Location: Mumbai streets...India
Event: A ride in a bus.
From the list of six-events' I decided to take part in only one event and that is a ride in a Mumbai bus. I boarded the bus at 12:45 and reached my destination after two hours. My school(I am the coordiantor of the special school for mentally challenged) is located at Belapur, which is two hours (bus journey) away from Bandra, where I live. I make this trip regularly, twice a month to get the updates from my school.
I am sitting in a red BEST bus, similar to one you see across the street. There is too much noise everywhere of people talking loudly. I can hear the Sounds of horn goes pomp pomp pomp, Ticket collector goes tick tick tick.click, click as he tick on the ticket, making a small hole in the ticket and takes the changes. he goes to the each passenger's seat to hand out the tickets.Poeple pay according to the distance they travel with the minimum fare of Rs2 and it costs me Rs18 to cover this distance.(normally one dollar equal Rs40) buses and cars go beep beep,peep, peep,people have the nasty habit of using the horn of their vehicle even when it is not required.....The bus is quite slow at the normal speed of 40 km/hour.
During the rush hour, morning and evening, this bus is normally packed with too many people, almost to its full capacity and there may be two columns of standees of about forty people plus fifty people sitting in a crowded bus.
this shot is take inside the bus, at different bus-stops, number of standees might vary during the afternoon time
There is too much traffic on the road, all times of the day...going by bus means plugging your ears with ipod/radio and going to sleep, even a book will do, to kill the time, other wise it is pretty difficult to pass the time..you will always be stuck in the traffic and you may become irritable at the end of the journey
I am really fasnitated by this old lady who is sitting just in front of me..she must have been about ninety years old, but she has such a cute toothless smile..her face has millions of wrinkles, each making crinkle design on her face...and her ear lobe had such a large hole..and still her large, ring-shaped ear ring is dangling from a large hole of her ear lobe....when she turned to look out of window I was able to take the shot
At evey street light, in Mumbai, I can see many poeple, some are begging and some are selling things, all kinds of things are sold at the signals like toys, newspaper, books,(if you want to know which are the popular books, you can ask them, they know it all) and food stuff..here, at this signal, I can see the street urchin selling oranges.....
At the end of the trip of two hours I am quite thirsty...thank Gawd, there is a sugarcane juice vendor at the corner of the bus depot....at every bus depots we find lots of hawkers selling different things and people are always eating or drinking on the streets of Mumbai....
...
Okay!
I am all set to attend ‘Kala Ghoda Arts Festival’ which is starting tomorrow, 2nd February 2008.
There are 12 workshops clustered around two weekends in such a way that it is possible to attend only four. I had applied for four workshops. I have got confirmation for three workshops so far, and am still awaiting the fourth one.
The workshops that I have been confirmed and attending are
‘An Introduction to Freelance writing’ which will be conducted by ‘Kavita Roa from 1030 hrs to 1230 hrs at Elphinston College seminar room on 2nd and 3rd Feb
‘Once Upon a Time - Writing for Children’ by Jane Bhandari and Marilyn Noronha from 1430 hrs to 1630 hrs at Bombay Auditorium History Society Auditorium on 2nd and 3rd Feb
‘What Every Writer should know about Publishing’ by Anita Roy from 1330 hrs to 1630 hrs at Bombay Auditorium History Society Auditorium on 9th and 10th Feb
There are five writing contest also, of which I have just attempted one contest only.
Then I plan to attend some open events and poetry slams too. My attendance to this festival will depend on my endurance and moods.
The whole list of event are posted
HERE
