City Ninjas - Latest Comments

Re: A tribute to the vada pav

Abhay Gupta — Fri, 25 Jul 2014 17:53:55 -0000

Let's deconstruct this article for a moment. First, the nonsense story of a man followed up with a recommendation to make this imaginary man a national hero. Then some lopsided speculations about how it became popular (was any research supposed to go in this?) so it enters the terrain of not a tribute and more of a information piece with unverified information. Then you've wrapped up with recommendations for where you can get good Vada Pav. Except you didn't. You recommended Jumbo King (which isn't exactly a secret) and then suggested looking up places in Times Of India. The only recommendations you made are for townies (very inclusive, props) which I can attest are not the best in the city.

Was this for information? Too little research done. Was this a tribute to the vada pav? Barely half a paragraph described what it's like to eat a vada pav and it's description was so generic it could have been used to describe literally anything (hot and crispy pav + soft pav; hot and crispy french fries and soft mayonnaise; hot and crispy samosa and soft idlis; hot and crispy chicken wings and soft chicken breast). Was this an entertaining story about the fictional origins of vada pav? It could have, considering half the article was devoted to it, but it wasn't entertaining.

Overall, you didn't pick a focus to run with. Then you took multiple foci and botched them all individually. Then you combined them into a stew of bad writing. This isn't an article honouring the almighty vada pav. This the ramblings of a crazy idiot who fixated on vada pav before passing out with foam and spittle in his mouth. What the actual hell do you contribute to City Ninjas? Is it mediocrity? Because you need to work a little harder if you want to make the cut for mediocre.

Re: A Trip to Mohammed Ali Road

Abhay Gupta — Fri, 25 Jul 2014 17:33:24 -0000

I'm genuinely not surprised you don't get that many readers. Your article spent a paragraph discussing a made-up story with no point but to make yourself look like some secular guardian and to jarringly, uncomfortably segue into another story about chicken. Another paragraph rambles on about how you know some random AD and how he places pretty women next to you who you casually ignore (which, again, sounds as made-up as your story about putting down some right-wing random). So half your article is loud, presumably empty or fluffed boasting.

The other half? Well, the other half is a story that recommends a plate of chicken and concludes by suggesting a guarantee of food poisoning. And I know you've mentioned you're no doctor but you can't follow that up by pushing a medicine for the inevitable food poisoning that you're recommending to your readers. See, Normet is another name for Norflox - an antibiotic. Four pills of Norflox in 48 hours will not only nuke the bacteria you've voluntarily consumed into your system but will also degrade your intestinal tract quite extensively so look forward to intestinal bleeding and drug-immunity in the future, you clueless pillock!

A special note to anyone reading this article: The chicken he's recommending comes with a self-admitted claim of violent food poisoning and the medication he has prescribed with his years of not being a doctor will destroy your body worse than the bacteria would. Don't eat the chicken OR keep in touch with an actual doctor. And, most importantly, don't read Kanisha Not-an-MD Rustom's dumbass articles.

Re: Hospitals

Abhay Gupta — Fri, 25 Jul 2014 17:10:04 -0000

Dear whoever's in charge of City Ninjas,

A personal opinion this scathing and lacking in perspective really has no business being in an article of a magazine hoping to create waves. It belongs to a blog of a bitter teenager who can't stop whining about how nobody loves him. Is Kanishka a teenager? No? Then why is he writing like one?

The point of the website, as is apparent, is to highlight personal experiences of your writers in the city not the city as a whole. If it's meant to be all-general, your writers need to be more conscious about writing an all-inclusive, relatable experience that people living in the city can connect with. Now understand that your city ninjas are shaping up to be very poor representatives of the city so either they're writing for themselves or they're not putting in effort to write anything worth reading.

Stand by Kanishka if you want. But rap him on the nose for being a badly behaved dog so he can clean up his act or accept that he, as a representative of your website, is tarnishing City Ninjas a considerable bit with his bad writing and his unapologetic nature. Personally, I'd recommend replacing him outright with someone who actually knows how to write instead of just hiring your drinking buddies. I apologize if this offends you but you're clearly not choosing your writers on merit of their skill and insight.

Re: Hospitals

Abhay Gupta — Fri, 25 Jul 2014 16:48:15 -0000

Hah. Funny thing about freedom of speech is that it DOES in fact give me the right to call you names. Pulling out your dead-parents card doesn't excuse from being an ungrateful pillock and it's actually pretty dishonorable that you keep pulling that one every time you begin your defense for why you think hospitals should be tailored to treat you like a maharaja. As far as is obvious, you paid money for medical treatments, a hospital room with medical equipment, and a doctor to do the best he could. If you're a customer, you got all the service you need. What you're trying to argue is akin to complaining about how Vodafone doesn't give a complimentary lap dance for every GB of monthly data used. It's a prime example of a customer who completely misunderstands what service he's owed.

About personal grooming? Sorry, but working at a hospital DOES in fact absolve you of the need to look pretty. The long hours, intensive work stress, and immense responsibilities make their profession considerably more difficult than that of a hackneyed online magazine writer. What you're mistaking as 'personal grooming' is actually called 'preening' and it's not a job requirement for hospital workers. You can ask them yourself if you want.

Diabetes is a bit more complicated than just 'I ate too much sugar'. Despite popular misconception, its the blood sugar that matters here. Too much blood sugar (too many nutrients in the blood) creates an imbalance which insulin (a naturally formed chemical in the human body) counteracts to regulate it. Diabetes is when the body stops producing insulin because the organ that produces insulin has been overworked (or, in case of genetic cases, was simply incapable of producing enough insulin for a lifetime). An excessive or unhealthy diet can accelerate the onset of diabetes. It can accelerate the proclivity of heart conditions, blood viscosity, and cause organs to be overtaxed and gradually malfunction. A dietician is called in when a certain nutrient was found lacking (or in dangerous excess) in your system. He/she will tell you what foods you've been binging on or avoiding and point out the immediate dangers of doing so. Why not show him some food that tastes good and isn't harmful to the body? Because he/she's not a bloody chef. Ask your damn cook to cook something tastes good while working out the calories, nutrients, and lack of harmful components by your damn self like an adult.

Sorry but my point stands. You're a spoilt, entitled low-IQ brat who doesn't have any perspective about hospitals. Me? Well, I can actually say that I've spent more time in hospitals than you have. I come from a family of doctors (A lot of my childhood was spent in hospitals because my mother was a round-the-clock doctor and my dad was working double shifts) and I've taken care of my grandparents when they had to hospitalized at various points in my life (one had leprosy, one had spinal surgery, one was a diabetic who broke her hip, and one had advanced Alzheimer's and Addison's which eventually cost him his life). I spent some time as a patient as well.

Believe me when I say that you're absolutely off-base when you insist you know hospitals. You know nothing, Kanishka Rustom. You're aiming for a gritty insight of hospitals with a dash of humour and you've wound up with a myopic insight of hospitals with a dollop of thinly-spread, struggling humour in bad taste. You've aimed for George Calin and you've wound up with Rob Schneider on crack. And the swollen cherry on your shit-flavoured sundae of pathetic is you running behind the skirt of your editor because your inconsiderate, poorly planned, poorly plotted, poorly executed article received the negative feedback that it deserved. I have a counter-recommendation for you, Rustom. Don't write your damn column at all. You're bad at it.

Re: The one where I dance, sober

Dipti S — Wed, 18 Jun 2014 14:55:16 -0000

Funniest of all..

Re: 28 Things We Love About The Newest ‘Happy Mumbai’ Video

amarllyis — Mon, 19 May 2014 06:11:36 -0000

Was that youtube link supposed to go to the Mumbai happy video? It doesn't.

Re: Loneliness in the big city

Nihal Patel — Wed, 05 Mar 2014 23:02:29 -0000

I am feeling the same loneliness here in U.S. I badly miss my ahmedabad.

Re: 12 Hours in My Bombay

Narayani Syal Anand — Wed, 26 Feb 2014 13:30:32 -0000

Definitely doing this with my best friend!

Re: How to be a Delhi Boy

iffco chowk — Thu, 13 Feb 2014 18:08:45 -0000

there is nothing great about Delhi's people...cheats they are...and fake and gaudy.

Re: Catalysts

Darth Incubus — Tue, 11 Feb 2014 08:55:37 -0000

Yours and Yeti's columns are the ones that I look forward to the most. When I read what you write, I feel as if my incoherent thoughts have been put across in a fairly structured manner.I am glad that you feel we readers have contributed in our own small way towards helping you outta whatever you feel we have. I too am thankful to you for having provided some kind of catharsis in more than a few aspects of my life.

Re: The Chhota Bhais of Mumbai – A Photoessay by @mumbaipaused

Brandon Quittem — Fri, 07 Feb 2014 12:33:49 -0000

Great wrap up! The kids in Mumbai are very special. Had a great time photographing the streets of Mumbai last week.

In case you're interested, here are my top 15 shots. http://www.theyoganomads.co...

Re: Week 8: Stand Up, and Away

Prekshaa Sharma — Fri, 07 Feb 2014 04:31:58 -0000

Loved the article...though i do have a problem with the DSLRs...these 'photographers' are the ones who make it inconvenient for us to view the installations....they hoard the venue! For me the best part about Kala Ghoda is the showcasing of installations..reading about the inspiration behind it and the message it carries and not getting to do that kills the experience for me

Re: Week 8: Stand Up, and Away

Pavithra Dikshit — Fri, 07 Feb 2014 00:43:48 -0000

See I agree to a lot of your points that it brings together art, culture for a week. And its free for an extremely diverse audience. But the festival is very badly curated. And by curation, I do not mean the line up. I mean where and how everything is kept, placed. The festival is in 'dire need of' an exhibition designer.
One of the biggest attractions of Kala Ghoda is the installations by the artists. Most people want pictures with them and most of them want to have the coolest view of the same. I have a question to all these people who pose for photos, did you even read what the installation was about? Or what the artists name was?
Kala Ghoda as an organisation 'needs to' ensure that an artist is respected. Do they allow people to throw tomatoes at those who sing and dance? Do the theatre actors get mobbed? If their space of performance can be restricted, then why not those of the visual artist? If I as an artist am exhibiting at one of the largest festivals in the city, I'd rather people respect my work and stand away. I'd rather, they read my name and why I've done what I've done.
At Kala Ghoda, every artist's work seems like public property, pick it up, throw it down, budge in a little, not care about the emotion or the feeling behind it. Kala Ghoda has become a place to turn up to prove that you're a part of the cool activities in the city. It has very little to do with what you get out of the festival. It's just let's go, I want a new profile picture.
Somebody recently asked me ~ 'What? You're home on the weekend? Not at Kala Ghoda?' I don't blame them. As a designer, I'd be expected to go there. But I haven't because I can't stand the crowds stamping on my feet. It feels like being in the Maha Kumbh Mela of the city. Kala Ghoda to me as a festival, as an organisation disrespects the artist's freedom of space and it deeply disappoints me that one of the few public spaces which can respect the artist doesn't do so anymore.

Re: Mumbai Class

gaurav04121989 — Wed, 05 Feb 2014 01:08:57 -0000

These incidents remind us of the hierarchy that we have made in our mind, and we want to stick to them till our last breath.

Re: How to be a Delhi Boy

gaurav04121989 — Wed, 05 Feb 2014 00:56:19 -0000

I think you are largely successful in stereotyping the Dilliwaalas, tell about the great things about the people as well.

Re: The Only Thing to Fear Is…

Kinnari Vora — Tue, 04 Feb 2014 07:35:31 -0000

Hey.. brilliant article.. i just shifted to another city recently and i can actually relate to a lot of things you wrote.. when ur alone in a new city it really helps when someone, anyone would understand your fear and ur worries..Thanks for being that someone.. :)

Re: Mumbai Class

radhika — Thu, 23 Jan 2014 02:16:59 -0000

Haan na? You can get criticised for anything that really isn't anyone else's business.

Re: Mumbai Class

Darth Incubus — Mon, 20 Jan 2014 04:03:13 -0000

Same happened to me once when I was in school and commuting in my school uniform which sadly resembled that of municipal school children (the reason, i guess as to why an 'uncle' asked me to get off).
I just totally lost all civility and gave ma di n bhen di gaalis to the uncle after getting off.

Re: An Afternoon Detour

Ranti Dev — Tue, 14 Jan 2014 15:51:09 -0000

good portrait shots!

Re: Cherishing the Finite: An aim for 2014

Ghaati Ninja. — Tue, 07 Jan 2014 00:24:55 -0000

Tell me about it. He's sending us his bio soon. :)

Re: Cherishing the Finite: An aim for 2014

Darth Incubus — Tue, 07 Jan 2014 00:12:29 -0000

Shouldn't the 'About The Accidental Mumbaikar' part have been changed by now?

Re: I hate goodbyes

Kanishka Rustom — Tue, 24 Dec 2013 17:27:21 -0000

You're welcome. Glad you liked it :)

Re: Guess Who’s Back

Nikita Agarwal — Sat, 21 Dec 2013 13:41:07 -0000

go away! as long as you keep coming back! Would ask you to "take light" but given you're the dark knight..well..

Re: I hate goodbyes

B. — Wed, 18 Dec 2013 01:29:53 -0000

Beautiful. I could relate to some parts. Thank you for this.

Re: Memories of a better time

Nikita Agarwal — Thu, 12 Dec 2013 01:12:07 -0000

Marine drive. By the beloved sea. Staring far far away, with the water crashing against em rocks! You have light in the distance, music close to you and your best-est buddy by your side. Happiness :) and I'm there!