You have to admire this guy for his creativity!
Don’t want to spend money on matrimonial ads? Just write your name and number on a 500 rupee note and let it circulate. The person who received this note got it from an ATM machine.
Girls, a handsome and dashing boy is awaiting your call…. you’d better be quick before the Reserve Bank of India puts him in jail for defacing currency!
Photo credit: Shyam Sundar Mishra.
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I caught up with a friend on Sunday afternoon, and we decided to go and check out some trendy places in the Versova and Andheri West suburbs of Mumbai. Versova, it seems, is the hot emerging destination for Mumbai’s creative types, especially in film and television.
First up on our list was Jamjar Diner, tucked inside a deceptively small looking bright blue cottage opposite the beach in Versova. A visit to Jamjar had been on my agenda for a while, ever since it opened last year. This new offering from the owners of Bonobo in Bandra is a totally different concept to the cocktail bar although it’s just as distinctive…and also serves cocktails! As its name suggests, Jamjar is a diner. It’s open all day, providing comfort food for breakfast, lunch and dinner. And it certainly has the atmosphere of an American diner, complete with juke box!
Inside is cozy (and perfect for a lazy Sunday), but due to a huge skylight, it gets a lot of natural light. What I didn’t expect from the outside is that it has two levels, and an outdoor terrace on the top. The terrace would be a fabulous place for private parties in cooler weather, but when I was there the humidity was so bad it fogged the lens of my camera. [click to continue…]
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Long term readers of this blog will know about my love affair with the Indian chipkali. I was totally fascinated by the feet on this one, which often chilled on the window near the air conditioner at our previous house.
Then, I discovered this tiny little one peeking out of the toothpaste holder. I soooo wanted him for a pet! Unfortunately, he was way too elusive for me.
When we moved into our current apartment on the 15th floor, we soon discovered that similar to Mumbai’s ubiquitous rats, chipkalis are also not deterred by heights. At least two chipkalis were living with us. One has grown so big (it scuttled out from behind a framed painting the other day and surprised me), they’re obviously thriving…. and breeding!
This evening, I went to the kitchen to get a snack and found this baby running around on the floor. He was so cute, I just had catch him and photograph him. Luckily for me, I managed to corner him and grab him. He played dead in my hand barely long enough for me to take the picture, then sensing an opportunity, leaped out and ran away.
(Now, before you wonder how I could bring myself to pick the “revolting” little critter up, remember I do things much crazier than this).
Ready to leap!
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Indians are known for their disregard for following rules and the law. The general attitude is do what you want and deal with the consequences later. I’m guilty of adopting this attitude to a certain extent.
When I was at Amber Fort in Jaipur with my mother recently, I horrified her by following an Indian and climbing up on one of the old cannons for a photo, even though it wasn’t allowed. “Sharell, don’t do that! You’ll get in trouble from those guards,” she warned. “Yes, I know, mum. But by the time they notice and tell me to get down, the photo will have been taken. I’ll just pretend to be ignorant about it.” Sure enough, that’s what happened.
(Here’s the photo, and I’m looking shamelessly pleased with myself).
If you can't beat em, join em!
However, breaking more serious rules can sometimes have very serious consequences. In Mumbai, it seems that 140 families are about to become homeless. They’re being evicted from their spacious apartments in Worli, which are going to be demolished by the BMC (Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation) on Thursday.
These days, I usually just ignore such matters because they’re a depressingly common occurrence. This one is such a shocking mess, and is the culmination of so many laws being flouted, I couldn’t help writing about it though. [click to continue…]
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Summer has well and truly hit Mumbai, and we’re sweating it out with daytime temperatures that have touched 36 degrees Celsius (96.8 Fahrenheit) and 80% humidity. It’s making me so tired and lazy (hence the lack of posts). I feel like sleeping all day!
I can’t bear to wear my usual jeans and a kurti/kurta combination in this heat, so I’ve decided to ditch the jeans in favour of… patiala pants. Particularly white patiala pants, because they go with EVERYTHING! They’re so loose, lightweight, and cool to wear.
Along with bhangra music, patiala pants are high up on my list of things that I love from the state of Punjab.
I got this pair at Ethnicity at R-City Mall in Ghatkopar, in Mumbai, for around 500 rupees. I think I might have to go back for another pair, in case I wear these ones out.
I still haven’t worn the top out though. It’s hard to believe that three years has passed since I wrote about having it made… and ah, I look rather embarrassingly the same! Same pose and all. Clearly, I need to get a bit more creative.
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“Welcome to Dharavi!” a customer called out to us from the chai wala, as we exited the stairs at Mahim West railway station. I had just entered what is often labeled as Asia’s largest slum. Yes, THAT slum, which rose to fame in the movie Slumdog Millionaire and angered many Indians for its portrayal of poverty. The movie has been referred to as an example of “poverty porn”, one that encourages perverse western voyeurism and promotes slum tourism.
And, there I was, about to embark on a two hour “slum tour” of Dharavi. But, if you think I was indulging in any kind of poverty voyeurism, think again.
“You’ve lived in Mumbai for five years and never been to Dharavi?”, my guide, Salman, was shocked and not at all impressed when he found out. “I’ve never really had any reason to visit,” I tried to defend myself. He was having none of it though. “It’s important for everyone to come to Dharavi and see how it functions, see the industry going on here. This is not a place where poor people are depressed. Look around. Do you see any beggars?”, he implored me.
Indeed, I could not. What I could see were laughing children running through the lanes, and people diligently working in all types of small scale industries.
To further dispel any notion of poverty stricken people miserable in squalor, Salman began quoting astonishing numbers to me. In Dharavi, there are a total of 4,902 production units bringing in an annual income of $1 billion USD. [click to continue…]
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My husband drew my attention to this video by Indigag, and it’s been my laugh for the day.
Hope you find it amusing too! (If you can’t understand their English, have a read of the transcript below).
Jai Sri Krishna. My self Tarun, I am working as Deputy Manager, I am like party animal, I am looking for outdoor girl who not part of this culture, but she should not accompany me. She should also be having job and decent package. Caste, colour, education, horoscope no bar. She should know Gujarati cuisines. If interested mail me.
Hi, am Yashoda, I passed my marriageable age, I seek for the perfect match for me. The boy should be long in height, He can have long hairs also, but he should not have animals in house. Everything else is ok, north and west Indian please excuse me. If you are my man, I long for your partnership. I you want we can chat on facebook also, you can poke me if you want.
Namaste namaste, We seek a BRIDE for our son who is clean shaven, educated, very enterprising, handsome, he’s got a height of 5’10″ and he just turned 26 having trained abroad he manages his own business. We are high status affluent family with 2 bank accounts in private BANK and we are very liberal in our outlook. He seeks a life partner who is 21, minimum height 5’4″ and IQ of 80 and very modern outlook. If agreeable please send a recent profile with recent photograph and please send photos with front profiles only, please do not send side profiles and it is too inconvenient to judge girls beauty. Thank you. [click to continue…]
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