Bombay - Never Lost but found some more...:)

Was reading Suketu Mehta's Maximum City - Bombay lost & found... quite an interesting read..
one particular sentence amused me to no end & made me shrug at the same time...
'Mumbai is a city in heat.' thats exaggerated!!

for these NRIs who stroll around in Air Conditioned cars & stay in penthouses, privacy is available as easily as the air around...but for those middle class couples...privacy is elusive in this superdense city. Its like a pressure cooker. The pressure can build up but only upto a level...it has to vent out somewhere & places like Marine Drive, Bandstand, Shivaji Park, Juhu are the vents for such little unfortunate lovers.. they want some time together...they want to discuss their pain, their problems, their future... they want to hold each other...they want to express their feelings for each other... there is so much that a couple wants to share when they finally confess..(atleast initially).
i do not justify vulgarity...neither can i stand PDA (Public Display of Affection for the uninitiated..) but come on people...let them have their time....when they turn their back on you...its a DND (Do not Disturb) board...should respect that...

Reason why i am writing this today is because i had gone to Marine Drive... the most beautiful place in town...saw hundreds of such lovers sitting a stone's throw distance from each other...
if they stretch their hands on the side, they can touch the next couple...still noone really minds...each one of them is so engrossed in their partner..they do not bother to give you a stern look even if you stand there staring at them...
one common link chains them... they all are truly, madly & deeply in love with their partner...or so do they would like to believe...




This place mesmerizes me like no other...on one side there is ocean..stretching as far as you can see...waves splash on the rocks & retreat back... there are land's end from both the sides...sky scrappers adorn them..their lights glint against the black sky...giving them an aura of their own...
when you are sitting in the middle & you see these land's end & the sea in between...you feel as if the city is trying to embrace the ocean... but sea do not wish to be trapped in....its flowing out...out of the city's reach...
such epiphanies hit me like waves when i am right there....at dusk...sky shutting down for the day but mumbai's night life just beginning...on one side its all dark...& on the other, there is light flooding my eyes...making me squint..
the very famous Queen's Necklace appears right before my eyes and i feel special simply because i was born here...in the city that made me competitive right from day one... there was only one incubator & three babies... who would get it... the one that cries the most..so i cried as much as my prematurely born body could bear... that competitive edge still helps me...i do not cower when i face competition. it exhilarates me..brings back my survival instincts...
this is the city that taught me how to carry myself around with confidence...
when i am feeling low, i remember the mantra 'Be Confident. Atleast pretend so if you are not..people here take a lot by its face value' and believe me it works every single time!!

With such thoughts in my mind, i sat down with Sonali & Shobha to take in the view. The day was too hazy & visibility very poor... we tried to huddle together so as not to disturb two other couples who sat on either side of us... but they didnt care about us being so close to them...they were plain engrossed if this word can define their state.. :)

There were giggly girls...there were hawkers selling Ice Creams.. There were joggers...sweating..There were dogs...panting... heat was unbearable..not even sea breeze could take the heat out of the air...but it was all worth it for the solitude it offered even when we were surrounded by hundreds of people...

Saw some cute guys...some of them were lolling around...one of them was reading some book, craning his neck...loved him!! next time i go there, i would carry my Jane Austin's with me..
i would fall in love with Mr.Darcy some more...

Saw Trident... it was a scene of horror an year ago when terrorist kept its inhabitants hostage...now its back to its hospitable self...times change, memories fade..clicked some photos..
Saw a Gucci store...promised Sonali that one day i would buy her something from this very shop...20 years may be it would take me to afford that...but thats ok...we are friends for lifetime..
i have some time to fulfill my promise...

my legs were killing me & i wasnt even wearing my pointed heels!!!! it was then that we halted for a breather that we reaslized how far we all had come chatting & checking out guys.. (come on! we three single gals... its our birth right!!)
Air India's Maharaja welcomed us with his whiskers the moment we turned to go back...
saw 'Not Just Jazz By the Bay'... yeah yeah you could have named it 'come-here-to-sing-karaoke-and-giggle-uncontrollably' (Thats what atleast i did last time i went there) & it still would have been easy to pronounce & remember....
Took a cab to save our legs for Monday..i played one song that always comes to my mind these days when i am in car..rushing with speed...Kya Karoon from Wake Up Sid.. Sonali & Shobha couldnt hear it properly thanks to my phone & blaring horns outside..i did feel like Ranbeer Kapoor though.... free from all the worries about tomorrow, free from all the tangled past...only if i could stand & get my head out from the roof of the car...suddenly remembered it was a rented cab...not a Chevy.. :( Promised myself that one day, i would have my own glass roofed car...i would ask my husband (or driver..depends!) to drive it & i would get my head & hands out of the roof to taste the breeze..its more intimate than when you feel it in intervals...

we were as hungry as hyenas but couldnt see a place to eat... so we decided to head towards CST station... formerly Victoria Terminus... for me personally, this name suited the building the best...It was after all erected by the British. Its a heritage building... Its new name Chatrapati Shivaji Terminus dont do justice either to Shivaji maharaj or the terminus...the building stands there like a newly wed whose name was changed as per her in-law's whims & never was asked if she liked it..
we visited Fashion Street...now that used to be the Milan of Mumbai...as a kid, i roamed these streets...looking out for good bargains that i could show off in college or school the next day...this street gave me my first sport shoes...& my first pointed heel stilettoes...
There is no brand that can ride on popularity unless its fake copy appears on this street first...you get addidas, puma, nike, chanel, M&S, Pepe Jeans...you name it & this street has it..
it was also notorious for duping foreigners...a fake M&S would cost you 300 INR here..but it will be sold in 1000 INR to the first-timer looking firangi... "British ne hamko 100 sal luta...ab thoda hum lootenge to kya hogtoa' once a shopkeeper had told me sheepishly when i scolded him for bringing wrong name to India with such treachery... i tried telling him that the Firangi wasnt a British..it was an American..but white skin irrespective of its origin suddenly make them fall under the same category as The British.
Those who think Indians suck at English as a spoken language should visit this street sometimes and see these shopkeepers haggling with firangis. Not even call center trainers can train their so called well educated trainees this fast & this fluent...
at the end of the fashion street, we crossed the road and entered a small lane....i suddenly felt as if i was entering a supremely made set of some spooky film...old barren heritage buildings without any lights inside made me creep out. The road was dug up till its sides..some of the street lights werent working...almost every building had a hallowed look that you read about in Dan Brown's book...there were peepal & banian trees around...i recalled my mom telling me about hungry & unsatisfied spirits waiting on such tree tops to see gals like me, walking slowly with her hair open on shoulders...then they smile a wicked smile & jump on them to inhabit their bodies to carry out their half finished deeds... i urged Sonali & Shobha to walk faster...they merely gave me an impatient look & continued with same pace... i saw a couple walking slowly, oblivious to the spookiness around...their hands interwoven..they were enjoying the silence & dimness around..GOD! Love really really makes you blind... i was grateful when the street ended and once more i could hear the hustle bustle of the city...

we went to Canon then.. the famous Pav Bhaji jaunt thats running for more than decades...i used to come here with my papa when i were really small.... a plate of Pav Bhaji was an yearly reward for well earned marks...i cherished them so much... all those feelings rushed to me...
we ate in silence...downed it by Slice... A cute guy stood next to us, eating Pav Bhaji...checked him out for some time...he had curly hair..a clean complexion...and a decent height.. no sight of paunch...he was looking ecstatic as he reached for his Pav Bhaji time & again... there was no hurry in his actions...i was about to add him on my Cutie of the Day list is when he decided to pick his nose... ewwww mentally crossed his name out of list.... Guys!!! Sometimes they look so good...worth taking some trouble to look at...then one action & everything goes back to being the primeval cave man with no manners!!!!

as we patted our full stomach & turned saw another spooky building... its Grandfather clock reminded me of one TV show that i used to watch from behind my quilt...i used to be so scared of the clock..one of the villagers used to drop dead the moment it would chime 7.30 PM...i used to be too interested to know who dropped dead (whole day i would pray for the one fellow i loved to look at...) to let it go...my parents would laugh at my defense- an age old quilt sewn by my grand mom when i was 1 & 1/2 years old...her last gift to me before she died.. these grown ups!! they would never know that my grandmom's quit would have literally saved me from the demon in the TV that killed people when the clock ticked its way to 7.30...

Me & Sonali bid goodbye to Shobha & took a cab to Churchgate station. Saw a v.v. cute Firangi...
photographing the same spooky building with drapes all over & a grandfather's clock perched in between... chuckled & let Sonali know... she rolled her eyes...wished that one day i could find one like that for me...who can drive me around in Chevy...wow God bless her!

and finally it was time to say good bye to Sonali & to the day... :)

its not the first time that i visited town...its been there...an inseparable part of my childhood & growing up years...i came here with my papa to just roam around in summer vacations, with my cousins to buy old battered copies of books in measly sum, with my friends to invade the fashion street, with my neighbors to show them around the real mumbai & sometimes alone just to wander about where noone would give me a second look...or ask my score in SSC...or my designation at work... loved those days...got a glimpse of it back after so many years...
should thank Sonali & Shobha for arranging this... :)

God! its late! :)

PS: First thing that came to mind when i saw Marine Drive today was Konkona Sen Sharma in Wake up Sid... didnt in the end she come here at the Marine Drive to experience her first rains in bombay? its when Sid actually wakes up & confesses his feelings....rain starts pouring & they hug each other for the eternity in love...
had cried buckets in theater when i saw the movie...
now standing there...i understood why it wasnt any other place chosen for their reconciliation....there is something in the air here.... is hawan me hi kuch baat hai... ;)