Finding my way in Mumbai...

I recently had to spend a few days in Mumbai. I was treated to a first class stay by an old friend who's currently in Mumbai and who was kind enough to put me up. What an awesome apartment she has. But I think better than the place and food, I was priviledged enough to be able to experience, one of the most intellectually enjoyable visits of my life.

She has surrounded herself with brilliant, witty, high IQ, achievers who are really leading such interesting lives. I had several, most pleasant chats and light discussions with the people I met. Its was just awesome. In addition, I ate amazing food !

I think my opions of Mumbai and its inhabitants has undertaken a fundamental shift. I was the small village boy dropped in the middle of the bustling metropolitan. It was a new and enjoyable experience. It was a typically cognitive remark of hers that really got me thinking about the way life is in Mumbai and Goa. She said, "Time just expands when you are in Mumbai. There is so much more you are able to see, do, achive and experience in a day in Mumbai than you can, in Goa".

I love Goa, but I think I have a new found respect for that big city of immesly vast proportions. A part of me did not want to leave. And thats a strange feeling. Never in any of my few travels have I found a place that actually made me want to stay, when the alternative was returning to Goa. What is it about that city that grows on you ?

Some points and misconceptions I have noticed about Mumbai..and things I have learnt..

1) The great amount of time you spend in Mumbai traveling but not moving as compared to Goa.

2) Most Mumbai Rickshaw drivers are not out to fleece you.

3) The millions of black and yellow rickshaws, that scurry perpetually through the city's arteries, are the lifeblood of the city.

4) Its a city that's vast beyond imagination in comparison to the space and distances of urban Goa.

5) I cannot talk Marathi.

6) I should not attempt to talk Marathi.

7) It cost more to travel from Dabolim Airport to my home in Panjim, Goa, then all my travels by Autorickshaw in Mumbai... combined!

8) On an average, Girls/Women in Mumbai are HOT !

9) The city truly does not sleep.

10) The wind in mumbai howls.. especially on the 13th floor.

11) The beaches are dirty and quite ugly compared to Goa.

12) The Highways in Mumbai are top class, the main roads are better than Goan highways, the connecting roads are like goan Highways, and the side roads are worse than the tiniest goan vllage road.

13) Mumbai is dirty.

14) Everywhere you look, you are astounded by the sheer volume and mass of Human population movement. Its mind bogging to see the rivers of people that flow around you, Oblivious of your presence. Its an almost enjoyable feeling of Anonimity.

Yesterday is a wrinkle on your forehead...

Have you ever had those days, where all you did the whole day is worry or obsess about something totally out of your control? I had one those days yesterday. Having completed a job interview, I was asked to await a call back concerning it.

I promptly proceeded to fret the whole day about the impending all-important call. I guess it just eased the pressure, in that very cliché way, to hear the people around me find excuses and reasons for the call not coming in.

However, the day passes, and just like every other fixation we create for ourselves, it fades from the focus of our mental universe...

When the next day comes... its predecessor is just another wrinkle on your forehead.

All we do is eat ?

It’s a really interesting thought that has arisen several times..."when ever we go out as friends, all we do is eat".

In truth, there's not much to do in Goa. Every event and every outing usually revolves around food in some way. Either its, "oh lets grab a bite to eat", or "lets go have coffee", or "lets meet for lunch"... and even if that’s not the line used to set up the 'Outing', chances are the outing will involve us hanging out at a place where there is a menu on the table.

I've noticed this rather recently. Actually it was when a friend from a metropolitan city, claimed there wasn't much to do in Goa. Being proudly goan, I of course jumped to its rescue and claimed there was so much to do! To which she countered with that annoyingly challenging response: "Like...?” I would not be daunted. I would overwhelm her with options...so I started with my defense, only to see my enthusiasm wane rapidly as I realised that all we do, revolves around eating or meeting at places to eat.

Well there's an occasional movie or two... but Food it appears, is always the end objective.

So in keeping with this insane food centric behavior, a bunch of friends met up to eat and talk one evening, a few days ago. The chosen temple of worship, was the beach facing, Cafe Coffee Day at Miramar.



It’s an amazing place actually, full of people, full of color, and ideally located. Therefore, the conformists who met on that, day like every other, were Jane, Nadia, Mel, Fiona, Dhruv, Gaurav, Robson and Me.

It happened to be the eve after examinations for Dhruv, Jane, Mel and Me... Moreover, since Nadia was in town, and Fiona and Robson were also back in Goa, there for no reason we shouldn't get together for...sigh... food.

However, if the pretext of our social outings rarely varies from script, at least the actual outing is awesome fun. It was great meeting Fiona and Nadia after so long, and Robson made for good company.



I fear Gaurav and Dhruv were a little bored though... or maybe it’s just the camera caught them at one of those quiet lulls between conversations.



I don’t really know Robson all that well, but he was pleasant company, and it’s always nice to meet people with interests and lives so different from my own.



All in all... I think it was the girls who had the heartiest time of all present that evening. And why not...

Viva Carnival .. back in 2003..

Back when I was new kid on the block at P.C.C.E. I made a trip with some old friends from H.S.S.C. to Margao to spend the carnival with my new classmates from P.C.C.E.

Melanie, Dhruv and Charuhas comprised the old mates, and Xiyan, Roma, Sulana, Analiz, Tassia, LizAnne, Remya and Sherwin made up the new folks. The snap below is of all us atop Analiz's house in Margao ..



Its been a long time since then.. and we've all come such a long way. Time has changed each one of us.. but i'd like to count that day as being a little special.. for many reasons.. good and bad.. but it was happy experience in hindsight..changed my life in small way..

Quick Touch up to the way the blog looks...

hmm... have decided this blog looks way to clean and uncluttered.. doesn't truly reflect my style ... have decided to touch it up a bit. :-)

An evening with friends in Margao..

There aren't many places that you can visit with good friends in Margao, when your sole pupose for the evening is to loiter, eat a little bit and talk your voice away.

If there is good music and coffee in the vincinity, then thats all the better. I think the only place in all of Margao that actually fits the bill, is the Bread & More bistro tucked away in a corner of Margao.



Naturally, it has become that coveted, favorite haunt of ours. Its almost like our very own 'Central Perk'.. complete with its share of regulars and whacko patrons.
..And so.. that was where I found myself with some my closest friends. Lizanne was loud and nosiy and full of life as usual...



Analiz I met after so long, and had a more interesting chat with her, and even a couple of light discussions.. its awesome to be able to bang thoughts around with her.. studying to be a lawyer, she knows how to discuss social and intellectual issues without letting it get personal.



And of course its quite difficult to go anywhere with these three (Tassia, LizAnne and Analiz) without at least two of them pulling a pose like the one below..



crazy, opinionated people, they are... but what to do... you gotta love them for the way they are...

A trip to Britto's at Baga with old friends

I recently had a most delightful evening with some really great friends who have been with me for ages.



Stephanie and Shalome along with a friend of the more recent years, Ashish, and Me, hopped over to the famous Britto's at Baga Beach for some excellent cusine. Shalome has great taste in food and when at a restaurant she knows, one would be wise to pay heed to what she says. !



A great evening out... and I had a chat with them , like I haven't had in a long time. There are some things that only your friends of many years can share with you.. its almost like finely aged whisky. It gives you that nice and warm, mellow glow inside.



Good Times.. good times..

At Inox, after watching Mission Impossible 3

I went for Mission Impossible 3. An 'ok' movie. One of the better MI movies, but I think the idea behind the movie is getting old. Like Terminator and the endless Bond movies, I thinks its time to put this theme to bed.

That said, the movie was pretty decently made. Story line is action packed but quite weak in every other aspect... and of course throughly unbelievable and improbable. Sound and Visual effects are the usual top notch hollywood masterpieces.

The sound in the theatre was way too loud though. It actually made me flinch every time glass broke on screen. Think I was midly deafened and it ruined the experience a bit.

But its always the company that makes the outing so much fun. Rahim, Liz Anne, Remya, Rima, Tassia and Me went. It was a pleasant way to spend an evening.

Amazing Sunsets at Miramar

The other day I was passing by the beach on a rountine drive by before heading home.



Glancing seawards, I saw the ugly sight of a barge grouded very close to shore. A result of the recent heavy rains we had, this marvelous piece of iron mongery, has planted is wide fat ass right in the middle of Miramar.



One can only hope it does not turn into a 'River Princess Episode Part 2' (the ship still lying grounded off Candolim Beach).

But after handing around long enough to capture the beast on film, I was treated to an amazing sunset. It took me a while to get the setting on the camera just right for panoramic scene, but in the end I think I managed.

In order of the time they were taken, below are the photographs. There is roughly a delay of about 5 minutes in their taking.

Another great evening at Miramar !

For most of the last ten years or so, the best place to spend an evening with friends has been Miramar Beach, right opposite ol' Sharada Mandir.

With the great food, and crazy amount of known folk in the close vincinity, that strip has only got better with the addition of a Cafe Coffee Day, and awesome Chicken Shawarma !

Of course the hallowed institutions of Da Silva's (uncle's) and the Bhel Puri carts have not lost their charm.

So when Nadia, Dhruv, Jane, Mel and Me met up the day the exams got over, we headed to our favorite haunt.




Nadia's on her way back to Mumbai as I type this..close friends for years upon years, Nadia has known me since we 5 years old. And all that time she's been quite a gem of person. Its a pity, life's twists has meant we see much less of each other now-a-days. But with luck, maybe that will change soon. .. I hope so.

Over the last few years I have met some really special people. The picture above is of some of my closest friends...Very close knit bunch, and real gems at heart.
In order from left to right they are the beautiful: Naashoma, Analiz, Liz Anne, Tassia and Xiyan.

Playing with light and shadows ..and starring the Cats !

I was pottering around cookie's flat the other day, sometime after dinner. Presumeably I was there to help her get her house ready for the birthday party she was hosting the next day.

But being the post-dinner work-a-phobic that I am, I quite managed to escape doing anything meaningful or productive. Well..apart from some excellent suggestions and some minor object carrying.

But while I was up there, I spied Cookie's two cats in a rather interesting setting by a lamp on a wooden counter top.



Noting the effect and play of the light and shadows around them, I whipped out the digital camera, and started photograping them. Its quite hard to get cats to pose for a snap. A photographer to them is just another large bumbling human they couldnt care less about.

But I would not be defeated by these annoyingly fidgety felines. Many adjustments to the exposure time and shutter speed later, I finally got the effect I was after. Then I had to keep clicking till I managed to get a snap that wasn't blurred by their movement.

But I must say that I was exceedingly happy with the results. Below I have uploaded the 3 snaps that I liked the most. The composition and coloring is reall nice.. well at least to my rather amatuer eye. The orignal snpas are all more than 3mb in size and I ahd not the patience to upload them. I therefore uploaded an heavily reduced size version, and as a result the images are showing signs of pixel shading. Its unfortunate, but I had not the patience to upload such large images to the net.







I really really like these snaps.. think I'll make one of them my desktop wallpaper.

Heavy Rains.. and history repeats itself..

Every year, the monsoon bursts upon the unsuspecting public in Goa with its usual fury, bringing much needed relief from the sweltering heat of summer.

And every year our local government run weather department is totally clueless about its approach only informing the public through the newspapers, after four days of incessant heavy rain. Its almost as if they wait to see if the roads are flooding before they casually inform the editors , "oh by the way folks, the monsoon is here".

And believe me, the roads are a good indication.. below is a snap I took today, about 40 meters from my home. The water is about a foot and half deep.



By the way these snaps are taken in rather well-to-do residential neighborhood in the suburbs of Panjim, the capital city. Sigh.. will times ever change.. I got a shot of woman struggling across the flooded street. This determined woman was managing an umbrella in the strong wind, carrying the days shopping in one hand, a baby in the other, and trying not to get drenched by passing cars. Amazing !



And the poor owner of this Kinetic-Honda is going to have a tough time getting all the water out of his bike's silencer, which is totally submerged.



When will it change ? When will streets stop flooding ? Who knows...life goes on with all its problems and hiccups. A blocked street drain takes a backseat to other more pressing concerns for the average goan..

The galley at Casa Fernandes gets a face lift..

After much beating around the bush, and plenty of delays, Mama has finally decided to complete the furnishings in the kitchen. For more than a year the kitchen has remained in a state of flux, with plenty of furnishing installed already, but yet having bits and pieces missing..

So Ali the carpenter and his merry men were ropped in to see the kitchen to final stages..

Below is a shot of the good men hard at work..



And believe me, they worked hard, sometimes not even stopping for lunch or tea break. And in four days, Mama had her completed kitchem.

But all was not complete yet, because thats where I stepped in. In a bid to really do up the kitchen, I hit the electrical fitting stores and picked up plenty of lighting fixtures.

24 hours later and the Kitchen had two new tubelights and 2 new spots lights all fixed and wired by me with my trusty drill set. And later that day, we had the nice Mr. Prakash from the house appliance repair store outside our place fit up a small fan in the kitchen. Perfect for those hot summer days when Milagrin, our cook, grumbles about the heat.

Below is a snap of the Mama and cookie posing in the newly complete kitchen.



But the kitchen was not the only thing that got a face lift. Being the good soul that I am, I set about the hall and below I proudly present the results of a hard days cleaning and re-arranging of furniture in the hall..Snaps specially taken for the benefit of Papa, who wont get to see all this until much later this year :-)





And while we are it, here's a snap of Cookie and Mama posing in Cook's place after the new blinds got put up at her place...



The Small joys of interior decoration, but oh .. what happiness it gives you...

The Sharada Mandir gang through the years..

I spent 12 years if my life at good ol' Sharada Mandir School in Miramar, Goa.

In that time I made so so many friends, some who were really close to me, and some who were not so close.

Over the years I've stayed in touch with a few, and still some of them quite often... but a good majority have moved their separate ways, to pursue dreams of their own.

Wherever they maybe, I wish them well...

The pics below are of all the classes I was a part of in school from the 1st Standard/Grade till the 10th Standard/grade when I finally left that hallowed institution.

To all of you, who see yourselves in those snaps, we all had some great times didn't we ?... Yeah !

I had a snap of the kindergarten class I was a part of, but just cant seem to find it. I do intend to locate that snap and add it to this post sometime in the near future.

Edit: Found Snap of Prep Class !!

(Click the picture to see a Larger version.)

The Prep Class

The First Standard

The Second Standard

The Third Standard

The Fourth Standard

The Fifth Standard

The Sixth Standard

The Seventh Standard

The 8th Standard

The 9th Standard

The Tenth Standard

The Entire Batch of 2000 Passouts from Sharada Mandir
(Both classes)!

While on this topic, I must mention, that I was amazed to find a snap I never knew was taken. All the more shocking is the fact that I'm in the picture. Thanks to Dhruv who stopped by the other day, I was able to scan a picture of the Geology Class of 12th Grade (H.S.S.C.) at Dhempe's. It was a crazy couple of years in HSSC.. Even though I was not a part of Sharada Mandir for 11th and 12th grade, that snap deserves a place on this post.

12th STD Science - Geology Division

Thanks to Dhruv & Utsav, I was also able to obtain the snaps of some of the classes of my batch at Sharada Mandir, which I was not a part of. Since so many of us were jumbled around between divisions, I have scanned those snaps as well and uploaded them to the blog. Please use the links below to view them. I'm still missing quite a few though. Drop a comment if you have a snap to contribute to this post.

Since I do not remember which divisions these were, I've added the class teacher's name, to help you decide if you were a part of a class or not. ;-D

KG-1 Mrs Sandhya
1st STD - Ms Auria
3rd STD - Mrs Talwar
4th STD - Mrs Semoise (correct spelling ??)
5th STD - Ms Auria
6th STD - Ms Ann
7th STD - Mrs Negi
8th STD - Mrs Uma Devan
9th STD - Mrs Uma Devan & Mrs Negi & Ms Auria
(who knows who was class teacher..)
10th STD - Mrs Binewale (spelling ?)