Saturday the 7th

On the grounds of Bharat,Adi,Sarab,and Abhi needing to buy components for their Level3 autonomous line follower robot,above mentioned and myself,Divyesh and Ramya went to VT.Divyesh and Ramya came along for the ride.I went along to get some cheap books for GRE test prep(which reminds me,I haven’t started yet)Adi joined us later,so the early birds getting the worms(did I type worms?ewww,I meant getting their work done) were everyone mentioned except Adi.

So,well,we roamed around BMC,Fort,the Crawford market and Sara markets,The Taj,and the Gateway.

Abhi and Ramya reached earlier than Sarab,Divyesh and myself,who were travelling together by bus,on account of having travelled by train and Abhi showed me the bullet marks of the 26/11 attacks,and I was filled with the outrage and anger very much on display after the attacks,as to how could the terrorists even think of attacking such a beautiful place and a heritage structure.Saw the famous spot where Qasab was standing when he was clicked,which became the signature pic of the attacks at VT.

After waiting a bit for Bharat,and deploring the state of security at VT even after the attacks in the meantime(There were people busily walking in and out,avoiding the metal detectors,and zilch security personnel in sight!),we set off for Sara market.

At Sara market,while Ramya bought two watches(looked good,I must say)for 125 bucks apiece,I wondered and wandered with others in the Sara market area at the wide array of digital electronics on display,at dirt cheap prices,and strictly no warranty.

After this,we had a bit of confusion as to which bus to catch to Lamington Road,and ended up drinking sugarcane juice from a roadside stall,and taking the only sure bus route I knew,66,from behind the BMC HQ.

As L3 Group did shopping,I checked out the prices of a GB of DDR1 RAM,seems they move up than down,but that’s expected,since it’s quite a bit out of date,with DDR2 the de rigeur and DDR3 hitting the shelves on high end rigs already.And apparently,there are no more 2GB DDR1 RAM DIMMs available.Production has stopped!

After a bit of roaming,and lots of confusion over a ATMega 8 v/s a ATMega 16 uController,L3 group bought an ATMega 16,while a DC fan I eyed had a max diameter of 3 inches.Great difference,I have one of those already.All further sizes were apparently AC fans.Well,no custom for you from me,then.

After all this,Divyesh,Ramya and I were famished(and it took quite a lot of complaining to get that across to L3 group)and made our way to the McD opposite VT where Adi joined us at 1700.We then set off for Gateway,and I wondered at all the beautiful architecture(this was effectively the first time I had gone to VT while I remembered what I saw),and took liberties with Adi’s digicam’s rapidly draining battery.

Quite by chance,we chanced upon the first day of the Kala Ghoda Art Festival,which I had been yearning to see every year,since I started reading the coverage in newspapers(read as The Indian Express).Found the scorpion and the phoenix installations particularly significant.

While we spent about a half hour at the festival,and I saw the Naval Dockyard’s Elephant Gate,I had the “So near,yet so far” case with appreciating the art on the wall next to the gate,which was commissioned by the Navy.

That done,we continued on our way to Gateway,and Bharat and I helped a foreign couple out of a sticky situation with a guy asking for a 100 bucks for performing aarti,that too,right in front of the Mumbai Police HQ. Got them off with 20 bucks.Apparently,they had a culture shock with the guy asking them after the deed was done,rather than before it,which is what happens in their country(whichever it was,we didn’t ask).The uncle was quite used to be left alone after he had refused a few times,but aarti dude was quite persistent.

So we went to Gateway,stopping at Flora Fountain on the way(which was right opposite the KalaGhoda Fest,BTW),and a (alert:exaggeration at extreme)tense confrontation with one of the book sellers who sell books off the street,wherein I bought the 2008 edition of Kaplan for GRE test prep,while the rest of the guys waited impatiently……….

We saw Leopold,and while it was visible from the main road,it was next to impossible to notice it when walking the footpath.Just a small piece of metal pointed to the area where the horror started on 26/11.To our relief,the cafe was bustling,and didn’t look like being affected by the attacks.

A few shortcuts through bylanes later,we arrived at The Taj,and again I was overcome by the outrage,etc mentioned.All of a sudden,we became all conscious of civic sense,and made sure to throw our tea bags and cups into the garbage cans.And life goes on as usual,the hawkers run when the SRPF comes(which is an ugly addition to the landscape I must say,though unavoidable)and even try to continue selling while they run!Quintessential Bombay!

The SRPF van at the Gateway

So we left,and I made my way back by train,than by bus,due to certain unnamed reasons,which this sentence is enough to make me remember.;)

Update:

Long term intention,only now have I been able to set aside the time for this update.

On the way back home in the train,was standing in the corridor near Bhandup,when a conversation between me and another commuter was heard by a third commuter.<hindi>

Third commuter asks me:Are you going to be going by bus after alighting at Mulund?

Me(warily):Yes.

Commuter:Ok then,take this BEST Rs.20 ticket,it didn’t come of use to me,you might as well use it.(for those who don’t know,the BEST is a public bus service run by the Municipal Corporation,and a Rs. 20 ticket allows you to travel by BEST anywhere in the suburbs of Bombay till 0000 hours of the day you buy the ticket,correspondingly a Rs.25 ticket allows you to travel on all BEST routes except,I am told,on the routes in Thane district)

Me(taking the ticket):Thanks.

</hindi>

Another example of quintessential Bombay.

Also,the Kaplan book for GRE test prep paid off the slightly-on-the-higher-side cost I paid for it,got me 1480/1600 on the test,with an unbelievable(for me) 790/800 in the math section.