Taj revisited

Had been to south Mumbai (Bombay) recently.
Took a walk around the Gateway of India and the Taj Hotel early in the morning.
Its been more than two years since the 26/11 attack took place, but it has left its scars and tell tale mark.
The earlier blog on the same subject was in a lighter note with a bit of sarcasm sprinkled in.

Sauntered into the Leopold hotel to have tea. As it was just opening time for them there were hardly any customers. While having my Toast and jam with tea, I realized that my table was right next to the glass pane which had three bullet holes (they have preserved it as it is)

For a minute I was just trying to imagine how the scene must have been once the guns opened up. Noticed the owner Mr Farhang Jehani behind the counter, but I did not speak to him regarding the subject. Not a nice thing to bring back bad memories early in the morning. While coming out of the Hotel, I clicked this which has a good vintage look.

(some how I like these old Coke ads, though I don’t like any of these aerated drinks)

The paper man was just lining up the morning papers


Whenever I am in that area, I don’t miss a chance to peek into Mondegar (another hotel in the next lane) Just love to look at those colourful murals by Mario Miranda.

In 1925, the Yezdegardis, an Irani family, bought the home of a French sailor Monsieur Monde. Inspired by its Hindi reference ‘Monde Sahib ka Gar’ (Mr. Monde’s house) the Yezdegardis soon converted it to a café called ‘Monde-Gar’. It started off as a typical teahouse that also sold tobacco, foreign liquor, wine, breads and specialties from Iran like saffron, almonds, and pistachios..

In fact the ambience of this hotel is really good, complete with a juke box. About 5 years ago I had posted another picture of Mondegar in my Flickr account which had some 84 comments and 3300 views.
It was good to see that life was getting back to normal in and around the area, with some extra precautions. (had never seen the Gateway of India before with an armoured vehicle parked permanently next to it)

Saw some tourists going about their normal procedure of checking out of the Taj Hotel.

A balloon vendor was trying out his luck with prospective customers.


Many of us have seen the Taj Hotel from the east side but this is a view of the main dome from the west side

One common sight in front of the Taj hotel is the flock of pigeons that sweep down to feed on the grains provided by the tourists.
But this time the jostling and the fluttering (of the birds) was too much and I discovered the reason. Apart from the normal tourists there was one guy who came in his car and took out a sack of grains from the boot of the car. (yes one huge gunny sack)

He then just scattered the contents of the sack on the footpath. The swoop of the birds was so powerful that I was reminded of Alfred Hitchcock’s movie “The Birds”


And this time there were crows too. One observation I made was that the crows dined separately and the pigeons had their own group. No mixing up. It was also funny to see some of the crows perched on this guy’s car (with the dicky open)
Talk of trying to take the loot directly from the granary!!

© Photographer: Joezachs | Agency: Dreamstime.com

I have put up this picture for sale on Dreamstime. Wonder if any one will like it.
(click on the image to see large)

The Barber

There was a time when you went to the barber shop to cut your hair.
And if it was the rustic shop in the village, you got to hear some real good juicy gossip from the barber. I always wondered if the barber believed all that he heard from his customers. After all he could not afford to disagree as they were his bread and butter. And there used to be a radio playing some old tune in the background. Now the Radio has been replaced by the TV. So when the barber is cutting your hair, you have to keep an eye on the barber as his one eye keeps straying on to the TV. After all he does not want to miss his favorite serial.



Today’s barbers are more interested in giving you a “face steam” and colouring your hair with that new colour that has come in the market. “How about that Amir Khan cut sir?” I heard a customer reply “No no I don’t want to look like a goonda with those rippling muscles” The barber replied “No Sir, not the Gajini cut I was talking about the Taare zameen par.







I wonder how this hair cutting thing started. Did the stone age man think about doing away with all the facial hair and then shortening the hair on the head? And while doing that why did they decide that the woman should still continue with long hair? May be they did not want to give up the idea of “dragging the lady by the hair to the cave”






Talking of barber shops how can one forget the famous barber shop of Charlie Chaplin in the movie The Great Dictator.


All those who have not seen the movie should have a look at this clipping
I remember the days when the barber used to come home (with his aluminum box) and all the male members in the house used to get the monthly hair cut. There are some who still oblige to come home but at a higher fee.

After all it cuts down your time in going into a barber shop and doing the waiting jig.
Came across this drawing of a barber shop - how it was long long ago. Its worth looking into each and every detail in this drawing.

You go down south to some of the temples and you get to see them sitting in a line ready to tonsure your hair.



And those barbers who cannot afford to have a barber shop, uses the footpath with no overhead expenses. Works out cheaper for the customer too. (clicked this in the by lanes of Colaba Mumbai)

Juke Box

Talking about juke boxes, now a days you get to see them only as a novelty in a few hotels. One of them being Hotel Mondegar at Colaba, Bombay (now Mumbai) If you look hard you can spot the Juke box in the pix.
The ambiance is good, the location is perfect but the service needs improvement. The best thing I liked there was the murals by Mario Miranda, one of the well known cartoonist of India. Goa being his hometown, its little wonder that the Railway Station (Mudgaon) is adorned with his murals. There was a time when “The Illustrated Weekly of India” used to regularly carry his cartoons and I used to eagerly wait for every issue. His illustrations were mostly the simple yet chaotic life in India. The magazine also had Beau Peep which I used to tear out and collect (I still have about 50 pages of them)
The film actress Konkana Sen's dad used to write a column in that magazine. I think it was called Mindsport and really made your brain creak.