Do you like Salsa?

Watch out for the 4th salsa festival at Joss, Kala Ghoda, Rampart Row, Mumbai 400 001


Over the course of three days and four nights of challenging workshops, scintillating performances and parties that will fulfill your constant itch to dance, you can gel back your hair, put on your dancing shoes, start tapping your feet and join in making the 4th Salsa India Festival 2008 bigger, better and more breathtaking than ever!

Salsa India Productions was established by ‘Salsa guru’ Kaytee Namgyal and is today the biggest Salsa school in India, with several studios currently running in Delhi, Mumbai, Pune and Kolkata. Kaytee’s missionary zeal to convert everyone to ‘salseros’ and to spread Salsa across India, has had amazing results, having seen more than 5000 enthusiastic students meet, greet and fall in love with Salsa.

Interesting events during the four-nights festival are:

3rd April Welcome party, Introduction of Instructors
Dress Code: None.

4th April Workshop, Performances,
Party Dress Code: Monochrome - Black &/or White.

5th April Workshop, Performances,
Party Dress Code: Salsa T-shirt

6th April Workshop, Farewell
Party Dress Code: Retro

Source: http://www.salsaindiafestival.com/

Women in Mumbai will now be blessed with safe journey home in the middle of the night.

It is a sleek, silver and white, taxi. It sports a blue and pink logo bearing the name ‘Forsche’- a play on the name of the luxury German carmaker Porsche and the words “For She”. There is a woman driver at the wheels. If you are a man, forget it—This is Mumbai’s newest taxi service and it is for women only.

This is no gimmick; it addresses real concerns of female commuters. Nowadays, women have late night hours at work places and many of them are breaking the traditional roles and going out late evenings. Some of them are subjected to sexual harassment. Visiting tourists too, often complain about being leered at by male cab drivers. It is very disgusting when a taxi driver checks women out in the rear-view mirror

The new taxi company’s founder, Revathi Roy says: “With our service, women would never have to tolerate that. They would feel safe. They have been driving their husbands and children around and now they are thrilled they will be paid to drive.”

As for the cliché about women drivers, she adds, “It’s mainly men who are involved in road arguments and accidents. Women are safe drivers and my women will rock.”

Taxi image: http://images.google.co.in/

My City - Clean Mumbai…..

Whenever I have visitors, I feel very happy. I take them out for shopping and to the places of interest, for Bollywood films, for drives around the city, pointing to the houses of Bollywood stars like Shah Rukh Khan, Salman Khan, Ambhitab Bachan and many other stars, I also take them to eating places for Pani Puri, Batatawadas, bhel puri.

We laugh and enjoy all day, going to different suburbs of Mumbai. It is a real fun and it lasts as long as they don’t comment on three P’s of Mumbai – Poverty, Pollution and Population. The minute they start complaining about three P’s my mood is off. Then I don’t wish to entertain them any more.

Is it my fault if Mumbai is dirty? Why do they have to complain it to me? I don’t eat paan, neither do I smoke. I bring all used, wet bhel puri wrappers back home because I cannot find dust bins on the streets. I have stopped eating chewing gums too. I am a role model of a responsible citizen, why can’t people learn from me? I have tried asking taxi driver not to spit on the streets and he has asked to vacate his vehicle. What do I do? The recent report by Forbes magazine which ranked Mumbai city as the seventh dirtiest city in the word makes me angrier. Grrhh!

But today, I am happy. My friend telephones and tells me that I shall be proud of Mumbai. That Mumbai will no longer be a dirty place to live in. It is unbelievable, I know, but not impossible.
She sends me a note informing me about the new culture that has started in Mumbai and that everybody in Mumbai is as distressed as I am of the filthy conditions of Mumbai.

According to the new rule, students and volunteers will blow the whistle if citizens are found littering or causing nuisance in public places.

Joining hands with the Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation’s Clean-Up Mumbai, Woman Sheriff of Mumbai, Indu Sahani on Thursday, (13th march) inaugurated the ‘blow the Sheriff’s whistle campaign’. Sheriff distributed whistles to around 150 volunteers in addition to ID cards which are ‘permitted to warn and not to fine.’

Sheriff Dr Indu Shahani feels BMC cannot cope with 13 million people and citizens must work in partnership with the civic body. People who throw garbage should be blamed and should be given lessons in civic sense,” she said.

Additional Municipal Commissioner RA Rajiv who initiated the Clean-Up project was also present during the occasion. “It is great that city’s youth will be involved in making the city clean. The enthusiasm and vigor of youngsters will definitely help in the drive,” he said.

The drive has started and we see the volunteers whistling away at every defaulter. One volunteer was heard whistling several times at the same person claiming that he had seen the person litter again and again.

One tapori yelled back at him…..”Zyada seetie bajaya na, to tere kaan ke niche bajaoonga. Samaje kya”

Smile..say "Cheese"!

If you love photography and are interested in the latest equipment to capture the world, photo fair is the place to be.



To be held at NSE Ground, Bombay Exhibition Centre, Goregoan, from 13th March till 15th march, Photo Fair 2008 can keep you occupied while you explore the various photography equipments and accessories and attend the workshops and Fashion shows. There are workshops on various subjects such as fashion, travel and food photography.

Details of the workshops and fashion shows can be found here at HERE

Photofair an AIPTIA ( All India Photographic Trade & Industry Association ) event, was started in the year 2000 with an objective to spot a place for the meet between The Digital Imaging world and the Industry people to add flavor and grow the Photographic Technology with ones Imagination.

As a great boon to the Photography Industry this is the 12th successful year of Photo fair. Until now all the small & big time photographers & Learners along with thousands of industry people have procured countless advantages in upgrading their imaginations. With the timeless growth in now a days imaging world Photo fair is one such need to flourish the necessity of the industry to grow business wise, mutually in Global aspects.

Source: http://photofair.aiptia.org/

Work on metro rail has begun and this is good news for Mumbaikar.

Metro Rail might change the way people travel in Mumbai. Hopefully, people will not travel dangerously and lean out of the running trains or travel fearlessly on the top of the trains.

According to Mumbai Metropolitan Region Development Authority (MMRDA) commissioner Ratnakar Gaikwad, “All the formalities regard the work have been completed and the cost of the Metro Rail project will be around Rs450 crores and it is expected to be operational by 2010.”

It is a Joint Venture Company formed by Reliance Energy Limited, a Reliance ADA Group Company, Veolia Transport, France and Mumbai Metropolitan Region Development Authority (MMRDA).

The eleven kilometer long Versova-Andheri-Ghatkopar (VAG) corridor began on 8th February at the junction of Guru Hargovindji Road (Dhaku Road) and Andheri-Kurla Road near ICICI Bank. The initial activity comprising trial pits and pile load tests was started in an area of about 250sq. mts on the side of the main road to avoid any disturbance to the traffic.



Phase One of the ambitious plan includes building three metro lines: Colaba to Charkop, Versova to Ghatkopar and Bandra to Mankhurd.. The first corridor will be completed within three years by a special purpose vehicle formed by Mumbai Metro-I consortium. The other corridors in the first phase include 38 km Colaba-Mahim-Charkop route and 14 km Bandra-Kurla-Mankhurd route.

Eleven of the 36 fully air-conditioned stations will be underground. Initially, four-car, air-conditioned trains that can accommodate 1,500 passengers will run on the line—one train every four minutes. The cost will be shared by the Central and state governments.

Source: http://www.mumbaimetro1.com/