Safety first...

Happy Birthday Henry!!

Man that wig gets around...

Thanks for letting us know that you had just finished a great Wagyu steak and Barossa Shiraz too...
very nice...

The End of the World!...... word up....

Check out this link: End of the World for an interesting view on how the world may end...

It has a long load time but be patient, it's worth it...

We had tears...

New Mumbai Transit System

Mumbai authorities are trialling a new transit system in-line with their vision to be the most modern city in India by 2015. The first link receiving much media buzz is the section between the International Airport and the Town Centre or South Bombay, approximately 25km. The passengers will be treated to comforts of an airliner with the travel time of high speed service expected to be 30 minutes. There were reports that the rail corridor was to be expanded to accommodate the new service but the existing road network is used in the early stages.

not......
The real story as reported by the BBC..
Residents of Mumbai (Bombay) are wondering how long it will take to remove a disused Boeing 737 that has been abandoned in a busy road.

The decommissioned aircraft was being driven through the city at the weekend when the driver got lost and then abandoned the plane. The Boeing used to belong to the private company Air Sahara. Some locals are angry that no action is being taken to move the plane. Others say it is a tourist attraction. It appears that after taking a wrong turn, the driver found himself facing a flyover that was too low for him to take the plane under.

The driver has not been seen since and no-one is assuming responsibility for the 737.

Five days on, it is still not clear who is responsible for the aircraft and its transfer to Delhi.

Just another day in Mumbai!!

Birthday Pix

Mumbai Birthday

On the 22nd May, we'll have been in Bombay 6 months. It takes around that long to discover, that you've settled and have surrounded yourself with a group of like minded friends.
My first birthday in Bombay. The day started, as it usually does, (I wish) with a sumptuous breakfast, cooked by none other, Paprika, a chat to my parents on skype & to Jo Shaw, we then moved on to our new favourite game, Sing Star (Play Station).
Preetika and I have had 3 nights 'singing' until 5 am, belting out the only 3 songs that our voices will carry, coincidentally perfectly executed by 5.00am each time.
The Play Station was Mark's birthday present, something to do if we were caught (with electricity) inside for days in the Monsoon (didn't realise electricity, AC & fans may disappear with the sun).
We then moved on to the Marriott where I had a real massage (glorious gift from PP) and spent the afternoon by the Marriott pool, ate a club sandwich and corona for lunch, a real treat, thanks to Jason - the Ops manager and good friend.
The rickshaw ride to the restaurant - always a treat, especially with the subwoofer (is that what it's called?) blurting out Hindi classics, and finally, to the dinner party at 11 Echoes. We didn't actually end up ever sitting down to eat, drinks at the bar overtook the desire to eat, yet when the vision blurred, we ordered a stack of entrees. (Hmmm, not much changes in 10 years, I believe my 27th birthday was similar, although it's hard to remember that far & that many brain cells back).
Friends in the pix include Kavita, an Indo/Australian actress, cousin of Ash from BrisVegas who now lives here too. Vida, Miss Afghanistan's Miss World entrant, who is never allowed back into Afghanistan for wearing a swim suit and is now a model/hopeful actress here in Bombay. A polish yoga instructor who models on the side (hates the materialistic world of it) and her Indian boyfriend who is an architect (they have an Enfield too and they're taking us cruising out of Bombay, which we haven't yet done), Dazza a Sth Aussie photographer,come wine importer married to one of India's top models, Yogi & Rinky, a Jain who studied at Bond Uni, married to a Hindu, (interesting love marriage), (some friend of Vida's who bought us 3 bottles of Moet - bless - not cheap in this town), a salsa dancing television dude I met at Frames Film festival who'd lived in the States, Jason & Megan, our first friends, both from Australia and of course Preetika and my newly returned husband from Australia, Mark (hence all the loud singing 'til 5am the previous week) ....I can't remember who I've forgotten (sorry). Anyway, our common thread is living in this crazy town and happily surviving.
The young ones (me) headed off to the nightclub Enigma, conveniently located at the Marriott, where we were ushered into the VIP area (thanks again to Jason - the greatest friend alive) and joined the mass Bollywood dance off, it's an amazing view from our perch. Poor Preetika ripped her knee open, which was actually quite bad, as we realized when the ugly lights came on and we were kicked out. It didn't stop her and I belting more tunes back at home, not allowing anyone else to have a long turn.
Now for some rest, peace, tranquility and yoga.......

Clean the drains before the monsoon rains

Now is the time for cleaning the drains before the monsoon rains. We are told that the local joke about Juhu is that when someone takes a leak or when a person spits it floods in Juhu. Not hard to understand really when you see how flat it is and in places not much above sea level. The drains don't function too well as they are either blocked or the outlet is blocked. This morning I saw what looked like a family cleaning the "box" drains in the street. The young boys were small enough to get into the drain which may be half a meter deep and scrape out the decaying rubbish, silt and anything else that is in there. In places the drains are open, like infront of our place and in the more glamorous areas the drains are covered with concrete making it a mining job to clean out.












A story from opendemocracy.net highlights the Mumbai's street workers toil in desperate conditions to clear the city of the 7,000 tonnes of refuse its people produce every day.

There are 30,000 Municipal workers employed by the Greater Bombay Municipal Corporation. These workers pick up our garbage, sweep our streets, clean our gutters, load and unload the garbage trucks and work on dumping grounds.

Without exception, all 30,000 of them despise their work, despite getting a salary of Rs. 7,000 (AUD$ 200) per month. In some cases whole families are entrenched in this work. The men are known to abuse their wives and children. On the death of their husbands at a relatively young age, the job passes to the widows as a “pity case”. The despair continues.

The black and white pics to follow are from a photo study, "Not a pretty picture" which looked at the living hell that constitutes the life of a municipal worker. The study questioned how much do the citizens, contribute to the dehumanisation of these workers? Do we realise that life in the city without this workforce would be a life of ill health, disease and even death?

Each and every one of us creates waste. We do not deny this fact. In Mumbai, we create 7,000 tonnes of waste every day. We know that such huge amounts of garbage can pose a serious health risk, that it can lead to outbreaks of disease, including cholera, dysentry, typhoid, infective hepatitis and plague.

Twenty hard strokes of his heavy, wooden broom is what it takes Parmar to sweep one step of the overhead bridge. Sweeping tiny leaves and gathering them into a small pile requires 30 to 40 brisk strokes of the broom. Gathering and making the pile has to be done at a fast pace, before the leaves scatter away in the wind. Thirty strokes a pile, 10 to 20 piles on a single tree-lined pavement. How many strokes of the broom a day?

Manek reports to work in a galli (narrow lane). He is always worried that the supervisor will mark him absent and give his duty to a temporary worker. This happens all the time. It is an easy way to make a little money on the side.

Manek first sweeps the main road and then, around 11am, the supervisor directs him to a house galli. In this galli, which he has cleaned every day for the last 15 years, Manek has had boiling rice water, packets of fish shells and beer bottles flung upon him. Once a sanitary napkin landed on him. His co-worker used her broom to wipe the blood off his face. But they did not get out of the galli. It had to be cleaned.

The western suburbs, where these pictures were taken, have 65 kilometres of big nallas (drains), 56 kilometres of small nallas and 52 kilometres of box drains. Some of the drainage lines are deep enough to accommodate a double-decker bus.

Once inside, there is nothing but darkness. The worker is totally cut off from the world above. Anything could happen to him - he could pass out from inhaling toxic gas, slip in the slime and lose consciousness, or be carried away in the rush of water and waste. Clearing garbage is back breaking work.

After an hour or so, when the worker comes out of the drain, he is shivering. Yes, it is true - this work requires no special skills. Just a pair of arms and legs and the courage to descend into hell.

We've found that there is a great sense of Indian pride when it comes to the cricket or when India flexes its populous might in spark of world power but it is very difficult to imagine a "clean up India day" such as there is in Australia. A typical scene any hour of the day along the crowded roads may be an old woman and probably her great grandchild sifting through one corner of a mound of rubbish while there is a holy but worthless cow chewing what may be food which is covered in fresh piss from a stray dog. This is all while the traffic crawls buy with the occupants of the air conditioned cars spraying empty water bottles, packets and wrappers from a window which is opened for a spilt second to be rid of the item. This image is a broad generalisation but unfortunately we see it or a form of it everyday.
We can't help ourselves and still separate recyclables from perishables even though there is, unfortunately, no reason to do so.

The head wobble

The head bobble or head wobble refers to a common gesture found in South Asian cultures, most notably in India and Pakistan. This form of non verbal communication is sometimes referred to as "Indian head shake". We refer to it as a little amusing and at times bloody annoying.

The meaning of the bobble is myriad but is usually in response to another individuals request or comment. It usually signifies an acknowledgment of something or a sign of enjoying something immensely (usually accompanied with a wide eyed look). Other meanings it could have include:

• "You're welcome," or "of course"
• "Goodbye"
• "I don't know" or a shrug, Usually accompanied with hands turned up and a shoulder shrug.
• "Ok Ok"
• "I'm giving you the answer I think you want to hear"
• "I hear the words that are coming out of your mouth"
• "I really want the answer to be yes..."

Our main experience with the head wobble is the rickshaw/taxi drivers. We'll say our destination in our best modified English with a splash of Hindi and when we receive the wobble and the snap of the head indicating, "get in" so we do exactly that. The challenge comes when we reach the first corner and the driver turns in the wrong direction, which is quickly followed up from us with.. "you know where we go?" Of course we receive another head wobble and we wait for the next corner to see which way we'll turn... So the head wobble to me means, "I'm giving you the answer I think you want to hear"

It has been said the origins of the head wobble come from watching snake charmers with cobras. Snake charmers play their music largely for dramatic effect, and it is in fact the movement of their head that mesmerizes the snake. When the cobra is not going to strike, it will sway its head from side to side. This body language signifies 'I am of no threat to you', and is a simple gesture to draw someone into your confidence, similar baring one's teeth in a smile.

Thanks Wikipedia..

Bye Bye Fi Fi

We just farewelled our 9th visitor to "Ram Krupa" in downtown Juhu.
Preetika (aka FiFi, aka Paprika) was here for a few weeks on family business and was great/bad influence on the house. We saw Pune (Poona) together and the car we're going to buy (stay tuned) with PP, swam at the JW Marriott pools, had a recovery sunday session at Vie on the beach with Ash after Sharon's birthday, celebrated every bottle of wine, drop of beer, piece of chocolate and vaccum packed olive from Australia which was part of the last few weeks. Shaz celebrated her birthday and there'd be no cake without Preetika making sure of it.
Just to let you know, anyone who is challenged by Preetika at the PS2 music trivia game BUZZ, look out she has a lightning trigger finger and the random knowledge to go with it...
Oh and if you're wondering the pics are from, they're from the time when Shaz and Preetika were extras in a bollywood film.. a serious bollywood film...

See you soon FiFi..

How do I leave comments on a blog?

OK it's not scary and we'd love to receive your comments good, bad, funny sarcastic... whatever..

We have comments enabled on the blog, which is found as a link at the end of each post, like this:

If you click this link, you will go to the comment posting page.
The comment posting page looks like this:

In the upper left corner, there is an option to show or hide the original blog post that the comments relate to. The rest of the left-hand column contains any comments that have already been made.

On the right hand side of the page is the space for you to enter your comment. Beneath that are the identity options. (Some of these may not be available, depending on the blog's settings.)

The options are these:

• Blogger username: Your display name will appear, along with a link to your profile and your photo (if you have one).
• Other: You can enter your name and a link to your website, without having to have a Blogger account.
• Anonymous: No identifying information is displayed. The comment is credited to "Anonymous" without a link. BUT IF YOU LEAVE AN ANON COMMENT PLEASE LEAVE SIGN YOUR NAME SO WE CAN KNOW WHO YOU ARE.
  

We have used the option to have comments open in popup windows. In this case, all the primary features will still be present as above, just arranged a little differently:

New Tunes

Shaz and Preetika were at the JW Marriot a few days ago and were introduced to two Aussie lads havin' a go and makin' some live chilled out tunes for the patrons. They're called Tijuana Cartel from the Gold Coast where they had the Thursday slot at Mybar. The blurb below is from their myspace site www.myspace.com/tijuanacartelband

"SPANISH guitars don't exactly go with funky beats the way fish go with chips, but breaks four-piece Tijuana Cartel is showing the world just how good the combo can sound.

In an era where appropriation is worn almost like a badge of honour, this Gold Coast act buck the trend and continue to expand, experiment and draw influence from an ever-widening circle of world and club sounds.

Vocalist and lead guitarist Paul George's flamenco strings slither over some tastefully broken beats on the bands two albums - a self-titled 2003 debut and the 2005 follow-up Frequent Flyers.

The new record brings splashes of Middle Eastern vocals to the mix, alongside some lilting Moby-esque soundscapes and get-up-and-dance beatfests - a club-friendly selection without a dull moment."

If this is the kind of music you'd like in your collection keep clicking and check a similar effort by the same guys under the name George and O'Sullivan.
www.myspace.com/georgeandosullivan
This one sounds like chilled electronic fantasy with overtones of ancient acoustic sounds.

Influenced by: Kruder and Dorfmeister, Buddah Bar, Oka, Rodrigo and Gabreilla, Groove Armada, Anuska Shankar, Melanie George, Massive attack,Plump Dj's, Chemical Brothers, Tiff, Strunts and Farah, Ravi Shankar, Chrystal Method, Chuck D, The Last Poets,N.W.A, Krafty, Tool, The Greys, Bowser, The Post Moderns, The Pixies, Nitin Sawney,Air, Morcheeba, Tparty

Find out about more of George and O'Sullivans music including "Tijuana Cartel" and "Gitano" at www.nicherecords.com

Which Beer?

Driving through a busy Juhu intersection the other night in a rickshaw I leant forward to instruct the driver to go left in my best Hindi and I was blinded by the new Foster's billboard taking command of the night sky. Foster's is available in most of the restaurants and bars around Mumbai and unfortunately in some of the bars we've been to it's the only beer on offer.
As responsible Australian drinkers we avoid Foster's where ever we can and dive into the local brews. Kingfisher has the lead at present as it has the advantage of the Premium (up to 5%) and Strong (up to 8%) variants.
Local price for a carton of 12 tallies from the local bottle shop is around RS750 or $20 Aussie. Actually this is the haggled price, it normally starts a few hundred rupee higher but becomes cheaper once the fresh, new bank notes shown to the shop keep go back in the pocket..
Beer like everything else that is from a "nice" venue starts to get expensive. A stubbie of Kingfisher is RS150 and it's up from there Fosters RS175, Corona RS250, Peroni RS300.
There is a small piece of theatre performed each time a beer is served. The bar staff will present you with your beer of choice, unopened, like a fine wine. You then have the opportunity to test the chill in the bottle with the back of your hand, once you're satisfied the beer is cold enough a wave of the hand, Royal style, is given and the bottle is ceremoniously opened for your enjoyment.
It's hard to say which beer is the best but on a hot, humid, Bombay day the best beer more often than not, is the cool beer that's in your hand.

The Indian Harley-Davidson?

Enfield Thunderbird....
Yeah not the traditional Bullet but it does the job.
A cracking 350cc leaves the rickshaws for dead..
Beardsly stop laughing....
It's a dry time runner because when the monsoons hit the roads turn to ice and the steel manhole covers will surely add to the excitement.
Mum we're OK, just had the main oil line and a cracked wheel mount replaced.
It's not alot of fun in the Mumbai traffic, lots of stop start 1st to 2nd gear and I've had my foot run over once already. We love it though, it's great to have a little freedom and hope to have many escapes from Mumbai on the beast that is the Thunderbird...

Our Neighbours

Check it out folks, this is the map of our "Ward", the voting hub of Ward 63, stretching 1600 x 850m, is home to over 50,000 registered people, and we're not one of them.
With the change in India's wealth the property market has gone crazy. Every ramshackle house or as they're called here, bungalows, are being pushed over with a smash of a feather and a 6 to 10 story building is being built with 3/4 bed apartments sold for about AUD $850,000. Unfortunately there are strict ownership laws as the rental return is over AUD $7000 per month. Crazy but there is wealth in this country!!
The rich are the best at avoiding tax. Cash is KING here!!
The new middle class brought about but the IT and call centre trade are the new tax class for the government. Finally they have tax base to provide from but at the same time the channels of corruption grow deeper with the booming tax benefit.

bits n pieces

We took the bike for a ride the other day a few miles north to Versova in an attempt to find a ferry to cross a river mouth to a more open area of Mumbai on the coast.. Versova is a beach village which faces the Arabian Sea and is home to a major Mumbai fishing community.
After about 30 minutes in traffic and my brain starting to boil in the helmet as we rode through the village, more like a slum really with make shift huts on the coast road. Now those who remember one of our first blogs last year will remember a series of self portraits from a night out, one of which was "stinky fish face". Now the fishing folk reckon it's a good idea to dry the bombil fish on stilts and on the pavement in preparation for the local meal, Bombay Duck. The stench from this process was horrific and it seemed like the smell was just circulating inside the helmet. I now understood why I was the only one with a helmet, it seemed the risk of head injury was much less that actually being ill in your helmet..
The "fish" in the picture is Bombay duck (Marathi: bombil). Despite it's name it's a lizardfish which is native to the waters between Mumbai and Kutch in the Arabian Sea, and a small number are also found in the Bay of Bengal. The fish is often dried and salted before it is consumed.
Fish Bombil fry (Bombay Duck)
Ingredients:
2 to 3 Bombil Fish
2 tbsp rice flour
1 tbsp rava
3 tbsp oil
Seasoning:
1 tsp red chilly powder
1 tsp turmeric powder
1 tbsp oil Salt to taste
Method: Cut the Bombil fish in to 1 inch long pieces. Take fish pieces and apply turmeric powder, red chilly powder and salt, marinate it for 15 to 20 minutes. Take all flour, mix them and roll these pieces into it and shallow fry them. serve hot.

This pic was the end of an ever narrowing road through the Versova village. The road (about 3m wide with open drainage and sewer trenches) slowly turned into a walking path which was the location of local well where a few of the locals were doing their best to cool down with a fresh bucket of well water.
It was at this point we decided to meander our way out of the village being sure to avoid the fishing village and head back to Juhu.
There aren't many ways to escape the heat here. A cold shower is a warm one as the water from the tap is from the tanks on baking the roof. I was standing in the shade of a tree just yesterday hoping for respite from the midday heat but the reflective heat from the pavement made sure I sweat where I stood. The one good thing was that when I got back on the bike my shirt was cooled by the passing air.

The Sun n Sand is now our refuge from the heat. This quaint little hotel has a pool and we are now members. The chlorine stings and it can be crowded at times but our membership means that we can escape the crowds of Mumbai for an hour and enjoy the Aussie tradition of life by the beach. Alright.. not quite the Aussie tradition but the beach is there as seen in the pic, and the water we swim isn't the local sewerage treatment plant... Remember the guy praying on the beach... oh yeah...


I'm sure we've said it before, within a very small radius, less than a kilometer, in this city the landscape of human existence can change from wealth to extreme poverty and back again. We are so fortunate to be able to live in the madness that is Mumbai which challenges our reality, our compassion all the while educating us and serving daily reminders of what life on this earth is. If you believe in reincarnation , this is an amazing place to see it in action.