The Taste Of Kenya, In My Cup...

A lot can happen over a cup of tea.... That's exactly what happened sometime back...

My parents were recently in Mumbai to spend the New Year holidays with us and they brought along a treasure of great food - a good mix of gourmet stuff from a food store close to their home and a lot of homemade goodies. That treasure trove included a few tea bags of Kericho tea - a tea that comes from the Kenyan county of Kericho.

Kericho is located  on the highlands west of the Kenyan Rift Valley - an area well known for its marathon runners. The climate and altitude of 6500 feet makes it ideal for tea cultivation. Kericho is said to be the tea capital of Kenya and Kericho tea known for its brightness, attractive colour, brisk flavour and fragrance. Such is the popularity of tea here that the central square of Kericho town is known as Chai Square!

Now these tea bags traveled from Kenya to Beijing - gifted to my sister by her friend... She shared them with my parents who were in Beijing last year...

And from Beijing the tea travelled to Delhi and then to Mumbai....

And then the taste of Kericho comes into my cup...

The taste was crisp and flavourful....

With each sip, I was in sense teleported back to 1980-1981, when as a kid, I travelled with my parents across Uganda and Kenya in our beautiful blue Fiat 127, passing by the lush green tea gardens of the Rift Vally in Kenya...

Till now those memories were a bit faint...

But each sip of Kericho tea made me relive the memorable roadtrip, vividly... passing by the Equator, stopping and buying bananas, having them right on the Equator... and then sharing them with a local man who passed by with a walking stick...

I longed to get back, to jump on to the next Kenya Airways flight, that I have so often see here in Mumbai, to head back to the land of my birth, East Africa, to relive those moments all over again.....

All this happened as I enjoyed the taste of Kenya in my cup....

Bombaypolis Moments....

A series of photos, spontaneous mobile grabs, collected over my past few years in Bombay....

The centre of gravity of the city is shifting from traditional business areas like Nariman Point, to newer areas like Bandra Kurla Complex and Andheri Kurla Road. Bandra Kurla Complex, though swanky, lacks the culture and warmth of town!

Not only does Bandra Kurla Complex suffers from a lack of "culture", it looks like a dusty dump, with swanky outcrops, that seem totally out of place.... That's much unlike town, which does have a reasonable green cover, like the evocative banyan tree at the junction of J. Tata Road and H.T. Parekh Marg, at Churchgate.....

But why complain? I am told Andheri-Kurla Road is worse... it's chaotic, crazy, noisy, dusty, you name it, it's all there....

While the commuting lifeline remains the train, some of us are brave enough to drive long swanky cars to work. I guess that would be something like a slow suicide, the traffic kills you....

But commuting by autorickshaws has its interesting moments. Not only do you have to struggle to get an auto to take you from point to point, you also run the risk of getting a bad back as the autos race over the famed crater-ridden roads, which our holier-than-thou BMC would care to repair.

But when you come across graffiti like this on autos, you forget the trouble and laugh it out... But I wonder if the autowallah doesn't want to be kissed or is he warning other drivers to be careful and mot "kiss" his auto?

I once came across an interesting taxi driver, who was playing a crossword while the cab had stopped on a traffic signal. That was real inspiring...

Having India's busiest airport, the CSI Airport is an excellent place for airliner-spotting. Besides the biggies operating out of CSI Airport, one also gets to spot exciting carriers from exotic places like Kenya, South Africa, Mauritius, Seychelles, etc. etc.

CSI airport rarely sleeps, but with a slowdown, fewer Indians are taking to the , one is getting to see lesser and lesser crowds at the airport. Sights like this have become common now.....

Landing into CSI Airport has always been an interesting experience. The sight of the mighty Western Ghats is amazing, like this shot. This looks even better in the Monsoons, with a carpet of green covering the mountains. But this heavenly sight soon gives way to the repelling squalor of the slums. While the world-over and closer home, in Delhi, the political focus is on beautification of cities, in Bombay, the elected leaders thrive on slums.

Talking of food, Bombay has quite a few decent options for exotic fare, but does anything match up with a sinful Vada-Pav? Guess not...

Being on the coast, gives an additional dimension to the skyline of the city. The beauty of Marine Drive at night is matchless. Similarly, nothing beats the sunset at the beach...

I hope to continue this blog in the near future with interesting pictures and anecdotes from this city - the metropolis of Bombay, Bombaypolis.....