Just some stuff from the last few weeks

Went to the Tea Party Rally at Union Square a few weeks ago. It was pretty mellow. It was basically a bunch of people standing in front of a microphone screaming that Obama is ruining this country. This was really the only photo I get from the event.


Some family came to town two weeks ago. On their first day in San Francisco, my dad and I met took them to Pier 39. My two cousins, Jennifer and Stephanie, were walking ahead of us. Just a cool moment.


Last week, I was given the chance to go cover a story with Chronicle Sports Columnist Scott Ostler. He was doing a story on two Harlem Globetrotters, Curly Neal and Wun Versher. We had lunch with them near Ghiradelli Square. After lunch, we took them up to a basketball court on Lombard and Hyde. I only had 3 minutes to take these portraits as they were in a hurry to get to their next event.


After taking the portraits of the Globetrotters, Scott and I were heading back to the Chronicle building. We were heading back on Powell, stopped at a red light at Pine, when a red taxi cab went racing right by us, running the red light and slamming into a white Chrysler PT Cruiser. The two cars ricochetted into a couple people walking up Powell. This photo shows the driver of the Chrysler being prepped to be loaded into the ambulance.
I never saw a follow-up story, so I don't know how any of the injured people are doing, or what caused the taxi driver to run the red light.

The week that is..or was...

It's been a fun week so far.
On Saturday, I spent the day with my buddy Eric and his son Erik. We went to Fry's in Walnut Creek to do a little shopping, and on the way home, we took the scenic route.




We ended up driving through some interesting towns along the Carquinez Strait. First, we stopped in Port Costa, which was this little old town with old Western-style bar.


Then stopped off at a pier in Eckley. Some random kids were fishing on the pier. You can see the Carquinez Bridge from the pier, and every few minutes, the Amtrak train will come rumbling by.


Next, we drove down to Crockett to the C&H Sugar Factory. The train tracks run by the factory and there were a bunch of old train cars just sitting on the track. It looked like they hadn't been used in a while.



On Monday, we found out that our Editorial Cartoonist Mark Fiore had won a Pulitzer Prize for his animated political cartoons. Late in the afternoon, we found out that there would be a mini press conference in our office. CBS sent a team to record it for the evening news. As you can see, a lot of the Chronicle staff showed up for the event.



Yesterday, myself and fellow SFGate intern Chloe Roth ventured up to the roof of the Chronicle building. She had been sitting all day and needed to stretch. She proceeded to do some yoga. I happened to have my camera.

Updated on 4/7/10: Places I've Been, People I've Seen

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Stinson Beach

On Saturday morning, I got a text message from cousin asking if I wanted to take a little trip to Muir Woods. I was tired, but I hadn't been to Muir Woods in about 15 years, so I said yes.
When we got there, it was crowded and there was no parking. We would have had to park about a mile away from the entrance, so we decided to keep driving to Stinson Beach. The plan was to take a hike, but before we started, we went to the beach for a few minutes. Didn't have to go very far for this photo.
It doesn't look like much, but I really like it. Hope you see as much in it as I do.

Holding Hands

To celebrate my 26th birthday this past weekend, I went to Rodeo Beach in Marin with my dad and my friend Eric and his girlfriend Pacha. We were walking along the beach, taking photos of the surfers (although they weren't doing much surfing). I told Eric that I wanted to take some photos of him and Pacha. This photo was more of an outtake. I was going for something else, and this moment just kind of happened while I was switching cameras.

Empty Coliseum

My dad and I went to the Oakland Coliseum. We're going to purchase a ticket package, so we got to look at the seats before we made the purchase. The A's groundscrew was getting the field ready. It was a perfect day for baseball. Too bad everybody is in Arizona right now.

Back to Photo Blogging

So I went to cover the highly anticipated March 4th "Day of Action" Protest in Berkeley on Thursday morning. I could only stay for a few hours, as I had to get back to the office to take care of some other projects, but while I was there, the students essentially took over Sather Gate. They locked arms, and wouldn't allow other students or faculty to pass buy.
After a while, the photos got repetitive. I wanted to get to the other side, but they had the gate blocked, so I walked a little ways around campus and was able to get to the other side.
This is my favorite image from the morning. I like silhouettes. I also think it's a good synopsis of the event: the nameless, the faceless, group fighting for the same cause.

New Moon

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Slow News Week

As you may have noticed by the lack of posts, I've been taking it easy for the last few days. Not a lot has happened. Monday, we had work done on the house, we didn't leave the house until 9pm for dinner. Tuesday, I went and visited a couple aunts. Today, my aunt and I finished off all the shopping I had been wanting to do. I just had to get to get the Daruwala horoscope for 2009. Ask Sarah, it's an addictive read. So far, it's looking like 2009 will be very prosperous for me.
I've got two days left. I've already started to pack, but I'm pretty sure everything will be removed from the bags and repacked Saturday evening.

Anyway, just thought I'd post some photos from the last few days. Nothing spectacular.






It's about that time to get back into Xpress mode. Call me crazy, but I'm looking forward to getting back to the newsroom. The break was much-needed, but it's time to get back to work.

Taxi! Taxi! Taxi! Taxi?

Bombay is known for overflowing with taxis, but as of last night, a large majority of taxis are out of commission. You see, there is a fuel shortage in Bombay. As of yesterday, the drivers of the tanker trucks that bring fuel into the city went on strike. And already, gas stations are running dry. The taxis over here run on something called CNG and all the places that sell CNG are completely out, so the taxis are running on whatever they have left in their tank. In this morning's Times of India, the President of the Taximen's Union said that 70% of the 55,000 taxis in Bombay were already off the roads.
After dinner last night, even we went to fill up our car. While my family was waiting in line, I got out to take photos. This gas station was one of the few 24-hour stations in downtown Bombay. When we got in line, we thought we'd be there for at least an hour, but we were actually there for roughly 40 minutes, which gave me enough time to walk around and shoot.
They actually had to get police in to direct traffic and make sure fuel transactions were happening on the up and up.

There was a freeway overpass right next to the gas station. I told my cousin that that would be the best place to go take a photo. We went without telling anybody, because if they had known we were walking on the side of the freeway, they would have killed us. But it was the photo I wanted, with the cars lined up, entering the gas station.


Before all this gas shortage stuff, we went and had dinner at the Radio Club, which our family has a membership to. The thing is, it is right down the road from the Taj Hotel. When Rahim and I were done with dinner, we took a walk down the block to go see the Taj and the Gateway of India. Even for 10:30 at night, it was completely empty. They had just reopened the road in front of the Taj but there was still barely any traffic. The huge open area, where the media had set up during the attacks, was empty.

Security was visible. There were barricades surrounding the Gateway and there were barricades lining the Taj. Believe it or not, but they actually had a cop at the back entrance. Whether he was armed or not, I do not know. But nobody gave me any problems taking photos of the Gateway or Taj.

I don't know how much I'll be able to do in the next few days with the gas shortage. Taxis aren't running and there's only so much gas we have in the car. Will probably have to walk everywhere, which will limit the distance I can go. My aunt is so worried that this strike will go on for 10 days, she wants me to call Jet Airways and see if they have some sort of pick-up service to the airport in case we don't have gas to go to the airport next Saturday night.

We'll soon find out.

Oh, and how bout them Gators?!? Got up early this morning to watch the Gators roll over the Sooners. Two titles in three years. It was a good game. Both defenses played well. But the Sooners run defense vanished in the 2nd half and Sam Bradford, although he had a good completion percentage, just never looked comfortable. I think the Sooners really missed DeMarco Murray. I bet if the Heisman voters could vote again, and take into consideration the entire season, with what Tim Tebow was able to do, what he was able to promise, he'd have won the Heisman and not Bradford. Bradford had a great season and I really like him (if you go back almost a year and half ago in this very blog, you'll see that I predicted Bradford would win this year) but Tebow should have won the Heisman, even without today's game. He just proved that he is the single best and most important player in college football, and that he is the biggest game-changing player in the game.

Alright, well, hope everybody has a good night. I'm waiting for Rahim to come home and then we are gonna go get some lunch.

Take it easy,
Ali

So much for that idea

I know I should have planned this photo story better, but the time just wasn't there. So I emailed Happy Home School for the Blind at the end of last week. I explained what I wanted to do and that I would be taking photos and recording audio. I explained that I would like to come to the school and spend a couple days with the kids before I start shooting. The Director of the school sent me an email Monday informing me that I was welcome to come to the school for a meeting and tour today (Wednesday afternoon). But this morning at about 10am, I called her just to confirm the meeting. She informed me that I would not be allowed to take any photos or transcribe any notes. She then told me that if I wanted to take photos, I'd have to address a photo to the school and have it approved by the committee and that the committee wouldn't be meeting until next Tuesday. In my eyes, I need to start this project no later than next Monday to have enough time to do the story justice.
But at least I have a lead for the next time I come here. Any I'm enjoying the concept of relaxing and not working.
To make up for not being able to work on this story, I did a bit of audio editing for a personal project from a few months ago. School got in the way and I got about half way through all the audio when I put the project on hold. But hopefully I can finish the audio in the next few days and do a preliminary soundslides before I leave.

So getting back to my trip, yesterday, my cousin Zahir and I went with a few of his friends to Kobe to have sizzler steaks. I posted photos from this place the last few years. It's always interesting to go there. It's expensive, but the food is worth it.



In one of the last issues of [X]press this past semester, I wrote about the terrorist attacks that happened in Bombay at the end of November. I mentioned that my family lives within 5 minutes of the Oberoi and Taj Hotel. Both are clearly visible from our house. Today, I was home with my cousin Rahim and we were standing at the window talking and we were looking at the skyline in front of us. He looked at the Oberoi and pointed out that there are still burn marks around the window of one room.

The Oberoi (arrow pointing to burnt out room):


Taj Hotel


So my family had a front row seat to all the chaos. They told me that their windows rattled whenever grenades exploded and they could hear the gunfire.

That's about it from here. This post was supposed to go up about 10 hours ago, but the photo uploading function wasn't working.
Everybody enjoy watching my Gators run all over the Sooners tonight in the BCS Championship. I found a website that will probably stream it live for free, so I will be up at about 5am watching the game. Go Gators!

I hate being sick...

...especially when I'm on vacation and trying to enjoy myself. I wanted to leave the house, but I just didn't have the energy to roam around. Even on New Years, we went out for dinner, but I just couldn't wait to get back to the comfort of the house.
But now, I'm feeling better. Not 100%. Still have an annoying cough and cumbersome runny nose. But my energy to roam around has come back.
I didn't really do anything worthwhile over the last four days.
But today, I went to see my grandmother in Bandra. This fact still amazes me. My trip to Bombay at the end of 2005 was brought on by the fact that my family alerted me that my grandmother was sick and she may not live much longer, and since I hadn't been to Bombay since 2001, I might want to see her one last time. So, although terribly frightened at the thought of traveling by myself for the first time, I came to see her.
Three years and three trips later, my Nani is still fighting, although it has gotten tougher each year.


Something sad actually happened while we were visiting my grandmother. She's staying in this building that has been turned into a senior living center for women. When we got to the place, she was in the main room with four or five of the other women. After about five minutes, one of the women started to cry. She was speaking Marati, and our family friend that had come along with us said that she was sad because her family never comes to visit her. She was sad at the sight of the other residents being visited by two of her grandchildren. It was quite sad and we felt bad. We made sure to tell my grandmother to share the chips and chocolate we brought her. Now, hopefully she remembers.
On a lighter note, my grandmother actually remembered that I live in "Berkeley, in California." I'm glad she at least still has her long-term memory. She has about a one-minute short-term memory. If she had said Kensington, I would have been knocked off my feet. At that point, I would have taken San Francisco and been happy, so the fact that she remembered Berkeley made me feel really good.

On the way back, we stopped on Carter Road in Bandra because the sun was setting. I only had about three minutes to shoot, so I didn't get too many shots off, but I was fairly happy with the results.

I'll be back in this area tomorrow visiting one of my aunts, so if I'm around there near sunset, I may take another crack at it.

Only about 11 days left, so I have to the make the best of it. I want to try to do a photo story, but I'm not sure if I can make it happen on such a short timetable. We'll see.
Alright, well, it's 1:30AM here. Time to get ready for bed.

Everybody, have a good week.

Ali

Where was the celebration?

Reading all the newspapers in Bombay during the last two days leading up to January 1st, all I saw was how relieved people where that 2008 was ending and how hopeful they were with 2009 coming. Just because a number changes doesn't mean everybody's problems go away, but people wanted to believe that the recession would be a thing of the past. Mumbaikers, as the people are called here, wanted to leave the terrorist attacks in the past.
After reading all this for the last two days, I was extremely disappointed with the fact that there were no big celebrations and no fireworks when the clock struck midnight.
After any major attack, the government tells their people to live their lives normally, and that if you alter your routine, you allow the terrorists to win, that they got their desired effect.
Well, I feel like the terrorists claimed a small victory last night. There were no fireworks on Marine Drive. There were no fireworks at the Taj Hotel.
The city's routine was anything but normal last night.

I spent the better part of yesterday afternoon visiting family in Bandra. I got to spend some quality time with my niece, Naira, and nephew, Kahzar.

I think Naira is a model in the making.


I'm trying to get over a cold myself and my aunt caught a few days ago. I spent most of today sleeping, which actually felt pretty good. My aunt blames the weather, saying that it gets really warm, then get cold pretty quickly in the evening.

Hope everybody had a safe New Year's celebration.

Take i easy,
Ali

Adventures in Bombay, Part 2

So when i last wrote, I was preparing to go on a road trip with Zahir to Lonavla. We left bright and early Saturday morning (his friend Burges picked us up at 7am) and met up with his girlfriend and her parents before heading up the Expressway. The drive was about 2 hours, and around 90 minutes into the drive, we stopped at a food court to grab a quick bite. As we were leaving, we stopped near the entrance, where there were random signs that caught our eye.


So naturally, we had to take one.


So Lonavla was pretty sweet. The weather was awesome. My cousin and his friends thought it was too hot, but to me, it was perfect. We spent much of the afternoon playing basketball outside, although the ball was sorta flat. But it was better than not having a ball at all.


In the evening, Burges and his girlfriend played badminton in the courtyard.


During the day, we ventured into town to buy supplies for the house. Even though Zahir and I were planning to head back to Bombay the next day, the rest of the crew is actually still up there and plan to be there until the 3rd. In fact, Zahir is packing as I write and is heading back up for a few days.
While we were shopping, we stopped for lunch. One of the funnier things I've seen in a long time occurred in the bathroom.

The toilet was fighting back.

In the evening, when it started to cool down, Burges was hellbent on starting a bonfire in the courtyard. The servants in charge of the cottage actually made the process extremely easy. They gave us a bowl and twigs. The flame was crazy, at least for the first few minutes.


The twigs just didn't want to hold the flame. We tried pouring some whiskey on the flame, but that was good for a two-second thrill.



Something I've wanted to do each of the years I've been here is photograph Marine Drive. We use the road everyday, but we've just never had the time to stop at night. So the last two nights, I've had my cousin stop the car along Marine Drive so that I could take photos.
The ring of lights along the long stretch of road is commonly known as the Queen's Necklace, and from elevated locations, looks spectacular. My cousins friend is going to try to get me onto the roof of her building along Marine Drive.
For now, I've photographed Marine Drive from each side. Since i didn't bring a tripod with me, I've had to try to handhold these long exposures. The longest I can do is one second.





I love it here. I know tourists are being warned to not come here, but if you ever have a chance, you should make the trip. It may not be my home, but when I'm here, I feel at home.
Today, I'm going to my dads' family's place to hang out with my cousin Sarah. One of my favorite aunts is coming to visit.
Tomorrow, I'm taking Sarah to Bandra to visit a couple more aunts.

I hope everybody has a safe New Years. Because of the events of last New Years and the terrorist attacks, most of the New Years parties over here have strict curfews of 12:30am. For those not familiar with the events from last year, there were multiple occurrences of molestation of women around Bombay. One occurred at The Gateway of India, and another happened in Juhu. Both were front page news for days.

The next time you hear from me, it will probably be 2009. I'm pretty satisfied with the way 2008 went. I'm sure 2009 will bring more new experiences. Old chapters will finally close and new chapters of my life will hopefully open up.

Take care,
Ali

Greetings From Mumbai

Well, that was quite the trip.
I got into Mumbai this morning at about 10am, roughly three and a half hours after I was supposed to land. The plane was ready to go, but believe it or not, the cabin crew was not.
My flight out of SFO on Wednesday was delayed because one of the alternate pilots was caught in bad weather coming to San Francisco.
I'm still amazed by the airport in Mumbai. It takes 3 minutes to get through Immigration, but 45 minutes for all your bags to get to baggage claim.
Today was sort of a chill day. Took calls from a lot of my aunts, who want to see me. Got a few meetings to strategically plan out.
Tomorrow morning, I going with my cousin Zahir on a one day road trip, so I should have some interesting photos from that. We have to get back for a big dinner Sunday night and a wedding reception on Monday. I'll probably have photos from that as well.

More later.

Ali

Stuart and John

This is my story on Stuart Gaffney and John Lewis. They got married on June 17th, 2008, at City Hall in San Francisco. They have been together for about 21 years and recently celebrated their one-month anniversary of their marriage.
The story spans around three weeks of the lives.

Discovering Polk Street

This is my neighborhood project on Polk Street in San Francisco. I didn't know much about the area going into this project, but I found out that Polk Street used to be the old gay neighborhood before the younger gay crowd migrated to The Castro about 20 years ago. I met some interesting people and learned something new about a part of San Francisco.


For a bigger version, go to:
http://alithanawalla.webng.com/PolkStreet_BIG/

Favorite Team, I Renounce You.

Sorry. Business is business.

Today. I got an email from a colleague, Matt Smith, asking me to answer a question for him. He gave me free reign to ramble. He knows me better than I thought.

Matt asked me if, and when, it's okay to renounce your favorite sports team. It's basically one of those things when you can't take it anymore. Or they just do something that either breaks your fan heart, or you think is the dumbest move possible.
Well, here is what I wrote for Matt:

I think it's okay to renounce your favorite sports team, but with a few conditions.
First, you can not, under any circumstances, return to rooting for that team. You can't grow up rooting for the Knicks, then renounce them because of Isiah Thomas, and then come back in five years when they start winning again. Once you give them up, they are as good as gone.
Second, you have to fully commit to the new team of interest. You must become part of their 'Nation.'
With that said, I will give my personal experience. And I will state for the record that if I hadn't renounced this team 10 years ago, I would have surely done so in the last four years.
Growing up in the Bay Area in the late 80's and early 90's, I was an Oakland A's fan. When you're a kid, you're influenced by your parents. My dad was (and still is) a huge A's fan, and he always liked Mark McGwire. So naturally, Big Mac became my favorite player. In 1996 and the beginning of 1997, there were grumblings that the A's were going to trade him. At the time, I didn't understand the business of the game. All I knew was that the A's were going to trade my favorite player. When they finally traded him to St. Louis, I was devastated. The fact that he gave St. Louis the thrill of watching the Great Home Run Chase of 98 and not the fans he grew up with in Oakland really hurt me. Not that that was his fault.
After the A's traded McGwire, I silently renounced my loyalty to the A's. I couldn't root for a team that traded my favorite player. Now, admittedly, I didn't have a backup team to fall back on. I guess you could say I was a free agent for about one year.
During the 1998 season, I spent a lot of my time with my best friend at the time, and he too was having a team loyalty crisis. He grew up in a Giants household, but at times, I knew him to be a fan of the Cubs, Mets and Yankees. It was his love of the Yankees that caught my eye. At the time, I wasn't aware of the hatred for the Bronx Bombers, but watching them on TV was awesome. So I stuck with the Yankees, and my best friend fell back to the Giants. But it was too late. I decided to stick with the Yankees.
Watching guys like Jeter and Tino and Bernie, they effectively signed me a Lifetime contract.
But, even if I hadn't renounced the A's after the Big Mac trade, chances are I would have kicked them to the curb in the last few years. I don't know how I'd be able to root for a team that continues to ship out, or elect not to re-sign, its best players, year after year. Rather than spend money they surely have, they trade players at the height of their popularity, or let players leave via free agency at the peak of their careers. Hudson and Mulder were traded at the height of the Big Three. Giambi and Tejada were allowed to walk away after winning MVP's. I don't know how A's fans continue to put up with the current management. This offseason, they traded away their two most popular players, Dan Haren and Nick Swisher. Were either close to free agency? No. Did either have a big contract? No. They were traded so that the A's could rebuild. Hello? Mr. Beane? Rebuild with Haren and Swisher!
So do I think a fan can renounce their team? Of course. But you better be damn sure about it. It needs to be a well thought-out decision. So if you're going to change loyalties, choose wisely. There is no bandwagon-jumping.


Take it easy,
Ali

I probably shouldn't have read that article...

The day before I was to leave Bombay, I read an article on MSNBC.com about the worst airports in the world. I was already upset about leaving my family (and the warm weather), so reading that Shivaji Airport in Bombay and Liberty Airport in Newark rank as two of the worst airports in the world in terms of delays, didn't make me feel much better.

And, they lived up to the hype. Security was nutty in Bombay. The check-in process took at least 45 minutes. Immigration took 20 minutes, and I swear I was behind two guys that were trying to hide something. Don't know what it was, but they kept checking with each other on the reason for their visit to Bombay. I think they settled on "Business."
With the two security checkpoints that we were required to go through to get to our plane, there should be no way that anyone is able to sneak anything on the plane that shouldn't be there...except the bottle of orange juice that I had in my bag that made it all the way to New Jersey before the secutiry screener there said I wasn't allowed to have it in my bag and promptly threw it away. Another funny thing: The lady that went through secutiry before me in New Jersey had her bag searched because the screeners though she had a 12 inch wrench in her bag. When they opened her bag and opened the box in question, they found a 12 inch wrench...a 12 inch chocolate wrench. I guess if they make chocolate cigars, they can make chocolate wrenches.
Anyway, back to Bombay. It took people so long to get through the security process in Bombay, that our flight get off the ground 30 minutes after the schedule departure. That wasn't good news for me considering that I had only a 90 minute stop in New Jersey.
As expected, we landed about 20 minutes late in Jersey, and as we were taxiing to the gate, the captain stopped the plane, turned off the engines and said that we were going to have to be towed into the gate. We were scheduled to land at 5:25am EST, and I didn't get off the plane until about 6:10. By the title I got through Customs, it was 6:25. And I still hadn't claimed my bags and rechecked them. I was hoping that Continental would throw us a bone and hold the 7am flight, but I guess that was asking a bit too much. Who am I kidding. They don't even give Economy class those travel toothpastes (only 1st class gets that) so why should I have expected them to hold a half empty flight made even more empty by the lack of passengers coming from Bombay.
So I got my bags and, at 7:15, went to the Transfer Desk only to find out that they 8:45 flight was booked. So I had to wait until 11:45. And as compensation for missing my flight, I was given a $12 food voucher good at any of the fine eating establishments in the airport, like McDonalds, Dunkin Donuts or Ben and Jerry's, which were about the only things up at 7:30am. Of course the Steak House isn't open when I have house money.

With all of the said, I am home. While I'm happy to be home, and excited to get back to school, I do already miss my family. It's a good feeling to wake up in the morning and see women in the house, especially two women that remind me so much of my mom. I've been back 24 hours and I already miss that.

I didn't have any time over the last few days, so I've got a backlog of photos to post.

On the 17th, I went to Bandra with Mumtaz Aunty, Sarah's mom to see her uncle(my grandmother's brother) and his wife. On the way back to Colaba in the evening, we drove by the Mahim slums. It's amazing that people can live in these conditions. Even more amazing is that across the road from these slums were beautiful condos.



Something That really irritated me(Zahir found my irritation to be amusing) was that in preparation for the 5th annual Mumbai Marathon, city workers were painting crosswalks on the road. Anybody that's been to Bombay, or seen video Bombay for that matter, knows that people cross wherever they need to. You just wait for an opening in the traffic, and cross. If you told people there that they needed to walk to the end of the block and cross there, they'd start laughing...then cross the road. I thought it was just a waste of money and time to paint crosswalks on roads in Bombay.


While Bombay may be one of the quickest developing countries in the world, there is still loads of poverty. The slums are eye-popping. I had to do a double take when I saw those kids playing the trash(bottom photo).



I think the funniest thing I saw was this poor fella sleepin' on the back of a parked ambulance. But when you're tired, you'll sleep just about anywhere. Maybe that's why we have couches in the labs.


I've got sunset photos from my last evening, but I will post them later. Time to go to bed. Back to the business of work and school in morning.

Take it easy,
Ali

Public Display of Affection is Prohibited - 1/15/2008

Seriously people. Read the sign. Where do you think we are? America?
This is the area just behind my aunt's house. There is a tiny wall in front of the water that people sit on at night. India sure has changed over the last few years. Years ago, it was unheard of for couples to hold hands in public, let alone show any sort of affection towards each other. It's gotten so out-of-hand that there are sex advice columns in the daily Mumbai Mirror.

So my trip is winding down. I haven't posted anything in a few days because, well, I haven't accomplished much since late last week. There were days where we didn't leave the house. I wasn't too happy about it either of those days, but we were waiting for things to be delivered, so we really had no choice. The days I did leave the house, there was nothing interesting to photograph.

On Friday, I finally got to meet my cousin Sana, whom I hadn't really seen since 2001. We saw each other for about an hour on my first of these solo trips in 05-06. Last year, we just couldn't coordinate properly. This year, her brother Zain and I made a point to get together with Sana at least once. She has a new baby, 7-month-old Uzair, to go along with 5-year-old Naba. Naba was your typical 5-year-old, full of energy and attempting to get away with anything. Uzair was your typical toddler, crawling everywhere. And he took to the camera. He kept reaching for it and looking at it. He was a natural in front of the camera. Ladies and gentlemen, meet Uzair.


Today, we ventured to Kharghar, once again, in search of a new residence for Rahim. And once again, we're on the fence about the place we looked at today. It's a multi-level row house, rather than the single-level flats we've been looking at. Nice place. Crazy owner. Interesting possibilities. There is a chance that if Rahim and his buddy decide to take this place, that the owner could sell the garage area to a business person and allow them to run a food stand, or dance classes, out of the bottom level of Rahim's apartment. It'd be like having an apartment on top of a restaurant, and having to go through said restaurant to enter and leave your apartment. I would hope that they would at least give him free dinner when he comes home.

Anyway, this place was in a back alley off the main road. As we were walking back to the car, I saw these kids playing in the middle of the road. Not exactly ideal conditions for children to be running around in if you ask me. Behind me, there was a large mound of gravel and rocks that a couple kids kept running up.


The drive home was accompanied by a beautiful sunset. I may tell a few people that they are my best friends, but the truth is, the Sunset is my real best friend. To those select few, I'm sorry, but the truth had to come out sooner rather than later. These guys were playing cricket along the lake. They have their very own McCovey Cove.


The drive features miles and miles of open land...and powerlines. Not quite sure what the powerlines are powering.


Then there was a long stretch where we were basically chasing the sun. Even our Family friend Tushar, who was driving, kept asking me if he should stop so I could take pictures. It was that awesome.


Alright, well, that's all I got for now. I hope this makes up for the lack of posts over the weekend. Hopefully I'll have a few more photos to show you guys before I leave Sunday night. Rahim is finally coming back to spend a few days here. Fortunately or unfortunately, it's the last two days I'm here. The Mumbai Marathon is Sunday morning. Going to try to get up early and get some action shots.

Take it easy,
Ali

PS - Whatever you do, don't waste your money on the new National Treasure movie with Nicolas Cage. Absolutely worthless. Plot was horrible, and it felt like they tried to take pieces of the Bourne series, the Ocean's series and the Indiana Jones' series and make one mega movie. But it failed horribly. Horribly! I joked with Zahir and his friend Harsh, that the best scene was the last scene, which had nothing to do with the story line.