Mumbai:: मुंबई में : मैं और मेरी तन्हाई ...

This city never ceases to surprise you or amaze you at every turn. One second you see the remarkable Bandra-Worli sealink.. and even as you blink and get off, the slums overflowing into the main street. Just as you recovered that, you step on the brakes to avoid hitting a crowd that suddenly gathered on the street to watch a Bollywood movie being shot on the street and surrounded by cast and crew!The food in Mumbai is great, the parties are really there to swing through the night and the history of the beautiful architecture makes your heart grow fonder each time you are in this city.
To confirm that there is such a thing as mind over body, me and my best friend walked over to the Juhu beach food stalls and ate at every one of them.. the bhel, the pani puri, the chaat and etc. And no, we did not fall sick, and it was the best street food in India!

The fashion stores in Mumbai are awesome. With Bollywood ruling the movie industry in the city, the styles from the cinema get doled out to the footpaths of Bandra and the glitzy multi-floor stores at the same time.

Don't look back..

Taking a few steps forward, and slipping back some.. leaves you farther away from where you set out to be. So do yourself a favor, don't look back. In fact, keep sight of the rear view nonetheless, so you can always remember what you did and what you are leaving behind, to help guide you going forward.
As I contemplate during the festive times in Bangalore at Diwali.. its apparent to me that as I have kept pushing forward, sometimes have lost track of the untreaded paths ..the roads less traveled and the feelings less emoted, alas! what I would give to rewind and immerse myself in the blanket of memories.
But, time moves on, and so should you. Do not look back, because there is a reason that you moved forward to leave it behind, stay the course and uncover the new ground, face the happening and soar high, yet again.... and look down.. but not behind!

Sense and Sensibilities

Holiday season can be unsettling and provide a subversive challenge to our modern philosophical assumptions of nuclear families and relationships. As I straddle life in USA and India.. my holiday season starts in September over Dusshera and Diwali and keeps the relentless momentum through Thanksgiving and Christmas.
While we define ourselves into going more and more towards a nuclear family structure, I struggle with the definition. Its parents and children, so my parents and my children is nuclear? I think so.. it keeps us together as the unit.
As far as my mental comprehension can seek to reach, and my sensibilities are tickled, everyone's nucleus is a definition of their emotional relationships. Physical proximity is less of a requirement, as the technologies and need to articulate and communicate supersedes the haptics of today's world.
Of course, I synthesize.. my real emotions to suit the reality of proximity or lack thereof.. in reality when a Mother thinks of her children, the only communication is a touch, which says I care, says I know, says it will all be ok.

Colors of Navarathri

What can color do for you? it can certainly do a lot for this artistically laid out banners during the Navarathri season in India. Bangalore is popular for its festive colors and gaiety during the months of Dusshera Diwali.






Women take their creativity to a new extreme as they lay out the bommala-kollu at home. Terraced layers, each decorated with excruciating detail adorning dolls, idols, jewelery and colorful clothes. Dances to the dandia beats, fashionable outfits and jingling bangles is more than music to the ears. The tantric effect of the festive season, combined with the sweets and puja music in the air, is a community offering of prayer and service to the Gods.


And just like any other Hindu festival, the theme of Navarathri is the triumph of good over evil !




Star-struck damsels during one of the many starry nights of Navarathri dance beats. The festival of Dusshera is celebrated to worship Durga: embodiment of Devi, who is the supreme goddess. The form of the goddess Durga is said to symbolise creative energy and the feminine body.

Vacation tax !!

For someone like me who is more wired than the average Joe (read Jane if struggling with sexism), planning a vacation is no different from planning my next project (work or personal). Ok, this time its an island getaway.. get the spreadsheet working: the sunscreen, the swimsuits, the shades, sun caps, bug repellents, yada yada.....
Turn on the out-of-office on email, delegate authority, micro-instructions to the cook, the driver, write your will.. ok, now I am stretching it too far!
But, I have made a disciplined attempt this time and made an effort to detach. I took my shades to the beach instead of my laptop.
It was a great vacation on all counts. If being productive is my only measure of a good time, it was a productive vacation. We must rest, but only long enough to gather strength to get back to productivity and this was a great rest. Friendship is probably the greatest support system in the world, and having spent the time with friends was not only rewarding but rejuvenating.
There was something unique and magical being there with my family, bonding without saying much and doing nothing and experiencing the solemn sunrise and silent sunset.

It was a blended experience that brought together vitality, innocence, boundless energy, power, influence, uniqueness and happiness.

And as you drink up that unique drink, wear your shades, and smile because it makes you feel beautiful !

Years are passing by..

And I am having fun.. each year is getting better than the one before. How can that be? Someone I know well , once classified me as a 'rapid': as someone who needs a new bend in the course every so often that will allow me to see a new scenery that will pose a new challenge and freshness!
Each year, as I blow the birthday candles, I reflect on how beautiful life is and how blessed I am to be surrounded by love.. from family, friends, and well wishers. No doubt that we go through tough times and difficult days. Hard emotions and ruthless decisions, but it still is the whole sum of a beautiful life!
This year, I had the first cake in Bangkok with some of my best buddies and then a second cake in Bangalore with more family and friends. I cant help but relive the moments that I spent the last year with my dearest friends backhome in California, and I cant help but appreciate and love the new friends in India.
Bangkok is a fun city, and clearly different people remember it for different reasons. I for one, remember it for the sweetest coldest coconut water, brush with a rockstar, and the numerous laughs with the most beautiful women I know!

Bangles and Biriyani

Charminar is the signature monument of Hyderabad, India, so much so that its a brand in itself! For many people today the 1400 stores at Charminar are a shopping haven for bangles, dress material and other handcrafted accessories. For many others, its the world of livelihood. Laad bazaar is the alley of bangles galore. Color everywhere, vendors spilling out of their stores to attract the local women in burkhas, and tourists strolling around. Several of us just enter into the store to escape the heat of the day into the stores with glittering bangles. Only soon realize that the one million 100 watt overhanging lights in the store (dangling to create overhead light to glitter the stone studded bangles) make the store hotter than its outside!
Shellac bangles that dazzle with the glass gems studded into them, spirals of base metal wire amid a wavy striping with a variety of colors are the signature look of the Charminar craftsmen.
Muhammad Quli Qutb Shah built Charminar in 1591 shortly after he had shifted his capital from Golkonda to what now is known as Hyderabad. Built with granite and lime mortar, Charminar is an of the Cazia style. Cazia style of architecture is unique in that its mixed it self with Islamic as well as Deccan culture.

Well, whatever you buy or do not buy, you surely must step in to Paradise for a taste of the world known 'Hyderabadi Biriyani'. Started as a small roadside shop many years ago in old Hyderabad, Paradise is now a multi story high rise catering to hundreds of patrons every day for lunch and dinner. Where they really make their money is by the volumes of parcels that get wrapped 'to-go'!