Chhavi Noticed This!

So the BMC has decided it will now prune trees to prevent stray branches from falling. You know what that means, right? They’re just going to start chopping everything down in sight. My neighboring building society head told me that they’d chopped down the tree between us because “mosquitoes are breeding there”. He claims to be a horticulturist. Who never went to school, evidently. Because in his next breath he also told us it didn’t matter because “Only Tulsi” gives out oxygen, other trees are not important. I nearly slit my own wrists. Maybe these little clay gods will protect this peepul from being ‘pruned’ BMC horticulture style …

This nearly rivals the one shop banner I saw in Saki Naka that had Sale, Rital and Holsail on it and baffled me for a good 2 minutes after I’d passed it, by which time it was too traffic-y and too late to turn the auto rickshaw around for a photo. This gem is in Byculla, a little way from J.J. Flyover. I’ve pointed and shot at it many times but it always came out blurred. My favourite driver slowed down for me to get a legible shot

 err, cos I’m a new vegetarian? I knew a vegetarian? I’m not sure, either. What do you think it’s supposed to mean?I spotted this flapping in the breeze on 31st road, Bandra, out of the corner of my eye. I kept walking and I guess somewhere in my head, I was trying hard to process it and figure out what it really said. Then I just had to go back and check it. The seller was more than happy to let me take a photo If you want one of these, let me know. I’ll take orders in S, M, L and XL

This one is tops in my list of unbelievable kitsch. What you see is a man selling hot coffee, tea, and cocoa from the back of a tempo with a chandelier in it Yes, look again, peer into that interior – it’s a full blown chandelier! I loved it!
This was taken at the Rijksmuseum as I waited in the freezing cold drizzle to buy a ticket around 5pm. I think our well decorated coffee vendor’s sell-rate was close to 100 percent. And which Amsterdammer or tourist wouldn’t want a hot cuppa from a man with such good taste in interior design and a fetchingly homey little ‘coffee shop’ even it’s really the back of a three-wheeler? The warm yellow glow, the aromas – he truly outdid himself, no?

and in Mumbai But not in Amsterdam, even if you’re Batman
This charming mime was on Damrak around the corner from Dam Square where Darth Vader, the Joker, a mummy, and a robot were all posing.
But Batman‘s always been my favorite and he bowed to me ever so courteously, I was charmed.
So I dropped a few cents into his bowl and then we blew kisses at each other. And I walked away smiling. Or not. Maybe that just happened in my head.

I went to Bhopal to report on the 25th anniversary of the Union Carbide/Dow gas leak and found there was so much more to the story than that one night and the inhalation of the poison. There’s stories of shirked corporate responsibility, incredible government oversight and cuckoldry, stories of death, cancer, spontaneous abortions, animals ripping open, respiratory illnesses, ongoing denial, costly treatment, ignorance – and through the rips, hope. The commemorative Bhopal statue was designed by a Dutch lady called Ruth. And it’s symbolic. This replica is in the office of the Chingari Trust. The women of Bhopal really have been key in carrying the struggle forward — to make sure that the world doesn’t let another Bhopal happen.
Even for me – an educated journalist who considers herself abreast with news – it was an eye opener – how the water is still contaminated, how everyone drinks it daily because there are few alternatives, how the children are stunted and sick and dying. I have hours of audio and hundreds of photos to prove it. If you want to see them or listen, email me. I’ll share. Meanwhile, visit www.bhopal.net and www.bhopal.org to raise your voice. And check out the Chingari Trust if you want to contribute something towards the children.

What a thrill, right? To see my brother’s film posters on buses and walls But the movie was unfortunately timed; it released with 8 other films and was almost totally ignored by the mainstream press (Ok, the Mumbai Mirror did review it and decimated it, but the Times Group seemed to have decided to boycott it. Others said they’d had to choose three or four of the eight and “Toss” just didn’t make the cut).
So, we tried to salvage some of it by creating a buzz in the social media fraternity and while that didn’t really take off either (logistics, quick-changes of movies in theatres, I left for Cambodia), it interestingly garnered a mention as a sort of case study in Campaign India magazine. It didn’t talk about the results, but I’m glad someone noticed the effort! Read the story Do Indian Bloggers affect consumer views? here. What do you think?

So, you know the potato crisps you get at the old-time movie theatres? Not the branded ones shilled by film stars – the ones that look like hey, they could have been fried and packaged in a cottage industry around the corner? Well, turns out that they kinda are! This was the glimpse I got into a wafer-ki-dukaan in Kotachiwadi one afternoon. Behind the posh, clean counter with the sealed bags of all kinds of fried farsaan was this massive man with an even more massive set of utensils. Look at the size of that ‘pateela’ and the fryer he’s using to literally paddle the crinkle-cut potato wafers in the scalding oil! Don’t miss the salli (as in salli-boti) and the already fried chips in the forefront.
P.S. Kotachiwadi was beautiful; really a small glimpse of Mumbai’s colonial past with the Portuguese architecture and the brightly painted cottages

It was janmashtmi – nothing, as far as I could tell, to do with Hanuman but voila, we turned a corner near the Metro cinema and there he was, being readied with much dusting and oiling to be taken elsewhere in the city. Later that same night, we ran into him on Mahim causeway!
I guess you can get an idea of how large he loomed from the perspective around him. So very cool!

As we got out of the car to hit a trendy night spot off Linking Road, in Bandra, this bizarre shape on the sidewalk caught my eye. It was suspended in front of a lighting/lampshade store and I wondered if they’d accidently left an exotic shade out by accident when they shut shop. It took me a few seconds to figure out that it was a homeless man who’d made himself a cocoon to sleep mosquito-free! He’d hung his machchhardani from a hook in the awning and made a bed out of his bags. Voila! No malaria, scratches, or dengue for this enterprising citizen. I don’t know where he got it from or how long he’s been here (had it been day time, I would totally have asked him, but he wouldn’t be sleeping there if it were and, anyway, I wasn’t going to wake him up to do so.) Nevertheless, I was completely wowed!