Mumbai. The city of dreams, of glamour and of opportunities. The film capital of India. No wonder that a movie buff like me felt getting excited as I prepared to visit this city for the first time. As expected, the city was abuzz with activity despite the odd hour of 10 pm when we entered the city. As the bus snaked through the brightly lit roads, an army of autos could be seen waiting impatiently at each traffic signal. Life never stops here in this vast concrete jungle. Nonetheless every nook and corner seemed familiar. Perhaps, Bollywood has subliminally immortalized this city. Parag (my project mate) sitting beside me gave a concise yet highly useful guide to the city’s topography. Mumbai is essentially a narrow elongated strip of land. Local trains are its lifeline (yes, once they declared a holiday when it got disrupted).
Finding Suneja’s place was quite easy. A road sprinkled with his landmarks, all restaurants :). The apartment, a cozy place nested up in the tenth floor. Big enough for Crisil people: Anshu, Yogi and Ashwinder and my TAPMI roomate Suraj (who works in UTI). The next day we (Me and Suneja rather) hit the road. We settled for a movie at NOrbit with Rachana. One of Asia’s largest malls I’m told and it was really, really big. Later that evening, we met Sethi and DP. Sethi left off soon, but we visited an amusing pub, Totos, which was decorated like a garage. In fact the drinks are served under a suspended Beetle. The music was awesome with most of the numbers beings ‘ol TAPMI favourites. Later, we got hungry and came across a Punjabi dhaba which amusingly enough called itself ‘Papa Pancho’ (no jokes)!! Nevertheless, the food was simply out of this world. I stayed over at Anvesh’s place that night.
Sunday, we (everyone at Suneja’s) simply took a walk down the breezy Mumbai sea coast near Band stand. We soon realised that his place has far too many exotic dogs. And exquisite women too ;). Early next morning it was time to return to the drudgery of reality. Slowing cruising into the highway, as the light of dawn was softly breaking in, I wondered - when will I return to this city of dreams again…
