Amchi Mumbai....

My roaming days seems to be becoming more and more checkered with each passing day. I am now in Mumbai. It is one place that has so many different identities. Let me just try and recount a few of its identities – Commercial capital of India, home of the Bombay stock exchange, home of Bollywood, home of the biggest and the most ruthless underworld of India, Busiest place in India, costliest city of India, dream capital of India – so on and so forth.

Let me very frank, I have always grown up with the opinion that Mumbai is not a good city. Blame it on the way Mumbai is portrayed in serials/movies or the way ill informed people have spoken about it. I was always of the opinion that Mumbai is the meanest please to be in. A den of all illegal trades and a place where there is no value for human beings and their feelings.

Alas!!! How ill informed and bigoted my views were. I found the place to be pleasantly different from what people had told me and or I had seen in movies. It is a great cosmopolitan city to be in. The crowd here is simply superb. It is a city that never sleeps. There is place for everyone here. Be it a street hawker or a corporate honcho. You can see business as usual everywhere. Time is money. The energy of this city is simply infectious. I liked this city and my perception about this place has immensely changed.

Mumbai is also a very good place for a tourist willing to let his foot loose. For now I had the pleasure of visiting a few wonderful places. I visited Juhu beach. Gosh!!! You need to visit this place. It’s superb. In a single sentence I can say – it’s a bachelor’s paradise. I also had some chatapa in the famed Juhu choupati (I also say Rakesh roshan up and close in this place). I also visited a place called as Lohar chawl. It is not a tourist place as such, but it’s a market, very near to Mumbai Chor bazaar (meaning Thieves market). Though the place is very congested – it was a fun place to be there and do some shopping. I also had visited some cool Malls of Mumbai. Add the fact that I met a friend of mine whom I wanted to meet since a long time. We had a great time. I also went very near to Worli port. I had a site to visit there and when I climbed the roof of the building I could see the sea, the port and also the vastness of Mumbai city (the building was 15 floored and I was on top of it). It was a wonderful feeling to be in that place. With the see in front of me, the cool but gusty wind blowing across by face and being at a high place made me feel as in I am on top of Titanic :-)

There are still a lot of places that I have planned to visit in Mumbai. Let me through that list. I want to visit – Gateway of India (I have attached here a photo of the gateway of India), Marine drive, visit at least one harbor, climb on a boat and go on a short cruise, climb on the famed Mumbai local train at least once, pay a visit to the Mumbai festival, catch up with a few of my old friends. The list is partial. These are the bare minimum that I would definitely want to see. With the company deciding to allow me to stay in this place for maybe another one week, I guess my wish will be fulfilled. :-)

For now I can say that I will be going to DAKC (Derubhai Ambani Knowledge city) on Monday. Of course I will be on official visit. From what I have heard about this place, I am positive that I will be awed by it. I will keep you updated about my visits, experiences and views on “Amchi Mumbai” (Meaning “our Mumbai” in Marathi language) :-)