Hi all,
I am back to my nomadic ways. This time, I re-visited the last place yet again, Mumbai, the land of opportunities, and film stars, and a lot of unnecessary traffic!!
Well, I had actually gone there for certain task that I had on hand. I started from Pune on 21st of November, 2009, took the Intercity Express to Dadar. Had a change of trains, and moved to the western lines there. Mann, the brightly lit local trains, all seemingly brand new are always a treat to the eyes. And now I know why they say in Mumbai, you spend one-third of your lifetime in local trains. They commute via this mode as easily and as frequently as we take an auto to go to our favorite hangout joint. Can you believe that?? Well, I now do, as I was part of that frenzied life for a day myself. In my short 36 hours journey to Mumbai, I was on the train for about 10 hours, going to and fro all around Mumbai. But I think I am getting ahead of myself. Let me start the boring account of the event in chronological order.
I had planned to stay at my college roommate's house. They have been given a great house in Kandivali at Thakur Village. The place is really good, and we counted 9 Honda City cars from the entry gate to the entrance of his building itself!! I hope that says a lot about the kind of money that goes around in this city.
Well, the day I reached, it was quite late, and I had some work the next day too. So I fropped off to sleep without much ado. But next day, we covered and covered good. In fact, I think we went to so many places only on the 2nd half of that day, which many have not even visited in a complete weekend's time.
We started off with a visit to the Oberoi mall at Ville Parle. Well, I was promised with a lot of hot girls as a treat to my eyes!! Spoiler alert, all my hopes were dashed!!! But let me not get ahead of myself... The mall was a good one, with a lot of shops we had no interest in. So we went ahead to the food court. Well, it was almost 4, and neither of us had lunch. So we gorged on chunks of meat from KFC, including a Zinger treat, and dessert!! We had a good time, finally getting time to talk with each other since I reached Mumbai. Yeah, it must be sounding weird, but even old roommates need time to get themselves free for each other, and chat. Sorry to admit, but it's as easy to understand as the cycle of life!! Anyways, after a hearty meal, and with a mind completely in the party mood, we started on our journey of Mumbai.
Next on the agenda was a landmark that I missed out on my Mumbai darshan first part trip, Juhu Beach. We reached there partly by a local train, and then by auto. Let me tell you the feeling that I had the moment I reached there. I truly once again realised what the phrase "sea of humanity" signifies.. I thought the whole of Mumbai was there on that particular sunday. Later, I realised that everywhere in Mumbai, the sea of humanity is spread evenly. It's not the sea of humanity, but more like an ocean, endless but without the tranquility factor, of course. Anyways, we reached the Juhu beach finally after succeeding in evading the hawkers sprawled at the entrance of the beach. And well, the crowd was all there, trying to have the time of their lives, whatever they could scrap out of the busy week that they just had experienced or what lay ahead!! We sat here for some time. Over us, flights kept going out of the mumbai airport. We debated whether they were domestic or international flights, and Jit, after some complex calculations which is only possible by an IIM-brain deduced it must be coming out of the domestic terminal. But we counted about 17 flights in a matter of 40 minutes. I do not know how we can really hope to explain that, as, at that rate, there must be about 500 flights out of Mumbai every day, a feat I am sure is only in the dream books of Mumbai authorities!!
Anyways, it was getting a bit dark, and we had a lot on our agenda to cover that day. So we got up and headed again for the local train station. Next was the phoenix mall. Again, it was the same mall culture, but one which promised a lot of traffic of the fairer sex. Well, here came the biggest disappointment of all. It seems as if the all-hot mumbai girls community knew from beforehand that Jit would be roaming the streets on that night, and so, they preferred to stay indoors! Well, after checking out another mall, it was finally the time for the grand stuff.
We got out of the mall, and walked all our way to the Marine Drive!! Last time I was here, it was in the morning, and sweltering heat!! So missed out all the good stuff then. Now I realize why this place is the most royal of all places in and around Mumbai. The queen's necklace is too grand a sight for any earthly eyes! We walked the whole of marine drive end to end, ending at Nariman Point. We sat for a little while there, and then headed back, the fourth dimension controlling us by it's rotating joystick!
We walked up to the Gateway of India. It was a pleasant walk, and quiet peaceful too. After a short walk around the Gateway, we went for satisfying the grumbling mid-section at a well-known roadside eatery called the Bade-Miyan. Kebabs are supposed to be the famous speciality out here. We had that, and more. After a hasty dinner, we took off to a nearby pub, which due to some recent unfortunate events, acquired huge recognition. The pub was none other than the Leopold Cafe, which due to 26/11, the terror attack in Mumbai in 2008, had gone to phenomenal heights. Well, terror-tourism have also been a huge attraction in this city, it seems. The place was full to capacity when we reached!! We had to wait about half an hour to get a table, partly, due to the huge crowd that all seemed to converge there, and mostly, due to the captain there who were intent upon having us share a table with a weeping sardar guy who clearly came to drown his sorrow in the beer bottles!!! Anyways, finally, the captain seemed to find a table for us. Having seated, and after ordering a pitcher of beer, which looked interesting in itself, we looked around. Right beside us, we had a broken window with a bullet hole!! The thing about this place is, it has never tried to repair itself after the attack. In fact, it has intentionally preserved all the signs of the attack, and we realized why very soon. Since it was just 4 days before the anniversary of the attack, reporters kept pouring in for news bytes of this place. And the headwaiter took it upon himself to re-live the moments of almost a year ago, which killed even 4 of the waiters and a few guests that night. He showed each of the bullet holes, and affected areas second by second to the reporter, and we listened in awe of the night that was.
Well, that brought us to the end of a cheerful day, one after many days in my life. We got on the local train for our way back at about 1:30, and got back to his home at about 2:00 in the night. That brought us to the end of my Mumbai Darshan final part!! Finally, I got to say that I have covered the economic capital of India. Looking forward to come back sometime soon again ....
Sadly, the only snaps we took in this three-quarter day tour of Mumbai, are these. But since this is one of the high-points of the trip, it clearly brings out the spirit, and to end this blog with a PJ, the note on which we ended the day is clearly symbolised by the level of beer in the cylinders in the pics. Hopefully, you understand what I mean ... :)
