My Old Bicycle

When I was a kid many of my neighbors got home from school, dumped their stuff & went straight to the garden/park that our apartment complex had to play. I didn't. There are many reasons for that really. Most of the kids from our old apartment complex were Maharashtrian. They spoke Marathi, a language I could barely understand & couldn't really speak (even though it was a compulsory subject in school). There were other kids who spoke English but even though they were very sweet & accepting they were four or five years older than me so I couldn't really play with them. I didn't really feel comfortable around the rest, so I did my share of playing at school & when I got home I stayed home. I loved it because my dad brought home out first PC when I was four & so I spent my childhood being a geek, surfing Barbie.com & whatnot. I created my first Blogger.com account when I was nine (though I wasn't serious about it or anything, boo.)

I felt lucky to be so familiar with computers from a young age. (Computer class in school sucked, it was so basic & hence insanely boring.)

But I digress. When I was nine or ten years old (I can't be completely sure) my parents bought me a bicycle. It was a nice BSA champ, with training wheels & a basket basically the best (maybe only) kid's bike available then, this is before all kinds of exotic brands were being imported into the country. I remember going with my mom to pick it up from the shop. I remember him installing the bell & us excitedly taking it home. I loved the bicycle. My parents tied a lovely multicolored plastic pinwheel to the front of it & I took it down in the garden many times. I loved it. But soon later I forgot all about it & it just lay in the balcony collecting dust.

When we moved out of our old house into our new one almost four years ago the bicycle stayed there. I felt so guilty about the bicycle just lying there. I made the decision to give it away to a cousin, she had a lovely pink Raleigh bicycle but it was smaller than mine & at ten years old she outgrew it.

So last week mom & me went to our old place & took the bicycle out. We were so happy to see that other than a little dust the bike was in perfect condition. We dusted & oiled & took it to a bike shop as well. He checked it out & refilled the tyres. Then, roughly ten years after the bike took a rickshaw ride to our home it took it's second rickshaw ride to my cousins home. I snapped this photo below with my iPhone just before we knocked on their door (sadly it is the only picture I have of the bicycle, at this point I felt very sentimental.)

Soon my cousin was riding it all around the place. And it felt right. Somehow I think that just like toys in the Toy Story films, bicycles too have feelings & souls & are only happy when someone is riding them.

I now dream of getting myself a lovely beach cruiser & riding it around in Goa. I have a Pinterest board filled with cruisers & other bicycle stuff. There is only one problem- I never took the training wheels off my childhood bike, so I never learnt to ride. It's something that I'm embarrassed about. I wonder whether it's possible for someone almost 20 to learn to ride? It scares me but it's still something I want to do. Is there anyone reading this who doesn't know to ride? How did you learn? I happen to know very funny anecdotes from when my parents were learning to bicycle as kids.

Share your stories in the comments.

Love,


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Tattly: Temporary Tattoos for Design Minded Kids & Kids-at-Heart

When I heard of tattly a few months ago I dismissed it at first. Temporary tattoos to me are the ones you get free with Japanese chewing gum & they are for kids (even as a kid I hated them).

But I read on: Tattly was started by Tina Roth Eisenberg (swiss miss!) out of her frustration that temporary children tattoos are often hideous looking. Think Clip Art gone Tattoo. She was ready to put designy, cool, typographic tattoos on her daughter’s arm. Tattly was born.

When you have such an all-star line up of designers submitting designs, there’s not much that can go wrong. Yay for a fun-loving design community that was in for the ride.

Tattly has designer temporary tattoos by so many great artists including two I really like Julia Rothman & Mark Johns.

Though I love getting tattooed for real (with a needle, you know) I find myself loving the idea of temporary tattoos. They're fun! A new one every week. :)

Check out their super fun promo video-

During November & December they ran a limited period subscription offer- You pay $60 (+$15 international shipping) & you one tin & then every month (for six months) with the latest tattly designs. I found it kind of steep especially since I was broke but I liked the designs & the idea of getting a new tin full of these pretty things every month so I just couldn't resist.

Yesterday my first tattlys arrived! I was slightly sad that the tin was beaten up, but oh well, Indian post truly sucks.

I love each & every one of them (except maybe the scribbles). Can't wait to use these & see what I get next month.

Love,


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Vinyl Love ♥

So this is something I happened to splurge on a few months ago...

I ordered them from a dealer in London, that's how I was able to get my hands on Tears For Fears, David Bowie & Pet Shop Boys. No chance ever of getting them locally. Also they were the first records I ever bought, it was very exciting for me. They were slightly expensive but worth it - even though they're all vintage they're practically mint.

Also I have two of these (with the exact same cover art) on CD as well (from my dad's collection, also from the 80s) : Tears For Fears - Songs from the Big Chair & Neil Diamond - Moods.

I now have a lot more records (maybe about thirty, I haven't counted). Bought some from a local guy & bought the rest from a man in New Zealand, he knew I liked Tears For Fears so he included an extra EP of theirs.

I now have all the Tears For Fears albums on vinyl except their last one, released in 2004 so it didn't come out on vinyl. And I'm glad I had the good sense to pick up David Bowie's best of compilations as well, this was before I really discovered his discography.

Music remains very important to me. Though I do listen to some modern music sporadically (I was a huge hip hop fan in my early teens) I happen to dislike almost all music being made now. I do love certain genres & certain era... 80's synthpop, 70's glamrock, some classic rock & a little folk. It's kind of like the quote-

"I don't like country & western. I don't like rock music, I don't like rockability or rock & roll particularly. I don't like much, really, do I? But what I do like, I love passionately."

- Chris Lowe (Pet Shop Boys)

We have family we're close to in Bandra. They have neighbors who they dislike, because these neighbors trouble them by blaring music very loudly at almost all times of the day, unmindful of aged or kids that will be disturbed. Still every time I visit this family I love their neighbors a little more just for their kickass taste in music (also they have a great sound system, I can definitely tell). I was just there earlier today & the neighbors were playing The Police, Spandau Ballet, The Eagles, and many more. And when we were leaving our relatives' house today, I told my mom I would marry into that house. Yes, I told my mom I would be willing to indulge in a custom I don't particularly care for, into a house where I don't know anyone. That is how crazy excited I get when I find someone with similar taste in music as me (which is rare).

Now all that remains is to get an awesome turntable. And speakers. And a table/stand that houses the turntable & the records. *sigh*

love,


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Instagram - Gifts, Baking, Trees & a Birthday! ♨

Some pretty random instagram from this month-
Strawberry & mint conserve on fruit bread & cardamon flavored milk for breakfast; A cup of hot tea in the college canteen.

Maltesers & Gummy Worms, just two of the huge amount of chocolate & candy my parents bought me from Auckland.

The Cold Water locket arrived. Love how it was packed! Also aren't these hello panda biscuit packs the cutest? So kawaii! ♥

Shalotka is the Russian counterpart of Apple Pie. It's very simple & pretty healthy. I baked it for the first time following this recipe. It's somewhat more of a pudding than a pie, but pretty yummy nonetheless.
 
Silhouetted Trees.

It was my Dad's birthday & my parent's wedding anniversary on the 20th. We woke up late, then gorged on cake, went to the mall for loads of shopping, donuts & fried chicken.

I'm @magali_c on instagram. If you use it come say hi. :)

Love,


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Who Built Bombay?

According to ancient history, a grouping of seven islands comprising Colaba, Mazagaon, Old Woman's Island, Wadala, Mahim, Parel, and Matunga-Sion formed a part of the kingdom of Ashoka the Great of Magadh, ironically in North India.

The Bhaiyas and Biharis whom the Thackerays accuse of being outsiders in Mumbai, come from the region, which was a part of Ashoka the Great's empire... We judge everything according to history and the history of Mumbai proves that its earliest known ownership was with a North Indian.

The seven islands of Mumbai passed through many hands, the sultans of Gujarat, the Portuguese and the British. Every ruler left behind proof of residence in Mumbai.

The Mauryans left behind the Kanheri, Mahakali and the caves of Gharapuri more popularly called Elephanta. The sultans of Gujarat built the Dargahs at Mahim and Haji Ali, the Portuguese built the two Portuguese churches, one at Prabhadevi and the other St Andrews at Bandra.

They built forts at Sion, Mahim, Bandra and Bassien (Vasai). The Portuguese named the group of seven Islands 'Bom Baia', Good Bay. The British built a city out of the group of seven islands and called her Bombay.

The original settlers of the seven islands, the Koli fishermen, worshiped Mumbaidevi, her temple still stands at Babulnath near Chowpatty. The Kolis called the island Mumbai, 'Mumba, Mother Goddess'.

In 1662, King Charles II of England married the Portuguese Princess Catherine of Braganza, and received the seven islands of Bom Baia as part of his dowry. Six years later, the British Crown leased the seven islands to the English East India Company for a sum of 10 pounds in gold per annum. It was under the English East India Company that the future megapolis began to take shape, after the first war for independence Bombay once again became a colony of the British Empire .

History has forgotten this but the first Parsi settler came to Bombay in 1640, he was Dorabji Nanabhoy Patel. In 1689-90, a severe plague epidemic broke out in Bombay and most of the European settlers succumbed to it. The Siddi of Janjira attacked in full force. Rustomji Dorabji Patel, a trader and the son of the city's first Parsi settler, successfully defeated the Siddi with the help of the Kolis and saved Bombay .

Gerald Aungier, Governor of Bombay built the Bombay Castle, an area that is even today referred to as Fort. He also constituted the Courts of law. He brought Gujarati traders, Parsi shipbuilders, Muslim and Hindu manufacturers from the mainland and settled them in Bombay.

It was during a period of four decades that the city of Bombay took shape. Reclamation was done to plug the breach at Worli and Mahalakshmi, Hornby Vellard was built in 1784. The Sion Causeway connecting Bombay to Salsette was built in 1803. Colaba Causeway connecting Colaba island to Bombay was built in 1838. A causeway connecting Mahim and Bandra was built in 1845.

Lady Jamsetjee Jeejeebhoy, the wife of the First Baronet Jamsetjee Jeejeebhoy donated Rs 1,57,000 to meet construction costs of the causeway. She donated Rs. 1,00,000 at first.. When the project cost escalated and money ran out half way through she donated Rs 57,000 again to ensure that the vital causeway was completed. Lady Jamsetjee stipulated that no toll would ever be charged for those using the causeway. Today Mumbaikars have to pay Rs 75 to use the Bandra-Worli Sealink, connecting almost the same two islands. Sir J J Hospital was also built by Sir Jamsetjee Jeejeebhoy.

The shipbuilding Wadia family of Surat was brought to Bombay by the British. Jamshedji Wadia founded the Bombay Port Trust and built the Princess Dock in 1885 and the Victoria Dock and the Mereweather Dry Docks in 1891. Alexandra Dock was built in 1914.

A Gujarati civil engineer supervised the building of the Gateway of India.

The Tatas made Bombay their headquarters and gave it the iconic Taj Mahal Hotel and India 's first civilian airlines, Air India.

The Godrejs gave India its first vegetarian soap.

Cowasji Nanabhai Daver established Bombay's first cotton mill, 'The Bombay Spinning Mills' in 1854. By 1915, there were 83 textile mills in Bombay largely owned by Indians.

This brought about a financial boom in Bombay. Although the mills were owned by Gujaratis, Kutchis, Parsis and Marwaris, the workforce was migrant Mahrashtrians from rural Maharashtra . Premchand Roychand, a prosperous Gujarati broker founded the Bombay Stock Exchange. Premchand Roychand donated Rs 2,00,000 to build the Rajabai Tower in 1878.

Muslim, Sindhi and Punjabi migrants have also contributed handsomely to Mumbai.

Mumbai is built on the blood and sweat of all Indians. That is why Bombay belongs to all Indians.

Apart from its original inhabitants, the Kolis, everyone else in Mumbai, including Thackeray's 'Marathi Manoos', are immigrants.

The "Mumbai for Marathi Manoos" war cry has once again been raised to shore up the sagging political fortunes of the Thackeray family...

When the Shiv Sena-BJP combine came to power in 1993, under the guise of reverting to the original name they replaced Bombay with Mumbai.

I wonder when they will discard the anglicized Thackeray and revert back to their original Marathi surname Thakre?

This article was written on February 7, 2010 by Tushar Gandhi, founder/president, Mahatma Gandhi Foundation, and the great grandson of Gandhiji. (Thank you to the friend who shared this on Facebook!) Photo by me, on film. It's of a sign at Gateway of India, it says Mumbai (मुंबई).

It isn't very often that I post writing that isn't mine. But this was too good to not post. This may explain why I like calling the city I live in Bombay not Mumbai. Bombay is truly is a cosmopolitan city & I'm glad that I was born & live here.

Love,


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Pinterest Addict

My feelings about Pinterest yesterday have been aptly summarized in this comic-

I first got invited to & joined Pinterest over a year ago but didn't even bother actually trying it out. I've seen people using it but it didn't interest me.

I decided to give it a try yesterday, only because I like putting images together & am not very good at keeping actual physical pinboards (when we just moved into this home, a large blue pinboard was one of the first things I bought for myself once the basic furniture was in. I even pinned some stuff but I haven't changed anything for a while now).

And before I knew it I was going beserk pinning all the things!! ;)

Do check out my Pinterest if you like... my two favorite pinboards at the moment are Sea & Sky lust ~ & Men.

Do you have a Pinterest? Do share your profile & favorite pinboards in the comments.

love,

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Golden Half in Bandra ☀

Here are some photos taken with the Golden Half in June 2011. This was the first analog camera I bought well over a year ago. The first roll I ran through it turned out pretty bad, but that was probably because it was my first film roll ever & I probably made some mistakes & gave it to a crappy lab out of sheer ignorance.

So I was reluctant about using it again but I tried it anyway. A tiny note about this camera? Since it's a half frame camera it takes 72 photos on a regular 36 exposure roll. It takes forever to get done. Literally. Towards the end of the roll I find myself snapping random things just to finish the roll. The plastic lens makes everything cutely fuzzy around the edges.

All of these photos are taken in Bandra (a suburb in Bombay), & I got these processed & scanned at an slightly expensive but awesome lab.

Superheadz Golden Half x Kodak 400

I am completely sold on this camera. It is cheap but awesome. Sure it can't do some things like double exposures but it has a hotshoe (you can use it with most regular flashes) & more importantly it works just as it should. :)
I have never had any problems with this camera unlike some others & I'm glad. These are just about half of the roll, there are more from Goa & I will show them to you in a couple of days. I really don't know why I don't use this camera more!

Some random personal stuff now? My parents got home this morning, yay! As much as I enjoyed staying home alone (I really did!) I missed them & was happy that they're back, somehow things just seem back to normal. They brought back so much awesome stuff! I spent the whole morning being overwhelmed by all the thoughtful gifts. I clicked photos of everything, but only on film so I hope they turn out ok.

love,


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Ground Control to Major Tom

I am such a huge fan of David Bowie. I love his songwriting, his voice, his avant garde style. (sorry Lady Gaga, you can't be as good as him no matter how much you copy him).

I don't think there's anyone, celebrity or otherwise who is as brilliant, charismatic & overall awesome. I don't think music or popular culture of the 60s, 70s or 80s would have been the same without him.

David turns 65 today. Happy Birthday! {oh & if you don't know much about him this article is a good starting point.}

love,


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Bandra Fair 2011

Bandra fair is an annual week long fair held the Sunday following September 8th. It is celebrated to commemorate the Nativity of Mary & the fair is said to be about 300 years old. (wikipedia)

Ever since I started college I have tried to attend every year. These are photos from September 2011. The lab had a silly problem & couldn't scan one of these rolls so I had to wait till I got my own scanner. My parents bought me the Epson V600 early last month (thank you!) & that's when I finally scanned these.

Lomo LC-A x Lomography CN400
Lomography Fisheye 2 x Lomography CN400

Bandra fair can be extremely crowded but I'd definitely recommend visiting if you're around Mumbai mid September. I love riding on the ferris wheels. The views are so amazing! The first two photos were taken while precariously leaning over the side when our cars stopped at the top. This last time I had a weird experiences where my friend kept scaring me about how rickety the car felt & kept insisting that the seat fell off after I got up. I didn't see. Ignorance is bliss, I guess.
Roadside tattooing is obviously not safe but sadly very common during fairs, you can get tattooed for as little as 25 (50¢).

There are always stalls selling candles shaped like babies, hands, feet and various other parts of the body. Sick people choose a figure that corresponds to their ailment & light it in the church in hopes of being healed; childless couples offer candles of babies in hopes of getting a child.

Love,


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