Postcards From J

23 days into the fifth month of the year, and I'm wondering where did the days go. And I also realise that I haven't blogged at all this May. Largely, I've been busy with domestic duties and a few social engagements. You'd be surprised to see how much housework can take out of you! May - when flowers explode with colour! In other news, we had a really wonderful writing class at MCubed Library a few weeks ago. And you know what? I discovered that I could write a bit of fiction (meaning something that didn't get inspired by my own life experiences). And that really thrilled me no end. I'm feeling horrible, though, for not doing a round-up of that and the previous meet-up of DD's Travel Writing Bus. Maybe I should combine the two in one post? Maybe. Fingers crossed. And then, earlier this week, a few of us dropped in at I-Bar at Bandra Reclamation (never knew it was packed with so many F&B outlets) for Music at The Big Mic - a platform fo...

My mother is an avid reader. Has always been for as long as I can remember. Her funny sitting position perched atop a chair or the sofa or even on the floor with any reading material is an enduring image in my mind. That love for the written word has probably been passed down to me genetically and I remember how we'd devour all the newspapers and magazines that were borrowed from our old Goan neighbour, Cajetan Menezes (God bless his soul!).  Uncle Cajee used to work with The Times Of India and had a free-flowing supply of not just the daily broadsheet, but also magazines like Femina and Filmfare and those amazing Indrajal Comics. As a child, I never really had access to a lot of children's books. They were far too expensive to keep buying and the only ones we "invested" in were the massive 22-volume hardbound World Book Encyclopedia series (still have the full set!) and a few books that some travelling nuns sold to us at our doorstep. Some books came by way of ...

"Here we go 'round the mulberry bush,  The mulberry bush, the mulberry bush.   Here we go 'round the mulberry bush,   So early in the morning..." And then I learned that mulberries don't grow on a bush. Ok. My first memory - and the only one till recently - of the mulberry tree is from childhood. Probably as far back as 20-25 years at least. That tree was in a neighbouring compound but its branches hung over the wall that separated its owners and one of the buildings in our colony. Behind Building No. 2 actually. Where the water tank was. Still is. We'd sit on the tank surface to play make-believe games like Teacher-Teacher and House-House (was the word repetition for effect?). And during the hot summers, we'd happily fight for the red mulberries that were within our tiny grasps. Red because we were impatient. Red because we didn't trust birds or insects or friends enough to let them survive to be purpley-black-sweet. Along with the ti...

Walking around Bombay certainly has its rewards. Like this little gem we found on the sidewalk of a badly traffucked (Twitter term for being stuck in terrible traffic) lane of Bandra last weekend: Massage Raju! Was that a title? Or a sentence where "massage" is a verb? Ewww... And then S used G's phone to call the advertiser in question who said something about doing "chest massages" which left us in splits. Maybe madame can update us on the actual conversation sometime soon...?

At the cemetery of St. Peter's Church, Bandra

April is already here! Just imagine... three months of the so-called "new year" are already done and dusted with. Time just doesn't seem to like us human beings, no? So little time, so much to do.  Anyway, in another attempt of making the most of the little free time I get, @culturelites and I decided to go rambling around random lanes of Bandra. Our route was short, but the Saturday turned out to be extremely enlightening and fun.  What our day was like in a nutshell: Visited a cemetery, plucked mulberries at a transit camp, almost walked into a celeb's home, prank-called someone, and learnt math today!!! — vodkaholic (@vodkaholic) March 31, 2012 Watch out for some notes and photos in the next post. This is a crazy week! *goes back to email wars*