The New Face of Mumbai

Mumbai in the making: the newly built residential twin towers Imperial Heights.

Price per square foot(!)range around 1000Euro/1400USD/4000PLN ...



Shot today at dusk by
Memonji

Queen's Necklace

Here at the natural bay is where I regularly spent my evenings in Mumbai. Sitting at the seaside enjoying either the sunset or the pleasant breeze from the Arabian Sea late at night can be very soothing.


As the illuminated streetlights alongside the 3km long promenade look like pearls on a string the road is also referred to as Queen's Necklace.

Just returning from there
Memonji

Random Pictures I

Just a few pics of what I've seen walking through the streets around one of the major commercial areas of the city today ...





Crawford Market - a large in- and outdoor market hall which used to be the main fruit, vegetable, fish and meat bazaar. Now it has mainly imported grocery products, but some of the older stalls have remained. Some years ago we used to live just around the corner.

Calendar Updates

Here as promised the post I wrote on the flight WRO-MUC:

As the upcoming few entries will primarily be about my time here in India, let's quickly recap a few of the more or less important updates from around the world:

September 29
The Polish government is preparing a framework for the adoption of the Euro (yes, while joining the EU in 2004, joining the Schengen zone in 2008 we still continue to earn as well as pay in Zloty instead of Euro).


Ordinary folks are not very keen on adapting the Euro any time soon as this is believed to increase the cost of living significantly, however some inofficial information has leaked that 2015 is a likely target.

Departure

Finally dates have been fixed, flights booked and - almost - all preparations completed, so that I'll be able to push off to India tomorrow evening.

I'll have a one night stopover in Munich before my onward flight leaves on Monday morning getting me into Mumbai at 23h local time (19.30h CET). The idea is to use this blog as a travel log and hence I'll try to write, post pictures as well as tweet updates regularly. Having said this there are various things that need to be sorted out before that's actually possible: need to organise a mobile internet connection (so far we don't have access at home) as well as get my Indian mobile phone up and running again (my PL number remains active, so you guys in Poland can continue texting to that number to stay in touch).

The temperature for the next few days has been forecasted to range between a minimum of 25°C/76°F and a maximum of 35°C/95°F, humidity around 60% (which is quite pleasant for Mumbai) and the probability of precipitation varying between 10% and 70%, monsoon eventually departing during October.

What a welcome change compared to the falling temperatures and rainy autumn days here in Poland :)

Packing his bags ...
Memonji

Evening Walk

Just returned from an intentional evening walk in the rain. The first, but definitely not the last one of this sort.

'Summer's gone'

Unexpected

When you can't change things anymore you gotta leave.

And sometimes you see that leaving itself has changed it all.

realised ...
Memonji

Greetings from Poznan!

Testing the phone-to-blog feature... let's hope it works ;)

A Night Out - Part I

We turned left, a little bit off the beaten track away from the park towards the river. After she climbed over the fence I realised that her shadow got caught in between the posts while she had already run ahead - not noticing and busy with tackling her hair that got entangled in the breeze.

No More Waffles!

The recent attacks on unarmed visitors of the German Oktoberfest by members of the 'Bakers for the Nation" movement have revived discussions on the legality of waffles in the country. While support for waffle control had been continuously dropping during the eighties and nineties, recurring incidents of illegal production, purchase and use, however, have turned public opinion towards a more restricted access to the batter based cakes. Latest opinion polls conducted by leading institues like Forsa and infratest dimap are showing a clear majority of Germans favouring a complete ban on waffles for private purposes.

With general elections on the doorsteep on 27 September both major parties, the Christian Democrats (CDU) as well as well as the Social Democratic Party (SPD) have included this issue on their agenda. While chancellor Merkel (CDU) has already presented a proposal of an eligibility card issued and monitored by the Bakers Guild her opponent Mr Steinmeier (SPD) as well as the Green Party have called for a complete ban of waffles as well as whipped cream to prevent unauthorised access and illegal proliferation.


Looking at the mass turnout of supporters at yesterdays demonstration in Berlin where about 300,000 people went to the streets shouting slogans like Waffeln Weg! ('Away with the waffles') and Waffeln Töten! ('Waffles Kill') the new administration will have to act quickly if it doesn't want to risk further unrest. Whether the new law will only include waffles or as the Social Democrats envision also accompanying products like whipped cream - the current plan is to restrict cream with a fat content of at least 30% or more - remains unclear.

An important point politicians should consider when passing the new law during the next legislature is that once the waffle is gone, troublemaker and terrorists alike will surely turn to wafers ...

Moving to Belgium soon ...
Memonji

10 Ideas To Spice Up A Boring Business Trip

1) ... Requesting the check-in agent to assign you a window seat on the bus to the aircraft

2) ... Trying to bypass security control with the explanation that you're a vegetarian

3) ... Insisting to be frisked by a security officer from the opposite sex stating you are homosexual

Flight Travel - Did You Know That .. ?

1) ... it's impossible to buy a chewing gum in the transit area of Munich airport without having to confirm your nationality

2) ... there are seat belt extensions for very voluminous passengers?

3) ... you can be one of the passengers to receive their meal when ordering a so called "special meal" (more on that in the next post)?

Facelift

While talking about Mr Berlusconi, just thought I should follow his example and give this space a little makeover.


New layout, new colours, new gadgets.

While layout and colours are obvious, a quick intro to the new gadets:

- Picture Post
(don't think here's any explanation needed - however if you know what or where it depicts, shout it out at ...

- Your Voice - a place were you can share your comments/notes/other stuff ...

- Quick Updates - the latest "adhoc" news via Twitter (all credit to MuSaMoosa for being one of the pioneers of new technology)

Will be back with more ...
Memonji

Let's Be Realistic, G8!

Whether changing the venue of the G8 meeting from Sardinia to earthquake-ridden L'Aquila was a rather cheap or actually an ingenious move of Mr "Sunshine" Berlusconi will probably be discussed in the various press offices of the attending governments.

Rather than blowing their own trumpet at having achieved a consensus (which is far from being ambitious) and starting to point fingers at the developing nations for not being ready to commit emmission cuts at the expense of their progress, the G8 (and especially the representatives of their countries' media) should focus on a realistic as well as sustainable solution.

Since four of the top five developing nations are ex-colonies isn't it more than understandable that those countries are not ready to slow down the growth of their economies and markets (again)? This time not due to economical, but environmental reasons as well as issues that the developed nations have actually caused.

G5 Leaders Press Conference

"Why should we pay the price for this?" is a question that is frequently asked in the G5 countries. It's much easier for a society of considerable wealth to sacrifice "a piece of the cake" for a greater good. In countries where a large percentage of the population is heavily dependent on the strong growth of the national economy to enjoy even a small portion of prosperity this is much harder to sell.

Climate change, however, is a global phenomenon which transcends national borders, economies and societies and hence requires a global approach and finally consensus - a fact every country has to acknowledge.

What the governments of the developing nations need now is an incentive to join the industrialised countries in the fight against climate change - most likely not so much to get convinced themselves, but rather to set-off the adverse effects on their economies as well as to be able to "market" the merits of this endeavour to their voters. Let's not forget - any government that doesn't do anything against a predictable economical slow-down is not very likely to be re-elected.

Latest at the UN climate summit in Denmark in December we'll know how successful our leaders have been....

Until then we should wish them all the best.

Also wishing ...
Memonji

From Pee to Dee

More than two years of silence have passed - only to return with a joyful announcement:


THE ILLUSTROUS SEXTETT,
comprising of
THE TWO BLESSED TRIUMVERATES, namely

Roland Numrich, Harald Sossna & Reinhard Ulbrich
as well as
The Ösack, The Late Bishop & Et Memonji

take immense pleasure in announcing the unique occasion of their disciple

OTZE P.

acquiring the honours of calling himself “D” on 1st July 2009 in Hannover, Germany

From now on he will be referred to as

OTZE D.

Please join us in congratulating the new “D” as well as wishing him all the best for his future.

Reception & Tuba Dates will be announced shortly.

With best compliments from his Bhattacharjee, relatives and friends.