Mumbai Women Participate in ‘Lavasa Women’s Drive’

Anyone who visits my blog regularly will know lot of information about Mumbai, my blog covers almost all the information that tourist are looking for.

Anybody have any queries, they send me a private message and I answer them on my blog and my friends seem to know everything,..er..well..almost everything….

But when people reach a new territory, you don’t expect them to know everything. How will they know what is the pin code of Lavasa? Or what is unique about Lavasa, or what is the name of the games arcade in the city? So when they organized a quiz show like this, all the women did was to search the net for answers on their mobile and the fastest finger won.

Did you know that every seven minutes one Indian woman dies of Cervical Cancer?

Risk factors for cervical cancer include:

• Having sex at an early age
• Multiple sexual partners
• Poor economic status (may not be able to afford regular Pap smears)
• Sexual partners who have multiple partners or who participate in high-risk sexual activities
• Women whose mothers took the drug DES (diethylstilbestrol) during pregnancy in the early 1960s to prevent miscarriage
• Weakened immune system
  Worldwide, cervical cancer is the third most common type of cancer in women. It is much less common in the United States because of the routine use of Pap smears.

This year, like every year, Mumbai had its Lavasa Women’s Drivea and this year they were supporting the awareness and prevention of cervical Cancer.

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Early morning at 6am, when the Mumbaites were still snoozing extra hours of Sunday Morning, 350 women drove from Mumbai to Lavasa covering the distance of 200kms to spread the message of their cause through rhyme and games.

Some women took more than 2 days, meticulously dressing their cars with creative messages and slogans of the cause that they were supporting. 

They assembled at Bandra reclamation and were flagged off every two minutes to join the rally with 150 more participants from Pune city.

“Lavasa Women's Drive is about celebrating the spirit of womanhood. It’s about the drive in each woman to be a successful home maker, a successful entrepreneur, a mother, a daughter. It is about women putting their hair down, their spirit and vibrancy and also about the ability to contribute to social causes” says the Lavasa community

At Lavasa, there was a carnival kind of party where people danced on Bollywood music, participated in talent hunt, walked down the promenade, and ate tasty food.

Some of the participants stayed back to enjoy the serenity and calmness of the place, which is best enjoyed during late hours of evening or early mornings, while the rest of the women drove back the same day, contented of being the part of such a grant event.

To read my photo-essay on this event you can visit @ album on FB

Sighting in South Mumbai

Walking down the Rampart Row during Kala Ghoda Festival in Mumbai 2012

Kala Ghoda Festival is back, a nine days festival when south Mumbai wears an artistic look.  This festival is the photographer’s delight, the whole street flashed with camera lights aimed at art installations along the street. This year, most of the installations are made from scrap materials, recycled, artistically molded into useful articles.

They have a page on FB, 'Like' it and know the details

I am truly fascinated by the ‘Think blue Beetle’ a car by Volkswegan which is created wholly out of scrap collected from various Think Blue clean-up drives, ranging from discarded mother boards, keyboards, disposed machinery parts, mobile phones, cans, plastic bottles, cassettes, wires etc. This was created by Haribaabu Natesaan – an artist who creates majestic art-pieces out of scrap’

People who were tired of walking sat opposite the amphitheatre waiting for the stage show to begin. It was early but the festival promises fully fledged entertainment with colorful performance of folk dance and music from different parts of Maharashtra.

Lined on either side of the road were stalls selling hand-crafted items that included clothes, jewelry, stationary, books etc. I was mainly attracted to one stall that makes furniture from tetra packs. Interesting, I liked this idea of collecting the tetra packs and recycling them to make furniture.

There is lots to see and lots to do, will go back again to catch more events. There is literature, films, theater, heritage walks, food and many thing more…..worth a dekho….

Guest Post by Arif Who Has Made Mumbai His New Home

First of all thank you for considering me for a guest post. Honored. I've written my post based on the questions asked.

I work at an IT Company in Digital Marketing and my parents live at Gandhinagar. I have been living in Mumbai since 2006 when I first came to this city for my higher education. Apart from my profession, I like the following activities: Blogging, Numismatics, Cycling and Nature Trekking. My latest interest is to help and guide young students in their educational endeavors.

Always wanted to capture an iconic night light pic of #Mumbai. Perfect setting: Bandra Flyover - all red from top!

Mumbai happened for me in summer 2006 when I got selected at NMIMS University for MBA program. I stayed at Juhu along with a roomie and those were two glorious years. Later, I moved to Powai. There have been many good moments during my stay at Mumbai. As they say, this is the city of dreams - I truly have felt that in some way or the other. As a city, Mumbai is vibrant and full of energy. You don't find any reason to be lazy here unless of course you've stuffed yourself with a heavy meal. Whether you're  working at South Bombay, shopping at Lower Parel, eating bhutta at Bandstand or passing your time at Inorbit, Malad - you never get bored. When my parents or guests come I take them to Marine Drive, Juhu Beach, Sea Link or some good restaurant at Hiranandani, Powai. Here, there's always a place for every occasion unlike other cities where if you've been 2 or 3 times, you don't take the same guests there again and again.

Gandhinagar on the other hand is a peaceful city full of trees. It has its own charm and it wouldn't be right to compare both the cities head to toe. 

Haji Ali, at this hour from #Mumbai. :)

I recently went to Gandhinagar by a Sleeper Bus. I chose to board it at Grant Road as it's near my office and I also wanted to see Mumbai in a different way. A bus can always give you a full beam view and if it's riding smooth you can click some cool pics too. This is exactly what happened. My bus went from Grant Road to Worli Sea Face and took the Sea Link to touch Bandra. Through all this while, I was seeing the contrasting colors of Mumbai. Whether it Haji Ali among the calm Arabian Sea, the up and down flyovers from Parel to Dadar, or the Sea Link where I looked back to see Worli SeaFace during the sunset evening - it was a fabulous feeling. I always wanted to capture an iconic night light picture of Mumbai and when we were crossing Bandra Flyover, I saw am amazing moment - all the cars heading towards North on SV Road were at the signal and their bright red tail lights mesmerized me. I wasted no time and clicked the photo. I knew I got that iconic photo. Whoever saw that photo, liked it a lot. After Bandra, night had fallen on us and our Bus traveled smoothly making its way out of Mumbai. I reached Gandhinagar the next morning. I am sharing three photos from my journey below, let me know what do you think of it and does it tell you any story?

Worli Seaface at this hour #Mumbai - The lights are the jewels of the crown!

Mumbai fascinates me and I would like to sum up my experience in two words 'Aamchi Mumbai!' :)

I would like you to visti my blog http://www.maktion.com/ and converse with me on twitter at https://twitter.com/arifkhan7

Thank you Pushpa, really enjoyed writing this guest post on your wonderful Mumbai blog! :)

When NRI Visit Mumbai City

I, like million others, watched the interview of Oprah Winfrey (at Jaipur Literature Festival) on TV and sat enthralled by her frankness and her open minded views on India.

Amongst many things that she spoke I was most amused when she spoke about the chaotic lifestyle of Mumbai

 "It's like being in a video game.” She said, “I don't know which way to look, why do you have a red light signal?  Is it there for your entertainment? what? Nobody ever stops at red light.”

These are the common problems which even my NRI cousins, who visit me regularly want to know. They can never understand how the people in Mumbai can actually drive in the city that follows no norms.

My cousin who was here last week, came with his 19-year-old daughter, who was visiting Mumbai after 11 years. He wanted his daughter to experience the city he had grown up in and they were all day out, exploring the city. He said he didn’t want to highlight the negative side of Mumbai and wanted to concentrate on more positive aspect of Mumbai.

But they were equally fascinated with traffic of Mumbai which has grown from bad to worse. His daughter said that driving in Mumbai city was too chaotic and the traffic moved so close to each other that if you stretched your hand out of window, you could easily touch the bonnet of the next car.

This was observed at all times of the day in spite of the message 'Keep Distance' displayed behind every auto-rickshaw.

Well! They had fun clicking all sorts of pictures but this one takes the cake. Where in the world would you see cows waiting outside a beauty parlor? 

It happens only in India.

Cousin splurged on food

Pani Puri- always the favorite, to pamper the NRI clients, hawkers now wear gloves and use cold bottled water

Puri Bhaji: the pregnant puris are always a delight

And of course Paan, I warned him not to spit on the walls, we don't need any more modern art on our streets, he wouldn't spit, but then, you never know.....

He did lots of shopping, they love shopping on the road and bargaining till the hawkers bleed, and yeah, he also went shopping for pirated movies at corner shop, he was shocked to see that there were 6 different variations of Board Games on Don 2 

well! that's called BIG range of entertainment and that's what makes Mumbai so interesting to visit, isn't it?

Gaysi Family Dirty Talk

For those interested in activities of GaysiFamily, come listen to their 'Dirty Talk 2012 (Open Mike) at Bandra

The Community will celebrate Mumbai Pride week

The Year That It Was in Mumbai-(2011)

Mumbai is the city that is unpredictable. It attracts, it distracts and sometimes it disappoints.

The year 2011 has been good except for its tail……

Sadly very disappointing to Anna Hazare at the end of the year, although there was lots of activity at BKC complex but the attendance was sparse. Ah well, people in Mumbai are busy, (work first, unless unemployed). Normally, when they have no time to stop and say hello to their next door neighbor, how would you expect them to wait in hot sun for a rally, shouting slogan? Nah, they cannot even if you offered them free Biryanis.

But the awareness of this movement has spread, they do support anti-corruption bill and will only be too happy if the Lokpal bill is passed, only please don’t expect them to skip their work/commitments and join the rally.

Not that they don’t skip their work, they do….to watch cricket match.

Remember theday (April 2011) when India won the world cup?

Throughout the day we sat, watching the live telecast with family and friends, nail-biting, although there was lots of food in the house, a special meal to suit everybody’s taste but still, nails were tastier in the times of stress. There was one big street party at the end of the day, on winning the world cup and this was day they didn't complain of being stuck in a traffic jam

Mumbaites are passionate about everything, they will support a socialcause if it is on non-working day..

Remember the day  (February 2011) when 350 women from Mumbai took out the rally to Lavasa to spread the breast cancer awareness? The message was loud and clear that day ‘Cancer is curable if detected early’. It was an event to help promote women empowerment.  I made seven new friends who share the equal passion for blogging and we explored the city of Lavasa, enjoying two full days.

Mumbai, the Bollywood nerve of India had its celebrity mourning moments. 

There were thirteen celebrity deaths that included veteran Bollywood actors like Shammi Kapoor, Dev Anand, Navin Nischol and Goga Kapoor and filmmakers like Surinder Kapoor, Shamin Desai, Jagmohan Mundhra, Mani Kaul and painter MF Hussain as well as singers like Jagjit Singh, Bhimsen Joshi, Suchitra Mitra, Bhupen Hazarika.

The death of all these has created irreplaceable viod in various fields of filmmaking.

Not everybody is safe in Mumbai city, some innocent civilians also lost their lives.

Remember the bomb blast at Zaveri Bhazar in July 2011?

Helpless Mumbaikars stranded on the roads, with no clue of what they had wronged. The news spoke of the bomb blasts at the crowded areas, about injured people being rushed off to hospitals, some limbs chopped into pieces flown into different directions, and angry people on the streets. The whole stretch of road was bloody. The bomb blast was triggered by a timer and nobody had seen it implanted there? On crowded streets of Mumbai, nobody had noticed the bomb being implanted on a scooter at Javeri Bazar, on the top of the bus-stop at Opera house or under the tiles on the road at Dadar. People went on with their business unaware of the danger being built up and terrorist were successful in their destructive and inhuman act.

Hoping the New Year brings some memorable and peaceful moments, thank you for visiting my blog regularly and….

Wishing you a happy new year 2012