to have tasted morel before, wouldn’t know the difference.   When summoned, the chef performed the customary song-and-dance of apology, claiming he would ‘fix it in under two minutes.’ And he did. Miraculously. Brought in a new plate, flush with morels. Which begs the question—how is a fine dining restaurant able to replace a dish in less time than it takes me to open a bottle of cheap plonk? Pre-prepared, perhaps? If this kitchen is churning out dishes with all the haste of an airport lounge buffet, then what exactly are the patrons paying for? The pomp? The pretense? At this price point, we are not paying for mere food, but for integrity, for the understanding that what is stated on the menu is what will arrive on the plate. When a fine dining restaurant offers morel and serves common mushrooms, they are engaging in outright theft. Ordinarily, I’d let such an infraction slide. If it were some second-rate restaurant peddling Instagram-friendly fusion fare, I’d roll my eyes and quietly consign it to the bin of forgettable meals. But this is the restaurant that Condé Nast Traveller, in a flight of wild, hyperventilating praise, swears is the very best in all of India. It’s nestled comfortably on Asia's 50 Best Restaurants list, ranked #26—an achievement it brandishes like a Michelin star. Time Magazine calls it one of the 'World's 100 Greatest Places' The question that naturally arises from this regrettable sleight of hand is: who, precisely, stands to benefit from this deception? Who profits from swapping out the Rolls-Royce of fungi for the rusted banger of button mushrooms? Certainly not the kitchen staff, who, I imagine, are too busy executing their preordained choreography to engage in such duplicity. Nor, I suspect, the serving staff, who would have to nervously deliver these imposters to tables, hoping against hope that no discerning palate calls foul. The chefs? Perhaps, but not in any way that bolsters their culinary pride. They’re not stashing a wad of cash in their aprons or taking home the saved morels. My sense is that their hands are tied by those behind the curtain. To call this ‘cheap and petty’ would be charitable.

When the BJP is done with Hindu-Muslim politics it will move to North-South, and once it is done with that, it will pit people speaking one language against another and one State against another. Its campaign videos are proof of this. Just like this one.

Australia has more terminals now than people

Team @ETtech @EconomicTimes makes sense of a chaotic yet colourful year through a series of numbers Ashish Aryan, @ray_aash, Annapurna Roy, Archana Rai, @BeenaParmarET @diarekhiET @divyaverma Himanshi Lohchab,@romitguhaET @Romita__ET @SurabhiA_ET @SurabhiA_ET

Dear bigots, Narendra Modi didn't lower your taxes, he didn't build any smart cities or airports (just inaugurated those started by UPA). He didn't get you oxygen during Covid to save the lives of your precious ones. He didn't even get you cremation or burial space. He didn't show "red eyes" to China when they grabbed our territory. The bridges he built collapsed within days, his highways flooded within hours. He sold the railways, he sold your life insurance to his cronies. He didn't pay 15 laks into your account, he did not get you two crore jobs per year. He didn't lower the prices of essential commodities or petrol. I could list much more good that he DID NOT do for you in these nine years. So when you say he worked round the clock for you, all you mean is that HE VALIDATED YOUR HATE - for Muslims and other minorities. And he didn't do one other thing, repeat ONE OTHER THING, well other than that. So stop saying he is a great leader because he IS NOT (with apologies for paraphrasing original critique on Trump)

@williamlegate For a guy who has racked up so many recent Ls, it is crazy that he is just getting rid of the only W he had

1/30 Our "Protein Project" report is here What is it? Unique public-health project funded by @paraschopra to analyze common/well-known protein supplements sold in India Who did it? Me & team at The Liver Institute with world class, independent food/drugs testing Neogen Labs.

@NoContextBrits For people wanting context... Supposedly the crew went out drinking. A police officer approached them and, before he could say anything, someone panicked and said "We're just normal men. We're innocent men!" That has been denied by the crew of course.

@anandobrahma1 @imFmoharkan One is still one too much.

The best stories don't need embellishing, nor do they need fancy adjectives. The courage, the will, the character... They speak for themselves. Anwar Ali has scored for India. How beautiful is that? espn.in/football/india…

@karanpradhan_ 😂😂😂 That review is part of our glorious past too

This is very reminiscent of that legendary review you once wrote, @ray_aash. Must ask around if 'soaking in glorious past' is possible.

@electricfoo Bombay aaja. We'll eat full authentic salads

Listen Delhi, onion rings are not salad! I’m so angry with Delhi restaurants 😡

Captain Watson, your time is now theroar.com.au/2021/11/25/aus…

Never gets old. #IndiaVsNewZealand #Ind #NZ

@zophar666 @jigsactin @BigManBakar @lateriser12 No problem! All these retweets sending a lot of readers our way! Thanks!!

@ray_aash @jigsactin @BigManBakar @lateriser12 Didn't know your Twitter handle aashray, should have asked, my bad for not tagging

My pod partners @BigManBakar, @lateriser12 and I were interviewed by the @EconomicTimes as part of a writeup about the growth of FPL in India. The "influencers" tag was theirs, not ours 😂😂😂