I have a wonderful friend, D, that I used to work with in D.C. who has actually recently relocated to Bombay for the next year or two. Since I was in the area already anyways, it was the perfect chance for us to get together and explore a little together. I got to her flat in Bandra in the evening and while she finished up with some work I walked down to the boardwalk along the beach. Again, it was that twisted sort of beauty. I love the ocean more than anything, so I was ecstatic to be near the beach, but I couldn’t ignore the waste around me. The mangrove-like trees along the boardwalk could have created an entire new landfill on their own. The beach was an expansive set of rocks and mushy mud that I did my best to walk through to get closer to the water itself. It was so nice to feel that salty breeze, even amongst all the pollution.
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| Carter Road, Bandra West, Mumbai |
That night, back at D’s flat, we actually cooked our own dinner. What a liberating feeling. We made pasta with chicken and tomatoes. Delicious. We chatted for a while then got some rest for our fun-filled day on Saturday. The fun started with the shower. I had been so excited that they had an actual shower head rather than a bucket bath, but alas I spoke too soon. Friday night when D’s roommate came home and tried to shower, one of the knobs ripped right out of the wall. This meant that water did not come out of any other tap besides the hole in the wall. So not only did I get to take a bucket bath, but I got to fill my bucket out of a hole in the wall. It was quite comical.
Then we took the train to the wrong station on our way to Colaba from Bandra. I got really excited about the train because it was one of those ones you see in pictures with the piles of people hanging out the door. We did not get squished in with so many people, but I did get to stand near the open doorway which was very exciting for me. I felt like a five-year-old. Anyways, after getting off at the wrong station, we finally found a cab driver who knew where we wanted to go and took us to Colaba. We walked around and visited a handful of modern art galleries, refreshingly air-conditioned and a relief from the humidity outside. They were really cool exhibits too. After the art galleries, we headed over to Bungalow 8 to do some window shopping and/or drooling. Apparently Madonna has frequented Bungalow 8. It’s very NYC lofty and each floor gets more and more expensive as you go up. I picked up a pair of cufflinks on the top floor, one said ‘Sell’ and the other said ‘Buy’, and the price was Rs 12,000 (a little over $200).
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| Exhibit for Olympic Losers |
By this time it was late in the day and we were starving and in need of some serious rest. The perfect solution: Suzette Café. A crêperie run by three french expats. I was in heaven. It was an adorable little corner location, air-conditioned with comfortable benches and pillows. They even had a book shelf with all of these french philosophers like Voltaire, authors such as Albert Camus or various french art books and other literature about french culture and people. D and I split a crêpe with grilled chicken, caramelized onions and goat cheese for our first course. And then our salad was apples, pistachios, and more goat cheese over a healthy bed of lettuce. And just in case we did not have enough goat cheese, there were mini crêpes full of it on top of our salad. I have never been happier. We even got a free espresso after our meal because we sat there for about three hours.
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| Quiz: Which country am I in? |
Finally, we decided it was probably time to leave and we went to sit along the wall on Marine Drive that looks out over the water.
As we were sitting enjoying ourselves, an old man struck up a conversation with me. I will try to only include the entertaining bits of knowledge he shared with us:
What looks like a cat, but is not a cat?
A kitten
Never lose your ____________(he either said country dance or confidence...I’m not sure)
Why do they speak different Englishes?
In the U.K., they separated the prisoners then sent the good prisoners to the U.S., and the bad ones to Australia
How do you spell anger?
A-N-G-E-R
Now what happens when you put a ‘D’ in front of it?
D-A-N-G-E-R
What do you call an adult who still behaves like a child?
An adult child
What is the one thing you need to become the head of state/organization/etc.?
A head
When your boyfriend (his assumption) is angry at you and yells at you, don’t speak. Who will speak to him?
Time.
We finally managed to escape his philosophical musings and went to check out the National Center for Performing Arts. There was a free literature festival going on, but the monologue about to start was about euthanasia and we decided that wasn’t a very fun Saturday night. We also met an Australian bookwallah traveling around India sharing his books and doing poetry readings etc. We tried to go to the Jazz Festival but it was too expensive. Around 7pm, we decided to head home for dinner. Commence three-hour-tour.
We bought our train tickets, which said Bandra on them, and got on the women’s car ready to go home. About 30 minutes into our trip, the girls next to us mentioned that we were not on the correct train. They informed us we’d have to get off with them and take a bus back to Bandra. Not realizing how far away we were, we agreed. So we got off with the girls, tried to get a rickshaw to the highway but no one would take us. The girls then agreed to walk us to the highway where we would get the bus. They even waited with us for the bus to come so they could point out the right one. I’m constantly amazed by how far people here will go out of their way to help you. By this time, we had learned that we somehow managed to make it to Navi Mumbai which is not even part of the city. Here's a map to show you how off-track we got: Map of our Misadventure. They pointed out the right bus, and we started running after it. It never stopped and we went back to the bus stop, feeling defeated. We asked another man since the girls had left, and he pointed us to the next bus. We jumped on the moving bus and took our seats. Our tickets given to us were in Hindi so I hoped we were on the right track. We settled in for an hour-long open-air bus ride through the dark and dirty streets of Bombay. Around 10:30pm we finally made it home to D’s flat, took a cold shower out of the hole in the wall, and settled in for a good night’s sleep.
The next day, we walked around, saw some street art and enjoyed a delicious traditional meal of peanut butter and banana sandwiches! Yum!
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| Street art on Chapel Road, Bandra West, Mumbai |
Time to return to the real life in Pune. It was an amazing weekend and I completely fell in love with Bombay. We had so much fun the entire time, I can’t wait to go back at some point.
xo A
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