Aamchi Mumbai

Well this was another adventurous, fun, surprising and never to forget ‘shop till u drop’ trip. And that’s MUMBAI for you!

Mumbai is extremely lively, colorful, busy and a beautiful city. However, it’s a ghastly place to live as this is a city of extremes.  While we saw the tallest building in the city, we could also see the dirtiest slum right next to it.  The above average middle-class life in the city is below the acceptable levels. The value of real estate is beyond measure. Yet with all these constraints millions of people migrate to Mumbai every year. Many people believe that it is the only place in India where dreams come true.  The city is filled with dreamers, hard-workers and people who want to achieve something big. No wonder Mumbai is the right place to transform your dream into reality.

Extremes of Mumbai 

Mumbai is the largest cosmopolitan city in India. Mumbai originally is a group of 7 islands in the Konkan coastline, which over time joined together to form this big a city called Bombay. It is a home for 22 million people and is a center for one of the largest film industries in the world ‘Bollywood’ and it has Asia’s largest slum (Dharavi).

On the day 1 we decided to explore Linking road market, Juhu beach and taste some lip-smacking chats.

Linking road is in Bandra, which is one of the street shopping hubs in Mumbai. It has the latest collection of clothes, bags denims and many more. If you are a good bargainer (unlike me), then this is your kingdom. We saw a denim jacket which was as good as the jacket I bought from forever 21, for which i paid around 1800 rupees. When we asked for the value , the vendor said 800 rupees. I was so happy to purchase as I had paid more than 50% of the price. I called my friend to tell her that I am buying the jacket; she said she will handle it and haggled the jacket to 300 rupees which is literally unbelievable. Bargaining is a pure art and a good quality to have! Why don’t they teach this in school...I wonder!

We headed towards 'Sharma Chat Bandar' near Juhu beach. Trust me when I say that this is the best chat that we had in our entire lifetime. We thought of trying out all the variants of chats which they offer starting with pani puri. We  decided to take one plate but ended up having 5 plates. I feel this place offers the best pani puri in the entire world with the perfect blend of sweet, tangy and spice. Bhel puri was out of the world with the freshness and the crisp.

Mumbai Lip smacking chats

With kulfi in our hands we walked till Juhu beach. It is the longest beach in Mumbai which is surrounded by Arabian sea. Many people (in fact too many people) like us had come to visit the beach and feel the cool breeze. While we stood there watching the sunset, a vendor asked us to rent a ‘chatai / chape’ to sit. We sat and watched the shinning planes zooming into the sky every minute as the landing runway is near the edge of the Arabian sea. After a tiring day, we needed a good night’s sleep.

Following day, we reached Colaba around 9 in the next morning. Colaba is one among the 7 islands given by Portuguese to British (Charles II) as dowry. When we strolled in the avenues of Colaba, we could sense that the British had left an indelible mark on this part of the city. Every building is of the Victorian style. We felt as if we were strolling in England in the 1800’s.

We reached the Gate way of India and were awestruck to see the city’s heritage ‘The Taj’. The architecture of the hotel tells us different cultural influence India had over the years. The architecture is an amalgamation of the British, Moghul and Rajasthani styles.

The Taj

Gateway of India

  

As per the plan, we boarded a ferry to reach Elephanta caves. It’s an hour-long ferry ride from the Gateway of India. We had to climb up for about 30 mins to reach the caves from the Elephanta port. While we climbed, we saw many vendors selling intriguing and unique Mumbai souvenirs. We also saw an army of monkeys parading the caves. It’s always to good practice not to carry any food to avoid being harassed by the furious monkeys.

Elephanta island is quiet and a beautiful place. It was called Gharapuri but the Portuguese renamed it to Elephanta. There are 7 caves in the island. 5 Hindu caves and 2 Buddhist caves. These caves have huge sculptures of lord Shiva and buddha and most of the monuments are destroyed. Portuguese rule seemed to have deteriorated the population on the island as they abandoned the worship of lord Shiva. Portuguese even used the beautiful sculptures for target practice and destroyed all most all the sculptures. After long years of neglect, the caves were renovated and it was recognized by UNESCO as world heritage site.

Elephanta Caves

After an intriguing exploration, we headed back to Colaba causeway for shopping. The street  buzzed with people. Both sides of the market have different variety of shops with unique collection of jewelry, clothes, handbags and many more. Since the street is filled with foreigners, the rates are generally kept higher. Here, again the bargaining skills come in use. It's better to tag along someone who knows proper Hindi with you.

While you are shopping, the most important thing to remember is not to take the Husband! Shopping is a skill that requires lots of patience, dedicated time and a good eye. Me and my friend later thought that we should have left the husbands in the café or in the room, while they ate/slept we could have shopped peacefully.

With our husbands’ hands full of shopping bags, we took a cab to the marine drive. Marine drive is a 3 kms stretch starting from Nariman point till Babulnath. It is undoubtedly the most peaceful, promising place in Mumbai. After the orange sunset, Marine drive lights up again in glittering gold as we sat looking straight into the Arabian sea. When the waves hit the rocks, the breeze that caresses your hair is just out of the world. Marine drive describes the life in Mumbai. While the Arabian sea in front of me was so peaceful, the city behind me was buzzing and full of life. The wall where we sat is the margin between two different worlds. Marine drive is the place where you can experience the best of two worlds. 
With much positivity and damaged hair :P (due to the salt water) we drove back to the hotel.

Queen's Necklace

                Next day we explored the famous Siddivinayak temple. It’s a temple dedicated to Lord Ganesha which is in SK Bhole marg, Prabhadevi, Bandra. Even though the architecture of the temple seems modern it was constructed in 1801. The temple has a small idol of Lord Vinayaka. The premises of the temple is clean and very well maintained. With a good darshan we decided to explore another famous whole-sale market in Mumbai.

                Bhuleshwar market is about 10 kms from the temple.  It is different from the rest of the famous markets in Mumbai. If you are looking to buy a single item, then this is not the ideal place for you. We could see loads and loads of jewelry shop at one end of the market where they sell wholesale jewelry at the cheapest price possible. This place is noisy, chaotic and packed. This is where we must bargain like there is no tomorrow and have to slip through the thick crowd and manage to buy. It was one hell of a shopping experience.

                We thought of concluding our wonderful trip by visiting Marine drive once more. While I sat on the edge of the Arabian sea, I thought of describing Mumbai in a single word, I couldn’t think of any better word than ‘harmony’. 
             Mumbai is the place where you can fill your stomach with 10 rupees. Mumbai the place where people with different cultures live together without invading each other’s privacy. Mumbai is the place where women walk around safely even at 1 am. Mumbai is short on space but has a big heart.

That’s Mumbai for you. Aamchi Mumbai 😊

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