Rocks, minerals, fossils, and a meteorite…

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“I’m taking the afternoon off,” I announced to my department colleagues.

“Ok,” they said.

“You are supposed to ask me why,” I growled at them.

“Er… you are the boss here,” they murmured. “You don’t really need to tell us. Maybe, you need to tell that to your boss.”

I glared at them.

“Ok, why are you taking the afternoon off?”‘, they asked resignedly. “You look very pleased with yourself,” they added for good measure.

“I’m going to see an exhibition on ‘Rocks, Minerals and Fossils’ at Mumbai University’s Convocation Hall today afternoon,” I announced grandly.

Silence. “An exhibition on rocks?” they asked with collective skepticism and disbelief. “What is so interesting about an exhibition on rocks and minerals?”

I looked down my nose at them (which was actually difficult as I was sitting and they were all standing) and announced haughtily, “I am not even going to bother to explain. When I show you the photographs, you will know.” And, indeed, when I showed them the photographs taken at the exhibition , they knew how interesting the exhibition was and what they had missed !

Presenting some of the highlights of the exhibition on “Rocks, Minerals and Fossils” organised by the Centre for Extramural Studies, University of Mumbai, in collaboration with Deccan College, Pune, Institute of Science, Mumbai, Mr. Muhammad Makki, Pune and INSTUCEN, and held at the gorgeous Convocation Hall in the Fort Campus of the University of Mumbai, from 4–7 January, 2012.  

The exhibition at the Convocation Hall, Fort Campus, University of Mumbai

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Travel Shot: Art, music and stained glass

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The Gloucester Cathedral is one of the most beautiful and fascinating place of worship that I have been to. A fine example of English cathedral design, it is home to about 400 memorials and some of the most beautiful stained glass windows I have seen.

I was particularly taken in by the variety and different styles of the stained glass windows, which range in age from the 14th to the 20th century. But the one stained glass window that caught my attention was the Herbert Howells memorial window.

The Herbert Howells memorial window at the Gloucester Cathedral by Caroline Swash

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What do you want in 2012?

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“What do you want in 2012?” is a question that I keep getting asked these days, reminding me that it is that time of the year.

It’s that time of the year to reflect on the year gone by, and the time to re-imagine the new year to come. It’s the time to look back in order to look ahead, the time of the year, when old gives way to new. It’s that time of the year for hope and good wishes. It’s that time of the year when some people make resolutions, and some people do not. Now I’m not a resolutions or reflections type of person. Sure, I’m the type who learns from mistakes and errors and positive stuff as well, but I’m also the type who takes life as it comes. So every New Year / birthday would see me just shake my head to such questions and not answer them.

But somehow this year I feel different. I feel like answering the question. Perhaps, because I am one year older, but more, perhaps, because this year has been like no other—a year of personal loss, self-discovery through my first solo travel experiences, expanding my world through blogging and meeting fellow bloggers face to face, winning the first prize in a blogging contest, and so much more.

It’s New Year’s day today, and yes that time of the year. A short while back, when a friend called to wish me, she also asked: “What do you want in 2012?”

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Mumbai Lens: The Gorai Pagoda

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Some things are “discovered” serendipitously, like the Gorai Pagoda.

One Saturday morning in January 2010, I found myself with nothing to do. I was Borivali to conduct a training session on report writing, which had got cancelled at the last-minute due to an outbreak of food poisoning amongst the group I was supposed to train.

I didn’t feel like returning home or going for a movie or visiting friends who lived in the area. I wanted to see and experience something new. As I was standing outside the training centre mulling over various options, I saw a bus heading for Gorai Jetty. And I knew where I wanted to go—the Global Vipassana Pagoda a.k.a. the Gorai Pagoda, a place that I had only heard about but had not visited.

A short and sharp auto rickshaw ride later, I was at the jetty buying a return ticket to Gorai Island for a visit to the Pagoda. As I walked towards the waiting ferry, I saw this shimmering golden pagoda rising in the distance, almost like a mirage.

Gorai Pagoda

I spent so much time looking at the beautiful,magical and ethereal pagoda and taking pictures that I missed the ferry and had to wait for the next one to take me to Gorai Island for an exploration of the Global Vipassana Pagoda. But that, dear reader, is matter for another post. 🙂

Mumbai Lens is a photographic series which, as the name suggests, is Mumbai-centric and is an attempt to capture the various moods of the city through my camera lens. You can read more posts from this series here.

The BEST jugaad

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Sometimes in the midst of trying to balance work, home, commuting, blogging, reading, indeed living, I am brought to a screeching halt by something very ordinary, something very simple. Something that always makes me pause and think about the details that I often miss, the little bits of creativity around us, and the gentler and hidden things we overlook.  Getting a bus pass made was one such incident 🙂

I commute to work by Mumbai’s BEST buses. For the last 2 years or so, I have found it convenient to get a monthly or quarterly bus pass made, which till about a year back, had been outsourced by the BEST to a third-party. But due to reported discrepancies in collections as well as non-functioning of the smart card bus pass, the contract with the third-party was abruptly terminated. A press release from the BEST stated that they would be issuing the bus passes themselves.

So once the announcement appeared in the newspapers regarding the issuing of smart card bus passes, off I went to the nearest bus depot, which happened to be BEST’s Deonar Bus Depot. The security guard at the gate helpfully pointed me towards the right direction or where the bus passes were being issued from. Soon I found myself looking at this:

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Museum Treasure: Bust of Rameses II

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The Egyptian galleries in the British Museum in London, perhaps, receive the maximum number of visitors every day. These galleries are full of mummies, figurines of gods and shabtis, sculptures of boats, doors, beetles, the Rosetta Stone, busts of various pharaohs, etc. Amidst all these objects and artifacts from Egypt, is the towering stone of Rameses II.

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