Feb has been a very furiously busy month so far. A leap year with an extra day of hard work !
At work we have just been in the middle of some key stuff with meetings every single day and coordinating across the countrywide network. Days have just flown by and I am pretty tired at the end of each day. Its fun though !
Our wedding anniversary (16th) was on Feb 7. It just passed - it was a working day though I did manage to come home in a decent time to go out for dinner with the family and buy a gift. After some years, I remembered the greeting card for my wife, but she did not buy one for me. She has preserved every single card that we exchanged over the years ! Reading them now evokes a bit of nostalgia, but also some of those sound a little silly as well !! What we do in our romantic youth !
For sometime now, we have been contemplating to start some charity in a small way - and we thought that we will use our anniversary and birthdays to do some donations. www.giveindia.com was a pleasant surprise in terms of the ease of donating - I particularly like the theme of children and gave a small amount to some children charities. In the UK, I was contributing a small monthly sum to SPCC - Society for Prevention of Cruelty to Children. I have also discovered through a friend that it is possible to spend a day at an orphanage, give them whatever food they want and play with them for a while. We are proposing to do this.
I was on the plane the other day with Alyque Padamsee on my neighbouring seat and he asked me if I wanted to become a member of the 2% club - where we can give away 2% of our salary each year to charity. I have not responded to him - not sure if I want the badge of the 2%. We want to do what we want to charity and we want to enjoy this process. Let us see where this process takes.
We are now making it a habit to go driving on Sundays - with me working all six days, Sunday is becoming precious. Two weekends ago, drove across to the Chinmaya mission in Powai and spent sometime. It was nice.
My brother has relocated from London to India this week - a couple of days ago, we spent time together - went to Inorbit Mall and had dinner at Rajdhani, the Rajasthani restaurant. It was our second time - great food, though heavy.
Its been a busy saturday at work as I write this. Looking forward to a quiet tomorrow, though might work from home, might of course do a short drive with the family.
Next week promises to be busy at work - but also when we will see our first opera in Mumbai - at the Tata Theatre - Madame Butterfly. But more about that after we have seen it.....
Saturday, February 23, 2008
Saturday, February 9, 2008
Kalaghoda Fair 2008
Currently, the Kalaghoda fair is on in Mumbai. Last Sunday, we decided to drive out from Malad to Kalaghoda. This is a really long drive and I was driving such a distance for the first time. i really cannot drive on the other days with the traffic, especially in a Toyota Innova. We got there in an hour - not a bad first time driving.
It was a perfect day - we reached there around 2.30 pm - parked the car at Fort, opposite the HSBC bank and walked to Kalaghoda - brought back old memories - the Bombay House on our left, the pavement sellers of books, imported digital equipment, the Khyber restaurant, Rhythm house...
The carpark at Kalaghoda was gaily decorated - lots of children there in a Surf Excel sponsored painting and claymaking - my children are older and hence were not too interested. But interesting displays including some papier mache Kalaghoda, a wired horse, some environmentally friendly cars all set the tone. We merrily clicked away.
We went into the main street, which had been shut for traffic and had become a walking street. Stalls on either side were selling handicrafts, books, and a number of stalls put up by the NGOs. I must admit that the pricing was atrocious. We bought a mat for our devghar (the altar at home). There were lots of foreigners there - this is like a typical street festival that you see in other parts of the world.
We had some icecream at Gelatos, ate some chaat - while we wandered around. There was a stage and at 5.30 pm there was a spirited Tibetian performance. Several performances till 10 pm was in the schedule, though sadly, we did not choose to stay beyond 6.30 pm.
We went into Rhythm House as we were leaving and picked up a few CDs. It was a wonderful experience.
The drive back was somewhat eventful - we did not realise that there was some rioting going on in Shivaji park and the traffic was diverted - there were a few tense moments, but we got back home alright.
Overall a great day out for the family !!!
It was a perfect day - we reached there around 2.30 pm - parked the car at Fort, opposite the HSBC bank and walked to Kalaghoda - brought back old memories - the Bombay House on our left, the pavement sellers of books, imported digital equipment, the Khyber restaurant, Rhythm house...
The carpark at Kalaghoda was gaily decorated - lots of children there in a Surf Excel sponsored painting and claymaking - my children are older and hence were not too interested. But interesting displays including some papier mache Kalaghoda, a wired horse, some environmentally friendly cars all set the tone. We merrily clicked away.
We went into the main street, which had been shut for traffic and had become a walking street. Stalls on either side were selling handicrafts, books, and a number of stalls put up by the NGOs. I must admit that the pricing was atrocious. We bought a mat for our devghar (the altar at home). There were lots of foreigners there - this is like a typical street festival that you see in other parts of the world.
We had some icecream at Gelatos, ate some chaat - while we wandered around. There was a stage and at 5.30 pm there was a spirited Tibetian performance. Several performances till 10 pm was in the schedule, though sadly, we did not choose to stay beyond 6.30 pm.
We went into Rhythm House as we were leaving and picked up a few CDs. It was a wonderful experience.
The drive back was somewhat eventful - we did not realise that there was some rioting going on in Shivaji park and the traffic was diverted - there were a few tense moments, but we got back home alright.
Overall a great day out for the family !!!
Cold Mumbai
Cold and Mumbai !! An oxymoron one would have thought.
But we appear to have brought our London weather to Mumbai. Mumbai has hit one of the coldest patches. Two days ago, on Feb 7, the temperature was 8.6 deg C. That is almost unbelievable. I had to wear my jumper to work with the cold weather.
Frankly, for us it is better this way than coming into some hot and sultry weather. three years ago, when we moved to London from Singapore, we had moved in december and had to weather the cold. But it was fun in a different sort of way - the shopping for coldwear in Singapore and London, the first experience with the snow, the kids making the snowman.
The big difference between London and Mumbai is in the commuting - it would have been a cold walk to the railway station in Beckenham in the UK. In Mumbai, the chauffer driven car is an affordable luxury.
In Mumbai, the cold weather continues !!
But we appear to have brought our London weather to Mumbai. Mumbai has hit one of the coldest patches. Two days ago, on Feb 7, the temperature was 8.6 deg C. That is almost unbelievable. I had to wear my jumper to work with the cold weather.
Frankly, for us it is better this way than coming into some hot and sultry weather. three years ago, when we moved to London from Singapore, we had moved in december and had to weather the cold. But it was fun in a different sort of way - the shopping for coldwear in Singapore and London, the first experience with the snow, the kids making the snowman.
The big difference between London and Mumbai is in the commuting - it would have been a cold walk to the railway station in Beckenham in the UK. In Mumbai, the chauffer driven car is an affordable luxury.
In Mumbai, the cold weather continues !!
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)