Twenty- five Seven

Personally speaking

Recent Posts

  • The perfect Mumbai Summer

    April 18th was Akshay Tritiya, the hottest day in the year. It is a sign that summer is definitely here.

    My friend Nergish Dalal ( may God rest her soul) used to playfully call it Akshay Chutiya ( a terribly offensive and vulgar word that defies translation but which my Indian readers will understand). I wasn’t offended by her disrespectful moniker for this day that actually translates as the day of everlasting, never ending joy and prosperity. This is because I think one had to be crazy to stay on in Mumbai during the summer.

    But honestly, I love Mumbai in the summer especially in the month of May.

    This is the time when the children are home because of the holidays. So it means no more long waits in traffic snarls. It means no more homework. It means no more getting ready for school in the mornings. It means a lot of peace.

    Because of this, many people go out of town.

    So no schools and less people means less traffic on the road. It is really the perfect time to enjoy the lovely Mumbai roads that aren’t yet dug up because of the Metro project.

    May is also the time when the servants/domestic staff run off to their villages to either help with the planting or fixing up leaky roofs before the rains. This means that you have the option of ordering in meals or fixing them up yourself.

    Or of course, you can eat out at one of the numerous restaurants that are mushrooming every day in every locality to suit every palate and every wallet.

    Starting today, I will bring you a series of posts on how to have the perfect Mumbai Summer.

    Image of Bellybytes

  • Cut hair , cut care

    I don’t even know if it is an aphorism .it may well be a thought from my jumbled head . But I remember very clearly that every time I cut my hair , I console myself with the words : Cut Hair, Cut Care.

    And, surprisingly, it works.

    Believe it or not, I always wanted long, flowing tresses . Not exactly long enough for Rapunzel’s prince to climb on. But , at least long enough to swish around my waist.

    Sadly this remained a dream unfulfilled even now.

    Ever since I can remember , I was marched off to the hair dresser’s every 4 weeks . My curly locks were shorn off to keep my unruly mane tame. It was a traumatic time for me to see the hair fall at my feet.

    But I know it didn’t look nice . Especially when people remarked that I looked like our then PM Indira Gandhi.

    However, there was nothing I could do but lump it .

    Gradually, I learnt to live with it and even begin to like it – not so much for the looks but for the convenience .

    While my friends spent hours taking care of their hair, all I had to do was run my fingers through it and it was done.

    So when Daughter No 1 and Anna Shetty we’re little girls, I regularly trimmed their hair. Sometimes even at home!

    But having had short hair all my life, I realised that in order to really look after her hair, a girl should have long hair as a child at least once in her life.

    So sometime during their teens, the girls were allowed to keep longer hair than I’d ever kept . And , by the time Anna Shetty got married, she could actually sit on it !

    But of course practicality takes over and she gradually cut her hair at various lengths at various times . Finally, yesterday it was down to her hairstyle of her baby days a short pixie crop.

    It seemed the perfect way to deal with a hot summer that would involve daily dips in the swimming pool.

    But none of us were prepared for Wow Dinga’s and Little Po’s reaction. .

    For the first time they actually said “Yucky Aie” ! And believe it or not , Little Po pronounced solemnly, ” Girls should have long hair”.

    What is really strange is that all along , the boys never thought of their mother and I as girls !

    Image of Bellybytes

  • Earth Day – Teach the child and save the world

    “Aji look plastic bag!”

    Wow Dinga, Little Po, Anna Shetty and I were returning home from a morning at the club. One of the games we play on the way home is to count cars/trees/taxis – anything really to keep the boys occupied and gainfully engaged and distract them from throwing up as Wow Dinga is motion sick. This time Wow Dinga decided to point out plastic bags. He excitedly pointed out 12 plastic bags till we reached home and promptly announced that they should all be banned and the users punished.

    Our State Government has decided to impose a ban on plastics particularly plastic bags.  The irresponsible disposal of plastic has led to blocked drains which in turn has created havoc on Mumbai’s roads during the monsoon. Every year the roads are flooded and precious lives and manhours are lost in dealing with a situation that could have been avoided. Finally, the authorities have decided to impose a strict ban on plastic bags that do not meet the required thickness etc etc.

    The best way to educate a population is to teach the child.

    When I was growing up, it was commonplace to have people spit on the road, throw paper wrappers, banana peels and other garbage out of their car windows. People happily disposed off empty cans of beer, bottles of aerated water and what not.

    The factories emanated black smoke and let out harmful effluents into the sea and rivers. In other words, pollution was a word unheard of.

    Gradually, however, people began realising the error of their ways, and we were told in school to bin the trash. When passengers in the car began rolling down their windows to toss out that crushed bit of paper, we, as children held that hand and told the person to throw it in the bin.

    A whole generation thus was converted to binning their trash.

    Re-interpreting the Three R’s

    Last week, I was amazed to hear Wow Dinga  humming a song that completely floored me.

    Was I hearing right? It was all about  reducing, recycling and  reusing a new interpretation of the Three R’s .

    I was happy seeing this remarkable change from the apathy of Earth Day two decades ago

    Perhaps there is hope for us after all and even though the climate has changed drastically, my great grandchildren may still be able to have mangoes in the month of May.

    Do you think the ban on plastic will make a difference to pollution?

    Image of Bellybytes

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