australia Archives - Rakhee Ghelani

White Night Melbourne 2016

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White Night is the Melbourne edition of an all night event, where the arts (in all its forms) takes over the CBD for 12 hours. While Paris was the first city to instigate its own White Night, my home town has made it its own. The first Melbourne White Night was in 2013, so I’ve never had…

The Big Fat Indian Wedding : Shaadi Time

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This is the fourth and final part of The Big Fat Wedding, you can find the rest here: Introduction Pre-Wedding Rituals The Engagement It was a rather rude alarm that woke me up early in the morning to have my saree draped the morning after the Sangeet. It was a little hard to believe that…

The Big Fat Indian Wedding : The Engagement

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This is the third part of The Big Fat Wedding, you can find the rest here: Introduction Pre-Wedding Rituals Shaadi Time Bright and early on a Tuesday morning the Engagement ceremonies began. The timing of these are generally dictated by astrology, which explains the 7.30am start. The first ceremony is Vratham. This is where Carl…

The Big Fat Indian Wedding

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It had to happen, I just can’t believe it took me so long. Before you get too excited, no I didn’t get married. This is so much better! I dressed up in sarees, wore plenty of bling and partied away without the inevitable stress that comes with being a member of the wedding party. I had…

Review: Chinese New Year at San Qi

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Chinese New Year has always been one of my favourite times of year. For many years I worked closely with the Chinese community, and spent many an evening enjoying some fantastic Chinese delicacies both in Australia and in China. So when I was asked to try out the CNY menu at San Qi restaurant (at…

Farewell 2013

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Another year comes to an end, so here is a quick post about my highlights of 2013 and what my plans are for next year. Highlight of 2013: Visiting Australia and spending time with my family and friends. Saying goodbye to my 30’s was also a highlight, the decade has been a mixed bag of the…

Back to Reality

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It has now been about a month since I returned to India, after a rather long visit to Australia. When I got on the flight to Mumbai I was feeling really excited about coming back home. It even surprised me when I started calling Mumbai home, but for now, that is exactly what it is…

Returning Home: Melbourne

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The day I landed in Melbourne was only 3 weeks shy of the two year anniversary of me leaving. I was really looking forward to my visit home, it had been a long time. There was a bit of nervous anticipation as I prepared to go back, I felt like so much about me had…

Eating Out in Melbourne

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I am still hungry after talking about eating in Paris last week, so I thought I would keep with the theme this week. I have just spent 7 weeks in Melbourne (with a couple of days in Sydney), enjoying family, friends and the food! It feels like I ate for the entire 7 weeks (so…

Melbourne: The Things I Have Missed

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I have been visiting Melbourne, which is home, for the past few weeks. I still have a couple of weeks to go before returning to Mumbai, but as I sit here on a cold, rainy day I am thinking of all the things that I have really missed here. Some that I knew I was…

Climate Change: From Mumbai to Melbourne

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Through Mumbai’s sweltering, suffocating Summer, I have spent many a day fantasising about rolling around in ice cold snow or being rugged up in layers of winter woolies. I have literally had dreams about it. So I was very excited about the prospect of escaping the sauna that is a Mumbai monsoon and spending some…

15 Minutes in Bollywood: Bhaag Milkha Bhaag

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It really had to be only a matter of time before I became a Bollywood star… after all I have been in Mumbai for over a year now. So when I got a phone call a few weeks ago asking me if I wanted my Australian accent to be famous, how could I refuse? To…

Bollywood: Where Heroes Can Be Villains

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There is an interesting thing I have observed in Indian culture, if someone is admired, lauded or dare I say worshipped, for some reason they seem to be above the law. They can do as much wrong as they want, but very few seem to care. Worse still, if you are poor, then your life…

Cambodia: Spending Time in The Beauty of Angkor

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Siem Reap in Cambodia is one my top 5 travel destinations in the world. For anyone who has been there or seen images of Angkor Wat, Angkor Thom and the surrounding region I am sure it is not hard to understand why. The historic sites of Cambodia are simply stunning. I am a temple junkie,…

Potluck Me: Starting a Business in India

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One of things I have always said that I love about India is that anything seems possible. Two years ago when I was leaving my job in a bank, if someone had told me I would be earning a living as a freelance consultant and writer, and setting up a couple of start-up businesses of…

Home: St Kilda

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I have travelled to 48 countries in the world, and consider myself a seasoned traveller. However so far my blog has only touched on my adventures of the past two years. So I have decided to challenge myself to relive the other places I have been and share with you the great, the harrowing, the…

It’s the Season for Music

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It seems to be the season for festivals here in India. Mumbai Film Festival has just finished and everywhere I turn there seems to be another new festival to attend. One thing I did a lot of in my past life (in Australia) was see a lot of music and go to music festivals. From…

Mumbai Film Festival

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I love a good film festival. In Melbourne I would always go to the International Film Festival that came to town each year. For someone who is not so creative, I seem to have a lot of friends who are in the arts, and a few of my close ones in Australia are film-makers. It…

Decoding the Indian Man Part 2: Infidelity and Apologies

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Is infidelity a part of Indian culture? Is it one that is accepted? Is it something that women just turn a blind eye to because of economic dependence, desperation and / or lack of self-esteem? Are Indian men capable of apologising when they are wrong? These are the questions that have been occupying my mind…

Foodie Post: Changing the Palate

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I love wine. For the better part of the last 20 years, it has been one of my favourite things in the world. A crisp, chilled glass of bubbly on Sunday afternoon with a girlfriend, a dry white with a nice meal or a full-bodied red with cheese… I have always enjoyed a glass of…

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