Property madness in Bombay.

The other day when getting my property papers and stuff organized, I reminisced of my property buying days and how crazy they were. Probably the most hectic and money-draining phase of my life. Also learning for 

Mumbai today boasts of the most expensive properties in the world today, and also probably the most mal-priced properties too. Flats out here in prime areas can easily cost $ 1 million. That too just 3 BHK or 4 BHK flats! In the west, you would easily get a 10 bhk house with a garden, driveway, big garage, backyard, pool etc. in a city suburb for that price! Buying such a house in a city suburb in Mumbai would probably cost you say $3 Million at the least! Strange, considering the fact that Mumbai usually finishes last on lists like "The best cities to live in". In a survey that had been carried out a few years ago, mumbai ranked 127 out of 130 on such a survey, the followers being mostly Pakistani & African cities. The #1 city on that survey was Melbourne. So what can explain the meteoric price rise in the property market in Mumbai?

The following few factors contribute to the price rise.
Builder Cartel:
This is the no. 1 reason for the prices shooting up. The builders are manipulating the property market to take the prices up. They have realised that the IT professionals & call centre employees have started getting hefty salaries, that would enable them to invest in expensive property. Hence they push up the prices to insane rates. Then they suddenly bring it down a hint. This attracts the standard property buyer, who usually is waiting on the fence for a drop in prices. What he doesn't realize is that though the prices have dropped, the property is still very expensive. What he realizes is that the property wont come any cheaper, as once it starts to rise again, it will go higher than before. So all in all, buying the fat/apartment turns out to be a good decision for the buyer and of-course for the seller too.

Mumbai is an Island, hence limited land resource:
Mumbai is waterlocked, and is connected to land only on the northern side, and across the thane creek on the eastern side. As you go northwards in Bombay, starting from the south, the property prices reduce. South Bombay is like Manhattan, and the suburbs lie towards the north. Across the creek on the eastern side lies New Bombay. A few years ago, the only cheap housing available was in the north or in New bombay, but the prices here too have sky-rocketed. Prices in other metros like Bangalore, Chennai and Delhi are so much cheaper than here!v

The Indian IT success:
The Indian IT industry has boomed in the last 20 years. Middle class boys have turned computer engineers, worked onsite for a few years earning their monies in dollars & have much more buying power than the earlier generation, because of a larger disposable income. Young boys buy houses at an early age, thanks to home loans, and then end up paying large loans for 15-20 years. Because of influx of money into the burgeoning middle-class, the builders have figured out that they can charge a lot more than they actually were, and still sell flats!

There surely are many more factors to the property rise, but ive stated the major ones I felt like ranting about. Probably because I am going to be paying a hefty loan for a majority of my life. But then, such is life my dearies.

My Grandfather

Books, I have always loved, right from a very young age. And this I must credit to my mother, who had a voracious appetite for reading. But there was someone equally important or probably even more who made an indelible impression on me in my formative years. My Grandfather on my fathers side, Mr. Samuel Jonas Bangera. He was a man with a strapping personality and a rigid frame, who served as a convoy in charge for the Indian army. His skin was more red than brown, and his stern look always kept the neighbours children away. In other words very few of my friends had seen the insides of my house when he was alive. He traveled all over India transporting military equipment and goods from as far as Rawalpindi to Kashmir and the far east of India. After retiring from the military, he worked for a transport company into his conclusive years. He passed away when I was 10, in 1992.

The few years that I spent with him were pretty precious to me. He was a very well read and a well traveled person. He had traveled all over India and that part of India which is now in Pakistan & Bangladesh, thanks to his job and he traveled over the rest of the world through his books. He also was a great storyteller. Whenever he narrated his stories to me, they all felt backed by the seemingly vast experience that his wrinkled skin, fastened eyes , posture and reputation, making it difficult for me to pick out reality from fables, considering my young age. For his stories were like sand mixed with clay, some from his military experiences, some from his collection of books & readers digest magazines that he so diligently subscribed to, and some from tinkle comics he read at my cousins place. He never revealed the source of his stories to me, but they all seemed magical, from another realm, or so they seem when I try to recollect them, heightened by the nostalgia that surrounds them. Later as I myself started discovering & reading his books, his sources slowly unraveled themselves to me.

We had a small rack of books, say around 4 feet long, by two feet tall and around 14 inches deep. This was his treasure trove, way beyond limits for us children, for they held his most priced treasures, his books. The books mainly were encyclopedias, books on history, geography etc. Most of them were ordered from the Selection of books that Readers Digest keeps coming out with, so most were readers digest publications. Thus you can say that the unicorn with its raised wings riding over water (the readers digest logo), was always a part of our life. My mother was the person who got to hear most of his stories, even more than my sister and myself could get. Every afternoon after she finished her household chores (I used to be in school at that time of the day) she would want to take her afternoon Nap. But My grandfather would be waiting to tell her some of his stories. So she would have to pull out a chair, and sit listening to him for a large part of the sleepy afternoons, only to be rescued by my Grandmother, so that she could get at least part of her afternoon nap.

We children also got our share of stories. But we also longed when 'Ajja' (grandfather in Kannada & other south-indian languages/dialects) would pull out a book from his trove, and show us some pictures of the wonderful places mentioned in the book. One of the books really stood out, "Natural Wonders of the World". This book had wonderful pictures of beautiful places from all over the world. In those days of doordarshan (where the popular programmes were humlog, chayageet & amchi mathi amchi manse) & the internet being eons away, these pictures were like a window to the world. Books like these certainly have very few people who will read them today, considering we have National Geographic HD & Discovery HD which we can watch on our large Flat screen televisions, and even pause, rewind and replay as many times as you want if you have DTH and the right kind of set-top box. Then there were those other books that we never got to see. The encyclopedias and his treasured 'Mysterios Regions'. I only got to read that book after he passed away. Those were books we probably would not understand when we were kids. The visuals were old odd paintings of expeditions gone wrong, or strange daguerrotypes of strange bearded explorers.

Now all those books still lie, along with the many I have added into his collection. I am sure he would be proud to see what his Grandson has done with his collection. Still, with all the new books I have added, those old ones that i grew looking up to on the high bookshelf, would always have a special place in my heart. They remind me of a man, who inspired me to read, explore the world and embrace knowledge. My gentle ajja, Samuel Johnas Bangera.

All I hear 'Anna'

"This is a write-up from sometime last year, in the heat of the Anna Hazare Movement. This wasn't published in time, so posting it now. Better late than never."


I never have been too interested in politics, be it National Politics or office politics. Though it usually has a direct impact on my life, I have always preferred to bury my head into books or other things that distract me, just like an ostrich would. Not that I am completely oblivious of it, but it doesn't interest me to warrant beyond 15-30 minutes of my attention (when I read the papers) per day.

Yet, the Jan Lokpal bill is something I cannot ignore. It is everywhere. My FB wall is clogged with write-ups and one line wisecracks against the government. People who don't understand politics much more than I do, are generously disbursing their judgments on how good or bad the Lokpal bill is to the Nation. Many copy paste the Status messages form their friends pages, and share it on their wall, as a result of similar messages being posted by numerous friends. I am glad that FB just made an update that clubs all similar messages into one status, and can be expanded on click.

Most of the FB Freedom (against corruption) fighters, fight their freedom only with their fingers. A spurt of fetid flatulence would be enough to distract them from their so-called-fight. This category would probably account for 95% of the population. The other 5% (I am usually generous with my self invented fictitious statistics) go a little farther. They probably would spare some time to attend a local "morcha" in support of anna, or would wear a gandhi topi to college, and return home with the feeling of being a freedom fighter from 1947. Delayed rang-de-basanti effect? And then a handful who have actually taken days off and are spending a lot of time at the protests at Azaad maidan etc. How many of them have actually researched into the Lokpal bill, and evaluated the Pros & Cons that come with. Not many I guess. The whole movement seems momentum based. 'Everyone wants to support Anna because everyone wants to support Anna. I don't know two hicks about the Lokpal bill, but the whole nation cannot be wrong, right?'

And then that are the ones that are against Anna. 'We support corruption, but not Anna.' There have been a group of people, a minority though, who say that the Lokpal bill is not the solution. We support anti-corruption, but not Anna Hazare. The Lokpal bill is no good, and so on and so forth.' This again seems like an extremist point of view. The Jan Lokpal Bill if drafted sensibly, could possible be one part of the many other things that we can do to fight corruption. But the problem is that the focus here is only on this one bill. What about the other gazillion areas including self introspection that needs to be looked at.

Anyways lets see where this leads too. Very soon, many would not even be able to re-collect what the lokpal bill was. Well, thats the way the cookie crumbles, isn't it?

The Video game Chronicles - I : Origins

When I was young, I had this yearly sojourn to my maternal Grandparents home in Thane. Every year, me and my sister would visit them and spend our summer vacation there. One summer, my Father visited us and brought with him a "TV Video Game" and a couple of cartridges. There was a friend of his who had just moved to Bombay. He had started a business of renting out Nintendo/Hatari Video games (didn't work out too well), which we referred to as "TV Video games". So he rented one for a day. It was a Nintendo.

For me, it was a novelty. He had told me about getting the video-game a couple of days earlier, and I was pretty excited. We just had it for an evening. So I had to make the best use of the limited time I had with me. It took us a short while to plug the system to the TV, and off we were! We started out with what I think was one of the earlier versions of 'Ninja Gaiden'. Since it was the first game Ive ever played, it has been etched into my memory. But in the first stage itself, we came up against a huge wall, that we did not know how to cross. This was where we gave up, and switched cartridges. It has been a long time since i ever got to play Ninja Gaiden again, for the plain fact that it wasn't as common as the other games seen usually on the 64 in 1 or similar cartridges.

A starting animation of a later version of Ninja Gaiden

Not exactly the my first Ninja Gaiden I played. I cant seem to locate images for that game. This is one of the later versions again, but the closest I could get to the one I played.

Time for some Contra, Road fighter & Urban Champion next!
Urban champion was a hit with us, because of its simplicity. Two guys slugging it out in a fist fight. Players can just throw two types of blows. Face blows and Belly blows. And players can defend blows from opponents too. Its a cat and mouse game between blows and blocks. When you hit your opponent, he moves behind. And you need to push him to the end of the screen and off the side-walk or into a ditch in the higher stages. I remember repeatedly losing to my uncles at this game.

The first splash screen that you see when the game starts.

A screen shot of a game in progress. Player B is rushing towards player A and is at an advantage before he engages.

The key to an early advantage was to start walking towards the center as fast as you could, and then timing the first punch so as to score a hit. In case you are slower than your opponent, you would end up engaging with him in your half of the screen, which means the distance that one has to push the opponent back to win the game is lesser for him and more for you. It was so funny to see both animated thugs do a fast walk to the center and then start a humorous slug-fest. In case both the players are experienced, the fight can go on for longer, with a series of blocked punches from both sides.

The negative of this game was that it grows old on you pretty soon because of its simplicity, and playing it with the computer AI is pretty boring. Yet, this game brings back fond memories of my yesteryear's.

And then comes my favorite game ever, Contra. The cartridge that my dad had rented, had each of the 10 stages as different games. So in case you wanted to play "Waterfall", you could do that by selecting the game which directly started there. And how could i forget Road fighter. My uncles and my dad managed to play that game pretty well and I was probably too young to play it like them. But little did I know that years down the line, I would be able to play these games with my eyes closed! The same with Contra. Over the years I developed some brilliant contra skills. ;) Both these games deserve their own posts, so ill talk about them later. Anyways here are a couple of screen-shots before as I draw to the end of this post.

The select menu for Contra. The sound jingle played here always sends waves of excitement down my fingers, even now.

The famous Jungle Stage, one that we will never forget.

The classic first stage of Road Fighter.

After an evening of enjoying the games mentioned above and a lot more, we sadly gave back the rented Nintendo system. But I had tasted blood. It was just the start of a long tryst with NES & video games. Read more about it in upcoming write-ups from "the Video Game Chronicles"

Away from Blogging

I have been away from my blog for a really really long time now. A lot of things have happened in the last year. Still no excuses for staying away for so long. Anyways, I am hoping to systematically start posting as the Chronic Bibliophile again. If nothing, atleast a post a month, or 12 posts a year. :)

Travels in the US

The last 2 months have been full of travel for me. My onsite trip to the US gave me an opportunity to explore a lot of the east coast. And also changed my attitude towards travel in my own country. Every weekend in my two months in the US was an opportunity to travel. And I planned aggressively for each weekend, talking to team mates, searching the net, making schedules etc. etc. The end result was a lot of travel in the last 2 months I was there. This also hopefully would see me start out on a string of bike-trips, fishing trips and photography trips. I plan to invest a lot of time in traveling in the near future. So hopefully there should be a lot of travelogues posted out here. Most probably, I will be starting with my NY travelogues next. So will be posting a lot of travel pics here too. Keep checking back.

New York

Central Park. Liberty Island. Times Square. Bronx Zoo. The Metropolitan Museum of Art. China Town. Little Italy. New york Stock Exchange. Brooklyn Bridge. Fifth Avenue. Wall Street. Subways & Metro.

I am coming.

Mario de Miranda - Book Review (7.5/10)

After quite some time, I walked into Crosswords Powai. It has been ages since I went there, considering that I used to visit every week. More than getting books, I wanted to see if there were any good DVDs to pick up. I am glad that I found "The Curious Case of Benjamin Button". Loved the movie. And walking out of crosswords without a book in hand is something very difficult to achieve. Something I dont think I ever will.

Since it had been quite some time since I had frequented the humour corner, I decided to do so. Amongst the volumes of Calvin & Hobbes & Garfield (almost all of which I already own), I saw 'Mario de Miranda'. It was not the first time I laid my eyes on it. I have seen it on multiple occasions before and drooled over it. In the past, I did not buy it just because of the price tag. Rs.2700 seemed a bit to steep. But the impulsive buyer that I am, I went for it on this occasion.

I have been an ardent fan of Mario Miranda right from Standard 1, unknowingly then. This is because he was the illustrator for the older version of the Balbharati English Text books then. I still very clearly have memories of my first lesson in my 1st standard textbook. It was about a boy called Nitin. Went something like "My name is Nititn. I am a boy. I stay in Pune." etc. etc. I dont remember the text so well. But what I can never forget is the image of Nitin, hanging on the branches of a tree casually, in his light blue shirt and black pants. I am not sure about how much memory aberration is in play, but if anyone reading this remembers a clearer and more distinct version of this lesson, please leave a comment.

Anyways deep down in my subconcious, these images have had a strong effect. As I grew up, I was fed the likes of Herge, Goscinny, Ram Waeerkar,Scarpelli, Schultz, VB Halbe, Miranda, etc. and later on Watterson, Davis,Laxman etc. For me, the illustrations are more important than the script when it comes to comics. And hence I would always look at names of the illustrators, and observe the nuances of their art with great dedication. Amongst all the greats, I consider Mario Miranda as right up there. He has acheived a very very distinct, original, special, apealing and arty style of cartooning. His cartoons would easily sell as a painting or a work of pure art. I dont think any other cartoonist paints murals like him, nor are drawings so widely used on commercial goods, postcards, souveniers, atleast amongst indian cartoonists. His one-box comics were half as funny as mnay others. But I never considered his humour as good as my other idols anyways. It was all about the drawings of Mario de Miranda.

The book has around 2000 of his drawings, sketches, diary pages, paintings, murals etc. A real treat for anyone who has love Marios drawings. There is an initial biography of Mario Miranda in the first few pages, that I loved reading through. And then are scans from his diary pages, where can be seen some pretty ordinary sketches, which kept on improving slowly over time, to evolve into the style that Mario has developed finally. Yes, you can clearly see the evolution of an artist, as you scan across the pages. And it shows how much practice mario had to put in before he could draw like what he does. This surely is an encouragement for budding cartoonists and artists. It is hardowork and passion that truly pays off in the end.

The book also has various paintings and drawings by Mario. If you are an art freak, I cant see why you wont love it. Many of the paintings depict the places that Mario has been and stayed in throughout his life. From Goa to Mumbai, from Paris to Libson, there are paintings and sketches that truly capture what he must have experienced when there. Rating this book is certainly a challenge, as it is more of a collection of drawings, cartoons, sketches and paintings and a bit of a biography. If you are a fan of Mario Miranda, this book will be a 10/10 for you. But for the general junta, I think it should be a 7.5/10.

Trek to Kanheri Caves

Yesterday, i.e. Sunday, 20th July 2009 I along with friends from Y.E.S. visited the Sanjay Gandhi National Park. It was more of an extempore trip, without much planning or ado. We decided to go, packed our bags and left. Yet, there were around 15 of us who made this trip. Personally I was looking forward to visiting the Kanheri caves the most, as I had read that there wasnt much to see in the National park in terms of Lions, tigers and other animals.

We all decided to assemble at Vikhroli Station at around 8:00 am. Most were on time, and some were late as usual. We decided to use the time to have our breakfast.

Bonny and me having our breakfast.

We then moved on to the bus stop. We thought of traveling by bus, but ended up taking ricks.

After we reached borivili, I decided to have a go at the wada paav stand. I knew we had a long journey ahead, and I was already hungry. Only Griffin and Gladvin joined me. The others decided to keep away.

The map outside Borivili national Park. We had planned to hike upto Kanheri Caves.

The beautiful sprawling national park awaits us...


Walking into the park, unaware of the long road ahead.


Moss covered walls seen from the train

Before that we decided to take a look at some of the animals. I wasnt so inclined, but all the
others were. Probably because I knew about the sorry state of the animals and had already visited the Nehru Zoological park in Hyderabad, and knew that this would never live upto those standards. Finally, considering the limited time, we settled for a train ride, and just got to see the deers.

Walking to

Leaving behind a tunnel

Off the ride, the girls dont seem to have enjoyed themselves much.

After the train ride, we hit back the long and beautiful road.


After walking for sometime, we reached a bridge over a small stream. The group didnt need an invitation to get into the water.


Bonny decided to catch some fish. The only fish available were small fry.


A little water bug that he caught.


Taking a dip in the cool stream.

After the dip, many were reluctant to leave the spot. Infact only myself and Joshua were the ones out of the water, waiting for everybody to get back on the trail. Then there was a little mutiny where some of the guys decided against going to the caves and wanted to just explore the jungles. It took some time to break the mutiny and convince everybody that the caves were worth visiting. And we could hit the road again...


Weary after the long walk.


The gang, now tired & famished, decides to squat on the road.


After some time of continuous walking, we finally made it to the foot of the hill, which had the caves. At the base of the caves, there was a map and a write up on the caves.

Exploring the first of the caves.

The biggest and the most beautiful of the viharas.

Massive moss covered rocks.


A Stupa inside the cave that had multiple viharas.


Posers forever. :)


Bonny checks out the sculptures behind the Stupa.


An inside out view... The Viharas were pretty dark, even in the bright afternoons.


Some wall sculptures


A carving of Buddha


A destroyed stupa next to an intact one. Not even sure if its a destroyed stupa. Raiders? Dacoits? Cant say.


The caves have an excellent water harvesting systems. There are tanks built all over the caves, and there are water channels along the hills that supply water to these tanks. Also the excess water in the past was drained out to the nearby Tulsi and Vihar lakes.

Next , exactly after the huge cave with viharas built in it, we came across a Chaitya which was the hugest. It had huge 20 feet statues of buddha and also a big stupa in the middle of the hall. Above is the entrance to this Chaitya.

A huge pillar that looked more decorative than supportive. This was outside a huge chaitya, probably the main prayer hall in the monastrey.

A 20 feet statue of Buddha. The most impressive in Kanheri Caves. The body was out of proportion, as can be expected sometimes in the carvings of those ages. This error in proportion was observed only in the big statue. But obviously, the bigger the work, more difficult to maintain proportions. Also, in many places, the smaller ones were replicas of this larger one. Opposite the one you see in the above picture stands an exactly carbon copy statue. To pass into the hall, you would have to pass throught these 2 bug statues that face each other.


Some more than voluptious carvings that lined the entrance.


The large Chaitya. Just being in here was a magnificient feeling. I can imagine what a peaceful atmosphere this might have been when the monks walked this placce around a couple of thousand years ago.

Some carvings on top of a pillar. Two elephants, with maybe mahouts, or maybe .. i dunno what. You figure.

The inside out view.


Me with a minature version of the 20 feet statue you saw a couple of pics up...


The main area of the caves from the other side, ie from outside the main Chaitya (prayer hall)


As we climbed higher, we got a fantabulous view of the National Park. The sun shone through the clouds, and illuminated streaks of the forest that I couldnt capture on this cellphone camera. You actually have to be in the place to experience it. This picture actually cheats the viewer of depth of feild. The forest is much farther than what it seems to be in the pic.


Between two hillocks on which the caves are built flows a little stream. There are multiple caves built in this valley too. What you see is a stream of people playing and venturing about in this little stream. The late monsoons may be the reason why it is just a trickle.

The team tired, after walking for more than 8 kms, soaking the view.

Rock cut steps led us further up the hill where there were many more Viharas.


High up in the Sky


Joshua and John look down on the passers by.


The Entrance to a Vihara (quarters where the monks reside). There were many such viharas carved into the rocky mountainside. There are 100 caves in all out here...


This looked like a rock cut Ezy chair. Maybe something that the monks used to relax in. Winson, Serena and John chill on probably one of the best places ezy chairs, as you can see the whole valley from here.

Enoch walks up rock cut steps to get higher up the hill.