Romancing Mumbai

As I started to get nostalgic about leaving Mumbai I spent the last 2 weekends getting around to doing things on my “10 things to do in Mumbai” list. Although I could not manage all of them, I did manage a fair bit and needless to say feel extremely glad about the same.

1) Evening at Haji Ali followed by dinner at Gallops
The extremely popular Dargah in the midst of the ocean is a very popular tourist destination and though I have been in Mumbai many a time earlier and passed by Haji Ali too but never managed to go to the Dargah until this time around. Amidst the heavy traffic on a fairly sultry Saturday evening , I decided to get down mid way from the cab and started to walk . With the path to the Dargah filled with people selling everything from Chadars to flowers and so much more, I experienced a weird feeling as I walked towards any Dargah for the first time in my life. The place was much smaller than I had expected , quaint and noisy yet peaceful. After getting my blessings I even tied a thread and made a wish and not forget enjoy the tranquility. I had heard that the it is always better to vist the Dargah in the evenings as it is well lit up and it indeed lived up to its expectation. After coming back I even made the ceremonial visit to Haji Ali Juice center. The day ended with our last dinner at Gallops (one restaurant I had been wanting to visit in quite some time) The view of the race course and the meetha pan at the end was an icing on the cake.

2) Shopping at Crawford Market
This place couldn’t have been more crowded than it was on that sat evening or so I would like to believe but my fetish for leather bags gave me the much needed impetus to shop at crawford. After having tried my luck at every possible bag shop I finally found a bag to my liking and the one hour of ordeal ended in a moment of satisfaction. This was followed by the ceremonial visit to Badshah. Everyone who has been to Crawford knows of this place and the you cannot miss a snack at Badshah while you are here.

3) Watching a play at NCPA
Ever since I came to Mumbai, I had this desire to go and watch a play. I never managed to find company to go with me but this time around things got different . I instinctively decided to book tickets online and luckily at the vague hour in the morning Sudhir agreed to join in. So Chaos theory on Saturday evening followed by a walk along the Queen’s necklace and not to mention an ordeal to find a place on Sat evening to eat.

4) A walk around South Bombay
This is something everyone has to experience. You could start at VT station and admire the architecture of the municipality building and walk down towards Churchate and pass by Flora fountain. Causeway is something you wouldn’t miss and more so pastries at Theo Broma. The pound cake is out of the world !!! I ended my jaunt at Gateway and needless to say the whole experience was extremely fulfilling.

5) Bandra and more
As I decided to meet one of my friend’s on a Sunday evening at Bandra, we decided to grab a bite at Bascillco. This was followed by shopping at Irla market and for the ignorant ones this place is a bounty for the shopaholic women. Back to Bandra for more street shopping followed by eating Corn and enjoying the evening on Band Stand.

There are a gazillion things a gourmand wouldn’t miss like satiating their appetite with Aaram Vada Pav, Pav Bhaji at Sardar in Tardeo or Chinese at Five Spice. So much to do from walking around Herra Panna (to see what lengths women can to buy imitations of Fendi, Gucci and Calvin Klein.) , roaming around in Atria ( I owe this one to Shefali completely :P ) but something I would truly miss would probably be Worli Sea Face. Be it rain or heat day or night I spent so much time walking/ sitting on the benches there and pondering about life.

After roaming around in London alone many a time, I decided that the best thing one can do living in any city is to experience the sights and sounds of that city (and sometimes it gets better without a company ) Be it eateries, shopping or generally wandering around, there is soo much that every place has to offer. There is so much more that I wanted to do in Mumbai like going to Borivalli National Park , seeing the Prince Wales Museum and going to Elephanta but I know for sure that I would go back to Mumbai at some point in time later. So all of this and more reserved for then :)

Yeh Dil Mange More..

I wanted to write about the virtue of “greed” (potrayed as a vice as I still recall gory images from the flick 'Seven' ) for quite some time now but it is only today that my thoughts crystallized enough to put this down on paper . As I thought about a heading for this post I couldn’t help but put this Pepsi Slogan as I believe it aptly fits the feelings expressed in this post. This slogan which was primarily meant to encourage consumerism (greater consumption of carbonated trash) is all about want for more …“greed”
The cynical attitude that most people have towards greed gets very well reflected in the below mentioned quote:
“ We tend to forget that happiness doesn’t come as a result of getting something we don’t have , but rather of appreciating and recognizing what we have ” But I question happiness here. I don't quite relate to that feeling (I should thank Mint for making me a little more aware about this one : http://www.livemint.com/2009/01/02220031/The-science-of-euphoria.html )

I only relate to satisfaction and believe that satisfaction comes out of expectation. If what I have matches my expectations then I am satisfied otherwise I am not. My desire for more cannot lead me to a perennial state of disillusion but can still make me feel dissatisfied. Some very crudely put this to be " ro ro roke takiya geela karna " but I have a different stance. I don’t think there is anything wrong in wanting a whole lot of things from life. But s**** happens and yet it never stops us from dreaming or hoping or working to get what we want and aspiring more typified as “ greed” by most.
Talk about greed and we have had a lot of ranting from the new American prezzie about trying to stop the greed on wall street and take measures against the same but the only answer to this lies in what Gordon Gecko said
“Greed is right. Greed works. Greed clarifies, cuts through and captures the essence of the revolutionary spirit. Greed in all its forms-greed for life, for money, for love, knowledge has marked the upward surge of mankind.” Greed , Ladies and Gentlemen for the lack of better words is GOOD !!

Yeh hai Mumbai meri Jaan :)

Now this is like the nth time that I decided that I would be a little more regular when it comes to writing/blogging so I start posting on the blog with the hope of not breaking this resolution atleast this time around.
Well this post dedicated to Mumbai because of the fondness that I developed for this city in the last few months that I have been here . During my first week in Mumbai I recall having a conversation with my mentor and a very dear friend about living in Mumbai . I was pretty indifferent to it then and I still recall he said that " this city grows on you " . I can absolutely relate to that feeling now and despite the heat and the stench and the crowd and housing woes it still has its own charm. So here I go ranting about five things that I am going to miss about Mumbai ( in no particular order ) :
1) Sea face !!
2) Hard rock Cafe!
3) Safety of being able to travel in a cab alone safely even at 1 in the nite
4) Cutting chai n Aaram vada paav
5) Book shopping in Strand and more so on the street

Book Worm

My current occupation has given me the opportunity to only meet the business heads so far and this so called networking always seems like a façade to me simply coz the meeting never seems to bring out the real people in them. As I ponder more about this whole scenario, I cherish my summer internship a great deal simply for the fact that it gave me an opportunity to meet lots of people from different walks in life. I could have a 10 min chat that would be more than sufficient many a time to bring out the queerness or the quirkiness in them. It always seemed like you were a reading a tale and then ended up becoming a passive observer yet being totally involved in the story of their life. I would initially feel very surprised at how people who had no business would want to know more about me or my background. It felt like a price I had to pay in lieu of their story. What happened on Friday evening was however very different.

I got out of office a little early and happened to look at the collection of books piled on the pavement. It has almost become a ritual for give a fleeting glance to the stack as I pass by the street mostly during lunch time. But this time around I happened to spot a book I had been intending to read in a long time now. After innumerable efforts to find the book on the roadside my efforts finally paid off and it is very hard to express the extreme sense of joy that I experienced. So I asked the book seller to hand me the copy to check whether the print etc was ok and the time came to negotiate the price. He sharply quoted it at 60 bucks. I thought that the price was reasonable but still decided to give haggling a try and asked him to settle the deal in 50 bucks. To my surprise, he almost snatched the book out of my hand and refused to take any less. I was stupefied at the fact that he promptly shot back in English saying: “Madam it is too less a price for this book”. He seemed to be in no hurry to sell the book. As I bought the book from him, he made me re aware of the fact that the book cost 10 times more in the adjacent shop and that it was not possible for everyone to afford that kind of price. The sole reason for him being in this business despite the raids was his love for reading and the absolute delight he saw on people’s faces when they could read all that they wanted at this cost. It couldn’t get more candid.

As I started gazing at the other books he could not help but mention how in his opinion Rushdie’s Midnight Children was one of the most beautiful books ever written. I refuse to believe that it was just a way to sell another copy because I could not miss the twinkle in his eye while he was ranting praises for the book, something which was reserved just for Rushdie’s piece of work and non other. Everything he said was clear and crisp like it echoed the truth all the way through. As I tried to probe more about his past, surprisingly he asked me nothing in return and did not even bother selling/recommending any book. Guess he found nirvana in simply selling books !