A letter from "Spirit of Mumbai" to people of Mumbai

I am the Spirit of Mumbai speaking :

Come disaster, rain or shine, come, destroy me anytime, disfigure me, I will still stand and smile, because I am the SPIRIT of Mumbai

Come all you people, come, abuse me, corrupt me, dirty me, litter all over me, trample me, I will still stand and smile because I am the SPIRIT of Mumbai.

Come, attack me please, bomb me, shoot me, kill me, I will still stand united holding hands with a smile and a candle in my hands because I AM THE SPIRIT OF MUMBAI.

A letter from "Spirit of Mumbai" to it's people which includes me.

I am Spirit of Mumbai known for it's resilience, strong shoulders and kindness. I was born recently, but have matured due to incessant disaster strikes on Mumbai. I feel tired and old everytime Mumbai is attacked by humans or natural disasters. I think I am here to stay, thanks to Mumbai people who believe in me and stand by me. No matter what happens to this city, they run and come under my shelter, rest for while and then walk off with a smile, holding hands, shouting slogans "Stay United", "Mumbai Spirit" and with a candle or two in hands. Please stop abusing me.

Yes I am resilient, have strong shoulders and kind hearted, but lately I have started to crumble with the burden of comforting Mumbai city. I am on constant call and no time to rest. All I am doing nowadays is saying, "Be calm and stay cool. Stay United. We are Mumbai People...blah blah. My parents must be surely laughing on my plight. I had heard from them, in their time....people were very strong minded and if at all a disaster struck, people would start devising ways to stop the disaster, instead of just holding rallies, fight amongst themselves and expect the useless politicians to do something for them.

But today, I am overworked. Isn't it time for everyone to start thinking of how to stop these disasters, terror attacks hitting Mumbai ? ( which are quite frequent in number ) and devise, implement and execute the plans for a better change, rather then just dial my no for help. People are just calling me randomly which I can't even refuse. And since I am kind hearted, I melt looking at the plight of the victims. I should have made a specific contract with certain points and not just walked in their life. 

I urge the Mumbaikar's not to spoil my name. I am there every day, every minute, every sec, every breath in every human being but all of you have to use me sparingly and stop hiding wearing my mask.Use me to stop these disasters, attacks on Mumbai and do not use me to show the world "How brave you all are to face yet another disaster and eager to help eachother to hold hands". By all means help eachother and stay united in the "hour of crisis". But let the world hear your Voice of Unity and BRING in the change by "implementing the change". Don't let the willy politicians rule you or supress your Voice of Unity. Don't expect others to bring about the change for your safety and well being. Every individual has to do it and start from his own house, neighbourhood, area to see the change in our society and country.

As I had mentioned earlier I am inside every human being, I will always be with you, but if you all keep calling me, I  will be forced to renew my contract with fresh clauses for the betterment of the city.

Till then take care and "Make that Change".

Kip expressing :)

Rat Island - Singapore, 1988

It was raining heavily the day we reached RAT ISLAND, a small island few kms away from Singapore city. We were waiting for the rains to stop at the jetty/pier for our boat ride to whisk us to RAT ISLAND. “We” consisted of me and few others from my school, as it was our school camp, a camp, which I will remember all my life.

It has taken 20 years and a short adventure documentary, which I saw on TV, to remind me, that I have my own adventure memories still inside me. Memories never get erased but somehow they get buried deep inside us, just to resurface, to remind us that “we ( memories ) are still inside you”. These memories are just like photographs, captured visually in intangible form by a human camera - eyes, brain, heart. And the only way to give these memories a tangible form is to write it.

1988, United World College, Singapore. Fully aware that this camp revolves around swimming, I still decided to join this camp since it offered me various activities. Those days I wasn’t a water fan, forget swimming I couldn’t float to save my life. Mahatma Gandhi pool, which is at Shivaji Park, Mumbai, was probably the best place to learn swimming in 80’s, but their trainers had finally given up on me. Even during our swimming sessions at UWC I never really “learnt” swimming. I was always the one to be in shallow water. Anyways, I was meant to be at the camp and so it was. I went to the camp on the strength of just one word, LIFE JACKET.

Within minutes of reaching the island, we were asked to JUMP in the ocean from a jetty just to warm up for the things coming ahead. Before taking the leap I embarrassingly reminded my group head about my swimming status, just to hear a big NO, with a LIFE JACKET given to me and shown the way. In no time, I found myself floating in the water, asking another guy, “Is it deep in here?” Obviously it was. What was I thinking, had I jumped in a tub? Well this was just a start of my adventure……

After reaching our camping ground and resting our wet butts, we were scooted off to learn sailing which I thoroughly enjoyed. Sailing was a cakewalk when compared to swimming AND the adventure lying ahead.

Next day, my real test lay in the sand in front of me. A CANOE, which is also called a KAYAK. Basically the act is called CANOEING and the boat in which we sit is called a KAYAK. We were given a KAYAK each, with a short training session and within no time we were on our own. This exercise was quite tiring but nevertheless had fun trying something new, perhaps because of our close proximity to the shore where the current was obliging my KAYAK. My first reaction on seeing this piece of boat was….. ahh LOOKS EASY, again better then swimming. As long as I didn’t have to SWIM, I was all fine even though there was direct contact with the water.

Before I proceed, I will describe what a CANOE / KAYAK is and three basic important points necessary to canoe. There is SEA KAYAKING, WHITEWATER KAYAKING, LAKE KAYAKING. We were given a SEA KAYAK. There are two types in KAYAK’s, OPEN and CLOSED. Open KAYAK can seat two people. Closed KAYAK’s can have 1 or 2 people as per the design. We were given a closed KAYAK which takes a single person, in which he/she sits on the buttocks with legs extended and maneuvers the boat with a paddle.
Some more points to bear in mind while canoeing :
1)
a) Firstly one should NOT be scared of water. ( I had no choice regarding this )
b) Believe me canoeing is tough. It’s not easy as it looks. For canoeing one needs to have powerful hands and legs with LOTS of patience and stamina in general and especially when the KAYAK is against the wind and waves. One just needs to practice for such a activity to control it and of course have a liking for water sports.
C) As mentioned above a single person sits with legs extended on the buttocks with no place to twist and turn the lower part of the body. Sitting in the KAYAK with legs stretched for long hours calls for strong legs and lots of stamina.
2) When one sits inside the KAYAK, it’s necessary to cover the mouth
( entrance of the KAYAK ) or the cockpit with a special sheet to keep the water away from entering the KAYAK. Removing water from the KAYAK, when in water is next to impossible. It’s like inviting trouble and sapping yourself of energy which is very vital when canoeing. If any water removal has to be done, it has to be done on land, usually by two people, since KAYAK’s are very heavy. It has to be turned upside down with each person lifting it’s side one by one to remove the water.
3) If you capsize ( the KAYAK turns upside down when in water with a person in it ) with the water protection sheet at the mouth of KAYAK, one should know the technique to come out of the KAYAK quickly and swiftly under water in few seconds. It’s very important not to panic and breathe correctly at this moment.

After spending almost half a day with the KAYAK I thought to myself well I guess this is it, end of this session and start of something NEW. NO this was not to be. A task which was thrown at us made my life a nightmare and yes, it was KAYAK related. Our task was to canoe for a about a km to another island, where our group had to put up tents and spend a night.
I wished, I hadn’t come for the camp. Is this a fun camp or a torture camp ? A km canoeing in deep sea ? Are the camp heads mad ? These thoughts relentlessly kept lingering in my mind till….. we were almost in the deep.

Deeper in the sea, our travel against the current, made things more difficult to maneuver the KAYAK, though we were travelling parallel to shore. More then hands, my legs started aching and I couldn’t take it anymore. My team mates were quite ahead of me. To make it worse I had slowed down since I was getting pushed sideways and more deeper by the waves, towards a gigantic docked ship, which in turn made me hit the paddle with more vengeance imagining horrible things. My mind was completely shut -
1) I was having unbearable cramps in my legs
2) Due to strong current I wasn’t moving ahead
3) To top it, I was pushed towards a huge ship which would have probably minced me and my KAYAK by it’s propellers, had it been moving.
I just had one thing on my mind, get out of the KAYAK and free my legs, I didn’t care about water going in the KAYAK. On an impulse I just took off my water protection sheet and managed to come out of the heavily bobbing KAYAK. I dared this, due to LIFE JACKET which was on me. I wasn’t scared of drowning. At that moment I just wanted to free my legs, which I did heaving a sigh of relief, stretching my legs holding on the KAYAK, ONLY to have my KAYAK filled with water. As mentioned earlier it’s next to impossible to remove water when the KAYAK is in water. I somehow struggled to take the water out of the KAYAK by turning and twisting it. It was a difficult task as water was constantly reentering the canoe as I was fighting to remove it. Thinking to myself that it was impossible to take the water out completely, I had to get in the KAYAK quickly and swiftly before more water could rush in, cause the KAYAK was bobbing up and down furiously. But HOW? As I tried getting in, the KAYAK would twist and turn and more water would get in. After a long play I somehow climbed the KAYAK, pushing myself through the KAYAK cockpit, without a care for the water which was still inside. I just had one thing on my mind “Destination – Island” for overnight stay. Although I was at my wits end and exhausted with this play of getting OUT and IN, I started for my destination with renewed vigour and strength mentally and physically.

And….. finally I reached the island as rest of the team mates were parking their KAYAKS on the shore. I was shuddering to even think of the next day travel from the KAYAK back to where we started from, but surprisingly the KAYAK literally glided through the water since the wind and water current were favouring us.

As things stand today, I can swim to save my life and others life. Though my Life Saver Certificate validity has expired long back, the Life Saver in me is still alive. I guess the know-how and techniques don’t have a validity period. Having said that, if I were to fall in the same kind of “canoe” situation I won’t require a LIFE JACKET at least for those couple of minutes I struggled then. BUT I will not hesitate to dial L J, my pal and saviour, LIFE JACKET which saved me from drowning and gave me strength for doing unimaginable things in the midst of the ocean, without fear taking over my mind.

Kip expressing :)

Wed Flowers - Up Close & Personal

Pink Bougainvillea
Originally uploaded by kvisualtree

I am presenting a flower photo series which I shot few days back. All the pictures are shot in super macro mode. Since I took hundreds of flower photos, I have selected best of the lot . All the pictures are untouched, taken in natural light & mostly shot between 2 to 4 pm.This theme is called "Wed Flowers - Up Close & Personal".
Let me explain why this title.....
1) On this particular day I was taking tons and tons of flower pictures and transfering them to iphoto and hence creating lot of randomly named folders. And since it was a "Wednesday" I just named one folder "Wed Flowers" to avoid too many folders. AND what you have is..... my theme name.
2) Up Close and Personal is because I have shot this flower series in super macro mode to peep close enough to feel the world of
flowers, leaves, ants etc... I hope I have managed that and it comes through the photographs. I have put in my heart and soul WITH
ants crawling all over me...so hopefully my effort is visible......Enjoy !!!!

IMP: Please do not repost the photos and misuse them....thanks


Wed Flowers - Up Close & Personal by Kapil A Suvarna is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-Noncommercial-No Derivative Works 2.5 India License.


PS -

1) When you click the above photo and after the flickr page opens, click on - "Wed Flowers - Up Close & Personal ( set )" to see
the whole album

2) To enlarge a photo, please click "All Sizes" which is on top left of every picture

3) To read the EXIF data click "More Properties" which is on the right hand side of every picture.


Kip expressing :)

Marathi Manoos + North Indian = INDIAN

I wonder how the family of these maniacs can remain mute spectators to unparadonable atrocities causing communal disharmony on the streets of one the most cosmopolitan cities in the world, MUMBAI. My family would have thrashed the daylights out of me if I had attempted anything remotely similar. I would first question the family of such people who call themselves “leaders”. Leaders of what ? Leaders who lead a gang of hoodlums and sting them to create ruckus all over the city/country and beat up poor defenceless people and divide communities for their own hidden agenda….

Then the state government raises it’s head, with much hesitation and apprehension, to give the local police orders to arrest the concerned “leader” due to whom it all started. These leaders get arrested for making inflammatory speeches, which was the cause for this violence against North Indians. Within two hours of getting arrested these leaders are released on bail for a measly Rs 15000 to achieve a hero status in the eyes of ???? A few tobacco chewing, good for nothing a******s shouting slogans for their leader. I pity the local police for not holding them for few years. At least in those two hours the police could have shown them “the sun and the moon” and then released them with an ambulance waiting to nurse them. A big political game. I will not even step in that circle. Let’s keep it basic.

I am full of questions at present about what has happened in past few days. These questions are to myself as I am one of the Mumbaikar’s who have done zilch against this unfair action, which divides communities within a country and instigates attacks on innocent people coming to cities in Maharashtra, especially Mumbai, to earn 3 meals a day.
Just the other day I had gone to fetch my wife, quite a distance from our house on one of these unpredictable days. At the risk of sounding a hoodlum myself, if we were attacked or had I seen anyone getting attacked, rest assured it would have been “eye for an eye” . And knowing me, to avoid the “if”, my mother insisted that she accompanies me, which I couldn’t decipher at first. But as an afterthought, “eye for an eye” was an foolish thought on my part because this is not our culture or what we want, this will ignite the situation and be instrumental in planting seeds of mutual hatred and cement enmity between people living in peaceful city like Mumbai and this is precisely what these b******s want, communities, cities, country fighting against each other. In short a mayhem filled environment.

But I am glad that a educated Maharashtrian from a cultured family was not in support of this division which was tried in Mumbai, which if pursued more would have created bad blood between existing communities. Only good for nothing and power hungry people can think and do something like this in the hope of acquiring hero status in the eyes of bunch of nincompoops. Does he not understand being a educated person, that his kind of parties breed nothing but hoodlums and absolute nitwits who have no aim in life then act as battery powered robots and cause destruction without thinking on their own and hence cannot predict the outcome of their actions.

As mentioned earlier, following are some questions looming in my mind and I am presenting my expressions in a form of a letter to this “leader”…….

Dear, “self proclaimed leader” of a worthless party.

Here’s a definition of a leader for you :
Leaders lead a nation to harmony, prosperity, integrity.

It would be very interesting to study you or your behavioural pattern or your brain like eg: criminals, terrorists etc… It would be a good case study for students and me, for how it functions and gives you commands to do certain things/actions which are harmful to the society and thereafter whether you realize the repercussions.

If I may ask, was there any need to rake up this community issue between Maharashtrians and North Indians in a city like Mumbai ? I couldn’t agree more that Mumbai is getting burdened by hordes of people from other cities coming to Mumbai for jobs. BUT there are various ways to deal with this acute situation. Put on your glasses and read “VIOLENCE IS NOT THE SOLUTION”. With violence, you are waiting for the distressed to retaliate by pushing them against the wall and trigger a civil war. Is this what you want ? Raise your hand with all your might if anyone threatens your family or our country. BUT, beating up innocent samosawala’s and taxiwala’s mercilessly, by snatching away their livelihood with the help of your sponsored eunuchs, do you think that will help oust North Indians from Maharashtra ? Do you think that's power ? Power is when you can bring happiness in other's lives and make positive changes in the society. And why should other communities leave Maharashtra ? They are in their own house. I hope you understand what it means by “in their own house”. If that’s what you want, I suggest get all the Maharashtrians back to this country who have left their motherland and are taking shelter in some other country to earn their daily bread AND in all probability are snatching 3 meals a day from a local person. At least, these “North Indians” do not leave their “house”, their motherland. But then, can anybody stop anyone from migrating from one place to another ? NO. Likewise, you can't stop anybody from entering or settling in any state, region or country.

I am sure you are educated enough to have made a simple announcement to your party workers for not resorting to violence in the last few days and henceforth I hope you do the same before you and your party workers decide to take up a issue regarding Mumbai or any other cause. To congregate for a announcement shouldn’t be difficult task for you, since anyways, you like to regale audiences through many press conferences.

I am dead sure that a thinking Maharashtrian must not have supported your silly mission or would not join your party, which is like school kids forming groups and creating purposeless hubbub to attract attention and then later getting asses whacked by teachers, parents for disturbing the environment.

Who has benefited from this drama. No one. It’s just going to get more ugly and pit the communities one on one. Enough of this. If you think you have the power, do something constructive and productive for the society/country which will give YOU a genuine satisfaction and bring accolades at your feet, from, not a Marathi Manoos or a North Indian, but a INDIAN. Also, it may give you, instant publicity and thrust you in limelight which you were pining for years, rather then drawing publicity by taunting Amitabh Bachchan, who was, is and will be much loved and the greatest superstars world has seen. So lay off him.

I suggest you think in tranquility on a vacation, where you are with yourself and your FAMILY ONLY.

Regards
Kapil Suvarna
PS: It may sound inane, but if you want to satiate your urge for “division”, just get a birthday cake and slice/divide it in as many pieces you want, with your family and hired goons cheering you to boost your inconsequential ego or whatever you are…...And IMPORTANTLY please convey this message to you KITH AND KIN…..

Kip expressing :)

Movie Reviews : Business Killer

We watch a movie, like it or dislike it and then just forget about it. It takes a minimum of 1 to 6 months to make a film OR more then 1 year to make a more complex film AND JUST 2 ½ hrs to judge it.

It’s a free world, a person walks in a theatre and gives his comments, good or bad. A filmmaker aware of all the risks in filmmaking business, produces the film and screens his creativity hoping that his film will be a box office success and fetches him some accolades. Fair enough.

When a film releases on it’s 1st day, critics put pen to paper and start writing reviews which in today's jet age takes no time reaching the public through various means of communication such as print, TV, radio, internet. Along with freedom of speech, critics have to earn their bread and butter. Again, it's fair enough.

Viewers just watch a film liking or disliking it, whereas critics watch a film and help diminish it's business from the very 1st day. I strongly feel curiosity level lessens when a person reads/listens to a film review before watching any movie, irrespective of the review, good or bad. The reader starts creating a "certain" image in his mind about the movie and if reviews are bad, it just expands the image. I guess it’s natural, if any product is bad I’ll will think twice before buying it. Similarly any movie is a product, which is presented to a wide audience and negative reviews will make a person think twice, if it’s worth the effort to visit a movie hall and buy a ticket for a particular movie which eventually affects a "certain" movie by robbing off it's "probable" viewership. Out of 10 movies released how many are truly box office champs ? 2? 3? max 4?......I don't deny, good reviews may increase the prospects of a film at the box office BUT since the probability of films getting bad reviews is more, it’s anyone’s guess what the final outcome be. A single man's judgement cannot be a final say on any movie.

There are people who don’t depend on reviews ( like me ) OR without regard to the reviews, positive or negative, film aficionados still head straight to movie halls to catch a "1st day 1st show". BUT sad part is, there are millions out there who depend on film reviews or word of mouth buzz. That’s where the fault lies. 8 out of 10 people watch a film for "pure" entertainment and are least interested in the “Technicalities” of the film. When lights switch off in a movie hall the viewers want to enter a different world for 2 ½ hrs forgeting their own. For these people if a movie manages to hook them for 2 ½ hrs and has “entertained” them, then a movie is “good”, if doesn’t then its “bad”. Period. These are the people who really make or break the film, that is, if they “REACH” the theatre, thanks to the reviews by our critics who sometimes I feel, write a movie review to showcase their writing skills.

I myself used to be a avid reader of film reviews in newspapers, on websites every fri/sat/sun, not that I was/am dependent on a review. But now I have stopped reading reviews of the films I wish to see, since reviews act as visualizers creating certain pictures in mind which increase or decrease our expectations towards a film and influences a mind to a large extent.

I feel it's really unfair for a film, which may find it's audience and "might be liked" by viewers, stay away due to negative reviews and most importantly that too in "FIRST 3-4" days, which are very crucial for a film to consolidate it's position box-office wise. Hence I feel the media - print, tv, radio, internet should not publish/telecast/upload reviews in the first 3-4 days which will give every film a chance to stand on it’s own merit. Good or bad. Let the people decide. Something to think about.

Kip expressing :)

Eee PC - Easy, super efficient and fun to use

How would you like to whip out a small gadget with a sleek body from your handbag, without puffing it up, to surf the net and check your emails wirelessly or work in word and excel document or perhaps a presentation in ppt, or may be in mood to chat or skype with someone while you download some files or listen to music, watch videos, or play games etc etc…. with ease and quick efficiency….? And lots of eyeballs admiring your machine ??? Sounds terrific? Exciting? To me, that’s what Eee Pc does and what hopefully Macbook Air will do ………

I am not going to review Eee Pc or Macbook Air nor am I going to pit these two awesome works of engineering against each other. I will just draw a quick picture in words about these two stunners and their capabilities.

Easy, super efficient and fun to use, this is what I would use to describe Eee PC and Macbook Air. Eee PC and Macbook Air are small extremely light and super efficient laptops which can do just about everything as mentioned earlier with ready to go softwares pre-installed at your fingertips. AND I can VOUCH for Eee PC since I own this baby.

Before I could lay my hands on Eee PC, a lady in a Hong Kong electronic mall, Mongkok Computer Centre to be specific, showed me a small laptop of same size by a Korean company, which was equally enticing and had more or less same configuration with 1gb ram instead of Eee Pc's 512mb ram and Windows XP installed. BUT, the cost was double of Eee PC and I would have seriously kicked myself, if I had bought it and later seen Eee PC. After setting my eyes on Eee PC and knowing it’s capabilities, our ( me and my wife ) decision became firmer to buy it and it’s price, sealed the deal.

I would not demean these two machines, Eee PC and MacBook Air by calling it, only a traveller’s dream companions. Just about anyone can start using it without an iota of computer knowledge. I haven’t used Macbook Air as yet, obviously as it’s just been launched, but from it's configuration it tells the whole story.

For uninitiated following is the basic configuration for Eee Pc and Macbook Air with Eee Pc pictures. Well, my Sony T200 digital cam insisted on doing the honours.

Eee Pc which is by ASUS and introduced in the market very recently -

1) 7” display - intel mobile chip with Linux

2) Solid state ( Flash drive ) 4 gig disk and 512mb ram

3) Lan port, optional phone port, mic and earphone outputs.

4) Memory Card Slot, 3 USB ports, External Monitor Port

5) Wi-fi and Web Cam

6) Loads of pre-installed softwares to start with....

Macbook Air

1) 13” display with Intel Core 2 Duo processor with 2GB memory with MAC OS X Leopard

2) 64GB solid-state drive or 80GB Parallel ATA, 4200 rpm.

3) With Wi-Fi and Bluetooth

3) USB port, audio out, Micro DVI

4) isight camera

5) No optical drive. But there’s a feature in MBAir, by which you can access a optical drive from any other computer near you, Win or MAC to load softwares.

The know more head to :

Eee PC Website

http://eeepc.asus.com/global/product.htm

Macbook Air Website

http://www.apple.com/macbookair/specs.html

Kip expressing :)

Mumbai Winter

It’s express time again, since my heart, mind, and hands were really itching to write and pour out my expressions. And what can be better then Mumbai Winter, which is raising quite a few eyebrows.

It’s suddenly very cold in Mumbai and for once Mr Jackets, Ms Sweaters and Mrs Shawls have stepped out of every Mumbaikar’s cupboard and given them the much needed warmth. I hope this renewed association ( after 1962 !!! ) with Ms Sweaters and Mr Jackets remains and doesn’t become a “once in a blue moon” thing.

But my thoughts go for all the needy people out there, who don’t have or can't afford, enough woolens to keep themselves and their families warm in this weather. I think that's one reason, why Mumbai shields itself from the winter every year, but has let it’s guard down and let the cold wave drop in.

Anyhow…. I am loving this weather and selfishly wish, this kind of weather and temperature touches Mumbai every year, but also considering underprivileged people I sincerely hope the temperature stays put at 10 C or else life would be unbearable for them.

Without saying much, all I will express is - Mumbai experiencing sudden drop in temperature this winter is thanks to Global Warming. I won't be surprised if we start experiencing extreme temperatures in winter and summer over the years in Mumbai and around the world. Unless we - Save Mumbai. Save Earth.

Kip expressing :)