Bits and Bytes from my Life

I grew up in south Mumbai. Gateway of India next to Taj Hotel was our regular hangout place. My college was walking distance from Taj. 2 days have gone by and security forces are trying to flush out terrorists. Terrorists created a havoc in the city. I don’t live in Mumbai anymore but Mumbai is such a big part of me. It was shocking to see the kind of attack terrorists carried out. Actually it is disgusting to know a human can shoot innocent people returning to their homes after hard days of work. But what else can you expect from Terrorists. I wish everyone of those bastards is gunned down. But I don’t want to write about all the bad/sad stuff. Today while hearing the news I looked back at Mumbai. Mumbai never sleeps or stops.

1. While in Mumbai I regularly took cab from Santacruz airport  to Colaba after midnight. Even at that late you could see people everywhere some working, some playing cards, some just walking by and some just chilling out. That is Mumbai.
2. I use to regularly take late night drives on Nariman Point and have orange juice at Chowpati way part mid night. That is Mumbai.
3. I use to hangout at various places including Leopold cafe near Regal and that was the happening place.
4. I have never walked away from Movie theater because the movie was sold out. You could always get tickets. :) If you knew where.
5. Mumbaikars enjoy every festival but the most famous festival of Mumbai is Ganesh chaturthi. 10 days of fun, big Ganpati statues with lot of music and fun. There is noting like it anywhere in the world. In Mumbai you enjoy festivals in public.
6. Tuesday is very sacred in Mumbai it is day of Siddhivinayak(Ganapati) and Siddivinayak temple in Dadar is center or attraction. There are many people who walk all the way to the temple even walking for hours to reach their. That is Mumbai.
7. People take same local training at same time everyday. Actually you build friendships that last for lifetime. I took 8:00am fast local from Churchgate to Andheri everyday. That is Mumbai
8. In 1993 there were similar terrorist attacks and terrorists blasted 13 bombs in differnt locations. I was in very close to BSE, one of the sites. I think it happened on Friday and city was back up and running by Monday. That is Mumbai.

If terrorist think they can scare Mumbai, they picked a wrong target because Mumbai will be back up and running, not in days but in hours. That is Mumbai. I love Mumbai and I am proud of Amchi Mumbai. Just read Mumbai stock exchange was working and it close higher.. Here is note from a news article…

At 2:40 pm, Bombay Stock Exchange’s Sensex was at 9,136.05, up 109.33 points or 1.21 per cent. – The Economic Times

My thoughts are with everyone in Mumbai. Especially the brave police officers who lost their lives in defending the city Hemand Karkare, Vijay Salaskar & Ashok Kamte and NSG Cammando Major Sandeep Unnikrishnan.

Last weekend Swati’s friend Rebecca got married in Port Townsend. We attended the marriage. We reached Port Townsend on Saturday, attended marriage on Sunday afternoon and returned back on Sunday evening. It was a short trip but we enjoyed it a lot. Port Townsend is a very small and beautiful town.

We stayed at Hotel Swan which was on the bay. You could walk to the downtown area. It was small downtown but the restaurants were amazing. We had dinner at Belmont restaurant and it was really good. I will highly recommend it.

Marriage was really beautiful. It was traditional Jewish wedding. I noticed there are many similarities between Jewish and Hindu wedding. Will write about it in another post.

Swati’s childhood friend Rama visited us for 1 week few weeks back. It was fun to spend a week with her. Swati and Rama went to see space needle and experience music project meanwhile I sat at a coffee shop and caught on some work. I love Seattle coffee shops. Both girls also enjoyed some shopping.

Funniest story from Rama’s visit went as follow’s. Swati knows Rama and her family since childhood. Rama has a sister Sai. Swati had told me, Rama and Sai are twins and how they use to meet atleast once a year growing up in India. While talking to Rama somehow the topic came up and when Swati mentioned about Rama’s twin sister, Rama clarified that Sai was elder to her. I said ya by few minutes right, she said no by almost a year. Swati’s was shocked, for years Swati has been thinking they were twins which they are not. :):) It was so funny we were laughing for so long. Swati even called her parents to clarify. :):)

Here are some snaps from Rama’s visit.