Ponto de Vista

That’s me. I’m proud to have voted. I’m pleased to be able to exercise my rights and do my civic duty. This time was MUCH easier than the last time in 2009. I’m still the wrong age, have the wrong name, and am listed in the wrong gender, but they overlooked all that. I only drew attention to the spelling and the ‘purush’ part but both the list booth and the polling agent brushed it off as a typo. And after 3 minutes of being in line, I had verified my identity, pushed my selection, and I was out. I didn’t even get to crack open Kiran Manral’s The Reluctant Detective that I’d thought to bring along with me based on the long wait last time! 🙂

P.S. I’m very disillusioned by my friends who haven’t voted. What do you do with your friends whose ideologies and basic values don’t match yours? Demotion? Deletion?

Mmmm. 😀 all kinds of ‘digestives’ on display at the Prabhadevi Fair. I’m reminded how someone I know used to use the hing goli, which really is a farty, tarty affair as penalty points during gaming. They would make their colleagues eat one if he accidentally killed someone on his own team.
Anyway, besides the usual suspects of mango, anardana (pomegranate), jeera, hing, ginger, awla, saunf, there’s also local flavor with kokum goli. Yummy!

P.s. I still do miss cinnamon hearts… that blossom in grocery stores across America at this time of year ;D

So, in Mumbai, the German consulate general is around the corner from Israel’s. And outside the Israeli consulate is a lot of security. Or the semblance of it. On a recent walk down NCPA marg, we caught sight of these camouflage jackets adorning a barricade. I think the security personnel were around somewhere (maybe in the bushes? watching me take a photo?) … just not in sight. I got eyeballed by a very sturdy looking man in civilian clothes though, so I beat a quick retreat 🙂

and by the title of this post I mean me, not this guys. This is not the best action shot, but take it from me, they were having a helluva lot of fun. The cynic in me wonders what infections they picked up, but their unfettered enthusiasm made me think, if I swallowed sea water and dirt regularly, maybe my immunity would improve and I could also run around uninhibited. Erm, but maybe not.

House warmings are such fun to attend. Invariably everything isn’t quite in place yet, the host/hostess can’t find the glasses or the bottle opener; the person who was to bring the ice is stuck in traffic; decorations aren’t up yet… but this one I went to recently was much better put together. They even managed to keep this lit for a good … uh, 5 minutes? Pretty, no? And symbolic, I thought – beginnings, ends, all looping around each other.

Look at that hair. do you see it? Do you? Do you? I spotted her one morning in Mumbai traffic, walking with grace in a simple, clean, ironed saree with a matching blouse. And shoes. Nothing about her suggested mendicant or even very poor. But that hair … woah! I want to know the story behind it. I really, really do!

Like a watercolor, no? Marine Drive in a sudden gust and storm. Riding the waves, yeah!

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 🙂