It's not just on paper

When the denizens of Mumbai venture out of their homes to claim their streets, the Carnival Begins!! :) Sacrificing their Sunday morning sleep, city lovers and sports enthusiasts participate in Times of India’s recent initiative called Equal Streets. The premise of this undertaking is simple- people have as much right to the roads as do vehicles! Last Sunday morning, I participated in the campaign by walking the long stretch between Santcruz (West) to Bandra (West) and back. Accompanied by two uncles, an aunt and my father, I finally joined the bandwagon, I so eagerly wanted to be a part of. The traffic on one side of this ever-so-busy stretch was reserved for people to do literally whatever they liked… Iskcon’s Hare Ramas chanted and artists painted. Yoga co-existed with zumba and folk music with indie-pop; bollywood music was not left far too behind. People were seen walking, jogging, bicycling, tricycling, skating and skateboarding. Infants were escorted in...

It's Ok to be Creative so long as the lines between Creative and Real are not Blurred! But when do you realize how much is too much? One night, while traveling in Mumbai's city bus, I was looking out of the window, absorbing the sights under the moonlit sky.  Even though it was close to midnight, the road was well lit- partly by the street lights and partly by the lights emanating from residential buildings and commercial set ups lining the road. I soon noticed a high rise, sitting on top of which, was the spelling 'Arkade'. This got me thinking about the kind of spellings the next generation will grow up with. Now are the times when cool isn't kool enough and abbreviations like ttyl and brb are the norm. the spill over from Twitter's 140 character limit is felt in real life as well. Every word and every sentence needs to be reduced to its lowest denominator.   Creativity is now seeming to blur the lines between what's considered correct and inc...

India is well known for many of its its popular beaches like Goa’s Calangute or Kerala’s Kovalam beaches. But, just like any Asli Mumbai-chi Mulgi , my favourite beach is Juhu Chowpatty. Juhu Beach is an ultimate weekend attraction for families, couples, friends, tourists, all the same. The Arabian Sea overlooks an assembly of plush hotels on one end and make-shift, crowded food stalls on the other end. This beach meets with a wide variety of visitors every day, starting with morning walkers, joggers, runners and yoga practitioners at dawn, to groups of friends, stuntmen and privacy-seeking couples in the afternoon, to families with children and tourists in the evening. Source: http://i1.trekearth.com/photos/9161/juhu-beach1.jpg   Apart from all the ‘legal’ stores at the rear end of the beach, there are many stray vendors selling local delicacies like Chana Chaat, Bhel and Kulfi . What’s more, one gets greeted by many ‘photographers’ and ‘mehandi designers’ in a s...

In yet another instance of divisive politics, prior to the April 2014 elections, Mr. Subramanian Swamy of BJP party asserted that Indian Muslims who don’t admit their Hindu ancestry must be stripped of their voting rights. Votes of the 14% Indian Muslim population must be divided among different political parties while those of 80% Indian Hindu population must be bagged by the BJP, he added. This, I heard in a video with interview clips of Mr. Swamy on various news channels.   He made many other statements on the issue.   A couple of things that struck me as odd and inexplicable include: 1.        The onus of establishing the ‘Indian’ identity as a Hindu state solely lies with the Muslims among the minority populace. The other minority communities such as Christians, Zoroastrians, Jews, etc. are exempt from such or similar allegiances. 2.        Politics in the name of religion is being pro...