Made in India key chains

See what I found ..a key chain with a happy little  Indian girl ..was very excited ..usually u get a blonde curvy woman (read Barbie ) who is being denounced as unnatural even in the country of her origin  ..and for some reason this Miss Hotness is  always wearing pink. I like this little girl..her little cheerfully printed skirt. .her long hair ..ha ha ha we school kids had to do that style in Tamil Nadu. .used to hate oiling my hair, ribboning it up;)  And guess how much I paid for this key chain..Rs 15!  Must be it is Made in China;) Found it at the Rose Store at Pali  Naka.  A good place to browse for such cute things..3 -D  key chain, craft stuff.#Bandralove #Mumbaimerijaan #ILoveMumbai # Bandrainfo

" Green peace" auto in Bandra

In Bandra ..here is a happy autowallah showing it is à to break the stereotype. Mumbai commuters are resigned to the stereorype of a brash, rash, scowling, horn-ok type of auto drivers. But u do bump into the happy autowallah who used to be common on Mumbai's streets till a few decades ago.
So found this happy automan who had made some changes in his vehicle to have some indoor plants fixed. Nicce..
He posed happily requesting me to write " a few good sentences" about the experience.
If journalists want to interview him, u are likely to find him off National College, Bandra.
Another autowallah watching me click pix groused that such additions are not possible unless u have safe parking.. Yes..all happy things need a safe caring space. Let's reclaim such safety for Mumbai.

Simple yoga tip for summer

Yoga tip for summer: varun mudra( also jal mudra/ jal vardhak mudra)
The names mean rain/ water/increase water respectively.
The names say it all about its benefits.
Touch tip of little finger to tip of thumb, for each hand. Hold gor 30 mins or more daily.
Increases water, as well works wherever there is deficit of body fluids ..semen/ menses/ dehydration/ thirst/ eye moisture/ saliva/ digestive juices. Go back to your achool biology books and search up the entire list of fluids in body tgen u will appreciate where all this mudra can help.
ALERT: Avoid when there is too much of any fluid. Example? Mucous, excessive menstrual bleeding, water retention. Also ayurvedic kapha personality should avoid it.

Giant guava season, in Mumbai

 

If you ever had a guava tree, then you must be used to the sticky gum. Caterpillars? And a profusion of birds in your garden. In my childhood in Vellore and Chennai, Tamil Nadu, every garden had a guava tree. In that arid climate, it never died and managed to bear fruit. . Even in Mumbai, and now in Bandra, I've lived in two houses which have had guava trees. Once time, aeons ago I  spotted an owl near it.  That was in Borivli, and it is close to the National Park. Now, in Bandra too, I have a sprawling guava tree in this old building where I stay, and parrots are regular feeders on the plant's bounty.

Last season too I remember buying a large guava and marveling at the size. As big as a grapefruit. .Today, I stumbled on one more. And here, its pricing matched its size.At Rs 200 for a kg. The one you see here 550 gms. And the shopkeeper gave a ten-rupee discount because it seems I was is first customer. It is always pleasant to me, that when I do not bargain, somebody will give me a discount.. feels like a lottery:)

 

The large guavas come from UP, I just learnt. Sardar and Safeda are the popular varieties.

I was scouting for info on guavas and just learnt that they are anti-cancer, anti-diabetic, anti-inflammatory, soothe the skin, soothe the digestive tract (in vomiting, diarrhea and other upsets), soothe the throat and settle a cough, and hey, help with serious weight loss. It's the poor man's apple, in its humble avatar.

This one, was less seeded, had a firm skin, a tarty-sweet flavor. Interesting taste!

 

And of course, one has had the Goa guava sweet. But did you even know there is a guava curry?! Check it out, here http://www.tarladalal.com/recipes-using-guava-463!!

 

"Mothley"-Art in Bandra

Often, you can spot the moths at the fruit-sellers in Mumbai. Moths have intriguing color patterns on their wings. But unlike butterflies which make everybody ooh-and-ha, moths provoke a shrinking withdrawal -- possibly because their bodies are heavier and hairier. Even kids who do not know the difference between a moth and butterfly often shrink.

I recall, when we had just moved into Kandivli Thakur Village, we used to see the large Atlas and Moon moths inside the buildings -- a foot long wing span. Jaw dropping! We used to get a pandemonium (btw that is what a group of parrots is called:)of parrots at our windows. But that stopped once the human population in that area grew and it became over-crowded and polluted and traffic-jammed!

While writing this blog, I found out, happily that if there are moths in your area, it means the place is less toxic (see the article in the link I've given) because according to lepidopterist V. Shubhalaxmi moth population contains mosquito population. Another article, attributed to naturalist Isaac Kehimkar says that they are crucial for pollinating food plants.

Overuse of pesticides will kill off these insects crucial for ecology, including in an urbanscape.

So, yes, Bandra still has a green heart. Let's keep it that way!

The rhino statue at Juhu

I saw this rhino statue at Juhu junction last month, during Diwali. It was covered with some green protective sheet. According to Mid-day (here at this link) it has been shifted from south Mumbai.
Any body has more information on it.. please share:)

What you simply MUST NOT buy because of monsoons in Mumbai

Free MySpace Animations!

Yes, there are sales and sales. Nobody is saying it is the Pre-Id sale, but you a festival is a good reason to offload a lot of stuff on the waiting-to-buy population of Mumbai. Mumbai loves malls, loves food courts, loves Bollywood and loves shopping. But discounts and sales notwithstanding there are some things you must never ever buy, due to the aftermath that monsoon leaves on the stuff you so lovingly buy and hoard.

* Mango wood furniture. It is cheaper obviously than teak or rose, and looks solid. And a lot of well-established brands sell them. But your wood is going to puff after just one monsoon. Your drawers will not open. Your doors will get stuck. Cupboards will refuse to budge. You will tug and swear. Then break something because despite the solid look this mango wood is puffy after the monsoon leaves its track of humidity behind.
* Leather moccasins --those embroidered ones that are super easy on the pocket and look super cool too -- but will be gone with a fungal overload that will make you sick, give you itchy feet and will cost you as much to clean up, even with the streetside cobbler -- they use mustard oil polish to remove the fungus -- but once you seen the overgrowth, you can't won't to wear them again!
* Salt lamps -- oh, they leak and how
* Solar panel lamps -- Hmmm.. eco-friendly and all that, but they konk-and croak off -- and you will find out too late that nobody knows what to do with them.

There are other things, but will add them once I recover weeping over their loss:)
 

Paisa vasool? Getting small change is sooo tough..

If you look for anybody who has NOT had difficulty finding small change, I doubt you'll find anybody in Mumbai,except the super rich guys who do not need coins. But us, small middle class types, who need change for everything(btw did you know at the Sea Link toll booth you have to pay Rs 55.50 paise(and where are these 50 paise coins?!!) it is a very very tough life.

The auto or taxi drivers often claim they do not have the change that they are required to return. So, if you don't have the right amount, they keep the rest, since it is YOUR fault that you do not have change.  Or, they will not take you in, if they are honest, saying that they will ferry you only if you have the appropriate change-- that is fair from their side, but unfair, because we all know how tough it is to get an auto.

The chemists or some stores will give you some toffee/chickets/mouth freshners as change, since they too are bogged down by the lack of coins.

The other day I begged one shop-keeper to give me change for one hundred bucks. Or give me the name of the shop/dealer who can help... this business of having been a journalist, you try all tricks.  He said it won't happen for one hundred bucks. Usually, it will be only for several bagfuls. And the dealer takes a ten buck commission on one hundred bucks!

That is why we do have coin shortage in this city. Some fellows are hoarding coins, to recycle it back to shops in need, making a profit. It has to be on a large scale for it to be profitable. It is unbelievable. But barring one report in a Mumbai tabloid, which I cannot recall covered this hoarding aspect, have any of you noticed it in any newspaper at all?

I joke that when I start getting more Rs 5 coins, I will put it away in my locker...

But I must say, the last two days, the rare thing has happened, I managed to get five bucks as change from auto drivers.. no fuss, no haggle..Phew.. Hope this bonanza lasts.





 

Where are the blue flowers in your bouquet?

When I was a journalist(aw, there I go again), doing features, I had  the luxury (imagine, in  the good old Times of India which is pretty bureaucratic) of choosing the stories I worked on (being in the newest Features section of the Sunday TOI). So I would write from disappearing anti-biotics(when there was a epidemic scare back then), to child marriage by Arabs in Hyderabad,   to sudden appearance of yellow butterflies in Mumbai. I fondly remember the late Frank Simoes, ad guru, sending me a letter saying that how in the pall that was journalism my writing and choice of subjects was different and heartening (or something to do that effect). I cherished that letter for years, till, in the shift that has been my life, it got burned in a huge fire at my home.. I threw all my three big folders of bylines and my whole life as a writer into the other charred remains, and since then, up till now, looked only towards yoga.

Any case, I had written, years ago, on the Little Yellow suddenly dancing all over Mumbai.. it was a sudden beautiful thing, one summer. But nowadays I hardly see butterflied, though I fix orange rinds on my window sill (it is said to attract them).  But they are rare..I have seen the Monarch, large and majestic. And at the two nurseries near by (one at the Bandra Talao) you can still see large butterflies, attracted by the cluster of vigorous plants and flowers. ,, but that is just a rare freak thing..

Any case, this blog is about the next best thing to butterflies, flowers, even if they do not grow on my window sill -- if there is too much of a cementy dust, from excessive construction activity, the pores on the leaves seem to get smothered. I realize it is very difficult to maintain a terrace garden in Bandra ..

Last month I got an urge to keep a blue flower in my room. Usually I buy Rajnigandha for its intoxicating fragrance. If you cut the stem often and refresh the water, you can make it last all of one week, with the fragrance still spilling into your space.It costs just Rs 20 a stem, and is the most affordable from amongst the other exotica.  But I wanted a blue flower or a purple one. I hunted high and low, and the only flower with both shades that I could find in all florists was the blue orchid, which costs a whopping lot. 100/120 bucks for one stem. I had no choice but got it-- but though it had no fragrance, it lasted a long long while, its petals turgid and firm, and the color unfading and still magically glowing. I was amazed how long it lasted and understood why it was a favorite part of many large bouquets.

The point is most florists have a stock number of flowers -- roses in plenty, mostly in red, yellows, pinks and whites. No blues. The white flower line-up -- Queen's lace, lily, gladioli, gerbera. Of the last three again, there are several shades -- but usually the more popular yellow, orange.  Go and check the florist closest to you and you will see what I say is so true -- these are the dominant colors, not with shifting shades, but with strong monochromatic colors.  Barring the orchid, which u can get in one more shade, you will not find any blue flower with your florist. That was quite an eye-opener for me!

There is no third-eye (ajna chakra) representation in the floral bouquets of India. Have you seen blue flower themes at weddings? At other major events?! Most likely not. It is intriguing, , this avoidance of a color which is said to represent loyalty, trust, dependability.

No blue bells, no blue roses, no hydrangea, though you will find the nurseries do sell hydrangea plants with the large globes of blue.. that that is ok in the garden, but not in your bouquet..

And the blue orchid also, if you look at it properly, is more of a pinkish shade.. not quite purple(another color sorely missing with the florists) and not so blue except in photos..

I am curious if the rest of the major cities are also hung up about only white, yellow, pink, red colors for bouquets, wedding decors and parties..

And if the change happens, when blue flowers are more easily available,  will I still be around? Or will -- till then -- be required to  make do with a painting or a paper copy of a blue flower..

 

Ode to the disappearing restaurants in Bandra

This is the carry bag for Bong Bong. From just a plastic cover, we are happy to note its evolution, speaking of some spunk. Bong Bong, the very elegant Bengali food joint, is on 16th Road. And it started as a little smoky joint near Toto's garage pub.. a small takeaway  with some oily rolls. But it has grown now, and I cannot imagine that spot now without its individualistic décor (old typewriters, gramophone, prints, fans -- the nostalgia route that appears genuine).
  Why are we gushing over this little joint? Because since we moved back into Bandra the last few years, we have seen many a great restaurant and smaller ones (with established franchisee) falling flat on their faces. Our beloved Yellow Tree is gone, with its wifi zone, super menu and wonderful wonderful cocktails.  It started on one floor and expanded into two, before vamoosing one bright morning. Gone, to be replaced by another food spot, which, mercifully is pretty good too.

The list of loved and not-so-loved restaurants and eateries in and around Pali that have disappeared is appallingly long -- Barbecue Nation, where you could a humungous amount of food as buffet, And what about the hot Food Street hugging Carter Road? The elegant Italian restaurant beside CCD which despite its sophistication and elegant food was really low-priced, but gone now? Nearby,   Pocolo where we ate just once, Cinnabon (where despite my dislike for things too sugary I gained a few kilos), Costa Coffee which I always worried over, being so sparsely visited despite its sprawling space; the chocolate bar that disappeared at Pali Naka (can't get the name but with those lovely liquor chocolates) replaced by another Mediterranean  one which also disappeared, to be replaced by some other joint that too got replaced -- is there a food joint now? I am not going to find out. And that  tiny dumpling eaterie beside Suzette where the food did not meet the price tag. Who remembers the  umpteen  restaurants along the signal to National College (so many that have come and gone that I have simply lost track). I was sitting one day eating lunch at one of those pasta joints, and believe it or not, they were dismantling the kitchen. It was really tragic.

Oh, Kailash Parbhat, where you could get authentic Sindhi food? Hardly lasted a year... good food, amazingly priced; lotus stem specials and thalis that did not pinch the purse. Gone, forever.

No Dosa Diner here (we remember standing in a long queue outside the one in Bandra, long years ago. But despite its popularity, it too disappeared)

It is a wonder that the foodie sections of all these tabloids or magazine sections -- they do not cover the reason for this demise. When I was a journalist (how I love to say that:) we followed trends; did not just eat and smirk and carry a review which sounds very childish. I mean, I once read a food review, where this girl smirks at thin crust pizza and says how it does not measure up to the fat ones she's used to.  Totally exposed, but she does not have a clue:)

Where do the eateries (the good and the bad and the ambitious ones) go-- there is a lovely feature idea there:- both from a very business angle and from the love-of-the-city angle. And all we get is food reviews from restaurants that are very likely going to disappear very soon:(
 

Bandra, oh Bandra

 

Bandra will always be my beloved. It released the shy south Indian in me, and let me be just what I want to be.. tattooed, curly-wild mane, shorts and androgenous looks:)

 I remember once I ticked off a guy for jumping queue in the very back-of-beyond suburb Kandivli east where I lived in a state of suspended animation for years. He looked at me, as I am then as now, with tattoos (less those days) , wearing a leopard print rock-chic shirt, unforgivable in his eyes. In his limited world view as an Indian male, making it obvious what he thinks (that  dolt with diapers still on). And instead of cringing for lack of manners he says archly and with almost a spit at the end of his tongue, says, "Look at you." I mean to say, my leopard chic shirt was full-armed, my wild mane was tied back, and I had full pants on. Yet, he thinks that I should dare to speak to his holy maleness.. so he tries to bulldoze me with rudeness and says, " Look-at-you!" Hoping I will be reduced to ashes and blow away with the wind!!  Arrggh.. it is so irritating this habit. In the south, if you ask a man for a direction, he will pretend you are talking to the wind --- that you are not there. There is something seriously wrong with the Indian male, and you may have to psycho-analyse the entire families, and possibly, the guilty mothers for this terrible lacunae in how they treat the women.

 

But in Bandra this disharmony in the Indian male is somewhat (only somewhat) muted, so you can be just who you are if you can switch off some of the rowdy behavior (largely, I believe, from people from outside Bandra who think this is where THEY should let their hair down, and misbehave).

 

Any case, so since I am reviving my city blog after aeons, what better way than with Bandra bytes:)

 

So, see the image above.  And don't miss the name of the  paan shop. It is very very very cute, and hatke. I asked the paan shop owner if I can click, and he waved me on generously. I was at the traffic signal, where four roads meet (at Lemon Grass restaurant) which is where this paan shop is. There is another paan shop close to lemon grass, more humble roof, and no name. But this one, it rocks, na?

 

I was going to ask him why that name, and the story behind it. But I stopped being a journalist, though did not stop being curious. So, while I fought with these two identities, I slipped the opp to ask and here, there is only the image. If any of you go to him, ask him. I am sure, there is a tale:)

 

 

Parrots outside my windows

In Bandra parrots still squat outside the windows. That used to happen in my Kandivli house (very close to the National park:) till the building activity and traffic roar chased them away. But in Bandra despite the horns-from-hell, the parrots still come to the large sprawling mango tree outside my window. This tree is old, soothing to watch -- bees, tiny sunny sun birds, red-tipped bulbuls, bats  -- it is a home for a lot of life. Parrots love it too... The birds waited for that big mango to ripen patiently. it was hanging outside my window for several months  and I used to think it was spoilt. Seems not:) Here u can see the parrots feeding on it. A baby parrot -- its feather ruffled and messed, his head larger than his body yet -- also tentatively bites into it very often.

There is a huge clan of parrots here. They don't seem to mind being stared at. The guys who do the Sparrows Homes (u know,  they sell those Sparrow rests from which the birds can feed, the movement  was written about quite a bit in the media because the thought behind it was that sparrows which were relevant to the city'e ecosystem where being driven away by the larger scavengers and these Sparrow rests would allow them safe places to roost:) ( I myself  bought a sparrow rest for Rs 350 -- but no sparrow has not roosted there yet:(  well, they told me I should place red chillis outside the windows. But the parrots don't seem to want it.. why will they, when there are ripe mangoes to dig into.

I learnt something watching these parrots. Unlike pigeons which will flutter if u say boo even mentally, parrots never shriek or quake if there is a loud noise. They are truly brave! At the  construction site opposite, there used to be a huge bang each time the humongous  multi-storey column was pushed into the ground. But while pigeons squawked and ducked, the parrots will continue doing whatever they were doing, with nary a feather out of place, nor a flutter! Amazing. I want to be like that:)
But the parrots will be gone soon. The old building, in whose compound this tree grows, is now being pulled down. Another compact eco-system will be destroyed. And Mumbai will grow at the expense of its less fortunate inhabitants, as usual!

And even the building where I am living is going to be brought down. Will the mango tree survive all that work?

Arzan Khambhatta's microworld

At Arzan Khambhatta's show in the city: Micropolis and Microbilrium

I recall the first scrap sculpture I have seen in my life at Nariman Point. So, yes, I remembered the artist's name very well. So, when Arzan Khambhatta's show was announced, I wanted to wander in there too.. I like to see an artist's work if it throbs for me. Then I try to think of what he may have thought of when he created what he has.  In abstract and modern art work that is quite a puzzle:) But if it clicks for me, and I have a Aha moment, I feel good. I don't know if  my Aha moment coincides with that of the artist's moment of epiphany.  But I like to pause before a work and wonder at the layers beyond the asymmetry, or symmetry within the lack of it.  I like the connection that this gives me with the artist... It sounds too vague to be termed art appreciation... I recall how when the arty reviewers were let loose amongst us feature writers at Sunday Times we used to chuckle into our kerchiefs at how pompous some writers were.. They were only talking to themselves, excluding the rest of us crass humanity. That was something:)  Then these writers were eclipsed when Times decided that art appreciation was not necessary for a money-making paper.. So, now I miss those writers and their use of words like palimpsest, damn!!!

Any case, for me Khambhatta's work was something. His creations scaled down from the monster size they assume, like bejewelled men, shining with chrome, swinging from steel. Microbilirium -- swinging from a finger... flying high, let loose, free. Mmmm, seems like yoga of the mind to me:)
The micropolis had different stories -- sometimes  the man synergizing with the city, sometimes crushed by it, sometimes holding it back, sometimes being burdened by it. The disturbing one of one headless... ruthless control? Heavens, I was trying to guess, but it was great fun, to peek somewhere, into another mind, like unravelling a puzzle.
U can still catch that show at Museum Gallery, at Kala Ghoda, off Jehangir Art Gallery.

Visiting European art masters: did the city miss them or wat!!

                                    Rhapsody, by Michael Wilkinson

Typically, and shamefully enough, the media in Mumbai ignored this event, of contemporary European artists who also piggybacked on Auguste Rodin's statues for an exhibition at the Galleria at Trident, on till this week.

The reasoning behind such media blackout starts with the leader of the pack deciding to spend media ink only on events where the paper gets paid!! Thinking like a pauper, these sad sacks!

Since everybody copies the leader (he makes money, which helps him buy art, which he admires, but which he believes is not for the hoi polloi, that is u and I:) So that denies, me, the reader of a lot of things happening in the city.

Media is becoming a yawn -- between rapes, politicians, paid copies -- the reader's craving for something more -- art, science, events in the city, culture -- has to be buried. U can only hear the dirge between the sheets.

Barring Mid-day I don't know if others covered it, which just goes to how how sadly blind media is to their potential, but wasted, contribution towards a city's art consciousness. It is a collective shame that nothing happens in Mumbai -- or so the citizens believe - barring Bollywood and that trash consumes all over collective eyeballs...

Any case, it was a small exhibition... I recall in wonder Rhapsody by Michael Wilkinson, the hands that have become symbolic of Lorenzo Quinn's art (I am still reeling at the layers of love he got to portray with just two hands:), Auguste Rodin's statues, and Damien Hirst Butterflies and medical paraphernalia...

Quinn's art: depicting love -- from first love (bottom), trust (second last), eternum (third last)
Of the lot, I loved Wilkinson's rhapsody for its lyrical lines, the sense of fragility of love through the acrylic lit up cunningly from below. The Quinn hands still have me in thrall -- trust, eternum (lasting love), first love... so beautiful. Some images here are just representative since I wanted to convey some of the wonder, of what you may have missed, if u did not see this show:(

(Damien Hirst, butterflies, pills and medical paraphernalia)

On theater, spaces and seating

Free MySpace Animations!

We were at the experimental theater of NCPA to watch Padmashri Leela Samson dance. This is not about the dance, which I would not dare review (One, I  am arts illiterate, plus two, she is the principal of the college where my daughter is learning dance:)..This is a general letting off at how seating is organised in such spaces in Mumbai.
My husband swears he booked the seats after seeing the layout in their website (he booked online).  And chose some good ones, giving front view. Yet, when we entered the auditorium, we were asked to walk up the steps and sit  on the sides... I first thought, wow, I get such a wonderful bird's eye view of the dancer. Alas, and woe betide and the rest of the sad exclamations later, all I can say is that it was very bad place to be sitting. And even if Rs 200 is less than Rs 300 (were all sold out, no doubt to members at a discount), I felt like a pariah who had to twist her frame completely to get a decent view of the profile of the dancer:( It was physically taxing. Thank god I do kickboxing and am used to twisting from the hips and may actually think that sitting awkwardly for more than an hour  is good exercise and will def make my future kicks better:)
 These top side seats run along, and over the auditorium, along its side walls. Some seats, far down and ahead,  must have been even worse... Seeing that the seats to our right were empty, we moved a few seats to better our experience. It still felt the same... :(

I recall once we were at a Shiamak Davar show (the annual thingie where students perform) we were given seats near the speakers(at Shanmukananda Hall, Matunga). I thought my heart would break, since the thud from the speakers  (that too Bollywood remixed for high-energy dances) was something else altogether: hellish and if you know any biology you will that sort of proximity can be extremely dangerous. Can u imagine? Rs 300 for a seat and win a heart attack?!!!

Prithvi theater is getting by with it old fashioned style of having no numbers. This means when there is great play (like Chanakya, Manoj Joshi's, which I thrilled to, despite most of the shudd Hindi going over my head) there is a maha scrunch for space. I have seen stragglers coolly moving the early-comers to squeeze their butts into non-existing seats. Scrunch, scrunch, some hip-twists and everybody in chalta-hai Mumbai is happy. And cash-starved Prithvi Theater is ok with a few extra bucks. Does Sanjana have a ceiling on the number of tickets Prithvi sells? Is this based on any informed study on the size of Indian butts? Maybe some research to also indicate that certain plays attract the starving sorts (smaller butts) and some more popular plays attract the well-fed butts (big butts)? I would dearly like to know. Do journos who write flowery pieces on restaurants in the city ever think of looking at the city from this angle and churning up a story worth reading? Along the way get more flowery quotes from theater lovers. Here would be a sample: " we  love theater and we don't mind the sweaty neighbour. We can even tolerate the deprived Indian male (oh, not many of them come  to watch plays, maybe?) moving his elbow over our love handle and breasts."

And since the seats are not reserved, u don't pee during the interval. Some brazen ones, I have seen, can argue their right to more space or walk over from where they don't want to be sitting, to take over the space of some poor fellow with a weak, incontinent bladder. U can see really brazen behavior and nobody says anything... ushers try gently to tell people from sitting on the wooden steps...
So somehow we manage... in this city where space is such a problem, we are sooo  happy we still have culture, what?

Commuters' strike: I am participating

This Thursday commuters -- the ones who take auto regularly -- plan a strike. I plan to offer my moral support by not taking an auto too on that day.

Did u people read Quadros' interview in the Mumbai Mirror: (He is the auto-drivers union leader). He says auto drivers are not slaves and they are also human or other such sympathy-milking statement. I do not think at all, for one moment, any commuter treats an auto driver as a slave. On the contrary, most of these fellows, with the biggest chip on their shoulders about the rest of the world, treat commuters like shit. I believe union leaders, like political parties, must create the idea of `the evil other' against whom they will protect you. For long, political parties in India have thrived on dividing and ruling, and are still thriving on that unbeatable formula that they inherited from the British. So, I am not surprised Quadros is making out like commuters are the evil ones who are making unnatural demands (He says what if the poor auto driver must sign off, or may have a problem at home..It seems 99 per cent of the auto-drivers are suffering some such malaise day in and day out. 24 X7 ?) .

Though I hate the idea of contributing to global warming by taking an auto (does a gas-cylinder auto also contribute to that?) instead of the BEST bus or the sardine-can trains, I still do it because commuting by public transport is becoming hell in Mumbai (The Borivli station has become a knee-breaking maze for me) I have been resorting to autos to go to Kandivli for music classes. Fare comes to a whopping amount.. which I won't reveal..
But the last one month I have discovered the worst side of auto drivers:
On every route, to-and-fro -- and I am not exaggerating,  they would agree to come, then mid-way, they will flag another auto down and tell me, some even acting with tears in t heir eyes(!!), that the brake is broken, something is cracked up, they are on reserve and whatever else they mumble ...
I realised the pattern: since the traffic police drive against auto-drivers has become strict, these fellows are making up this ruse, so somebody who looks militant like (note those muscles?) does not call the police control room to complain .. otherwise how come on six trips continuously I have been dropped midway and shoved into another auto?

So now, before getting into an auto I tell them that this trick has been played out before me and so to kindly spare me a repeat... Its been working, touchwood. I have gone in one auto for the entire trip ..

BRAKE BREAKS
However, before that, once, I had to change thrice!!! On the second leg of this eventful  journey, this auto driver suddenly says he won't come to Pali because I said Linking Road before I said Pali. What!! I told him that some northern suburban auto-drivers do not know where Pali is, so when you board an auto you give them the destination broadly (Like Bandra West, Or Linking Road) then lead them more specificially to the exact location. And Pali Village is off Linking Road, it is two shops off KFC, yet this fellow says he won't turn right to take me to my home because  I had said Linking Road first. He said I was doing a BIG WRONG!! (I think you can guess where this sort of behavior comes from -- the sort of propaganda which keeps drumming into their heads that they are the victims of the commuters and must be protected from them? Otherwise what would union leaders do for a living?)  So I completely forgot that I am aspiring for monkhood and world peace, then bristled and told him to stop the auto. I told him:" Please stop. I rather walk then travel in the vehicle of an adharmic person like you... Here is your money." Then I walked a long long while in anger at my own anger, stomping to cool it off, before I flagged another auto driver.

FARE TOO:
And btw. If you are smart enough to buy your own auto meter fare card, you will catch on that it is very different from what they have. The auto fare on their meter is a round figure. For instance, if the meter comes to 178, it wil show 180 and so on... This is something Value Added Tax, I guess. If hotels do it, why not poor driven auto fellows who just want to say they are not slaves?
What happened to my beautiful Mumbai of yore, where auto drivers gave back money, or often told you to keep the change (if you did not have one buck, they will say, chalta hai!!). I used to love Mumbai for its auto drivers. But Chennai is worse, a nightmare .. Delhi as bad I suppose. So I guess I am destined to put up with autowallah's khunnas and forget I have any rights of my own...

Poha gone wrong: terribly wrong

Ok, this does not qualify as a review. But I bought the ticket and went for the play and sat through it, so I have a right to an opinion, even if it is an unintellectual one.

The whole thing is about Sudama. As a concept my husband and I were excited: it wants to, in the beginning, explore the possibility of whether it would have changed the course of the big battle or of Indian philosophy if instead of Arjuna, it was Sudama who got the Gita's message. But though Sudama is made to sound like a left-out friend who keeps on resenting Arjuna, this idea, as the play unfolds, did not make any sense to me. Meaning, first a man who resents so much cannot understand the Gita. And if, as it is well-accepted that Sudama was intellectually and spiritually fine (he is said to have taught a mantra to Krishna, so you get the point) then he did not need the Gita: it makes more sense to give the message to someone who needs it (like Arjuna) rather than someone who already knows everything about it(like Sudama), so what is the point.

Then this Sudama who apparently is also That Sudama (Krishna's friend) gets rather rude I find. He is constantly calling people moorkh (maybe my spelling is wrong, but it sounds like a rude word) and laughing at people doing B.com (why, they are intellectually and spiritually less?) and in fact, I found that sad sack he kept calling moorkh was a rather chilled out guy who is actually one of the few people who finds some substance in Sudama when the whole world rejects him. So, that sort of loud, lunatic behaviour in the name spiritual advancement I found difficult to swallow. Not on, Makrandji.

The actors were all superb. But the script was lost. Suddenly, the spine of the story crumbles completely, and we find we are asked to believe in people who could be (maybe this Sudama is not, but so many tantric priests and Djinn-driven babas in this country who would love to have their halo certified by such a play) some quacks making  a fast buck. To prop this silly ending, the story crackles with a `believe-it-or-not' superstitious finish (where u can sense the whole cast and Makrand in particular is getting goosebumps because he is so carried away by that idea) that shows the playwright had completely forgotten the original intellectual intention. It is essentially a showcase for Makrand Deshpande and his six-pack. The other actors are all superb. The whole audience stood up to clap, clearly having enjoyed the play. I resisted it. Then since it looks rude, I too stood up. But did not feel like it, really.

Did you know what happens in Virar trains?

(Image of a crowded train from this site)

One of my acquaintances told me this amazing mumbai `item'. Suppose you were a tough cookie and managed to get a toehold in a virar local from Churchgate.  Then, if you are a regular Mumbai warrior you even manage to get yourself a seat. Then, mid-way, usually at Borivli, somebody is going to tap you on your self-congratulating shoulder and tell you to stand up. The thing is, if you enjoyed the trip this long, then it is only `courteous' to give up your seat to the other poor sweltering, sweating fellow-commuter. So, whether you like it or not (who likes it!!!) you have to stand up at Borivli and give up seat. Since the virar passengers are travelling in gangs, woe betide any one who has the guts to refuse. 
I remember even as a new-comer to Mumbai, over two decades ago how animalistic and violent the virar women would be. They are another tribe altogether, different from any human being you have met. They will actually maul you if you made the mistake of getting into a Virar local if you were going to Borivli. Their anger those days was that when you have so many Borivli trains why would you get into a virar? Even if you did by mistake, which you are bound too, if you are new to the city, there will be no mercy. They just manhandled you -- pregnant or not, child or not, teenager or not, even if you indicated that you did not understant what that was about, they were just sooooo angry!!!

Off the railway station, Bandra

You will find this same pic in my yoga blog. But here I want to write about something else ...

My car disgorges me at this spot. It is 5. am.  I tell the driver to park the car, alongside a few feet off. You don't feel strange here, being the lone woman -- the men are busy and incurious. They know I am not a pick-up and understand that I have come for pamphlet distribution. Mumbai is that sort of city. I am directed clinically to the youth handling the pamphlet distribution. He is a Maharashtrian and I am relieved. They are the sweetest men, generally, and very chivalrous... I find that the Maharashtrian men have the best respect for women in the whole world. I had written earlier: when I distributed the pamphlets the first time, I remember the vendor, a Maharashtrian, actually told me to keep ten bucks (that I had to pay him). It was his way of saying, I respect that you, a woman, are doing this on your own... It felt so lovely. I kept that ten bucks for long, because it is that sort of thing about this city that makes you love it... and it comes from the locals. Even my driver, a Maharashtrian, when I give him some small extra cash if some such mission (pamphlet distribution, or early morning workshop) went off well -- he will brush it aside with affectionate brusqueness.. That is also so nice... Tell me where else in India -- I mean in a city --  u will find that attitude?

Well, everybody says this of Mumbai -- that it is the outsiders who make it what it is (I am an `outsider' in that sense too). But actually, it is this Mahashtrian ethos that allows you to be who you are (an enterprising woman) without disturbing that enterprise you bring to your task with useless labels -- woman, alone, rich, poor, jeans-clad, saree-clad, old, young --  whatever else that the rest of India (try this in Delhi, for instance, and you know what I am talking of) assigns to a person and tries to suppress you from there -- that is not there in Mumbai. And that comes from the Maharashtrians. A staunch cleanliness of behavior. Whatever else the debate may be -- on who makes this city and the rest of the blah -- there is no doubt we can  reach where we want -- reach right to the stars -- because the original locals have no quarrel with you doing that..  We must salute that laissez faire ...It is the soul of this city...

Zenzi -- a young place

The Time-out magazine `insight' on the place was a bit out-dated. So we three, the family, (going by the review) -- sat waiting for the tables to clear for the dance to start. But the dance was happening inside and we did hear the music vaguely out. So we must say we overate, just waiting, thanks to the Time-out mag's misleading review:) But the food was sooo delicious -- I loved the calamari best. My kid ate a lot of exotic stuff too -- but she does not like to share so I don't quite know how it all was. But that she licked her plate clean  -- which means it must have been good. She is fussy that way. Then the family shamelessly `washed' the whole thing down with a huge pile of French Fries. So gross, no?

Any case, Zenzi is a very young (This web site has NOT been updated since September!!).  No board outside and while we, non-Bandraites, asked about to locate it:) Meaning of Zenzi and how to pronounce it? Go here

Very few women, wonder why. Fast-moving crowd. Since the lounge bar was sooo cold we wanted to come out to the tables outside and managed to get one pretty fast. People stand about nursing drinks too. That sort of chilled out place. And quite a few pick-ups. A old, white woman with a gigolo beef-cake.  The reality show girls with a fellow with a lot of money, loose chest and belly and even more loose wallet with a white woman wanting a free India ride... Nice short clothes, taut legs, as far as women went. Why is that young Indian boys look so thin and without any body tone? My daughter has been cribbing for long that there are so few boys in her circle  who like to physical activity, be it dance, a good work-out at the gym or even games. Sooo boring. You can see evidence of such sloppy physical fitness at places like Zenzi. Only the young boys from abroad look like they are into any sort of physical activity.  My daughter looked archly at me and said, Mom, whom are you checking out. Hey, I told her, I am into this fitness business. (And I know for one, that our men simply hate working out. So it was my keen marketing eye that was trying to see if there was any potential here. No, there was not,  I concluded:)

Not surprisingly,  our boys don't even seem to have interesting women about them. The proportion man-to-woman was like ten to one here!! Maybe the girls crawl out later in the night. Even the dance floor the proportion was this low. DJ Amol was there. I did a Ranbir Kapoor act on the floor, but the music petered off, so we -- heavy with good food -- decided it was time to leave and go to bed. Yawn!!



Where and when?
12 pm – 3.30 pm (Sat, Sun only), 7 pm – 1 am
183, Waterfield Road,Near National College,
Bandra (W), Mumbai – 400 050price : 1000-2000