Mumbai city: An outsider’s perspective (Column)

When I was moving to Mumbai two years back I was very excited. This city has been called the replica of Manhattan city, New York. The second reason that moving to a new place always excites me. It gives me an opportunity to see and imagine the unseen.

But, my experience of Mumbai was quite different from what I expected. My first expectation was shattered when I saw the dirty water at Marine Drive. I had expected crystal clear blue water. That is what I had inferred from the Hindi movies which were shot near Arabian Sea.

Local trains- the lifeline of Mumbai is indeed an interesting experience. In the start I had difficulty in finding which train goes to which destination. I was lost twice at C.S.T. In the ladies compartment there is something called ‘booking of seats’. If someone is getting down at a station before you, you can ‘book’ the seat which means no one can sit on that seat apart from you. And if someone sits on that seat even by mistake, they are in trouble. Umbrellas, fists, cold water everything will be used effectively- just for a seat!

Personally, I like rains. I come from a place where it barely rains for a week. But, the monsoon here stays for four months! It rains the entire day. I love to wear different footwear everyday but because of the rains I have to wear the same floaters every day.

The night life of the city is amazing and much safer than the place I come from. After mid-night you can find people partying or strolling near Marine Drive sipping a steaming cup of tea.

I hail from the capital of the country yet the experience I have had is pretty different. And I can never stop knowing the city. Every single day I discover something new about this city. This is a city where you’ll feel at home.

Profile: The Girl Next Door

The famous American sitcom ‘FRIENDS’ ended almost seven years ago but characters have continued to live with us. One character that one can never forget is Rachel Green portrayed to perfection by Jennifer Aniston.

(Jennifer Aniston and Brad Pitt in happier times)

Jennifer Aniston is fondly called as ‘the perfect girl next door’. She has gained critical success for her performances in movies like The Good Girl, Bruce Almighty, Marley & Me and Office Space. She has had her greatest commercial successes with films like The Break-Up, Just Go With It, Derailed, The Switch and Along Came Polly. Her latest movie, Horrible Bosses has opened to rave reviews and is going strong at the box-office. She is probably one of the few actors who have made a successful transition from television to the big screen.

Before FRIENDS, Aniston starred in unsuccessful sitcoms. FRIENDS changed her career graph. Her convincing portrayal earned her multiple nominations and awards. She has won prestigious awards including an Emmy, a Golden Globe and a Screen Actors Guild Award. She has won the People Choice Award thrice. The sitcom was so popular that for the last two seasons of Friends, she and her co-stars received a salary of whopping one million dollars per episode making them the highest TV actors of all time according to Guinness World Book of Records (2005).

Her characters are real-life inspired. You can always find a little bit of Jennifer in each of her character. When she was going through her own divorce she was filming The Break-Up with Vince Vaughn. The genre Aniston is more comfortable with is comedy and is known for her amazing comic timing. Recently, she went out of her comfort zone and played a sexual predator in black comedy, ‘Horrible Bosses’.

Her personal life has been the topic of discussion in the media for years. America’s sweetheart got married to Brad Pitt in 2005. Finally when Hollywood had started thinking that perfect marriage exists, the couple got divorced in 2005. After her divorce, her love life has been paparazzi’s favourite topic.

Post her divorce; she has been a role model for single women who are going through separation or heart break. She once said, ‘ I never liked Sex and the city, the kind of thing where women feel empowered once they find the man, it’s  just not up my alley. I don’t believe it.’

According to Jennifer, the media has got her love life all wrong. She says, ‘This whole poor-lonely-Jen thing, this idea that I’m unlucky in love. I actually feel I have been unbelievably lucky in love. I am right where I’m supposed to be.’

The actor is rumoured to be dating actor Justin Theroux whom she met while filming her upcoming movie, Wanderlust.

She looked happy and radiant when she visited the show ‘Good Morning America’. Speaking about her personal life she said with her trademark smile, ‘I am extremely lucky and extremely happy.’


Photo credit- www.hirado.hu

Tete-a-tete with a Fashion Designer

Giselle, a designer, has her own fashion store in Malad, Mumbai. She is also a cosmologist from Christine Valmy School of Esthetics.

Q1- How did your career begin?

I did my course in fashion designing at Clare secretarial school, Bandra. Then I had the opportunity of working at photographer Ashok Salian’s office. It was a good experience for me to understand about the work culture of fashion industry. I got to see the glamour as well as the hard work the models put in their work. I also had an interaction with people in advertising. Later, I studied cosmetology which helped my career too.

Q2- When and with what motive did you launch your fashion store?

I opened my store, ‘Beverly Hills’ on 16 September 2009. People have a notion that designer wear will be out of their budget. With the idea to cater customers with affordable designer wear, I launched this store. We are doing well since then.

Q3- What makes ur dresses stand apart from the usual?

The materials are imported from China, Dubai and Singapore. The fabric quality is taken care of. We not only have western outfits but also indo-western outfits. We take care of overweight women as well unlike other designer stores. We provide them the best possible fitting of the gown.

Q4- Currently, who include your clientele

I can’t take names but customer types vary greatly there are a few celebrities like a film producer’s wife, TV actors and Indipop singer, Jimmy Gill are regular at the store. Then this happens that there are a few who pick up an outfit once and crib about a certain money they shelled out on it.

(Giselle at her store with her Exclusive designs)

Q5- What is the price range of your products?

The designer tops start from Rs. 1200. Designer dresses start from Rs. 1500. The Designer Kurtis are big hit at my store. Soon we will be launching our very own jewellery for youth ranging from Rs. 99 to Rs 199. The pieces will be exclusive here.

Its Carnival time!

The college fest time has arrived in Mumbai. The Wilson College BMM fest ‘Polaris’ started today and the theme they have chosen is Carnival.

For the promotion of their fest a Carnival Parade was held on 10^th of this month. Wilson BMM students and faculty came out in full support. Ex-students also joined in. The students walked from Wilson College to Wilson Gymkhana. It served as a great PR exercise since many contingents participated in the Parade. They were dressed up as clowns or fairies or were in a completely different ‘colourful avatar’. Tricycles, Cycles and Victoria could be spotted in the crowd. Polaris mascot 'Polly' was leading the Parade. The success of this event raised everyone’s expectations from the fest.

Today, the crowd came out in huge numbers and many colleges participated. But, according to senior & ex-students the crowd has decreased when compared to last year.

The fest had a rocky start as one of the workshops got cancelled. The crowd became a little restless as no other event was taking place at that moment. Soon, the volunteers were able to pacify the crowd. The Radio event was a grand success. Participation was in large numbers and many supporters came in to support their contingents.

Since last few years, the ‘talent show type’ event in Polaris called ‘Showtime’ garnered a lot of praise and success. But, this year Showtime was scrapped. Instead of that, the dance event took place which was the last event of the day. The college hall was a little ill-equipped to accommodate all the contingents but, the crowd cheered for every performance making the dance event, the most memorable event of Day 1.

(The Polaris Parade)

Day 2 also promises a lot of action including the new event of Polaris ‘Fashion Show’ and workshops by eminent media personalities. Let’s see how the rest of the fest shapes up.

Business in the capital

From being a retail and trading hub, Delhi is now an important centre of modern business. In its 100^th year, a look at the business growth in the Capital.

Delhi completes its centenary as the capital of modern India in December 2011. However, Delhi has always served as the financial capital for most empires including the Mughal Empire.

Earlier, the core of the city lay in the northern parts: Chandini Chowk, Kashmere Gate and Civil Lines flourishing with trade and commerce. The small villages and hamlets in the southern part of the city had a motley group of communities living in them: Jats, Brahmins, Christians, Muslims and Gujjars. They reared animals, engaged in agriculture and worked as labourers in Shahjahanabad, the city established by Shah Jahan. Chandini Chowk, was also established by Shah Jahan. Today it is Asia’s largest wholesale market but during Shah Jahan’s reign it was a market planned especially for his daughter.

Food has always been a focal point for the city, and many believe the modern day Indian food industry originated in Delhi with eateries like Karim’s , which serves authentic Mughalai food. Haji Zahiruddin, founder of Karim’s belonged to a family whose bloodline extends back to the chefs who prepared feasts in the courts of Mughal emperors. Haji Karimuddin, the grandfather of the present owner established his shop in the same place where his descendants now prepare their family recipes. The recipes are still a secret.


Another famous food joint is Parantha Wali Gali.  This Gali got its name in 1911. Of the 20 parantha shops in the late 1960s (all belonging to the same family), only three remain.

In the late 1980s many of them closed shop and moved out, though today this place is experiencing a revival and some shops are being run by the sixth generation of the same family. This food joint is the essence of the capital. The parantha served here can give competition to any major food chain throughout the country.

Khan Chacha is also one of the famous eateries of New Delhi. Located in Khan Market this is one of the food outlets that attracts tourists and residents.

Mumbai vs. Delhi

K.L Kaul, 84, retired as a scientist from Indian agricultural research, has been living in the city for more than 60 years. He describes Delhi as the ‘city of Babus and bicycles’, He also added that people usually migrated from other states and their only motive was to earn money and send to their families. They didn’t have any business perspectives.

Mrs Kavita Singh, who is a government school teacher specializing in History feels that no industry can be situated in the capital city – she cites Washington D.C as an example and says this applies to New Delhi too.

Although, it was not that Delhi hadn’t tried to establish itself as a commercial hub. The Escorts group, an engineering company which is one of the leading manufacturers of India tried to establish itself in Faridabad. But again, the main problem was the power shortage and industries cannot run without power. Eventually, the Escorts group had to shift.

Mrs Singh says that the one thing that doesn’t work for Delhi is that it doesn’t have sea ports. Sea is the cheapest way to transport. And if the transportation cost rises, it is difficult to compete in the world market. There are a lot of corporate offices in New Delhi but no big industry can be erected in the capital. This works in the favour of Mumbai, Kolkata and Gujarat.

GROWING REAL ESTATE HUB

One of the important businesses now in the city is real estate. A classic example would be DLF, where in last two decades farmland has given way to urban development. K.P Singh, the head of Delhi’s DLF group has transformed fragmented holdings of agricultural land into a modern metropolis. Raghuvendra Singh, who is K.P Singh’s father-in-law, started DLF in 1946 before partition. Now it is a thriving business in many other parts of the country as well.

Real estate is unofficially also known as the business of ‘Jats’ in Delhi.

Occupationally, since most refugees in Delhi came from the urban areas of West Pakistan, they moved towards trade and commerce. In many parts of Delhi, shops and businesses were taken over by such refugees.  About 90 per cent of the shops in  Chandni Chowk's Cloth Market, for example, originally  belonged to the old residents of Delhi but over time Punjabi refugees took over the bulk of the business, with a mere 10 per cent  eventually remaining in the control of the old merchants. In fact, this is the primary reason why Delhi, post-independence, became a big retail market city.

K.L Kaul also adds that the refugees who entered Delhi after the partition have only opened shops in places like Khan Market and Chandini Chowk. Those shops are still present in those areas but they have been unable to evolve into something huge.

Rise of modern business

If we talk about modern business environment which includes the IT, healthcare and service sector, Delhi has scored big time. All the upcoming IT companies are establishing their offices in Gurgaon.

The call centre culture was first started in Gurgaon and then it spread to other parts of the country. This also gave an opportunity to the less educated to work and gain experience.

Coaching centres have changed the face of this city. They started from one room in the owner’s home and now they are converted into a franchise. The most important example being Akash Institute and P.T. Sachdeva, they are famous throughout the country.

Though Mumbai has the benefit of Stock Exchange and Sea Ports, Delhi on the other hand is giving rise to new modern businesses which is changing the country and is putting India on the world map.

Sadhana Amte passes away

Sadhana Amte, social worker and widow of Gandhian Baba Amte died from a prolonged illness on Saturday around 5 pm at Anandwan, their home for the leprosy-affected at Warora in Chandrapur district. She was 86 years old.

Family sources said that she was not keeping well since Baba’s death but her health deteriorated in the last month. She is survived by two sons, Vikas and Prakash and two adopted daughters, Renuka and Bijlee.

She was born on May 5, 1926. She got married to Baba Amte on December 18, 1946. In 1949, Baba set up Anandwan, a home for leprosy patients and other disabled people. Fondly called Sadhanatai, she actively worked with her husband and dedicated her life in the service of leprosy affected people. She even joined her husband on the banks of Narmada in the support of Medha Patkar’s Narmada Bachao Andolan.

In her autobiography ‘Samittu’, she described how she and Baba carried out their mission fighting the difficulties they faced. ‘I had to become a mountain of ice to balance out the volcano called Baba Amte,’ Sadhanatai wrote in her book.

She has also mentioned in the book about her marriage and how Baba fought with the thieves and was covered with bandages on their wedding day.

Her autobiography has been translated in English and several Indian languages as it received tremendous response from readers all over the world.

Following their parents footsteps, Sons Vikas and Prakash are engaged in social service. Like his father, Prakash Amte and his wife Madakini Amte have received Magsaysay Award.

Honouring Sadhanatai’s wish, she would be buried in the same grave of her husband, who passed away in February, 2008. She had even selected the sari to be put on her for the last rites.

(Baba Amte with Sadhana Amte in an undated photo)

Her last rites will be performed at Anandwan on Sunday morning.

                         

Rising tattoo culture

If your grandmother or great grandmother spent her childhood in a village or a small town, there is a possibility that they might have seen their friends or relatives getting inked. Or they might be having a tattoo themselves.

But, this culture made its way back in India when Bollywood star Saif Ali Khan got his girlfriend’s (Kareena Kapoor) name inked on his arm. Interestingly, the tattoo was in Devnagari- not in English. Soon, many actors followed the suit.

In India, not only metros are witnessing the rise of tattoo culture but the small towns are also following this fashion. Around the world tattoo culture is at its peak. No one is shy from getting a tattoo as it is ‘cool’ and is also gaining acceptable in the society. That is the reason why tattoo business is expanding day by day in our country.

People get themselves inked for various reasons one being that it is a form of self-expression. Sometimes, they want to dedicate their tattoo either to god or to someone they love. Sometimes, it is just for an adventure or an experience.

According to American Association of Dermatologists, 50% of people who at some point of life decide to get a tattoo, later regret their decision and turn up for treatments. A famous example would be when Hollywood star Johnny Depp dedicated a tattoo ‘Winona forever’ to then-girlfriend Winona Ryder, after their break-up he had to get it changed to ‘Wino forever’

Though, this culture is slowly gaining acceptance, in some professions a tattoo is a big no-no especially if you are a part of corporate culture. The companies feel that this culture can be accepted by movie industry or advertising or media firms as their dealings are not that official.

‘If you say that tattoo culture is something which our ancestors used to follow then our parents and the society should be happy that atleast we are following some tradition’ adds Neha Singh, a class 12 passout.

Hollywood diva Angelina Jolie, who has fourteen tattoos, feels that all her tattoos came at good times. ‘A tattoo is something permanent when you've made a self-discovery or something you've come to a conclusion about’, she said.

A saying by an unknown author goes like this- Your body is a temple, but how long can you live in the same house before you redecorate? 

We have to wait and see if this is what the entire youth around the world thinks.

Image source- www.dailymail.co.uk