Simply Mumbai - 8

Survival In Mumbai

Monday Shopping & Markets : Girl's Shopping Delight

Girl's shopping delight.

Monday Shopping & Markets : Footwear

Footwear at Andheri

This is a footwear shop outside Andheri station, selling a variety of popular daily footwear for women. Nowadays, most ladies seems to have atleast half a dozen sandals and shoes, matching with the outfits and bags. So, even with a wear life of about 3 to 6 months, and priced at a couple of hundred rupees, they are very popular.

The best destination for footwear shopping from small shops on the road (which is popularly called Rasta shopping - means shopping on road) is Linking Road in Bandra. 

Mumbai Weekend Snapshot by Krrish - 7 : Funny Masks

Cute Animal Masks

These cute animal masks were being sold by a hawker outside our school. I also bought the blue tiger mask. There were cute parrot toys also.
Sometimes cute little things make our day.

Monday Shopping and Markets : Christmas Shopping

Its Christmas season, and whether you visit markets in Andheri, Bandra or the wholesale markets in Vashi, you will see all stalls selling Christmas decorations and accesories like this one.

Simply Mumbai - 2 : Young Entrepreneurs

These two little girls were collecting bunches of coriander (cilantro) leaves, discarded by the wholesale sellers in the APMC vegetable market. A couple of sprigs of each bunch were spoilt.

They were sorting the coriander leaf bunches, removing spoilt sprigs and making fresh bunches. When I asked what they would do with them, one of them said 'we will sell them for Rs. 5 a bunch'. They looked busy and focussed and didnt really care to be photographed, and got on with their work after replying me.
 In a market where retail sellers buy cartloads full of veggies, or a basketful to carry on the bicycle and sell, these two girls found their own way of making money.

They seem to have acquired life supporting skills to survive in the fast paced city. I am inspired by these little workers and would like to call them 'Young Entrepreneurs'.

ABC Wednesday - ' V ' for Variety of Namkeen / Farsan

A huge 'Variety' of these fresh fried snacks popularly called 'Farsan' or 'Namkeen' of different tastes, shapes and flavours are very popular in Mumbai. They could be of Maharashtrian or Gujarati origin or even from North or South India.

Here they are sold loose by weight. One can even taste before buying them.
In many localities, the 'farsan' vendors sell the freshly packed  'farsan' at our doorstep. Our kids eagerly wait every Thursday for their favourite 'namkeen wala uncle' (means- uncle who gets lots of  'namkeen') and are eager to try something new each time. They are popular snacks for the school 'short break'.

For more ' V ' for..... entries from around the world, click below

Monday Shopping and Markets : Char Bangla Market

Vegetable vendors at Char Bangla market in the Andheri(West) suburb in Mumbai.
Take a close look and you will find they have all the fresh ingredients for your speciality dish like yellow and red peppers, mushrooms, sprouts, baby potatoes and tomatoes, fresh corn and the regular veggies too.

This one is from my archives, but the market is still very much the same.
There is also a fish market nearby.

Mumbai Weekend Snapshot by Krrish - 1

Hi friends, this is my first photo on mumbaidailysnapshot. 
I clicked this one from the auto yesterday, when this boy came asking for some money or food. 

Mom and I usually carry biscuit or wafer packets to give the children who beg on streets, but we never give them any money. We also make sure we open the pack a little so that they cannot resell it. 
These children have a tough life, and buy 'Gutkha' - (Wikipedia meaning - a sweetened mixture of chewing tobacco, betel nut and palm nut) for Rs. 1 or 2 instead of food. Mom has even seen a little boy go to a cigarette and pan shop, and exchange the Rs.2 biscuit pack for a Rs. 1 'Gutkha' pack. So opening the pack is important so that we are sure we gave snacks and not gutkha.

I feel very bad for them and want to do something for these children. When I see them, I feel blessed to have such a nice home, family and school. 

I hope you like my post. Please come back on next Sunday to see my Mumbai Weekend Snapshot.

Skywatch Friday 2014 : 1

A statue of a worker carrying a load on his back in Dana Bunder area near APMC market in Vashi, against the surprising cloudy morning sky.

It is dedicated to the workers, locally called 'Hamaal' and are the lifeline of the wholesale market in Vashi.

Click on the image below

to see pictures of skies all around the world

Simply Mumbai - 1 : Seasonal Fruit - Guava

Winter brings these delicious guavas to Mumbai markets. Guava is locally known as 'peru' and comes in the white and pink flesh types. The skin, seeds and flesh are all edible. An excellent source of vitamin C, guavas are great for the skin. This pink variety tastes the same as the white one, but looks prettier and more tempting, especially when cut in this ziz-zag manner.

You will see many fruit vendors selling them in fruit baskets by the roadside, in Mumbai.

ABC Wednesday - 'U' for UNIFORM

Secondary School children in school 'uniform' after school.

For more photos of ABC Wednesday - 'U' from around the world

Click below

Our World Tuesday # 11 Mumbai Traffic

A Street Shot during the morning rush hours near Andheri Sports Complex.
All in a hurry to reach somewhere. The man pushing the handcart saw some place and rushed in before the bike rider could, while the lady with a small child in her arms hurried into the bus which is nowhere near the bus-stop.
The beauty of Mumbai lies in the chaos of the city, and tolerance towards each other.

 Click below to see photographers from all around the world, share photos of their world and tell us a little bit of the story about the place.

My World #9

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Morning peak hour 'UP' ( heading from suburbs and other areas towards South Mumbai) traffic
at D. N. Road in South Mumbai

D. N. Road is an important road in Fort area in South Mumbai. J. N. Petit Library, Khadi Bhandar are on this road. The sidewalks are filled with vendors selling books, music cassettes, clothes, imported things like audio equipment, cameras, musical instruments and calculators etc. mostly imported from China.

The area is famous for its street shopping and the book stalls sell a myriad of books at negligible prices. Surrounded by old buildings the area is beautiful although getting defaced by the multitude of advertising banners.

Saturday Photohunters Theme: FAMILY

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After watching this happy family for about 30 seconds from the local train, sorting bunches of green peas for selling them at the traffic signal, I realised that half of the people in the city live for today. I wonder if I would be calm and smiling if I were in their place.

I came across these beautiful family quotes while browsing the net.

The family is a haven in a heartless world. ~Attributed to Christopher Lasch

If the family were a fruit, it would be an orange, a circle of sections, held together but separable - each segment distinct. ~Letty Cottin Pogrebin

Call it a clan, call it a network, call it a tribe, call it a family: Whatever you call it, whoever you are, you need one. - Jane Howard

Saturday Photohunter: Theme "Wrinkled"

If wrinkles must be written upon our brows, let them not be written upon the heart. The spirit should not grow old.
-James A. Garfield

Nobody grows old by merely living a number of years.
People grow old by deserting their ideals.
Years may wrinkle the skin, but to give up wrinkles the soul.
- General Douglas MacArthur

Age may wrinkle the face, but lack of enthusiasm  wrinkles the soul.
- Danish proverb

To keep the heart unwrinkled, to be hopeful, kindly, cheerful, reverent - that is to triumph over old age.
- Thomas Bailey Aldrich

Making A Living

I spotted this 12 year old girl near the gift shop that I posted on Tuesday. She was selling bracelets made of alphabet beads. I asked her to make one with my son's name on it. It was interesting watching her, as she weaved the bracelet in less than five minutes.

Have a close look at the beads she had.

Here's the bracelet she made for me.

ABC Wednesday - 'D' for DADAR

• If you ask any Mumbaiite, what is 'D' for? Most of them will say D for DADAR.
• Dadar, the most crowded railway station on the Mumbai suburban railway, is divided into Dadar East and Dadar West by the railway line.
• Dadar has the only railway station common to both the Central line and the Western line; this makes it a transit point and the most crowded railway station on the Mumbai Suburban Railway.
• Dadar West market is a very popular shopping destination for residents of central Mumbai.
• Some of the prominent landmarks of Dadar are Pritam Restaurant & Dhaba, Hindmata Cloth Market; St. Paul the Apostle Church, behind Hindmata Theatre; Guru Nanak Gurudwara, opposite Chitra Cinema; behind Chitra Cinema; Dadar T.T. Circle.
• The Parsi Colony in Dadar has the famous Five Gardens, actually something like seven to eight gardens separated by roads.
• Opposite the exit of the Dadar Railway Station is located the newly constructed Swaminarayan Temple .
• Hindu Colony in Dadar has several major educational institutes clustered together: the Ruia College, the Ruparel College, the Podar College and formerly the King George, but now known as the I.E.S. School, after its operators, the Indian Education Society.

Fresh Sugarcane Juice

This is the new attraction for Sanpada residents in the evening hours, when most people are out in the market, and the others returning home.
A glass of fresh and sweet sugarcane juice, extracted in a unique way manually (no use of motor). It is an interesting sight for passerbys. The cart is portable, and is parked at different spots throughout the day, for better business.

Boot Polish

These are boot-polish walas making a living outside Vashi Railway Station( & International Infotech Park).
For a small amount, they will first use cream, then polish and polish your shoes really well. It's common here for men to get their shoes polished(on their way to work) outside railway stations, and at some places, even on railway platforms.
If you want to be sure of the quality of polish being used on your shoes, ask for 'SPECIAL' polish, which will cost you a little extra.
A little further on the left is the Vashi station ticket counter, another entrance ahead and to the right, opposite the station is Raghuleela Mall.
I will show you these photos in my next posts.