Half Marathon: Last Sunday I partiicpated in the Standard Chartered Mumbai Marathon's Half Marathon run on 20th January. This time I significantly improved my timing and cut down about 20 minutes. I wasn't actually working on an improved timing, but with the first timer apprehension behind me, I was much more confident and aware of what happens later, so I ran much better and consistently.

Race day: It was a very beautiful route and I thoroughly enjoyed my run, the scenery and the atmosphere. I used the stopwatch on my phone this time, so here is an account.
04:30:00 - Get up, drink water, tea, some biscuits, get dressed, reach Andheri station, catch a Churchgate slow, and ride with loads of other runners
06:00:00 - Churchgate - visit the loo, and walk to the southern end of Azad Maidan gate no. 4.
06:25:00 - Azad Maidan - deposit backpack, reach holding area, do stretching routine for 15 minutes
06:45:00 - Start! - Just about sunrise time and it is still dark. The elite runners and the ones with the timing chip are let off. We are next.
06:50:00 - Outside V.T. - I reach the start line pretty much exactly at this time.
Next times are minutes gone for every kilometer. Relative to start at 6:50 am.
7:51 - 1 km - Past Flora Fountain - I have only managed to walk at various speeds and elbow myself through till now. I finally start jogging and quickly running
6:10 - 2 kms - Straight through Churchgate and left onto Marine Drive
6:05 - 3 kms - U-turn at Nariman point and the 3kms mark is roughly near Brabourne
6:00 - 4 kms - Past Princess street flyover - beautiful Marine drive and Malabar Hill scenery
5:53 - 5 kms - Outside Charni Road station - a very nice run along the see and a beautiful sun rising
5:45 - 6 kms - Girgaon Chowpatty
6:07 - 7 kms - Just before Peddar Road. Immediately after this I see the leaders returning ;-) - An improvement from Delhi where the leaders crossed me just after my 5km mark
7:08 - 8 kms - Walk and do the Flyover and start running again
5:51 - 9 kms - Utilize the gentle down slope and clock a good km to near Breach Candy
6:00 - 10 kms - Past Haji Ali - beautiful run along the sea - Milind Soman crosses in the other direction :-)
6:13 - 11 kms - Worli, past the science center and under the flyover. The U-turn is outside Mela restaurant. The full marathon route continues along Worli sea face again, to Siddhivinayak, Shivaji Park, Mahim, and Bandra Reclamation before their U-turn. A very beautiful running route along the sea!
6:31 - 12 kms - Start on the way back and reach the mark after the flyover
8:19 - 13 kms - First water break, some walking, looking around into the sea - and see the Marathon leaders whiz past!
6:45 - 14 kms - Back past Haji Ali
6:35 - 15 kms - On top of Peddar Road flyover, another water and walking break
6:25 - 16 kms - Near Girgaon chopatty - eat cereal bar
8:13 - 17 kms - Walking break along Marine drive - slight hamstring and back pain signal is attended to - slightly apprehensive about finishing state - hence a drop in speed - though breathing very well and confident of finishing well
7:23 - 18 kms - Near Princess street flyover
6:28 - 19 kms - About to turn to Churchgate
7:17 - 20 kms - Between Churchgate and Flora Fountain
7:21 - 21.097 kms - V.T. - Finished! - An exhilarating feeling! Missed the irritating Dream run rush!

3 photos here

Recovery: Called and told everyone, bumped into (saw) Milind Soman again, stretched for 15 minutes again, drank and ate the goodies, and headed back to Churchgate. End of a successful stint no doubt. I didn't stretch the next day because I took the early morning train to Pune - this led to an additional day's soreness - else I would have been back on my feet immediately. Knees hurt for a couple of days up and down the stairs, but no worries.

Analysis:Need to drink some water earlier.
Stretching before and after is paramount as I have realised during all the training runs.
The difference between training and not is not your timing, but the ease and enjoyment with which you run and recover :-).
I forgot to carry the Gajak and Til Ladoos to eat during the run; left it all in the fridge; the cereal bars were a last minute substitute. arunshanbhag's tip to carry some high-carb thing has been invaluable in training and the races. Thanks saar :-)
Improving time - start running earlier, now I know how to end the race and what happens next, so probably no need to take it easy at 17 km or so. I am happy where I am right now - enjoying my running; depending on fitness and running the next few months I may try and improve timing with some intermediate speed training; then again I may not :-).

Health in general: The doctor is happy with the resting heart rate too so training and fitness in general is currently satisfactory. As discussed with Rahul, who still hasn't healed and didn't run this one, I have put on some weight. It happens during regular training; it is known that long running isn't the best way to lose weight - you actually consume and need lots of carbohydrates. The next few months should see lesser running, a consistent 5-10 kms maybe, more cardio, and some weight loss. As promised, winter in Delhi has been an eat-fest :-).

Tags: bombay, delhi, eating, fitness, half-marathon, health, marathon, mumbai, running

Ethiopean refugees have run away from the captial city of Delhi, the clutches of the stark raving attention seeking Asterix, Obelix and the like, and have taken refuge in the city of Bombay for a few days.

They hope to submit their PhD thesis while on this trip, hopefully get some food to eat, water to drink, and spend time with loved ones. It is possible that this blog will get all technical for a post or two. It might talk about data mining, machine learning, text classification, and the likes, but rest assured it will only be a temporary aberration in the grand scheme of things :-)

Tags: bombay, delhi, ethiopia, iit, thesis, work
Current Location: IITB
Current Mood: working

The past week has been good personally. First of all people from Bombay are making me feel at home.

Last weekend fellow Ryzer and Comrade Jiten was here. Met up with him at his hotel, moved on to Navy Officers Mess for a couple of monks with another Ryzer. The place is awesome, great lawn, good food, and some august company. Then moved on to party at Tapas, the lounge bar at Vasant Continental. They had a salsa night and man it was awesome. Reached home very early morning proper Bombay ishtyle and it felt good after many days.

The whole of this week beerbal has been in Delhi for a visa. I hope he gets it today, since his flight is tomorrow night from Bombay. He has been my first guest at my new house for a couple of days. We have sampled some awesome cooking by the cook. Eating all healthy stuff these days. We also ate good stuff at Masala Junction twice. I am already a regular there :). In other news, the Gym routine is rocking.

And today the inimitable sat2 posts about how everyone eventually wants to get back to Bombay like he himself just did. Check out this Mumbai fandom video too with Bappi Da's music.

Tags: bombay, delhi, house, lj, ryze, sigfood
Current Location: Office
Current Mood: nostalgic
Current Music: I Love Rock 'n Roll

There is a subtle difference between restaurants in Delhi and Bombay. In Bombay the waiters/captains always serve the dishes into your plate after naming the dish and asking for veg/non-veg preferences. In Delhi they just name the dish and put it on the table; you have to serve yourself or specifically ask to be served. The naming and the asking is of course optional, but the subtle serving observation stands. It is not clear why. Interesting.

Tags: bombay, delhi, food, sigfood

This is it. Last day in IIT. Last day in Bombay.

I leave tomorrow morning for home and then onward to a new job and a new life in a new city. Super excited about all the changes in my life and at the same time sad to leave the most awesome rocking city ever. And this campus, I shall miss it for eternity. I have been here for more than 6 years, a whole era, and I am happy I have lived every moment (most at least :)). I have learned so much, made so many friends, done so many wild things.

The last two weeks have been choc-a-block with farewells, parties, treats. Thanks all. Here is my small list of thank yous - Hitchhiker's style:
Life, the universe, and everything - To my awesome advisors, all my Profs, and my entire PhD process.
So long and thanks for all the fish - The SigFood guys, the many LJ friends, BOTMates, and Comrades.
Restaurant at the end of the universe - It is a toss between Hazara, Sidewok, and Vijaylakshmi.
Mostly harmless - The entire IIT gang for being a sweet bunch.

Kar chale hum fida jaan-o-tan saathiyon
Ab tumhare hawale Bambai saathiyon :)

I'll be back. Often :)

Cheers,
Solzaire and Shantanu.

Tags: bombay, farewell, life, mumbai, thesis, work

A few of us - eddd, freegeek, Atul, Archana, and me - 'met' Shantaram aka Gregory David Roberts as part of the Kala Ghoda Arts Festival. The villager geek has written about it here. I think Shantaram is an awesome dude. All that he said was inspiring to say the least. freegeek's photos here - I happen to be in the background in most of this set.

Tags: bombay, mumbai, shantaram

I just finished booking my first real e-ticket on Indian Railways. BOM-PNQ-BOM Intercity. No more waiting for the ticket to arrive by courier :). Booking possible upto chart preparation time too. This rocks. Facility extended to all Shatabdis, Jan-Shatabdis, Rajdhanis, and other Superfast trains. For Bombay-Pune that means Deccan Queen and Intercity as well. This is commendable progress for the size of operations we have and the mindsets we have to overcome.

My thesis committee is changing a bit. Soumen is now my official co-advisor and Sudarshan is coming aboard the committee. Sunita is the advisor and NLS is the wise committee member. I need to give NLS a draft today. Gave one to Sudarshan with a one hour work summary discussion yesterday.

Had my one of my best dinners in Bombay yesterday. Period. Khavayya at Thane. Maharashtrian food. This is a rarity in Bombay. Great stuff. Why didn't I know about it for all these years?

This may be old by now but this is the best blonde joke ever.

Tags: bombay, committee, food, irctc, sigfood, thesis, travel, work

The fact that I can summarise a year like this convinces me that blogging is good. Also, everyone is doing it and it is making for very interesting reading. So here is my year in review.

2005:
January - Food and drink trails like this discussing SigFood, Goa trip for COMAD 2005, Gunda - IIT's superb cult movie, Mithun-da fandom, and realising/deciding that PhD should be done by this year end.
February - Bombay on the Menu - that superb food workshop, Undhiyu photo recipe, threw open SigFood, Rummixxa, and a new look home refurnishing.
March - 2 days with Mark Knopfler and SNCGang, discovered amazing Sion food places - to become regular haunts throughout the year, another Goa trip, Cocktail inventions and dedications: 1, 2, and 3.
April - Bombay chaat trail, French language course culminating in a small play, Nasik trip, and many food trails: Parsi/Irani, Goan/Parsi/Bengali, and Maharashtrian.
May - Dear cousin sis got married, decided to blog a bit of tech stuff against earlier intentions, fooding in Vikhroli, and many more cocktails-of-the-week and food outings.
June - Waiting for the delayed monsoon, one of the craziest longest days - paper submission delays and LJ meet, Goan Dhamaka mixer, a great escape, and the beginning of the end-game.
July - A day well spent, Pune trips, Kanda Bhaji photo-recipe, Pasta w/ almond cream sauce photo recipe, that Thakurli freaky thing-to-do, amazing Nagpur trip to Yug's place, and the main happening in Bombay of the year - The Deluge! 1, 2, and 3.
August - Active tech blogging on text/mining, great software Architecture seminar series, the coming of Huma, and a major food/drink weekend.
September - Guinness launch promo in Bombay, Ukadiche Modak - awesome photo recipe, the start of the job hunt, and lots of foodie and tech stuff.
October - The beginning of job talks and interviews, two trips to Bangalore, Shiok and extreme plane-spotting, mobile cheque payments - that seems to have fizzled (?), and more tech blogging.
November - The middle of very hectic travelling, Bangalore and Delhi trips, Rummixer and meeting lots of friends, and beginning of US trip with the longest travel day for me.
December - Houston, walking around San Francisco, Bay Area weekend, Pune and Hyderabad for COMAD 2005b, confused in choosing between very good job offers, the end of two months of crazy travel with some personally collected gyaan on air travel, and my first cosmetics shopping experience. Submitted thesis draft to advisor, and spent new years eve at my favourite Mainland China.

All in all, a very good year. Lots of technical stuff, lots of travel, lots of food/drink/SigFood stuff, lots of people stuff. Thesis largely wrapped up - a couple of months.

2006:
- Plan to graduate and begin a new job - deciding between two choices for now.
- This will entail moving out of my beloved Bombay. Anywhere else will be positively primitive. Well, life goes on.
- Other personal stuff should continue as usual. I don't make resolutions.
- Will also keep my eyes and ears open.

Tags: bombay, drink, food, job, personal, sigfood, thesis, travel, work, year in review
Current Mood: contemplative
Current Music: Tunnel of Love - Dire Straits

I was on my way to Colaba yesterday evening, when a certain person asked me for a big big favour. I was to buy some hair colour (brand etc. specified) from Westside. The following took place in Westside's cosmetics department:

Me: Give me L'oreal/Garnier hair colour.
Salesgirl 1: Sir what colour would you like?
Me: I wouldn't like any but the person who has asked me to buy it wants dark red.
S1 searches for a while and comes up with a dazzling choice of Burgundy, Deep Plum, Cherry Red, 3-4 Browns etc. Most of them looked the same to me. Only the model on the pack varied as far as I could tell.
Me: Hmm - that person said deep red. Let me ask.
I phone the person and ask for a choice. In about 5 minutes, the person chooses Deep Plum. I am also told to ask whether the colour shows normally or only in light.
Salesgirl 2: This shows only in the light sir. My hair is streaked using the same product.
S2 proceeds to show me her ghastly blonde streaks.
Me: Hmm. Ok.
I transmit information to person and we fix on L'oreal and deep plum. I then suggest Blonde and within a second, the person in question agrees to blonde. The blonde colour is a slightly different packing and prominently says 'prelighted' or something like that on the top.
S2:That means that this product will remove all traces of any previous colour.
I never knew such a thing existed. All this time S1 and S2 are giggling furiously noting my obvious discomfort during the errand.
S1: Does she want to streak her hair or colour it fully.
Me: Full colouring not streaks. And not she. He.
More giggling from S1 and S2. S1 makes the receipt and packs the blonde colour. I go to the cash counter to pay up, just when friend calls asking me whether I have paid. I say I am about to at which point he is relieved and says he has changed his mind about blonde. On second thoughts he got scared of blonde. So I trudge back and get the deep plum once and for all, pay up nearly half a grand, get the re-packed box, and get out.

Before any domestication of solzaire or any other obvious jokes come along, I want to clarify that the person in question who made me go through this ordeal is freegeek, so go badger him ;). There was a food and drinks session in Kalpana for my troubles later in the night. We spoke to some of the Bangalore usual suspects at around 11:30 when they had winded up for the night. I know a lot about hair colour now - don't mess with me.

Tags: bombay, cosmetics, shopping
Current Mood: working
Current Music: Last Christmas - Wham

People are wearing sweaters and jackets in Bombay!
It is perfect weather this time of the year.

Tags: bombay, weather
Current Mood: working

A lot of stuff
- happened over the past few days,
- is happening now,
- will be happening over the next few days.

Friday was the Comrade Diwali RumMixxa. The venue was Pulse at Metro Palace, Bandra, and needless to say, I had fun, as freegeek notes.

Saturday was relatives meet up time at Ambernath. I met my brother Amod, the recuperating lawyer after quite some time. There was Sabudana Wada, Idli Sambar, and Fruit Salad for dinner :)

Sunday was the Bombay Bloggers Meet at Cafe Coffee Day, Nirmal Lifestyles, Mulund. I travelled there with Mandar. Tons of coffee was devoured over 4 hours, and another random hour of shopping later, dinner was at The Grill. The meat sizzlers were competely unsatisfactory and service was terrible. Never liked the place too much anyway. The nightcap was some Old Monk Gold, the first time ever for me.
The new Bombay bloggers I met for the first time were Ravi Kiran - the organiser, Amit Varma - the old man, Anand - the Number Theory Prof., Anthony - the passionate Manipuri, Surya - the 'undercover' journalist, Nikita - her as-yet-non-blogging-friend, and of course Mandar and me. Late additions to the gang were Gaurav Sabnis, and Sarika, with guest appearances thrown in by good old freegeek and sumita.

Coversation raged over a wide variety of topics and much of it is documented by Anthony and Amit here. I was largely quiet, catching up with Mandar and Anand.

Tuesday and Wednesday is Bangalore once again - this time I should be able to ping some of the usual suspects.

Friday and Saturday is Delhi. Meeting a few friends there too.

Saturday and Sunday is Pune - home sweet home.

In between all this I am going to continuously squeeze some time out to re-organise my thesis and try to get closer to the first draft :)

Tags: bloggers, bombay, job, meet, thesis, travel
Current Mood: busy

Wrapping up Bangalore trip report:
Lunch was with bluesmoon and AD at, finally, Shiok! We met up for lunch near Cambridge layout or Indiranagar and wandered around looking for Empire and some other places but found nothing suitable. bluesmoon pointed out the Shiok was on the road were roaming around on, so we immediately converged upon Shiok. themadman wasn't there so couldn't meet the man, but good food was had nonetheless :). It was tough trying to satisfy our collective constraints: no chicken for me, no seafood for neelchand :), and kolhapuri food for AD. We ended up having Veg. Drunkard's noodles, Beef with lots of condiments and peanuts (beautiful), Sumatra Fish Curry, and Steamed Rice. Excellent place to eat, even if I may be the millionth person saying it.

The Jet BLR-BOM flight was delayed and left at 10pm. Their new web check-in print-your-own-boarding-pass funda rocks. You directly reach the airport, go for a security check, and approach the boarding gate. This can be done just-in-time and so is a great facility. No need to reach the airport 30 minutes before and all that. But this web check-in is so new that airport security and even some Jet staffers are unaware of it. Everywhere on the way out and in, at both BOM and BLR, folks insisted on a boarding pass. When I showed them the printout, they said it was an e-ticket, and that I must go and get a boarding pass. Some Jet uniform person had to tell them that it was ok and a new funda. Good to see folks sticking to guidelines. Now, since this web check-in is sctually a Sabre feature, I don't see why it can't become the norm and ultra-convenient especially for backpack travellers with no luggage.

The flight reached BOM airspace before 11:30pm and the pilot told us that we were 27th in queue to land! We circled Bombay and were over the Arabian Sea for one and a half hours! I saw Bombay from all angles, orientations, and altitudes. The best pass was from the south of south Bombay heading due west and seeing the queen's necklace etc. recently seen via Google Earth. I saw more than 10 other planes at different altitudes criss-crossing the sky. That sure is a busy time to try and land at Bombay. We landed on the alternate runway coming down over the sea on top of Andheri and Vile Parle instead of the usual Vashi, creek, Ghatkopar approach. Landing was at about 1am. All this, I suspect, was due that plane skid a few days ago.

Tags: bangalore, bombay, flight, food, jet airways, mumbai, planespotting, travel
Current Mood: recovering

This was one of the (now) rare food and drink weekends in between lots of work.

Friday lunch was Mutton Berry Pulao with a friend at Britannia. Fantastic, as usual. It hasn't changed a bit, and that old tall Parsi uncle is still very much there - Mr. Aflatoon - patriarch of Bombay's Irani restaurants.

Friday night was the First anniversary Comrade Rummixxa. It was a smashing time. All the usual suspects and Ryze gang were there. The venue was Diva which coped much better than the Goan Dhamaka mixer from a couple of months ago. About 31 people turned up and drank the scotch of rums over 7 hours. A stupendous 11.5 litres was consumed, which is in the region of 200 large ones. No wonder it was called the Rumslosher. The pics are eagerly awaited.

Saturday evening was the much awaited and long planned Misal discovery trip with Jiten. We started at Bhat Vishranti Gruh at Chembur, but it disappointed with a saltless Misal. I could easily see why it was famous though; nice and spicy and very high turnover of normal junta.

We then walked to Vig's where I rediscovered a lost childhood! I grew up in Delhi and have missed it's street food ever since I move to Pune/Bombay. But I got the same again at Vig's and am very very happy. The dry spiced chhole in large thaals, the masala chhaas, the aloo tikkis. And the same taste at ultra-cheap prices.

We then knocked down a couple of beers at Blend 'n Brew where Ranten joined us. It is a decent sports bar, the only one in the Chembur area. Good draught, decent music, chilled ambience, but the clueless service needs to improve. More jokes, jiving, and drinking later, I headed off to meet a long time friend Neelesh at the airport and spent an hour with him and Ash.

Sunday morning, I went with many of my IIT friends to see 'Bhagmati' - India's first live and animation feature film. An excellent first effort. Think Who Framed Roger Rabbit. Now invert the scene and put Tabu and Hema Malini inside an animation movie. I know two of the people in the animation and effects team and they had organized the show at Huma Adlabs. I thought the fuirst half sucked because it was mostly the live characters Tabu and Milind Soman. But technically, the second half rocked. Very limited computer graphics, mostly hand made animations, 7 lakh drawings, and great effect in some sequences. The ending stretched, but then no one expects this experimental film coming from a course project to get everything right first time around. By the way, Bhagmati easily displaces Lara Croft.

The evening was a mini Ryze get together of about 9 folks. Random talking, drinking, and good food from JP, all at Atlee's house. Starting at 5pm, the get together went on till about 1:30 am when we headed back home.

All in all a fun weekend, interspersed with work in the mornings. And oh yeah, it's been more than a month since I ate chicken, and I am not missing or regreting it.

Tags: bombay, comrade, drink, food, movies, ryze

Huma Adlabs has been operational since Friday. Thus ends Powai's entertainment starvation. In fact, the movie scene is rapidly improving. There is R-Adlabs (in R-Mall) at Mulund which is the furthest with a 4 screen multiplex. Nirmal Lifestyles has a good operational mall with a PVR multiplex under construction. The massive Bhandup Mall+multiplex is still under construction but will be cool and near when done. Hiranandani, Ghatkopar, Powai, IIT juntax are in for interesting times ahead.

Huma Mall is very tiny. Some clothes factory outlets and one restaurant, most still under construction. Huma Adlabs however, rocks. 4 screwwn, 2 on each floor. Usual costly food available. The theatres themselves are _huge_. Great sound, great seats, but the legspace isn't good at all. No matter. Tickets in 3 categories are 95, 110, 120.

Saw the last show of Maine Pyar Kyun Kiya yesterday. Popcorn masala flick. David Dhawan rocks again. We were laughing the entire time at the jokes or at the movie, so good fun all in all. Songs and dance by Katrina Kaif, Sushmita Sen, and Isha Koppikar . Decent keep-your-brains-at-home comedy by Sohail Khan, Arshad Warsi, and Rajpal Yadav. You can actually sit through a Salman Khan starrer. Screw what reviewers say, including this one, and watch it

I am fast running out of reasons to travel to South Bombay anymore.

Tags: bombay, movies

It has been raining very heavily since very early morning. More heavy rains predicted for the next 48 hours - this time supported by satellite images as against last week's Met dept. faux pas. The sensationalist media in all forms is splashing news of a red alert and Mumbai Police 48-hour stay-at-home warning.

While everyone should watch out and take care, come on, Mumbai is used to heavy rains. Understandably, nerves are at an edge due to Torrential Tuesday (sidey name me thinks). Meanwhile, Don't Panic.

Tags: bombay, weather

Some random hyper-linking got me to Yazad's site after a long time, from where I followed more links to one Ravi Kiran's site who is organizing the next (tomorrow's) Bombay Bloggers Meet. I wanted to make it there this time, after a false positive a couple of months ago. However, the comment spam filter of wordpress apparently thinks I am a spammer, ostensibly because I am behind a proxy. Is that wrong or what? My laziness is going to make me depend on the spam guard's report which said the site owner will be mailed the contents of my comment.

While on blogging: I am quite liking Bloglines and have been regularly growing my blogroll now. The search for the real commenting-enabled blog aggregator goes on.

Tags: blogs, bombay

Bombay is floating on water - one headline says. I couldn't agree more. A lot of friends have blogged about them, their family members, their friends, being stuck and their consequent troubles. Hope everyone pulls through later today home safe and sound. It has not rained much since noon so things should limp back to normal by nightfall. The clouds in satellite photos show no signs of letting up over the next couple of days though.

Here in IIT:

• H12-H13's mess had become a swimming pool yesterday night. It is in the basement right by the lake - could the architect have foreseen this?
  
• The new Elec. Engg. department building had some (ankle deep) water on the ground floor. The 1st, 2nd, 3rd, 4th floors were dry. On the 5th floor however, monitors were said to have been floating in water. Turns out the water collected on the roof came down the stairs.
  
• beerbal became a refugee in our first floor rooms after his bed, mattress, and chair were found floating in nearly waist deep water. All of H8 seemed like an extension of Powai lake. Dinner in the mess was in ankle-deep water.
  
• All restaurants opposite campus were closed or were reverse draining and hence avoidable. The main road was completely devoid of traffic and umbrella clad orsoaking wet junta were ruling the road for a change at 10pm.
  
• The fruit vendor nalla had become a major gushing river - a force to reckon with.
  
• There was a mini Kanda Bhaji party an hour ago, so that was nice.
  

Go 92.5 FM was amazing today morning. Acting as news service, info service, helpline, patch-through agency, all in one. Cheers.

Mumbai apparently has a disaster management plan - wonder what happened to it. The disaster manager got stuck in the rains I guess.

The BSE Sensex crossed 7600 today. It was open today, because, apparently, no one went home yesterday.

Tags: bombay, weather

The deluge in Bombay today is easily understood by these morning satellite photos. This is valid if you see this by Tuesday night - the images are dynamic. See the North-West sector photos.
Satellite images of Bombay today morning

Tags: bombay, weather

Stand at the North end of the Thakurli station platform, near the tapering end when a down local is pulling out of the station and an up local is pulling in. Completely freaky must-experience thing to do in Bombay and an excellent sight. Happens rarely once in a few hours.

Tags: bombay, must-do, travel