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,

Image Source

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*

Arties festival in Mumbai

If you are in Mumbai during the next week from November 8th to November11 and enjoy Chamber Music Concert then you may hop over to NCPA for Arties festival, the November 2010 edition. This is the music festival which takes place every March and November at NCPA where young musicians are invited to play their masterpieces.

 

The musicians of the current Arties Festival include violinist Pierre Fouchenneret , who has taken part in many sonata recitals, chamber music concerts, in addition to being a soloist with many orchestras.

A fun filled three day festival is a real treat for music lovers, I am sure. You may book your tickets online or at the venue.

Arty Changing Times in Mumbai

The Making of Sunday Mid-day Preview Mumbai  

Ladies Local

Many years ago there used to be just one ladies compartment in Mumbai Local trains, but times changed when number of women increased ten fold so much so that we had ladies local at certain time of the day.

It was fun watching only women board the only-for-ladies train while men do the bird watching.....

Just gaping hahaaha

Now--a better progress, Mumbai local has its first woman driver.

Like lakhs of Mumbaikars, 34-year-old Priti Kumari rode a local train on Tuesday. The only difference was that she piloted it, becoming the first motorwoman of Western Railway (WR) to do so. Kumari, who hails from Bihar, drove the 2:29 pm local between Churchgate and Borivli and was guided by a chief loco inspector.

Kumari, mother of 10-year-old girl, is the history graduate, who also has a diploma in electronics, she joined the railways in August 2009. On October 11 she and two other motormen were asked to give tests and go through final training in front of senior WR officials. Her husband works for the Indian Air Force, and she will play the crucial role of running more than 1,200 services every day.


“We have to remain alert constantly, especially with the signalling system and at crossovers,” said Surekha Yadav, Asia’s first woman train driver who has been running engines on Central Railway’s long distance trains since 2000. “I am hopeful more women will join the fleet.”

Shades and Hues of Navratri Festival in Mumbai

Last year, when I had travelled by a local train in the Ladies compartment during the Navratri festival, I noticed that all the women in the ladies compartment were dressed in blue.


The next day when I had travelled again I saw that they were all dressed in yellow.

Seeing two women dressed in the same colour is normal but seeing more than twenty ladies sitting next to each other in similar colours in a public place is rare, especially if they don’t know each other.

So how did they decide on same color?

Good question!

I was naturally amused and I had approached one woman to ask her about this dress code and that’s when I learnt that women who celebrate Navrati festival observe a dress color code which is similar to the color of sari worn by Goddess Mahalaxmi idol at Mahalaxmi temple in Mumbai during the festival.

Legend has it, that Goddess Durga wore a different coloured saree for each of the nine days of Navratri.

Quite a fashion statement, I must say!!

I am told that the colours to sport during this period are :

Pratipada – October 8, Friday- Green
Dwitiya – October 9, Saturday - Grey
Tritiya – October 10, Sunday - Pink
Chaturthi - October 11, Monday- White
Panchami – October 12, Tuesday- Red
Shasti – October 13, Wednesday- Blue
Saptami – October 14, Thursday - Yellow
Ashtami – October 15, Friday - Violet
Navami - October 16 , Saturday- Peacock

So don’t be surprised if you see women in same color outfits OR maybe you could join in too by wearing the right colour.

Will you??