The Monday Mumbaikar - Now Hiring!
(Update 4: Phew! Thanks a ton for the response people. We have lined up a bunch of great writers and truckloads of eager contributors. We still need more but hold your emails for the time being. If you’ve mailed in and not got a response so far do not fret! You will be contacted in due course. This thing is looking very very interesting…)
(Update 3: Excuse all who have mailed in/left comments and have heard nothing from me. I am plowing through the emails trying to match interests to sections. Everyone who has mailed in will get a response but just give me a little time. Currently I still need people enthu to cover business and “all sports”.)
(Update 2: The response has been accumulating rapidly. We have a high-power civil servant on board who will give us the inside line. A couple of music maestros and a very keen lifestyle editor. And an agony aunt. Don’t let the “Mumbai” moniker hold you back. It’s open to anyone serious about doing this. Send me no resumes. Link to your blog will do well. Expedite expedite!)
(Update 1: We have a photographer, a cricket-writer, a business whiz and a couple of general writers who’ve buzzed me. And, lo and behold!, we also have someone who is willing to donate server space! Yey! So now all I need it more editors. Please please reply. Or pass on the word.)
Hark! Hark! Hark!
Imagine an online magazine that has Bombay blood running in its veins. Free, fair and fun. Serious about quality and credibility. But laughs at itself after a brief moment of embarrassment while it frantically looks around for an excuse. Something that eventually will be as elaborate as this but maybe with a little of this irreverence.
A magazine that brings together writers, especially bloggers, who have strong opinions, will stick by them, and will smoothly adopt new ones when proven wrong. We will be cocky, yes, but not pretentious.
It will not pay you anything. The opportunity to write and be read will be reward in itself. And anything we may make will be plowed back.
At some stage we will be bought out by a private equity firm and then we will all retire happily into homes on Nepean Sea Road. I am not joking. Maybe.
But before that we need some able-minded and fleet-fingered writer types. The author envisions the following:
An online mag which will come out every Monday morning in time for the intrepid office-goer looking for exquisite lunch-break literature. High quality content in bite-sized 800-1000 word pieces. If there is one word that must describe the content it should be: ‘Intelligent’. A tiny bit of this with a smattering of this with a distinct Mumbai tang to it.
As Winston Churchill once famously said, I can only promise you the headaches of sacrosanct deadlines, painstaking proofing and a few hours of madness on the weekends. The comments, including ones like “Go do it with a mad dog you imbecile”, will come on their own.
So if you are a Bombay-lover, or write like one, and want to be a co-conspirator check out the profiles below:
1. Lifestyle Editor: Books. Movies. Restaurants. Hotels. Porn.
2. Music Editor: Albums, shows, soundtracks, crit
3. City Editor: Local happenings, local news, , local trains, local stuff
4. Business and Economics: Sensex. WTO. Karvy. Shit like that.
5. Sports Editor: Cricket, Football, F1, Lacrosse, Darts, Competitive Eating etc.
6. Politics Editor: National, International, Inter-brother
7. People and Places Editor: Social and Environment, Andolans
8. Template Designer
9. Server Space!! – Kindly Donate Whole Heartedly
Yours truly will be the glue that holds the whole thing together and makes most when we cash out.
You will drive your mag-space and to start off with we will need one article a week.
Operations to be sorted out once a team is in place.
Target launch date: 1st Monday of June
Drop me a mail at sidinsunny at gmail dot com. Tell me what tickles your creative heebie-jeebies. As unlikely as it seems this might turn out to be great fun. Positions filling fast!!!
Ciao.
Would we get paid? Then I could stop posting on my blog and direct all that bilge to you.
hope this one turns out to be our own “mumbai yorker”
arthus quiller couch doesn’t even read what you write in bold. will these buggers read? of course they will. or they won’t. content should be contemptuous of the reader. especially since its unpaid.
ha ha
Hi, feeling social so saying hi
Hey that’s great. Count me in for one of your ardent readers.
All the very best!!
why the geographical bias for the online mag …as in why jus the mumbai tang ?
cant the other folks chip in ?
Why am i So so reminded of Behram ‘ busybee’ contractor?
—Kartik.
Partho, my bad. Bloody speed reading.
Back to the day job, then.
2 days and only 8 replies…
look at this sidin…the mumbai preference ain’t helping..!!
;)))
Count me in, most definitely.
..this aint the kind of blog thatll get 100+ comments in a week my brother..the obvious question then is..whats it going to be then eh….well i think have the mother of all virtues..cause this thing is really starting..
well… if you are looking for someone to write on football… I could fit that bill…
Anoop
I’d love to be an editor! I already work part-time/freelance as an editor and love it ;o)
Please, please, please take me on board!!:o)
my name is nidhi, work with interactive firm in delhi called webchutney, wanted to talk to you sbout an online reality show called oktatabyebye that we have launched, tried mailing you on gmail, keeps bouncing back! Any other options?
Sidin boss, you have competition. you are NOT the only funny dude IIMA has ever produced. just read this
http://sanketdantara.blogspot.com/2006/04/some-ppl-r-just-so-irritating.html
some ppl r just so irritating.. “wow, u r lucky u got into IIMA” …i got this reaction from quite a few and from some i was expecting it.. sore loosers tht they are.. but nevertheless it really ticks me off.. whats the meaning of “u r lucky” pleaseeeee with luck u may get into one or two maybe IIMs but not into every b-school you applied to.. 6 IIMs, MDI, ISB, NMIMS, SP JAIN( albeit last year)when they were out having fun, i was studying.. it takes me 1hr of comuting from home to work, so 2 hrs there plus additional 2 hrs after coming back from work after a 10-12 hr gruelling day at office.. on weekends, 6-8 hrs at IMS plus equivalent at home..so that adds up to arnd 36 hrs a week thts 4 work-days in a week… try doing this for 6 months and then tell me “luck” @#$%^&*^%$#&
try reading TOI and ET end to end everyday, followed by atlest 3 - 4 articles in a magazine with the aim of remembering the data and then see tha same analysis on big-fight, CNBC , CNN etc … do this for 3 whole months then tell me “luck ” @#$%^&*^%$#&
skip parties, dnt see TV ( cos dat the only way u can put in 2 hrs after work nd yet sleep in decent time ) skip movies, weekend hangout with friends … do this for 6 months then tell me “luck ” @#$%^&*^%$#&
nobody sees the hard work putin.. ya there was some help from above..i’ed say yes i was lucky the quota thingy is from next year…i’ed say yes i was lucky i got Info MGMT at SP Jain last year nd so i din take it up which is why i gave cat again nd got thru to all 6… but dnt tell me tht i got in to IIMA cos i was lucky !!!!
put in efforts the way i did then talk !else u might as well take the finger ! i dnt care a rats a$# as long as those who matter know my caliber and hard work the rest of u Suc#^5$ can take ..!.. no no…dnt even get me started.. the @%^$&%^%& is not even doing 1% justice to the choice of profane words i’ve lined up for such people…
i don’t live in Mumbai. But I wanna be a part of your programme. Can I join?
so you want employees for free? hmmm…thats not how things work here in bombay :p
ah you’re the guy behind the “why south indians don’t get any” e-mail…that was a masterpiece…the MM sounds interesting….although i am only an ex-Mumbaikar …(i am currently a….er…..Gurgaonkar) …i’m also an ex-bangalorekar, Cochinkar and Kottayamkar….would love to fill in any space that hasn’t been filled by competent people.
Hey Sid - I’m interested. My blogs are Bombay Diaries and Mumbai Matters.
No Sidin… Dont lean Mumbaiwards ..
You will b losing using international Trans-siberain Trans-Tasman appeal…
Kisska hai tumko intejar.. main hu na. Fulto Mumbaikar currently AWOL.. I would lurrve to join in. Holler back..
hi can contribute about market dope and underworld.
cheers
satish
do check check out moi blog
I came across your blog on onam and noted your hearfelt desire for good onam sadya and good mallu food in general in b’bay. NO! am not inviting you to my home - but can point u’re nose (and stomach in the direction of a GOOD place)
Next to Mazda photo studio, off DN road, In fort, just past VT on the way to fountain - is FOUNTAIN PLAZA (an unlikely named place but who cares about names when the food is worth dying for). This is a mallu muslim joint where the mutton biriyani is to kill for. Onam they do not serve non-veg, but have a 24 item meal , served over 5 courses, on vazha ela, which you have to book for in advance. Used to be Rs.60 for the spread (worth about 10 times that).
Get there between 12-12.30 so u dont have to wait, smell the food and go faint with desire while others hog. Problem is, there are 4 ela’s to a table (which can acommodate only 2 with comfort) so u run the risk of eating your neighbours rasam. So do take along 3 frieds whose rasam eating habits you are comfy with :). Do not forget to fini the meal with thei ‘moar’.
Right now i am posting my scribbles on IndianPad and they give authors 100% of google ad revenue for their articles.
Can you provide a similar offering ?
not related to the MM, but if you are looking for good mallu food in Bombay there’s a place better than Fountain Plaza. It’s called ‘Deluxe’…turn into PM (Pherozeshah Mehta) road from DN (Dadabhai Naoroji) Road at citibank (on foot, because it’s a one way) and turn right into ‘Pitha Street’….walk down and you will see ‘Deluxe Family Restaurant’…they even have a nice a/c section upstairs.
Excellent fish fry, fish curry, all types of chicken, along with lovely Puttu, appam, etc,. Everyday they have a lunch thali, served on the banana-leaf, and the food is excellent. Every evening between 4 pm and 6 pm they have ’snakes’…including ethakka appam, beef ada, and a whole host of scrumptious stuff.
The only drawback here is that the beef fry is not that great…i mean.. it’s decent…but not as good as their other stuff. Even non-mallus I know swear by Deluxe food…plus it’s cheap!
Their phone number is 022 22042351…they deliver in fort/colaba/nariman point. Hope it gives you, and any other Mumbai mallus reading this, the same pleasure it gave me when I was there.
Can you write only on mumbai?
Hey sidin, you’re blogs are way too long, going by this the mag will turn out to be an 80,000 worded, not including contributions. Dick Cheney might just take you out when he visits India.
Hi,
Do take a look at my blog and let me know if you feel I can contribute anything. I would be glad to be a part of your magazine.
Oooo! Sounds like fun!
Very, very interested!
peccavi n smith - danks a ton! hv been in this city for some 10 months n yet to find a place that does good good mallu food sparing both my pocket or tummy(n am a gastromony freak!)- tried 2 places - “rice boat” in s.cruz - n dont recommend it at all! anothr is small small place “sunny’s” - somewhere in the east (donno the location -i just found myslf there by total serendipity ) . this was good - as in almost good good. so wil look up the 2 places - thanks ppl. n apologies sidin, for using ur comment space as msg board!
hey…I aint from Mumbai..but i’m game for any football articles! check my latest post puhleez! (and many others, for in-depth footie stuff,esp wit WC arnd d corner)
Hi there,
Me am a Mumbai lover.. but currently don’t live there..I see that you have all the good intentions.. but what’s your mag going to give, that others don’t.. we’re already bombarded with too much info.. I’d say, be selective on the dope which you want to give.. think hard, think of your target audience.. good luck..
Sidin,
This sounds good !
Definitely interested.
Next steps ?
I dont really write much but I could edit if you can pass on the work. Great blog!
hmmm, i consider myself an ex-mumbaiker (even though i only lasted there for about few months) and am now soaking in the cultural excesses of Delhi.
but i do land up in mumbai for a few days every other month (my slimmer half in a long distance relationship resides there) and would love to contribute.
hey there
mee a true blooded mumbaikar , junk food , tapri paan , et all
catch me at
http://thandagaram.blogspot.com for free samples
wud like to join in
nay , really really like to join in
mail me!
Best of luck in your endeavour Sidin!
Do you want a comic page?
1. For original comics, you can talk to http://www.thegraduatecomics.com - Maybe you can syndicate (for free) his work. TCP publishes his work from time to time.
2. For a original flesh and blood comic artist, talk to indiancomics.blogspot.com
3. For non-original comics, maybe The Comic Project can be of help?
Sidin, are your dates messed up? This post is dated June 2006! Even the subsequent posts are dated late may 2006! Did you travel to the future, lol
Comment posted on 12th May 2006
IndianArchie
Musings that Amuse
i am interested too…
soccer, f1, general stuff
I smell a fish with one of the comment posted here, i think it’s Sanketdantara or dantera wotever, himself who has posted in the name of anonymous–self selling huh?
Sanket reading your post,posted here i’d say you are not funny, the post sounded more like ramble, you’ve studied hard and made it IIM — good for you bumpkin, don’t gripe and boast that you have got into all six IIM’s, boast once u’ve contributed something positive to our community.
Sidin
May i borrow your time machine? I’d like to do some tweaking of my past and some tweaking of the future. June 03, 2006 Hmmm maybe the inauguration date of the mag.
Hmmm, Interesting ad for your mag; I would love to gun for lifestyle editor as am capable of providing unlimited porn pics from my datababes. I can do part-time current affairs (full time - porn provider)Here’s my resume for current affairs position: http://juicemeup.blogspot.com/2006/04/today-is-historic-day-opal-mehta-has.html
You made me look at my calendar about 5 times. How did you get to post from the future? Was there 1.21 Giga Watts involved ?
I would love to contribute to your magazine starting sometime later in the year. I will contact you at that point.
PS: You will always be the ‘why South Indian guys dont get any’ guy to me
hi,
I have a blog - I am new at this. I enjoy reading stuff from you and would love to be of some help.
Let me know if there is anything you think I can do.
Am the standard engg/mba working abroad - not a banker or a business analyst - work in online marketing.
hi
dont know if i fit into any of your requirements but just thought of making myself available
either this is the biggest scam or just a neat neat way of getting comments on ure blog :)..either way it reeks of pure genii ! im not too much into blogging ..and im doing engineering..so there u have it..i resign before i sign up
now isnt that original 
Coolest idea I have come across in ages. I can do some Top Ten lists or Top Five (depending on the pay)! I have a blog with nothing on it yet. But I am a freewheeling DJ, music revewer, amateur music producer etc etc. mail me - warpedsense at indiatimes dot com and I will spin some for you.
sidin…here’s the link to my blog -
http://www.maladiesofconfused.blogspot.com
Offering you writing and interesting pics if I come across any.
Yeah, the “Mumbai” thingy threw me off. I’m a Delhite. Let me know if that disqualifies me.
Cheers.
only mumbai?
well i loose out here then:(
anyway keep up the good work…
atleast a reader assured..
hey cool idead mann!!
I blog at imri2.blogspot.com…have started it recently…I’ll be more than happy to join in:)
let me know if I can be of help…
why are you limiting it to mumbaikars? What’s the deal, huh? huh? HUH?
Dont know if you’re still looking for people. But I’d love to contribute whenever I can. Not sure of the category though. Maybe Satire.. or Arbit if there’s a category like that.
I blog at http://sleepless-in-iima.blogspot.com