The Shifting Sands

The Diwali, the festival of light, is the Indian equivalent of Christmas.  It is very commercial and husbands are expected to buy jewellery for their wives, so its not much fun for the men folk! . This year we were in our new offices in the Metro Depot and we decided to have a Rangoli competition.  Rangolis are also known as a kolam or a muggu and are a form of folk art using coloured sand rice, flour, petals to create artwork to welcome gods into the home. They form a central role in religious observance in Mumbai and in India more broadly. The teams hard at work All the Senior Management were judges for the Rangoli competition including the expatriates Managers. An area in our foyer was set aside for the competition and the teams, most of whom were in traditional dress, were given an area consisting of four floor tiles to create their Rangoli. Based on the expatriate's  inability to predict the winners it could be reasonably suggested that w...

Dussera celebrates victory over the devil and draws from Rama's defeat of the 10 headed demon king Ravana and the Goddess Durga's victory over the demon Mahishasur. Our little friends Dusserra seems to have become much more significant in Mumbai this year.  In our first year in India we visited Udaipur over Dusserra and the festival was much more significant with temporary temples erected and kids out dancing the kolattam or stick dance almost every night.  After returning to Mumbai from Udaipur we rarely saw any festivities on the streets This year there were any number of Rama and Durga statutes in roadside shrines in the same manner as during Ganpatti.  On the roads with less traffic you could see people dancing, gambling and socialising for the week of Dusserra. Bright lights of festival season My logic is that Mumbai has a large population of migrants and they bring their traditions with them. This, combined with the fact tha...

Writing  a post about super foods in India is like talking in the native tongue...there are 22 official languages and almost 400 living languages!  But there are certain foods that are becoming more readily available and are not cost prohibitive that are worthy of special mention. A superfood has to be nutrient dense, readily (seasonably)  available, cleanly produced and singular...not a combination food...so it can be eaten on its own, on the run, or added to other foods to create a healthier choice. I love the idea of super foods and I know Ayurvedic principals have hundreds of ancient and nature available foods and food combinations that sit within the western understanding of super foods. For BREAKFAST right now one cannot go past a Spray Free Alphonso Mango.  Finding Organic in India, truly organic, is not easy, but there are many farmers and co-operatives that manage chemical free ...