Ganesh Chaturthi and Creativity!!

Ganesh Chaturthi is the time when creativity reflects in every arrangement and celebration. As part of today's post, here are few of creative things I came across during my today's Ganesh pandal hopping, 

Ganeshji at one of the saree showrooms: Photograph of Ganeshji made with fleeted saree, framed in beautiful photoframe and decorated with colourful sarees,

Modak Utsav:

Modak is a must have nevedyam for Ganesh Chaturthi and the festival is incomplete with out Modak. A sweet shop near my place has arranged Modak Utsav, with modaks in different forms and flavors. From orange to strawberry, to chocolate flavors, sweet meats of mouse(mooshak raj, Ganeshji's vahan/vehicle) holding a modak, to tablas and kalash with modaks. Here is a glimpse,

 

 

 

And the flower mantaps with every colour and texture, from orchids to roses, from Satin to nets,

More creativity and celebration from Ganesh Chaturthi, coming up in following posts.

Shri Mahaganapati, Ranjangaon

My hubby served for Fiat India Automobiles for few years, just before when the Fiat Plant in Kurla, Mumbai, got shifted to Ranjangaon MIDC, in Pune dist. Still he has been in good terms with most of his ex-colleagues at Fiat and we often visit them in Pune. 

Apart from the vast industrial opportunity this place Ranjangaon offers, it has a great religious importance. The place has one of the eight Ashtavinayak Temples, the temple of Shri Mahaganapati. Ashtavinayak, which literally means "Eight Ganeshas", are housed in eight pilgrimage places around Pune, in per-ascertained sequence. Each of the eight idols differ in their form, legend and history.

Tripurasura, a demon, was born from the nostrils of Gritsamada when he sneezed. Tripurasura was blessed by Ganapati, only to be killed by lord Shiva and conquered the world. Lords go to Shiva, seeking his help to kill Tripurasura and rescue the world from his evil deeds. Lord Shiva couldn't kill the demon, till he worshipped Ganapati. Shiva established Ganapati as Mahaganapati, as a mark of gratitude. Shiva is enshrined at Bhimashankara, nearby.

The history of the temple goes to 9th or 10th century, by its resemblance to the architecture. Its said that MadhavRao Peshwa, who often visited the temple, built the stone sanctum around the idol in 1790AD. The idol facing the east, is seated in cross legged position with broad forehead.

Location:

Ranjangaon is around 50kms from Pune, on Pune-Ahamednagar highway. Frequent Maharashtra Sate Road Transport Buses operating between Pune and Ahamednagar/Shirur halt here. There is also delux bus by ST, which covers all eight Ashtavinayak temples in two days from Pune.

On this auspicious occasion of Ganesh Chaturthi today, I wish lord Mahaganapati bless us all with Happiness and Prosperity.

Happy Ganesh Chaturthi!!

UniverCell Sync Store Review

Date: 23 August, 2014

Venue: UniverCell Sync, Cecil Court Building, Next to Regal Cinema, Cause Way, Mumbai

Just when I was stuck at home for one long week, since back from my vacation and getting back to routine, received an invite from Indiblogger for UniverCell Sync blogger's event. The event being on Saturday, an off for my little one, she was ready to accompany me. She is always on her toes for blogger events, and I somehow manage to avoid her. But this being a store visit, thought of taking her along.

Both of us started off for Colaba, for the event. A drive through the heritage streets of Fort and Colaba is a treat in itself, and from far enough, she pointed me out the store(in vibrant Blue and white), and we joined the other bloggers and indiblogger team at the store. 

Entered the store, still wondering, how peacefully I could have a tour of the store with her, one of the store assistants, assisted me to the tab section, where I could leave my girl with a tab for herself to play games and watch videos, till I could get along the store.

 

The tab section is a small table at a lower level, where kids and parents can play games, which are productive and conducive for kid's development.

The colourful tab section for your kids

Ms. Soumya Menon, VP Brand Strategy, took us through the other sections. Founded in 1997, UniverCell, presently has 500+ stores across South and West India. The UniverCell Sync store, is just not a mobile store but a place, for every mobile enthusiast, be it a photography enthusiasts or music freak or a multitasker. The store takes you to all together a different tech place, where you can do some good research on your mobile shopping and decide on your pick.

The first you encounter is the new and noteworthy section, so even if you are still not sure what's new in the market and which mobile you are looking for, here it is, which gives a glimpse of newbies in the market. To the left is the best sellers, which again, minimises your selection if you are not specific about your pick.

The arrangement of mobiles and their accessories gets specific as you get along the store.

The Work and play section has mobiles with best productivity and gaming apps. The section is accompanied with the necessary accessories of the section.

The music section has the mobiles and the accessories, thats docks, headphones and blue-tooths. If you are a music freak and music is what you are looking for in your moblie, then this is the place you land up at.

The photography section, gives you a glimpse of mobiles with best camera options and the accessories which accompany them, the extra memory cards and batteries. The colourful frames at the photography section, gives you a chance to frame yourself in the moblies and decide on your option.

Every section has the checklist of the features you have to look for in the mobile, for your specific usage. The checklist along with the supportive store staff, will help you make the better choice.

UniverCell Sync, provides you with best value added sales and post purchase support, which includes,

Free Monsoon Protection: A part of UniverCell Total Care, a service pack that takes care of,

• Repair or Replacement Guarantee in case of any damage
• Free Door Step Pickup
• All for a very nominal fee 

Sync Squad: on the move mobile assistance, a personalized smart phone trainer

• This is a post purchase support at a customer's doorstep
• Helps a customer load and sync content from different devices
• Sync different devices like tv, laptop, printer

 Mobile Health Care:

• Combo with Sync Squad
• Pick Up and Drop Service with standby phone support
• Repair/Service

Total Insurance Plan: This is a combo Of UniverCell Total Care (UTC) and theft insurance Highlights

• Help to pick the right data plans
• Bill payments and Top ups for the Mobile
• Assistance in buying Apps and e-books

So if you are planning to upgrade you mobile, then look for a UniverCell Store near your place and plan a visit soon. 

Hemavathi Reservoir Back Waters

Am back from a long vacation to native, filled with lots of fun, party and celebration. Varamahalakshmi Vratha, Rakshabandhan, my little one's birthday party and my younger brother's week long wedding celebration.

The day I reached native, it was all about the beauty of Hemavathi Reservoir with all its crest gates open, in most of the news papers and TV channel. But with very tight schedule, only time we could make out for a visit was somewhere in between all our celebration, and all we cousins planned a drive to the reservior. Unfortunately the crest gates were not fully opened when we reached there and this was the best we could find.

 

With no mood to return back home, we planned to go to the back water of the reservoir, which is just 2kms drive from the reservoir. The excess water which floods into the river rbank, creates islands, giving it a magnificent beauty.

We spent nice time enjoying the cool breeze and beauty, giggling some old bollywood songs.

Currency Exhibition

Recently there was currency exhibition at daughter's school. As I was there at her school for her open day, gave a visit. The exhibits were collection of Mr. Sanjay Joshi and the event was sponsored by PMC Bank.

Currency, stamps, flag, map of Australia

Mr. Sanjay Joshi, a banker by profession, is a passionate Numiamatist, Notaphilist, philatelist. As of today he has a collection of around 1950 coins from 187 nations, 850 curreny notes from 205 nations and around 1800 stamps from 233 nations, which are existing and extinct nations.

Currency, stamps, flag, map of Lithunia

He calls it Money Olympics, an exhibition of Currency(coins and notes), Stamps and Flags of the nations spread across the seven continents, arranged in alphabetical order from A to Z(Afghanistan to Zimbabwe).

Currency printed during the tenure of Governor Dr. Y. V. Reddy

Apart from money Olympics, the display had Indian notes, arranged as per the print year, segregated under each RBI Governor, which also include few special series of notes. But a brief introduction of the Governors.

Currency printed during the tenure of Governor R. N. Malhotra

Star Notes: Currently, all fresh banknote packets issued by the Reserve Bank contain one hundred serially numbered banknotes. In a serially numbered packet, banknotes with any defect detected at the printing stage are replaced at the presses by banknotes carrying the same number in order to maintain the sequence. As part of the Reserve Bank’s ongoing efforts to benchmark its procedures against international best practices, as also for greater efficiency and cost effectiveness, it is proposed to adopt the STAR series numbering system for replacement of defectively printed banknotes. A ‘star series’ banknote will have an additional character, viz., a star symbol * in the number panel and will be similar in every other respect to a normal bank note and would be legal tender. Any new note packet carrying a star series note will have a band on which it will be indicated that the packet contains a star note(s).

Star Notes

Seven Digit Note: Indian Currency notes are 6 digit series. Starting from 000001 to end with 1000000. So, in a series of 10lacs notes, there will be only one note with 7 digits.

Seven Digit Note

Series in Green Ink: Indian currency series numbers are printed either in red or blue ink, a one off series printed in green ink during the tenure of RBI Governor P. C Bhattacharya(tenure 62-67).

Series in Green Ink

He also has a collection of Indian coins ranging from the dynasties of Satvahana, Akbar, Aurangzeb, Shivaji, Portuguese, British India. But due to lack of space, he couldn't them.

Did you know: 

A collect or does not own his collection. He is merely a custodian for short period of his life. What he does is to preserve the exhibits for future, whether they be kept intact in a museum or recirculated to a collector of the future generation.

Did you know:

Tonga, Vanuatu, Eritrea, Sao Tome and Principe are countries which being member of United Nations have their own Currency Notes, Postal stamps and Flags.

You can in touch with Mr. Joshi at sanjay_njoshi@yahoo.co.in He also host quiz for school students.

Dhobi Ghat, Mumbai

I was off for one of my blogger's meet in Mahalaxmi. Planning to be on time, I left home quit early, and ended up reaching very soon. My driver took me for a tour of near by places on the way. To start with was the Lal Bagh market, he said the Lal Bagh market had the best masalas, and asked if I wanted to shop. I instead asked him to take me to dhobi ghat, which was just few minutes drive on our way.

Just next to Mahalaxmi railway station on the Western railway is the famous Mahalaxmi Dhobi Ghat of Mumbai. It can be easily see from the flyover of Mahalaxmi station. You can make out its one of the places to visit in Mumbai, as you can find many tourists with their huge cameras, trying to capture the sight.

 

Dhobi Ghat is an open air laundromat, with rows of concrete wash pen, each fixed with flogging stone. Said to be formed in 1890 to serve the city's British and Parsi community, it achieved the world record for largest number of people hand washing simultaneously at the same place.
So when you are crossing the Mahalaxmi station flyover next time, just have a peek into one of the world's largest laundromat, its worth a watch.

"Art of Coffee brewing" with Bylane Coffee

Its been pouring cats and dogs here in Mumbai, since couple of days. And to beat my monsoon blues, I was at Bylane coffee in Thane (West), last weekend to taste their coffee menu and try my hands on brewing coffee, with other foodies and coffee lovers.

Bylane Coffee, is a newly opened coffee shop on the Kolshet Road, off GhodBunder Road, at Thane.

The cozy shop with a contemporary look, with hospital staff, makes your visit a refreshing one. They are specialized in roasting their coffee beans and that freshness can be enjoyed in every sip of your coffee.

 

Mr. Rahul Purav and Mrs. Harsha Purav, the founders of the coffee shop took us through a journey of brewing our own perfect cup of coffee. Yes, a perfect cup of coffee is no big art, if you use their fresh coffee powder and the best accessories.

Rahul and Harsha sharing their art of brewing coffee

The different coffee powders Intense South, Arabian Gold, Mountain Mist rejuvenates you at every hour of the day. Mrs Harsha Purav advised us to use Intense South as morning wake up coffee and to avoid having it late afternoon and evenings, else you would have to be awake at night. Arabian Gold and Mountain Mist are perfect for anytime of the day, especially if you are looking for a booster to beat your monsoon blues!!!

Three flavors of coffee powders

Starting with authentic filter coffee, Mr. Rahul took us through the brewing with mocha pot and espresso. And the all time fav, cappuccino.

Mocha Pot

Coffee Bean grinder

Espresso coffee

Cappuccino in making

Cappuccino in making

As I said earlier, you can make your own perfect cup of coffee with the best accessories, but why wait till you get your own espresso machine or mocha pot, drop into their store today to taste some sumptuous coffee.

 

My thoughts:

Ambiance: Good
Service: Polite

Specialty: Filter Coffee(my choice)
Wallet factor : Rs. 250 - Rs. 500 for two, for breakfast/brunch/evening snack and coffee

Location: 56 Vardman Vatika, off Kolshet Road, Opposite D-Mart, Thane(West)