Mumbai, hold your breath
Private swimming pools with DB homes

Spotted this hoarding at one of the busy traffic junction of South Mumbai. Seriously, can our city really afford to have private swimming pools? Isn’t the recent spate of water cuts a wake up call to all of us and that too a RUDE one. considering south mumbai has so far been the least affected by water cuts. Yet, our building suffered an uplanned/unannounced water cut for more than 48 hours.

At a time when most hotels, gymkhanas and clubs are being asked to reduce water usage in their pools and gymnasiums I don’t know how and where are we going to bring in those million litres of water to fill up these “private swimming pools”.

God can bless us and solve our problems, but I think this one needs to be solved by us. Let’s do our bit to conserve and use this natural resource responsibly.

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The weekend witnessed The Wall Project. The aim was to get the local artists and enthusiastic citizens to paint a stretch of wall between Mahim and Matunga (a wall running parallel to the railway line).

I share a few pics from the walk around the wall. This is the official Facebook group and here is the official website.

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The pace was manic at the Mumbai Photo Marathon in April 2007. Advertising executive Kapil Bhatia and his friend Nirav Mehta decided that the city needed a photo-walk on the lines of those held in Germany and the US. Twenty-five photographers made their way from Juhu to Dadar’s flower market, Siddhivinayak Temple, Haji Ali, Fountain and Kala Ghoda before winding up at the Gateway of India, taking pictures along the way. “We started off with a big blooper,” Bhatia recalled. “We decided to shoot sunrise at Juhu Beach, but once we reached Vile Parle we were like, ‘Where the fuck is the sun?’ Nobody figured that it doesn’t rise in the west.” The rest of the trip passed without more embarrassment, prompting Bhatia and Mehta plan to host another marathon after this year’s monsoon.

Click here to read full article

And while you are at Time Out, you must check out their cover story on Breakfast in Mumbai. There is an exhaustive list of all the places you can enjoy the first meal of the day. Only problem – got to be up early on Sundays to be able to experience them.

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These were some of the slogans one could hear amidst the crowds which had gathered at Colaba to participate in the Peace March to pay respect to all those who had lost their lives in the recent Mumbai Terror Attacks.

This was also an opportunity to vent their anger, frustration and even a certain sadness that nothing could be done to make our Mumbai city a protected one – after all the terror attacks experienced and the city being on a security alert after numerous threats. People wanted to blame the government for it’s failure. People wanted to express their anger against Pakistan (the terrorists responsible for the act are believed to be Pakistan nationals).

Peace March at Gateway of India was just one of the Mumbaikar initiated programs (Twitter Meetup, Human Solidarity Chain) to express their feelings and make their voices heard. But when I heard the slogans I wondered how many knew what exactly was the battle against?

1. Although the terrorist were Pakistani nationals do we want to believe Pakistan as a state is responsible for the attack? Does the common man in Pakistan also blame India for all terror attacks in their country?
2. We shouted that politicians are chor, they have failed us? Can we find a better set of people to govern the state? Will the new cabinet appointed for the Maharashtra Government be any good?
3. Will we give the new government a chance and time to prove their worthiness or will we vote them out in the next election even before their acts lead to some action?
4. How many of are willing to participate in governing activities or be spokesperson in front of the government officials when they ask us about our problems?
5. Enough is enough – Well said. We all want change – Again well said. But how many of us know what changes will be required to make the city safer? Let’s understand this is not about securing your 1000 sq. ft apartment or adding more watchmen at the gate to keep your society building protected. This is MUCH MORE.

As an alert and active citizen I say we should all take it up on ourselves to do our bit to maintain vigilance and help the authorities (and even push if necessary) to make the city safer. Let’s ensure that we report unclaimed items, suspicious strangers/activity in our vicinity.

Leaving you with some shots from the evening at Gateway of India.

See more photos from the peace march at flickr.

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Mumbai Mirror – Terrorists partied before mayhem near Leopold, News – City,Mumbai Mirror
Remorseful with absolutely no soul – the terrorist actually had the nerve to do that. And in a separate incident they shot down the ward boy of the hospital who served them water.

Rediff iShare: Terrorists speaks
The only channel who got a phone call from the terrorists holed up at Oberoi. No other channel mentioned of any telephonic contact with the terrorists at either of the 3 locations.

Shoddy journalism | ckunte.com
Chetan trashes Senior Editor of NDTV – Barkha Dutt for giving out sensitive location based information of the hostages/guests yet stuck in the hotels. Irresponsible reporting.

Google Ads for Terrorism Spotted on Mumbai Stories
A freak case of a keyword mismatch which advertises educational degree in Terrorism.

And on twitter …

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4.15AM Thursday Morning
I finally hit the bed after watching the news channels for over 6 hours in an attempt to keep up with the latest developments. Every loud explosive noise I heard was immediately being checked on TV to know where and what the attack was. Before I hit the bed, photos uploaded by Vinu on flickr confirmed that the loudest blast we heard was at the BP Petrol Pump, not more than a 500 meters away from our house.

7AM
A phone call by my colleague awakes me. He tells me the tension is not yet over and advises me to stay put and not make an adventurous attempt to reach office. I hang up and quickly switch on the TV only to see through very blurry eyes that the hostage situation is not yet over at Taj, Oberoi or Nariman House (Colaba). There is no end to the trouble which started at about 10PM last night. Early morning phone calls from relatives, friends and office colleagues start coming in to check how the night has been and also advise to STAY put at home.

I don’t expect the newspaper to come in on time thanks to a STOP PRESS that may have been issued after last night’s activities. And with Colaba Causeway under siege by police I doubted if the newspaper vendor will make it. But it does come in and times of india carries a pretty clear photo of the young terrorist at the CST station creating havoc last night.

Meanwhile news reports a curfew around that Colaba and areas around Gateway of India. So there is no scope to venture out and reach office. I send out twitter updates requesting daredevils not to venture out.

10AM
Tired and sleepy I doze off for a few hours.

12 noon
Awakened by yet another phone call from a friend to check the situation around home. I tell him all is peaceful but within 1 hour I hear yet some more noises – either from Oberoi or Taj – only new reports can confirm that. Before I sit for lunch I see some more smoke coming out from the dome of Taj.

It’s 2:30PM  and now over 15 hours since the drama started … and the militants are yet to be knocked down at either of the 3 locations.

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1. The news was shocking. But the loud explosion sounds were scary and reminded me of the afternoon from the Mumbai ’93 blasts.
2. I would say, this terror strike has been the most gruesome. The modus operandi of random firings, grenade attacks and taking foreigners as hostages seem to have created more panic than location based bomb blasts.
3. Something to focus on – this time the terrorists have attached the most posh area of the city and kept their focus on hotels and not market places or railway trains. Keeping in mind the locations they attacked the hotels at a good time – when most people are back in their rooms.
4. Arnab Goswami of Times Now took a good stand of not showing the gruesome visuals of the dead terrorists and also not sharing details of the army/ats plans to attack the oberoi/trident and taj to flush out the terrorist.
5. Encounter Specialist Vijay Salaskar and ATS Chief Hemant Kalaskar, ACP Ashok Kamate, Additional Commissioner Ashok Kamte – We salute you to have given a brave service to the city of Mumbai.
6. Hats off to the TV channel reporters for getting as close to the strike locations braving the cross-firing and grenade attacks and sending in LIVE reports to the viewers.
7. An intensive twitter network helped share news and touch base with loved ones when typically during these times phone lines get jammed right away.
8. In these times of recession when businesses don’t see a great future certain business sectors like hotels & travel are going to be hit further after these terror strikes. I am sure we will hear of cancellations and poor business in the next few weeks.

And lastly, my heartfelt condolences to all those who may have lost a loved one in these attacks. Meanwhile we Mumbaikars, being the toughies we are I am sure will be back at work very soon putting these attacks once again in the history of the many other terror strikes.

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A few lessons from the photo activity I learnt that day:

1. Keep your eyes open for the little things happening around you besides the big Ganpati show – people are in various forms and expressions. Try to capture them.
2. Police is a big problem, so try and make friends with the volunteers – which is very tough, I would say.
3. Zoom lens is a must – carry the biggest you can manage in those large crowds.
4. Talk to your subject, there is nothing better than having them look into the camera for some really good mood shots.

See more photos at the flickr set.

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Poison is one of the posh discotheques in Bandra supposedly run by DJ Aqeel. Big enough to park a mini-plane inside this is one of the most spacious night spots I have been to in our cramped up Mumbai city. The music was pretty ok with Tuesday being a Bollyfunk night special. All in all a good evening but certain aspects of the place disappointed me.

• No double entry, which means if you walk in once they don’t let you get out and re-enter the place again. Sounded strange for a social night spot.
• They don’t serve plain drinking water. Should it not be mandatory for any eat/drink establishment to serve free potable drinking water.
• No photography – and this really matter a lot to me.  I respect the fact that they like to protect the identity of their guests from mischievous souls who may take the “wrong shots”, but that results in a loss to capture some lovely moments you spend their with your loved ones.

Maybe it was these standards which made the club a “have to be seen location” for some souls but for me I thought the rules made the place absolutely unfriendly.

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Image is from an email forward.

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