The Mumbai Skyline at Versova under overcast skies almost a year since the 26/11 attacks

I came across these black and white photos and thought I must share them with you http://www.quarterbar.com/2009/11/20/versova-mumbai-400061/.

Mumbai in the afternoon

Photos from within an auto rickshaw this afternoon:

Alcohol prices in Alibaug

I found this, the only bar close to the bus station at Alibaug. A good four minutes walk from it, in fact. And one other close to the bypass, some ten minutes away, by foot. It is interesting to compare liquor prices with Mumbai.

“Slumdog Millionaire” in real life

“I have come from Uttar Pradesh. I came here in 1997, ticketless, by train. Some people from my village were here before me. They’d made friends with the local slumlord and acquired a portion of this pavement, for business.”

Sachinder and his friends run a juice centre on a pavement at New Bombay. Flies, mosquitoes galore! He lives in a 10 feet x 10 feet pigeon-hole like space, that he shares with thirteen others, bachelors, like himself, from Uttar Pradesh, at New Bombay.

World anti-doping agency. Bloody money-making racket.

I think that money spent on dope testing is a waste. A waste of travel money, testing equipment/lab money, office space, stationary, electricity, research etc. etc. And of course, money paid to personal. It is criminal to spend such money on something so useless.

Any substance that exists in this world in either a natural state or fabricated mustn’t be banned. It must be illegal to ban any substance. Governments, agencies etc. who impose such bans must be eliminated.

Legalise doping in sports.

The State of Black and White Photography in Bombay, India

Paritosh and his brother are poor. But they have a skill, one skill. Paritosh and his brother are darkroom experts. Black and White. Processing and prints. Paritosh and his brother as as good as the best photo labs in the city. Times before digital photography. Paritosh and his brother’d rent a one room apartment at Prabhadevi, a relatively expensive neighborhood in Bombay that’d serve as their darkroom. Digital photography’d be a thing of the future. Black and white photography’d be a niche but popular art. Paritosh and his brother are simple and honest, very likable gentlemen. Client’s love them, and, their work, that compares to the best in the city.

In came digital photography. Paritosh and his brother’s business suffered a setback. Clients had taken to the digital scheme of things. Media, print and online switched to the digital scheme of things, for obvious reasons. In the months to come, Paritosh and his brother’s business suffered further setbacks. Paritosh and his brother have no other skill, remember. No capital to invest in a digital lab. Paritosh and his brother left their apartment in Prabhadevi and moved their darkroom to a slum, in Mahim. Loyal clients continued to patronise them, at the slum, at Mahim, but the numbers reduced, at a steady pace.

Nelson doesn’t love us.

Nelson is Goan, almost retiring, a couple of years, perhaps.

“We, in our time, were very loyal to our workplace, our company. We’d stick. We’d learn. We’d perform. We’d be sincere to our company. Today’s young generation, they have no sense of loyalty, they jump from one company to the other for five hundred, one thousand rupees more.”

Nelson is a highly qualified hardware engineer. He’s spent almost all his life in this one company, that manufacture audio hardware. He’s got a good ear, and taste in music.

“I stopped taking interviews. I am fed up. Sagar now does the interviews. I cannot stand the youth of today, they’re a bunch of shit. One day, someone came for an interview and asks me – which company is this?
Can you believe it? I asked him – you’ve applied, you’ve come for an interview – and you don’t know which company you’ve come to for an interview?
And he replied no – I don’t have access to the internet – my brother has Internet at work – he applied to several places for me – now how do I know where all he’d applied!
Can you believe that?”

Nelson is full of stories.

“I asked him, what are your expectations?
- twelve thousand!
I meant to ask – what were his expectations of the company, his work but straight away! A fresher! Twelve thousand they want! Any sense!
I gave him a written test – bugger doesn’t know how many centimeters make an inch! He phoned a friend and asked him to check it on a foot ruler! Any sense? What is a decibel, we asked – he wrote a whole theory and equations – took an extra sheet of paper! We only expected him to write – a unit of sound!”

THIS WAS A VERY INTERESTING CONVERSATION. BUT I’M TOO BORED TO CONTINUE. I GUESS I’M DONE WITH BLOGS AND BLOGGONG. PERHAPS NOT, BUT NO MORE STORIES FOR YOU.

Tortoise meat for breakfast, and lunch, and dinner.

“Bugger, bugger, I went to my village, and this villager cooked tortoise.”

“Are they not endangered? On the verge of extinction or something? Is it not illegal to kill tortoise?”

“Geoffery, and Rohit have, both, gone mad!”

“Rohit! How are things, and where is everybody?”

“The boys’ve not come to college today. I had to come. I had journals to submit. But you, you never come to college on Saturdays, what’s with you today?”

“I don’t know. I was bored! I didn’t know what to do! I was hoping two or three of the boys’d show up. I guess I’ll head back home.”

“The force is unusually strong today, I feel like a drink, or maybe four! But I have no money today! Do you have any money on you? I’ll square you off on Monday!”

Sanitation concerns in South East Asia

Filmmaker Girish Menon, last year, released a documentary film, on a World Bank funded project, the Slum Sanitation Program, in India. The film takes a close look at, sanitation facilities, in the armpits of the third world. Inadequate sanitation facilities, is a major concern, in the third world, exposing its residents to contagious diseases, because of which, one isn’t able to report to work, resulting in a decline in income, the standard of living and children’s education.