coming back, mom and dad went for the morning aarti too, while we were busy sleeping. went to the temple again following which we left, albeit a bit late, for mumbhai. but first, talking of darshans and aartis, i don't get the concept of good and bad darshan and long aartis in general. don't get me wrong, i still love god. but my version is more a manifestation of a superior power rather than saying X god is > Y god etc.Talking of which what is up with agnosticism and animism and shit like that? good going, shatners.
So coming back, reached bombay in the evening. checked out inorbit, hypercity etc which were around the place we were staying before retiring for the night. Over the next two days, covered most of the city from aksa beach(of "tujhe aksa beach ghuma doon"{Oh God Tussi Great Ho}fame) to carter road (of "tu tata ho ya birla, rahe Carter road ya Irla"{some obscure bobby deol movie}fame), from marine drive(wah!) to peddar road, from colaba to cuffe parade,from bulabhai desai road(wah!) to malad(boo), from cafe moshe at kemps corner to hokey pokey at pali hill and from swati snacks at tardeo to leopold cafe somewhere around causeway.
The thing with Bombay man is that there is NO SPACE and too many people. Like if people see a huge garden, then those people will actually stop and stare at it. Serious. We crossed SRKs house around bandstand. I've seen better houses in Sunder Nagar. And bigger houses in Rajendar Nagar. I mean this is SRK right.I know getting a house in Mumbai is a big deal in itself, but this is SRK! Having said that, mumbaikars totally know how to utilise space.
There are 3 roads in Bombay in total. 3.The main road, the linking road that link places to the main road, and the expressway. So you don't really loose your way since either way, every place is down the road. It's just a straight road city. No east bombay and west bombay. Only North and South Bombay. And the north-south divide is ghastly. It's not like Delhi. If the delhi divide was 10, this is 100. North Bombay is much more crowded, cramped, much much more traffic, building reminiscent of the 80s(not in an affectionate manner; more like old, covered in dust and soot, and no beach. If you can get a place around marine drive/bandra/pali hill, awesome. Otherwise, rehn do. Don't get me wrong; i really like bombay, but it has its shortcomings, most noticeably traffic.
The people dress differently. It's not like delhi females with skinny jeans, osho/converse chappals and a fitted top. Everyone has their own thing going on which is good, although not always with good results. But what's good is they have the whole individuality thing going on. Which is neat. Plus people don't STARE at all. I mean AT ALL.
It is not apparent in the picture, but every hoarding has a hindi a hindi subtext, including mcdonald's and benetton. That, by the way, is a santro taxi.vary saxy.->
And it(bombay) is totally safe for women. Matlab normal people who go and party travel by BEST buses. Which is unimaginable here.
And the people are really nice. Or maybe i just met nice people. Like i got talking with the guy who owned the Jumbo franchise and after a 5 minute exchange he was like bhai bambai se jaane se pehle mil ke zaroor jana.
And everyone talks in an oscillating singsong tone. Which doesnot take away from the fact that i appreciated the guy mentioned in above paragraph's kind words.
Here's the list of B-list celebs i saw in the 3 days i was there. The fat kid from Shrimaan Shreemati(Toofan or something, NOT fat anymore), Chandraswami Baba(some baba), Atul Agnihotri(Hello director;bro-in-law of Salman Khan if that counts fame), Abhijeet Sawant(Indian Idol), The female who plays Saloni on Saat Phere...Saloni ka Safar, and last but not the least, Kiran Bedi. Quite an eclectic mix of people. If only i'd seen razzak khan.
If you're wondering who razzak khan is, google.
And at every place, and I mean EVERY FU*KING place there was a hoarding of The Stoneman Murders, some shitty movie with Arbaaz Khan in it. Wtf? I am not exxagerating. I and my sister actually started having 1 minute countdowns for the next hoarding.
It was also sad to see the Taj. We were lucky to have visited the heritage coridor on our flyby visit last time and it was by far one of the best places I've been to.
I really want to write a lot more, but i have college tomorrow and so i must sleep. To cut a long story short, I like bombay but i love delhi. that's just how it is, and that's just how it will always be.
dh1
p.s. see clerks, the kevin smith movie. it rules.
