When I thought about start writing a blog, the first thing came to my mind is Mumbai.
Mumbai is the place I loved to stay and love to stay. I had spent almost three years in Mumbai.
This is the first metro city exposed to me in my life. And Yes.... I do cherish every moment of my Mumbai life. My present friends know how I love Mumbai as I always start every sentence with "When I was in Mumbai" hehehehehehehe
when I was in school and college, Mumbai is known to me as a place of goons and origin of all illegal activities. It was some day in January 2006, during our training (training period in Trivandrum) location allocation for posting was announced. When I saw Mumbai next to my name, I really was not able to figure out what kind of feeling I got.
When I called and told my mom about my Mumbai posting, the first sentence she told was " Resign the job" . Being a practical person, my dad didnt tell "No" to my Mumbai trip. ( as always he never tells no to my wish)
Mumbai introduction to me was not that great..
Kalyan station , God !!! for the first time I saw that much rush. Took an auto to dombivli at 10 pm from Kalyan station...( Wowwww they use meters in auto.. I was suprised..) and that night stayed in my dad's friend's house.. ( ;)had a grt south indian dinner )
Next day we started early morning to Matuga in a taxi ( a place in mumbai where u can find Tamil people and Tamil stuffs) ... Later days I used to come Matuga arora theatre to watch tamil movies with my friends. The idli shop opposite to Arora theatre ... awesome ;)
Let me come back to my first day travel to Matuga.. every where what I saw was slum,garbage,drainage .... Pollution pollution and pollution every where.... :(
After a week stay in hotel, I shifted to a rented house in Borivali with my officemates. And my office in chruchgate...Yes of course my mode of transport to office was "Mumbai Locals" (Western)... and I have lot to tell about the local. -Where I never found a place to sit and stand but found lots of friends.
An hour will go like some minutes becos of chitchats, b'day celebration, diwali, navratri celebraions and lot more .... The 9.21 am Ladies special.... the toooo fast moving Virar trains .... Took a month to memorise all the stations in between Borivali and churchgate..
On July 11 2006 due to the 7/11 serial blast in the western railways I was forced to stay in office till 3 am ... Was a scary day ...The next scary day was the one when I slipped from a moving local ... Luckily fell on the station platform not on the track ;) ... That was the day I realized the speed of the train.
Marine drive ... a ten minutes walk from my office .... in night seeing the Queens necklace is simply superb... Gateway of India and the ferry ride there in evening........
And how can I ever forget the Taj building and the nov 26 2008 incident... (another scary event)
The malls and multiplexes...... Very entertaining places for us
And restaurants in Mumbai urban tadka, nirvana, Bay leaf, Park view,Rajdhani etc ... where I enjoyed eating food and learnt how to make Paneer butter masala, aloo mutter curry, Aloo gobi fry, Dal kichadi, Baigan bharta, veg kadai, Veg Makhani etc...
I really cant understand why a food item without Aloo is not possible in Mumbai.....
Those are the days I started going for trekking... Near by place Pune where u will find nearly 340 forts.. In 3 years I was able to finish only 7 forts. Lohagad trekking was the best out of it...
lonavala and Kandala beautiful hill station...
The National park ,second largest park in Asia which lies within the city bound.. I start my morning walk in this park ... Still echoing in my ears those bird's voices, the laughter of people doing laughing therapy... Old people active with great smile and kids playing .....and the small waterfall deep inside the woods...
I have to tell about the Rains in Mumbai.... Yuck!!!!!! Roads with rain water mixed with garbage and open drainage.... And traffic jam during the rains ....
Luckily I was not there during the July 2005 floods.... I wish that the government will take necessary actions to drain the rain water into sea ...
Sitting in the balcony and enjoying the Rainy days with Vada pav ;) Mouth watering !!!! hahahahaha
I always find Mumbai as a very safety place for ladies.... All 24 hours you find shops opened and lights on every where...thats y they call it as a city that never sleeps..
Can sense the unity in diversity ..as Mumbai has a floating population..
Dynamic place!!!!! .. Mumbai Meri Jaan!!!!!!
