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! :)