Saravana Bhavan

Hotel Saravana Bhavan is one of the largest vegetarian restaurant chain in the world, founded in 1981 offering south Indian cuisine. They have more than 20 outlets in Chennai , 33 in India and 47 around the world (including USA, Canada, United Kingdom, France, Germany, Singapore, Malaysia, and the Middle East. There are plans, as of 2012, to open 5-star Vegetarian-Hotels.

Controversy

The chain founder P. Rajagopal was on the public eye due to his conviction and sentence to life prison for the murder of employee Prince Santhakumar in 2001 and sexual harassment of his wife Jeevajothi. He was the subject of a long piece in New York Times mentioning the case.

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South India

South India is the area encompassing India's states of Andhra Pradesh, Karnataka, Kerala, Tamil Nadu and Telangana as well as the union territories of Andaman and Nicobar, Lakshadweep and Puducherry, occupying 19.31% of India's area (635,780 km² or 245,480 sq mi). South India includes the southern part of the peninsular Deccan Plateau and is bounded by the Bay of Bengal in the east, the Arabian Sea in the west and the Indian Ocean in the south. The geography of the region is diverse with two mountain ranges the Western and Eastern Ghats bordering the plateau heartland. Godavari, Krishna, Kaveri, Tungabhadra and Vaigai rivers are important non-perennial sources of water. Chennai, Bangalore, Hyderabad, Coimbatore and Kochi are the largest urban areas in the region.

Majority of the people in South India speak one of the four major Dravidian languages: Telugu, Tamil, Kannada and Malayalam. During its history, a number of dynastic kingdoms ruled over parts of South India whose invasions across southern and southeastern Asia impacted the history and culture in those regions. Major dynasties that were established in South India include the Cheras, Cholas, Pandyas, Pallavas, Satavahanas, Chalukyas, Rashtrakutas and Vijayanagara. European countries entered India through Kerala and the region was colonized by Britain and other nations.

Bhavna

Bhavna is a 1984 Hindi film directed by Pravin Bhatt in directorial debut of the cinematographer. The film stars Shabana Azmi, Marc Zuber, Saeed Jaffrey, Rohini Hattangadi, Kanwaljit Singh, Satish Shah and Urmila Matondkar. The film's music is by Bappi Lahiri.

Plot

"Bhavna" the movie is a story of a less privileged woman. A young lady, an orphan named Bhavna Saxena who lives all alone in the city meets a man named Ajay Kapoor in a garden, sketching her portrait. They became friends and later on the friendship turns into love. Eventually they get married, however, Kapoor's dad had not granted permission for this marriage. Ajay is an artist who does not make enough money . Bhavna tries to sell his paintings going from door to door but their financial condition is poor.In the midst of this worsening financial situation, Bhavna realises that she is pregnant with Ajay's child . Ajay is unhappy to hear this as he feels that he cannot afford the expenditure of raising a child. Unable to endure the worsening financial situation, Ajay decides to go and meet his rich millionaire father who resides in another city. .He tells Bhavna that he would return in a couple of days . Ajay leaves Bhavna alone and many days pass . The days turn into weeks and weeks into months . Still there is no news of Ajay . Ajay never came back to Bhavna. Bhavna manages to procure Ajay's father's address and goes in search of Ajay . Bhavna is astonished to see that Ajay has married another woman as per his father's wishes. Dejected Bhanva confides her sorrows to Shobha, her best friend . But this was not the end of her struggles in life.

Indian cuisine

Indian cuisine encompasses a wide variety of regional cuisines native to India. Given the range of diversity in soil type, climate, culture, ethnic group and occupations, these cuisines vary significantly from each other and use locally available spices, herbs, vegetables and fruits. Indian food is also heavily influenced by religious and cultural choices and traditions. There has also been Central Asian influence on North Indian cuisine from the years of Mughal rule. Indian cuisine has been and is still evolving, as a result of the nation's cultural interactions with other societies.

Historical incidents such as foreign invasions, trade relations and colonialism have also played a role in introducing certain foods to the country. For instance, the potato, a staple of the Indian diet, was brought to India by the Portuguese, who also introduced chillies and breadfruit. Indian cuisine has also shaped the history of international relations; the spice trade between India and Europe is often cited by historians as the primary catalyst for Europe's Age of Discovery. Spices were bought from India and traded around Europe and Asia. It has also influenced other cuisines across the world, especially those from Southeast Asia, the British Isles, Fiji, and the Caribbean.