The kind of responses that I am getting for this whole travelogue is amazing. I am too tired to write but would still do it because back home my sister wants to read what I did today. Had a long tiring day, but yes a memorable one.
As usual, morning started a bit early, woke up at 6:30 and took a stroll in the nearby park. Came back and packed my bag pack and I was all set to see the workaholic Mumbai.
No offense to anyone, but I guess but this song "Dauda Dauda Bhaaga Bhaaga Sa" song from the famous Kamal Hassan movie Chachi 420 perfectly defines how Mumbaikars run on working days. As usual my guide for Mumbai Darshan, Rishika had to join me and we fixed the meeting point as Kurla Station. I left my place at 9:30, took an auto rickshaw from to the station and Rishika took a local from her place. We decided to meet at Kurla at around 10:30.
I keenly observed people on the streets on the way. Everyone was in some kind of strange rush. Well, then I realized that fact that it's MONDAY today. Probably the most cursed day of the week. MONDAY BLUES #YouRemember ? Enroute from Powai to Kurla, I called up Adnan Bhai ( @oongalbaaz ) to wish him and then focused on the roads. Buses, Auto Rickshaws, Pedestrians, all of them were in hurry so that they can report as their respective workplaces on time. It felt like, their boss is singing "Bhaag Dk Bose" song in their mind. Everyone was just running.
People say that Mumbai never disappoints anyone and someone I met today said "This City Will Always Reward You, If You Are True To Your Work". We'll get back to that later though. So, I reached Kurla station in around 50 mins. Roads were trafuckked. Mumbai is a congested city and traffic jams are big pain in the ass. They have the potential to turn a 30 minute journey into a 3 hour one. After finishing a few things over phone, I somehow managed to reach Kurla station at 10:30. Rishika also joined me after 10 mins and we were all set to leave for Andheri West.
Today's plan included meeting one more twitter friend Mrs. Dheeraj Bharadwaj Vashisht ( @Dheera_ ) who is popularly known as "Dheera" on twitter and in real life too. We have known each other from past one year and have been in constant touch through twitter, BBM and Phone Calls. She is an entrepreneur who runs an advertising agency K&V Media Pvt. Ltd. with her husband Mr.Priyank Vashisht. I got a chance to work with her agency for IPL-2012. They were supposed to do on-ground activation for IPL-2012 for Set Max and they asked me to help them out with some things.. They have got a perfect team for crisis management and two people from her team that I would like to name here i.e. Mr Manoj Chanchan and Ms. Tejas with whom I coordinated with, during the assignment are kick-ass professionals.
So, at around 11:30, we reached her place and met Priyank Sir and her along with their son Nawab. ( I wish I had my laptop so that I could share the pics ). Finally after numerous calls and BBM chats me and Dheera were finally meeting. We chatted about a lot of things including how she landed up in Mumbai and how did she got into entrepreneurship and all. She got a bit nostalgic while sharing her life with us. She is from Delhi but loves MUMBAI TO THE CORE. Well, the city deserves all the love. Another thing that I would like to share about her is her huge collection of books. I think she told me that she has got around 5000+ books in her collection. THATS LIKE WOW ! I had plans to go to her office and we finally left for there at around 1:30. Her office is in Versova and on our way she showed me Lokhandwala and Kokilaben Dhirubhai Ambani Hospital. Another thing that I would like to mention is Dheera and Rishika kicked off really well. \m/ A Leo and A Saggi ! :D
We reached her office at around 2 P.M and finally I got to meet her entire team. She has a small team but all the people are highly dedicated and are thorough professionals. Met them all. Finally Tejas and Manoj Sir too. Post that, Dheera Ma'm told me that there is Versova beach right behind their office. Me and Rishika decided to visit the beach and left her office. Took an auto and it dropped us at the beach in no time.
This was for the first time in my life, that I was getting up close and personal with a beach. Though I visited Marine Drive 2 days back but still the feel of this beach was completely different. The sound of water that was hitting the shore soothed my mind. It was noisy yet peaceful. Offered a certain kind of calmness that cannot be explained in words. After spending some time there in which I shot a video and clicked some pictures, me and Rishika were on our way back to the office. We spotted a Costa Coffee on our way back, decided to fill ourselves, ordered lemonades and sandwich and the very next moment, Gul Panag stepped into the cafe. I was kinda stunned. She was looking HAWT. I couldn't take my eyes off her. After finishing the stuff we ordered, we went to Dheera's office, sat there for some time, had a Vada Pav (That was yummy) and were off to Andheri Station in some time.
On our way to Andheri, Dheera asked me if I have seen Amitabh Bachchan's residence, Juhu Beach and all, I said No. So, she took a detour and showed me Prateeksha and Jalsa, the two famous bungalows of Mr.Amitabh Bachchan and very close to those, it was Juhu Beach. I couldn't get off the car because two people were waiting for us at Andheri Station and we were already running late.
At Andheri Station we had to meet Sharad Bhai ( @Marwaari ) and Jatin ( @TheSlumDawg ) . I met Jatin last month only in Delhi. He is a mumbaikar by heart, in fact I should say a RAW MUMBAIKAR by heart. Always talks to the point, holds nothing against anyone and is quite sorted in his own way. I totally respect him for what he is. More power, more success and happiness to him.
Sharad Bhai runs his own business in Mumbai and this was his first official tweetup. He was in Delhi some time back but to some mis-communication, I couldn't meet him. Well, finally I met him in his own city. Honestly, he comes across as a very complicated soul on twitter. But, when I met him, he turned out to be totally opposite. All cool and Bindaas I should say. Me, Jatin, Rishika and Sharad Bhai sat in a Mc'D near Andheri station and a full on gossip session began. I didn't feel like that we all were meeting together for the first time. We all got along really well. After some time Rishika left for her place and me too after like 15-20 minutes and reached home at around 8:30 P.M.
So, finally I survived through one more day in Mumbai. Met few more unknown (yet known) people from twitter and I guess their names are added in my list of life-long friends.
After experiencing a working day in Mumbai I dare to say that "A Mumbaikar can very well adjust in Delhi, but A Delhite would have a tough time to get used to Mumbai". Life is so so so fast here but no one really complains. Each city has its own things to offer that makes you fall in a love-hate relationship with it and as Dheera said, "Everything comes as a package with pros and cons, either you have to accept it or ignore" and the line about Mumbai in the beginning of this post was also said by Dheera only.
So, thats what I did in Mumbai today. More memories were added to my brain and this blog too.
Till the next post. Ciao!
-
Yatin
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