Goa Bhavan, Juhu
We went to Goa Bhavan for dinner today. Goa Bhavan is a guest house for the Govt. of Goa and has a small dining hall where the cook serves rather delicious meals at reasonable rates. The place is not fancy but who cares! The food was good.
We had 3 Fish Meals - a plate of rice, a fish curry, fried fish, a small vegetable curry, a small salad, mango pickle and a sharp raita with what tasted and looked like beet root juice in it. In addition to this we ordered a plate of fried prawns, a half plate of fried pomfret, a chicken curry (disappointing in taste and quantity) and a plate of masala prawns. Plus six rotis which were very well done - thin and soft.
In all I paid 600 including a small tip and a bottle of mineral water to go with the meal.
Nice. We will go back again.
Goa Bhavan is located on the central road of the Gulmohar Society area of Juhu, a stone's throw from the Fab India outlet.
Online Passport Application
Saturday evening I used the Indian Government's online passport application application to apply for new passports for my kids and for renewal of Padmaja's passport. We moved to Mumbai recently and I was afraid of the documentation that would be required.
The application process itself was smooth and straightforward. They have a single web page that needs to be filled out. The usability factor could have been better though in reality it manages to take a complex topic and present it well. After you finish the web pagwe you are taken to a submission summary page that gives you your submission number and allows you to select a date for the appointment at the local passport office. I was pleasantly surprised to note that I was given a date just 10 days from the date of submission.
There is extensive documentation on what is required. I put together a full set of documentation last night. Padmaja will print them up and the originals are at hand in a separate folder waiting for the big day.
I will need bank drafts though. Separate ones for each application. I intend to apply through the Tatkal route by paying the additional fees and hopefully everybody in te family will have passports by early March 2011. Then they can come with me on one of my way too frequent trips to Dubai.
I will post follow ups after we complete the whole process.
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Moved to MTNL from Airtel
I finally moved to MTNL completely. I was using an Airtel connection with BlackBerry services for the last 3 odd months. Wasn't very happy with them for nature of their billing but was using it anyway.
Padmaja has now joined the SAIL Regional Office at Mumbai and she as MTNL here. So we now have a MTNL CUG for Padmaja, home & I.
My transition from Airtel wasn't smooth. I had become too dependent on my BlackBerry 
and the thought of being cutoff from the world (Ya. I know...) was not a pretty one. So I kept the Airtel number till I completed the migration to MTNL.
This migration was far from smooth. First I called 1503 and told them to activate the SIM and BlackBerry services. This happened quickly enough. I remember checking after about an hour and found the SIM activated. So far so good.
Then I pulled out the Airtel SIM and pushed in the MTNL one. Went online to mtnl.blacbkberry.com to create a new user account and setup my email and got my first shock The site kept refusing to accept my phone PIN & IMEI claiming that the device was not registered on the network and giving me instructions to follow. Well I did follow the instructions. Many times. And kept getting a "Registered" message back buty the web site would not budge!
After trying a few times I called 1503 again. The first person I spoke to didn't have a clue so I called back. The second chap tried a few things and then took a complaint. Gave me the complaint number and the standard "it will take 12 to 24 hour" parting shot.
I put the Airtel SIM back in my BlackBerry and went home.
That was Friday. I gave MTNL the full 24 hours before checking the status of my SIM again. And it worked!
I was able to visit the mtnl.blackberry.com web site, create a new user and setup my email accounts. Had a bit of a bother with the office email but finally got everything ticking along just fine.
I have sent a plan termination email to Airtel and will have to btrave their "BlackBerry Retention" team's innumerable calls and offers to try and make me stick around.
They should have given me better service to start with rather than trying to retain me with offers of bill waivers and other such tactics. When I took my first Airtel SIM in April 2010 I asked for unlimited GPRS and was given the 2 Gb plan for Rs. 99/-. I still had my BSNL SIM from Hyderabad and I started using the Airtel number as my primary phone. I got a rude shock 2 weeks later when I started receiving SMS messages from Airtel saying that my outstanding bill was Rs. 986 and growing. I have never ever paid such a mobile bill. My Hyderabad BSNL number still does not cross Rs. 406/- per month even when I am on National Roaming and am using GPRS like there is no tomorrow. When BSNL says "unlimited" the service really is unlimited and does not have any strings attached.
So bye bye Airtel! Farewell and I hope we shall never meet again.
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Mumbai!
Western Expressway at Bandra Kurla Complex. Taken on a Saturday morning in July (17th, July 2010 to be exact) after I dropped Padmaja at her office in BKC and was on my way back home to Powai.
I am begining to fall in love with Mumbai.
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The Monsoon Breeze of Mumbai
I came to Mumbai in March 2010 - as spring was dying and summer merriy laying it's sticky grip on the city. As the weeks rolled by I realised that I missed the evening breeze I had grown accustomed to in Hyderabad. A breeze that blows away the heat & dust of the Hyderabadi day and ushers in the cool of the night.
I dearly missed that brezee as I tried to get an autowalla to go the way I wanted to go. I forgot all about it as soon as I entered my air conditioned service apartment - till the next evening found me lugging a laptop in business formals trying to find an auto to take me "home".
It was one such evening that I noticed the smell. Of fish. I had somehow never noticed it before but after that first surprised meeting we kept bumping into each other on what seemed to be a daily basis.
It was then that I realised that it was the Mumbai breeze that was brining my new friend the smell of fish to me everyday. The breeze was a slip of a thing. I barely noticed her. But she was strong enough to carry my new friend all the way from the Arabian Sea to Andheri East.
I soon took both my new friends for granted, barely noticing them till I needed them.
Then with almost startling suddeness it started raining. Nothing coy about the mighty mistress of the monsoon. She just arrived one day and laid siege to our lives. She rules all. She cannot be denied or ignored. She is everywhere. All dominating, willful, strong and passionate.
With the arrival of the monsoon I rediscovered my friend, the shy breeze of Mumbai. I am sure it is her but she has changed! She is no longer a shy little girl but a woman in full control of her life. She no longer whispers around the rooms but blows through them. And she no longer bears on her shoulders my other friend - the smell of fish from the sea.
My friend is a little frightening in her current form but she is also very loving. She brings with her a cooling freshness that has finally blown away the accumulated misery of summer. A true Shakti!
I wait to see how she will change in the coming months - the first I will see as a new citizen of Mumbai.
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