Common Mumbai misnomers

The game is in the name. Here are some common misnomers...terms and names that you might hear, but might mistake it for something very similar sounding. We'll add more to this list as time goes by.

• Vashi Naka is nowhere near Vashi
• Turbhe (the Hindi name for Trombay) is also a place near Vashi
• JVLR ends at Powai as of today...the original plan was (or maybe still is) to extend it to Vikhroli
• Lower Parel is not closer to Parel...if one wants to go to Parel by travelling through WR, the correct station to disembark is Elphinstone Road (remember, "Lower" in terms of railway lingo means more closer to the starting station on the "down" line, that is from Churchgate to Dadar)
  
• Matunga Road is not equal to Matunga (the Z bridge to cross over from Matunga Road station on the Western Railway to Matunga on the Central Railway takes about 10 minutes by walk)
• Marol Depot v/s Marol Maroshi Depot (these are a few km apart)
  
• Prabhodhankar Thackeray Udyaan (Charkop) v/s Prabhodhankar Thackeray Chowk (Sewree)

Diwali's here

The first signs of Diwali have made their appearance. One can find a lot of vendors/hawkers selling lanterns and crackers along with the decoration items like "rangoli". Several "temporary" hawkers have come up everywhere...hopefully these guys will go away once Diwali is over. On the other hand, several "permanent" roadside hawkers have stopped selling what they usually sell and switched over to selling this new seasonal stuff.

There is high demand for sweets and other "snack items" like chiwda and chakli. Traditionally, these sweets and snacks were supposed to be made in each one's homes and then exchange them with their neighbours. While the exchanging tradition still continues in most parts of Mumbai, the making part has been now left largely to these shops that sell these items. I think this has mostly to do with women working or being very busy in whatever it is that they do.

There are some specialist shops that I would like to mention (from which I have bought these things in the past):

• Matunga (and King's Circle) has a slew of these "South Indian" shops that sell the south Indian variety of sweets and snacks. Cafe Mysore converts much of its restaurant into counters that display the various sweets and snacks. I wonder whether the restaurant stays open on these days.
• When I visited Panshikar at Dadar last year, there was a huge queue into that small eatery waiting patiently to buy these snacks.
• Sapre's at Goregaon West is another Maharashtrian favorite. This is the place I've bought most of the stuff from in the past few Diwalis. Sapre's has a large (maybe complete) variety (of the Maharashtrian kind, of course). The very unique thing is that one needs to fill in an "order form" with the quantity that one needs. (The forms are available at the counter.) The forms are to be handed over the counter to the sales person and they will find and collect all the items mentioned. They will even put it in a box so that one can carry the stuff home. Another thing of interest is that at the bottom of the "order form", they mention that no matter how big the order, one would still have to come to the shop to collect it - that they do not deliver.

Let's see if things remain the same this Diwali.

Jumbo King Wada Pav

Its been a few years since the Jumbo King Wada Pav was launched with an ambitious goal of making the "Wada Pav world class". But, it was only recently that I ventured to have a Wada Pav at the stall. This was partly motivated by reading an article in a newspaper about the types of Wada Pav that they offer - I was most attracted by the "Brown (Whole Wheat) Pav".

And so it was that I was pleasantly surprised to see the price of Rs. 6 for the brown pav variety and Rs. 5 for the normal one. They also offer soft drinks and lassi. The Wada Pav was not bad at all and in fact, for the hygiene that they offer, the price is really worth it (it is priced Re. 1 more than the usual Wada Pav hawkers).

I could see that this strategy would not only attract the middle-class and college students, but also the labourer class that make a "meal" out of the Wada Pav. In addition, they have also have Wada Pav with cheese. On the other hand, they call the "Brown Bread Wada Pav" as the "Diet Wada Pav" - quite an attractive proposition for the "diet-concious" people.

The article in the newspaper also mentioned that they were soon going to introduce a "Jain Wada Pav" (without garlic and potatoes).

Looks like a desi McDonald in the making.

Mumbai's best bakers

Without a doubt, most of Mumbai's best bakers are either Parsis or Iranis. Among them, my vote for the best (value, and quality) goes to Merwan's in Andheri (West). There are only 2 Merwan's shops in the entire city (suburbs included). And, believe it or not, these 2 shops are just a few shops away from each other. Both are located on the ground floor of a building called "Madhav Building" on S. V. Road, outside Andheri station (West). One shop specializes in cakes and pasteries; the other has some seats, a snacks counter, and a small get-together hall on the first floor (apart from the same cakes and pasteries). Why there are 2 shops selling the same items within such a close distance is not known to me...maybe it has to do with the handling of customers. Such is the fierce clientele that the customers actually keep an "eye" on the fresh baked items coming in by 4 p.m. By 5 p.m., most of the snack items like rolls, puffs are almost over. And by 6 p.m., you are too late to get anything at all in the snacks section. The prices are quite decent too. I have known people who drop in at Merwan's on their way to Malad. Some eggless pastries and snacks are also available which are quite tasty too. They also have packets of cookies that are crisp and well-baked. If ever there was a baker's competition in Mumbai, this one would take it all. Note that apart from these 2 stores, there is no other branch. There is a "B. Merwans" Irani restaurant and bakery opposite Grant Road station - this has no connection with the "real" Merwans.

Back after a break

Its been 3 weeks since my home computer conked off (the motherboard). That would explain the lack of posts from my side.

Got a new board from the usual place in Mumbai and it seems to work fine.

"Dead zone" at Mahim Junction?

In all probability, a "dead" zone exists at Mahim Junction (a suburban railway station in Mumbai). It has come to my notice that whenever we travel from King's Circle to Mahim (via the Harbour line, of course), there is a brief period for which the fans go off and the lights come on (even during the day time), but are very dim - a sign that the lights might be powered by some standby.

Unlike the dead zone at Virar, where the dead zone is required for the change in the type of electrification (DC to AC away from Virar), this one seems to be present for a different reason.

Maybe it exists because there is a "handover" spot between King's Circle and Mahim Junction where the Central Railway (which handles the King's Circle part of the line) meets the Western Railway (which handles the Mahim Junction part of the line).

Add one more to the the mysteries of the Indian Railway world.

Rain damage part 2

Every weekend since the heavy rains of Mumbai (26th July 2005) has been spent in salvaging items that were soaked in the dirty water that entered my home.

This weekend I discovered more stuff that needs to be thrown out or destroyed:

• Some 10 to 20 EP (Extended Playing) records stuck together on account of leaving them out to dry. Maybe we should have separated them before drying. But then, with such a small home, it is not possible to spread each one around.
• More books disposed off; these simply refused to dry. I noticed that most books printed in India (with the low quality of paper) dried easily; the books printed outside of India have high quality paper and maybe the resin content in them is so high that the pages stick together and don't let them dry. After trying out all kinds of tricks like blow drying with a hair drier to putting them in a conventional oven, they did not dry. Maybe I should have tried out microwave oven.
• Memorable photographs like those from my Swiss visit - both negatives and developed prints - destroyed. With no backup on the digital media, its as good as history.
• Most audio CDs that I tested seem to work without problems. The covers (or liner notes as they are called) of some of them had to be disposed off. Almost all of my "Moment Records" CD collection lost their liner notes. Prime among them was an autographed liner note by Pt. Shivkumar Sharma and Us. Zakir Hussain. I had gotten this after attending a musical performance by them in Mumbai.
• Most of these Moment Records CDs featured pleasing prints of various traditional Indian paintings/scenes.
• Lost an entire book that came along with a 4-CD set of Pt. Ravi Shankar (issued for his 75th birthday celebrations) appropriately titled "In Celebration".
• Lost important interpretation of the Vedic chants from Taittiriya Upanishad from Pt. Ravi Shankar's "Chants of India". This interpretation has been described in the liner notes as being "quasi mathematical" and gives a computation to find the happiness or joy of the enlightened compared to that of the ordinary mortal and the relation in terms of all the other hierarchical entities that exist in between.

All in all - a loss that is going to be irreplaceable and not easily forgotten.

Washed out homes

The extreme rainfall on July 26th 2005 (Tuesday) filled our ground floor flat/apartment with about 2 feet of water. Although most of our electronic equipment like the refrigerator, washing machine, television and computer is in working condition, we lost all our cots. These were "box-type" cots which are typically favorites in any "space-starved, stuff-laden" metro apartment. The cots contained some clothes, books and other stuff. Due to the water, the books and clothes absorbed so much water that they become too heavy for the cot, which gave way from below.

We had to throw away several books (most were of little use - Engineering Drawing from Semester 1 of 17 years ago and the like). But, we also lost several photographs (including treasured ones for which we may not have negatives).

About 500 audio CDs were soaked; these have dried now. But, about 200 gramophone records are still with wet jackets and these would need further drying.

While I decided not to go home on the 26th and stay back in the workplace, my wife was not so lucky. She had to spend about 15 hours in the BEST bus to reach home.

Cafe Mysore

Cafe Mysore (review by Busybee) is one of the rarest type of restaurants in Mumbai. It claims to be the "Oldest Restaurant in Mumbai serving South Indian delicacies". Located on the King's Circle (aka as Maheshwari Udyaan or the L&T Circle), it serves a few South Indian snacks and what is called by the restaurant as a "Konkani" lunch or dinner.

While it is very accurately described in the review mentioned above, I will still highlight points that stand out:

• This is a "real" Udipi restaurant...the owners are from Udipi, Karnataka. Most other "so-called" Udipi restaurants are run by the Shettys who are from Mangalore or near Mangalore, but not anywhere near Udipi. Since it is the oldest, it also classifies as the "original Udipi".
  
• The idli is a classic one...extremely soft.
  
• The sambar is of a different variety (not the usual sweet one served at the "so-called" Udipi restaurants)
  
• The coffee is strong filter one that can be found in many South Indian's homes. It is not the milky Nescafe version (although that is available too).
  
• Just after the declaration of SSC or HSC results, the restaurant offers concession to students with first class marks provided they get a photocopy of their SSC/HSC certificate.
  
• When India won the cricket series in Pakistan not so long ago, they even had concession on a bottle of Coke (small Coke Rs. 3 instead of Rs. 10)
• Very thoughtfully, they have a toilet that is cleaner compared to the public ones.
  
• Very recently, they introduced a "Breakfast for monsoon trip to Lonavla" for Rs. 35. This breakfast is neatly packed in aluminium foil containers. One can choose from a fixed combination of Idli, Sheera, Upma and Puri Bhaji.
  
• There is also a "Railway Meal" (Pulav, Puri, Bhaji) for Rs. 25.
• The non-AC section is visited by several kinds of people - businessmen, South Indians from the nearby Matunga temples, students from the nearby colleges and schools, several Gujaratis that are residents of Matunga.
• On Sunday mornings, one can see several Catholics eating at the restaurant. Probably, they drop in to have their breakfast after the morning mass at the nearby Don Bosco church.
• On a final note, this is not a place one goes to sit comfortably and chat. It is strictly a no-nonsense eating place and there are no frills or other bells or whistles.

Save Water

This might not be exactly a good time to talk about saving water considering that Mumbai got a record rainfall in a single day, but its still important considering the way we waste it.

Mumbai might be one of the few cities in the world where we get drinking filtered water supplied by the authorities. There is no separate supply for "washing water". As a result of this, precious filtered and clean water is used for purposes such as bathing, washing, cleaning floors and even vehicles. There is no recycling of water as a result of which Mumbai is heavily dependent on the annual rains to fill its reservoirs.

A few years ago (maybe in response to water shortage) I came across a sticker stuck strategically above some water taps. It really was an eyeopener. After reading it carefully, I then started observing how others use water. I realised that many Indians (at least in Mumbai) have very peculiar habits. One of these is brushing the teeth or shaving with the tap open.

I have put the information in the sticker below. The sticker title was quite interesting too - "Save Precious Water - It is White Gold".

Shower bath	180 litres	Bucket bath	18 litres
Flush	13 litres	Small bucket	4 litres
Shaving (open tap)	112 litres	Shaving (mug)	1.5 litres
Brushing teeth (open tap)	33 litres	Brushing teeth (closed tap)	1 litre
Rinsing clothes (open tap)	188 litres	Rinsing clothes (bucket)	18 litres

Take a look and start saving water before it runs out.

The "undocumented" MHC

Monkey Hill (station code MHC) is an "undocumented" stop (undocumented to the general public) in the ghat section somewhere in between Khandala and Karjat. For many years now, all trains coming downhill from the steep ghats from Khandala to Karjat need to stop at this "station".

The purpose of this stop is not, as the name suggests, for people to catch sight of monkeys (although monkeys did/do abound around that area). The stop is also not meant for tourists and passengers to take "in" the scenic view of the ghats. The main purpose of this mandatory stop is for the locomotive driver to ensure that the brakes of the rake (and loco) are enough to stop while making the steep downhill gradient. The loco driver has to bring the entire rake to a "complete stop" for a full 2 minutes and prove to the signal man at the cabin there that there is no problem with the braking system.

In case of a failure to stop the train, the signal man diverts the train promptly to a "side catching" (away from the main line) and this "catching" eventually has a steep upgrade (probably man made) to ensure that the "runaway" train can be brought to a stop.

However, an article in the recent Mumbai Mirror states that this system will be discarded when the installation of sensors is complete in the ghat system. Under this proposed scheme, the sensors will detect such problems and hence there would be no need to halt there anymore.

Going uphill from Karjat to the Deccan plains does not require this stopping. But, to overcome the steep uphill climb, additional loco power is attached to pull the train. Additionally, 2 or more locos (called bankers) are attached at the back of the train to prevent the train from sliding back. These rear locos push the train up the hill.

Cases of evidence tampering

A very slow-moving judiciary system combined with the ability to get people in power to do anything is the perfect recipe for getting out of complex cases. A very common strategy has been to tamper the evidence in a particular case so that there is not enough evidence in the first place.

A very recent example proves that: As cited in this article, some Provogue executive was sent a parcel containing cocaine. This was intercepted and caught by the police. In the run-up to the case, however, some Assistant Police Inspectors replaced the contents of the vials containing the cocaine (which would be the prime evidence) with boric powder. Luckily, in this case, some one had the good thought of exposing such a deed. But, if it had gone unnoticed, the case would surely have been dropped.

Some other examples where such evidence tampering may have happened:

• In a hit-and-run case, the Gamdevi police had in their possession the jeep that was responsible for causing the accident. However, when the case came up for hearing, the jeep was "lost".Case disimissed: lack of evidence.
• In the case (link here) of the more high profile Bharat Shah, it was alleged that he had talked to some "underworld" people and the police had recorded this conversation on tapes. In the panchnama filed by the police, it was stated that there were 2 voices in the tape. However, when the case came up for hearing, the tape had 3 voices. Wonder if this was done purposely to weaken the case. End result was "case disimissed" due to incorrect evidence recorded in the panchnama.

Tsunami or Nuclear Blast

No doubt many of us have come across an email circulated around suggesting that the December 26 2004 tsunami was not a natural disaster, but a man-made one. This email suggested that the US of A (and other partners) were responsible for causing a nuclear blast at the bottom of the ocean and that is what caused the tsunami.

I decided to google and find out if there was any information about the source of this email. After a couple of false starts, I traced the article to the this link. It seemed to be authentic and it has got a copyright notice also; the article is claimed to be authored by one Joe Vialls. The main page of the site is, of course, http://www.vialls.com/ .

As one tries to figure out what is going out on the above site, one comes across the following related links to the tsunami:

• http://www.vialls.com/subliminalsuggestion/tsunami2.html

• http://www.joevialls.net/sumatra/earthquake.html (This link has details of another earthquake in Sumatra that occurred in March 2005 and was about 8.7 on the Richter scale and still did not cause a tsunami. Conclusion by Vialls: The December one was caused by a nuclear blast.)
  

This Joe Vialls calls himself a "private investigator". It seems he resides in Australia and is a "veteran". He also asks for funds to keep the site running.

Whether the information is true or not, one can probably never verify.

On a slightly related note:
Some time ago (around 1997), I became interested in another set of articles by a person named "Bob Lazar". The site was http://www.boblazar.com/, but that site has currently nothing (just an "under construction" page). This guy claimed to have been working at Area 51, which is a highly classified zone near Las Vegas and over which no aircraft can fly. He claimed that he was taken there and he found that the US scientists were working on an anti-matter aircraft (saucer) and this was being done by colloborating with some "aliens".
He even decribed how they looked.

It was later suggested by some people that his "stories" had a lot of flaws in it and were all lies. There is more at UFO Mind, if you are interested.

Google Holiday Logos

Everyone likes those "holiday logos" that keep changing as per the holiday on the Google site. This link
contains a list of all the logos done so far. Links at the bottom of the page show the logos for the past years upto the year 1999 (2004, 2003, 2002, 2001, 2000 and 1999).

A US-born Korean artist by the name of Dennis Hwang creates those logos as outlined in this article.

Flying in a bad dream

Joe Satriani , guitar-god, was invited to Mumbai in the May of 2005. Some articles published prior to the concert in Mumbai, introduced him as the "guru" of disciples of other guitar legends like Steve Vai and Slash (of Guns N Roses). As a result, a lot of "head-bangers" (with long hair) turned up at the concert. They were disappointed for Joe is not a "metal rocker", only a cool wizard.

An article (special presentation) on rediff.com spelt out the complete mockery Mumbai made out of Joe.

As an aside, Joe plays exclusive Ibanez guitars and has even designed the "JS" series. I always wanted to own one of these, but ended up with only a "Fender Squire Strat" (similar to the standard Strat), a handcrafted Yamaha LL-11 and a cheap Indian imitation of Gibson (called Givson).

H1D...a 22MP digital camera

An old post...just for the record (dated: 2004) [will adjust the date later]

Just when you thought that Canon was leading with a 17 megapixel digitial SLR, it turns out that Hasselblad is way ahead with its 22 megapixel camera. (It was reported that a normal film camera has a resoultion comaprable to a 30 megapixel digital camera --- so the digital world is catching up quickly with the film world). The size of each image is about 130 MB and hence, the camera has a build-in hard-disk of about 60 GB.

The price is, of course, truly Hasselbladistic with the H1D costing USD 22,000. That makes it USD 1, 000 per megapixel.

Details are here and here.

For those who are "out-of-touch" or "no touch at all" with the subject, Hasselblad's cameras were the first ones to visit the space. Most Apollo-mission photographs, including the ones of the earth from space and the landing on the moon, used Hasselblad's early cameras. Hasselblad is a Swedish company with a very unique camera design. Their cameras are usually "modular" in design and one can change just about any module (without buying a totally new camera). For example, those who owned film cameras simply need to buy a digital back and fit onto the same camera to get a digital camera.

A "normal" SLR film Hasselblad camera is supposed to cost around Rs. 600,000 (something which I could not verify). Among the very few Mumbaikars that own Hasselblad cameras are Lata Mangeshkar (owner of a gold-plated Hasselblad) and Raj Thackeray.

If you take a look at the Gallery section on the Hasselblad website or Tim Flach's photography, you know that we are not talking about people who want to photograph their aunts, uncles, pets and anything else that they can fit in the frame, but for people who photograph for a living.

Begging in Mumbai

This old (2004) article in the Mid-Day confirms my thoughts. The beggar mentioned in the article earns upto Rs. 1000 per day, has a flat in Virar which he has rented out, has a bank account and has a plot of land in Solapur.

If you consider that the income is non-taxable, it is also very lucrative. Of course, the guy has to put in a lot of hardships (standing out in the hot sun or rain), apart from having a "beggar" tag attached.

Sometime ago I had noticed that these people seemed to have some kind of a hierarchical setup and were quite organized. It seemed to me that the traffic signals (probably the most valued spot for beggars) were assigned to appropriate people. In the morning, I would see a group of beggars arriving in rickshaw and one of them (a female) seemed to be assigning people to the "spots" where each would beg. Later, the female beggar would drive away to another spot.

Another aticle in the not so recent past stated that beggars "gift" begging "spots" as dowry for their daughter's marriages to the groom beggar.

Old Post : One gem of an experience

An old post...just for the record (dated: 29-June-2004) [will adjust the date later]

On the occasion of Aashada Ekadashi 2004, there was a concert of Marathi Abhangs (called "Santvaani"). It was held yesterday (29th June 2004) at Shanmukhananda Hall and was house-full (to the extent that some people were made to sit on plastic chairs in the aisles). It was not only well-attended, but also well-compered.

Panditji sang a total of 9 devotional songs (abhangs) (7 Marathi + 1 Kannada + 1 Hindi) for a concert that started at about 7:20 p.m. and went on till about 11 p.m.

Compering was by Jayantrao Salgaonkar (of Kalnirnay fame) and was filled with anecdotes and humorous jabs (needless to say, it was pro-Maharashtra).

All in all, a concert worth remembering and full paisa wasool.

Songs that were performed:

1. Jai Jai Ram Krishna Hari
2. Roop Pahata Lochani
3. Pandhari Nivaasa Sakhya Panduranga
4. Maazhe Maher Pandhari
5. Indraayani Kaathi
6. Soubhagya Lakshmi (Kannada)
7. Kanhoba Tuzhi Ghondahali Zaali
8. Teertha Vitthal, Kshetra Vitthal
9. Jo Hari Ko Bhaje (Hindi)

Rhymes of crimes

Nursery rhymes have remained the same ever since I learnt them 30 years ago. In India, this is probably one of the many things inherited from the British education system. Over the past few years, I wondered if some of these rhymes propogated cruelty to animals/people. Some examples:

• "Piggy on the Railway line" - there's an incident of a pig being run over by a train and then the driver shows his apathy towards the incident by saying "I don't care"
  
• "Ding Dong Bell" - some guy called "Little Tommy Thin" tries to drown a cat by dropping it into a well
  
• "Goosey Goosey Gander" - a goose catches an old man and throws him down the stairs ("Caught him by the left leg and threw him down the stairs"
  
• "Sing a song of six pence" - some 24 blackbirds get baked in a pie ("Four and twenty blackbirds baked in a pie")

There might be many others as well. Some other material that could be a cause for objection include calling black people as "niggers" and ridicule of physically-challenged human beings.

Reading of the things that get banned or changed in the United States of America, these rhymes would certainly have been "banned" from the kids' books. Wonder why no one has thought of it in India until now.

SPCA and / or Maneka Gandhi, please take note.

Been there, done that, got caught

This weekend I went to Panvel, saw a nice diesel loco (ERS shed), photographed it from close quarters, got caught by security.
I had to wriggle my way out.

End result = Deletion of photographs from the camera.

When I reached Panvel (PNVL), I saw a WDM2A hauled long-distance train on one of the platforms. I was quite excited with the prospect of photographing it and hurried to reach the loco.

It turned out to be the late-running TVC-NZM (Trivandrum-Hazrat Nizamuddin) express headed by a ERS (Ernakulam) WDM2A loco.

I got reasonably good shots of the loco.
It was probably over enthusiasm to shoot the logo in the front of the loco that got me nailed (a very funny logo for a loco shed - a boat with a sail ---- compare that to the "deer in flight" logo of the Erode (ED) shed).

The security (probably RPF or GRP) said something about taking me to see the "officer", etc. I noticed he had a batch with a "Marathi-sounding" name and started to converse in Marathi. Of course, the first thing he asked me was whether I was a Maharashtrian and which was my native place. (This is a very common dialogue that one hears when conversing with Marathi-speaking people "Tumcha gaon kutla aahe").

After pleading and deleting the photos, he just took down my name and some identification from the company Icard (the only identity I had) and then let me off.

Unlucky enough for me and my entire trip a big waste.