Mumbai Meri Jaan VII

14th January:-
We started this day, with a nice walk in the beach. For a distance it was great experience, however slowly we had to negotiate our ways with the water and human wastes. I hope you understand, people, morning, urgent….etc, etc. We returned home as soon as possible and when we came back, Jaswinder and his dad were ready to leave for their work.
After having a heavy breakfast, we left Jassu’s house and went to Church gate station. Dabbawalas were getting ready with their Dabbas, and I was only able to get some snaps with them, in their busy schedule. I still had lots to do in Mumbai, based on my initial list.



From there we took a walk around and reached Fashion Street. It is another great shopping destination, where people get all the imported dress materials at very cheaper rates. I bought some 3 or 4 t shirts, and Subha again filled her bags with dresses.
We took the double decker bus and roamed around for sometime, we crossed the dhobby ghat and returned to the same place, where we boarded the bus.



Our lunch was planned at Noorani’s near Haji ali, which missed on the third day of the trip. We then walked to Nehru planetarium to watch the noon show. Children usually will be more excited at these places.



After the show at Nehru Planetarium, we got into a mall just next to it and watched a 4 D, show with effects of rats running below you, and sprinkling bloods and water.
After enjoying the show, I rechecked my things to do list,
1) Eat Vadapav, ==> Done
2) Travel in double decker bus ==> Done
3) Travel in last local ==> Done
4) Meet dabbawalas, ==> Done
5) Visit the dobbyghat ==> Done
6) Have drinks in dancebar etc,etc.., =========???????????

Holding it in hand, I saw Subha she said, “NEVER EVER THINK OF THAT”.
I started walking behind her with a sad face. A guy on the road was handing over mid-day news papers freely to everyone, and headlines read “DANCE BARS RAIDED: BEAUTY QUEENS ARRESTED”, folding the news paper in my hand I said “hey I am not interested to see dance bars anymore:-)”
We took a bus to Santa Cruz which drove us over the Worli-Bandra sea link and it was a nice sun set to see from there. We bought some sweets from Ramanlal mitahiwala, again one of the old favorites of Subha.



We reached Jaswinder’s home, took our bags and started rushing to Dadar station, from where our departure train had to start.
While we were travelling to Dadar, I recollected the memories, of all these days, and was already planning my next trip to Mumbai; of course you know it is not that easy in this year.
We got into the s8 coach and exactly while we settled down, the train started moving. We both came to door of the coach and stood one last time to see the city.
This city, for many it gave money, for some it gave poverty, for some joy, for some sadness…..however for us it gave a bunch of beautiful days which we will never forget.
With “Avida, Alvida” song in our ears we started our return journey and for it was not a return it was just a new beginning………………………….

Mumbai Meri Jaan VI

13th January:-
This day was dedicated to hang around Subha’s old hangouts and so we decided to roam around Nerul, Vashi and other nearby areas. She told me, she used to be at these places on almost all the Saturdays before 5 years.
However it became very hard for her to identify each place with so many tall buildings now. We reached Nerul and walked up a small hill to reach the modern Balaji temple. We had prasads and walked on the same road. Earlier when she had told me, but I didn’t believe; however later I saw them together, I saw, a Temple, Jain Temple, Gurudwara and A church on a single road it was really great. They could have named that road, as Bharath road.
After placing our petitions to all the gods, we went to a college, SKS College. Again it was to see the 45 feet high Hanuman statue. We tried to take a snap here, and the security came running towards us and shouted not to take. But, here it goes………


It was around 1200 noon, and we had planned to have lunch at Mulund at Sachin’s hotel. However I heard it was closed. We then reached Vashi, We walked around the small-big area for more than 3 times, but Subha couldn’t even recognize a single old land mark there. Luckily, she was able to identify one hotel, in which they used to have lunch, Hotel Navarathna. It was a decent looking semi AC restaurant again, and we ended having a nice vegetarian lunch there.
We walked around from there for a kilometer and she had stories for each 100 meters from there. Stories like, this is where we eat pani puri, this is where we sit and watch trespassers, this is where we buy fruits, vegetables etc.., etc..,


After the Operation vashi was over, we decided to get to her PG and pack her things and then go to my PG, pack mine and proceed to Santa Cruz, where we would stay in her friend’s house.
Unfortunately due to the non availability of PG keys, we were delayed. I left her at her PG, and took off to mine, I asked her to reach Thane and take a bus to Borivilli, and on the way I would be ready with my bags.
As planned, she took a bus from Thane and me on the way I boarded the same bus, after a huge round rush we reached Santa Cruz station at 2130 hrs.
It was Lodhi-Ki-Raath, a Punjabi festival night, and Jaswinder(Subha’s friend) took us there. It was similar to Tamil Nadu’s Bhogi festival. Where we used to burn all the old items of the house and get ready to invite the new ones.


After having dinner, we took and auto to Jaswinder’s house. It was quite, beautiful, small and especially in one of the busiest areas of the city. He had almost accommodated everything a family needs, in that tiny house. It was walk able distance from beach, and also very near to the airport.

Mumbai Meri Jaan V

12th January:-
After a tiring day long journey the previous day, we had decided start the day very late, on this day. As usual, we met at Thane station and as usual Subha was waiting for me. We took a train to Dadar and from there we reached Bandra. Today most of the time, we spent in shopping at Subha’s most favourite shopping place, linking street bandra.
The best thing in Bandra is that you need to bargain and quote only 30% of the amount which the shop keeper asks. For example, if he quotes 100rs, you start your bargain at 20 and fix it at 30Rs, yes believe me, 30Rs. We did some shopping and Subha even made some of the shop keepers mad with her funny Mathematics and Hindi.
We entered a shop to check out for footwear. She selected one of the best ones and the shop keeper demanded Rs 500 for it. Subha bargained and we ended up for Rs 175, while the first one was getting packed, she chose one more, and we both knew it was better than the first one. She keeper understanding our interest said he would charge Rs 350 for that one alone, so total of Rs 525. However Subha didn’t want to pay more than Rs 250 together, yes 250. Even I was shocked when she quoted Rs 75 for the second one. At last the poor shop keeper was ready even to give both for Rs 350. But she never wanted to increase even a single penny more than Rs 250. I was totally confused seeing her. She didn’t buy anything and came out of the shop. I pulled her aside and asked what she was doing? I said you were ready to pay Rs 175 for the first one and the second one was even better, we were getting it for Rs 175 again, why didn’t you pay it? She said I was only ready to pay the same price for the second one also. Now my confusion had hit all the heights, she explained, Rs 175 for the first 175 for the second and total Rs 250. I turned to look at that poor shop keeper; he was still drawing some numbers in the air. I had to bang my head somewhere for her poor Mathematics, but was able to curse only her teachers.

I gave her a calculator and we ran from there as fast as we could before the shop keeper hit us. Being a Salman Khan fan, Subha insisted in having lunch only at Lucky hotel, where we were told Salman had once entered for his lunch. Unfortunately even a single waiter didn’t knew if Salman had really come there. The food was nice in that Semi AC restaurant.



After finishing the delicious lunch, we jumped into a bus to Mount Mary church. This was where famous Amar, Akbar, Anthony movie was shot.



From there we walked through beach road (band stand) we reached Salman Khan’s house and waited for 2 hours to see him. And it was the luckiest day in my life. I was in front of dragon’s house and escaped from meeting him. Wow…..what an escape ;-)
Later when it was confirmed that he is not at home and that’s when Subha showed some pity on me. She agreed to move to juhu beach to view the sun set.
At Juhu beach, we ate Kalakhatta and had a nice walk. We also had one of the best…..no it was THE best pav bhajji in Shiv Sagar near Juhu beach and in fact the costliest in my life. We later understood that it was run by a person from Karnataka. Yeah guys, again a SAGAR there also.



Subha’s friend Jaswinder invited us to his place to stay there, but we had to go back to our PGs to get our luggage, we promised to stay with him the next day and he agreed.
Our last on this day was at ISKON temple, initially I hesitated to get into the temple because I had had Chicken for lunch, and however Subha drove me in. While we were getting out from the temple, one old Saadu asked us to chant “Hare Krishna Hare Rama” for 108 times. I ignored him, but Subha was explaining him with her own reasons for not ready to do it. Later we both ended up in doing it.
We ran as fast we could to catch the last trains to our PGs and got settled.

Mumbai Meri Jaan IV

11th January:-
The plan for today was to visit one of the very far and little known attractions of Mumbai, Murud.
We had to start as early as possible, and as usual we failed. We were able to reach CST only by 0820 by that time; our first ferry to Alibaug had already left. Again, blaming each other I and Subha walked through the lanes of Mumbai. We reached the RBI building first and took a snap in front of it. as soon as I was trying the click the second one, 2 security constables surrounded me and asked me not to take snaps. He also asked me to delete the snap which I took; I managed to escape from that. Then we took snaps in front of Library. We walked further and reached Mumbai stock exchange.



Here, we checked to the security before taking the snap. We waited till the market opened and saw the first transaction before leaving.
After having a quick breakfast, we reached gateway of India at 0900hrs. The ferry started at 0915hrs and again sailing on the Arabian sea, we reached Madwa port. We had to take a free bus from there to Alibaugh town and this free bus was operated by ferry guys itself. The bus took us through the old village roads and crossing through the broken roads, small village schools, huts, wells, tea shops and typical fishermen boats we reached Alibaug at 1100hrs.
We were disappointed as soon as we reached Alibaug, because the fort there was closed due to high tide. We will never return or accept the defeat just like that; we decided to move forward and proceed towards Murud – Jhengira fort without even knowing if we would be able to reach there or not. We hunted for the best possible ways to reach there and ended up taking a bus. The route was really great; we had sea on one side and hills on other, and immediately the bus gets into some deep forest, then to a village and near a abandoned bus station and people in that bus station jump over the bus as if it is a summer rain.

We were dropped at Murud bus station, with countable number of tea shops and small pan shops, it was very silent. We were told that we need to take an auto till Jengira fort. We boarded a share auto and it took another 30 mins.
We were dropped somewhere near a ferry ghat and I was still trying to see where the fort was. To our surprise the fort was in the middle of the SEA. I was wondering how to reach there, like other people did. We were assisted by the local school teacher, who took us to a counter where he said we could take a catamaran to reach the fort.



The people at catamaran, charged 30 rupees per head as up and down charge, they said they would give 45 mins time in the fort to roam around.
While on the catamaran, the person rowing it started scaring us, he said the fort is very big and we might get lost inside without a guide. He said a guide is must and he made us believe that we won’t return in 45 minutes. We all agreed to pay 50 Rs per head for the guide, and on reaching the shore we understood that he himself was the so called GUIDE.



The fort was of 18th century, completely surrounded by Water. It was initially called as jaljeera and changed to jhengira in course of time. They were covered with 22 canons on all sides we spent more than an hour admiring each and every stone of the fort. There were even a couple of sweet water wells inside the fort, which was completely surrounded by salty sea water. Need to appreciate the king, who built it, it would have been one of the master pieces in his times. The left over walls were still strong.
After a long travel around the fort we took the same way back to our nests, that is, catamaran  auto  Bus  again a bus  Ferry till gateway of India.
It was only 1900hrs and we still thought we had time to hang around; we popped into the Jehangir art gallery, where a art exhibition was conducted. Again from there after having dinner we took the local trains to our destinations and one more day was over in Mumbai……

Mumbai Meri Jaan III

10th January:-
This day was dedicated to temples and Ragesh initially was totally against it. We again met at Thane, took a train to Dadar.
As soon as we got out of Dadar, we saw many roadside kajra shops; I haven’t seen so much flowers in any place. It was a busy market area below a flyover and we walked across it to catch a taxi to siddi Vinayak temple.
Siddi Vinayak temple was nice beautiful, but crowded, I never expected to see idol from so near, it was bit mesmerizing. It looked like a modern building to me, with LCD TVs here and there. Prashads were free, and my friends bought some photos of the idol.
We came out and had a delicious breakfast which almost filled my tummy till neck. Today we tried pav bhaji, poori and some samosas.
From there we took another taxi till Mahalakshmi temple. An elderly taxi driver complaining about the indiscipline driving of youths drove us slowly to Mahalakshmi temple.
This was a bit older temple and we were invited by a small Shiva temple below the main temple. We gave our salutes to them, and walked again inside a busy market line and reached Mahalakshmi temple. Lakshmi was accompanied by Saraswathi and Sakthi in this temple.

Once we completed submitting our requests, we walked down to Haji Ali Darkah. Sea and markets on both the sides, Haji Ali Darkah was a completely different package when compared to the other two religious places, which we visited early in the morning. I had been to many Darkahs but there was something different in this one, was it the location, sea breeze, the crowd, the way worshiping, I don’t know, something very different. We spent some time on the sea rocks behind the darkah. As soon as Subha and Ragesh saw the sea, they jumped like kids and it took a long time for me to get them out of there. Instant photographers followed each family or group whoever visited the place. After escaping from them we came back to the dock and back to the main road. Even after a very deep search in each shops, Subha couldn’t find her micro Quran.



We had plan of having lunch at noorani’s in front of Haji Ali, but we had to go to another temple. So seeing the chickens at that shop from outside, we took another taxi to mumba devi temple.
Mumba devi temple was in the middle of very old, tiny bazaar lanes. Around 50-100 small shops, surrounds the temple on all the four sides. They say that it was because of this devi, the city is called as Mumbai. She has blessed, that no one in the city will sleep empty stomach. I now understood why 1000s of people try reach here trying to find their destiny...



Enough of taxi, now we decided to take bus for whatever distances it may be. We took 141 numbered BEST bus to Valkeshwar bus stand. We had to reach Banganga one of the very oldest area in Mumbai.
We reached the Valkeshwar temple and Banganga after checking with a couple of mumbaikars, It was walk able distance from the bus stand. We walked through the Banganga Pond, which people said was built in 1200 AD, it was atleast 200 meters in length and 75 meters in width, but today the pond is no more usable, it was filled with lot of garbages. We reached the Valkeshwar temple at 1545hrs and the temple was closed till 1600hrs.



Since, Ragesh was too tired he sat in front of a house and started relaxing. I and Subha took a walk around the place to check out how the oldest part of the busiest city looks. In that very tiny area atleast 1000 houses may be there, atleast 4 per house. All of them haven’t even wasted a single inch of land. Houses were built one over another, with one room, one and half rooms, with or without toilets. The small lane, we entered never seemed to end, even though it was a single lane, we didn’t want to lose the route and we returned.



We returned to the temple and after worshipping lond shiva we proceeded towards Hanging Gardens and Babulnath temple. We took another bus, and got down at hanging gardens. First I didn’t understand the reason behind naming that place as hanging gardens, later we were told that Mumbai’s water supply in olden days, were distributed from below this garden. Since this garden was hanging over the distribution system, it was called as hanging gardens.
We took some small downsteps, to reach Babulnath temple, which was located below hanging gardens. Babulnath temple, one of the oldest temples in Mumbai was very silent and beautiful. One flutist was playing flute which made the whole area divine. Initially I thought it was some music system, which was playing. This was not much crowded but it was very peaceful in the heart of the city. We rushed back to hanging gardens to see Queen’s Necklace.
The whole Marine drive area can be seen from Hanging Gardens, which at night looks like a Diamond necklace. After witnessing a very beautiful view of Marine drive, we took another bus, which took us next to Taj hotel.
Since, we missed our lunch at noorani this morning; we planned to compensate it by having dinner at Bademiya. We rushed to Bademiya before it got crowded. Even then we had to wait for 45 minutes to get a seat, next to some old godown. I really have to mention about Bademiya here, it is just a roadside hotel, and it seems earlier people were having food only by standing. Till date, the hotel is on road, and the whole lane is blocked for these guys every night. Located exactly behind Taj, Bademiya seems to have cut atleast 50% percent of Taj’s income from its restaurant. Most of the regular guests book their rooms in Taj and have their dinners here. Why so special, we were waiting to find out.




We ordered romali roti and bhunna, and BHEJA FRY. I loved the bheja fry and romali roti was even special there. We had to share our table with 3 others and we never minded it because we all were lost in the taste of Bademiya. Tables were put on the road were never empty, and even people never hesitated to sit on their bikes, or cars to have dinner. We had to run as fast as we could to catch the train to our rooms.
Ragesh, wanted to reach home soon to sleep soon, because he had to go to office the next day.I dropped my friend at Ghansoli and took the last local on that route to Thane, thus achieving my 3rd wish of travelling in empty last local. It was bit scary but I was able to travel all alone in the empty local coach, that too in the foot board.
By the time I reached the room, Ragesh was already sleeping, I also started snoring in a couple of minutes………………….

Mumbai Meri Jaan II

09th January:-
As per the plans we had to start this day as soon as possible, so that we would have enough time to cover as many places as possible.
But as usual, I was late in reaching Thane station, which was selected to be the meeting point for rest of the days. Ragesh and Myself rushed to the Thane local station, where Subha was waiting for us (45 minutes to be exact)
Since it was a Saturday, the local trains and stations were bit empty. We took the first fast local to Chatrapathi Sivaji Terminus, which was earlier known as Victoria terminals. Even that day, I was hearing lot of people calling it VT.



We had nothing inside our stomach and rushed out of VT to find some good restaurant. Looking at such a majestic beautiful architecture of the VT, we reached the Road and after 4 hard attempts we were able to cross it. It wasn’t a busy road on that day, but I bet it would have been on any other weekday.
On reaching the other side of Dr.Dadabhai Naroji road, we found the sub way which came from VT. We promised to look for a subway in all busy roads from now. We found a bunch a road side shops and I, Ragesh and Subha selected one shop for each of us. I wanted to try something which very common and famous in Mumbai, so started it with Sheera (a sweet dish made of sooji) , Ragesh was trying out a bread omblette while Subha selected her all time favorite Masala Dosa there also. But the Masala dosa was better there, it was called mysore masala dosa. In that tiny shop, he placed 3 stoves and one tava on each of them. He prepares the bhatter on the tava and slowly adds, cheese, potato, beetroot, carrot separately and smashed together, which made the dish yummy.
After a heavy breakfast, we realized that we had to go out and look how the city is, and from there took a taxi till Gateway of India.
The taxi, which usually is a FIAT PADMINI, I thought, was designed to accommodate 4 people including the driver. However, this one was already filled with 3 people in front row and the driver pushed 3 of us in the rear seat. He then got into the front seat, which made 4 of them in the front side. Before I began to think I was lucky to be in the rear side, 2 more people got into the taxi. Don’t strain too much with your calculations; we were 9 of us inside it.



But within 5 minutes we reached the Gateway of India and it took another 5 for all of us to get down.
We walked towards the Gateway and around us there were 100s of people either giving pose for the snaps or taking snaps. I felt nowadays people forgot to enjoy the sceneries with their bare eyes. Most of them were keener in taking their own snaps in front of the great monument.
We enjoyed the Majestic trio, the Gateway of India, and 2 Taj palace buildings and decided to move forward to the Elephanta caves. They charged 120Rs for the travel and extra 10Rs for sitting the upper deck. With lot of expectation in everyone’s eyes, the ferry sailed slowly towards east of Gateway.
Now and then we were able to see many cargo ships, Navy ships, Cruises, Speed Boats, Fishing Boats, Cattamarans etc., making our way out of these; we reached the port in Elephanta.
I found a person, who was enjoying the views, holding his brother’s kid in his hands. I just clapped twice and waved the hand to that kid and immediately It jumped into my arms. Within seconds, I wasn’t able to see the guy who handed the baby to me, or his brother nor the kid’s mom.



For around 20 minutes they were enjoying the sea around the ferry and I had to be a baby sitter in the ferry, I promised to myself not to wave hands to any kid from now.
As soon as we reached elephant caves, a small toy train took us near the caves and we started exploring the ELEPHANTA CAVES, and beautiful idols carved inside them. For some time, I thought I was inside a hospital, because most of the idols had lost their hands, legs, nose etc., but still they stood so high inviting all of us with a smile.
We then trekked towards the cannon hill and enjoyed the view of sea around us from the top of the hill. Big ships and even the long harbor looked like ants from the cliff.

After doing some shopping, we ran back to catch our return ferry, this time we didn’t get the upper deck and I felt lucky that no other kid also was around us also we were happy because it was too hot.
Our next stop was, prince of Wales Museum. Usually I don’t find anything interesting in museums and this was not exceptional. Subha and Ragesh were lost inside the museum, while was playing with the small kids around me all time. I was able to understand, what Subha and Ragesh were thinking about me. All they said was “Dude Grow UP”

I was the first one to get out of the museum and immediately we took another Taxi to Marine drive. We sat there and relaxed for some time watching the sun rest inside the Arabian Sea. We decided not to roam around more, and we were dead tired already. We took a nice cutting chai, and reached Churchgate station and took a train to Thane.



Subha took her train to ghansoli and we took our bus to Patlipada, where I stayed.
After reaching home, we had a couple of drinks and Ragesh introduced me to his roomies. Later I had dinner and went to sleep………

Kicking off for the trip

It was my year’s New Year resolution to dedicate this year for travels.
So it began with the mighty Mumbai trip and now I almost completed 6-7 trips, slowly I’ll pen down my experiences.
To start with………

“Yeh hai Bombay, Bombay meri jaan………”
A trip to Bombay came across my mind, when I was hearing this song in radio. I wanted to check, what secrets this city holds, that so much of importance is given to this. I got into internet and started searching things and also started checking with my friends for accompanying me.
At last, tour plans versions 1.0, 2.0, etc….were framed by my friend, who was joining me for the trip (Subhashini). We decided to go with 5.0 and started our journey on 07th January 2010.
7th January 2010:-
Again as usual it was a dramatic start for us. We thought 90 mins was more than enough to reach Majestic railway station from Marathahalli however we were proved wrong by Bangalore traffic. Our train was at 2010hrs and at 1950 we were still at Hudson circle. We decided to catch an auto from there, and got down at the traffic signal to see around 100 vehicles around us. Slowly negotiating across each vehicle we started checking for auto rickshaws. Three of them rejected us and before the 4th auto driver replied we got into his auto.
All the way till station our fingers were kept crossed. We were at the station at 2008hrs and luckily our coach was just in front of the platform. By the time we sat on our seats, the train gave a gentle push. We were exactly on time, before we felt lucky the train stopped and waited for 10 more minutes. May be the railways were showing mercy to our fellow passengers struck in traffic.
Exactly at 2020hrs the train left station, and along with it we also…. with lot of dreams to visit the financial capital and highly populated city of India.
Before the trip I had framed the following things to do at Mumbai:-
1) Eat Vadapav,
2) Travel in double decker bus
3) Travel in last local Metro
4) Meet dabbawalas,
5) Visit the dobbyghat
6) Have drinks in dancebar ;-) etc,etc..,
Thinking of this, I started snoring in the upper berth allotted for me.



08th January:-
I woke up well before the sun, and got myself fresh. Came back to berth and saw many of them sleeping around me. I had no other choice, so I restarted mine.
The journey was not tiresome. Soon after breakfast we started getting introduced to each other and played some card games.
Passing by various yellow boards which had their names painted on them, we crossed, Karnataka, Andhra, and again got in to Karnataka and then at last entered Maharashtra.
It was almost 1500hrs in the evening, when our journey got somewhat interesting; we were passing by the western ghats over, Lonavala and other places.




In and out from the tunnels were stunning. And I think it was my first time to enter into a tunnel. We were lost in the beautiful sceneries across the hill side, and awesome sun set. We never knew when we got into the outskirts of the city.



By the time we got down at kalyan junction, Subha had 2 parents and one aunt. All of them blessed her and we exchanged our contact numbers. We were first surprised to see the empty local trains and then realized that it was already 1900hrs. We traveled till thane and bought ourselves two new smart cards. This is a kind of prepaid card for traveling in trains and BEST buses. You just need to swipe the cards at source and destination and it will calculate and deduct money accordingly.




I dropped Subha at her PG in Ghansoli and traveled with my friend Ragesh, who was there in Ghansoli station waiting for me. We reached my PG, which was around 20 kms away from ghansoli and I slept immediately without delaying a minute.

To be continued..........