This is what a friend forwarded:

Relations never die a natural death They are always murdered by Ego, Attitude or Ignorance

And just when I was chewing this food for thought, another one sent this:

खुदा ही खुदा
इधर खुदा है उधर खुदा है
जिधर देखो उधर खुदा है
इधर उधर बस खुदा ही खुदा है
जिधर नहीं खुदा है
उधर कल खुदेगा

The curious case of an abandoned pair of footwear

I am sure I would not have noticed it if I were travelling in a bus. But as it happened, I was going to office on a public holiday. Since the BEST had conveniently assumed that all offices would be closed and people won’t venture out on the streets, they had brought fewer buses on the road. That’s why I was in a rickshaw which was being driven by a man who clearly idolized Michael Schumacher!

Thanks to a series of red signals my much protesting back muscles and spines were getting periodic relief. I spotted the pair at one such signal. It was situated on the road below a flyover and looked as if the owner who had chucked it in a hurry might come at any moment to put it on again. Now, I have seen many a chappals fallen by the roadside – flung by their owners, angry that it should break right in the middle of their walking. But rarely, I have spotted a pair – that too one in a perfectly working condition, as much as could judge from a distance.

The reactions of the passersby were a mini study in human behavior. Some people were in such a hurry that they didn’t so much as glance at the pair. Some noticed only when they stumbled across it – and yet, didn’t bother moving them aside in a corner. A few curious souls took a quick glance around to see if they can see the owner and then hurried along. What a curious bunch of people we Mumbaikars are!

Well, the signal did turn green in what seemed like an eternity. I glanced at the pair once again as the rickshaw pulled away – wondering about, like many that day, just what their story was.

For those who value their privacy and yet want to stay in touch with neighbors, the following 2 sites can be helpful:

http://www.commonfloor.com/
https://www.justmyneighbors.com/

Wonder if the wild story that you just heard or read about is probably too wild to be true? Don’t wonder. Check out http://snopes.com/ and stop it from propagating further. Do your bit for humanity :-)

You study history as part of the school curriculum. You watch movies on world wars 1 and 2. You watch shows on the History Channel. You read biographies and autobiographies of people who were world leaders at that time. You start thinking that you know all that is there to know about both the wars.

And then you come across a reference to someone who had played his or her part in the war and yet is unknown to you.

I had never heard of Missak Manouchian until today morning when an article that I was reading mentioned him. Curious, I searched on the net (how in the world people used to get any information before the internet?) and found this - http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Missak_Manouchian

Okay, here's a test for you. Figure out what is weird in the following photo of a menu card:-)

I liked the Mahalakshmi Saras Mela currently being held at Bandra Reclamation that I visited it again this weekend. This time I made it to the food court. A stroll revealed that the menu was pretty elaborate though there were many stalls selling similar stuff - bhakari, pithala, Kolhapuri Tambda ani Pandhara rassa, bharali waangi (stuffed brinjal), chicken and mutton thali, fried fish and fish gravy, puran poli, maande and so on.....

We tried what is called hurada thalipeeth served with spicy mirchi thecha and curd. Just off, the cooking stove, the steaming hot thalipeeth was delicious when eaten with a mixture of mirchi thecha and curd. Here's what it looked like:

we followed it up with soft hot puran polis which tasted great but could have been sweeter, in my humble opinion.

At the far end of the food court, there was one stall selling Rajasthani food items - gatte ki sabzi, churma baati and moong dal ka halwa. Though the board next to the stall said that items such as ker sangri ki sabzi and pyaaj ki kachori were being served there, the person attending to the visitors was so unenthusiastic that I didn't feel like asking him about it. Since the ubiquitous flies which were roaming about at free will in the entire food court were hovering around the open pots here, we decided to give most of the items a miss - except for the moong dal ka halwa because its steaming pot made it almost impossible for the flies to come anywhere near it.:-)

Can someone help me identify this tree? I was told that this tree is Apta (Bauhinia racemosa) - the leaves of which are exchanged on Dussehara.

A few minutes' drive from Tryambakeshwar and you reach Anjaneri - the birthplace of Lord Hanuman. Later, a search on the internet revealed that there is another temple nearby - that of his mom Anjani.Unfortunately, I didn't know about it at that time. If I had, I would have surely visited it.

A few photos from the holy shrine of Tryambakeshwar:

Wanna see a site that can be a wonderful location for India's version of Mackenna's Gold? (Here, I am trying to forget a sad version called 'Jaljala'!)