It was one of those days when I thought of accompanying my mom to the Jain temple in Byculla, moreover with the intention to revisit this old temple which I use to go to as a kid with my parents. Situated in Motisha Lane (formerly called Love Lane) near Byculla police station, Motisha Jain Derasar (temple) is more like a temple complex and beautiful too. On full moon day (Poonam) several devotees throng the place to pay respect to the replica of Palitana, the pilgrim place for Jains in Gujarat where the first Jain apostle (tirthankara) Lord Adishwar or Rushabh Deva attained nirvana.
It is believed that Lord Adishwar's chief follower and several devotees attained nirvana on Palitana, so ideally people visit the pilgrim place on that day. Those who can't go, would visit a temple which has the replica of Palitana. (the image on right is the small replica of the holy site)
This temple has always been crowded, but surprisingly, that evening not many people were present. In the image below you can see the replica of Palitana, which has cluster of temples located on the Shatrunjaya hills, built by generations of Jains over a period of 900 years, from the 11th century onwards. It reminded me of the days when I use to climb 3800-odd stone steps to reach the top of the hill, admiring the scenic landscape and feeling at peace with the tranquil surroundings.
Each Jain temple has a main idol and this one was dedicated to Lord Adishwar. Svetambara Jains, a sect in Jains, decorate the idol with silver or gold foils, ornaments of gold or silver, costume jewellery, beads, gold or silver leaf, pearls, precious stones and flowers. The decoration is pretty elaborate particularly during festivals and religious occasions. These offerings are renewed daily as a gesture of devotion, sometimes by the priest or the followers. 
These are images of other Jain tirthankars, adorned with colorful turbans. It was also the last day of the nine-day festival called Navpad Oli (that's why the decoration), where the devout Jains follow a special type of fast where they eat only once a day. The food contains only cereals and pulses, not sprouted, without any spices, salt, oil, butter, milk, sugar, ghee or curd. 
Devotees making offerings to the lord as part of their worship and some are chanting prayers.
Jain temples are generally considered to be beautiful, with their intricate carvings and fine marble work, depecting a story or events from the holy scriptures. This is the nicely designed dome of the temple. 
A better look at the interiors of the Motisha temple, this was when I was asked to stop taking pictures, probably because lot more people started to come in. 
These are the sculptures on the temple walls on the outside. 
Another look at the architecture and structure of the temple. 
A short walk from the main temple was another temple dedicated to Jain scholar and monk called 'Acharya', unfortunately I don't remember his name. But the temple was exquisitely decorated that it glittered. 
From there we went towards the last temple which had idols of deities and footprints of tirthankaras. Deities or Yaksas (male) and Yaksinis (female) are considered to be the guardian deities and believed to have supernatural powers, looked after the well-being of Tirthankaras. This reflected their presence in Jain temples as well around the idols of Tirthankaras. The image below is of Padmavati devi, the dedicated deity of Lord Parshvanath, the 23rd tirthankar (in Jainism there are 24 tirthankaras). Her color is golden and her vehicle is the snake with a cock's head, which is visible in the picture below. She has four arms and her two right hands hold a lotus and a rosary. The two left hands hold a fruit and a rein.
There is a story that Padmavati devi along with Yaksha Dharanendra protected Parshvanath from the evil force when he was in deep meditation. Only Padmavati devi is revered more by the Jains. That's why you will find Lord Parshvanath always represented with the hood of a snake shading his head and the Yaksha Dharanendra and the Yakshi Padmavati are often shown flanking him. This is the idol of Nakoda Bhairav, tutelary deity of Bhairav. He is worshipped before the beginning of journeys to avoid obstacles and to protect from evil powers. Some people believe in that, while some don't.
That was the end of my visit to the temple, we left at the right time, just when more people started pouring in.
Destined to be the next landmark in Mumbai the Bandra Worli sea link is a massive 8 lane suspended bridge that will connect Bandra to Worli, this is a bright move in many ways for the city but with our raging monsoons and the sea level rising it does not provide a very comforting feeling.But lets first take a look at the positives, anyone who has traveled to work by road would know the chaos you have to go in every day not only between Bandra and Mahim, but expect jams at Dadar, Tulsi Pipe and much more. The immediate benefits that come to mind is less jams, less fuel consumption, less pollution, less environmental damage by heat etc.
But since both the routes will then converge to the same old Pedder road, makes me wonder whats going to happen there.Lets take a look at some of the details of the mumbai sea link that was expected to be completed in December 2008 and is still under construction to this day, but its getting there and is expected to be inaugurated on May 1st .
But the high toll of Rs.45 per journey makes it rather steep for a person who frequents up and down everyday, it works out to approximately Rs. 1,800 per month, it could be steep if it saves you only 25 minutes of your time as estimated.
Lets take a look at the Bandra Worli Sealink from another perspective,
So it seems the sea link has generated an interest not just across the country, but around the entire world, but this is development is at a much slower pace as compared our neighbour China. For the Olympics in Beijing, the Chinese created three four Metro lines connecting various parts of the city together in a span of two years. In Mumbai the Versova Ghatkopar metro plan was approved by the government in June 2004 and work started two years after that and is estimated to take another three years to get done.
Progress seems to be on the minds, but the speed at which its happening is questionable, but we do hope this helps Mumbai become a greener city to live in!
The soaring temperatures in Mumbai can get to you, especially if you are traveling during noon. The day we went for the vintage car rally, we were so dehydrated and I get really cranky in this heat. So the instant option to cool off was having a gola (ice slush) at Chowpatty beach. Its one of Mumbai's speciality, I use to have a lot of those as a kid, so I relived those days when I slurrrped the kala khatta flavored gola and a Hershey-laden chocolate gola, one of the new flavor and more on that later. The gola wala (ice slush vendor) had so many different syrups lining his cart, it made a colorful picture.
The gola wala had many new flavors, cocktail, chocolate with milk maid, eec, so we thought of trying out the chocolate one. First he put the big block of ice in the machine to crush it, then he gathered the crushed ice with both his hands, made an oval shape and pushed a wooden stick through it.
Then he slowly added milkmaid around it, my mouth was watering profusely at that time, then he placed the gola in a cup and added herscheys to it, whether its the real chocolate syrup I don't know as long as it tastes good, then he sprinkled chocolate pieces on it and I took the glass from his hand, before Clyde could. 
Then it was simply fantastic, I slurrped the chocolate flavored ice with milk, and I began to feel better and the smile was back on my face. 
Then the gola wala made the regular kala khatta for us, mixed with lime, salt and pepper. That was refreshing too, as you can see in the picture below. 
You need to keep sucking the syrup to get the complete taste of it, and you can feel your body cooling down. Having a gola is no fun without your fingers, mouth and tongue catching the colour of the syrup, you need to keep turning it so the ice doesn't break. If your syrup gets over, the gola vendor is generous enough to add some more syrup.Its not too expensive either, Kala Khatta was for Rs 15, you can get it for less than Rs 10 in a small town or village and the chocolate gola cost Rs 30. So the gola slurping came to an end, we finished off all the chocolate syrup, but kala khatta was left. We happily started to walk away and forgot to pay the gola wala until he called us out.
If you go to a gola wala, make sure to try the chocolate flavor!
I generally ride to town on the weekend to pick Bhavika up, so when she told me about the vintage car rally at Kala Ghoda I was interested. But on reaching Kala Ghoda we were not greeted by any vintage cars, but a line-up of modern Bentley's, Phantoms, Ferraris, Porsches, Rolls Royces and more, did I forget the crowd that seemed to be in a frenzy.
We couldn't see anything, but we got to see these street children who were sitting on this Harley - Busa and having a ball. :)
It was a pleasant sight, but the super car show highlighted the divide between the rich and the middle class, it was also interesting to see that most of these cars showcased here, did not have local number plates, possibly to avoid paying tax on these beauties.
The event was not organized as well as it should be, the person on the mike seemed frustrated as he repeatedly asked people to leave the main area as the cars needed to get out, we went for a walk and came across these two vintage beauties. 
I think the red one seems like an old Porsche and this Chevy was so wide as if it had a sofa on the back seat, very well maintained and some classic interiors.
An onlooker who made conversation was saying that this was the first car Raj Kapoor bought and how well its maintained!
As the cars began to pull out of the enclosed area, thousands of people who had gathered there went berserk.
To get a view they panned across both sides of the path the cars would use, some of them climbed parked cars at the side, while some hung from a police van parked close by, pushing and fighting for place speaks loads about Mumbai's consumerism attitude.
We had a ball not only did we get a peek of the cars, but also watched people going absolutely crazy, that seemed to satisfy much more.
As the cars went by one by one, boredom sank in and I asked if we could leave, so we got on my bike and started off in the direction towards Nariman Point, but as we rode we realized a lot of vintage cars seemed to be on the move.
So we followed them Bhavika taking pictures as I was riding, and then we got to see the super cars display their horses as they decided to race against each other and set the road ablaze.
The Maserati ripped the road right open but, it wasn't fast enough for the Yamaha R1 that easily took the lead, the Maserati was chased by the others as they hit Marine Drive, we took a left and went along with the vintages that were parked at Nariman Point.
At Nariman Point we were time shifted by a couple of decades as the gleaming vintages welcomed us with their big round eyes and long faces! We were fascinated to see so many beauties from the past and when I came across the vintage motorcycles, the Henderson, BSAs, Nortons and Triumphs I was excited, not to miss the Lambretta and Vespa scooters.
It was enjoyable the latter half more than the start, thanks to the vintage beauties!
