“Twas an  action-packed week for Indian bloggers: financial meltdown, reservation quota and the Da Vinci Code controversy etc. etc. · Global Voices
Kamla Bhatt

It has been an interesting and exhausting week for bloggers, and news hounds in India and elsewhere. We had a whole range of subject vying for our attention: the stock market meltdown, the reservation quota issue, and the Da Vinci Code controversy. To relieve the stress, many bloggers penned their thoughts on other subjects like food, books and travel and these posts provide the much needed welcome relief.
If you missed it, you can catch up here about the great Indian stock market meltdown. The markets tanked "big time," and police was put on suicide alert…there was real fear that some stock brokers and investors might harm themselves (commit suicide) after this brutal blood bath. First, here is an analysis from Anand, who sits away far away from India…in UK. Perhaps distance provides some objectivity. Read and discover for yourself. And, Dead Presidents wonders if there is a foreign angle to this stock market crash. Animesh offers his take on the crash, and also offers an interesting piece of advice – preserve a copy of the Times of India for it could end up being a collector's edition. That is how big and nasty this stock market crash was and people are still reeling from the shock.
There has been no dearth of posts about the thorny reservation quota issue. The Indian government will implement a 27% quota reservation from 2007. Here is a sample of what bloggers had say. Hari the Hadron says that the word reservation is a misused one. Read his short post to find out why he subscribes to that view. Arun is not happy with the government's decision and says he has to learn to take it with a pinch of salt. Soumyadip of Cutting the Chai has an interesting take on the subject, and a whole series of pictures that give you a visual image on this quota issue.
India too has seen a fair share of action with reference to Ron Howard's Da Vinci Code. The film was released with an "A" certificate. The Konkani Catholics Blog has reproduced a copy of the letter written by the Bangalore Archbishop. And here is Vijay's take about the controversy surrounding the film, who says: The comedy or irony is that even the most dominant catholic countries didn't had   any such objections. If not for the publicity, the film would have been viewed   as just another movie by the people here.
After that exhausting week, I found some solace in reading reviews of Indian restaurants in Manhattan, an Indian blogger's take on Mr. Homes and about Cunningham Road in Bangalore. It was great re-living my experience in a vicarious fashion.
FatMixx  has a review of Vatan, a Gujarati restaurant in Manhattan by Sujal, an Indian-American. Vatan is not too far from Empire State Building and Penn Station. The restaurant does make for a memorable experience, but you need to walk quite a bit after that heavy dinner. This is what he had to say about Vatan:
It’s not your typical Indian food and it’s not your typical Indian restaurant.   That alone makes it a must-try for anyone that loves Indian food.
Finally, the British may have left India almost 60 years ago, but they left behind their literary legacy: Arthur Conan Doyle, Charles Dickens, PG Wodehouse etc. Here  is an interesting post about the Baker Street detective, you guessed it right Sherlock Holmes, but with an Indian twist. Surely, you must have guessed by now that the post was inspired by Google's homage to  Mr. Holmes. Remember the clue on their page?
The Thinking Thinker's Think Tank has a short post about Cunningham Road in Bangalore and here is a tip why you too should stop by here if you happen to be in this neck of the wood.