The train journey from Varanasi to Mumbai CST, aboard the Mahanagri Express was mostly uneventful, and if you discount the time that we spent sleeping, there was hardly anything left. So it was that I and Aditya landed up in Mumbai and met up with Mitali. The three of us had a new year to celebrate and not much to choose from, in terms of venue or party or whatever else people engage in to announce the arrival of the new year.
Gateway was to be our first destination. During my first visit to Bombay in 2000 around the same time, I had spent hours staring at the sea (of not just water, but more importantly, the sea of humanity) from the Gateway of India, trying to recollect the numerous movie sequences shot there and trying to pry the secrets out of the hundreds that gather there almost every other night. Looking at the oh-so-famous Taj Hotel had been another pastime and as expected, there were laughs galore as I told the limited audience that I had on the 31st of December, 2004 of my plans to occupy the Executive Suite of the Taj one fine day.
One chance meeting with Ravi (who was going to spend the new years in a private party aboard a boat in the sea) and watching camera crews going berserk over the occasion later, we were all ready to move on to our next destination...but not before I had bought for myself, a nice little contraption which will make its entry in IIMK shortly.
While going to Juhu, there was this party by the sea which did not look too expensive from the outside but when we thought of finding out the ticket prices, we were in for a shock. We couldn't even gather the courage to go to the ticket counter, having already seen the class audience dressed in strange leather skirts and pants with all sorts of makeup on their faces.
Juhu it was, finally and that was where the downslide started for me. Some snacks and the arrival of the new year were over, and the three of us were just sitting on the beach enjoying the ambience when she came. She has this uncanny habit, actually, of coming every time I stay just that little too long at a beach. The memories of our time together at the Besant Nagar beach (whatever little it had been) invariably flash before my eyes in such cases as I sit rapt, listening to her sing song after song in her unique voice.
While going to Juhu, there was this party by the sea which did not look too expensive from the outside but when we thought of finding out the ticket prices, we were in for a shock. We couldn't even gather the courage to go to the ticket counter, having already seen the class audience dressed in strange leather skirts and pants with all sorts of makeup on their faces.
Juhu it was, finally and that was where the downslide started for me. Some snacks and the arrival of the new year were over, and the three of us were just sitting on the beach enjoying the ambience when she came. She has this uncanny habit, actually, of coming every time I stay just that little too long at a beach. The memories of our time together at the Besant Nagar beach (whatever little it had been) invariably flash before my eyes in such cases as I sit rapt, listening to her sing song after song in her unique voice.
Na jaane kyun hota hai ye zindagi ke saath...
Achaanak ye man, kisi ke jaane ke baad
phir kare uski yaad, choti choti si baat
Anyways, on my request, the other two decided to change the venue of our celebrations soon enough and we were treated to some really nice retro effect at Mocha, the cafe just outside the Juhu beach. We further decided to treat the Mocha people with a generous dose of our patronage and picked ourselves up only after we were reasonably sure of catching a local to our next destination, Bandra.
Bandstand was a lovers' paradise, and a place that was full of some ostentatious display, too. With film stars like Shahrukh Khan and others having built their 'nests' there, the glamour quotient was anyway high. This was added to, by the love-lorn couples adorning the coastline, cuddling up, walking hand in hand, and coochie-cooing as if there were no tomorrow. Having got into that mood at Juhu itself, Band stand was not very bearable either. Though I did appreciate the life of the place, perhaps that very life got to me too much to be able to really love all that went on around me.
The next day was not too momentous, with the morning spent in trying to find a suitable loo (we reched a McDee's at 8 in the morning, expecting it to be open:-)). The loo presented itself when we reached INOX, the latest theatre on the Bombay movie circuit and what a loo it was...neat and clean, it almost encouraged me to brush my teeth...but for the attendant :-)
After a really nice and cheerful movie, The Polar Express, a lot of roaming around in the Mumbai locals (including the luggage van of one of them), paying a fine for the wrong tickets, but only after explaining the naive innocence of us Allahabadis, left to fend for themselves in the big bad Bombay, an okay but expectation killing lunch at the exotically named Not Just Jazz By the Bay...we were ready to catch our train from Panvel, where we met Sundesh, Vikhyat and Jena who were also travelling with us to Calicut.
Also travelling with us were another set of passengers who were a little odd, to say the least. A group of young people, with a few middle aged ones thrown in to complete the party, occupied all other berths in our cabin apart from the two on which we were sleeping. When we opened our eyes during the night, varying scenes on the opposite berth attracted our attention every time we did open the eyes. Man and Woman, Man and Man, Woman and Woman...nothing seemed to be beyond them. The morning was even more shocking as they got closer to their destination, Kankanadi (Mangalore). With four lettered expletives making the rounds after every second spoken word, and some really explicit body-talk, there was enough entertainment for the two of us to last us for the remaining journey.
Achaanak ye man, kisi ke jaane ke baad
phir kare uski yaad, choti choti si baat
Anyways, on my request, the other two decided to change the venue of our celebrations soon enough and we were treated to some really nice retro effect at Mocha, the cafe just outside the Juhu beach. We further decided to treat the Mocha people with a generous dose of our patronage and picked ourselves up only after we were reasonably sure of catching a local to our next destination, Bandra.
Bandstand was a lovers' paradise, and a place that was full of some ostentatious display, too. With film stars like Shahrukh Khan and others having built their 'nests' there, the glamour quotient was anyway high. This was added to, by the love-lorn couples adorning the coastline, cuddling up, walking hand in hand, and coochie-cooing as if there were no tomorrow. Having got into that mood at Juhu itself, Band stand was not very bearable either. Though I did appreciate the life of the place, perhaps that very life got to me too much to be able to really love all that went on around me.
The next day was not too momentous, with the morning spent in trying to find a suitable loo (we reched a McDee's at 8 in the morning, expecting it to be open:-)). The loo presented itself when we reached INOX, the latest theatre on the Bombay movie circuit and what a loo it was...neat and clean, it almost encouraged me to brush my teeth...but for the attendant :-)
After a really nice and cheerful movie, The Polar Express, a lot of roaming around in the Mumbai locals (including the luggage van of one of them), paying a fine for the wrong tickets, but only after explaining the naive innocence of us Allahabadis, left to fend for themselves in the big bad Bombay, an okay but expectation killing lunch at the exotically named Not Just Jazz By the Bay...we were ready to catch our train from Panvel, where we met Sundesh, Vikhyat and Jena who were also travelling with us to Calicut.
Also travelling with us were another set of passengers who were a little odd, to say the least. A group of young people, with a few middle aged ones thrown in to complete the party, occupied all other berths in our cabin apart from the two on which we were sleeping. When we opened our eyes during the night, varying scenes on the opposite berth attracted our attention every time we did open the eyes. Man and Woman, Man and Man, Woman and Woman...nothing seemed to be beyond them. The morning was even more shocking as they got closer to their destination, Kankanadi (Mangalore). With four lettered expletives making the rounds after every second spoken word, and some really explicit body-talk, there was enough entertainment for the two of us to last us for the remaining journey.
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