The city — sliced, diced and served with a dash of sauce
Heritage on the Central Railway
It's not only the “towny” city area that has heritage buildings which need looking after. Far-flung Wangani, on the Central Railway line towards Karjat (Vangani on the railway map), is home to a 90-year-old building which is in danger of being demolished.
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The 90-year-old sub-station. Pic/Shrikant Khuperkar
The building is the Wangani sub-station, which has fallen into disuse after the Karjat-Kalyan section was changed to alternating current (AC). The railway authorities are planning to demolish it, but the Railway Pravasi Sangh or the passengers’ association is requesting them not to do so.
Not only is it a heritage building, the association points out, but there is also a specific and much-needed use that it can be put to. While there are railway hospitals in other places, there is none between Kalyan and Lonavala. The disused sub-station is an ideal place to start a hospital and trauma care centre, they say.
The association has approached MP Kapil Patil with the idea, and he has promised to speak to Railway Minister Suresh Prabhu. While that happens, we hope the building does not feel the blow of the bulldozer...
A lick of beauty
There seems to be a glut of beauty products in the market right now that contain charcoal oh sorry, it’s activated charcoal powder. And with these products, comes the hard-sell. And so we have ads exhorting us to use charcoal-based face washes and masks.
And then there are overzealous beauticians looking to jump on this bandwagon, too. Confronted by one of these salesgirls-cum-beauticians looking to offload some charcoal-based products, this diarist’s wife had a simple solution to keep the girl quiet and avoid wasteful spending.
She told the beautician that she believes in home-made products and she can get “charcoal” products at a moment’s notice at home. The confused beautician enquired about the secret of this amazing factory, to which she was shown a picture of Charcoal (above), a lovely canine girl who has adopted us.
Charcoal enjoys licking away the day’s grime from our faces, and gives us a shower of love along with it. And if we need unwinding, we can always wrestle with her for a free massage!