First time in Flight, First time in Mumbai to First time in Love :) (Part 3)

Oh man this travelogue does not seem to end. Even I am tired of writing, editing and rewriting. Ok this is the last and the final chapter, so please bare with me a little more.

Second Day in Mumbai. 6.30 am, I really did get up, hooray !  and got a bicycle to go around the campus :). First stop was for breakfast in Hostel 1. Then walked towards the IITB Hill top point. Its a small trek, gives a nice view of the IIT lake, Hiranandani buildings and the gaint pipes which carry water form the lake to the outside world. We Spent quite a lot of time at the top gazing at the lake and the buildings.

I was very excited as the next stop was Taj Hotel,  got ready, left IITB campus at 12 pm, waited in long queue to get tickets to the VT station and from there took a taxi to Taj.I was feeling a sense of elation, and I still have not been able to figure out why I was so much excited to enter a hotel. We got a table at the Sea Lounge, enjoyed the awesome view of the sea from our table with a milkshake and talked on and on and on. Roamed around Taj, had a tea at Shamiyana and then left Taj. We roamed in and around Taj, shopped a bit and then took a local to Andheri. And during the transit form VT to Andheri had the famous Mumbai Vada-Pav. Almost lost my purse in the VT station and almost fell down form one of the  locals. Took an auto to Juhu from the Andheri station which broke and could move no further in the middle of some road near to Juhu , hence had to walk  for almost half an hour but finally reached Juhu beach just before sunset. Oh man, what a crowd it was, it felt like the entire junta of Mumbai was on Juhu Beach. Sunset from the beach with your feet in the water - always a picture I would die for. There are a lot of eateries around the beach, had a kala Katta and the mouth watreing Pav bhaji. It was already time to head back to IIT campus. It was a nightmare getting back,  took autos and buses and two locals to reach Kanjurmarg. My slipper was a nuisance from day one as it was biting my feet, by now I could walk no more as it was almost eating away my feet. I walked bare foot in all the stations till we reached IIT campus.  We made it to IIT at 10.30. Ran to Gulmohar for dinner (it closes at 11 pm), ordered the last meal (literally, as we were the last customers) with a lassi which I relish even today. Chatted into the night, biked a bit around the campus and it was time for the final stop- 'IIT auditorium' for the Final Match of the FIFA World cup 2010. Match between Spain and Netherlands, none of the teams which I supported for so didn't matter who won. I was tired and the match was really boring (none of the teams had scored till then, it seemed like a defensive match from both sides) so took off after half the match time was over. Walked around the IIT campus and retired to bed at 2am which I still don't get as I could have easliy stayed awake for another 2 hours till 4 am which was the time I had to leave for the airport.  I somehow got up with great difficulty at 4 am and was amazed by the auto driver who without a fuss agreed to drive till the airport at that hour in the morning, you see in Bangalore rickshaw drivers are a real pain. We had a steaming hot Chai and I bade goodbye to the city I fell in love with for the first time in my life. With adios to my friend who made the trip memorable  I boarded my flight back to Bangalore and to Cisco to begin my week which felt very wrong after this wonderful trip :P

The spirit of the people, the locals which run so efficiently, the crowded streets, Marine Drive, The sea-link ride, the IIT campus, all of these exceeded my expectations and I just fell in love with this city. I always wanted to stay in Mumbai for one year to experience what it felt like to live in Mumbai, well this fascination started becuase of my brother who loves Bombay (well it was Bombay then when he lived there :)), he used to praise the spirit of the people so much that I always wanted to live in Mumbai and after these 2 days I have decided that I am for sure going live there for a year  :)

First time in Flight To First time in Mumbai to First time in Love :) (Part 2)

I reached Mumbai at 8 in the morning. It was raining. Had an apple and started Mumbai Darshan with Darshan :P. The first on the list was Bandra-Worli Sea link, so took an auto from the Santa Cruz Airport to Andheri station, form Andheri took a local to Bandra, and from there took a bus to Haji Ali Dragah so that we could ride on the Bandra-Worli Sea Link and man Wow is the word. There is the sea, the multi story buildings and the slums and you are able to see all that from the middle of the sea because of this sea-link. Seeing such structures, my faith in engineering gets restored at least for that moment and I feel this great sense of reverence for my fellow engineers and for me too for being one among the clan :P. I will remember this bus ride for years to come :).

So the next stop was Haji Ali Dargah. It was almost 10 AM. My friend was telling me that, once his friend was locked inside the dargah  from 11 am till 5pm because of the high tides in the sea. I just ignored him thinking he was kidding. I saw a lot of people retuning back but very few were walking towards the dargah. The Dargah is in the middle of the sea with a pathway and yes there was security check before entering the pathway :). The pathway is kind of scary, it has not rails to hold on to and the waves keep  lashing on to the pathway continuously. Lots of people taking family pictures on the pathway and kids and elders alike swimming in that disgustingly dirty water without a worry :). The Dargah is not an architectural beauty but its a must see. Dargah has the tomb of Sayed Peer Haji Ali Shah Bukhari. After paying my respects to the Tomb, I was clicking pics and loafing around, the sea looked peaceful and was about to sit for some time taking in the sea when someone told me that they were locking the Dargah from inside as the tides were raising, actually they had already locked it. I was requesting them desperately and convincing that I was a tourist and I didn't have time till 2 pm to wait inside. Thankfully the Mullah who was near the tomb told the guy to let me and my friend out, I thanked him and ran out of there. The tides were really high and there was nothing to stop them from hitting the pathway. We ran and ran till we reached the mainland. My dress was completely soaked with the dirty water form the sea. I heaved a sigh of relief as I could not imagine sitting inside the Dargah doing nothing till 2 PM. It was at this moment,  I was realized of the good luck which had continued since that morning  :)...

We were hungry, went in to a udupi hotel and had idli as usual. It was the area near to Mahalaxmi temple, my friend was giving me a lot of gyan of the area of which I don't remember  anything :P, we didn't enter the temple but saw it from outside. Took a cab from here to the Mahalaxmi station,and a train from there to Marine Drive. I instantly loved it. It was lively with all ages of people, youngsters, middle aged  and elderly. I can sit in front of the Ocean for hours and hours and hours...  and so I sat there for hours :) and walked along the 3km boulevard. Of course took a lot of pictures and few of them turned out to be quite interesting. By now my dress was kind of dry and may be it was the continuation of the good luck that it didn't rain much, I was told that, it was raining cats and dogs till that day in Mumbai, So I started thinking of the Converse of Murphy's Law :P ...

Next stop - Gateway of India, lot of crowd, lot of pictures and a glimpse of the mighty Taj Hotel. We were hungry and stopped for lunch in a nearby restaurant. Walked a lot in south Mumbai and then turned towards Fashion street looking out for cheap clothes and accessories. It was 5 pm already and we went to  Leopold's which I recalled having read in the book "Shanatharam" (one of my favourite books till date). Well I loved this place, its more fun if you are in a huge group, the place was filled with Firangis and was highly crowded, we waited for almost half an hour for a table. So far so good, and we headed towards IIT, Bombay. Took a Taxi till Church gate and from there a local till Kanjurmarg and an auto from there to the Mighty IIT campus. It started raining heavily then,  but didn't matter as we were already inside the campus. Freshened up, chatted with my friend and got accommodation in one of the girls hostels. It was dinner time, there is this restaurant called Gulmohar in the campus which serves awesome food for very affordable prices, hence ate to my heart's content. Had a longg walk in the IITB campus, talked on and on and finally around 1am retired for the day. Thought of recording the days events but was too sleepy and went into a deep sleep as soon as I hit the bed. Thus ended a lucky day with lots of nice things to remember for years to come.
That's how I din't write till today about my trip to Mumbai. Damn this bloody sleep :P