The Flickering tube ..

testing the mail blog option .. think this is a kewl way to update blogs

posted by Blizzard of Oz @ 5:03:00 PM

Mel Gibsons Passion in Mumbai....

I had just finished my class .. was wondering what to do .. came down to Dadar and boarded a fast local to churchgate .. the locals going to churchgate are empty on sundays .. The breeze was blowing in the compartment .. cool breeze.. there was a woman sitting at one end .. I was going through a copy of the "free Press Journal" and wondering how this little daily woulf combat the heavyweights like times of india and the indian express..

In the movies section , i noticed "the passion of christ" REGAL -7:30 show .. well .. there was nothing much to do .. so i got off churchgate and walked on the damp south mumbai roads towards 'regal' .. as i approached the museum of modern art i could see the long queue outside the current booking counter.. first sign of general enthusiasm towards the movie .. but as i entered , most of the people were middle aged .. (well obvously! u wouldnt take ur girl to that movie!) ..

after a looong wait , i finally got a ticket (stands 15) my fav seat ;) .. i was
quite surprised to know that the movie was in an ancient language!.. being screened in the land of Bollywood .. ( where people have a problem catching fast english! :)) ) but the subtitles helped .. and ofcourse the picturisation was classic. But since the story is based on a hitorical fact, i doubt how authentic Mel Gibsons version is ! anyways the movie did have a strong effect .. and once again reinforced my beliefs that god doesnot live in shrines.. but in our hearts ..
~

posted by Blizzard of Oz @ 5:23:00 PM 0 comments

The metro bubble - aushwitz mumbai

Well .. if u are in mumbai , andif u utilize local trains to travel daily, u know what i am going to write about ..
the local trains of mumbai are certainly some of the unique modes of transport in the world.
You can swing on , hang on , climb on and even ride on ! these lumbering electric giants ..

Its 9:00 in the morning.. Goregao station .. the old overhead speakers crackle .. "thomas Edison" style to announce arrivals on the various platforms .. the announcer seems to have a hedache as she monotonously reads out the details. people are rushing towards the platform to catch the train towards church gate .. an old indicator powered by an 8 segment bulb (!!) display "sir humphery Davy" style :)) is flickering .. and invaryably wrong time of arrival ..

I hurry towards the over bridge.. catching glimpses of the ocassionaly sweet females climbing down ;) and observing people ..
as the train nears there is an incredible exodus and then a flow of humans into the compartments .. inside its "lucifers domain" if u are a second class ticket holder then its what lucifer fears :))
Andheri and DADAR are the most congested of all stations .. 2.2 MILLION people travel DAILY through the mumbai suburban rail network (!@#$%) can u imagine that ? .. well its not so surprising if you have ever gone towards borivli at 6:30 pm in second class :))

The ricshaws are on the better side though.. (comparatively) .. they follow a common meter (some are tampered .. but thats ok) and the fare for an average distance would be Rs 15 (about $0.25) ... during peak hours . you have to be very attentive to catch a rick .. they move like they are placed on a converyer belt ( and the belt controller is heavily drunk :))

posted by Blizzard of Oz @ 4:57:00 PM 0 comments

The metro bubble - food tales

Any one new to mumbai will immediately notice the ever expanding divide .. Its strange . the Taj and The JW mariott and likes exist along with the small time dhabas and kabab corners .. that reminds me of the kababs that i had during my first few days in mumbai .. woah .. they spawned hell inside my stomach ! :) they are far too unhealthy ..
Ive setteled down to god ol Malvani food now .. its a lot like home food ( GOA ) and its a lot more healthy . .. Mumbai is a lot more (?) health concious then Delhi i guess .. during my last visit to delhi .. i had been to a couple of popular dhabas .. the food was swimming in OIL . no wonder the sardar who supplied us some hardware for our exhibition for Linux Asia weighed 110 Kg .

Other exploits with Mumbai food were with local fast food eaties .. Dabeli is one of them .. mashed potatoes , pomogranate , peanuts (!) and other spices stuffed in a bread ( Paw) and lightly fried in butter .. tastes ok .

WADA paw is certainly the most eaten snack around here .. Its very oily ( since its deep fried) and is usually served with green chutney and red (sweet) chutney .. also with a fried chilly (!) .. ya i had a lot of them but i have stopped having those oil rich snacks now :)

fish is not as abundant as in GOA .. u get reasonably ok fish out here .. but GOA 'z the fish eaters paradize :)

in all .. mumbai is quite OK interms of food .. but one problem here is the level of hygine especially in the cheaper restaurants .. its been 8 months now .. and i'm still alive :)) so i guess i can survive in "amchi mumbai" for some more time ..

posted by Blizzard of Oz @ 2:55:00 PM 0 comments

Keeping a log of events and occurences has always been an interesting thing to do . I have two diarieshttp full of events since december 1995 ! . This first post in the blog marks another attempt , this time using the web :)

posted by Blizzard of Oz @ 2:26:00 PM