7 months ago
Thursday, November 13, 2008
One of the most anticipated trips came to an end sooner than I had anticipated. I am talking about my trip to Mumbai. It had a touch of everything in it. Right from lunching at 'Not just jazz by the bay' to shopping for leather jacket at 'Dharavi'. If you are not quite familiar with Mumbai, 'Not just jazz by the bay' is a high-end restaurant located just outside the Brabourne stadium in one of the posh areas of Mumbai and 'Dharavi' is one of the biggest slums in the world.
Going with the title of the post, I'll ramble upon every word that I have used in it;
Meetings: This was the first item in my agenda. Meeting cousins (My sisters, Brother-In-Law, Niece) meeting friends, meeting old colleagues, meeting old managers. It was a wonderful feeling to meet everyone after five months. Some people were surprised to know and looked at me as though I am an Idiot when I told them that I had come to Mumbai to meet people and not on any official work. But most of them were elated to meet me which was something very nice to see.
Movies: I watched Fashion and Quantum of Solace. Fashion is a good movie but very slow. I had booked tickets for this movie from Bangalore itself. Talk about planning :). I give it two and a half stars. I would have given it one more had it not dragged on for three hours. Quantum of Solace is a good movie but did somebody tell you that it is a bond movie? Bond should stick to his tuxedos, vodka martinis, expensive cars, gadgets and leave the action to Jason Bourne or Rambo. The action nevertheless is spectacular. It gets three stars. Now that revenge is off Bond's head, we can expect the true bond to be back in his next movie. The extra star is for this optimistic expectation.
Memories: It is such a wonderful feeling to go back to the place where one once lived and worked. It brought back all my fond memories. It brought along with it memories of people who played a part in my life directly or indirectly, memories of late night movies, memories of late night parties, late night bike rides and many other things. The feeling is very hard to describe and it is something that one has to go through to understand it accurately.
Masti: Food Court at the In-Orbit Mall, Mantra Lounge (Hiranandani), Turner Road Chaat, Main Land China, Naturals, Utsav (Powai), Out of the Blue (Bandra) are some of the restaurants / ice cream parlours I visited. Shopping for export surplus clothes, shopping for leather jackets, Kailash Kher Concert (IIT Powai), Local Train travel, Double-Decker bus travel, time spent with my adorable niece, lovely friends and relatives, and not allowing a dear friend to study for CAT are some things that I enjoyed doing the most. The masti doesn't stop here. I fought with an auto rickshaw-driver and a taxi-driver over the extra fare they were charging :).
Magic: I am speaking about the magical feeling of nostalgia that grips one when he visits a place that once was so dear to him. I was lucky to be back in Mumbai. Not many people are lucky in this matter. Something truly magical about the trip was that the time kept vanishing in thin air every time I wanted more of it.
It was a wonderful, and a truly memorable trip that made me sick (I caught cold) but rejuvenated my senses. And if one asks me if I would like to visit Mumbai again, my answer would be a big YES.
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looks like you had a great trip... but hats off to your planning... booked tickets for "Fashion"!! :P :P
@Sakhi,
It was a great trip indeed and thanks for those compliments :)
So you had a gala time :) & great that you took out time to meet frenz otherwise in today's world once you move out of a city, one usually doesn't go back.
Sounds like U had a great trip!
Give me Mumbai any day and I shall die in peace. I am in love with that city. I have never lived there for more than a week at stretch but my 50-odd trips in last ten years have surely been some experience for me and I am forever indebted to the city and few gem of friends I have there.
I cannot call myself a mumbaikar but I am sure of one thing that I know the city pretty well than few so-called mumbaikars..
That was so thoughtful of you Varun. I have been planning to visit the place where I started my career and meet my old buddies. But I couldnt materialize my plan yet. The thought of all those itself creates a wonderful feeling. You know what Varun, now after reading this post of yours, I have decided. I am going in Jan, pucca !!! Thanks buddy for the inspiration.
@Smita,
Yeah! Had a great time. Nobody has time for such things these days. I am glad I could take some time out and spend it the way I wanted.
@Reema,
Yup! It was a wonderful trip.
@Oxy,
50 trips! Wow! This is one of my observations. A typical mumbaikar does not like to venture out of his area or comfort zone. A person residing in the western suburb would know only about other western suburbs and not the central or eastern suburbs of Mumbai.
@vimmuuu,
Woohooo! You made my day! Good to know that I have inspired someone today! Make sure you inform all your buddies before hand that you are going there and plan your trip well.
Nice to know you enjoyed the ticket to mumbai.. Its really good to feel when people gets elated to see someone. Quantum of Solace, tell you something I watched this movie 3 times..:P road,steamer and air action, I was thrilled to see Daniel Craig.. And should say not even he, I was also motivated by his duty :P,Your Memories section tells most of late night things.:P Mumbai Double Decker, Wish I would travel in it atleast once in my life.. the day hasnt come yet. COLD - kuchh liya kyu nahi :).. overall seems to have a great time there .. good buddy..
Hi Varun, you got a very pleasant blog :)
I also watched quantum of solace and have your exact views...I would have probably been more satisfied with the movie had i been able to understand it completely.. ;)
@Mohit
It was a very good trip. I had heard that Daniel Craig's charm works on men too but I am now witnessing it ;).
This was the first time that I traveled in a Mumbai double-decker bus. It was as good as a double-decker bus in London :D
@archfully
Thanks so much. Welcome to my Digital Diary!
Hahaha. Watch the movie again. You'll definitely understand it the second time.
Hi,
It is always a wonderful feeling to look back in life and remember the people and places we leave behind in our journey of life. Great you have started to do it so early in life. Keep it up.
@ Appa,
Thanks :). It is something that I have learnt from you and plan to continue doing so as long as I possibly can.
I wanted to be in mumbai when u came there...chalega...will meet u sometime...may be Jan 28th!
@Akshat,
I wanted to meet you too. I was planning a trip to Pune to meet you and Puru but the plan somehow never materialized. We can roam around few places in and around Mysore and Bangalore when you are here in January.