In 2000 i went to Bombay to do my project in Tata Institute. Yesterday i again traveled for my french embassy visa to Mumbai. i was wondering it will be one hell of a trip after being let down by Arun aka Arai. Yes, i was supposed to see Mumbai along with him and landed there when he was traveling to Delhi at the same time (useless fellow!!). Becz of this confusion, i could not change my prior reservation of 9AM sunday flight :-( without arai around, i thought its going to be one dull and solitude visit... i never knew i had many hidden talents which brought in the fun element during this mumbai trip. some of these events listed below,
1. I wanted to visit vadala road, 5 gardens, bsnl colony, brij samosa shop, ram/krishna pani poori shop and amar restaurant (short list of items for one place vadala road). I took a BST bus to andheri and from their took a train to bandra. In Bandra station i asked for ticket to CST in harbor line. the person in counter asked me "aap mahim se change karogae". i said OK without much thinking... when i used to live in vadala road, we always take train to bandra in harbor line and change at matunga rd station. so without giving much of heed to what the ticket issuing person was saying, i landed in matunga railway station only to find out it is no longer the same station and there is no connectivity to harbor line :-( to add to it, i approached a ticket checker, showed him my ticket and asked him where i can take harbor line? Goodness me!! firstly i was in wrong station and on top of it.. i approached lion in its den!! he verified my ticket and told me it is the ticket for harbor line, but i am at wrong station.... Luckily all religion Gods were on my side, when i bought ticket from Andheri, i bought till churchgate with return.. i survived event #1
2. Landed in vadala road...... expecting a delicious lunch @ Amar hotel..... all places (listed above) existed except Amar hotel. If you havent been to vadala road, u will not realize the missing piece. it is a perfect residential locality without any restaurants !! my only hope also vanished!! with so much fire in my belly.. i approached one old man who was a localite and enquired about Hotel Amar.. he told it was closed for longer time.. he explained history behind that hotel location... my only hope also vanished!! with so much fire in my belly.. this time my savior was Lord Ram.. sorry Sri Ram bhel poori shop. there used to be days when this shop opens only in the evening say 3PM and gets closed by 6.30 PM. so much people will buy that this shop will become empty in short time each day. we used to catch early bus in tata institute just to meet Lord Ram (he he). had chat ... the taste had not changed much... again survived event #2
3. walked all the way till Dadar as i used to do.. landed in dadar. took a fast train to church gate and by mistake got down in Mumbai central only to find it was a wrong station.. by the time i realized this, there was 100 people around me......
4. Finally arrived @Hotel Ambassador Guess what.. i ordered lunch and headed towards the bed in the room as i was too tired...
it did not stop here... whole of this trip was marked by headache.. as i type this now, i continue to have headache..
5. woke up at 7.. decided to walk around marine drive from nariman point... Awesome and priceless walk!!!
6. decided to have Pizza @ dominos. was searching for an outlet in the neighborhood.. walked for more than an hour only to find a dominos service guy in his bike... ran and caught him and asked him for the address. he told me shiv sagar and he ran away... i did not know where shiv sagar was located... again was determined to have pizza that night... finally got to know about its existance in colloba which was 3 KMs away from church gate... u know what i would have done... walked all the way....... for FOOD
7. as i came out of dominos, i came to a bus stop... there came a beautiful lady asking if i wanted to go to church gate with her...... My god!!! if she was what i think about her (dont know, i must confess, but could not resist this doubt in my mind in a area like collba around 11PM). i told her i am not going to colloba (a lie). she even arranged a shared cab for me with one more guy sharing the same... i resisted... the cab driver was not leaving me!! i do not know why i boarded the car (may be it was getting late and i did not wait in the bus stand)... it all ended soon as i got down in churchgate... gave my share to her and started to walk straight towards my hotel...... it was different experience.
today in short..
i landed in andheri station... as i came out, i saw bus to sivaji airport... immediately got in.. not realizing that i was heading towards intl airport.
then took an auto to get into domestic terminal 1A gate1. Again KingFisher check in was in gate 2 and after reaching gate 2, i came to know that my flight was in different terminal (1B) .... walked again!! flight was delayed by 2 hours landed in bangalore only to know about cab strike... luckily again i got an auto driver from b.ghatta road itself... he dropped me at my home some 1 hour ago...
it all happened in Mumbai!!
until next
Raghu
Monday, January 21, 2008
Sunday, January 6, 2008
Wednesday, January 2, 2008
The Great Indian Public Toilet!!!
My new year Eve was fantastic. i spent Last Sunday with Partha @ his home in Annan Koil, i also visited the famous Natraja Temple in Chidambaram . For one who has read about this temple in literature, it must be an splendid experience in waiting... You can say the entire city of Chidambaram revolves around the gopurams of this temple.
As i entered on one one of the gopuram, i saw some grill path way at the entrance. Like me, the person before me was inquisitive to know why such a structure in walk way... His friend explained it is to prevent cows not to enter the temple premises... An effort to leave the temple only to well grown/educated humans with an expectation that it will be maintained well. as you walk you pass through a tiny little garden before to reach inner gopuram... and then the praharam inside is really huge. A pleasant place to walk, sit any day evening.... There are more gardens around the outer praharam wall.
But the happiness was short lived until I walked past this little garden in the path way. To protect the garden around the outer praharam, they have built fence on the other side and wrote "Siva Siva" in the fence... All these adds to the grandeur of the temple... Guess what our educated people have done to this inner garden around the wall.. They are simply using it as a toilet. At least i saw two sides and both the stretches is used as a Great Indian public toilet. to add it, some sections of the fence also is used as a dust bin.
Also we saw some 10 - 15 cows inside the temple... i exclaimed to partha "how come they are roaming inside the praharams, despite protection in the entrance"... partha replied .. "may be they entered before the structure was laid and now they cannot go out!!!" I am sure the same scene exists in many such temples in Tamil Nadu......
I read about the huge cry in news papers, magazines, TV programs about demolition of temples in Indonesia and the protests by HINDRAF organization along with other requests for the ethinic Indians... Considering the plight of a temple like Chidambaram or any temple for the matter maintained similarly , we need a greater movement from the people to educate the visitor crowd to respect the place of worship of Gods, little common sense from the visitors for the temple can make big difference. I am sure no other community is causing the place of worship with their own dirt, only the temples in Tamil nadu are more prone to such dis respect.
Do you remember my previous blog topic about the great indian bike rider in bangalore roads. This person is no different from the visitors of the temple who are using this place as toilet. Again it lies in the mindset of people. Together we can make the difference.........
Until next
Raghu
As i entered on one one of the gopuram, i saw some grill path way at the entrance. Like me, the person before me was inquisitive to know why such a structure in walk way... His friend explained it is to prevent cows not to enter the temple premises... An effort to leave the temple only to well grown/educated humans with an expectation that it will be maintained well. as you walk you pass through a tiny little garden before to reach inner gopuram... and then the praharam inside is really huge. A pleasant place to walk, sit any day evening.... There are more gardens around the outer praharam wall.
But the happiness was short lived until I walked past this little garden in the path way. To protect the garden around the outer praharam, they have built fence on the other side and wrote "Siva Siva" in the fence... All these adds to the grandeur of the temple... Guess what our educated people have done to this inner garden around the wall.. They are simply using it as a toilet. At least i saw two sides and both the stretches is used as a Great Indian public toilet. to add it, some sections of the fence also is used as a dust bin.
Also we saw some 10 - 15 cows inside the temple... i exclaimed to partha "how come they are roaming inside the praharams, despite protection in the entrance"... partha replied .. "may be they entered before the structure was laid and now they cannot go out!!!" I am sure the same scene exists in many such temples in Tamil Nadu......
I read about the huge cry in news papers, magazines, TV programs about demolition of temples in Indonesia and the protests by HINDRAF organization along with other requests for the ethinic Indians... Considering the plight of a temple like Chidambaram or any temple for the matter maintained similarly , we need a greater movement from the people to educate the visitor crowd to respect the place of worship of Gods, little common sense from the visitors for the temple can make big difference. I am sure no other community is causing the place of worship with their own dirt, only the temples in Tamil nadu are more prone to such dis respect.
Do you remember my previous blog topic about the great indian bike rider in bangalore roads. This person is no different from the visitors of the temple who are using this place as toilet. Again it lies in the mindset of people. Together we can make the difference.........
Until next
Raghu
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