Bye Bye, Mumbai

I’m witnessing the infamous rainy season in Mumbai and it just pours the water day and night continuously.  But the usual life is moving as expected, with some glitches in transport facilities.  I would like to list the places in Mumbai, that I’ve visited during the past couple of visits to Mumbai.

• Jahangir Art Gallery 
  Located near to Gateway of India and it exhibits the recent creations by famous Indian artists and upcoming artists.  Theme based paintings like Contemporary Politics, Dance of Shiva, Industrial imperialism by USA, Dog faces, Nature in East-India, etc were in display.
• Nehru Science Centre
  Located in Dr. E. Moses Road near Mahalaxmi Railway station.  An informative museum of all scientific developments and inventions including fundamental physics, universe, evolution of life, aerospace, biology and much more.  Regarding the collection and facilities, it is equivalent to the science centre in Bangalore.  One uniqueness is, this centre has a dome shaped (semi-planetarium kind of) visual theatre, which shows wide displays 45 minutes feature film on Climbing Mount Everest mission.
• Nehru Planetarium
  Yet another informative planetarium which introduces the basic planetary motion, location of Pole star, display of larger brighter stars and identification of Ursa Major (Great Bear), Orion (The Hunter) and Virgo constellations.  I’ve felt this planetarium is larger than that of Bangalore and Chennai.
• SiddhiVinayak temple
  Most famous temple of Lord Ganesha in Mumbai is located in a walkable distance from our home at Worli.  The small red statue of Ganesh looks cute and the temple is having high security alert always.  One could hear the chantings “Ganapathy Paappa Moriya” from the disciplies inside.  Trivia:  The temple dome is a beautiful lotus-shaped light glowing structure which was donated by Bollywood star Amitabh Bachchan.
• Mahalakshmi temple
  Old and famous temple in Mumbai for Goddess Mahalakshmi located at Breach Candy.  Three idols are present there as Lakshmi, Saraswathi and Kali.
• Haji Ali
  A small islet present in Southern end of Worli sea is a home for great mosque with a spectacular light-litted face during night. The architecture and view from the road is a good watch for outsiders.
• Juhu Chowpatty
  One of the famous cheap hang-outs in Mumbai is the Juhu beach. People are spending much time in eating the road-side snacks, which is available at bulk near to this beach. Apart from Juhu, other Chowpatty in Bandra and Worli Sea Face are also quite good to spend evening time.
• Fashion Street
  An array of more than 300 small shops selling all college-fashion wears especially for youth is nothing but the Fashion Street. People could find cheap and acceptable quality T-shirts, Jeans wears, Salwars, Bags, Footwears, Watches, etc. Sari and formal dresses won’t be available. Whatever price they are quoting needs to be initially reduced to 1/4th of it, to start our bargain. Bargaining is the key to buy items here. Other from Fashion Street in Marine Lines, the shopping hangouts include Chor Bazaar, Bhendi Bazzar and Dadar Sadi Bazaar.
• Landmarks
  Just made a visit to financial focus Bombay Stock Exchange at Dalal street and terror-stuck Chatrapathi Shivaji Station (Victoria Terminus) for completeness. I’ll see whether I get any chance in upcoming years to visit Mumbai again.

Lonavala

A one day trip to Lonavala was not so exciting as the season was neither monsoon nor spring.   One thing I liked in the trip is Karla and Bhaja caves which is 2nd century BC Buddhist caves.  It was really spectacular to see the majestic hall carved inside the cave.  The hall is very big with seat for Head Monk and has dozens of elephant statues.  I was just thinking how the people/monks would be standing and behaving in the same hall centuries before.  I wish those elephants to come alive and speak the history and lifestyle of people, they saw in these thousands of years.

After the cave dharshan, went to Lonavala lake, Rajmachi point, Shivaji Udyan and Kandala.  Lonavala is famous for the eatable ‘Chikki’, which is nothing groundnut pies mixed in jaggery (Kadalaimittai in Tamil).  A two hour journey in train from Mumbai could make a good weekend trip, but it has to be made on correct season.

First sight of Mumbai

I was bit excited to live in Mumbai, like first onsite abroad visit.  The thriving

city of Mumbai welcomed us with fighting taxiwalas in Airport to grab us.  The

yelllow-and-black taxis which I saw in hindi movies are ubiquitious in Mumbai, and its pretty cool that these meter fares are reasonable though (Rs. 9 per km).  The city’s first look always shows the dirt and uncleanliness everywhere.  Some of the best maintained buildings and complexes are surrounded by dirty outfits, which looks awkward.  Life in Mumbai is quite different from Chennai and Bangalore majorly because of its fastness.  No one have an inch patience on the road and mind.

I had the city-staple food Vada-Pav and Chai.  On the weekend, made a visit

to Gateway of India and had a glimpse of terror-struck Taj Mahal Hotel.  In that hotel, still renovations are going on even after a year.  Then made a visit to Bandra by travelling on the recently opened Bandra – Worli Sealink bridge (which is about 5 km in length on sea).  Expecting some good days in Mumbai.