CURRENT MISSION

http://rawgirlinmumbai.blogspot.com/

ABOUT ME

Well, this could take some time ;-)

My name is Zenobia (which is "Father's Pride" in Greek/Arabic. Awww....I know :P). Also known as Zee, Zen (my favorite, coz i am *so* Zen-like lol), Zeno, Z, Bia. But hey, what's in a name, rite?!

Not one to gloat about myself, I'll let some wise quiz masters give you a glimpse of me :-)

You Are A Girl!

Are you ever serious? Well, you're seriously playful.
And guys are attracted to your girlish spirit and all the fun that follows.
Your girlish, temper, however... well, they could live without that.
Not to worry though, you never stay upset for long. It's off to the next adventure.
Are You A Girl Or a Woman?

Your Quirk Factor: 77%
You're so quirky, it's hard for you to tell the difference between quirky and normal.
No doubt about it, there's little about you that's "normal" or "average."
How Quirky Are You?

You Are 72% Creative
You are beyond creative. You are a true artist - even if it's not in the conventional sense of the word.
You love creating for its own sake, and you find yourself quite inspired at times.

How Creative Are You?

Your Personality is Very Rare (INTP)
Your personality type is goofy, imaginative, relaxed, and brilliant.
Only about 4% of all people have your personality, including 2% of all women and 6% of all men
You are Introverted, Intuitive, Thinking, and Perceiving.

How Rare Is Your Personality?

You Are 61% Feminine, 39% Masculine
You are in touch with your feminine side.
Sensitive, intuitive, and caring are all words that describe you.
And you're just masculine enough to relate to both men and women.

Are You Masculine or Feminine?

You Are: 30% Dog, 70% Cat
You and cats have a lot in common.
You're both smart and in charge - with a good amount of attitude.
However, you do have a very playful side that occasionally comes out!

Are You More Cat or Dog?

You Communicate Like a Man
When you communicate, you like to get to the point.
You're not afraid to say what's on your mind - and leave it at that.
Talking about your emotions drains you. You rather keep them to yourself.
You prefer solving problems to wallowing in your sorrows.

Do You Communicate Like a Man or a Woman?

PHILOSOPHY

Why not?

Do what you want. Bow down before no one.

And of course, IMAGINE...

Why I’m on Couchsurfing

HOW I PARTICIPATE IN COUCHSURFING

I'd love to meet for a coffee or drink. Its an absolute killer that i cant host anyone! But write in to me anyway - i can give you links to people who do host etc since i do know most of the "active" CS Mumbaikars. And of course, i attend most meetups and have started organizing meetups at Mumbai as well -exhausting but fun! :)

I also help out with moderating groups. I moderate the Mumbai Last Minute Couch group. Before You write in to me for finding a couch, please make contact with some of these people. Its an Emergency Host List I've compiled (plz note I cannot and will not vouch for all of the people in that list. Buyers beware!)
http://www.couchsurfing.org/group_read.html?gid=4253&post=3008997#post4001750

I started and moderate the Flat Share/Search in Mumbai group.

Be warned, though, I do leave Negative references for people who muck about on groups i moderate(Check Shahveer's reference below, for instance). :) Yes, that does open the door for retaliatory references, but I dont care!

Due to recent "developments", I have also started a new group Free Thinkers of India. Please do join - doesnt matter if you're Indian or not, male or female etc :)

COUCHSURFING EXPERIENCE

Recent CS activity:

16 continuous days of being hosted by Couchsurfers in Germany and Poland:
Marcel Eppler, Tubingen - 3 days
Alex, Munich - 2 days
a>, Tubingen - 5 days
Tobi, Berlin - 4 days
Anton and Agata, Krakow - 2 days

- Suburban meetup, Mocha Mojo, 23rd January 2010 **
"Naughty Basterds" meetup, Janta, 22nd December 2009 **
- Suburban meetup, Mocha Mojo, 28th November 2009 **
- Suburban meetup, Mocha Mojo, 14th November 2009 **
- Potluck dinner, Private residence, 10th October 2009
- General meetup, Mocha Mojo, 8th October 2009
- Jalebee Cartel nite, Blue Frog, 12th Sept 2009 **
- Ajanta, Ellora et all tour w/Karel, Aurangabad, Sept 2009
- DJ Duster dinner/clubbing nite, Alps and Wink, 22nd August 2009 **
- "Sizzler meetup", Bombay Blue, 16th August 2009
- Israeli Shabbat, Krishna's residence, 15th August 2009
- "Czeching out Mumbai", Janta, 10th August 2009 **
- Friendship Day Meetup, Mocha Mojo, 2nd August 2009 **
- Janta meetup, Janta Bar/Marine Drive, 11th July 2009 **
- Seafood meetup, Prataps Lunch Home, 9th July 2009
- SoBo meetup, Alps, 3rd July 2009 **
- Meetup, Mocha Mojo, 2nd July 2009 **
- Trip to Elephanta Island, 20th June 2009
- Bar meetup, Blue Frog, 18th June 2009 **
- Unisex meetup for June (Part of ICS day celebrations), Coast, 14th June, 2009 **
- ICS Day meetup, Mocha Mojo, 12th June 2009
- Third Tuesday meetup, Koyla, 19th May 2009
- "Ladies Only" Lunch meetup, Coast Rest, 17th May 2009 **
- CS Amby/General meetup, Cafe Seaside, 5th May 2009
- Spanish Short Films meetup by Denis, MTC, 4th May 2009
- Third Tuesday Meetup at Koyla, 21st April 2009
- Club Nite, Zenzi Mills w/Denis Mysenko as the DJ, 17th April 2009
- Meetup at Firangi Paani - 8th April 2009 **
- "Spontaneous" CS meet organized by Marlies, 31st March 2009
- Free Hugs Mumbai, South Bombay, 21st March **
- Holi event, organised by CP - 11th March, 2009
- CS Lunch, Cafe Britannia, March 2009
- CS Lunch, Coast rest, February 2009, and also April 2009
- CS Meeting, Marine Drive, February 2009
- CS meetup, Kala ghoda festival, Jan 2009
- North Goa trip with CSers, Dec 2007-Jan 2008

** Indicates events organized by me.

Apart from these "official" meets, I'm pretty busy meeting up one-on-one with travellers or other CS friends. :)

I wish i could host someone, but i can't - i stay with my parents (as is the done thing here in India, FYI...). Its overcrowded as it is!

Interests

Music; Books; Fashion and shopping; Animals; Nature; Art and design; Learning about foreign cultures, languages; Making new friends from faraway; Buddhism; Social Anthropology; Life and all the dirty, slightly off-putting aspects of life; Anything involving writing (as opposed to talking or calling someone); Weird beads and baubles; Summer, beaches, sand, beach bums, tanned guys with wild surfer hair and low-slung surfer trunks; A bit of celebrity-watching; People in general; Solitude; a bit of the creepy, unusual, antisocial; Thinking about my life as a hippy/gypsy.

Recently, after many failed attempts, I have gone vegan - and that too mostly raw (six months, yay!). I owe it all to the documentary Earthlings. Do watch it (Its just a *tad* graphic, mind you ;-)). I am known to rabble on and on about animals (one time, I was lecturing a guy *while* i was having chicken myself. LOL), but I'm not fanatical, and I'll admit it does look good...So worry not, I won't be a spoil-sport and ruin your non-vegetarian odyssey across India. To each his/her own. I'm just preaching "Make an INFORMED choice. whatever it is."

• animals
• cats
• dogs
• arts
• writing
• books
• design
• fashion
• documentaries
• festivals
• seafood
• coffee
• potluck
• vegetarian
• vegan
• drinking
• clubbing
• shopping
• movies
• music
• buddhist
• sports
• anthropology
• languages
• beaches

Music, Movies, and Books

Movies -
Not a movie buff at all. If left alone, i'll almost never settle down to watch a movie. Underdog, death penalty cases, courtroom dramas are what I prefer.

The ones i've watched and liked are 'American History X', 'The boy with the blue pyjamas' , 'Precious', 'Dead man walking', 'A time to kill', 'Trainspotting', 'Schindler's List' and 'Life is beautiful', 'Erin Brockovich'.

Watch a lot of documentaries, though. Usually those critical of the mainstream POV...Bush-bashing/NWO are always a favorite, and can get quite sucked into conspiracy theory documentaries as well. :)

Music -

Soundprank, Jay Tech, Vibe Tribe, Glassball, FractalGee, Röyksopp, Kings of Convinience, David Gray,Radiohead, Darude, Faithless, Moby, Chemical Brothers, Enigma, Paul Oakenfold, Paul Van Dyk, Infected Mushroom, Hinder, Fort Minor, Justin Timberlake, Muse, Pink, Dido, The Fray, The Killers, DJ Finny.

Downloading what i want, musically, is a bitch. so i prefer just online radio (www.di.fm is tops).

Books -
Hmm...Anything and everything goes - except those annoyingly soppy Mills & Boons and other chick-lit...Give me porn instead. Oprah book club selections always a favorite.

I dislike anything that's got real critical mass. More so because of the herd mentality ('I HAVE to watch xxx movie/download xxx song/read xxx book because everyone cool is doing it') than anything inherently bad about the film/song/book. So, that means no Harry Potter, Hollywood blockbusters, and such. But I DID read and love Steig Larsson's Millenium trilogy (blame the feminist in me).:)

One Amazing Thing I’ve Done

- Giving free hugs to strangers at Colaba Causeway on 21st March, 2009.
- Seen the Dalai Lama and having him see, smile, and namaste me back. even with a nagging toothache that day, it was still an awesome experience.
- Had Couchsurfer Massimo name his kitten after me! Luckily, she turned out to be the most mischievious one and his favorite of the litter.:)

Teach, Learn, Share

TEACH:
- I can show you around the various drinking holes and eateries in Mumbai.
- I can take you on some unpretentious street shopping
- I can teach you how to board the right train in Mumbai (Its a skill, lol)

LEARN:
I want to learn:
- Languages - as many as possible, but top of my list is Italian, Russian, Spanish.
- to "smize"
- the timeless art of French kissing :) (No, not with a CSer...I'm just telling you thats what i wanna learn)

SHARE:
Personal wisdom:
1. Wrinkles may be a bummer, but you really DO get better with age.
2. Men are disposable. No man is worth your tears and the one who is will never make you cry.
3. You can never give others that which you do not have. So if you do not love yourself, you cannot love others.

Countries I’ve Visited

Denmark, Germany, India, Poland

Countries I’ve Lived In

Denmark, Germany, India

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