Dharavi - An example of Diversity

Dharavi was earlier a mangrove swamp; however later this swamp filled in & so there was room for people besides the kolis. The Kumbars came from Gujarat to establish a pottery colony, tamils from the south opened tanneries, many from Uttar Pradesh came to work for the booming textile industry, many women became involved in the papad industry. Many industries developed here from which many products are exported around the world. As a result Dharavi became a very diverse slum in India's most diverse city - Mumbai

Dharavi - An unexpected maze

As I enter the World's Largest Slums - Dharavi is totally an unexpected maze! Before the late 19th century, the present day area of Dharavi was a mangrove swamp which was inhabited by the koli fishermen & the area was referred to as "the village of the koliwadas". It is a multi-religious, multi-ethnic, diverse settlement. 

The World War1 Memorial @Ballard Estate,Mumbai

This memorial commemorates the employees of the Bombay Port Trust, now known as the Mumbai Port Trust who lost their lives during World War1 (1914-1918) & also the Port Trust's contribution to the war efforts. 

Man belongs to the Earth, The Earth does not belong to Man

Today felt two tremors in Kolkata. It was the scariest experience of my life. Just feeling the ground shaking makes you think how unpredictable life is & we don't know what we are going to face the next day. 

I can't imagine what the people in Nepal are going through where the earthquake originated. Prayers for everyones well being in the affected areas & strength to the families who have lost their loved ones. 

Enter with Calmness

Every cloud has a silver lining

Every cloud has a silver lining

Life is Beautiful

Sun is shining, weather is sweet, make you wana move your dancing feet.

Body & Soul

The Sun sees your body, the Moon sees your soul.

Mango Time

Its my favourite time of the year!! NOT because of the heat BUT because of the Mangoes!!!

Black & White

Colourful Ganesha in Bangkok

Pretty Sunset

Its impossible to watch a sunset & not dream.

6Es standing side by side!

                                                                6Es standing side by side!

Belur Math

Visited the  Lovely & Serene Belūr Maṭh which is the headquarters of the Ramakrishna Math and Mission, founded by Swami Vivekananda, a chief disciple of Ramakrishna Paramahamsa. It is located on the west bank of Hooghly River, Belur, West Bengal, India. This temple is the heart of the Ramakrishna Movement. The temple is notable for its architecture that fuses Hindu, Christian and Islamic motifs as a symbol of unity of all religions. Swami Shivananda, the then President of Belur Math laid the foundation stone on 16 May 1935. The mission proclaims the Math as a "Symphony in Architecture"Its was nice to walk around the lovely grounds, sit in the gardens, relax & enjoy the peaceful atmosphere.
However closing time you get "whistled" (literally) out by the guards. So better go a little early so you have enough time.  
                                                                           

Oasis among the Chaos

Recently I visited the Acharya Jagdish Chandra Bose Botanical Garden, formerly Royal Botanic Garden in Howrah, West Bengal, India. In 2009 it was renamed to honor Indian plant physiologist and physicist Sir Jagdish Chandra Bose. It is situated on the west bank of the Hooghly River, opposite Kolkata. It was founded in 1787 by the East India Company.

This garden famous for its enormous collections of bamboos, palms and many other plants. This garden is most famous  for its known landmark - the Great Banyan Tree, for its very large canopy & thought to be more than 250 years old.

This place is a total break from the pollution & chaos of the city! This is one of the oldest botanical gardens in India.It was from these gardens that the tea now grown in Assam & Darjeeling was first developed.

 This banyan tree is the largest known in India. It was damaged by 2 cyclones when some main branches were broken & some attacked by fungus. The tree now lives without its main trunk, which was decayed & so removed. It has about 3300 aerial roots reaching the ground.This tree looks more like a mini forest than an individual tree!

The Simple things... are they still important?

    Money sure can buy the best things - a good meal, a great phone, awesome jewellery & lots more! In fact now a days we are too busy thinking of the latest gadget we need to buy or what the latest wardrobe changes we need to make. We know to survive & live a comfortable life we need money & we know its importance well enough & we sure love it!!
If we made a list of things money can buy... ooo it would be endless!
      But it got me thinking & I realized that "its not what you have in your pocket of what your most thankful for but for what you have in your heart".
That's when I started making a list of things money cannot buy & I realized how special they are. 
Falling in love, feeling loved, long hugs, smell of the rain, listening to your favorite song, sharing a laugh together with your special people till your insides hurt, random act of kindness, love or consideration, getting lost in your favorite book, true friendship... & I realized that this list too is endless & the happiness & satisfaction it gives is incomparable.
Count the moments you actually live & enjoy it cause that's really what matters.
      I see that some people today are so blinded just because they have money that they forget the simple things in life. They get so self involved with what to shop for or what people think of them that eventually they drive themselves crazy & lose themselves, become egoistic, unreasonable & forget their true identity which in the bargain results in forgetting the main values of life & pushing the people who love you, away from you as well.
The sad part of life is not death, its what we let die inside of us when we live.

LETS RECYCYCLE & REUSE!

So many open windows But NO Fresh Air!

So many campaigns to make our country cleaner however people still dont seem to care!
So many efforts to reduce the amount of pollution around us but people refuse to change!
Is it necessary that always strict action or something life-threatening needs to happen for us to get a wake up call & change our behavior?
Why do we always have the "chalta hai" attitude?
When you go abroad, you know you are going to be fined if you litter & so you don't; however if you do the same in your own country you won't think twice because you know that no one is going to stop you. 

Just one thing I want to ask people before they contribute towards polluting their environment -
Do you think you have another planet to go to after you destroy this beautiful one you are living on?

 Lets try & make a serious effort to make our country & our planet a beautiful, clean & fresh place to live in.

   LETS RECYCYCLE & REUSE! 

Keep Calm & Click on!

Travel - leaves you speechless, then turns you into a storyteller (at Wat Pho, Bangkok)

Keep Calm & Click on!

           "We are only as blind as we want to be" - Maya Angelou (at Wat Pho, Bangkok)

Life is a Journey- Feeling Blessed

 We all complain of the things that get us down.. Everyone deals with it in a different way..Sometimes we focus on the problem so hard that we so often forget the Awesome stuff happening around us! The blessings we have which a million others don’t… Don’t sweat the Small Stuff cause thats not what really matters!

Enjoy every moment!

We live in a world where "Time is Money"

We live in an era where we want to deal with things on our own time & fast. 

We live a life where we don't have enough time to enjoy the things we like to do. 

Time plays such an important part of our lives. 

Our life has pretty much become a race...   

I have lived in Mumbai for 25 years, studied & worked there. Its a fast moving life whether its about work or partying! 

Then when I moved to Kolkata, suddenly everything changed!  The fast life suddenly became a very slow one. Everything here seems laid back & relaxed. People doing things at their own pace. Whether its about getting some work done or going out it is all different here. People deal with everything at their own sweet time. It was very frustrating and baffling at first but then gradually I began to understand & appreciate the importance of Time. Spend it quality style         by doing things that made me happy & what was good for me...

Getting a chance to think & realise what really matters. 

Take each day as it comes... 

Black or White, Hot or cold, Yes or No, Up or Down

 Enjoy life & try to make the most of it

Life is beautiful! 

Life is a Journey to be enjoyed! 

Dont waste time on things you don't like doing... Embrace the things you really want to do & the person you really want to be! 

Distance makes the heart grow Fonder

Sometimes in our life there are times when the goings are good and we take life and the perks with it for granted. By perks I mean - Love, Friendship, Time. 

We actually realise the worth of of those perks and appreciate them when you actually have time away from them, when the goings are not as smooth as you want them to be. But thats Life... Sometimes we just need to 

STOP & STARE, think about the beautiful life we have however complicated & frustrating it may be that theres always a Silver Lining and Life is Worth Living and being grateful for. 

The lovely people in my life play such an important role for me becoming the person I am today. 

Am sure you can think of atleast 5 people who you are grateful to have in your life and who make life worth living! 

Am right ain't I? 

Funky DIY

It was my sisters best friends birthday and she asked me to help her make her a Hamper of all her friend's favorite stuff!

Got a basket & tied some ribbons around the border to make it look colourful & then placed a card, a bff cushion, perfume, makeup and some more goodies! Hope she likes it!

A Day in the City

You know your in Kolkata when your Taxicabs Are Yellow Ambassadors!

The Streets are flooded with them & these drivers know how to drive and HOW!!!! Not for the Weak hearted!  They can't stop honking, even on an empty street their horns are blaring away!
We visited the St. Pauls Cathedral which is quite close to the Victoria Memorial. The building was initiated by Bishop Daniel Wilson in 1839 and was completed in 1847. The structure is huge & beautiful.

 From here we decided to travel by the public bus & visit the famous Howrah Bridge. The bus ride was good fun. Kolkata has these mini buses with their conductors screeching loudly the destination to where the bus is heading so whoever wants to get in, can get in my hailing for the bus. Most of the buses have the word Pilot written on the bus drivers door, really they are pilots but the difference is they are maneuvering through clouds of bad traffic & people! The bus drivers are more rash than the taxi drivers!! Its like a crazy ride in an amusement park.

This bridge was originally a Pontoon bridge but then replaced in 1943 made into a Cantilever bridge which was called the New Howrah Bridge. In 1965 the bridge was officially renamed "Rabindra Setu", after the great Bengali poet Rabindranath Tagore however still it is popularly known as the Howrah Bridge. This bridge was made to connect the cities of Howrah & Kolkata (Calcutta earlier) because of the increasing traffic across the Hooghly river. It is said that the Howrah Bridge is the sixth-longest bridge of its type in the world.

 Some Glimpses of the Howrah Bridge

Had a nice walk from one end of the bridge to the other. It was nice & breezy with a lovely view of the Hooghly River. 

The Best Part

Setting up a new home in a different city can be an experience by itself.... Getting to know the place...Finding a house on rent... meeting some helpful people & some who are definitely out to just make a quick buck. So as I say its the complete package!
After looking at 10 houses... the 11th one was 'the one'!!!

The best part about the new house is that its close to the airport so I get a chance to see different planes taking off n landing!!! Finally can watch at leisure instead of being driven away or rather whistled away by cops because they think I have bad intentions by taking pictures of beautiful planes!!!
FACT - I love Planes & the way they fly through the beautiful sky! Its a Man Made Bird!
I am always in AWE! Everytime I step on a plane there is a sense of WOW inside me that this beautiful thing is going to fly me!

Approach!

Cloudy BUT Sunny!

Lets Go!

History at its Best

Being a wife of a Pilot I get to travel a lot. Its always lovely to visit a new place, learn about different cultures & the ways of life of different people. Recently got the news that my husband was getting a transfer to Kolkata & was real anxious & upset cause all my life have been a total Bombay (a.k.a Mumbai) Girl & did not want to move. But home is where the Heart is....
Came to visit the city & the first lovely thing I saw here was the grand "Victoria Memorial", which is a Beautiful marble building surrounded by a beautiful garden by the banks of the Hoogly River which was built between 1906 & 1921. It is dedicated to the memory of Queen Victoria.
In January 1901, on the death of Queen Victoria, Lord Curzon, Viceroy of India, suggested the creation of a fitting memorial. He proposed the construction of a grand building with a museum and gardens. 
The Prince of Wales,King George V, laid the foundation stone on 4 January 1906 and it was formally opened to the public in 1921. In 1912, before the Victoria Memorial was finished, King George V announced the transfer of the capital of India from Calcutta to New Delhi. Thus, the Victoria Memorial was built in what would be a provincial city rather than a capital.

The Main Entrance

The West Wing

Setting Sun

Beautiful Green Grounds surrounding the Victoria Memorial

Angel of Victory Standing Tall

The Last View of the Memorial as I left