Something about Mumbai!

I realised having named this blog MumbaiJamming I am not writing much about the city and am rather concentrating on my travels! But that is not completely true because actually the travels out of city are an essential feature of the life of this city.Though the municipal limits of the city are just Dahisar on the western line and Mulund on the Central line, the actual limits of this megapolis extend far beyond geographically. It would be a difficult task to pinpoint the exact geograhic boundary but Surat, Ahmedabad and numerous cities in between show tremendous influence of Mumbai and their economic activity as well as sociocultural psyche is deeply associated with that of Mumbai and vice versa. Similarly Pune, Nashik and to some extent Goa also have this connection with Mumbai. Mumbai has been a power house which is pulling along majority of Maharahstra, Gujarat, Goa and some parts of Karnataka as an economic and financial juggernaut. The same is true of Delhi in pulling along the northern states but unfortunately the same cannot be said of Calcutta (Kolkata). That may be one of the reasons of economic impoverishment of the eastern states. South india is ofcourse remarkable self dependant with each capital city, viz Hyderabad, Chennai, and Bangalore, and Kochi being metropolises in thier own right. I guess there is a lesson in this. We have to develop more medium sized (and more manageable) cities, otherwise the megapolises will just flounder under the weight of immigrants from less fortunate neighbouring cities, towns and rural areas.

South Goa: Madgaon Colva

On the last day of my visit to Goa we decided to do a token visit of South Goa by visiting Colva Beach which is about 39 km away from Panjim. this time there was no escaping NH17 and we took to it bravely. The traffic was heavy but well behaved. We reached Madgaon in fairly well time. By the looks of it, it was most unlike Panjim. From here we took right turn to Colva which was 6 km furhter away. Colva Beach is the longest uninterrupted strtch of sand on Goa. The moment we landed hordes of boatmen came to us asking if we wanted to 'Dolphins' in deep sea for a price of Rs600 and half of it to be returned if there were no sightings! It took some persistent refusal for them to leave us. The beach is populated but less crowded than Calangute and immense more enjoyable. The waters are an undescribable blue- green colour. We took a break to have some pomfret fry at a beach restaurant when we saw some activity in the waters and lo! there were Dolphins! It was a profoundly spectacular sight. After about ten minutes the Dolphins disappeared as mysteriously as they had appeared. Time for another dip in the waters and lunch. We left at about 2pm to head for Panjim, pack stuff and head for the airport for the first lowfare airline ride of my life. I was very apprehensive but as it turned out it was good for the price. The amount of enthusiasm which the solitary air-hostess showed while serving only water was indeed commendable!

North Goa: Chapora Vagator Anjuna Calangute Fort Aguada Sinquerim

On the second day of my Goa "Holiday" I head north. Goa divides itself neatly into two by the Mandovi River. North of it lies the the now renowned and crowded beaches from Fort Tiracol till Panjim. These are party places, hippies dens and the hangout of dedicated dropouts. I see the map and decide to go till Fort Chapora on the banks of the Chapora river anthen work my was back by touching the prominent beaches. Its circuitious ride on the minor roads and the landscape is interesting. The presence of foreigner based tourism is palpable with prominent signs in Hebrew and Russian and at some places the prices being quoted in Euros! Chapora was originally 'Shahpur' after the great Adil Shah of Bijapur before the portuguese arrived on the scene. They cam and took over the fort which at that point must have been vital gaurding agianst the Marathas from the north of Chapora river. In fact at one point of time the fort was taken by Marathas. Graduallya s the portuguese managed to spread their infuence till Tiracol the fort lost its strategic significance and today nothing but a dilapidated fort wall remains of it. But the views are great. A calm and serene river merging into an equally calm Arabian sea and the fisherman village of Morjem on the north bank. We can see the Vagator beach and its very inviting. so we hurriedly climb down and head to Vagator. Its a short strip of beach but relatively empty. Clean. At the distal end (?Chapora beach) foreigners have occupied the shacks and the shack owner gives us disapproving looks. We head back. After a couple of hours we leave for Anjuna. Its a longer expanse and wider albeit rocky. The remenants of the famous Anjuna flea market can be seen. We have tuna in lemon sauce with chips and salad at a beach shack. And then we get into the water. Its terrific. Next stop is calangute and as expected its extremely crowded. Somebody described it as Ganga Snan! We go on a water scooter paying Rs 300 for the the 2 minute joyride! Its time for another fort and a big one Fort Aguada now hosting an unlikely combination of a prison and a 5 star hotel. Its a tough climb for the 2 wheeler. But the sights of Panjim and Mandovi are rewarding.

More of Times Of India

Here is a collection of posts I found out on the glory that was Times Of India and now what it has become. Most of the posts ae from the deluge days of 26 July but I never knew that so many people had the same feeling about TOI :
http://wetware.blogspot.com/2005/08/scrutinizing-times-of-india.html
http://phoenix.gargs.com/blog/?p=26
http://govar.blogspot.com/2005/08/bloggers-revolt-against-toi.html
http://bluelullaby.blogspot.com/2005/07/tois-idea-of-disaster.html
http://wetware.blogspot.com/2005/07/decline-and-fall-of-times-of-india.html
http://imaginathon.blogspot.com/2005/07/toi-touching-new-lows-updated.html

Panjim and Old Goa

Panjim was a city founded by the portuguese on the south bank of the river Mandovi. Initially it was just a port of first call for portuguese sailors from Lisbon who then moved upriver to Old Goa (Goa Velha) which was the capital of the Portuguese enclave of Goa in India. But in early 19th century (?1821) they shifted their capital to Panjim apparently because of a plague epidemic. The city of Panjim really flowered and today it arguably the most beautiful state capital in India. It still a very small city of narrow but good roads and there are districts which still have the colonial flavour in architecture and way of life - Sao Tome, Fountainhas and Mala. Urbanisation is fast claiming this pleasant city and high rises have begun appearing but it still retaining the flavour of a colonial town. Iam heading to Old Goa which is 9km away on the hired Kinetic Honda and it is such a pleasant ride - the Mandovi on my left and greenery all over the place and the road is fantastic. Old Goa has a high concentration of churches incuding the largest churc in Asia - Se Cathedral.
When we reach there the sunday evening service s in progress with a curt sign outside saying tourists not allowed as service is in progress. So in the meantime we visit the nearby Church of St Francis of Assisi and The Bom Jesus cathedral which houses the mortal remains of St Francis Xavier. There is also an innovatively done ASI museum where unforunately photography is not allowed. It houses among other things the portraits of all the portuguese governors of Goa. Quite impressive. Se Cathedral open and one can see easily why it is the largest church in Asia. I wish I had taken a guide along as I can gather precious little of the myriad paintings and sculptures painted over by golden paint. But the church is really massive. We move back to Panjim and suddenly I can see a certain similarity with Daman. A river dividing a port city into north and south banks with a fort on either side. Its good that we have visited Daman first otherwise it would have seemed a poor imitation of Panjim. We head to the nondescript and crowded Miramar beach. After a hefty dinner we get back to Altinho. Next post: North Goa.

Why I changed my newspaper

Ok Old Goa has to be the next post then. Today I made a deep impact conclusive decision. I changed my long time newspaper Times Of India to an absolutely new broadsheet 'DNA'. I've been reading Times Of India as long as I can remember - may be last 17 years with a gap here and there. There was a time when Times was published from very few places and Bhubaneswar was not one of them. So we used to get our paper a day late (from Delhi) and that too the 'National' edition - without any frills. But my parents were that kind who would rather read the 'Times' a day late than read any other newpaper. It was the age long before Sunday supplements arrived but Times carried two sections extra of, which particular interest was Section II - covering, literature, arts and entertainment in staid black and white esoteric articles rather than glossy colourful pages. The people whose articles I can remember are Dom Moraes, Jug Suraiya, Swaminathan Aiyar, Bachi Karkaria, Dileep Padgaonkar and ofcourse the guy who wrote MindSport. Gradually changes began occuring initially for the better - the sunday special report, Open Space (I was a proud boy the day my question got published in it!) and some good columnists - Rajdeep Sardesai, and that day too arrived when TOI began publshing from Bhubaneswar. But then something else also started happening, indiatimes and other things got brazenly advertised in the text of the newspaper. For some time the 'middle' and the enormously interesting 'third editorial' vanished. (They have now reappeared) The sunday supplement deteriorated into a crass glossy section featuring people whom I had no interest in. The book reviews, music and arts section all but vanished(They are making a comeback now). There were times when the newspaper from bhubaneswar featured only tender notices on the international page! But still TOI was the most readable of all the newspapers. Then something has happened over the last few months which have finally made me take this momentous and sad decision: inaccurate reporting and factual errors. TOI has been known for its authentic reporting and intellectually stimulating analyses. So when I saw the photo of a CRPF personnel labeled as 'Army man' in an article for carrier options in the army I was aghast. Soon, more was to follow. During the recent election results of Bihar ther was an article comparing Bihar with the nation in certain statistical indices, interestingly the Infant Mortality Rate was shown to be lower than that of the national average and it was commented upon as being worse. It meant that not only the statistic was wrong but also that the person writing the article had little clue what he was writing about. The final straw was in the reporting of the recent illness of Amitabh Bachhan. While on the first page his diagnosis was written as 'Diversiculosis' (there is no such medical condition), on the page2 it was written (correctly) as 'Diverticulitis'. Such an error for a lesser paper might have been pardonable but for TOI it meant fall from grace. I remember TOI was regarded as second only to the Oxford Advanced Learner's in my home in my childhood, unfortunately, No Longer. To top it all the bulky step child in the name of Mumbai Mirror is handed day after day which straight goes to my trash bin. For me Mumbai Mirror symbolises everything which TOI was not. I guess the people who are writing the TOI these days are not the people who read the paper in their younger days. Now I have switched over to DNA. I do not have high expectations, its a new paper with bright young people who may make mistakes once in a while because after all they are not TOI!

Panjim

So after thinking about Goa for so long I took the dive and took the VOLVO bus from the Dolour Church, Marine Lines. It was supposed to start at 1930hrs but finally managed to get on to the Easter Express highway only at about 2200 hrs! It should have been the most comfortable bus journey I should ever have made as the the amount of leg space in the bus would have shamed some business class seats, however it was not to be. Somehow I was very restless and slept very little. At day break it was still the gigantic state of Maharashtra - Samantwadi. Soon after an obscure border crossing we were in the sunshine state of Goa. The landscape was the same. If someone expects beach loads of scantily clad women as soon as he hits Goa, he is going to get a little disappointed! Pernem passed off imperceptibly. The first major town is Mapusa with a difficult pronunciation somthing like MHAP - SSA supposed to rhyme with Lhasa. The bus was mobbed by touts offering us the heavens view on Arambol beach. I tried to catch up on my sleep. Panjim arrives a little too fast for the 12 kms that separates it from Mapusa. From a distance you can realise that why it is called the most beautiful capital city in India. The morning view of the Mandovi and Panjim (? Panaji, ?Pangim, ?Ponjje) is terrific. But after disembarking from the bus going to our destination in Altinho proves to be difficult as no one is ready to take us there for under Rs60. Finally we give in. The city has a quaint colonial character. Its very pleasant. Infact you can learn what "pleasantness" is in reference to a city can mean, here. The roads are excellent. The riverfront is sparkingly clean and very beautiful and there are no traffic lights yet the trafic is remarkably disciplined. Soon after, we start our hunt for a bike on hire, after having a prolonged and hefty lunch at the famed Venite in Sao Tome. It seems we are at the most wrong time - siesta. Finally we haggle to get a Kinetic Honda for the princely sum of Rs600 for three days and Rs 1000 as deposit as we refuse to part with our Identity Card. Driving is a pleasure. We are 'cruising' at 60 on the road to Old Goa and the views of the Mandovi are just fantastic! Old Goa in next post!

100 years of Howrah Railway Station

The Howrah railway station is celebrating its centenary this month/year. It completed 100 years of functioning on 1 december. I have got many mixed memories of the station. The initial ones are of fear and amazement. I must have been very young when I first passed through it and the size and incomprehensible chaos of it frightened me! It was just a transiting station for me. So actually it was the fear of a small town boy of his first big city. To top it all the train which I was supposed to be travelling was, hold your breath, 22 hours late! Believe me it happens on those trains which are coming all the way from Trivandrum/Cochin to Guwahati and are even worse on their return journey. The second time I was there I was a young teen (eh!) and I seemed to enjoy it. What really me amazed me that all the chaotic 21 platforms ended on a dead end of a vast and even more chaotic terminus. It was the first terminus I had seen. I had always thought of platforms as two ended things - a mere transitory spaces in this complex network of Indian Railways. I wondered, rather naively, how does the train go ahead of Howrah?! One of the most remarkable descriptions of the Howrah stations which I have read is in 'The Shadow Lines' by Amitav Ghosh. After reading that piece I began to see the human angle of this gigantic railway terminus which to me till then seemed rather impersonal. My affair with this station continued when I flew for the first time (!) to Calcutta and then immediately after that landed up in the General Compartment of train heading to BBSR at the Howrah station! I felt a queer sense of achievement when I learned that It has indeed finished 100 years! Ofcourse now I know how the trains go beyond Howrah railway station - they just change thier direction and the engine starts pulling at the reverse end!

Thinking about Goa

I have been thinking of going to Goa. This little state, the tiniest of all Indian states(does that incude Delhi also?) has been beckoning me for some time now. I have missed several opportunities of going there. The portugese came there in the 16th century and were dislodged only after some effort by India in 1961 (19th Dec to be precise). Goa is the fag end of Konkan strip which starts from southern end of Gujarat. It has famed beahes, marvellous churches, a portugese influenced cultural tradition but still is it enough to attract those hordes of tourists? When I ask this question to die-hard Goa enthusiasts they give me meaningful smiles and tell me "Boy, you have to go to goa to feel it!" So as usual my search started with the internet, Lonely Planet, and 52 weekend breaks. The more I read about it the more I wanted to go there so I bought the tickets made the bookings and ahoy!

BackDated Post

Back again in Mumbai after a jaunt of a week. They say that the city is an "addiction" and sure I was feeling "withdrawal". But Life still goes on. There are little perceptible changes. So goodbye for now!