Twenty- five Seven

The rat & the sitcky mat

August 26, 2010

One of the problems of living in a congested city is the presence of rats. Our Municipality actually has a Department for Catching Rats. One of the criteria for being eligible for this job is to successfully run a 100 yards in 5 minutes. They also have a scheme every now and then ( when the rodent problem becomes acute) when every person who comes with a rat’s tail to the local Municipal Office is rewarded with a princely sum of Rs.5/- per tail.

How to catch a rat

One day, my poor friend Kay found a mouse scampering around her house. Before I could make a witty remark that if she had a computer in every room, she should expect a mouse inside her house, she explained that it was a genuine rodent who actually came out of his hole and watched her as she ate her grilled cheese sandwich.

For some time now, Kay has had a rodent problem, one which she tackled with a tasty bit of bhajia that she bought from a corner street stall. Her earlier attempts at luring the mouse inside the trap with a bit of stale cheese didn’t work because as the maid said, the cheese was too stale and besides Indian rats like Indian bhajias and not some rancid tid-bit of Westernised cheese. ( Maids somehow seem to have a solution to every problem). So, thereafter, Kay changed the cheese to bhajias and voila – the rat was in the trip!

After Kay caught the rat with the greasy Indian Bhajia, she thought she had rat catching down to a T.

Alas! that was not the only rat inside the house as she soon found out and she had to lay another trap. But this time round, the rat stubbornly resisted the bhajia and when she actually saw him staring greedily at the grilled cheese sandwich one night, she decided to change the bait and make it grilled sandwich that night.

When the rat doesn’t respond to the bait.

Alas, it didn’t work either so she went down to the Baniya and got some sticky mats the kind that look suspiciously like a slice of bread slathered with strawberry of jam. She placed it near the rat hole ( as per the instructions on the sticky mat) and this morning she found a poor little baby rat dead with exhaustion as he tried to run away from the sticky mat.

On close inspection, Kay realised that the little one didn’t look anything like the big one who had stared down at her sandwich two nights earlier so now she had to put out some more sticky mats for the big one to trample on, each with a different bait.

Would the rat go for the grilled sandwich this time or would the bhajia win?

And yet another question came to mind : was there just one rat or some more down that deep big hole?

Ciao
Coconut Day

August 24, 2010

Coconut Day is one of my favourite celebrations because from this day on the seas get calmer, the skies get bluer, the clouds whiter, the days sunnier and the rain begins its journey back to where it came from.

Traditionally this is the day when people offer coconuts to the sea though honestly speaking, I’ve really never seen anyone flinging coconuts into the sea. But what I do remember about this festival is the simply yummy coconut toffee which is my all-time favourite sweet.

Photo by Daniel Dan on Pexels.com

With cleaner roads and a slight crispness in the air, tiny sea horses bob on the water that is slowly turning from murky brown to a clear blue.

And above all else, this day heralds the fresh bounty of the sea that will be ours to share once again as the fisherfolk set out once again.

Ciao,
The Dome That Saw It All

August 18, 2010
Terrorism is a word that many people the world over are familiar with, but to us Mumbaikars it was quite unfamiliar. Till November 26, 2009 when some Pakistanis infiltrated our city and laid siege for 4 whole days.

While

Last Sunday we were invited to see the new old Taj or the Taj Palace Hotel as this wonderful establishment is known. Ever since it was built all those years ago, the Taj has become a part of Mumbai and today it is as recognized as its iconic neighbour the Gateway of India as a symbol of Mumbai.

So when Ryan asked us if we would like to see the Taj restored to its old self, we jumped at the chance. In typical Taj fashion we were given a personalised tour of the renovated rooms by a pretty young guide. While walking through the corridors I couldn’t help remember those horrible days when terror struck our city and we asked our guide about it.

Her calm and subdued voice as she described her experience of 26/11 completely masked the fear she must have felt that night and she took us along the tour with the ease of a seasoned professional. Guiding us along the corridors she pointed out the paintings that show cased local talent. We visited two of the fabulously renovated rooms which combined the old and the new so seamlessly that you can actually use WiFi or watch your favourite movies on a flat screen tv while settling down in a thoroughly classic old fashioned fat cushioned bed!

Freshly painted and newly restored the exquisite wood worked corridors bathed in daylight filtering through still work their ethereal magic as the grand dome presides over everything that transpires beneath its prepossessing canopy.

And finally when all was said and done, we were gifted a small white box. Opening the gauze ribbon we found nestled inside four delectable chocolates imprinted with the dome of the Taj. What a great way to spend a Sunday afternoon.

With the Taj now functioning as it was in days of yore, the last wounds of that horrific terror attack seem to be slowly healing. Or are they just an excellent restoration cleverly masking the damage below?