Informative auto ride

Like a quintessential backpacker, I tend to talk to whoever seems responsive to learn more about the place I am in. Today's chat was with an autowallah in Ahmedabad. He's a 58 year old native resident of Ahmedabad. His Muslim identity could be seen in his beard and skull cap. I amn't being judgemental, just thankful that communal harmony prevails in Gujarat and people are free to follow their customs.
 Many autowallahs don't own their vehicles, they rent them on daily basis. So if they are not well, no costs and no income that day. I discovered that in Ahmedabad the daily rent for an auto is 150 while in Mumbai, it is 300 as Mumbai fares are higher. Mumbai certainly has higher costs of living.

This model is also followed by some cab companies where the cab driver can rent a car for the day. It appears quite a unique business model which works well in this particular service industry. Previously, I'd heard of this for cycle rickshaw pullers in Jabalpur. Though being a less vocal and mostly illiterate community, economic relations are hugely biased in favour of lenders in their case.

This was a short ramble on today's journey. I had this conversation while coming back from SEWA. The post about SEWA will go up under NGO section.

Maid in India 2.0

My earlier post Maid in India 1.0 described the method of operations and the impact of the project. An interesting distinction is that is financially sustainable in the long run and also scalable. Though the organization needs grants for supporting some activities, Decimal Foundation wants MII to run independently. The project has received Pearson Fellowship for Social Innovation.To know more about MII namely its financial sustainability, scale of operations, challenges etc. read on.

Maid in India 1.0

"The ‘decimal’ is simply a dot within a number. Its position within a number determines what the number means to us. Just a shift to the right or left changes its meaning exponentially." 

Decimal Foundation, an NGO in Mumbai, cites the above as their inspiration. They serve an omnipresent and yet ignored section of society - domestic help. Do you know when was the last time your maid had a health check-up? Every woman associated with Maid in India gets free medical care every couple of months. To read more about the great work they are doing, and about my visit to their office, read on.

I love Mumbai

Arrival on 25th May, Departure on 18th July. A lot has happened in between.
An application I made is up and running on supercomputer Anupam Ajeya.
I found some great friends here, as you have read and some about whom you haven't.
I've travelled in Mumbai in all modes of public transport. Sometimes alone also.
And I am in love with the city.

Reasons:

एक फुग्गा....दो दीवाने

दीवानों के नाम - Alan and Alibe. The story begins with Opal's balloon which brought the two together. On Sunday evening, we were coming back in a bus from Carter Road to Sion. It's the most moving-shaking bus ride I've ever had. Every time the driver hit the brakes, every person used to jump a metre ahead. And on Mumbai roads, brakes are a recurrent feature.

When the first time this happened, we were caught unaware. I was holding only with one hand which slipped on the rod, and got cut slightly. Opal was holding with both her hands and still did a mighty swing. Her precious balloon from Mad Over Doughnuts meanwhile, was being doctored by Alan and Alibe. The tiny hole in it needed immediate medical attention. So out came remedies from Alan's bag : first try -packs of Jaljira, second - sugar packets from Mocha, third - comb, finally a fevi quick. In this busy scene, the driver interrupted with brakes. Alan fell forward holding a rod with one hand. Then, in slow motion.. Alibe fell on his other arm, the balloon still clutched safely in his hands. Two guys and a balloon... The situation merited violins playing.. Alan says some did sound in his head :P

Yumyyy

Sunday is fun day no, food day. Just a quick look at what I ate yesterday:

Breakfast at 10.30 - a glass of milk and sambhar vada

Image via Wikipedia

Lunch- Typical Andhra food in good quantity. Food was awesome. Andhra specialities - पुलिहोरा (tamarind rice), दद्दोजनम (curd rice) , रसम, आम का अचार, छोले।

Image by Chocolate Geek via Flickr

Then, a treat at CCD - Chocolate Fantasy,their speciality. A hot chocolate pastry with a scoop of vanilla icecream. I love dark chocolate.

Image via Wikipedia

In hostel, for dinner, sweet corn soup and we made four packs of maggi (3 ppl).

Image by jetalone via Flickr

Then, for dessert, we cut a water melon.

:-) :-) :-)


Now, why did I eat so much in one day? Maybe because Vir Sanghvi publishes Rude Food in Brunch on Sunday :P

Essel World

As you know we reached Borivli after an interesting journey. From the jetty, we took a ferry to Essel World. At 480 per head, it was costly entertainment, but worth it I guess. Especially for Alan and Opal, who went on all rides, mostly more than one. They give the top prize to Rock n Roll, a small ride which made their brains do big circles. In it, the seats rotate continuously, no track of which way is sky and which way is earth. Plus, the mandatory going round in a circle too.

I would call Hool-a-Loop as the most jarring. It’s a roller coaster which has extreme dips and a 360 degree loop. Whenever we went down a slope, everybody used to scream. It was perhaps the first time in my memory that I was screaming involuntarily. Nothing else has ever made me scream yet including 3-feet long snakes when I was 10. When X saw the first almost vertical dip, the words that came out were “हे भगवान्, मैं यहाँ क्यों आया”. Opal got so scared by this proclamation that she didn’t open her eyes throughout that ride.

There’s another roller-coaster called Cadbury Xyclone, but it is tamer in comparison to hool-a-loop. I went twice on this one and all of us tried putting our hands in the air instead of clutching as if holding on to dear life.

Another big one was a giant wheel that used to go from horizontal to vertical, with high-speed revolutions. This time it was I who got scared because of X’s proclamations. The guy himself went on to all rides, but managed to transfer his fear around. I have been on giant wheel before, so if you put me there without giving much time to think, it would’ve been okay. But after listening to “यार, ये बहुत खतरनाक है” and “अब ऊपर मिलेंगे”, I didn’t open my eyes. X has a nice theory, it feels better if there are two in one gondola, at least there’ll be company while dying: D


There was also ice-skating and roadies-style bull-ride. After ice-skating, opinions: Opal – “four-wheel skates practice doesn’t help”. Rav – “No skating for me in this life”. Me – “I’ve never tried skating, after looking at them, good…” Alan was our sole champion in the ring.

That's the water splash. Only Rav and I went for this one.

Out of a local train

A major event in my EPA as in Extra PS Activities: Essel World on last Saturday. We left at 7.30 and came back at 8 :)

For destination Essel World, we braved the local trains of Mumbai for the first time. We includes four other friends besides yours truly. And since I don’t want to be bashed up for telling you about their silly acts, let us call them Opal, X, Alan and Rav.

Nature's bounty

I am living on the seventh floor in New Bachelor Hostel now. btw, how do u define a "new bachelor"?
It rained for the first time today. And the view from my balcony was awesome. There are no buildings to block my view. So I see only tree-covered hills and a blue sky above. I've been told that we can literally walk through clouds when it rains. I'm waiting..
The best time view is in the morning. The sun's rays' interplay on the hills, the shifting patches of sunlight. Gives a lovely start to the day.
The campus is about 5000 acres in area. I think half of it must be greenery. And we are not the only ones in Mother Nature's lap, there are scores of red-faces monkeys too. Even one of the guys found the monkey-babies cute, merrily clinging to their mothers as they walk. Also, there's a cute cat who lives near the canteen. She's still afraid of me but not of the lassi that I gave her.
The campus reminds me often of home, I guess nature will always be like a home away from home...