There is no telling what funny experiences you might have in Mumbai. A few days back I was returning home after an afternoon of shopping with a friend and his family. The cab was minutes away from my home when it stopped at a traffic signal.

There was a girl (who appeared to be from a well-to-do family) who was checking each of the halted cabs to see if any was empty. She looked at the cab driver first and then at me and named a place which was pretty close to my place. I thought that I was anyways going in that direction so might as well give her a lift. So I said yes.

Thereupon the girl said that her family of 4 was close by and would I be able to accommodate them all? I didn't know whether to laugh or cry. A cab can sit 3 slim people comfortably at the back - 4 at the most if one of them is a child - and one next to the cab driver. Only if the girl's family had 2 children and 3 slim grownups in all, we could have managed to accommodate 5 adults (including the cab driver and I) and 2 kids in that cab.

I consider myself pretty helpful by nature but I have my limits and sitting in a cramped position in my own hired cab to accommodate 5 members of a stranger's family (which may or may not contain children!) is definitely out of those limits. Fortunately for me, the signal turned green at this moment. I told the girl that I was sorry I couldn't help her because I had to pick up someone.

It was only when the cab sped away that I realized that I hadn't given much thought to the safety aspect of giving a lift to a total stranger, even if she was a girl :-(

अर्ज है.....

जिंदगीकी बात सुनकर क्या कहे
एक तमन्ना थी, तकाझा बन गयी

Prayers for 26/11 victims

None of us can forget what happened on this day 2 years ago. It was one of those occasions when words become an insufficient medium to convey your thoughts and feelings. Even today,as I write this, I am pausing frequently at the keyboard, groping for words to capture the myriad thoughts that are racing through my mind.

Sifting through my emotions, I find that there is a sadness for human life lost before its time. There is sadness for those who were left behind. There is anger at the fundamentalism which doesn't value the principle of 'Live and Let Live'. And finally,there is bewilderment at the slow pace of justice.

Here's hoping that the souls of those who perished find peace and that kasab doesn't live to see this day next year!

विकेन्ड आलाय. काय खास करायचं ह्याचा विचार करत असाल तर मी काही सुचवू का?

लडाखच्या छायाचित्रांचे प्रदर्शन - ‘गोठलेलं लडाख’


कोटय़वधींपूर्वीचे जीवाश्म आणि खडक प्रथमच मुंबईत

INS Vikrant's Roll of Honour

Indo-Pak war 1971 - Vikrant's Finest Hour

"Corruption" and "Scams" seem to be the flavors of this month. First it was CWG, then the 2G Spectrum scam, then the Karnataka CM's antics, later followed by arrests of top LIC officers by CBI. As if this wasn't enough, there is some side action related to the 2G spectrum which might uncover the dark side of Journalism.

I wonder, I very much wonder, if there are any honest people left in this country at all :-(