Massage anyone....

Here in the Mumbai Madness we love a massage to relax, ease away some of the madness and bring in the Bombay Bliss. So here's a few pics to click if you'd like to give yourself or a lucky person a massage. The pics show what part of your body you may effect and what you may receive from said massage...

Feets

Not Feets.

Other bits, also not feets.

Raksha Bandhan Celebration

Today is a special day in the Hindu calendar, celebrating Raksha Bandhan,
This ritual is observed on the full moon day of the Hindu month of Shravan and is the day to celebrate the relationship of a brother and sister which is said to be one of the deepest and noblest of human emotions.

'Raksha Bandhan' or 'Rakhi' is a special occasion to celebrate this emotional bonding by tying a holy thread around the wrist. Sisters tie the sacred Rakhi string on their brothers' right wrists, and pray for their long life. This thread, is ideally made of silk with gold and silver threads, beautifully crafted embroidered sequins, and studded with semi precious stones. The Rakhi string resonates with sisterly love and sublime sentiments and have the meaning of 'a bond of protection', and Raksha Bandhan signifies that the strong must protect the weak from all that’s evil.

According to the Hindus, this is how the day is marked, ‘As per the traditions, the sister on this day prepares the pooja thali with diya, roli, chawal and rakhis. She worships the deities, ties Rakhi to the brother(s) and wishes for their well being. The brother in turn acknowledges the love with a promise to be by the sisters’ side through the thick and thin and gives her a token gift.’

The Social Binding
This ritual not only strengthens the bond of love between brothers and sisters, but also transcends the confines of the family. When a Rakhi is tied on the wrists of close friends and neighbours, it underscores the need for a harmonious social life, where every individual co-exist peacefully as brothers and sisters. All members of the community commit to protect each other and the society.

Holy Cow

Around the northern suburbs of Mumbai we often see the beloved holy cows of India. I was walking back from the shop the other day and passed two just walking up the street, some sit on the street outside the house and moo to each other, some younger cows are painted up, pulling religious carts with minders asking/guilting all to give a donation. The cows can hold up traffic if they feel like it, I've nearly hit one on the Enfield when I was overtaking a rickshaw on an arterial road and to my surprise a cow had decided to take a rest on the pavement against the median...
We've heard stories that the cows wandering the city areas eat from the garbage sites often suffer a slow death from eating plastic bags.. We've seen it in action at the garbage sites. Household organic and inorganic waste is deposited on the pavement in the village for all the crows, stray dogs, cats and cows to consume. It may sit for a few days before the local BMC or council workers collect it by hand..
Not much of a life for many of the animals least of all the Holy Cow.. or for the council workers for that matter..

Click on the pic to read the news article, but in short, 30kg of plastic was found in the cow once it had received treatment..

Juhu Sports Bar...

It's time for an update.. a sports update..

Thanks to old mate Jason at the JW Marriott, we've been able to gain a bit of sanity and expand our sport viewing from the 4 channels of Cricket available on the local cable networks. With the finals of the codes at the end of September and the Rugby World Cup up soon Jason has reached Eddie McGuire status and set up the Australia Network at the Marriott, dish and all..


The Juhu Old Boys Association is taking memberships late in the season, meeting in the Marriott Club Lounge overlooking Juhu Beach for the back to back Sunday games of the AFL and NRL. The games start at 10am and the bar doesn't actually open until 12pm... bliss!

The newsflash from the Sports Lounge of the Australia TV Network arrives in my email each week to give us the games of the coming weekend, the email quickly goes around the troops with the current Sportsbet odds linked in and away we go...

Last weekend we had ambitions of going for a kick of the footy on the beach after the games.. This wasn't to be, as the tide was in, and in monsoon there's not much beach left at high tide so Jason, Darren, Ash and myself grabbed the QLD Reds ball for a bit of passing in the bar. This wasn't enough for the lads, so we moved out to the bar foyer and started Wally Lewis passes, drop kicks, grubbers and the odd AFL handball for Darren the Adelaide Crows boy.. Ash did a great job of saving one of the light fittings when the passing got a little wild. The space really wasn't big enough, gave the staff a bit of a laugh though and gave us a hard earned thirst..

We won't be around to watch the games this weekend but we've got big plans for the Grand Final weekend.

The Girls have put in a great showing too.. Shaz, Megan and Aliyfia have put in big efforts with Megan screaming at the idiot box like she was at the game.. Great work! Great atmosphere!

oh and there's always gotta be one in the crowd... Sharma the camera loves you..