22 January,2015 07:37 AM IST | | Contributed by: Hemal Ashar, Varun Singh, Shakti Shetty, Vidya Heble
The city — sliced, diced and served with a dash of sauce
A date with 38
Turning 38 may not be a milestone birthday, but the Nehru Planetarium in Worli is celebrating in an entirely worthy way. To mark its 38th anniversary, the planetarium is holding a number of competitions from February 24 to March 3.
Inside the planetarium
There is astro-painting, astro-elocution and astro-poetry... and there is also an astro-quiz contest. For more details and participation call: Suhas B.Naik-Satam, Programme Coordinator, Nehru Planetarium or fax at: 24924133 or email: suhasnasa@gmail.com before February 20. Oh and Nehru Planetarium? Just by the way, happy birthday.
Getting into the zzz...zone
They say people move to Mumbai so as to fulfil their dreams. However, more often than not, these dreams are too basic in necessity to call themselves dreams but that's how things are in our demography. Also, it's kind of ironical that a city that allegedly never goes to sleep has so many people falling asleep everywhere - at any given point of time.
When life leaves you little time for catching 40 winks, 39 will do
Be it on the side of a street or on top of a wooden mart or inside a taxi or outside a mall. It's as if the city is indeed sleepless but only during nighttime. When the sun is out there shining, everybody seems to be in a hurry to find themselves some moments of respite.
And we are not even talking about those noddies who doze off in local trains or BEST buses either in sitting position or standing as easily as a baby in a mother's arms. We're pointing out those who are stationary and yet somehow manage to catch that nap which eludes them otherwise.
After you, Ma Lad!
Following Ambivali which became Amby Valley, it was only a matter of time before the faux Westernisation spread down the (railway) line.
Reader Hemant Kenkre spotted this advertisement for a housing project in "Dombivali/ Dombi Valley", and queried, "After Upper Worli, Upper Juhu and New Cuffe Parade it's time for Dombi Valley! What next, Kur La? Kandi Valley and Bori Valley?"
To which another friend riposted, "I need to figure out if Versova is upper Juhu or lower Madh or sideways Andheri or maybe backwards Vile Parle!"
Nabbing that cab
There is apparently no difference between a radio cab and a black-and-yellow taxi. Not when the driver of the former refuses to go to a certain destination despite having accepted the booking. On Tuesday, our reporter booked a Meru Cab to Kalyan, and got a message of confirmation from the service provider about the booking.
When he called the chauffeur, the taxi driver refused the fare, saying Kalyan was too far. When told that he should have told the company about this, the driver replied that the company had taken the booking, not he, and so he wasn't answerable.
The reporter again booked a cab and surprise, surprise got the same driver, with the same result. Following these two cancellations he managed to get a "compliant" driver with the third booking attempt.
Meanwhile, Meru's customer service called to ask why the booking had been cancelled. When they learnt the reason, they apologised for the mistake. Which is fine, but it does make us wonder how reliable (and safe!) taxis are, if drivers behave like such loose cannons.
