Girls Day Out!!!

Yesterday Vin and I went for a loooong walk…I say long walk because we started at Andheri and ended up at Marine Drive, South Mumbai (alright you can stop giving me those saucer eyed stares, we took a train to Churchgate and then started walking).

Vin sent an SMS asking if I wanted to meet up, I agreed as I had nothing better to do on a Sunday afternoon, other than pick my moms brains and her patience was running thin at the moment. We met at our usual meeting place at Andheri station and began deciding on the agenda for the evening. We had three options, Juhu beach, Bandra Bandstand or Marine Drive. After weighing all the pros and cons we decided to go Marine Drive. We decided to take a fast train as it would get us to Churchgate faster, accordingly we went to the platform and waited from the train. We had to leave a couple of trains as they were too crowded… we couldn’t get a finger in those trains forget our entire bodies. As it is I hate travelling by trains, on weekday I am a typical suburban warrior queen, trying to get in and out of trains but on weekends the crowds are even worse as it consists of families, harried mothers dragging kids, wailing infants etc, etc…you get the broad idea by now…finally we agreed that to maintain our sanity and wellbeing we better take the Andheri Local, accordingly we switched platforms and lucky for us a train was already waiting at the platform. After forty five minutes (it seemed like an eternity) we arrived at Churchgate. Part one of the mission accomplished. Part two being to find Marine Drive. Thing is, I may have lived in Mumbai all my life but I can count the number of times I have been to South Mumbai on my finger tips. Further I always get confused with the roads, Vin, being directionally challenged to begin with, is no help!!! She did put on a fight when I picked one road, saying we needed to go in the other direction, but soon gave up and followed, It was only when we arrived at a circle did I acknowledge that we were on the wrong road (Vin smirking with the I-told-you-so look), we asked for directions and retraced our step back and picked the right road and finally arrived at Marine Drive.

We walked along Marine Drive and on reaching the end of the road we sat down near the tetrapods, looking at the Arabian Sea and the ships which appeared like tiny specks on the horizon. In front of us we could see Malabar hill, the Mumbai Sky line, Girgaum Chowpatty in front of us slightly to our right.

To get to this end we had to walk past the now forlorn looking Trident and Oberoi Hotels, but the pavement opposite the hotel was bustling with activity, it was almost as if nothing had happened there. The crowds were unbelievable, given that it is just the 14th of December and is just two weeks after the tragedy!!! The hawkers selling, ‘channa jor garam’, bhutta, chips, water, juice, chats and what not… it was just amazing…just two Sundays ago the place was ringing with gunshots and now it is ringing with the crashing waves and giggles of college girls and shouts of glee from children flitting about like butterflies!!!

We sat there till it grew dark, we could see the city transform… it was almost as it she were changing from her dull work clothes into some zippy happening clothes ready for a night about town…gone were the dull buildings and in their place we could see tall shining minarets, the lights on Marine Drive were also shining, living up to the name Queens Necklace. The crowds were denser still…no one seemed to want to go home…reluctantly we decide to leave, but not before we had tucked in some delectable food at Shiv Sagar, which is a small but very famous, vegetarian eatery near Marine Drive. We reached around seven but the place seemed deserted, given its reputation as a gourmet magnet we were surprised, the guy at the gate assured us that in the next fifteen minutes there would be no place to stand here… we took his word and cornered the best table for ourselves and waited, and true to his words the place filled up, there were people hanging off the rafters in less than fifteen minutes!!!

We ordered Hot and Sour soup, Veg Pulao, Paneer Makhanwala and buttermilk. Vin also wanted to order a palak dish with rotis, but better sense prevailed and we stuck to the original order.

They waiter placed some plates in front of us and the usual pickles, onions, chutney, raita etc, I attacked the raita with much gusto serving myself a huge helping (later I realised the plate I used to eat the raita was actually meant to be used as a base for the soup bowl), the waiter who saw how embarrassed I was smiled and kept murmuring “koi baat nahi, hota hai"!!!, but made sure he kept the other plates far away from me on Vin’s side of the table, in my defence I want to say that there were half a dozen identical small plates on each table!!!

The soup was heavenly, this was followed by the main course, as we were tucking in we realised the kids on the next table who were waiting for their orders to arrive were much more interested in what we were eating…Vin and I started praying that the food arrived on their table a.s.a.p., it came to such a state that we were contemplating hiding behind paper napkins…finally the food arrived on their table and we started staring at their table as the food they had ordered was definitely much more appealing to the eyes!!!

Don’t miss the opportunity if you ever get a chance to eat at Shiv Sagar, the food is absolutely to die for, Vin and I have decided that we will visit the place atleast once a month (P.S. I am in love with the Hot and Sour soup). By the time the bill (less than Rs.300!!!) arrived we could barely move (the portions are pretty huge), It was getting a little difficult to suck the stomach in and walk like a lady, ultimately had to give in!!!

Vin declared she was walking all the way to Marine Lines station and then looking at the expression on my face hastened to assure me that she was joking.We arrived at Churchgate like two drunks, both of us seemed to be in some kind of a high…Vin wanted to throw some rubbish she had in her purse, but there was no dustbin in sight, we even had a crack at Knock Knock jokes…honestly there must have been something in the water…here goes

Knock Knock
Whose there ?
Where is the dustbin?
What dustbin ?
The thing that civilised people use to separate the crap from the non-crap…
Oh, so that’s where the non-craps live these days…

I know this is not making any sense…but both of us were in splits at this joke!!!

Finally we took the Borivali fast train and reached Andheri around 8:45 p.m., ending our day out and the “Walk”!!!