Driven by dreams of glory somewhat and more by the thrill of getting out of the mundane 9-6 ( in my case 12 - 9 ) existence and meeting quakers hot babes , matter and i packed for the trip to mumbai! In case you are thinking matter and i were packing together spatially and in the same time zone ,you are mistaken , matter as usual was in his own MST ( matter standard time ) while was in good old (boring ) IST where you have to be at the airport well in advance and sit waiting in hope of seeing a real hot beauty ...hope is all I ve got now :( . Anyway , with usual alacrity after a few harried phone calls , matter suddenly turned up behind me as if he had been there all the time and we safely boarded the flight! That was a relief I tell you . About the inevitable question as to how many chicks there were on flight , I can recall only one really hot tam ( i think so) girl in sari and a few ok ok ones.
On board and away
Our onward journey was on Indigo and man the most disappointing flight I ever had in terms of .....the air hostesses ! I remember telling matter that 90% of the air hostesses are pretty ordinary looking but are definitely one thing... paper white! I cant understand whats the point of having air hostesses who wont even look into the eyes of the people getting on board while (if at all ) welcoming them on board. We were lucky to get at least that service considering that as soon as our trip was over , there was a nation wide strike by the ground staff of some or all of the airlines! Anyway it was nt worth the effort worrying about them when theres so much to do in our own lives . During the course of the flight I discovered a very intimate detail about matter! Can you guess wat ? yes you are right , he does have a very soft inside... before you get the wrong idea, let me clarify. Actually (verbatim matter) , his body pressure is much lesser than that outside therefore the pain in the ear,and when he inserts his ears to stop the pain , his fingers get sucked in ! Well with such proof , I had to admit to his theory which is true btw hehe.
Before this occured , matter very expectantly enquired about the availability of cotton to stuff his ears with . On the polite refusal , his exasperation was very noticeable and lasted through most of the rest of the journey as DK and Gandhi would testify . I forgot to mention that matter shot the take off of the flight .... you are right ... from within the plane!!!
Arrival at chatrapathi sivaji international airport and journey to Deek's abode
After a relatively short flight during which I was enlightened on several topics by matter , most of which I dont remember :) , not that it was not interesting , but because of STML. After say good riddance to the pasty air hostesses , we got in touch with Deeks . After trying to remember a set of confusing directions which we were supposed to relate to an auto driver , and failing miserably ( inspite of a detailed sms from dk which we later learnt was copied from a map hehe ) , Deek's idea of speaking to the auto guy solved the problem and we were safely off . The directions I remember are something with key words , Chembur...Vashi... three of four highway names..and Indianoil colony . In that sultry - salubrious (is that an oxy moron? ) weather , we were relieved to be in motion albeit within extremely cheap transport ! Man , you could say we were very pleasantly surprised to see the auto meter just registering some chillare as he sped along the paved cement roads ( the road looks like a pavement in mumbai ) and really wide highways. We reached Deek's abode in some time , less than half an hour . As Gandhi and Deeks came ambling towards us from a distance I really wish we had shot that pic ! I was just taking out Rs.10 to give the auto guy, as the meter read 10.5 .... who for a strange reason was laughing at us! Deeks came to our rescue at this juncture along with the ever youthful Gandhi . It seems that the meter has to read with a scaling factor of 10 for autos and for cabs its some kind of whacky non linear scale which would put our pn diode graph to shame.
Deek's abode and lunch
In a supposedly tamil area , the apartment building was called GRIT
The suburban trains
Our plan was to take autos to this place called Vidya Vihar which was the closest station which would connect us to the artery of the city , the mumbai rail. Mater with a really professional looking thick ,black camera and Deeks with his handy Silver cam with a thinner extensible cylinder made for obvious analogies to their prowesses in other places ... which was was unabashedly confirmed by matter! On board the train we were told of the different lines which ran parallel and in the north south direction . A really huge number of people use this network everyday... for exact figures , ask Deeks and when you see how alive that whole system is you cant help but wonder how it all works. Even after the bomb blasts and all that shit , people fearlessly just getting on with life ;looking at them , our apprehensions were gone .
CST (Chatrapathi sivaji terminus) , marine drive and ragada patties
We arrived at a major stop called CST , which I guess is equivalent to Majestic in train terms . Outside this station is the place you see in most films based on mumbai with some old huge buildings. It was really great to be in the places you get to see always on tv , what with all the news channels being so partial to mumbai ! Anyway after a short walk through stalls which mainly hawked pirated cds and dvds of all kinds... a guy ever saw my unsure eyes and was pulling on my shirt asking if i wanted "sexy" stuff! After being had by the ESWC guys for not even sponsoring the travel , we thought it not worth buying stuff we were not sure would even work and so we went on to the next location... the beach. Driving past "Marine drive" , makes you realise that the name is exactly what it is ... a long drive along the beach. It looks like the sea has made a wide curved inway into the land and on one of the arms of the curve you can see really huge buildings showcasing the city's vibrant business life. That place is really awesome , something totally unique to Mumbai and we stood relishing the scene in the fading day.
After a while , guess who came to meet us ? It was good old Rajesh Bhat ! The first thing you can notice about him is that hes not changed one bit..except for his get-up which was now purely formal with a characteristic laptop bag across his chest and shoulders. After learning about his life at Reliance Life Sciences and also anecdotes of Mukesh Ambani and generally a lot of time pass we headed to have the best chat we have ever had in our short lives! Unbelievably tasty stuff which didnt seem that unclean either , we had an ample helping of "Ragada patties " and other normal chat stuff , which left an indelible memory of street food in mumbai which was only going to be further enhanced!
Leopolds
After a long walk along marine drive , we decided to hit the next destination... Leopold's . For people who love to pour beer ..(into their mouths ) and at the same time have a great conversation , this is heaven! It also incidentally serves as one of the hangouts for the main character in this book called "Shantaram" . I guess we should be able to see it in a movie before long starring Johnny Depp and AmitabhBachan as an underworld Don . The hype did nothing to diminish the experience and ambience . The place was ..not huge , but the number of people it accomodated was big, mainly because of optimization achieved over a long time ( as long as a hundred + years ... if what the photo says is true). With closely placed tables meant for four mostly , we five adjusted into one and settled down amidst a crowd which a significant foreign presence. The reason we learnt was because of one undeniably its ambience and second because they have a discount of 10-15% on the bill ! It added more eye candy for us , with local maal and foreign maal at the same place and with the effect of beer kicking in, it seemed all the more lovely. The beer came in a really beautiful chemistry lab apparatus kind of thing. A really tall tube of maybe 10 cm diameter and a tap at the bottom constituted a pitcher . Filling it up and settling down for some great storytelling by some of the best at it... Matter and DK,Raju and Gandhi adding their own experiences , I was really getting a sleepy kick out of it. I think I now know enough about matter's experiences to write a book about... considering how much "matter" is there in them :D . An eternity and a couple of pitchers later , we decided to make a move to....
Bade Miyan
It sounds like a part of some really bad Amitabh Bachan film, but its nothing like that . Its an awesome street food place for the gods ( or is it the lucky dogs who get the left overs?) and mortals from Bangalore . No pictures were taken at this location unfortunately . Anyway it was a road side place as good as it can get. With scores of cars parked on the street and on parallel and nearby streets , most of the customers stand and eat as the seating was ready to be filled many times over by families mainly. Imagine, whole families all dressed up nicely and outside at something like 23 :00 + hours ! There were even some really good looking girls who were least bothered about the time or being among all those men at that time of the day. This is one of the really amazing things about mumbai which struck me as being in sharp contrast to the places I have lived in before ... namely Bangalore and Chennai ( which bolt up by 23 30 max , beyond which you are on your own risk) . We ordered some chicken kababs which ran out as we spoke and then settled for some other kind of kabab while Deeks relised his veg sheek kababs . Never mind that it was a wholly upright meal as in we were standing all the time, it was a really delicious experience and a revelation of what night life can be. And this is only an eating place ! Imagine what fun it would be to be at an all night booze dance party, will I ever get to do that ? Maybe someday. After stuffing ourselves with meat and veg kababs , we headed to the final spot of the day....
Gateway of India and back home.
After the sweaty travel during the day , we still remained sticky , with the weather remaining distinctly humid even as the time neared midnight. This place is not very impressive , I mean as the name would imply, I would imagine a gigantic gateway in to the second most populous nation in the world. Barring such expectations, it was a nice monument, whose historical significance I am not aware of .. maybe somebody will throw some light on that . What was really cool about the place was the light from distant buildings playing on the water surface near the monument. Some more anecdotes later , on the steps which led into the water and some cool photos , we were asked to bugger off by the police at the stroke of midnight. Opposite this monument , is another ... a Taj Hotel which literally has compound facing the Gateway of India , it is all building right onto the road! It looks like a huge palace and well probably unaffordable anyway . finally it was time to head back home and thus concluded the first night in mumbai with reflections of light off the water and thoughts off the mind.
