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Tag Archives: India
Singleton, GlenDronach, All Malt, The Belgian Owl
Part of tasting notes from a monthly private whisky club in Mumbai, India. Our January 2014 session was cancelled, so pulled out brief notes from an earlier 2013 session – missed taking photos so have borrowed with credit to the source.
Tasting Notes from 16 May 2013
Following our standard format, we blind tasted samples before revealing the whisky. This month featured: Singleton, GlenDronach, All Malt and the Belgian Owl. (more…)
Dreaded Address Updation – Foreigners registration in India
I quietly slipped into Bangalore for a couple of days… where the topic of “foreigner registration” in India came up.
When you move, updating your address is a necessary bother anywhere in the world. But in India, it can be an incredibly painful process. I changed apartments nearly two years ago and it took only three months to get my bank to update it, another two months for my mobile service provider… however in a baffling twist, I became “Mr Hickling” in the process?!
To “fix” that, one needs a form, an indemnification letter requesting changing gender on 1 Rupee legal stamp paper, passport sized photos, original proof of gender with certified copies and apply in person to present the evidence. I guess the fact that I’m unmistakably female, haven’t undergone a sex change operation and someone somewhere incorrectly selected “Mr” instead of “Ms” in their system is entirely irrelevant?! (more…)
Zero to Hero Week 1: Behind the scenes (blog style)
I’m a late to WordPress’s “Zero to hero: 30 Days to a Better Blog” however decided to fast-track my way through select steps. Here’s a compressed version of the 1st week…
Photo taken in Bandra, Mumbai
Day 1: Introduce yourself – My very first post was “Every Day Adventures in Asia (Mostly)” (29 April 2013)
Day 2: What’s in your name – I started just with “Every Day Adventures in Asia” and added the (Mostly) as I expected would share travels to Canada and places beyond Asia too. The tagline “Stories of a Canadian living in India, traveling around Asia” came many months later as my way of making just a teensy bit clearer who I am and what this blog is about.
Day 3: What’s on your mind – Honestly, when “Every Day Adventures in Asia (Mostly)“ began, I didn’t have a full-time job and hadn’t quite taken going ‘independent’ seriously yet… I’m a self-confessed workaholic so having extra time on my hands was a dangerous scary thing.
And while it was great taking a ‘holiday’ and I readily found interesting pursuits, there were limits. I still needed to DO something, ANYTHING to not get completely rusty with working towards deadlines. As I always enjoyed writing, used to share all sorts of stories of my travels, every day life with individual friends and family, thought “Why not start a blog?” (more…)
Mute – Screaming Silently
I love this crazy maddening country India that I live in… however, as a ‘firangi’ (foreigner), I cannot vote and therefore, have no say.
Often this makes me feel mute – not having the right to voice my opinions and frustration at certain situations. Or more positively, am restricted against playing a direct role in being part of any kind of political change. Fair enough, I chose to retain the citizenship of my birth – Canada, so this is the result.
This morning, my partner forwarded a marvellous film short that speaks to this. “Mute” is by a new company based literally around the corner for us called Handloom Picture Company. And while it directly talks of our circumstances in Mumbai, there is a universality to many elements in the message – it is worth checking out. (more…)
Dragon’s Loyalty Award
The Dragon’s Loyalty Award is for the loyal fan/commenter – as the kind soul who nominated me “Nair View” put it:
“Regularly. Stalker-like. The more you stalk, the better your chances are for winning this award.”
How fabulous is anything that celebrates blogging faffery? It may be like “chain-mail,” but at least it doesn’t threaten dire consequences if not followed precisely by a certain time! Instead it is a chance to say “Hey – you’ve been really cool to chat with!” and gives others a nudge to discover more great blogs to read and comment. (more…)
Tis the season to get “marry”ed… again
While tis the season to be merry, winter is also marriage or “shadi” season in India! The temperatures cool and ‘phorun’ (foreign) relatives descend. Peacock bright wedding finery is donned, jewellery polished and coloured envelops stuffed with cash plus one rupee for good luck.
Wedding puja (Photo: Carissa Hickling)
In a true sign of the times, the family wedding we attended on the weekend was 2nd time around for two siblings. All four experienced wedding, divorce and were taking a leap of faith to wed again. The brother and sister decided to tie the knot with their respective loves on the same day, keeping the ceremonies short, sweet and restricted to family. (more…)
Urban Village – I’m not kidding!
There is a delightful contradiction seeing “village” life in the middle of a major metropolis. One of the sister’s from ASK Your Sister was transiting from China to Goa via Mumbai and did a double take:
That guy is walking a goat – it really is a goat not a dog!! Do ya think if I moved back to Nova Scotia I could get a pet goat?? (more…)
Give the gift… of your opinion please!
In many countries around the world, cash registers are working overtime and folks are trudging through streets and malls scouring for the perfect gift for that special someone, obligatory family member or “Secret Santa” at work.
Xmas tree 2013 (Photo: Carissa Hickling)
Now we are all multi-faceted creatures with a variety of interests – our gifts and gift giving reflects this. And this blog is no exception, particularly as it is a purely personal indulgence. However as I was poking around the statistics for the upcoming 3rd quarter summary, I thought comments from family and friends that “Hey I loved that!” or “That’s totally not my thing so I ignore posts about…”
Rather than make a wild guess or totally piss off all ya super cool readers out there, I would love to hear what YOU want more / less of… I’ve broadly divided along the lines of the blog’s categories. (more…)
“Drive here? Are you nuts!” Cars and re-learning to drive in India
I’m often asked about driving in India… and my response for the longest time was “Drive in India? Are you nuts!?”
My ‘new’ car in Winnipeg, Manitoba, Canada, 1997
Like a typical Canadian teenager, I got my driver’s license in high school. However less typically, it was a decade later before I owned a car – a 2nd hand Toyota Corolla which survived more than one blizzard in Winnipeg. I did a great job accumulating Manitoba Driver’s License merit points not because I was a particularly good driver but simply that I drove so rarely it was nearly impossible to be caught speeding or get into an accident! So when I moved back to Delhi in 2003, bought a cheap 2nd hand Maruti 800, I also splurged on a wonderful bonus – HIRED A DRIVER.
A Canadian friend visited us in India and remarked that driving around the world is a bit like a video game – Canada is the super easy, reasonably polite entry-level and India is one of the most challenging. Here you dodge everything from cyclists to beggars, camels to cows (less so now), and during particularly hot summers, high tempers combined with arrogant driving can lead to deadly disasters. (more…)
Music Musings – Carlos Bica and Azur
Carlos Bica, Frank Moebus and Jim Black performed last week at St Andrew’s in Mumbai and are this week’s Music Musings feature!
Carlos Bica, Frank Moebus, Jim Black (Photo: Carlos Bica’s FB page)
There is something about seeing a trio perform that just do their thing – and have been doing it together for 20 years – it shows. Their sound is original and completely their own. Broadly falling under the music category of ‘jazz’, it is … (more…)
Everyday Asia 