Happy Maharashtra Day: A drive to Marine Drive & Back

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ps: Mum at Marine Drive


My parents and me left for a drive around 11p.m. to Marine Drive. Its a ritual, every time I come down to Bombay, we as a family have to drive up to the sea face, or else my trip back home feels somehow incomplete. Today for some reason, Marine Drive was more lighted than usual. Blobs of light that run across the stretch of water known as the Queens necklace seemed to be using so much voltage it was almost blinding. Everything was lighted up and pretty. There were fireworks even. It felt like Diwali.



That's Jazz By the Bay



Happy Maharashtra day to Mumbai.


Somehow it reminded me of the sleepless nights and unbearable afternoons in Hyderabad, when we had to bear the wrath of the heat with power cuts. I kept wondering that if Bombay was celebrating Maharashtra day tonight, how many cities were paying for it.

In spite of all these thoughts I couldn't help but feel awe at the arrangement of the light beamers or whatever they are called that were strategically placed at every 20 meters or so, facing the sky and sending out beams that met each other and lighted up a portion of the sky. It was just so beautiful. I couldn't stop myself from pointing out each beam to my Mum like a small child marveling at the beauty of an airplane in the sky. I couldn't get a very clear picture, but thats the best I could manage. (above text)

Laser designs with designs of Maharashtra and different images were being torched on a building and everything was so bright yet so beautiful. In all this glory my Mum pointed out the moon to me, I felt bad, all this fake illumination had overshadowed the beauty of the moon, it was a full moon covered by a film of mist. I immediately yearned to by the banks of the river in Rishikesh where the moon would be the only source of light. Sigh. For some strange reason my mind went back to the lessons Johnson provides in the Vanity of Human Wishes-which pointed out how we mistake something to give us happiness, which is only momentarily and miss out on the real joys of life by running after the material.









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Haji Ali Mosque

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(image 2 courtesy: photos.ibibo.com/photo/2577574/haji-ali)
I finally made the much delayed trip to the Haji Ali mosque today with Narangee. Somehow I felt it came at the right time. This semester I had taken a course titled Islam offered by Prof Syed Sayeed from the culture department.

I carried a stole as my father insisted that I carry a duppata, and for some reason I chose to wear a kurta and a churidar. Not like it mattered.

As soon as I stepped out of my building, there was a light drizzle which barely lasted five minutes. The weather for the short trip was perfect, cloudy skies shinning down on us, a sweet breeze accompanying us and the sea was as beautiful as always as we walked down the path to the mosque which is situated off Worli.

Narangee spoke about how she didn't like the stalls that lead up to mosques and temples and how they spoil the whole experience for people. I told her about my paper on the veil, why modern women adopt it as they think it saves them from being objectified as sexual objects. Just conversation, we saved catching up on each others lives for breakfast.We were greeted with strange smells, goats, stalls, people and lots of green.
 We started off at 7.45a.m. and it was a pleasant visit, no crowds, no shoving, no haggling. We had to tread very carefully as they were cleaning the marble floors of the mosque. (check picture ) We deposited our shoes and entered in the ladies only

section which was 1/4th the space of the men's section. We said quick prayers, and ducked our heads to be blessed by the mullah.




We walked around the mosque, there were rooms for the clergies in one section of the mosque, toilets, people cooking, clothes drying. The view of the sea was marvelous, we went to different sections to take in the view.


Post that we decided to head to MacDonald's for breakfast at Sobo Central, which felt too posh to be a MacDee. Their breakfast variety was as good as non existant, their hot chocolate sucks but their egg and cheese muffins passes. Theobroma would have been just ideal, next time perhaps.






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Not so touristy spots

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On the itinerary:
Nehru Zoological Park, Sudha Car Museum and Snow World. (Hyderabad)

The crew- two roommates, a boy they have never met before, a driver who has the gall to flick the Nikon D 60.

Our first stop was The Zoo cum sanctuary situated next to Mir Alam Tank.It was a long ride from Tarnaka which we fruitfully used to get ourselves acquainted with one another.

We were excited by the fact that they had White Tigers. The only good thing Arvind Adiga did by writing the book was to divert attention to save the white tiger campaign and probably also some funds. And he got the Man Booker prize. *sigh*

Walking around in the summer sun was not so bad after some ice-cream and good conversation. The entry is Rs 10 for adults and they have a train ride that takes you to a part of the zoo, which is another ten bucks. We ooh-ed and ah-ed at deers, leopards, elephants and pointed with squeaks at the giraffe. Aren't they just adorable? Finally our eyes rest of the White Tiger, it was magnificent, striped, looking at us fiercely and thats when we went-
Woohoo!



We took the Lion Safari and saw a Lion lying in the shade too lazy to bother looking at us. It was old and too damn comfortable sprawled in the shade of a large tree. We were lucky to spot a lioness but no tigers on our safari but I had already seen the white tiger on a cliff like structure surrounded by a water body that had fishes and turtles lounging in it. On the way out a little kid in the van points at an antelope and screams - "Look, camel!"

Post the safari we were back with our driver who looked grumpy as he had realised that the hidden camera was back with its rightful owner. He took us to our next stop - the car museum in Bahadapur. We were impressed by what we had read about it online. Only hand made car museum in the world. Guinness award for world's largest tricycle. There were cars in weird avatars. Burger, bed, cup, football...a tweety car! I don't think any of us wanted to be seen
riding any of those cars. But the tricycle was worth a glance.

After walking around in the heat for the entire day we were more than looking forward to the next stop. Snow World.

Snow for some reason is usually employed in Literature to portray gloom. For me it means sparkling, white and pure joy. I was tempted to slip some into my mouth. There are a number of reasons why I love snow. The cool breath on my skin, hands numbed due to the snowballs flying at each other after running a few steps. And you never sweat!

Snow World is located next to Tank Band (a place you must try driving by if you get the chance) at Hyderabad. Its 250 bucks for an hour which is pretty decent considering the amount I would have to spend if I had to take a trip to say the Himalayas. But Himachal is on the 'must visit places before I die list'.

Snow World has been well maintained and they have add-ons packages and eateries outside while you have to wait for your alloted time. For entertainment you could coax one of your friends to take the rodeo ride, while you relish liqueur chocolates bought from one of the little shops outside.

Before stepping in you have to deposit your mobile phones. Although you take a bag with you. They give you gloves, a jacket, gumboots and socks to put on. Be a smarty pants and take your own pair of socks, like the way I did. I kind of liked the whole look. Once the grand doors opened we all scampered in. Soon after began the snow flinging session.

For some reason instead of a snow man they had a man gorilla with man boobs. We covered him up with snow where we felt necessary.There was a snow ride which we went for next. There was a snow hotel serving coffee and tea in ice-cups for an extra charge of course. We settled for regular coffee and sneakily spiked it with some vodka we had in our resourceful bags. There were snowflakes in the air all of a sudden with the sound of a chimney. It was fun and we were freezing but the coffee vodka was helping. If you ever think of trying it, coffee-vodka actually tasted pretty darn good. The snow storm dissipated and suddenly there were disco lights and music blaring in the polar bear corner. We preferred dancing while we tried playing snow-football away from the herd.

On the whole we were glad we saw all three places. It was a day well spent, by the end of which three of us parted like we were childhood buddies.



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The travel pledge

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Travelling thrusts us into reality from our mundane lives.

We need it to exist as non complacent human beings.

There is a world out there calling out to each one of us.
To learn, experience, discover and take back.

We will not let routine slip us into the quagmire of stagnation.
Yes, we pledge, we will travel. Time and again.

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