Months and days

9th MAY 2015 MUMBAI  7 ISLANDS - SALSETTE ISLAND OF SIXTY_SIX VILLAGES

TUESDAY, SEPTEMBER 13, 2005

Months and days

Months:

1. Martius
2. Aprilis
3. Maius
4. Iunius
5. Quintilis
6. Sextilis - Augustus called it August
7. September
8. October
9. November
10. December
11. Ianuarius
12. Februarius

(Romans)

Days:

Sunday – Sun
Monday – Moon
Tuesday – Mars
Wednesday – Mercury
Thursday – Jupiter
Friday – Venus
Saturday – Saturn

Salsette Island

Salsette, Trombay and the Seven Islands of Bombay

All this makes up what is today collectively known as Bombay City.

Salsette (meaning Sixty-Six Villages) is the main island that is surrounded by the Arabian Sea on the west, the Bassein (Vasai) Creek on the north, the Ulhas river on the north-east, the Thane Creek on the east and the Mahul-Mithi-Mahim river network (and its distributaries) on the south-east and south. On this island are three lakes - Tulsi, Powai and Vihar and some rivers such as the Dahisar river, Oshiwara river etc. Salsette extends from Bandra to Bhayendar - all the current suburban areas - if one uses todays geographical names.

Trombay is the island towards the east, seperated at one point of time from Salsette by the Mahul river. This part has now what is known as areas of Chembur and Trombay.

The seven islands of Bombay :
Colaba: whose name is a corruption of the Koli name Kolbhat. Todays areas of Colaba and Cuffe Parade lie in it.

Old Woman's Island: (alternatively, Old Man's Island) a small rock between Colaba and Bombay, whose name is a corruption of the Arabic name Al-Omani, after the deep-sea fishermen who ranged up to the Gulf of Oman. This part would would most probably be the stretch that links Nariman Point to Cuffe Parade.

Bombay: (THE MAIN BOMBAY) the main harbour and the nucleus of the British fort from which the modern city grew; it stretched from Dongri on the east to Malabar Hill on the west. This part is now what is known as Cumball Hill, Warden road and parts of Bombay Central.

Mazagaon: a Koli settlement to the east of Bombay island was seperated from it by Umarkhadi and Pydhonie. Most dockyard areas now are in this area. Carnac Bunder, Ferry Wharf, Wadi Bunder etc.

Worli: north of Bombay was seperated from it by the Great Breach, which extended westwards almost to Dongri. This is todays Worli.

Parel: North of Mazagaon and called by many other names, including Matunga, Dharavi and Sion. The original population was predominantly Koli.

Mahim: to the west of Parel and north of Worli, took its name from the Mahim river. Today too its nown by the name - Mahim.

Also note, in the map shown. Kalyan was known as Kalliannee, Dahanu as Dannoo, Vasai as Bassein, Agashi Bay as Angassee Bay, Thane asTanna, Worli as Woorlee, Panvel as Panwell.

If you want a seat in the bus - Pray. It works.

Buses were coming in late. Its morning time and hence the queue gets longer and longer. The non-queue crowd (who dont mind standing, and who get to board the bus after the queue boys get in) has also grown larger.

I was in the queue and got a seat - just behind the ones reserved for ladies. Soon the bus was packed to capacity at the first stop itself. Around me stoodseveral women since they all usually crowd around the 'six seats for them'as there is a higher probablilty of them getting a seat there than elsewhere. You learn these small things once you become a regular in a BEST bus. There is also a chance that some guy will get up and offer some distressed loking woman a seat. They all try and look distressed at least - making hissing sounds and clumsily trying to hold on to their several bags - most carry at least a hundred hand bags. All this to look distressed and to get a seat.

Now what happened was that one of them - dressed in a suit (in this weather) - and distinctly muslim - heavily caked with makeup and all was standing next to me. Im not the one to give up my seat. After all I was on a 'gents' seat. ( For more on 'gents' seats - refer to this blog). Our bus passed a mosque and this woman promptly cupped her hands (the way muslims do) and started praying. Now we can imagine what this woman was praying for - a seat ofcourse. What else can come to your mind when you are swimming in sweat and are being pushed all around by everyone else - women push women more than the men. My stop was almost approaching. I had seen this woman in prayer (for the seat). My stop was next and I got up. The prayer had been answered.

(I am God ?, Godless me ....)

So next time, if you want a seat - PRAY to your God - whoever it/he/she is.(If I'm around it might help).

MONDAY, SEPTEMBER 12, 2005

November rain

This is from the epic - November Rain :

...
'Cause nothin' lasts forever
And we both know hearts can change
And it's hard to hold a candle
In the cold November rain
...
So never mind the darkness
We still can find a way
'Cause nothin' lasts forever
Even cold November rain
...

Guns N' Roses

Ganesh festival : Visit to a traditional Maharashtrian home

Last week, i had the opportunity to visit the home of a friend at whos place a Ganesh idol had been installed, as part of the on-going ten day Ganesh festival. The atmosphere was of a typical traditional house-hold Maharashtrian Ganesh festival. At the corner in the main room, was this installation, complete with chinese lighting and washable flowers and leaves. The idol was nice and at about 12 inches can be said to be a medium sized household Ganesh. It was decorated nicely with things and banana leaves etc. A tray with objects meant for 'pooja' (prayer ceremony) was kept in front of the idol. I was told that my friend (it was his house - a bangalow) along with his daughter had spent almost two hours to set it up. We were given the prasad and snacks, consisting of a laadoo, salted items and some dry fruits. In true traditional style tea was served, by his daughter, as is done for any visitor that visits a traditional Maharashtrian household. We were also introduced to his parents, and greetings were exchanged (on sequential introduction by my friend) by folded hands and saying 'Namaste'. It was a nice evening. I also had the opportunity to take some photographs.

Visarjan for this idol was due after five days. Many households perform the visarjan ceremony of the Ganesh idol after either 1,1.5,3,5 or 7 days. All dont keep it for the full ten days.

SATURDAY, SEPTEMBER 10, 2005

Prominent Maharashtrians

An updated list of prominent Maharashtrians.
(in alphabetical order)

Abasaheb Garware - Industrialist
Achutrao Patwardhan - Social reformer
Arvind Bawdekar - Doctor
B. N. Purandare - Doctor
Bal Gangadhar Tilak - Freedom fighter
Chintaman Dwarakanath Deshmukh - Economist
Dadoba Pandurang Tarkhadkar - Grammarian
Datto Vaman Potdar - Historian
Dhondo Keshav Karve - Womens reformers
Gopal Krishna Gokhale - Freedom fighter
Govind Ragho Khairnar - Administrator
Jayant Vishnu Narlikar - Scientist
Jyotiba Phule - Social reformer
Medha Patkar - Social reformer
Murlidhar Devidas Amte - Social reformer
Nityanand V. Mandke - Doctor
Pandurang Vaman Kane - Indologist
Prahlad Keshav Atre - Writer
Rama Raghoba Rane - Defence person
Ramakrishna Gopal Bhandarkar - Sanskrit scholar
Shantanu Kirloskar - Industrialist
Vinayak Damodar Savarkar - Freedom fighter
Vinoba Bhave - Social reformer
Yeshwant Vishnu Chandrachud - Law

This is a continuation to the previous post on the same subject. (You might want to have a look at this to know why certain 'obvious' names dont appear). Future additions to this list will be done in this post itself. A new post would not be created. I will however ensure that the post reflects the time of updation.

I must also add that one of the rivers has been a source for some of the personalities enlisted above. Also, I had expected a large list of personalities (Maharashtra and Bombay/Mumbai have played a significant part in our cities and India's development. So where are its local home-grown heroes .... ?). This list had initially started out as one which would enlist the persons more connected with Bombay. But since the names were just a trickle, the realm of this list was expanded to prominent Maharashtrians all over. The quest for more names continues ....

Ganesh festival : NNMM's enthusiastic volunteers

The 10 day Ganesh festival is on. Although the fervour with which it was celebrated in the past is missing. 944 mm to blame. The other day I was at a suburban junction and spotted a relatively uncrowded street-side Gansesh Pandal set up by the NN Mitra Mandal (MM's are traditionally, gangs of youths, who collect money and organise Sarvajanik Ganesh Celebrations in their localities. Little else is done by these clubs over the rest of the year). I had my camera with me and wanted to take some pictures of the idols etc. I was also apprehensive, that they might be a bit cold that an outsider wanted to take pictures of their efforts. Anyway this apprehension vanished very soon. The volunteer saw me with the camera and quicklycleared off some kids in front of the deity. He also switched on the flash lights so that I could get a better snap. I did take about 4-5 pictures and showed them to him too. He was mighty pleased.

Many Ganesh pandals have some kind of covered tent, and you have to queue up and go in (and offer money too - thats the main idea) to have a look at the Ganesh idol installed inside. This one was refreshingly different.