Thursday, May 31, 2007

Hutch PCO's IN BEST Buses


BEST bus customers in Mumbai can now make calls to any destination in India while travelling.
BEST is into a partnership with the telecom service provider Hutch, with plans to install its PCO's in more than 1,700 buses. The Hutch PCO is a GSM-based phone, for commuters to make local, STD and ISD calls using one rupee coins.The PCO"S and Hutch drop boxes (for cheque payment of Hutch phone bills) are installed behind the driver's seat. More than 100 buses have already been fitted with the PCO's.

Local calls are charged at Re.1 for 20 seconds, STD calls at Re.1 for 20 seconds and ISD calls at Re.1 for 6 seconds.
Passengers have welcomed and appreciated the initiative taken by BEST, and look at it as modernization of travel in BEST buses.
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Wednesday, May 30, 2007

Plants For Your Home


Its end of summer time here, and you get to see many such vendors selling a variety of plants (indoor and outdoor) on the carts. Mumbai has experienced rain showers in the last few days and yesterday too. The plants grow well in the monsoon, and so many people buy these small plants just before the monsoon. Posted by Picasa

Tuesday, May 29, 2007

Sugarcane Juicewala


This sugarcane juicewala sells freshly churned sugarcane juice and quenches the thirst of hundreds of passerbys. Again it's preferred chilled but you can't be sure about the water used for the ice.
I always have it chilled and trust me, I never got a bad throat because of the ice used in sugarcane juice or the yummy gola. I mean I get a bad throat even if I have too many cold drinks and shakes using home-made ice out of my refrigerator.

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Monday, May 28, 2007

The Garland Vendor

This woman is selling flower garlands at Seven Bunglows area in Andheri. The flower garlands are used for worship and many women also use them to adorn their hair. Posted by Picasa

Wednesday, May 23, 2007

Shady Lane


This is just another shady lane in Mumbai. It connects the Four Bungalows market to Seven Bungalows area in Andheri.
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Sunday, May 20, 2007

MAX Retail In Navi Mumbai

MAX comes to Navi Mumbai.

Lifestyle International, the retail chain of stores owned by Landmark, the Dubai-based retail group has launched its value retail store 'MAX' at Palm Beach Galleria in Navi Mumbai. MAX Retail sell a vast range of items including apparel, accessories, footwear and gift items.
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Saturday, May 19, 2007

Palm Beach Galleria


The Palm Beach Galleria is the newly opened 2.5 lakh sq. ft. shopping mall in Vashi, conveniently located right off the highway.

The first ever Espirit ( the leading brand for fashion timewear) corner for watches and accessories in Mumbai, which is also the first in Asia has been opened here.The Espirit Island (as this new concept corner is called) promises to give the customer the ultimate shopping experience with the widest chioce of Espirit timewear, jewellery and sunglasses under one roof. Townies will have to travel to Navi Mumbai to shop at Espirit Island.

The mall boasts of McDonalds fast food, Odyssey (a store for books, toys, CDs, DVD's), MAX Retail of the $1-billion Landmark Group(Dubai), Adlabs movie theatre and many other brands.

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Friday, May 18, 2007

Gola Wala


The gola wala is a pleasant sight to see in the scorching summer heat. Gola is 'ice slush' on a wooden gola stick. The gola wala pushes the gola stick into the crushed ice ball, pours the syrup generously, with a dash of lime, and sprinkles some masala. The most popular flavour is kala-khatta, made from the fruit 'jamun' or Indian blackberry. The colourful bottles of syrup on the cart surely tempt you to stop by and slurrp one.
The gola is yummy and refreshing and quenches your thirst but one cannot be sure of quality of the syrup and the water (from which ice is made). There are outlets where you can get good quality syrup with gola ice made of mineral water too. Posted by Picasa

Friday, May 11, 2007

Central Water Tower


The two water towers opposite Sanpada station(East) are a part of the central water tower system in Navi Mumbai. You will see such water towers in many places in Navi Mumbai. Posted by Picasa

Thursday, May 10, 2007

Fun Square At Sanpada


The Fun Square is a 'digital movie theatre' at Sanpada railway station. It is more like a mini theatre, having two halls with seating capacities of about 100 and 50 respectively.

The theatre has comfortable seats but the screen is small. Its more like the Gem and Grace mini theatres at the G7 Multiplex in Bandra(popularly known as Gaiety-Galaxy theatres).But for Rs. 50 a ticket, and enhanced digital quality, could one ask for more?

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Wednesday, May 09, 2007

Sanpada Station Complex


The Sanpada Station Complex has the subway and the railway station built within. The complex houses a mini theatre Fun Square, and two restaurants and many spaces for commercial purposes.
Unlike Mumbai, most Navi Mumbai stations look more like commercial complexes than railway stations. The Belapur railway station boasts of a helipad and helicopter service, making Belapur Station Complex accessible by air too.

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Tuesday, May 08, 2007

Near Vashi Station


This is another view of the BSEL Tech Park opposite Vashi Station Complex. The building on the extreme right is the first mall of Navi Mumbai, Center One. The flyover you see is a part of the 9 km Palm Beach Road that connects Belapur and Vashi in Navi Mumbai. Posted by Picasa

Monday, May 07, 2007

Sanpada Railway Station


Sanpada township(which is on the east side) of the station can be accessed from this subway built under the railway station, within the Sanpada station complex.
One side is for passengers going to the railway platforms up the stairs and also people crossing over from Sanpada(East) to the other side [Sanpada(West)] and the other side, for vehicles to cross over to the other side. The subway descends as you enter it from either side (east or west). The roof of the subway also descends, so it is suitable for light vehicles only. Heavy vehicles enter Sanpada from the entry near Turbhe.

This subway was full of flood waters (neck deep) on the 26th July, 2005, and Sanpada was inaccessible till the next morning.
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Sunday, May 06, 2007

CST (VT Station)


This is the Chhatrapati Shivaji Terminus (commonly known as Victoria Terminus or VT Station) at 5 pm in the evening, when the office crowd begins to rush to the station. Posted by Picasa

Saturday, May 05, 2007

Fruit Sellers At Sanpada Station


These are fruit sellers at Sanpada station carrying baskets of fresh fruit from Mumbai's wholesale fruit market in Vashi. Sanpada is the nearest station for the wholesale fruit and vegetable markets, and the Agriculture Produce Market in Navi Mumbai.
The wholesale vegetable and fruit markets were shifted from Mumbai to Vashi in early 1996. Many small fruit sellers across the city ( Mumbai and Navi Mumbai) come here and buy large quantities (one to 5 baskets) of seasonal fruit and sell it in local markets or along the roadside in the city for a daily living.
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Friday, May 04, 2007

BSEL TECH Park At Vashi

BSEL Tech park is an infotech realm and highly sophisticated state of the art facility with an elegant ambience which embraces IT and ITES hubs.BSEL Tech Park is a monumental landmark of Navi Mumbai due to its location, strategically right opposite the Vashi Railway Station, built to cater to the needs of Multi Nationals and large corporate houses. Posted by Picasa

Thursday, May 03, 2007

Silhouette


The Late Shri N.K.Soundararajan has clicked this photo of his little daughter in the mid 50's with a Reflekta camera. The Reflekta was new then.
The little girl in the photo is my sister's mother-in-law. We call her Amma. She shared some family photos with us when we went to Chennai recently to be with her, when she lost her younger son, Krishna. I loved this one that her father had named 'Silhouette' and Amma was glad to know that people from all over the world would see the photo on MDS. The photo is old but there's something about it.

Amma has always been proud of her father, who was a man of great wisdom with strong values, and yet modern and open to new thoughts. I had the opportunity to meet the man at my sister's wedding and was greatly influenced by his words
. Amma is a reflection of her father and my sister couldn't have got a better mom-in-law. Posted by Picasa