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It’s a city of small living spaces, short jobs, short relationships, short stints of fame, short attention spans, short skirts and short-cuts to everything! Ironically, only the dreams and the distances are neither small nor short!
Isn’t 55-fiction the perfect form for writing about Mumbai then – short on words, but not on ideas and irony?
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He took a turn onto Annie Beasant Road and yellow lights blinked at him, winked at him – traffic-lights playing truant like children unwillingly waking up for school!
Policemen lined both sides of the road from Worli to Wilson College, twenty feet apart, like an army of ants.
Just how many policemen are there in Mumbai?
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Other entries in the series: #1
Exactly what is the buzz in bollywood currently ??? Is it the high profile visit of Brad & Angelina Jolie or the scenes with the castings of Ram Gopal Varma’s Sholay .That reminds me did any of u guys check out the new look of Amitabh playing Gabbar ??? Ramu has done a lot of detailing on Big B’s look and must admit that it is a pretty neat work done there… Kudoos to Ramu !! Check out this aricle for more fun info on the movie Sholay then and Sholay to be Read here
• Gabbar Singh
Say Gabbar and the only name that comes to mind is Amjad Khan. Casting against type Ramu may have signed on Amitabh Bachchan for one of the most memorable characters in Indian film history , but the Big B has very large shoes to fill.
DID YOU KNOW: That Danny Dengzogpa was the first choice for the original Gabbar but declined.
• JAI
Ramu sure has a sense of humour.
Why else would he be casting Mohit Ahlawat as Jai?
DID YOU KNOW: Shatrughan Sinha was initially slated to play the role. Amitabh Bachchan was almost killed at the end of the movie when a stray bullet from Dharmendra (Veeru) missed him by inches.
(more…)
Yikes !!
I hope and pray the above rendering is not even remotely close to what will be built.
Read more here
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Mahim at midnight is a blinding intersection of car headlights and streetlamps.
In the bedlam of car horns, I hear him before I see him – a lone man of indeterminate age hammering away at plywood in a tiny first floor room with three walls, above a tiny shop.
Mumbai is a city of insomniacs!
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In the historic backstreets of Flora fountain, where the meandering street meets pale old mildew covered buildings you’ll find Yazdani Bakery & Restaurant. The aroma of freshly baked bread fills the street and its hard not to tip your head slowly backwards and follow the smell till you seat yourself on a creaky Irani chair by a spotlessly clean yet chai stained marble top table in the single storied bakery. I predict you will then raise your hand and unconsciously order a chai and probably a rich and varied composition of the following things: a well buttered bun maska or some bread pudding or a golden sponge cake or some “fiery ginger biscuits” or some Oat & Raisin cookies all baked in a wood fired oven I might add. I ordered the apple pie and followed that up with some bun maska and lots of chai. Yazdani is probably the oldest Irani bakery in Bombay and its claim to fame is the delectability of its selection of breads and Pavs. Made from an age old Irani recipe, their kadak pavs live up to their fame; their velvety interiors are soft with a hard crusty armor. Baked in fluted molds, they have the look of small, beautifully formed sandcastles.
According to Upper Crust,
BBC TV once did a story on Yazdani Bakery and interviewed Zend. ‘Why is your bread so good,’ the TV reporter asked the baker. ‘Because it has fewer chemicals, preservatives and softeners,’ he replied, ‘and it only contains apart from God-given salt, water and yeast, the Irani baker’s blood, toil, tears and sweat!’ The TV reporter, a woman, made a face. Yazdani is a Bombay institution not to be missed.
Here is their address if you need to pay them a visit
Zyros Zend/ P.M Irani
11/11-A, Cawasji Patel Street, Fort, Mumbai – 400 001. INDIA.
Tel. 2287 0739
They have a sense of humour too which is made obvious by their various signs and especially their tagline – “Your Daily Bread”
OK, as much as this sounds oxymoronish; who is your favorite politician.
Yes we all hate every single politician. Most are corrupt and the few who are not get dragged down by the overwhelming majority.
However even amongst the lowest of the low, there are some politicians who are better than others.
If we can look beyond the corruption, nepotism, inefficiency, theatrics, drama and general “politicky” that comes with the territory, we can actually say that some politicians are better than others.
Some have their heavy handedness in getting things done. Dosen’t matter what their tactics.
So my question is….who is your favorite politician. Before you nominate your choice, keep in mind…
1) The politician has to be connected to Bombay in some manner. So don’t select some obscure Animal Husbandry Minister from Bihar.
2) Dead nominees are not counted.
3) You have to give one reason why you like them.
For me, my favorite politician is Sharad Pawar. He ruled with a heavy hand and was a typical Maratha from the Sugar Belt. However he was a power player and got a lot of things done in Bombay. Sadly, all the chief ministers after him lack his charisma and his drive in getting his way through.
Comments are open. Speak Up Mumbai
Yesterday the PM suggested a few thing he and his government will do to make Mumbai the global city it should have been eons ago.
Amongst them are the regular infrastructure development, flood water control schemes, et al…
Sending a fresh flow of adrenaline coursing through Mumbai’s veins and boosting its campaign to turn itself into a city of global standards, Prime Minister Manmohan Singh on Thursday said the city needed “the best urban infrastructure India can afford”.
launching the ambitious Rs 11,446 crore Mumbai-Delhi Dedicated Freight Corridor (DFC) project at the railway ground in Parel, Singh said Mumbai needed many more such projects to maintain its position as the economic capital of the country.
Read more of it here.
Now I don’t doubt the intentions of PM Singh. There have been and are bigger crooks leading our country who have said similar things. Hopefully our man will stick to his words.
However…..what are your suggestions as an living, breathing and enduring Mumbaiker ??
Let the comments flow.
Being in the business of an internet startup in Mumbai, I’ve done my fair share of research on demographic and statistical information having anything and everything to do with the Internet in India (one thing you’ll learn fast is the believe nothing you read – I don’t care if it’s IAMAI or a PWC report!). One of the more staggering statistics I came accross was the male/female skew in Internet usage in Mumbai – 85/15! Yes, you heard me right – 85% male, 15% female (aren’t we leaving out the Eunuchs?). I find this very hard to believe, but even if we apply a fudge factor of +/- 10%, that’s still a 75%/25% split. I’m wondering if my Mumbai brethren have an inkling of an intelligent response as to why this might be so. From what I’ve seen accross town, there seems to be a very healthy group of young, working professional women; women who surely must have internet access from the workplace. So why the lopsided skew?
Guy Kawasaki, a famous entrepreneur and blogger notes a few points of observation during his trip to Mumbai.
Computer connectivity is very good. Furthermore, I was amazed that my Verizon phone worked without a hitch. EVDO did not work, but it was only because of the lack of a roaming agreement.
The food was fabulous. For example, I’ve had many a set-up day, pre-show, backstage meal, but nothing as good as what was at IBM’s conference the day before it opened. There was even a curry chef who would make curry to spec.
I loved Indian pricing strategy: for example, 10 rupees for residents and 300 rupees for tourists at the Chhatrapati Shivaji Museum.
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