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 :)
No comments:
Post a Comment