Usually, these say things like “Don tuch me” 😀 I thought this was an interesting variation. The cabbie was initially upset because he thought I was photographing the meter to trounce him for cheating on the fare (which he well may have been).Then I said, no, I liked his Ganeshji, and he could very well reset it to zero.
Once he was satisfied I really, truly liked it, he turned the meter back down to zero and then suggested angles from which I could get better shots 😀
Post 2 of 3 from Salt’n’Pepper cafe in Fort Kochi. The food was better than the spelling.
Porched eggs are my favorite, waise. And they have so many plane options … 😀
So we all know that Malyalees get a raw deal when it comes to their agzent. I mean accent 😉 So at the risk of perpetuating that, I have to share these. this is the first of 3 from Fort Kochi. I don’t think you need more from me, I’ll exit gracefully and leave you to study the menu…
(p.s. yes, Chopsy is a European Special)
(how do you like your sisler? well done? raw?)
I just watched “the Oh in Ohio” and was reminded that while I hadn’t gone inside this store, I did have this picture of the window display 🙂
And since a picture is worth a 1,000 words and there’s plenty of quirky objets d’art here to keep you busy, I’ll shut up.
graffiti in Amsterdam near Central Station.
It’s like Peter Gabriel’s Milgram’s 37 song, which, has the sum lyric of “We do what we’re told”. The lyric refers, of course, to Milgram’s experiment on how authority can make people torture other people (mob mentality for violence //nazis, religionist/casteist/racist/genderists). And this link taught me something I didn’t know: When he performed this in concert, Gabriel got the crowd chanting “We do what we’re told.” Since the song was not yet released and the crowd did not know its meaning, they were ironically aping the results of the experiment by doing just as Gabriel told them.
While I was in Germany and the Netherlands, I took a couple of walking tours and the English guides in both Amsterdam and Berlin made the same jokes about how creative the natives were when it came to naming things. The national monument is called “The National Monument,” the concert hall is “The Concert Hall,” etc. etc. etc. Well, we have our Mahatma Gandhi Margs and our Chhatrapati Shivaji everythings to counter it.
Still, some of it was amusing to me. Like this shop. Perfectly named, who could ask for more? 🙂
This one is tops in my list of unbelievable kitsch. What you see is a man selling hot coffee, tea, and cocoa from the back of a tempo with a chandelier in it 🙂 Yes, look again, peer into that interior – it’s a full blown chandelier! I loved it!
This was taken at the Rijksmuseum as I waited in the freezing cold drizzle to buy a ticket around 5pm. I think our well decorated coffee vendor’s sell-rate was close to 100 percent. And which Amsterdammer or tourist wouldn’t want a hot cuppa from a man with such good taste in interior design and a fetchingly homey little ‘coffee shop’ even it’s really the back of a three-wheeler? 😀 The warm yellow glow, the aromas – he truly outdid himself, no? 🙂
and in Mumbai 😉 But not in Amsterdam, even if you’re Batman 🙂
This charming mime was on Damrak around the corner from Dam Square where Darth Vader, the Joker, a mummy, and a robot were all posing.
But Batman‘s always been my favorite and he bowed to me ever so courteously, I was charmed.
So I dropped a few cents into his bowl and then we blew kisses at each other. And I walked away smiling. Or not. Maybe that just happened in my head. 😉
I went to Bhopal to report on the 25th anniversary of the Union Carbide/Dow gas leak and found there was so much more to the story than that one night and the inhalation of the poison. There’s stories of shirked corporate responsibility, incredible government oversight and cuckoldry, stories of death, cancer, spontaneous abortions, animals ripping open, respiratory illnesses, ongoing denial, costly treatment, ignorance – and through the rips, hope. The commemorative Bhopal statue was designed by a Dutch lady called Ruth. And it’s symbolic. This replica is in the office of the Chingari Trust. The women of Bhopal really have been key in carrying the struggle forward — to make sure that the world doesn’t let another Bhopal happen.
Even for me – an educated journalist who considers herself abreast with news – it was an eye opener – how the water is still contaminated, how everyone drinks it daily because there are few alternatives, how the children are stunted and sick and dying. I have hours of audio and hundreds of photos to prove it. If you want to see them or listen, email me. I’ll share. Meanwhile, visit www.bhopal.net and www.bhopal.org to raise your voice. And check out the Chingari Trust if you want to contribute something towards the children.
This gem from the old market in Siem Reap, Cambodia. If only I could sell MY rants, too. I have so many – from Delhi’s lack of civic sense to my uncle’s Islamophobia, to the state of our educational systems in India, not to mention the state of radio in India…. 😉
Anyway, these are handmade LADY rants 😉 Mine aren’t very ladylike, I’ll admit. So for those, you’ll really have to travel to Cambodia.
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