Train Adventures

The young boy in the photo is standing on the window sill of the ladies compartment window and holding on tight. And the train wasn't very crowded but he was doing this for thrill. I'm speechless.

Hiranandani Gardens

Hiranandani Gardens is a township located in Powai, a northern suburb of Mumbai.Hirandani Gardens is known for its upper-class gated communities. The township is dotted with skyscraper residential towers, many with posh but very expensive apartments. Its skyline is immediately recognizable due to the heavy use of classic Greco-Roman architectural influences, especially at the topmost level.
I have taken this picture from the 25th floor of Glen Croft at Hiranandani Gardens.

Decor For Your Home

Artificial flowers and plants seem to be popular throughout the year in the city. This place is always buzzing with shoppers looking for a newer variety of flowers and plants. And when it's Christmas time, it's simply Christmas trees and decorations all over the place. The street is known as Lohar Chawl.

Wholesale

The stalls in the area near Crawford Market sell goods at wholesale prices. This seller of plastic goods quotes a high price, and bargaining is necessary to get a good deal. The man on the right is selling tablemats in a variety of colours. The goods offered are of the best quality. I usually check prices at local supermarkets, and then come here and bargain to get a deal at about 20 to 30% lower than the supermarket.

This is in contrast to the other shop-keepers who sell goods at a fixed price. Buy best quality plastic goods, decorations, table linen, bed linen, hosiery, toys, baby stuff, electrical goods, fancy lamps, office and school stationery, bags, digital cameras, dress material, sarees and textiles and a whole lot of goods at wholesale prices here. The key to shopping here is 'EXPLORE'.

Young Entrepreneurs

Haresh and his younger brother Dinesh, along with their elder brother sell beautifully carved wooden pictures on the road near Crawford Market. The one he is holding is of Radha-Krishna. I asked him the price of the large village scene, and he said it was for Rs. 2200. When I revealed to him that I would put this picture on the internet, and that readers would buy his pictures if they liked the price, he quickly added that the best price for the large one would be Rs. 1000.
Smart indeed!

Flower Shop

The young man with long hair in the picture is Abbas Ali, the owner of this flower shop. All the flowers here are artificial, made of superior quality plastic and very popular nowadays. The prices of the flowers are from Rs.15 to more than Rs. 60 each. It is diagonally opposite Crawford Market, across the road.

Crawford Market

Crawford Market (officially Mahatma Jyotirao Phule Market) is one of South Mumbai's most famous markets. It's a blend of Flemish and Norman architecture. It is named after Arthur Crawford, the first Municipal Commissioner of the city. The market is situated opposite the Mumbai Police headquarters, just north of Victoria Terminus (Chhatrapati Shivaji Terminus now) railway station at a busy intersection.

The market houses a wholesale fruit, vegetable and poultry market. One end of the market is a pet store. Most of the sellers inside the market nowadays sell imported food items. It was the main wholesale market for fruits in Mumbai until March 1996, when the wholesale traders were relocated to Navi Mumbai (New Bombay).
After India's independence, the market was renamed after Maharashtrian social reformer, Mahatma Jyotirao Phule.
Crawford Market also refers to the immediate surrounding areas. Here you can shop till you drop.

At Dawn

At 6.30 am today, I opened the curtains of my room window and this is what I saw. It was an unusual sight and I quickly captured it before the sun's first rays shone.

Shopping on Railway Overbridge

This is the Dadar railway overbridge and is always crowded with train passengers and people who want to cross over from Dadar (West) to Dadar(East). Unlike other overbridges at Dadar station, you need not have a railway ticket to cross over to the other side.

There are many hawkers on the bridge selling kid's clothes, watches, toys, woollen sweaters and jackets, fruits, flowers, ladies handbags and lots more. These stalls are illegal, and the hawkers are driven away by BMC officials (who conduct a surprise raid and confiscate the goods), but the hawkers are back after a day or two.
I asked this young man if I could take a photo of his little stall, and he was more than happy to pose in front of his stall. He is selling little girl's dresses at Rs.80 each. If chosen carefully, it's a good bargain.

SASMIRA

This is not a photo of the Airtel banner, and not the beautiful little plant too. The marble structure in the photo is of the SASMIRA building which stands on a plot of land measuring about 12,000 sq.metres at the foot of Worli Hill Mumbai in the prime location of the city.

SASMIRA is THE SYNTHETIC AND ART SILK MILLS' RESEARCH ASSOCIATION. It is a cooperative venture set up by the man-made textile industry of India after independence as a multi-functional institute to serve its scientific and technological needs. It enjoys autonomous status so the Diploma programmes of the Institute enjoy academic freedom empowering each to experiment, innovate design and develop its own curriculum in order to keep pace with the industrial and technological development. It is linked to the Ministry of Textiles.

SASMIRA renders scientific and technical assistance to textile and related industries by Research & Development, Testing & Technical Services, Instrument Development, Computer Aided Design Services, Technical Education & Training and Organising Seminars & Conferences.

Few of the popular courses conducted at SASMIRA are:
Diploma in Fashion and Apparel Design Technology
Post Graduate Diploma in Apparel Merchandising
PG Diploma in Fashion Brand and Event Management(Full Time)

Imli Ber Wali Mausi

You will find sellers like this mausi (means aunty-most Indians address these sellers as mausi) selling tamarind(imli), raw mango slices and many sour fruits with a spicy chat masala at many places in Mumbai like The Gateway Of India, Juhu Beach.

(I'll provide more info. on the fruits seen here, a bit later) A close relative of ours has passed away and we need to get onto the next flight to Chennai, now. I'm sorry but I'll be posting only after I'm back on Friday)

Happy Valentines Day To All DailyPhotoBlog Members and all our friends from Anu & Jeetu

Nehru Planetarium

The Nehru Planetarium, commissioned on 3rd March, 1977 has grown into a Centre for scientific study of astronomy and for meeting of scientists and scholars for discussions and lectures, arranged periodically on various stellar and Astronomical events.
Special arrangements are made to watch, study and photograph Solar & Lunar eclipses, and many such other events. Telescopes are installed outside the Planetarium to enable eager visitors to watch these phenomena.
The Planetarium is currently running the 31st sky theatre programme "AWESOME UNIVERSE" .

Nehru Science Centre

Nehru Science Centre is India's largest interactive science centre. More than 50 hands-on and interactive science exhibits on energy,sound, kinematics, mechanics, transport, etc. are installed in the science park.
Nehru Science Centre is visited by over 600,000 people every year who experience and enjoy the basic principles and marvels of science & technology.Situated on Dr. E. Moses Road, Mumbai - 400018, in between Worli Naka and Mahalaxmi Railway Station, it is spread over 14 acres of land.

Mahalakshmi Race Course

Mumbai's Mahalakshmi Race Course is one of the finest in the world. The racing season is between November and February.Traditionally run on the first Sunday of February, the Indian Derby is attended by many of the city's glitterati. The race is known as the 'Crown Jewel of the Triple Crown'. It is restricted to four year old horses, both colts and fillies.
The event is supported by McDowell and Company of Dr. Vijay Mallya who also owns one of India's leading stables.

Living for Today

These children and women are sorting bunches of fresh green chick peas, for selling in the train or in the evening market. I took the shot from the train. Seeing me standing with my camera in the train, they were waving out to me, excitedly. So joyous and carefree.
It seemed like they are not worried about tomorrow, and are making the most of today. How many of us live such carefree lives without worrying about tomorrow?

Giant Wheel

The giant wheel, tora-tora and other rides are popular whenever there is a fair in Mumbai. This is a photo of the giant wheel at the Handloom Fair at Chunabhatti, where handloom fabrics, sarees, traditional jewellery, wooden artefacts & furniture are a few of the many things on display for sale.

Mumbai Train At Peak Hours

The Mumbai Local Train Week ( extended to 9 days till today) would have been incomplete without this photo.

The Mumbai train is always overcrowded at peak hours in the morning and evening. Even women in the ladies compartment travel like that in the photo. I won't blame people standing near the door coz I do it myself. I stand near the door facing the direction in which the train will move, to get breeze. In a crowded train, it sometimes gets suffocating inside if you are not seated near the window.

Ladies Only

A week of Mumbai train travel is over, but I'll end it with a couple of more photos and some information.

The Mumbai local train has two ladies compartments, one at the end and the other is the middle ladies compartment. Each compartment has 3 entry doors. The compartment at the end of the train is for ladies for 24 hours. It's advisable to travel by this one at late hours for security reasons, as it is adjacent to the driver's cabin.

The middle compartment has two sections, a larger one that is accessible from two entry doors and the other (smaller one) from one entrance. The two sections are seperated by a partition with a window. The larger section is for ladies for 24 hours, but the smaller section is either ladies or common compartment according to the timings put up at the entrance. This one's tricky coz you must complete your journey within the timings, else you'll find an impatient crowd of men jumping in at the next station, saying it's already the common timing. And don't expect good manners, as everyone is in survival mode. The timings are different in the Central and Western railway trains.

So, attention ladies! If you are new to train travel in the city, forget about peak hour travel (take a bus that's not overcrowded instead) which are usually from 8 am to 9.30 am and from 5.30 pm to 7.30 pm. Anyways, you may find trains crowded even during non-peak hours. So, please don't rush into any compartment, especially the common one. Miss a train, stand at the right place to board the train (the railway stall staff is very helpful in giving directions), wear stable footwear, hold your belongings tight and get ready for the journey. Good Luck!

The Fan

The fans in the Mumbai trains are very old. But they are dear to the daily commuters. Most of them prefer to be seated in a direction so as to get more breeze from the fan. It's amusing when the fan doesn't work, and some women (in the ladies compartment) stand up on the seats, with a pen in the hand, trying to move the fan blades, but in vain. Ok, this sometimes works.

Along The Railway Line

This is what annoys me the most in my city (but I couldn't upload it for the Feb 1st theme). I took this photo from the train near Chembur station on harbour line of Central Railway. All along the railway line, you will find drains and canals filled mostly with polythene carry bags and also empty wafer packs, chocolate wrappers and all possible rubbish. This muck is what did not allow the rain water to drain into the sea on 26th July, 2005 and claimed over 400 lives. Doesn't really look that dangerous, does it? And blame the municipal authorities if you like, but I've seen municipal workers go knee deep in the muck and clean it up, only to find it worse in less than 2 months.

Fresh Juice At The Station

Mumbai Local Train Week continues.... I took this photo at Dadar railway station. The juice centre has a wide variety of fresh juices to choose from. Carrot juice and sweet lime juice are very popular. The hot selling one is fresh lime juice priced at Rs. 3 only and is a treat in summers. There's watermelon & pineapple juices, rose milk & kokam sharbat, and grape & mango juices are available seasonally. The juice centres are at most Western railway stations and serve safe to drink, unadulterated fresh juice. So the next time you visit Dadar station or change trains here, grab two glasses of cold fresh lime juice and beat the heat.

Daily Photo Theme Day - What really annoys you in your city

What really annoys me about in my city is that it was never planned in the beginning and such hutments (slums) are emerging in every inch of vacant land in the city. This is because many Indians believe that Mumbai is their 'City of Dreams'. They migrate to the city even without realising that they are coming to one of India's costliest cities. This is the only way they can afford accomodation in the city. Most such hutments have no water supply, no drainage facility and they throw the garbage in open canals and drains. While plans are being discussed to replan Mumbai like Singapore, hundreds arrive daily to this City of Dreams to make a fortune, or atleast a good living. I'm also annoyed with many Mumbaikars because they haven't stopped using non-recyclable polythene bags even after 400 plus deaths on 26th July, 2005. Many blame the authorities for an improper sewage system that caused the deluge. But the common man does not realise that use of such plastic bags, and then disposing them in drains instead of garbage cans is what really clogs the drainage system of the city. I want to ask Mumbaikars-Do we have to lose someone dear to us to the monsoon floods to realise this and mend our ways? Are our fellow Mumbaikars not dear to us? 52 Daily Photo sites are participating in the 1st December theme, "What really annoys you about my city", please use the links to below to visit them. Due to time zone differences and other factors, the theme photo may not be displayed until later if you are viewing early in the day. 1 (Porto (Portugal) ) -2 (Stayton, OR (USA) ) -3 (Albuquerque, NM (USA) ) -4 (Tenerife (Spain) ) -5 (Greenville, SC (USA) ) -6 (Dubai (U.A.E.) ) -7 (Evry (France) ) -8 (Jakarta (Indonesia) ) -9 (London (UK) ) -10 (Sequim, WA (USA) ) -11 (Buenos Aires, (Argentina) ) -12 (Seattle, WA (USA) ) -13 (Minneapolis, MN (USA) ) -14 (Stavanger (Norway) ) -15 (Joplin , MO (USA) ) -16 (Nelson, New Zealand ) -17 (Milano, Italy ) -18 (Singapore (KeropokMan) ) -19 (La Antigua Guatemala (Guatemala) ) -20 (Nottingham UK ) -21 (Singapore by Zannnie (Singapore) ) -22 (Budapest (Hungary) ) -23 (Not Strictly Seattle, ) -24 (Bandung (Indonesia) ) -25 (Vantaa (Finland) ) -26 (Hyde (UK) ) -27 (Madrid by Dsole (Spain) ) -28 (Oulu (Finland) ) -29 (Saarbr?cken (Germany) ) -30 (St. Paul [Carol] ) -31 (Sydney (Australia) ) -32 (Tokyo (Japan) ) -33 (Kyoto (Japan) ) -34 (Trujillo (Peru) ) -35 (Shanghai (China) ) -36 (Rotterdam (NL) ) -37 (Chicago, IL (USA) ) -38 (Nice, (France) ) -39 (Naples, Florida (USA) ) -40 (Hong Kong ) -41 (Santa Clara, CA (USA) ) -42 (Quito, Ecuador (South America) ) -43 (Cottage Grove, MN (USA) ) -44 (Paris, (France) ) -45 (Manila (Philippines) ) -46 (Brussels (Belgium) ) -47 (Auckland (New Zealand) ) -48 (Newcastle upon Tyne(England) ) -49 (Houston, TX (USA) ) -50 (Sydney by Nathalie (Australia) ) -51 (Mumbai (India) ) -52 (Anderson, SC (USA)) -