Century!

The birthday girl with Ulka

My grandmother Nalini’s expectation that she would live to be a hundred was not quite met. In July 2005, just four years short of her centenary, she decided to pack up and move on to some other part of the universe. But on Saturday 27th June we got to see Manik Lad hit a century at a fabulous lunch organised by her children Girish and Gauri and the rest of the family including Girish’s wife Rekha and their kids, Ahalya and Dnyanesh and their partners.

Arun and Dad with Tipkya

Talk about food. This was one lunch at which I almost passed out with the sheer joy of eating. From the time we arrived to the time we left drinks were flowing and snacks being passed around, whose memory still has me drooling. We finally ended with a whopping lunch rounded off by three desserts one of which was blueberry cheesecake. It was good to catch up with old friends like Jinx and Usha, as well as one of the two surviving feline members of the Lad family - Tipkya - who settled down comfortably for a couple of hours, next to my dad. "It was a fun" as Indians like to put it.

Tipkya

Girish and Arun (Ahalya's husband) put up an excellent slide show on Mrs. Lad's life and how she had got to witness the progress of transport from the bullock cart to the airplane and how these days she can't live without modern amenities. My grandmother also appeared in one of the slides and Girish very accurately described her staple diet - chocolate, ice cream and potato chips which contributed to her health and happiness till her last day.

It left me wishing that more people would turn hundred and decide to celebrate the big day.

Me and Usha

Mum at her party best

Up In The Hills

View from Wonder Point

We had been told that Panchgani in summer, even though it's at an elevation can be hot. That it may not quite be worthwhile making that long trip up into the hills, that it's generally noisy and crowded and so on. But we decided to take a chance a couple of weeks back and Sudha, Jyotsna and I took off anyway.

Uma and Sudha at Wonder Point

After a three hour drive from Bombay to the outskirts of Pune, we got hopelessly lost finding our way to Jyotsna's place where we had decided to meet for brunch before setting off for Panchgani. So J. had to actually pick us up and lead us home. We set off again around a quarter to two and reached the guest house in P'gani by 4 in the evening. It's a sprawling place and though the architect has done a miserable job and with a lot of effort turned what could have been a brilliant place into quite an ugly structure, with a car park in the front where there ought to have been a patio - facing the hills - even he hasn't quite managed to destroy the effects. Each room has a pretty large balcony where one can hang out in the evenings, which we did, before dinner, watching the sun set behind the misty hills.
Lunch at the "Grapevine" in Mahableshwar

The weather was delightfully cool in the evenings and even the days were fine except if you went wandering in the sun of course. We'd drive into Mahableshwar which is 8 or 10 kilometers away after a leisurely breakfast, poke around the market there and have lunch before getting back for a nap.

Jo's liberation
Evenings we drove down to Wonder Point which is a brilliant walk facing a range of hils. A really breathtaking view and ideal for a sunset meditation. On our way back we stopped once more in Pune to drop Jyotsna off and to have lunch. J has a really brilliant place in Pune, which seems like it's been set up for workshops and which she also instantly offered us for our sessions. So one outcome of this trip is that we're going to be holding a workshop in mid July for two days, based on the usual music and meditation.

What's With Your Middle Finger?

Today’s paper carries stacks of photos of individuals sticking up their middle finger at the world. As all of us in Mumbai (or rather India) know, this is not to be construed as an obscene gesture, it is just that people are displaying proof of their being responsible citizens and having voted in the general elections. Unlike in previous elections when the forefinger was marked, this time for some mysterious reason the middle finger has been favoured.

I too have a long dark stripe running down my middle finger which startles me every now and then when I notice it, making me think for a second that my finger has turned into a hairy spider. Mum, Dad and I went off early yesterday morning to do our duty, before the queues began to get long and unmanageable. Mother as usual had to spend the first five minutes explaining to the polling officer that she was who she was because the election ID card has transformed her from Ahalya into Alilaya. Attempts to get the name corrected have led to a lot of standing around in queues and frantic endeavours to persuade the authorities concerned that it’s all a mistake but Alilaya it remains on the card and it looks like Mum better get used to her new name.

We got our fingers inked a little before half past seven. Much to my own distress I ended up voting for a party I disliked, only to help keep out a party I hated. I guess we would have actually wanted very much to vote for the independent candidate from our constituency who was the only one who sent out any kind of leaflet containing her views on change and her agenda. None of the others bothered. Unfortunately our main agenda was to keep the faschists at bay – to do which we had to avoid splitting up the vote of the party opposing them.

As Cho Ramaswamy apparently once said, if you have to choose between voting for a murderer, a rapist and a pickpocket, well you want to vote for the pickpocket. Guess that’s what we ultimately ended up doing.

Further proof of good citizenship:

http://epaper.dnaindia.com/bigwin.aspx?url=EpaperImages\01052009\amithabhskjsjsk-large.jpg&eddate=5/1/2009&pageno=1&edition=9&prntid=91158&bxid=97&pgno=1

Birthday At Marve

Surprise! It was during our short retreat at Marve that Chandran like a magician, produced a birthday cake for us (we were already dying for something sweet and regretting not having remembered to buy anything on the way). Turned out that 8th May was his birthday so after dinner, Sharat took several shots of Chandran trying to cut the cake, which he had managed to buy in Marve itself. The shot is somewhat hazy but I guess we're recognisable.

Other than that it was mostly a peaceful two days. One of the themes which we looked at was freedom and responsibility and how the two are related. Bernd was there too - his second last day before returning to Germany.

The best thing was that it took us under an hour to get to the beach house from Bombay and although our return journey was an hour and a half that didn't seem too bad either. This means we can definitely plan more of such short trips. Though only a day and a half, you do come back refreshed to the city.

What Constitutes A Patriot

Here's a new take on violence. When Anjali Waghmare the lawyer who agreed to take up the case of Kasab (the terrorist involved in the 26/11 attack in Bombay) she was immediately threatened by a gang of Shiv Sena goons. In spite of the jolt which undid Ms. Waghmare's initial confidence, she finally agreed to take up the case. Meanwhile the lawyers of the men who indulged in violence have attempted to excuse their behaviour by explaining that they did what they did out of "love for their country". Question: is patriotism about love or underneath everything, is it really about violence?

Mumbai Fiasco

So if you're surprised at the mess that the proposed drainage work on Peddar Road has led to, I'm surprised. After discussing the intricacies of the operation on this major artery for a couple of months, all under wraps - it was hardly a few days before the work was due to begin that we even got to know about it! - the Municipality got cold feet. Barely one day into the project the BMC, due to "unexpected chaos on the streets" caused by the part of the road being blocked (Oh yeah? Unexpected?) decided to stop digging and to continue only in May when the schools are on vacation. Actually school vacs begin mid April so the reason for postponing the drainage work to May, as suggested by today's DNA, appears to be something which is not being spelled out - Lok Sabha elections, which are round the corner. We don't want the public to be inconvenienced.

The fact that the eyes, the ears, the hands, the different organs of this body are not on speaking terms with each other and that the decision was taken in a totally ill coordinated manner, only shows up the reality of Bombay. Errr sorry, Moombai. It shows up the fact that chaos is not only expected once the work gets going but that it is
a mild way of describing what we will have to face here in Bom .... errrr Mooombai for who knows how long.

The problem is there are more cars in Moombai than there is place for them to drive. As the over abundance of vehicles shows there are more people living in the city than the city can really provide for. Those people are here because the jobs are all here and damn all is being done to develop areas besides Bombay and major cities which will encourage people to stay and work where they are rather than to migrate to the shit-holes they eventually end up living in, in the city.

Right. And now it's soon going to be time to get your forefinger dotted with a tiny spot of purple ink very soon. Which moron are you going to pick on, to boost our national and civic pride?

Roasted Aborigines Anyone?

Interesting Menus in Goa

I clean forgot that I too had some pics of our visit to Goa, on my camera! Here they are. Please note the menu above, from the restaurant called "Agonda Paradise". This too is right on the beach, and they offer some pretty interesting dishes which I would recommend, such as "Melazane Arrosta" which among other things, is made of roasted aborigines. Mum and I ordered a plate and it was good. Now you can call us cannibals.

Our sit out at Chattai

View from our hut at Chattai
The place which serves roasted aborigines