Alexandrine Parrots

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Comedy Central: A valid point

My five year old exits the elevator in an up-market mall. Something catches his eye and dashes towards it.
Mom: You can't go in there!

Boy: Why? It's all red in colour. I like it. I want to go in.

Mom: No. This is Comedy Central. It's very people tell jokes and make visitors laugh.

Boy: I want to go in.

Mom: But it is only for big people...

Boy: Why? Only big people laugh?

Mom rolls eyes. Girls standing outside the Comedy Central entrance start giggling.

Parrots: House hunting?

Paying a friendly breakfast visit?

This morning I happened to take a train from Grant Road Station, Mumbai and walk down to the Post Office for some work. On my way back, I came across these two parrots looking into a hollow on this (Gulmohar?) tree. All I had with me was my phone cam, so the pictures are really not that good. As soon as I took pictures and walked on, one of the parrots shrieked loudly, flew off and to my amazement a third one popped its head out of the hollow! I'd like to think this was a breakfast meet up.

...or scoping for a new home?

In reality, these two must have been scouting for a new home and got startled by the resident. Anyway, when I checked these pictures out, I realised that these are not rose-ringed parakeets. I assumed they were because you usually see the Alexandrine parrots in the suburbs. It was my oversight that I didn't bother to notice what type they were before impatiently (and hurriedly) taking a picture.


So, it turns out, if one looks very carefully at the poor quality captures, one will notice reddish patches (smudges, in this case) on their shoulders. That means they are Alexandrine parakeets – an 'introduced' species of parrots in Mumbai. Yep, I had read somewhere that unlike the rose-ringed ones, these guys are not native.

Asian Palm Swift: Mumbai

While taking a tea break with colleagues, I spotted some swifts swirling madly about at a distance. Now, we had with us a megazoom camera, a Canon Powershot SX40 HS and I knew that even with this cam it would be difficult to capture such an active bird. Initially, I took this to be the house swift or the Little Swift. But when we looked at the photograph I managed to take – which I must say was a lucky one because after this shot, I was unable to grab another still of the birds, they were just too fast – I realised that the swift was probably not a House Swift/Little Swift. I have only seen the House Swift, first hand, in the suburbs and South Mumbai.

Asian Palm Swift

This is a  crop of the original image, where the chap looked like a speck in a blue expanse. Laughable, I know. All you can see is the profile – which is good enough for a super amateur like me. Anyway, after some Wiki-ing, I think this might be the Asian Palm Swift. Let me know if any of you think otherwise.

Andheri East: Chakala — A Jungle Gym

A long time ago I had posted something about the pathetic state of the road at Chakala, just off the highway in Andheri East. In that post, I had shown images of the road opposite the Guru Nanak Petrol Pump. That time the construction work for the metro was yet in its initial stages. Later on that work spread across the breadth of the road and now large dugouts and pillars have replaced what you see here. Last year, it was possible to walk to work, there was a pavement.



Notice that a year ago, one could just look down the road and see people standing outside the Maharaja Restaurant at the end of the road.





As the construction work expanded, even the pavement started being eaten up. So much so that today there is practically no pavement and pillars appear to have cropped up outside some of the buildings.








Now it is not possible to do that any more. A metal scaffolding has been built on the very stretch I took a picture of. Honestly, looking at the old pictures, it feels so weird now. I had to weave through one corner of the scaffolding to get to the other side of it and walk towards the highway. When you walk through the 'jungle gym', you do it single file.







These photos were taken from this 'other side', which is nearer to the flyover and highway.

American Tourister - Surviving in Mumbai: The Ad

This ad shows how crowded the Mumbai suburban trains can get. This is a humourous take on the city's transport network so do not go about thinking that you will get your luggage thrown out for you when you get off at your station. Assuming that you actually get off at the right station, that is.

Andheri's Ups and Downs

Welcome to the suburb of Andheri East,
Which is part of my daily Bump 'n' Grind,
Where the roads are a Treat and the traffic a Beast,
With authorities saying, "Bear with it. Please don't mind."

BEST's New Seats

Did some shopping over the weekend. Hopped on board a BEST bus on our way back and noticed the new seats. Separate seats for each individual, unlike the earlier bench-style-faux leather trimmed-cushion ones. Plastic seats...in place of the sturdier metal frames used to bear our weight. The seats have been introduced ages back but they are new to me because I don't get to travel around my place in the bus. So my first impression was good—the seat felt comfortable and gave my back enough support. That does'nt really matter if the bus goes over a bump—the roads are still designed to jar you to the bone. But I noticed that taller and stockier people did not look very comfortable in them. The seats are meant for thin people with small buns. My friend said the seat would creak each time he shifted his weight. And he is not even obese!
I managed to take this photograph of a lady at the window seat, watching her whirligig twirl in the breeze. This seat has the most leg room. The girls sitting behind her were a bit unnerved when they heard my phone camera's shutter. I thought I was in for it...

Bump! There It Is!

Right outside my office is the main road - the main road that leads to a highly congested commercial area. The very same road has seen heavy reparation work in the 18 months that I have been here. In spite of the repair work, which also involved raising the level of the road almost 12-inches, the road still looks like it has never been tended to. Actually, a lot of the roads in Mumbai look like asteroid hot spots...they play the part of natural speed breakers, slowing cars and buses to a halt, forcing every motorist to traverse over them (or around them) ever so gingerly, so as to scrape the underside of their precious vehicle.

This road, which plays the lead role in my post today, was initially made of tar. The government decided that concrete is a more durable and reliable option. After most of the roads were stripped and topped with concrete, the government started paving the road with cobblestones (paving bricks). I have learned that if this process is not carried out properly the road can become very uneven and literally split apart.
This road is part concrete and part cobbled leading to a star crossed situation. A metro is being built over this road too. It will run along the middle of this road, meaning more construction work, more barricades, more pollution, more traffic...and yes, a narrower and congested road.
Add to this scene, tracks of sunken earth popularly referred to as potholes. But potholes seems to be a mild term to use to refer to these crater-like depressions. A result of shoddy work and second rate materials, these depressions are guaranteed to rattle you to the bone, if caught unawares. But then some wise being said, life is full of ups and downs...I guess the reference was to the roads and not life as such.
(The pictures below, briefly illustrate the plight of the road. The "hole" on the right, used to be a huge crater that formed during heavy rains. It was covered with debris and made matters worse. Recently, the authorities dug it up, made a frame, and left it to set. While they were at it, a second depression, similar to the first, formed alongside. So much for the Shanghai dream.)

Mumbai's natural speed breakers. They are capable of breaking much more.

Easy does it...