The Mumbai Festival just seems to be getting bigger and bigger. This year, for the first time the Mumbai Theatre Utsav will take place, which will feature well-liked theatre actors and personalities and include 40 plays, 10 street performances and seven traditional folk shows.

Between January 13 and 19 and again from January 23 to 27, the two-week festival promises to be full of surprises.

The Utsav will feature highly praised plays like Rangeelo, Kabir, Lali Lila, Taj Mahal Ka Tender, Black With Equal and Zulva besides holding workshops with Atul Tiwari, Alyque Padamsee, Salim Arif, Javed Siddique, Mahesh Dattani, Pradeep Mule and Shafaat Khan.

Planning to display the best of Mumbai’s theatre, the event will be a gathering point for artistes, theatre practitioners, musicians, poets and academicians among others. Eminent personalities like Nadira Babbar, Quasar Padamsee, Vikram Kapadia and Ashwin Gidwani are also associated with the Utsav.

Mumbai Theatre Utsav will showcase some of the most exceptional talents as well as provide a platform to newcomers. Supported by corporates and well-known brands, this festival is definitely something to watch out for. It will be held at the P L Deshpande Maharashtra Kala Academy (Ravindra Natya Mandir) at Prabhadevi.

More on the Theatre Utsav, here

Keep checkin, yours truely has something really special instore regarding the Theatre Utsav.

Statistics made available by the World Bank recently, won’t sound all that alarming to most Mumbaikars but will surely raise an eyebrow of many living outside Mumbai city. But what can one do or say…afterall “Yeh Hai Mumbai, Meri Jaan”.

Here is a look at some Mumbai stats and facts.

1. Almost 54 per cent of Mumbaikars live in slums today.

2. Another 25 to 30 per cent live in chawls and footpaths.

3. Remaining 10 to 15 per cent, live in buildings, bungalows or high-rises.

Future of the city…

Sources say that factors like the halt to the slum demolition scheme, the unhindered migration into the city, antiquated housing laws and sky-rocketing real estate prices, will see slums overtake the Mumbai skyline, in another 20 years.

From being known as slum capital of the country, Mumbai is now all set to become the slum capital of the world.

(more…)

Just a day after the Mumbai Festival starts, is the Standard Chartered Mumbai International Marathon. This is the third time of what has become an annual event.

Around 27,000 people are taking part, including many international runners

The Mumbai Festival “comes to town” this weekend. Starting on Januay 14th, it will continue for an action packed 13 days. The activities are planned around some of the famous tourist destinations. The Gateway of India schedule is here.

A lot of other events are planned as part of this large event. Rediff reports that

As part of the Mumbai Festival 2006, Mumbai Shopping Festival, a retail event, is set to bring the concept of ‘Night Bazaar’ to the city with more than 17,000 retail outlets across the city to remain open till 3 am.

It provides a big opportunity to Mumbaikars who cannot go for shopping during the busy day schedule. In its second year, the 13-day mega festival will start on January 14.

Mumbai metblogs will try to cover and bring out the flavour of this festival, though any festival has to be experienced in physical presence. But anyways, watch out this space in the days to come.

Over the past few days in Bombay I have noticed a very annoying and sometimes astonishing trait of the pedestrian.

No one here walks on the pavement or sidewalk, whatever suits your fancy. Now before you jump on me, let me clarify. The pavement exists for about 50% of the time it should. The other 50% is usually dug up, encroached, or plain non-existant.

But there are big stretches where pavements exist but no one walks on them. People dont mind challenging their fate and destiny and walking on the road, competing for space with cars, bikes and buses zooming by. Twice I stopped and gave the pedestrian a piece of my mind about how they were endangering their lives and mine by walking on the rooad, but all i got was a look that said “which planet u from, pal !! ”

Comparing this to my other resident city, New York, where most people walk on the sidewalk, this is a big difference.

And frankly if the pedestrian and the cars want to share the same space, then i would suggest that the pavement be eliminated all together. That way Bomby could become the first “Pavement-Free” City in the world.

Venice has no cars, Bombay should have no pavements. What say ?

Even though the Island City of Mumbai has been inhabited since the stone age it is not always been the sprawling metropolis we see today. Pre-1817 Mumbai was seven assorted islands off the coast of western India inhabited by Kohli fisherfolk. Then along came an English civil engineer named Hornby Vellard who decided to merge the islands into a single amalgamated mass, reclaiming over 400 km

Most people are aware that Mumbai city is a very tough place to survive in. You need to be willing to go the extra mile, if you ever want to be successful here.

Here is just another example of that.

On 6th Jan 2006, Manoj Mishra sought to challenge a Guinness record by balancing a football on his head for two hours and 15 minutes. Then, instead of removing the football, he moved around with it on his head for another nine and a half hours. During this time, he ate, drank water, visited the toilet and even performed a set of stretching exercises!

Although Mishra will have to perform his feat again for the Guinness team, he considers his effort record-breaking.

A footballer himself, Mishra said, “The reason I endeavored to break this record is very simple – poverty. The clubs I play football for don’t pay me enough. By breaking this record, I hope to attract some sponsorship so I can play football and make some money.” [LINK]

Just couple of days ago I wrote a post on how easy it is these days for women in Mumbai city to go for a late-night outing at pups or nightclubs without any hassles or worries.

And then this happens….

A South African model of Indian descent, who was aspiring to be a Bollywood star, was allegedly gangraped after being drugged late on December 28 night. In her mid-20s, the model was staying at Hotel Bawa International in suburban Vile Parle. The police said the woman, after a dinner party, went to the hotel pub around 11 pm. Two persons, who had allegedly tried to befriend her, drugged her drink when she went to the toilet leaving it unattended.

The two took the woman in their vehicle and allegedly raped her there. They then took her to another hotel and raped her again. The police said there was prima facie evidence that the woman was raped several times.

This weekend turned out to be pretty interesting for me..why ? well because it has given me the inspiration for my new list. Few days ago, I went clubbing with couple of my friends to a pretty well-known nightspot in the suburbs. The place was packed, when we reached there..thats around 10.30 pm. Now the sad bit is..when most of your friends are couples

What keeps a city of 16 million people going you ask?
The answer is not coffee but copious amounts of Masala Chai. A simmering concoction of freshly made chai is hot, creamy, fragrant with black tea, fresh cardamom, cinnamon, ginger, peppercorns and enough sugar to bring out the spice flavor.

This robust aroma of hot spicy sweetness personifies India and in a sense Bombay as well. Chaiwallahs [chai sellers] line Mumbai’s bustling streets doing brisk business as Mumbaikers [denizens of Mumbai] young and old greedily slurp the beverage in small clear thick rimmed glasses.

[A chai wallah on the Streets of Mumbai, serving hot chai with a signature Bombay smile]