Mumbai: LFW

Waking up in the soft bed of The Oberoi, where we've been pampered with the highest service level worthy of a 5-star hotel, overlooking the calm waters of the Arabian Sea and the skyscraper dotted skyline of the city of Mumbai, the slums of the previous day were quickly forgotten.

As we strode into the grand lobby of the National Centre for the Performing Arts yesterday for the Lakme Fashion Week, the sharp contrast of the extreme classes of the citizens of Mumbai became even more apparent. Here at LFW, the most fashionable and of course, the most affluent and the who's who of high society were embracing each other, showing off their immaculate up-to-date wardrobe. Bien sur, that's what they were all here for too. To check out the latest in the Fall/Winter Collection of top Indian designers.

Here at LFW, we were once more struck by the overwhelming adoration the Indians have for Bollywood. A number of stars arrived for the show by one of Bollywood's favourite designers Manish Maholtra, including Kareena, Deepika ... and some others whose names I don't recognise, causing a frenzy among the media. Coincidentally, we stepped into the foyer after our dinner just minutes before the stars. The cameras were so ready to snap before they realised we weren't the stars at all. Haha!!! Our five seconds of star treatment.

We were fortunate to get press passes even though we had no proof of registration since we didn't get a response from the organiser after we registered online. We were also very fortunate to secure seats right at the end of the runway, except for the first show when were still feeling our way around (this is our first fashion coverage after all), so we got some pretty good photos and videos. Despite the mad rush fro the best spot and plenty of squeezing so everyone could get their shots, it was an enjoyable show. And can I say again I miss the energy of the media industry - the adrenaline-charged, action-packed job is not for the faint hearted. I love it because it makes me come alive.

I was mostly in charge of the video since my friend's camera seems to be able to zoom better so she took care of the pictures. There're already tonnes on the web ... you can check out this intensive coverage on Rediff. Below are some from my personal collection.

Mumbai Mumblings

Everyone I know thinks I've been to Mumbai. Hell, no!

I touched down for the first time in Mumbai yesterday. The first impression: wow, this view from the air looks like the scene from The Constant Gardener. From above, we saw stacks of cardboard/plywood houses ... yeah, that's what the slum was like. Little houses stacked on top of each other. Similar to the ones in Nigeria as captured in the film.

At eye level, little children watched the plane taxi to a stop. I wonder if they were bothered with thoughts like, "Will I ever get to board a big bird like that? Where are these people from? Will I be able to go where they came from? What's it like outside of Mumbai?" I know as a little girl, I sure as hell had those thoughts everytime i watched a plane flew by, far above in the sky. Again, for the umpteenth time, I am immensely grateful for this opportunity to travel the world and watch the different facets of life.

Our excursion in the afternoon was not very pleasurable at all. Funnily, I was more "jet-lagged" from this trip than the one to Sweden cuz I didn't manage to sleep a wink on the plane and I had only less that 3 hours worth of sleep the previous night. We rode in a non-air-conditioned cab for hours (thanks to the great jam of Mumbai) going from one place to another for our so-called trend-watching which was quite futile.

A place that our scout recommended, which also appears in Lonely Planet - Linking Road of Bandra - couldn't be more dead than a Ghost Town. Could it be that we were in the wrong part of the road? Or was it too early if this place was really supposed to be the new hub of Mumbai's nightlife?

However, the so-called high-end shopping seemed to be missing too. Apart from a small mall (the locals say it's a big mall - so note the difference in expectation - the mall culture is really not catching on here yet), a Swarovski, a Giordano selling over-priced pieces of a casual brand, one Escada and some upmarket timepieces including Cartier housed behind what looked like a mini-fortress, there's nothing to speak of organised shopping here at Linking Road. Yet, really, we can't be sure if this really is the place that's recommended by many.

We ended the day with a trip to Crawford Market. We walked and walked and unwittingly arrived at the Gateway of India that we had wanted to visit so badly! All around was colonial architecture ... very stately. However, sadly, the Gateway is now undergoing refurbishment so it was quite a mess there. Not a very pretty sight but stately nevertheless.

Just minutes from these grand architecture are slummy areas where the inhabitants of minute houses spill over onto the streets - sleeping, cooking, eating ... chores that most of us will do privately are all out in display to the public. The food contaminated by the hazardous exhaust fumes. Children breathing in carbon monoxide-enhanced air as their mouths hang open in deep sleep. Lines of clothing exposed to clouds of dust from passing vehicles, which are many, making one wonder if there is a point to washing them at all. Once more, I'm immensely thankful for the good life I've been blessed with.

I was dead tired so I had a really early night. Think it was barely 10 PM, and I woke up this morning at 9 AM. Hehe ... solid 12 hours! Had some really weird dreams but otherwise, I had plentiful rest. All ready for the Lakme Fashion Week!

Mumbai ah ... Mumbai!!!

This ad by M1 won this year's Viewer's Choice Award. Well deserved!!

I'll be heading that way tomorrow, till 2 April. Mumbai. Bollywood!!!

Bambino!

The long Easter weekend is almost over :(

I've decided to stay away from the crowd this weekend so I stayed home finishing up on some work and doing some overdue cleaning.

The rest of the time, I indulged myself in J-dramas. I'd been watching Gokusen for a few weeks and I'm finally done. Well, a very inspiring story from the teaching profession point of view but hmmm ... I'm not exactly gonna jump into it after watching the show. A product of 2002, the show starred some of today's bright young stars - Jun Matsumoto and Shun Oguri (I know them from Hana Yori Dango - there'll be a movie to cash in on this series out this June! *trailer*) and Ken'ichi Matsuyama (L of Death Note).

After Gokusen, I tried watching Shinobi. Maybe it's just me but that movie bored me. Perhaps period dramas don't appeal to me much.

Then I thought I'd give Bambino! a shot. Initially, I'd wanted to give it a miss cuz the title made it seem like it's a joke of a show that would be a complete waste of time. Boy, has it proven me so wrong! And I'm glad I decided to give it a try cuz the first episode already got me hooked. Apparently, it's the winner of several awards, including two acting awards for Matsumoto and Kitamura, in Japan.

It's about a young college student, Ban played by Jun Matsumoto, who is also an aspiring chef at an Italian restaurant in a small town called Hakata in Fukuoka. Due to an overdose of compliments from his small clientele back at home, Ban undergoes apprenticeship at an upscale Italian restaurant in Tokyo arranged by the owner of the restaurant where he works. In the big city, the conceited Ban suffers multiple bruises to his ego and finally realises that his skills are nowhere near that of a real chef. And so his struggle to embark on a career in cooking up top-notch Italian cuisine begins.

I'm getting addicted to J-dramas because they often feature slices of real life - lessons of life to be lived and learned - that I can identify with. Just like the writings of Haruki Murakami, eccentric as the stories are, there are characters and plots that screams, "Déjà vu! Have you not also lived the very same scenario before?"
Like this one in Bambino! *the scene is at the end of the clip* - Asuka, the more senior appetiser supervisor who used to serve tables to earn her place in the kitchen, tells Ban that the reason why he's always in a panic and tripping over himself. It is because he has no confidence in his skills and wants to get the job over and done with so that he can get away from the table as quick as possible.



I've definitely been in that frame of mind countless times. If I get impatient, I mess up. But when I take my time and perform earnestly (especially during presentations), I can pull it off. My only challenge is, how can I maintain consistency.

Oh, did you see the cute guy there with Asuka and Ban? He's Mukai Osamu, my latest favourite (my other obsession is L. Haha ... he's damn cool). Can't wait to watch Hachimitsu to Clover once I'm finished with Bambino! :)

The Wait

Rainbows and Stars
Heart teems with scars
and weights
---- waits.

A breezy week

Last week had been a breezy one at work. Ok, what was already a short week was made shorter as I called in sick on Monday. Hehe ... had a slight flu but I really didn't have the energy and much less the will to fight the battles at work.

From Tue to Thu, our head of department was down with serious flu and was absent from work for 3 whole days. Hope she's getting better now cuz the things that need her attention are piling up. Her assistant, on the other hand, was on leave. So that left us literally headless ... but most delightfully so! Hahaha ...

Oh well, but work is a never-ending story. So today, I'm still busy doing up my report and pondering over a proposal - an exciting one that I kinda look forward to executing. Hope it works out!

Gambatte!

Falcor's birthday present for me!

My pet dragon on Facebook presented me with 61,950 gold on my birthday, a far cry from my last big gold score of 16,000.

Thank you Falcor!

Birthday Binge ...

... at New York, New York (Citylink Mall). The ambience was great, service awesome but the food was just so-so. Maybe cuz I'm not such a big fan of western food and I was piqued by their running out of Fisherman's clam chowder. I know I'm terrible; I get annoyed by the littlest of things. But the free cotton candy made up for it. Hehe ...

Anyway, if you plan on celebrating birthdays there, can consider signing up for its annual membership which costs $30 but comes with 10% discount on future meals and priority reservation. Upfront, you get a bottle of wine, $15 voucher which can be offset against the incumbent meal and any drink of your choice (gotta choose the most expensive of course!)

New York, New York - it's where I wanna be! Literally!

The famished birthday girl at work!

The seafood platter ... or what remains of it.

Swede Snaps

I didn't take many pictures on this trip cuz oh well, guess I didn't wanna play too much of a tourist on a business trip. It's a mentality thing :) One instance that I really regret though, is forgetting my camera when we decided on a spur of the moment to take a walk around Lund town before heading out to Copenhagen for our flight back home.

We unwittingly arrived at the oldest church in Sweden - Lunds Domkyrka - and found some moments of spiritual peace there (though we're both Buddhists ... but this is what any religious place does to anyone, especially those seeking inner peace). I made a wish at the wishing well (it struck me as interesting that Europeans in the medieval times really liked wishing wells in their churches even when overseas cuz our St. Paul's church in Melaka, built by the Portuguese in the 16th century, also has one).

No picture of the awesome church regretfully, but here are some I'd like to share, including my photography trademark - The Shadow and The Foot. Enjoy.


This is the beach resort in Halmstad where the Winter Conference took place - Hotel Tylösand.

Very windy on the beach but it's not as cold as I had anticipated. Or else, I've quite taken to cold weather cuz our Swedish colleagues said the temperature was indeed about 0 degree Celsius ...

Steps leading down to the beautiful beach.

A clock tower in the middle of the beach. Is it the clock face that tells the time or the shadow?

The Shadow - me and my colleague who is camera shy!

The Foot among pretty seashells on the beach of Tylösand.

I'm flying! (No Leo to break the fall though ... SAD!)

She sells sea shells by the sea shore. The shells she sells are surely seashells. So if she sells shells on the seashore, I'm sure she sells seashore shells.

I love mood shots!

Statue at the lobby of our hotel, Hotel Lundia. Lund is a quaint little town to spend just a day or two walking round the block and popping into the little shops for some Swedish goodies. Or simply sipping a cup of hot coffee with some Swedish cinnamon bun on one of the cobblestone walkways that I adore.

Train stations around the world all look alike. It could have been in Malmö, Sweden (above) or Guangzhou, China (below). Of course, both pictures show the same station - Malmö C, Sweden.

I'm back from the cold!

Ok ... actually the cold wasn't as bad as I had anticipated. Damn, I overpacked. Haha ... and I definitely underestimated the lightweight Nike jacket that I picked up at the factory outlet in Gilroy. It kept me so warm in freezing winds from the North Beach at Tylosand. But since I've given it to my sis, I can't use it at whim (unless I make it mine? hehe ...)

The flight just arrived at 12 noon, after an hour delay at the Bangkok airport. Sigh ... and I have to immediately come online! The trap of the digital age. I'm addicted to the net, and it's hard to go online in Sweden and find my friends all asleep :(

Overall, the presentation went really well. The client was really pleased. Especially when this lady whom I had thought was a mountain of ice (sort of stuck up) congratulated us on the "very good presentation". Yippie! A huge load off my mind. The same floating feeling like I had after Kyoto. Only that time, I had floated higher cuz I was due for a holiday to paradise (九寨沟) the next day. No holiday this time, only more thinking to be done for what's next. The clients will be in town next week so geez ... another hectic week ahead I guess.

I think what's more rewarding from this trip is our late night chat with Colin. We got to know a different side of him. Adventurous, humorous, caring ... there are many good things about this man whom we thought was a tight-fisted manager back in the office. He told us his adventures during uni days in the UK and the US. They were the sorts that I'd like to have myself so ... well, I guess there are many sides to even the plainest person :)

Shucks ... half of Saturday is gone. I really do wanna vote but I can't do so in Singapore and I can't be back in Malaysia on time. So this is the second election that I'm absent from. That doesn't make me any less one good Malaysian.

To all ladies, Happy International Women's Day! (Wonder who chose this date - 三八妇女节 - quite apt :)

Off to Sweden

... for a presentation at the CDC Winter Conference at Halmstad, Sweden. Pray it goes smoothly and well-received! Pray I'll pack enough for the cold Scandinavian nights. Pray the flight is good. Pray ...

... and on Sunday - "Sangatsu Kokonoka" - I shall be glad to be another year the wiser :) And I'll be back in Singapore then. Oh yes.