Re-Visiting Powai Lake

CAMPAIGN AGAINST HONOUR KILLINGS IN INDIA

Dear Mumbaites

A petition has been made to Prime Minister of India to stop the honor killing that has been quite regular and with higher frequency due which young couples are being killed accross the country for honour.

A petition has been made to bring a new law against the honour killing. I personally agree with what this petition says, and I think you might agree, too. If you can spare a moment, please take a look, and consider signing yourself

CAMPAIGN AGAINST HONOUR KILLINGS IN INDIA

I request you to read the details of this petition and support it.

The undersigned

Click here to sign this petition.

Thank you!

Wet, Wet Mumbai

This year, Rain has been kind...it pours heavily at night and during day it drizzles. If it rains for two full days, then the third day will be clear and sunny. Till now, it has not yet rained to parlayse the city but still there is fear whenever it rains...Mumbaites are reminded of 26/11 whenever it pours heavily.

Things have not changed much in these four years...people still use plastic bags, water logging problem has not yet been solved and streets are full of potholes and open manholes

and the life goes on....

Eating out in Mumbai

Any time after 10pm, you can have your fill....thats Mumbai for you!!!

Any body on holiday to strange places always wishes to try the local cuisine and every place has its own favorites. During my recent visit to Darjeeling, my friend had told me to try Shushi, a local delicacy. I was standing by the Mirik lake and there he was selling Sushi in the cart..a big round modak-like-thingy with a curry and spicy sauce, but I was afraid to eat from the road side, always afraid of unhygienic stuff that it is sold on the roads with dust and pollution mixing in the plate, but now I repent that I should have taken the risk and tried just a morsel

Well that’s another story, but here in Mumbai, hygienic or not, we still are brave to try out at every cart on the road and they, the hawkers are everywhere, at every street corner, dodging the police, or probably bribing them too, to sell from their unlicensed spot, and we, always patronizing them.. and relishing it, a Batawada with bread will cost just Rs5, and it can make a hearty meal in just Rs20, so why not…especially if you are on a tight budget….

While surfing the various blogs I came across an article by Sanjiv Khamgaonkar about 40 Mumbai Foods you cannot leave without trying where he lists the special Mumbai food and the best places to try them for their true flavor.

The most delicious street food that I like is always my all time favorite Batatawada, Pani Puri, Sev puri and Pav Bajji.. When my NRI relatives visit me, they go crazy over Frankie and Bademiya’s Baida roti.

By the way…have you tried sing-channa from roadside hawkers?? It is my great time-pass activity during bus journey, while my vehicle is stuck in a traffic jam, munching away on peanuts keeps my mind busy and patience is restored.

Is it same for you too???

Bandra- the cream of the suburbs

I am very proud to be living in Bandra. There are still some cute homes in smaller lanes of Bandra. An auto ride through these narrow lanes is a treat.

Barring the glitzy Bollywood crowd -- many of whom live overlooking Bandra's sea front -- the neighborhood culture here feels creative, cosmopolitan and casual. Almost like what Brooklyn is to Manhattan. That means shorts and flip flops for breakfast, lunch and dinner. Even townies come here to kick back.

And those who have the whole list of services available for a comfort stay in Bandra are the happiest lot.

There is a thirty one list of places that include places like

• Turqoise, (a home store) 
• Anokhi, (souvenir)
• Pali Market,(marketting)
• Mela,(clothes)
• Gear: The Bike Shop,(bike assessories) 
• OMO,(clothes)
• Paws N Furs, (assessories for pets)
• Maharashtra Stationary and Xerox, (stationary)
• Oleander,(fashion garments) 
• Curbside Florist, (flowers)
• Gloria Jeans Coffee, (coffee shop)
• Gostana,(burger joint) 
• Bagel Shop,(fresh bagels)  
• Santé,(baked foods) 
• Candies,(food joint) 
• Just Around the Corner,(salads and sandwitches) 
• Nature’s Basket,(organic supermarket) 
• American Express Bakery,(fresh cakes) 
• Yellow Tree Cafe,(european and labenese treats)
• Soul Fry, (fiery coastal food)
• Janata Lunch Home Restaurant & Bar, (cheap lunch place)
• Toto’s Garage Pub, (a bar)
• Zenzi, (a trendy hang-out)
• Bamboo Tree,(fish pedicure) 
• Aura Thai Spa, (fancy spa)
• Glory, (french manicure)
• Reboot Shoe and Bag Laundry,(bags and shoe laundry) 
• Twinkle Gents Hairdressers, (Gents' hairsaloon)
• Mad O Wot?, (trendy hairstylist)
• Al’s Tattoo Studio(tattoo joint)

Too lazy to write the details (specially if somebody else has already done their homework, but yes, these sure are interesting places where Bandraites while away their time.

Bharat Bhand July 2010-Mumbai streets.

Bharat Band!! Silly move by BJP to bring down the prices!!!

Since morning I am watching TV

They keep showing all the parts of India and how goons are terrorizing a common man. I work from home so this Bhand makes no difference to me…my computer is not protesting, nor facebook nor twitter...there are updates every second on twitter...
Bhand is the top trending topic on Twitter today, and everybody has something to tweet and retweet.

"Crying about hike in prices for oil n using the same oil to put buses on fire.. These morons carrying out #bandh only can explain the logic"

"Smriti Irani is on IBN live supporting #Bandh as a BJP leader, she seems to have lost weight......in her head!!"

"#RamGopalVerma is writing another horror story based on the #bandh. and is expected to open to a grand release this friday"

"Buses become aeroplanes during bandhs. They get stoned, and then they get high"

And here, my TV window, the impact is seen on the road, with buses being targeted, stone pelting, and discomfort to a common man. Different people are being interviewed to talk about their discomfort. But, Media is not on strike, in fact they are working with great passion trying to find some breaking news. Tyres burning, lathi charge, rail roko, people lying on the tracks, students who cannot go to give exams, poor people who are not able to reach the hospital on time, every channel is quite busy reporting the latest BREAKING news.

The images on the screen are not pleasant at all. I get fed up of watching TV and I decide to go down for a walk…to see whether it is really that bad out here.

 I live in suburbs where it is normally quite peaceful in the narrow lanes.

The shops were all closed, true….All the shutters were down..non-shopping day....

Ooooh this is Linking road….do you remember it to be so lonely? On normal days, this is so jam-packed that I have to wait sometimes for more than fifteen minutes to go across the street unless I am brave enough to walk between moving traffic.

And this is Waterfield road in Bandra. Signal is red but since there is no traffic today, I decided to stop here for a minute to click this picture.

And children were playing cricket out on the streets. On normal days, there is too much traffic on this road…since there are group of restaurants in this area and the hungry clients flock this street and wait on the foot-paths till late nights

Well ....the urban town wears a rural look on this day and it is a pleasant walk for me, without those noisy autos and buses and the people too.

I walked freely, no worries at all, happy to have Mumbai road just for me……till the time I come home and hear the BREAKING NEWS again

“Bandh hits businesses, losses up to Rs13,000crore…”