Chhavi Noticed This! » Words

silver

chhavi — Fri, 03 Feb 2012 04:30:53 +0000

where else would you go for your silveries?
P.S. Santa Cruz market is amazing. I went through it like a little child, eyes wide open, mouth slightly agape, fascinated by the melange, nah barrage, of shine! Shiny clothes, shiny toys, shiny bangles, shiny accessories, shiny fabric and embroidery – wow!

chasy cat

chhavi — Sat, 28 Jan 2012 04:42:21 +0000

If you are a bindicoot, I do think you should watch for this. It sounds totally dangerous.
What I found as funny as the name of the product is that “Chasy Cat” has this lovely tear-off dispenser but the grocer has stocked it with the ‘Laxman Rekha’ cockroach repellent.
Which reminds me of the BEST ever sign for “krezy rat maar” painted on the Mahim causeway wall. The tagline, in Hindi, read “choohon ka encounter kar de“.

would you ask for this by name?

chhavi — Wed, 16 Feb 2011 06:36:15 +0000

Erm….yeah. Sorry.
I took this photo through the counter top of a small kirane ki dukan. I asked first, of course.
What I want to know is WHO names these things? And even if they didn’t know what poop means in English and do not associate that no one really wants something with such implications going into anyone’s mouth, let alone a baby’s, still, how would you christen a product something like that? How?
The mind is boggled.

how far will go?

chhavi — Tue, 08 Feb 2011 15:51:06 +0000

Surprisingly, this film didn’t do so well!
In fact, it went pretty far out of sight, pretty quickly
But I love how they confidently splashed the ad on BEST buses and such. Sigh. It may have been a really good film, but I didn’t see it because of the grammar. I’m hoping the people who skipped “Toss” were just spoilt for choice, not begrudging of the advertising (read: grammar nazis)
The other one currently out that nothing on earth would induce me to see is titled “Angel”…newcomer actors, directorial debut, the works – horridly unexpressive advertising.
Social media folks, what can indie/low budget films do to even stand a chance (besides hiring a good copy editor)?

Social Media Toss Up

chhavi — Sun, 27 Sep 2009 08:53:25 +0000

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?

abandoned

chhavi — Thu, 14 May 2009 15:00:12 +0000

I didn’t know until very recently that Mumbai is one of the very few places in the world that hosts flamingos within city limits. (Nairobi and Miami are two others.) So of course I wanted to go see. And with a video journalist friend and an expert ornithologist friend, I went off to do a piece on them (hey, why not share with the world?) The flamingo photos I took are not worth publishing, they were too far away, but, on one of the quays, against the backdrop of an oil refinery and a thermal power plant blurred by grey wisps of smog and a flock of flamingos rocking gently like rose petals on oil, were these rotting, abandoned boats. Sewri was nothing like I expected. But these boats just grabbed me. Quite poetic a metaphor, aren’t they?(If you’d like, you can listen to the story and see Nitin’s photos)

yay for democracy!

chhavi — Fri, 01 May 2009 07:27:58 +0000

Here we go! I finally feel like a citizen and an adult. All the years I lived abroad and paid state and federal tax, I never got a say in the process. Now, finally, I feel like I actually belong. I had to fight for it ;D But I did vote!
So, you read about how I was sure they’d ripped up my application after I’d left when I went to register. I checked online but my name wasn’t on the list. My parents got their voter ID cards, I didn’t. But, with fingers crossed, I went to check the updated list at the polling station, anyway. And of course, they couldn’t find my name, so I had to go find the ‘building list’. After visiting seven local volunteer tables with their building lists, and a good darshan of the entire area, we located the list and my name wasn’t on it.
Enter my Knight on a Steel Horse – a volunteer went off on a motorcycle after making a few calls to actually get the ‘supplementary list’ of new registrants that all the booths were sharing. Twenty minutes later, he roared up to tell me I’d been registered as purush (male) but … I had a temporary voter ID! I could have hugged him!
I hightailed it to the polling station where the volunteers seemed genuinely happy I’d returned and could vote! Since I could prove with my presence and my state ID that I’m really not male, two hours, much sweat, lots of repetitive questions and only a few lines later, I had cast my first vote ever*. And it was such a high! I was psyched for hours after! If you haven’t voted before, I highly recommend it

*I left India when I was 18. This is the first election since I’ve returned! Of course, the year I finally get to vote, they switch to inking the middle finger. I could have put in an obscene gesture but … eh, I’m more mature than that.

the way I are ;)

chhavi — Mon, 13 Apr 2009 12:24:21 +0000

Once in a while, I come across a sign that just baffles me. I think we should run a little contest here for an alternate caption and/or a subtitle to farther edify the folks who wonder she has what??
Did they really mean “she and his“? But that still doesn’t make any sense. This one’s in Goregaon. The other one in Lower Parel I like is a mobile watch repair shop & hair saloon (sorry, sailoon) in one. I suppose whether your phone is broken or you need a trim, you can use your time efficiently getting a twofer instead of loitering.

Ubiquitous

chhavi — Tue, 27 Jan 2009 13:23:31 +0000

Outside the Lower Parel office of Mudra, this Ganesh blesses the cars and junta jostling by. I believe he’s been around for a few months, but I only caught sight of him looming largely this past week. When I think of mudras, the dancer’s poses, it’s not the agency that comes to mind but the shadow warrior in Rushdie’s Haroun – easily the best book he’s ever written. Next to this Ganesh is a multi-armed goddess. I’ll get her next time there’s no car blocking her length. Meanwhile please to note that there is a fresh hibuscus tucked between Ganesh’s toes, then, and every day since.

crash courses

chhavi — Wed, 25 Jun 2008 12:06:23 +0000

Mumbai’s local trains are awesome. Not just because of their celerity, but also because they’re a microcosm unto themselves. The people, the smells, the sounds, and definitely the literature – I love it all.
Anyway, I quite liked this offering. Unfortunately, the phone number was missing, but 600 Rupees (~$15) for 40 types of chocolate, including “Ferrero Racher” (sic) – now, that’s a steal!