Recently, it was after much consideration and a LONG-AWAITED period(as in like 3 years), my dad decided on a 2-week trip to India before the exams. Being able to travel to another country again was astoundingly refreshing. It felt awesome, boarding the flight again(although when we used to visit India regularly, I HATED THE FLIGHT TURBULENCES, but now, ironically this time it felt like a GENTLE ROCKING). I visited my grandparents, and many embraces and tears were exchanged when we met and when we left. We left with the promise of meeting again in December and also came up with a plan for them to stay with us for a few weeks. On the last day of our trip, we had to take a flight from Mumbai, and thus, we had the opportunity to stay in Mumbai for a day. We grasped this opportunity to tour Mumbai, and it was an extremely unique experience, as I had never visited India’s financial and fashion capital before.
We left the domestic airport and headed to our hotel room for a quick breakfast, as I was STARVING since I had not eaten anything since morning except a cookie. I devoured the food, which was delicious and after a quick shower, we rented out a comfortable sedan for the next 6 hours of touring the city. We were going to sight-see the historic Taj Hotel, the Gateway of India, the Marine Drive, the abodes of many superstars, visit Mumbai’s famous beaches and if time permitted, then shop around. The plan was to limit our tour to 6 hours and then head to the airport as we were informed that sometimes the traffic jams are…well…a bit agonizing. Also, the temperature outside was more like 40 degrees rather than the 30 degrees that the weather forecast claimed to be. All I knew was that it was NOT PLEASANT.
After renting the sedan, we headed out on our city tour. The driver was a jovial and friendly person, whom we spent the next six hours chattering with. He provided us with all the necessary information on the landmarks we were visiting.
From Juhu to Church gate, the drive was roughly an hour and 15 minutes routed through the “Worli Sea Link”. Firstly, we rode past Amitabh Bachchan’s home, and it was enormous from the outside. I have watched a few of his movies and honestly, I have loved watching them. I just kept staring outside, my eyes wide open. The streets were buzzing with people and at times I wondered how I would have managed to sustain in this crowd. Everybody seemed to be carving their own journey. We reached Colaba and stopped at the Gateway of India. The structure was honorary to the visit of two extremely prestigious dignitaries. I read the plaque on the gate and learnt that it was erected to commemorate the visit of Mary of Teck and the Emperor of India, George V. The Gateway looked magnificent standing tall beside the Arabian sea. There were so many photographers and almost each one of them persuaded us to allow them to click our pictures. It was as if the paparazzi was following us, and we felt like stars. We decided to get our pictures taken by one of the photographers. I kept staring around looking at the sea of people, including infants, in colorful attires, some even wearing heavy sarees and jewellery, oblivious to the heat, the dust and the crowd, enjoying every minute of their visit. I did not understand why me, and Em complained so much☹. I saw several jetties departing for the Elephanta caves, but we could not explore the same due to time restrictions. Facing the Gateway was the historic Taj Palace and Tower, the former being a victim to the 26/11 terrorist attacks on Mumbai. It was a majestic, cavernous structure and resembled an Imperial palace. Although a little jittery, I still decided that sometime in the future, I would stay in the Taj Palace.
The temperature had risen, and we agreed that we could not tour the Gateway for longer in THIS HEAT☹. Thus, we headed to a suggested restaurant. The air-conditioner provided instant relief and we collapsed into the fancy chairs. The food was pure heaven, and I ate more than I had on the cruise( ok, I doubt I could have eaten more than the CRUISE, but you can understand what I mean!).
After a fitful meal, we headed to the Queen’s Necklace for a leisurely walk. Well, the view was amazing, and you could see that it really resembled a necklace. The walk along the Marine Drive was quintessential with an uninterrupted view of the Arabian sea. Although it was scorching hot, many tourists were thoroughly enjoying the view and savoring the street food. We regretted not being able to see it at night as then, it would be lighted, and it would really look magical. If I squinted, I could imagine that the buildings in clusters around the curve of the necklace looked like the pearls of the necklace. We had to visit the next attraction and hence we resumed our journey on the wheels. I will be mentioning the further details of our trip in Mumbai-Part 2! Stay tuned until then!
Signing off…