Outside New Market in Kolkata, we were greeted with this menagerie lined up along 6 cars. The dudes in the car had nothing to do with the animals. They were just parking/waiting. The enterprising vender told me he just moves his stuff around when the cars need to leave. Tusha, in full journalist style, went up to talk to the driver on whose car the gorillas, lions, boxers, teddies, and polar bears were hanging out. He tried to hit on her. I dragged her away.
Indian Chinese food, as the expats know, is in a class of its own. Nowhere in China would you find any of the random things we consume here, confident that they’re “Chinese”. Or close… The noodles/fried rice van outside our high school sold “Chinesh” food…
(Random factoid: The dish we call “Manchurian” – veggies, chicken, and gobi – really was invented in Bombay.)
But here’s someone in Lower Parel making some pretty lofty claims.
The tagline, btw, reads “Where Chinese cuisine took shape” 😉
I’m loving Kolkata. I will admit the best part about it is that it’s not Delhi 😉 But I really do like it for what it is as much as for what it’s not! It’s been a fun working vacation. I’ve covered some great stories and met wonderful people and eaten so much (mishti and tok) that I’m afraid I’ll pop soon. I love the chai stalls everywhere, I love that they’ll accommodate my request for black tea (in a thimble size cup), that there’s squalor (read character) everywhere and the goddess smiles on everyone. Even from behind bars. Even when larger than life, astride a tiger …
Long gone are the days when posters and billboards were painted by a human being, lovingly and sometimes with hilarious results. But some of us can’t help deface the photographic posters that adhere to every single surface, I guess. I found this ‘improved’ Titan ad featuring an even more ruffianesque Aamir Khan utterly brilliant. I wanted to juxtapose the original but, alas, was unsuccessful in finding the image online. If you spot the original, in Delhi or anywhere, do email me a photo!
Incidentally, I’m far from being the only person documenting this. Check out the poster-art by the very funny, very talented Annu Palakunnathu Matthew (whom I interviewed for the now-defunct Masala magazine eons ago).
As pretty much anyone who will listen long enough to hear me complain knows by now, I fell down the stairs last week and got pretty severe whiplash. I finally succumbed and got myself a stupid neck brace (also called a ‘collar’) (Please. I’ve already heard all the jokes) and, to my chagrin, it does help support my neck and prevent extra strain.
The brand of my brace is “MGRM.” In cursive, the acronym is spelled out below the trademarked logo: “May God Rehabilitate Mankind“. I was rather hoping the manufacturers of the brace would step in there, honestly…
There are several of these dudes who criss cross our neighborhood on these decked out bikes, crying “jhadoo, mop, wiper” in their sing song voice. I just love the sight, though I confess I have yet to give any one of them business… but when I lived in the States, I often yearned for an old fashioned stoop-and-sweep ‘jhadoo’. I never got the hang of the witch-type brooms.
I think I like the Rastafarian feather dusters best, though the red halo type rings are very intriguing, too.
This is Ollie — our vet’s cat in Mumbai. The last time I took Ruff to the vet, Ollie was more interested in grooming herself than Ruff (though she played nice with me.) Ruff, too old to bother about chasing cats was more interested in trying to escape everytime the door opened — so we took him out for a walk, leaving Ollie mistress of her domain again. The doggie in this picture is actually a poster that goes behind the pet weighing-scale, but she’s fearless, anyway. 😉 I’ve seen her reduce macho brutes to simpering fools & quivering, overheated springs. 😉 The vet also has a brown doberman who seems to snooze pretty much all day. Ah, it’s a dog‘s life … or a cat’s, if you’re Ollie.
I can’t wait to move to bombay and get a cat, allergies be damned.
Spotted on the Jangpura/Def Col flyover … a pigeon tree. When we went by the first time, someone had put feed out for them, they were everywhere. It really was Hitchcockian. On the way back, they’d settled down some — and we took this photo from the right side of the road 😉
This was taken in the ‘backside’ of the rather happening Saket PVR shopping complex – boasting a multiscreen movie theatre, lots of bars & restaurants, a coffee shop, 3 music stores … (and every ATM besides ICICI bank’s!)
So, if you need a shave before going to any of these places, here’s the old-school nayi under a tree.
I think this is one guy who’ll stay in business even as the other ‘service professions’ die out in the wake of modernization — the door-to-door kabadi wala (recycler), naak-chhidane wala (ear piercer), and the cycle-mop-man (watch this space — coming soon!) are on their way out. This guy, with his sharp razor and the one-chair + mirror overhead will stick. What do you think?
This gem from a hosiery/underwear store in Lajpat Nagar Central Market 🙂 Don’t miss the fact that “Romance” is juxtaposed with the rather prosaic “Groversons, etc.”…
When I lived in Poland, I would frequently be frustrated at the attempts at English signage by local businesses. Maybe I’ve just gotten old, or jaded, or lazy — but I have started finding such bizarro spellings and bastardizations of English charming these days 😉 Andar ki baat hai.
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