Miss Adventures » India

Rule Britannia: My Article for Saveur

Melanie Renzulli — Fri, 15 Oct 2010 18:08:06 +0000

A few years ago, I had the pleasure of writing a FOB (front of the book) “feature” on the legendary Parsi eatery Britannia & Co. for Saveur magazine. At the time, I was living in Bombay, India, and had frequented Britannia enough to know that it deserved to be written about – if not by [...]

On Republic Day, Starting Anew and Moving On

Melanie Renzulli — Fri, 26 Jan 2007 18:43:38 +0000

It has been almost nine months since I left India and last posted on the blog. (You’ll also notice I moved cyber addresses – from http://tblogs.bootsnall.com/miss to here.) I was ready to leave India last April, but now I look back on that chaos quite fondly. Indeed, I was also fond of today’s holiday – [...]

Update and Great Photo

Melanie Renzulli — Wed, 08 Mar 2006 10:17:11 +0000

I apologize for the long silence. In fact, not much has been happening around here. Well, not much except bird flu, temple attacks, and presidential visits. At this point, nearly two years later, India and Bombay have almost become everyday for me. And, sad as it may seem, there comes a time when you become [...]

I Heart Outsourcing!

Melanie Renzulli — Fri, 13 Jan 2006 01:03:37 +0000

Senator John Kerry came to India recently to discuss, among other things, his opinions on outsourcing. During the U.S. elections of 2004, Indians (or at least the Indian media) never quite warmed to Kerry, so I suppose this was a chance for him to go on a goodwill tour and to see outsourcing at its, [...]

Book Bans and Other Stupid Govt Tricks

Melanie Renzulli — Wed, 11 Jan 2006 12:43:39 +0000

Bombay is one of the most progressive cities in India. For most intents and purposes, both the New York and L.A. of India. It is also the capital of of Maharashtra, a state that is proving to be more backward which each report of a book ban. On Monday, the Maharashtra government banned a scholarly [...]

Plus Ça change…

Melanie Renzulli — Wed, 04 Jan 2006 13:07:08 +0000

I don’t think I had ever planned my life beyond 2005, so New Year’s 2006 hit me from the out of the blue. We hadn’t made any plans for New Years, either, figuring that something low-key would come along. Ha! This is Bombay. Something came along, but it certainly wasn’t low key. A friend of [...]

Queen of Clubs

Melanie Renzulli — Wed, 28 Dec 2005 05:36:17 +0000

Another sign that Bombay is booming: it seems like a new club opens each week. Since I arrived over 15 months ago, a number of new clubs, including Zenzi, Seijo and the Soul Dish, and Squeeze have opened in Bandra (north Bombay), the home of the nouveau riche, Bollywood stars, and the majority of Bombay’s [...]

The Town of Boiled Beans

Melanie Renzulli — Wed, 14 Dec 2005 10:18:06 +0000

Bombay has changed to Mumbai. Madras to Chennai. Calcutta to the much less evocative Kolkata. Now, it looks like Bangalore is jumping on the renaming bandwagon. It intends to change its name to Bengaluru, which means “the town of boiled beans” in the local Kannada language. Is this really necessary? When a friend sent me [...]

Bombay in November

Melanie Renzulli — Fri, 11 Nov 2005 14:35:41 +0000

I’m finally back to work after three restful weeks back in the States. Besides traveling around and seeing family and friends, I had the chance to while away a few afternoons in some national and state parks, including Wakulla Springs, where I saw alligators grinning in the sun, and Sagamore Hill, the former home of [...]

Golden Triangle and Ganpati

Melanie Renzulli — Mon, 26 Sep 2005 18:30:10 +0000

September Ho Gaya…September is gone. And I didn’t even have much time to blog. I did some traveling – again to the Golden Triangle (see below) – went to a film shoot (see my last post), attended the Elle Decor India Design Awards, and also found time to check out the Ganpati Visarjan (immersion) on [...]

Rani, Abhishek, and SRK

Melanie Renzulli — Thu, 15 Sep 2005 18:14:06 +0000

Much has been made about a possible link-up between Rani Mukherjee and Abhishek Bachchan, two of Bollywood’s biggest stars of the moment. As I’ve mentioned before, Rani is on a hot streak, having had hits with Black (a remake of the Miracle Worker) and the recent Mangal Pandey, as well as lighter fare like Hum [...]

The Raj of Wankaner

Melanie Renzulli — Mon, 29 Aug 2005 17:57:19 +0000

As Indian states go, Gujarat has a long way to go before becoming tourist friendly. It may be the homeland of many a global Indian (the Patel clan comes from there), but it’s lacking in some of the things that draw tourists, namely the Taj Mahal and alcohol. Nevertheless, as Gujarat borders on Maharashtra, we [...]

Mangal Pandey: The Rising

Melanie Renzulli — Fri, 19 Aug 2005 08:33:26 +0000

No matter what the raging controversy is about the new film about Mangal Pandey, whether it was too harshly anti-British or that Pandey, India’s first so-called freedom fighter, was blasphemously portrayed as a having a relationship with a nautch girl, the picture was a pleasure to watch. I went to the film with approximately 20 [...]

Death of a Hobra

Melanie Renzulli — Thu, 18 Aug 2005 09:56:09 +0000

The first thing I thought of when reading this front-page story in the Times of India today was, “Couldn’t they have let the poor thing live somewhere in the country?” As I’ve said before, animal rights have a long way to go in this country. Full text of the “hobra,” an animal oddity similar to [...]

I’m Not Bajirao

Melanie Renzulli — Mon, 08 Aug 2005 17:45:06 +0000

I’ve often mused at the title of “I’m Not Rappaport,” the play-then-film about two men from varying backgrounds coming to terms with the ravages of old age. Even though I’ve never seen the play or the film, I was always tickled each time the phrase was used as the punchline of any dumb joke. After [...]

The Rainfall and the Fallout

Melanie Renzulli — Fri, 29 Jul 2005 03:55:15 +0000

Three days after record-breaking rains brought Bombay to a halt, I’m finally beginning to hear about my friends’ and colleagues’ unbelieveable journeys. South Bombay, as I’ve mentioned before, got hit with 7 inches of rain on Tuesday, but, save for the lack of bustle, it looked pretty normal on Wednesday. On the other hand, the [...]

Monsoon Update #2

Melanie Renzulli — Wed, 27 Jul 2005 10:47:57 +0000

Well, I’m still pretty high and dry here in Bombay. But now I see that the international papers have caught on to our little rain problem. So, it must be a big deal. Actually, it rained about seven inches in 24 hous in South Bombay. The suburbs, on the other hand, got 27 inches of [...]

Monsoon Update

Melanie Renzulli — Wed, 27 Jul 2005 03:34:32 +0000

Nine hours later and…it’s still raining! No flooding where I am, but most of the city is shut down. I guess this is the equivalent of a blizzard, so I’ll concede that flooding is inevitable at this point. News about the Monsoon: Maharashtra rains leave many dead [BBC News] Rains bring life to standstill in [...]

Now That’s What I Call A Monsoon!

Melanie Renzulli — Tue, 26 Jul 2005 17:24:06 +0000

I’ve been pretty unimpressed by the monsoon so far. Sure, it came in with a bang. Then again, the flooding has happened mostly in the suburbs, not in the city. In fact, the weather in Bombay has been mostly overcast with occasional sun and sprinkles. The locals said that the rains had “regularized,” meaning that [...]

Bollywood Memorabilia On View

Melanie Renzulli — Sun, 17 Jul 2005 06:33:14 +0000

Until last week, visiting museums in this country has been a mostly unsatisfying experience. Luckily, we stumbled upon the last day of a week-long exhibit at the Jehangir Gallery entitled “Revisualising India.” Included in the show were pieces from the Osian’s Archive & Library of Cinema and Popular Arts, an auction house and archive center [...]

MTV Desi

Melanie Renzulli — Sat, 16 Jul 2005 11:40:53 +0000

In case you missed it, MTV launched its newest offspring the other day: MTV Desi [press release] From my Bombay-entrenched perspective, I’m surprised that it’s taken so long to put together the channel. Why not just beam MTV India into homes? Well, other than the fact that the VJs here go in and out of [...]

A Taste of Goa

Melanie Renzulli — Tue, 12 Jul 2005 17:17:37 +0000

Tired of bland veg curries and dals? Think sheekh kebabs are the only non-veg contribution to Indian cuisine? Then, check out Goa. Thanks to the Portuguese, who left their Euro-Christian tastes for meat, Goan menus include beef and the ever-popular goan sausage. Being on the coast and blessed with wide rivers and creeks, Goan chefs [...]

Goa…Goan…Gone

Melanie Renzulli — Sat, 09 Jul 2005 15:01:39 +0000

Why would anyone want to visit Goa, the ultimate beach destination in India, during the middle of the monsoons? I’m sure a lot of people will be asking that when I tell them that Anthony and I visited there last weekend, a good two to three weeks into the rainy season. But, around these parts, [...]

Press Conference

Melanie Renzulli — Tue, 05 Jul 2005 06:53:14 +0000

If there’s one thing you should know about me, it’s that I’m a sucker for anthropomorphic humor. That kind of stuff is easy to find in the New Yorker, and luckily the mag in online. I’m a little late posting this, but I only read this article over the long weekend, as I was tucking [...]

The Rains Are Here to Stay

Melanie Renzulli — Sat, 25 Jun 2005 11:21:05 +0000

As I’m sitting here at about 3:15 on Saturday afternoon, the skies are overcast, the peepul and palm trees are swaying, and the rain is taking a short coffee break before coming back to work. The monsoons have arrived in Mumbai, and it has now rained every day since last Saturday, when the showers finally [...]

Sania, It Was Really Nothing

Melanie Renzulli — Thu, 23 Jun 2005 13:00:57 +0000

Now that summer has ushered in the monsoon, there seems to be hardly any justification for India to use sun-baked haziness as a reason to be blinded by Sania Mirza’s incredible mediocrity. Anytime that the young Indian tennis star plays, it’s a national obsession – at least as far as Indian newspaper editors are concerned. [...]

Waiting to Exhale

Melanie Renzulli — Mon, 20 Jun 2005 05:45:51 +0000

Bombay is extremely lucky. The rains finally started here on Saturday, albeit late. These rains were to start on June 10, then June 14. Then, mid-morning Saturday, a little thunder rolled in. And with it, a brief respite from the blazing sun. Can you believe that there hasn’t been any measurable daytime rain in the [...]

Hidden Neighborhood on the Hill

Melanie Renzulli — Tue, 07 Jun 2005 16:57:50 +0000

Bombay can be extremely noisy, crowded, and inhospitable at times. But, at other times, you stumble across these tranquil little neighborhoods. One such place is Walkeshwar. Adjacent to glitzy high-rise apartments and old-money bungalows, Walkeshwar is a fisherman’s village on the top of tony Malabar Hill. There, the stone houses are incredibly modest, the alleys [...]

Look Out, Galliano: Part 2

Melanie Renzulli — Sat, 04 Jun 2005 06:43:18 +0000

As I mentioned before, it’s a little difficult finding your way around Mangaldas Market. But, now after two buying visits and a pit stop to show friends, I have mostly figured out where some of the best vendors are located. The 6th Lane is the best place to start, specifically at Rangeela. The shop specializes [...]

Look Out, Galliano: Part 1

Melanie Renzulli — Sat, 21 May 2005 06:20:43 +0000

Looking online at the spring and summer offerings from the likes of The Gap, Banana Republic, Zara, H&M, etc., I’ve noticed that just about every store has something inspired by India. Embroidered or sequinned tops, cotton kurtas, long, full skirts, and paisley prints, appear to be – from this vantage point – all the rage [...]