Bandra-Worli Sealink

Bandra-Worli sea link, officially called Rajiv Gandhi Sea link is a cable stayed bridge which connects Bandra in Western Suburbs of Mumbai to Worli in South Mumbai. The sea link reduces the travel time between Bandra to Worli during peak hours from 60-90 mins to 20-30mins.

Bandra Worli Sealink against Worli skyline

The sea link can be best viewed from Bandra Fort.

Skywatch Friday - Sunset at Bandra Fort

Few clicks of sunset from Bandra Fort..

Castella de Aguada or Bandra Fort, Mumbai

Stuck in busy traffic in the main street of Bandra last week, I turned on my GPS to take some narrow streets. That experience really turned up to be an adventourous one in a 4 wheeler, when my car got few scratches as well. But a heritage walk through those narrow streets is what I am looking for during my next visit. My GPS also navigated me to Bandra Fort, which was in my do visit list for quite sometime. So we headed there. The Bandra bandstand road reachs you to the Fort.

Mumbai Fort Circuit: Right from early historical period, Mumbai has been an important trade centre. Owing to its coastal location, Mumbai was constantly invaded. Numerous forts were built through coastlines to fiercely defend the city. Each fort through the Konkan coastline, originated in different periods and is of different dimension with totally different architectural features. The Directorate of Archaeology and Museums, Government of Maharastra has initiated the Mumbai Fort Circuit including Bandra, Worli, Sewri and Ghodbunder forts.

Castella de Aguada, also known as Bandra Fort is one of the biggest fort in Mumbai owing to its location and size played an important role in the struggle for supremacy over Bombay. Its said to be built my Portuguese in 1640 as a watchtower overlooking Mahim Bay, Arabian Island and southern Island of Mahim. Its name indicates its origin as a place where fresh water was available in the form of a fountain(Aguada) for Portuguese ships cruising the coasts in the initial period of Portuguese presence. The Fort lies over several levels, from sea level to an altitude of 24metres.

Adjacent to the fort wall is a well maintained park,

More than the Fort, the view of the Bandra-Worli sea link from the fort, is what attracts most of the people. Following post on Bandra-Worli Sea Link.

Magnum Launch in Mumbai

Date: 16 February, 2014
Venue: Bunglow 9, Bandra(West), Mumbai
Website: https://www.facebook.com/MagnumIND/app_415547331875452#!/MagnumIND
Magnum launched its ice-cream in Mumbai. The launch had Masterclass by Master Chef Kunal Kapur. Though I ended up late at the event, and missed the Masterclass, got to taste the world's most famous premium ice-cream.

Magnum offers three flavours,

• Magnum Classic- A thick craking layer of Magnum chocolate made with real Belgian chocolate covering a deliciously smooth creamy vanilla ice-cream.
• Magnum Almond - Natural almond inside thick layer of original Belgian chocolate and vanilla ice-cream.
• Chocolate Truffle - Smooth chocolate truffle sauce swirled through creamy chocolate ice-cream and wrapped in thick Belgian chocolate.

Belgian chocolates are perfect balance of bitter, sweet and milky, and have the finest quality cocoa beans.

Starting from March 1, 2014 all three flavours will be available in Mumbai, Pune, Hyderabad and Bangaluru. Wrapped in brand's signature brown and golden packing, each bar of Magnum is priced at Rs. 85/-

Followed by Masterclass was launch party, where Magnum revealed its loyal brand ambassador, Kareena Kapoor Khan.

WIN!! Time to Celebrate Blogging...

Date: 9 February, 2014

Venue: The Courtyard by Marriott, Mumbai
Website: http://blog.blogadda.com/2014/01/22/welcoming-one-win-14

Sunday morning, and an event at Airport, which is almost an hour drive from home!! But couldn't miss it, The First Blogging Conference of India, by Blogadda. Hubby dropped me at The Coutyard by Marriott by 9am, the scheduled time. Got to know the event got delayed by few minutes, meanwhile I got introduced to few bloggers.

Event started off and guess who was the anchor, Ashwin Mushran, one of my fav actor from the movie Fashion. Ashwin called upon Ravi Subramanian, who introduced to in-sights of authoring a book. Followed by was "Storytelling via Blogs" by Ravi P and Kavi Arasu, narrating stories through their photography. Lakshmipathy Bhat, Anaggh Desai and Manu Prasad spoke on how blogging influence brand. Then was the honour of first set of Blog winners.
After a break for lunch, where we got to taste some fab food, including Jain, the session was back with discussion on "Blogging and Publishing" with Kiran Manral and Ravi Subramanian. They shared their experience as authors of their books and answered blogger's doubts like, can an author make a living from his publication, could a good blogger be a good author and on. Ekalavya Bhattacharya, Karl Gomes and Vasundhara Das had a chat about travel, life and music. Padam Shri Shekhar Kapur shared his thoughts on how social media and blogging has been influencing the society today, and his experience as a blogger and social media person.
Anuradha Goyal, Amit Agarwal and Arjun Ravi inspired bloggers with their success stories. Jamshed Rajan kept everyone engaged with his stand up act. Followed by final set of blog awards. To end the session was a workshop by Abhigyan Jha of Jai Hind TV(which I opted to food blogging workshop by Kalyan Karmakar), on how videos on internet are becoming more popular than TV, which directs to a brighter future of video blogging.
All in all the day was well spent learning and celebrating blogging with inspiring people.

Dwadasha Jyotirlinga Temple, Bengaluru

Am back from a short trip to Bengaluru. Though this trip was for a family get together, somehow managed for a visit to near-by temple to blog about. 



Dwadasha Jyotirlinga Temple on Omkar Hills in Rajarajeshwari Nagar, is said to be built in Orissa architecture. The temple has 12 shrines for 12 Jyothirlingas situated in different parts for the country, namely Somnath, Mallikarjuna Swami, Mahakaleshwar, Omkareshwar, Kedarnath, Bhimashankar, Visheakarmeshwar, Trimbakeshwar, Baidyanath, Aundha Nagnath, Rameshwar, Ghushmeshwar. The main shrine depicts Omkareshwar. At the entrance is the Nandi, the vahana/vehicle of Lord Shiva.

 The temple also has a Bronze Bell, which is said to be one of the largest and heaviest bell in India weighing 1200Kg.

Photography is prohibited inside the temple.

Omkar Hills is on Kengeri Uttarhalli main road and is easily accessible with road.