Balcony View in Mumbai

Summertime Fun in South Mumbai

When the summer holiday begins, it’s time for kids to enjoy. Some children go for long holidays exploring various places and some stay back to join activity class. It is holiday that one likes to spend doing something different. Children love to be with friends and like to get involved in group activities where they can be creative in games, art, craft, dance, theatre and even creative writing.

NCPA creates opportunities for these children creating a fiesta like atmosphere whereby the whole month is dedicated in entertaining them in an informal and non-competitive environment.

NCPA Summer Fiesta 2012will feature 20 workshops, 7 plays and a handful of surprises. Click here forthe schedule

The theatre group will come alive with different plays and it will be fun watching the play performed by children.

Suar Chala Space ko 

 is a hilarious play about a smelly pig and his friends who travel to outer space! Then a sudden encounter with aliens lands them in a big mess. The story touches upon friendship, adventure, owning up to your mistakes, taking responsibility and of course the ‘swine flu’!

Kyun kyun ladki-This play is based on Mahashweta Devi’s well known picture-storybook: Why-Why Girl, and celebrates the thrill of ‘WHY?’ It is the story of Moyna and at the same time the story of so many children who always ask the question ‘Why?’ Performed through dance, movement and live music, the play shows glimpses of their lives and of their minds.

Jungle Book - In this action-packed adaptation of the classic adventure story, precocious Mowgli grows up believing he's a fierce wolf. When he learns he is actually a human, he must discover how to reconcile these very different identities, and decide whether to remain with the pack, or return to the human world, where he was born. What will he choose?

Snowwhite the naughty elves - Based on the fairytale Snow White & The Seven Dwarves, this play is performed with hilarious, unique twists and turns in the storyline. In the classic story the Prince and the princess are our stars. In this version the elves and their antics rule...from performing silly dances to staging a rock concert to kidnapping a reluctant prince, the elves leave the audience wanting more! Comedy for kids at its best!

Laal Pencil- A young school girl is relishing her new found stardom amongst peers and teachers ever since she suddenly, mysteriously started writing beautiful poetry. She wins accolades and respect owing to her new 'talent' not just in her own class but in the whole school. What no one knows is that it is not her, but a magic red pencil that she found in class that's writing the poetry. The constant struggle between truth and falsehood, desires and righteousness, love and hate, and the pain of keeping a secret, lead up to the girl's final decision. Will she or won't she? Based on a Korean novel, 'laal pencil' is a poignant tale of a girl with a secret.

Listen to me Please - in today’s world, parents as well as children are both caught in a dilemma. Parents feel that children spend too much time on the computer & with other electronic gadgets, which are slowly taking them away from reality. On the other hand, children argue that if they are not tech-savvy, they may get “left behind”. The play addresses this problem & tries to bridge the ‘great divide’!  

Zinga Zinga Roses - Zinga's Planet Sesor gets invaded by the evil Yago and his army. The invaders are on the hunt for the immortal Rose of Sesor. Little Zinga manages to escape with the prized rose. Will Yago be able to find Zinga and the rose? Follow Zinga and his friend Pi in a series of adventures where we meet the gardener ha chi, a girl called Gulab, an artist called Manet, politician Rosa Golla and many more characters in this delighful tale of Zinga Zinga Roses.

hmm! hmm! hmm!

Maybe I should go along with the kids.*hello..anybody want to go with me?* This looks quite entertaining and would love to watch those kids perform...will you be going???

lucky you!!

Mumbai Coastline

Mumbai for Me: Our shores filled with sun, sand & strife reports TOI today

The city has an enviable 149-km coastline and nearly 16 km of beaches stretching from Colaba in the south to Madh and Marve up north. Take the ferry further north and you will find the weekend getaways of Gorai and Manori, all within city limits.
"Like most of our coastline, our beaches too have been neglected, abused and misused. There is no plan for their conservation and protection either," says the presentation for Open Mumbai, an exhibition on public spaces currently on at the NGMA. Encroachments by both the rich and poor, garbage and sewage are common banes.

True we have a coastline all over Mumbai and if it were clean, we could have beautiful places to walk and enjoy the walk along the sea side.

The most important thing that we need to have is to educate people. Even when there are ample number of dustbins all over the beach, but if people are not disciplined enough to watch their habits, the dream of living in a clean city will never materialize.

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! :)