Women's Drive will resonate from Mumbai to Lavasa

When I go for a drive with a man, family will say ‘Enjoy the ride’, but when I go for a drive with women, they will say ‘Be careful’

Why? huh?

I have heard many rude comments on woman drivers made by sulky men who cannot accept the fact that women are equally good and talented

And there is another breed of community who believes in women’s abilities and has been organizing ‘Lavasa Women’s drive’.

Every year, about 350 cars start from Mumbai and culminate at Lavasa. This is the third year and each year it seems to get bigger and bigger event.

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This year, fun filled event will be held on 27th February 2011. The Women’s drive will flag off from Bandra at 7am and end in Lavasa, where the participants will enjoy music, games and celebrity performance.

And now comes the exciting part, that although I cannot drive a car, nor know any participant with whom I can tag along…but lucky that I am.........guess what?...er... I am invited as a guest and I will be happy to blog about it

So…watch this space……..wink* wink*

Women in Mumbai travel dangerously

Talk of equality between woman and man? Well …both travel dangerously in Mumbai

What does it matter if its ladies first class or ladies second class?

Mumbai women are brave; they go to work travelling dangerously, with their bodies protruding out of the train and unfortunatedly unlucky one crash against the pole or lose their grip.

Thats life in Mumbai for you!!

Will our Mumbai trains ever have doors that shut when the train is in motion?

IdliSambar on a bicycle

During my last trip in Spain, I met one Spanish lady who said, “People of Mumbai are very contented, and I know the secret of their happiness, I saw people eating all the time, everywhere there is food...so if their tummy is full, they have tolerance to accept all the other discomfort.”

She was so very right.

The beauty of Mumbai is that the food in affordable and suits every palate. You only pay for ambience.

When you are in Mumbai, you will find street food everywhere and you might not miss this steaming hot Idli, Vada Samber being sold on a bicycle.

This hawker comes into my lane at 10am to 3pm everyday getting the limited supply of batter for making idlis, one container contains cooked lentil curry, and other container contains coconut chutney which is balanced on either side of his seat. There is steamer with the stove, bound to his cycle on the rear seat.

On the days, when I am too lazy to cook, I go downstairs and order a plate of this idli sambar. He serves four idlis, and four vadas, (all the size of tiny bangles that would fit an infant) covered with spoonful of lentil Sambar and a spoonful of coconut chutney. The hot idlis melts in the mouth immediately as soon as I roll my tongue and the pungent taste of sambar and chutney explodes with the fiery flavor which makes me want one more spoonful. With each plate costing just INR10, this is the cheapest breakfast I can have. Sometimes, I cook Chinese vegetables and just buy steamed idlis and they make a perfect combination.

Chinese vegetables with steamed idlis. Howzat?.

Yum??

Street Art cheers the crowd at Kalaghoda

Hello, I saw you at Kalaghoda festival, you were clicking picture of street art down the Rampart row, I was doing the same...

for those of you who have not yet experienced this ...do go, its 9 days event and there are many more interesting things happening there, all the details of the events can be found on Mumbai ready reckoner. go with bacchas and elders too..there is something for everybody.....

KalaGhoda Festival in Mumbai....Ready???

Yeah I plead guilty!

I have been too busy lately and have found not much time to update my blog. So sorry, but hey thanks for visiting, although I don’t know who is visiting me but just happy that you are there reading my rant….

leave your foot prints sometimes on my post na…. I only recieve spam comments and am forced to delete it. :((

But a great event is lined up in the month of February and I felt I must update…our favorite Kalaghoda festival is round the corner,..keep your walking shoes polished cause you will be needing them from febraury 5th to February 13th, a nine days event of thrills and drills.

Although the festival is more than 10 years old, in the initial years it was more by visual art crowd, but it became more popular when focus of festival changed and literature, theatre, culture and different types of art were added to this festival.

I attended my first festival in 2008 and had zimbly loved it. There were lots of workshops, film shows, art. culture, exhibitions, NGO art n craft stalls and ofcourse lots of food. I had enjoyed every moment and had blogged almost everyday during the month of February 2008 on my blog, my diaries can be found here at my blog on Ranting and Raving

Last year, I attended the Kala Ghoda festival and blogged about my day attending different stalls and later in the evening attending the panel discussion on food. It was quite enlightening and had collected lots of ideas.


This year too I wish to attend it but might not be able to attend all the days because of my other commitment..But, you don’t miss it….have fun….

The programs for the events will soon appear on their site…watch out for the programs….

And if you still don't know the venue have a look at this map,

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So what you doing on New Years' Eve in Mumbai?

What can possibly happen during next seven days? A lot I would say if you are in Mumbai.


But, you should only be able to brave the traffic jam (like they say 'goslow' in Nigeria)

At every signal, your vehicle is likely to wait in a long queue which can be sometime extend to ten minutes or more.

The streets are lighted with hundreds and thousands of tiny, tiny light bulbs, There is talk of party and entertainment at every street and what more, new year is round the corner.

And hey, what’s this I read in papers today?

Some of the big stars will earn millions in just one day by performing on the new year’s eve!! Might see most of them dancing to the tunes of ‘Sheela ki jawani’ and ‘Munni Badnam hui’……and many more!! zara sa jhatka!!!

On a quiet day, you might want to go to Film city and visit the film studio of Masterchefindia?

Yeah!! exact replica of the original 'Masterchefaustralia'

But before you enter the film city, be ready to pass this

 yeah, thats the reality, dirt is every where!

but nevermind!! Its a part of living in Mumbai, that is not likely to change in thousand years, we have learnt to live with it. hahaah!!

Nevertheless, Mumbai has lot of offer


Street food

 Sweet and sour Dabeli and paan for digestion

Road side shopping

 Where else would you squat on the ground to shop?

What ever your choice, Mumbai is the place to be

Happy New Year!!

Literati Festival in Mumbai

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In 2007, I had attended Lit Festival in Jaipur and had enjoyed every moment, listening to different writers about their experience in the lit world, sitting in the sun on cold winter morning sharing coffee with our favorite authors and attending workshops to collect some dust of grey cells that was floating in the air, I never went back because I can’t take the cold but now I am glad that finally Mumbai has its own literature festival.

So very glad

This was something that was missing in Mumbai. We do have literature sessions during Kalaghoda festival in February, every year, but that is another story, more about that some other time.

The lit festival starts (debut) on 12th November 2010 for three days in Mumbai at NCPA and the fourth day, make a guess where it is? Yep! if you guessed Lavasa, you are right.

I am planning to attend 'E-literature' on Saturday, the 13th which is at 11am, and ah! that means I must wake up early (aw! What a pain! No late nights on Friday then)

I would have liked to attend all the sessions for three full days and would even have loved to go to that beautiful city of Lavasa but unfortunately, I have other commitments.

This one promises to be vibrant with fiction, nonfiction, plays and poems

See you there!! *Wink**Wink*