After fifteen days of back to back 10-12 hr days at work, my mind had reached snapping point and I was looking to doing something relaxing. The Kala Ghoda Festival which ended Sunday seemed like an ideal place for some relaxing. For one this is held in town and I am a sucker for anything Victorian, the architecture of the old building around the Fort area and the general feel of the area gives me a high like nothing else. I discussed this with Shil and EL and both agreed that it is a great way to spend a idle Saturday afternoon. Shil went one up and suggested we also throw in some shopping at Colaba and lunch at Cafe Mondegar which was duly agreed upon by El and I.
It was decided that Shil and El meet me at Andheri at 11.15 am on Saturday and together we proceed to town. Come Saturday the trip didn't begin as planned, El being El, had to arrived late, the lame excuse she gave us was that she hates waking up early !!! Shil and I have now decided that going forward we will work on an ELT ( El Time) which operates quite like GMT viz: GMT+5.5 which gives us the time difference between India and the UK, in the same fashion ELT-1 will give the time we expect to start less one hour which will be the time we tell El to reach the rendezvous point. So, if we are meeting at 5 pm in the evening, then we intend to tell El that we are meeting at 4 pm. But I digress, by the time they arrived at Andheri it was well past 12 noon. Not the ones to let this put a damper on the mood, we proceeded towards town while torturing El with a fair bit of jokes at her expense, and to her credit El took in her stride. The topic in the taxi ranged from the ideal partner, swimming, books, music, matrimonial sites, etc.
We arrived at Colaba a little after one in the afternoon and immediately hit the shops. Shil was our expert bargainer and did manage to get us some stuff real cheap. Your truly being totally hopeless at bargaining couldn't bargain if my life depended on it and usually ends up buying stuff at fixed price shops and malls. I know I am digressing form the point but this brings to mind an incident with my sister in a starring role. She quite prides herself at quite a bargainer. She was once haggling with the fruit vendor on the price of some mangoes she was looking to purchase (she patronises this particular shop and the guy even shoots her a salute when she arrives at the market).
The conversation went something like this:
Fruit Vendor: Madamji aap ded sau per dozen de dijiye, bohot acche aam hai, aapse jyada thodi lunga main !!!
My Sister: Bhaiyya main to bas do sau mein hi khareedungi
Fruit Vendor: Madamji, app aam leke jaayiye, bhaav badmein karenge.
(In her defence, she states that the ded sau(Rs.150) and dhai sau(Rs.250) is something she is a little iffy about and can never get it right)
Back to our story, we ended up buying quite a lot of stuff, the trick according to Shil is to state less than half the price and haggle like there is no tomorrow, then walk a few steps away from the shop, per the laws governing the human psyche the vendor will call us back and post some more haggling we will get the items are close to half price. This approach worked in most place except one (the vendor stood his ground and did not call us back) and Shil was really disappointed that the law of the-walking-away-customer did not work. However later in the day we saw a lady wearing the same outfit that we were planning to buy and it looked hideous to say the least, that's when we decided that it was divine intervention that the shopkeeper didn't call us back.
After we had stashed up on quite some loot we trained our sights on Cafe Mondegar and decided to tuck in some lunch. Accordingly we arrived there and after waiting for five minutes were shown to our table. We ordered some lunch and beer to go along with it. As a rule yours truly is a tee totaller, but this once I made an exception as I wanted to strike off item number 98 off my things-to-do-before-I-die-list - drinking in public. So thanks to Shil and El, I now have one less thing to do before I die. After spending close to three hours here, (I am in love with this place), it was packed to the gills but still there was no pressure on us to vacate our seats, in other hotels, especially Udupi restaurants, they give you hints like, clearing your table, wiping it, waiters coming up to you asking you if there is anything else you would like to order, significant looks etc. but here, nothing, it was like sit-till-the-cows-come-home-we-have-no-problems !!!
All to soon it was time to go to the Asiatic Library as the Music Festival was due to begin at 6.15 pm. We arrived there at a little after five thirty in the evening and found people already sat there. Mumbai never ceases to surprise me, at any time of the day you will have a 10-15 people just sat around with nothing to do, doing what is kind of like a national hobby, ask anyone what he is doing, pat comes the reply "Arre kuch nahi yaar, yunhi timpass kar raha tha!!" If there is one thing that we Indians have a surfeit of it is Time and we are always looking for ways and means to pass it, kill it, etc.
We positioned ourselves strategically halfway up the steps as we figured, it is best not to sit too high up as we may need to beat a hasty retreat if the music that is played isn't to our liking. By the time it was 6.15 pm there wasn't a single empty seat and a good number of people had to stand and those of us who were sitting were shifting quite a bit as the steps are made of stone and our delicate backsides were getting flattened by the minute. Shil declared "I had no idea I had bones down there". Finally we sat on top of the bags containing our purchases for the day which helped ease the discomfort to some extent. The programme started and the Gundecha Brothers presented four compositions of Dhrupad and I will just say that to hear them sing was a treat. All I could do was close my eyes and let my senses take in the divine sounds. All too soon the concert ended and quite a few people stood up while clapping and it dawned on me that the standing ovation must have been invented by such a necessity all those years ago. Some unfortunate soul,s backside must have hurt bad while he was sat and since he couldn't escape the torture as good manners demand that you remain where you are till the concert ended, the least he could do for his aching back side was leap to his feet while clapping as soon as the last notes were being sang/played, thus inventing the standing ovation!!!
After the concert ended we took a cab to Marine Drive and walked the promenade for a bit, gossiping about this and that and from there we moved to Haji Ali. I have always wanted to visit this shrine but never had the opportunity, I would like to thank Shil and El for fulfilling this wish of mine as item 57 of my list-of-things-to-do-before-I-die now stands completed. A little history of the this shrine courtesy Wikipedia.
The Haji Ali Dargah is a mosque and dargah (tomb) located on an islet off the coast of Worli in Southern part of Mumbai. Lying as it does in the heart of the city, the dargah is one of the most recognizable landmarks of Mumbai. An exquisite example of Indian Islamic architecture, associated with legends about doomed lovers, the dargah contains the tomb of Sayed Peer Haji Ali Shah Bukhari.
The Haji Ali Dargah was constructed in 1431 in memory of a rich Muslim merchant, Sayyed Peer Haji Ali Shah Bukhari (R.A.), who gave up all his worldly possessions before making a pilgrimage to Mecca. Hailing from Bukhara, in the ancient Persian Empire and now in Uzbekistan, Bukhari travelled around the world in the early to mid 15th century, and then settled in Mumbai.
As per the legends, surrounding his life, once the Saint saw a poor woman crying on the road, holding an empty vessel. He asked her what the problem was. She sobbed that that her husband would thrash her since she had stumbled and accidentally spilled the oil she was carrying. He asked her to take him to the spot where she lost the oil. There, he jabbed a finger into the soil and the oil gushed out. The overjoyed woman filled up the vessel and went home. Later, Pir Haji Ali Shah Bukhari (R.A.) had a recurring - and disturbing - dream that he had injured Earth by his act. Full of remorse, he soon fell ill and directed his followers to cast the coffin carrying his body into the Arabian Sea, once he died. Haji Ali left this world during his journey to Mecca and miraculously the casket carrying his body, floated back to these shores, getting stuck in the string of rocky islets just off the shore of Worli. Thus, the Dargah was constructed there.
On Thursdays and Fridays, the shrine is visited by at least 40,000 pilgrims. Irrespective of faith and religion, people visit the 'dargah' to get the blessings of the legendary saint. Sometimes, especially on Fridays, people may find various sufi musicians performing a form of devotional music called Qawwali at the Dargah.
The Dargah Sharief is built on a tiny islet located 500 meters from the coast, in the middle of Worli Bay, in the vicinity of Worli. The edifice is a brilliant specimen of the Indo-Islamic style of architecture. The islet is linked to the city precinct of Mahalakshmi by a narrow causeway, which is nearly a kilometre (0.62 mile) long. The accessibility to the dargah is very much dependent on the tides. As, the causeway is not bound by railings, when the causeway gets submerged during the tides high tides it becomes inaccessible. Therefore, the dargah is accessible only during low tide. This walk on the causeway, with the sea on both sides, is one of the highlights of a trip to the shrine. During the high tide, the dargah seems completely isolated with no access. It looks more like a little island.
After a quick dekho at the shrine we made a beeline for the famous Haji Ali Juice centre where we treated ourselves to some fruit cream. All to soon it was time to call it a day and we hailed a cab back home, but decided to travel via the Sea-Link, my first time on the same and I can tell you it was an unforgettable experience just like the entire day I spent with Shil and El, this day will remain in my memory forever and I hope we have many more such outings in the years to come!!!
