Showing posts with label Must See in Mumbai. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Must See in Mumbai. Show all posts
WhereCity.com - Articles - Nipponzan Myohoji Temple
Chai & Bun Maska in Old Bombay
Kala
Ghoda has been the cultural and literary epicentre of Mumbai since time
immemorial. The presence of the Jehangir Art Gallery, David Sassoon Library,
National Gallery of Modern Art, Elphinstone College, Max Mueller Bhavan and the
historic Regal Cinema ensured that Kala Ghoda ceaselessly buzzed with
intellectual repartees. It also ushered in the birth of cafés which blossomed
in and around the periphery of Kala Ghoda and the Flora Fountain. These were
the shelters of choice for poets, writers, philosophers and even freedom
fighters. Bubbling with debates and solutions to life’s dilemmas, these cafés were
also zones for recreation, where brilliant ideas were born over a cup of masala
chai or bun maska or even some delicious kheema pav. Customers who would spend
hours together without continually ordering would be seen instead as patrons.
• Wayside
Inn: As luck would have it, the Wayside Inn was
located exactly at the centre of Kala Ghoda. This ensured its patronage by
eminent figures including Dr. Ambedkar, J.R.D. Tata and even Mohammad Ali
Jinnah. From the more recent times, Poet Arun Kolatkar and actor Amol Palekar
could be seen sipping and dunking here. Today the Wayside Inn has
reinvented itself to keep up with the times and is now called Silk
Route and specialises in Southeast Asian Food. What remains is a tiny
stall selling little munchies like rolls, pattices and cold drinks.
• Café
Britannia: Established in 1923, Britannia was
frequented by authors, activists, scholars and ambassadors like Nani
Palkhivala, Minoo Masani and Pramila Dandavate. However it was the berry pulao,
made from specially ordered Iranian berries that drew the rich and poor, the
famous and infamous to Café Britannia. Running
strong today, the café has still managed to preserve its taste and its dignity.
Mumbai Birds: The Crow
The baby crow sat in my hand and clutched onto to me. His disproportionate huge head to his little body did not take away his defense mechanism of opening his big beak every time I petted him on the head. After a while, he got used to me and sat quietly in the taxi for the ride from Mani Bhavan at Gamdevi to Fort. I was attending one of the hundreds of calls in the year that the WSD (Welfare of Stray Dogs) receives to rescue city-birds… mostly crows, pigeons, cuckoos, owls and kites; sometimes parrots, sparrows, egrets and herons. I am not a bird-enthusiast and cannot distinguish a heron from a magpie… but yes, I love our everyday city birds.
The Indian House Crows are a subject unto themselves. You will see them all over Mumbai - cawing away, sitting coolly atop BEST buses, following garbage trucks and riding on top of fisher-folk’s baskets. Look around, especially before the rains and you will see them toiling away – gathering twigs, wires and anything they can get their hands or beaks on, to build their nests on trees amidst the traffic and busy streets.
Farmers Markets - Mumbai
Organic farmers’ market every Sunday
It’s a first for the city, and probably the nation. Mumbai’s gets its very own farmers market, where urban somethings will finally meet the real sons of the soil.
If you are what you eat, as they say, Mumbai’s denizens are a toxic lot! Processed, refined foods laced with pesticides dive into our systems, via lifestyles that have no time for real food! (For instance, endosulfan, a carcinogenic insecticide has been banned in over 60 countries, but is widely used in India).
Farmers markets narrow the gap between a city’s food stock and the farms where they were cultivated. They promote local, fresh produce, eliminate the middlemen and grant higher profits to the grower. Food miles are reduced, since your kanda-batata doesn’t have to globe-trot to reach your table.
Eco-nutritionist Kavita Mukhi pioneered the organic food movement in Mumbai two decades ago, and is bringing the farmers to the big city. 30 farmers from Northern Maharashtra, whose produce is organically certified by French company Ecocert, are contributing to the market. City-birds are free to chirp with the kisaans and learn about life on an organic farm. The farmers have been asked to carry as much perishable produce as possible like fruits and vegetables, since organic grains and spices are already available in (select) health food stores and bazaars in the city.
Bombay Port Trust Gardens (BPT) Colaba, Mumbai
I engaged in a bit of ambling today.. at my favourite 12 acre garden by the sea.. I contemplated stretching, some yoga poses, sitting down with eyes closed and feeling the whiplash of breeze – winter's last pangs.. but the body was going into ambling mode.. and i don't like to stop the body.. because it is the vehicle to my soul.
I had just messaged a friend, indicating i wanted to walk on wet earth, barefoot. i crossed the first grass mound (those who know the BPT garden at Colaba will know what i'm talking about) and hit the second.. to crash into a rather long hose pipe, the length of a reticulated python.. I gingerly walked along the length of the python to get my feet as wet as could be.. perhaps the earth was not as porous today, or perhaps the mud was soaked to the point of overflow.. little wading pools had formed across the grass and even tiny rivulets of water.. so i followed the course, blithely....
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What's for Tea?
Everyday, we would rush back home from school. With our opening words being,
“What’s for tea?”
Watercress sandwiches and crumpets? Pâté de foie gras or apple strudel? Ha!
Puri bhaji! Which went down different ways. You could roll the bhaji in the puri. You could sandwich it between two puris. You could take a bite of puri followed by a spoonful of bhaji. But you ate it fast. Too fast for the Mother’s puri-frying to keep pace with. Cutting the puris out with an upturned ‘vattee’ was as much fun as trying to fry the strips of dough left behind. On days when the Mother was stretched, it was Marie biscuits for tea. Ten each. Counted out from a big steel box. With a glass of milk.
If you haven’t dipped a Marie biscuit into a glass of hot milk and then pulled it out soggy, you haven’t lived. It’s an art form. To dip the biscuit. But for how long? Too short a time and you might as well have not dipped it at all. Too long and the biscuit fell away. Gravity claiming its share, which you could only slurp when the glass was empty. With a lot of practice, you could raise the ante. Two biscuits at a time. And if you managed three, that qualified for a doctorate...
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Bandstand Revival Mumbai
Rhythm revival at city bandstands
The Bombay Chamber of Commerce and Industry has taken the initiative to revive the unique bandstand culture which was prevalent during the British era. The regimental tunes of the Bombay Police Band and Army Band were a hit with the masses...Kavita Sharma, Joint Director, BCCI; Indiatourism; Stuart D’Costa from the Mumbai-based jazz-rock band Something Relevant and event organizers Bombay Elektrik Project have joined forces...played every Saturday, 5.30 pm onwards. So far, six bands have performed since the first Saturday on the 6th of Feb. The event is programmed to be 17 Saturdays long and May 29 and 30 will see....
To read the rest of the article:
http://www.wherecity.com/articles/rhythm-revival-at-city-bandstands-37.html
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