Art By Tali Landsman

Four Days of Art, Architecture and Food In Mumbai Day One, Saturday From Goa, we flew to Mumbai. At the Mumbai airport, we hired a prepaid "cool taxi" to take us to the Oberoi hotel, in south Mumbai. After you pay the taxi fare at the "cool taxi" counter, you take a copy of the receipt out to where the not so cool and pretty banged-up taxis are waiting. A bit of a frenzy occurs as the drivers argue over who gets to drive the clients, and pocket a share of the paid fare. Learning from the last time we did this, I ignored the pleas of a young woman who was attempting to grab my paid receipt, and went over to where the taxis were waiting. She pleaded with me, saying that she actually was a taxi driver, and that her taxi was waiting in at a nearby parking area. She said that she was part of a new women's initiative to bring more women into the taxi business in Mumbai. This intrigued me, and knowing the terrible plight of women in India, I decided to tr...

South Goa: North Goa: Old Goa: Panjim City: The Old Portuguese City Of Goa, The Quiet Beaches Of South Goa, and How to Ruin a Vacation, India Happy Diwali to all! Diwali is the festival of light in the Hindu tradition. On the beaches of southern Goa, Diwali had very little visible impact. The hotels strung festive lights on the trees, and the sound of fireworks and firecrackers could be heard from distant villages. The newspapers were filled with stories of runaway pets, disoriented and frightened by the loud noises. Most of those living in the villages along the Goan coastline are Christians, and even though they were born and raised in Goa, they could tell us very little about where to go to see the first night of Diwali's celebrations. On the eve of Diwali in Goa, village people build very large effigies, made of brightly colored papier-mâché sculpted around wire forms, of demons called Narkasur. After parading the effigies through the village, and eve...