Mumbai Se Puri

Announcing the Inaugural India Surf Festival.
At Puri, Odisha. From 7th to 9th February 2012.

Surfing is an alien sport in Indian sub continent. Surfing Yogis with a passion for surfing and yogic practices, helped by the mystical waves of Indian ocean are the using it as an inspirations to unite surfers from around the globe in the 1st Indian Surf festival.

Official travel partner-
info@grassroutesjourneys.com
+91 9437029698
skype: grassroutesjourneys

Nearest airport: Bhubaneswar- 70 Kms.
Nearest railway station: 15 Kms.
There are plenty of hotels and guest houses in town of Puri & Konark to suit every kind of budget. Limited camping facility available in Surfers Island.
Nearest International airport: Kolkatta: 375 Kms.
Temperature : warm/moderate around 20-25 degree


For more information contact
( Orissa )
Sanjay - 91-09437003284
surfingyogis@gmail.com

( Mumbai )
Spandan - 91-09819639336
banerjee.spandan@gmail.com

( Mumbai )
Kedar - 91-09702569316
sonigra.kedar@gmail.com

(Mumbai)
Sachin Salian 91-08655505506
sachinssalian@gmail.com

(USA)
Kaelean Sizemore 949-275-7786 (pri)\ 949-498-3554 (sec)
alisokaelan@yahoo.com


Also check

http://surfingyogis.com/

http://www.facebook.com/media/set/?set=a.233796133347936.57987.100001526545253&type=1&l=0691c59a17

Follow us on

http://facebook.com/surfingyogis

http://www.youtube.com/surfingyogis

Malegaon, Nashik

Abrar's home. Extra Shots from How do you keep the faith?
The story of 7 Muslims of Malegaon who spent 5 unjust years in jail In Tehelka by Sai Manish.

Of the innocents who were accused in the Malegaon Blast case, Abrar is from a relatively well-off family. Or was from a well-off family. This is what Sai Manish observed:

"But then, cruel coincidences shadow the lives of every single man who was picked up after the 2006 blasts. Abrar Ahmed is on the other end of the spectrum of this group of seven usual suspects. The richest of the lot, he belongs to a family of freedom fighters. In fact, his grandfather fought alongside Mahatma Gandhi in the Civil Disobedience movement of 1931.

After their powerloom godown was burnt down in the 1993 riots in Mumbai, the family shifted base to Malegaon and was prospering, thanks to a scaled-down powerloom business. But things went haywire in 2006 when Abrar, the youngest of the five sons, was picked up. He had got married just days before his arrest.

“Traders from all over India used to buy powerlooms from us,” says Ahmed Sayeed, Abrar’s father. “After the constant police harassment, they started having doubts about our integrity. They sympathised with us but were reluctant to do business.”"


These are images from his home. The worried father, the family who missed an important member of the family, the law books that they hope will set him free and not just out on bail. the street they live on.

Malegaon, Nashik

Inside the office of Jamiat Muslim Fund, Malegaon.

I had gone to the office of the Jamiat Muslim Fund in Malegaon along with the young Sai Manish of Tehelka to meet Noor-ul-huda. Noor, a labourer, was one of the accused who has been proved innocent by the court in the Malegaob Blasts case and is now out on bail. You can read his experiences in jail here.

Here are a few images from the Jamiat Office.




An old campaign from the 1950s.




A more recent campaign: Multi-nationals rule and Bush is their emperor. Also, note the change in language and script.

The library:
Local issues - powerlooms, politics, rights, etc.






A map of Maharashtra in Urdu.

Recently, Javed Akthar noted that Urdu books were not being allowed into a jail because the men at the gates did not know how to read the script and looked at anything in that script as suspect. That actually sums up a lot of things about India. The country with the largest population of illiterates and functional illiterates in the world. That's not a super-power trait.

Malegaon, Nashik

Malegaon Ka Cool Drink.






Malegaon Ka Super Heroes.



Malegaon Ka Ice Cream.





Malegaon Ka Generation next





Malegaon Ka Rozi Roti





Malegaon Ka Overload Auto




Malegaon Ka Boring Channel - PTV Home



Malegaon Ka Bar Man.



Malegaon Ka Now Running.

Malegaon Ka...

Malegaon is nothing like the city, media has created in the minds of Arnab's angry people. It's a city full of hard working people. It's a bustling city with Mumbai's energy but set in a far laid back part of the country. So it's no wonder that a whole city has been painted as a villain.

Like all places, it has its share of mischief mongers but it's a shame that this city where you will find a spirit that you will probably find only in Mumbai has been tainted. Like the mandatory villain in the skull cap that you find on most Marathi film posters, Malegaon has been painted as the villain but the truth is that these people are our silent, hard working heroes.

India. Aapko Malegaon ka Salaam.

MHB Colony, Malegaon

Dr Salman Farsi. The Unani Doctor from Govandi who was picked up by the police after the Malegaon blasts.

Blasts in Malegaon, damage in Govandi.

We still don't know who planted the bombs that went off a few months back in the Khau Gallis of South Mumbai. Mumbai Police has not been able to crack the case yet. And unlike in earlier blasts, no one has been blamed and arrested for the bombings yet.

They have not arrested anybody because 7 people like Dr Salman Farsi were arrested following the Malegaon blast and had to be released on bail (and will most probably be legally free in a few months) because the court found them innocent.

This time, the cops will have to work hard for a change and find real culprits.

You can read the stories of the men and their families here: How do you keep the faith? By Sai Manish. Tehelka Impact story about 7 Muslims from Malegaon who spent 5 unjust years in jail including our own Arthur Road jail.

These images, the extra shots are from the home of Dr Salman Farsi in Malegaon.

Dr Salman Farsi and his wife, who is also a physician ran a clinic is Govandi when he was picked up after the blasts. While he was away in jail, his wife moved to Malegaon, Dr Salman's hometown. For days after he was picked up, cops would visit the frightened family and ask where Dr Salman was hidden while everyone knew that he was jailed. She then moved to Malegaon and in a quiet MHB colony, started life afresh with her three children.

Dr Salman came back home to a pleasant surprise. A nice neighbourhood clinic and the cosmetics he saw she was also selling made him smile. That's not a traditional Unani label. But he had missed 5 of the most important years of his children's lives.

Their library:

Abdassa, Kutch

Barefoot Geologists of Kutch Series

Indhoni. The Halo of the Kutch Women
and an Essential Fashion Accessory.

Thanks to the Barefoot geologists, the women in Abdassa Taluk do not have to travel miles for drinking water. Most wells are within 5 minutes from their homes. But they still have to be carried home.

And since this is Kutch, they do it in style. Here are their Indhoni.

c

And here are the barefoot Geologists at a well they built.

Budiya, Abdasa Taluk, Kutch

Barefoot Geologists 4

Village 1: Budiya. The windswept village.


The Kutch coast is windy. The mostly fishing village of Budiya sits right on the coast. Whatever little rain falls here is evaporated by the harsh sun and whatever remains by the wind. The silver linings are the Pavan-chakkis or the Wind turbines that convert the wind to electricity.

The ceaseless wind also give the beautiful children of this village, this windswept hairstyle that I had blogged about earlier and the images are worth repeating.

All that the barefoot geologists had to do here was divert the rainwater to an appropriate spot with the right soil formation to sponge the water underground.

That was the easy part.

The tough part of the job is maintaining the well and that is managed by the locals themselves. The well is treated like a temple. Or since the village is a Mohammedan one, let's call it a mosque or a dargah. The approach and the surroundings are swept clean. No littering is allowed. Footwear is banned near the well and do and don't board that maintain cleanliness are everywhere. Violators are fined.

The same care goes to the channels that direct the water.

After living for ages without access to sweet fresh water, they know the true value of clean drinking water.