The Westside Story - X : Amchi Mumbai.. well not really amchi

As Murphy’s law would have it, the number of hindrances that come your way are directly proportional to the urgency of the task that your are taking up. As I have said before, there were bed bugs, and our smart-ass bus driver decided to bypass the expressway and got us stuck in the middle of nowhere for more than 3 hours. I was supposed to reach Mumbai at 7:00 am, but ended up reaching at 11:00 am and missing out on Haji Ali Dargah, which the rest of my west side buddies went to. They tell me it is not that great a place, n the sea around it stinks. But I am not sure whether they said that to console me or it was actually not that good. I met the gang at the Nehru Planetarium, not before visiting the Nehru Science centre and then walking up to Nehru planetarium, which is like 3 kms away. Tough to get directions when both the places have the same name, Nehru centre. L By the time I reached there I was totally drained out by the journey and the fact that I went directly to Nehru centre without having bath or even a change of clothes did not make it any more comfortable. A quick snack at the Nehru centre (where everything costs Rs. 10 more than the M.R.P for some unknown reason) recharged me completely and I was excited about seeing the rest of the place and not just the snack counter at the canteen.

The Nehru centre is situated in Worli and is a window to the entire order of events leading upto India’s independence. The men (and women), their thoughts and the means they adopted to make India what she is today, all of it depicted in chronological order. The main theme of the gallery-cum-museum though is the life of Pandit Jawaharlal Nehru, his life and his association with India, pre and post-Independence. There are numerous family photographs, including ones of Indira Gandhi as a young girl. One can’t help but stand in awe when one reads about the lives of the men and women who gave their entire lives in the only hope that their future generations may enjoy freedom. There is a small section on the human evolution too, a cave model with models of the tools used in those ages and all of this has been made that extra bit funky by the sounds that are played inside the cave. We got so engrossed in the photographs and the write-ups that we did not realize it was already around 2:00 PM. Couldn’t help but think that if history was taught in schools like the way we have experienced it on this trip, it would not end up as just another subject to study, blurt out on the answer paper and then be forgotten.

We took a taxi from the Nehru centre to Lower Parel and then a train to Mahim. I could see why the local trains are called the lifeline of Mumbai. What takes more than an hour on road takes about 15-20 minutes by the local train, the best way to travel in Mumbai if one wants to save on time and not care too much about personal comfort. Take care of your belongings and be nimble on your feet is the advice that I would like to give you in case you happen to board a local train in Mumbai. Reached Mahim in about 10 minutes and then walked up to the Mahim beach to see the Mahim fort.
Travel advisory: Mahim beach stinks and the fort has been taken over by slum dwellers.
(Guess I need not mention anymore about Mahim fort)

Though disappointed at the sad state of Mahim fort and the apathy of the administration towards it, the girls were excited to do more than a bit of shopping and hence we headed out to Linking Road in Bandra on a taxi. We had lunch at a nearby mall which had a weird payment system. Two suggestions to them:

Hungry people are angry people, don’t make them run around for food.
We are there to eat and not get a prepaid recharge. It would help if you guys modelled your payment system in line with the former instead of the latter.
Two observations about Linking Road:
If you’re a guy who doesn’t cross dress over the weekends, this place isn’t for you
If you’re a girl, then voila, you are in shopping haven.
Make that three:
If you’re a hungry guy with a girl, get yourself something to eat before you come here, lest you can feed yourself jus looking at spaghetti tops.

We ended up shopping till 6:00 PM. The girls managed to find quite a few bargains and me, I just bought myself a bottle of cool mineral water and cooler sugarcane juice..

We then took the train to Charni Road which is very close to Chowpatty. Chowpatty is a chilled out place by the beach with views of Marine drive and its well lit skyscrapers :) We posed in for a couple of pics but Lee’s cam was in Night shot mode, and it took ages for the shutter to open n close which did not make things any easier for us, and most of the pics came out blurred. After gobbling down on Bhelpuri and gulping down on sprite, we proceeded to get a dose of some rock at the Hard Rock Café, next to the Bombay Dyeing mill compound in Lower Parel. We landed there at the wrong day of the week. Since every Thursday the Hard Rock Café has a special show of sorts and they charge a premium for customers on Thursday. The entry fee in itself was Rs. 500 (cover charge not included) we decided to go ahead with it for kick sake. The food wasn’t that great but the ambience is mind blowing. All the rock star memorabilia over the ages have been nicely framed all over the walls of the Café. It was getting late already and since we had to set out for Daman at 5:00 the next morning, we decided to call it a day and reached our NEST in a taxi at around 11:00 PM

The Westside Story – XIX – Day 16

15 days ago, we woke up in Bangalore. 15 days after that we woke up in a different city almost everyday!! 15 days later we woke up in Dilli. Our first day in Delhi, we were late for breakfast!! We kept Danish’s mom waiting since 0800 hrs!! Sorry aunty…

We headed out around 1000 hrs to Red Fort. We drove from Gurgaon to Delhi and picked up Vidushi. We then caught the metro and were set to leave. But we got diverted by a Mc Donalds on the way and stopped for fries and a softy. We had to have our official trip food even in Delhi :D

Red Fort is massive on the inside! I’ve always seen it from outside and always thought it was just a long rectangle, in reality, it’s really huge!
Red fort was built by Shah Jahan. And it’s got quite a few Mahal’s inside the fort. There is a museum as well.

The ticketing is quite weird here. At the entrance, you will have to pay Rs. 5 for entry and Rs. 10 for the Museum. The guard at the main gate will tear all the tickets together. Remember not to throw them away because the guard at the museum will check the other half of the torn museum tickets!!! We almost had to leave without visiting the museum because the half tickets got lost in Danish’s deep pockets full of you-know-what = JUNK!!!! ;D

Anyway, after Red Fort we headed to the heart of Chandini Chowk (Dilli 6) to a Paranthe walli gulli for the yummiest paranthas!! They were in at least 25 various flavours for around Rs 25 each. Probably 2 should fill a person. It was good fun since the place is tiny, if someone stretches too much he might punch a guy 2 tables away in the face, and the service is literally on the go! Your order is taken by a boy who is walking from one table to another and just happens to look at you! He’ll jerk his head up as a form of questioning you, and you just have to keep your order ready else wait for the next guy to give you time! :D

Danish had left by the end of the meal to pick Saher Punjab and drop her to Gurgaon, so the 4 of us took a cycle rickshaw and headed to Jama Masjid!! The ride through Chandini Chowk was amusing! J I felt like a tourist looking at the bustling city with a road as narrow as one lane used for oncoming traffic as well, with the electric wires hanging so low, I’d have been able to do a Mowgli on one of them had I just stuck my hand up!

Our luck this time ran out and we were at the Masjid just as the time for Namaz had started! We weren’t allowed in, so we decided to head to Janpath to shop for a bit.

We caught another rickshaw to the metro and hurried away to shop! After an hour or so, we met Danish at India Gate and had Mother Dairy chocolate chip ice-creams and went home!

I met some of my colleagues, who’re more of friends and less of colleagues, for an amazing Thai dinner and then went clubbing to a place called Buzz. Here is when I saw the real difference between Bangalore and Delhi.

Both cities have a very different outlook and if they’d merge it’d be like Shangri-La. More about it later!

The Westside Story – XVIII – Day 15

We left Jaipur at 1040 hrs. This was the last day of travel. And quite depressing! :( We got ready and said goodbye to the last Mess we’d be staying at!

According to plan, we were supposed to continue to take NH 8 and we’d Delhi, but somehow we saw ourselves on NH 11C!!! We searched frantically in our Eicher Map and we found NH 11A and NH 11B, but no sign of a NH 11C!! But we decided to continue on the road since it was a good road, didn’t have much traffic and showed us the same distance to Delhi as we had anticipated on NH 8.
Soon, after 51.1 kms we joined NH 8 at 1250 hrs, when Delhi was 220 kms away!

We reached Kotputli at around 113.1 kms.

At 135 kms we reached Behror around 1423 hrs.

We stopped in a roadside dhaba type place called Muskaan Midway. We ate, almost shopped and headed out again. We reached Haryana border around 1610 hrs, 163.7 kms.

Once we reached Gurgaon, we headed to Danish’s place. And straight from there, we headed to a theatre to watch the first day one-of-the-first shows of Delhi-6!

If this was a movie review site and I was a movie critic, I’d have given you the review of the movie, but since it isn’t, I won’t.

Over and Out!

The Westside Story – XVII – Day 14

Jaipur. Pink City. The Maharaja Jai Singh in 1878 ordered all the buildings facing the main road to be painted pink in order to welcome the Prince of Wales.

We headed out of our Mess around 1030 hrs to our first stop – Hawa Mahal. This place is known as such due to the number of windows in this palace – there are 394 windows in this one palace! This entire palace was built only for the Queens and their attendees. During the Purdah system, the women weren’t allowed outside in public. This Mahal was built so that the queens could see processions and any festivals that were held through the many windows. There is a passageway that leads from the City Palace to Hawa Mahal only so that the queens could go from one place to another without being seen!

The City Palace is still the residence of the current Maharaja who is very very old. Half the palace is his place of stay and the other half has been turned into a museum. When the Maharaja is staying in the palace or when he is in Jaipur, there are 2 flags that are hoisted up otherwise there is just one.

The City Palace is huge, and there are multiple museums inside. There is also a City Palace coffee shop where we headed straight! :P This place will take at least 3 hours of your time if you want to go through it properly.

While we were there, the place looked even more colourful and nice because there was the shooting going on for a Salman Khan movie!! :D Sadly, we didn’t see Salman Khan :P But the enormity of ONE SCENE of a movie was quite surprising!! There’s so much that goes into it!!

After the City Palace, we skipped Jantar Mantar, and went to Nahargarh Fort. The story of this fort was that Maharaja Madho Singh had 9 wives and he built a fort with 9 identical houses for each of his wives!! Quite picturesque and would have been a lot of fun to plat hide and seek in!!

We had to give up Danish’s license because Kudu hadn’t got his seat belt on and we refused to pay the bribe of Rs. 200. We had to pick up his license from the cop station the next day and pay a fine of Rs 300!
After the fort, we headed to Choki Dhani and had a blast! This a must visit for anyone going to Jaipur!!

The Westside Story – XVI – Day 13

Our 13th day on the road! And after a long time, this was going to be one long drive! We left out Mess at 0530 hrs. The passengers passed out 5 minutes into the journey!! I woke up around 0700 hrs and realized Danish was the only one awake and driving with all windows rolled up!! The car was beginning to get stuffy, albeit warm, and that was not a good way to keep the driver alert and attentive!! By 0715 almost everyone was awake – except for JJ, of course!! If she was in the car – she was asleep! I can’t remember a single time when she’d be awake for more than 50 kms! ;D

At 137.2 kms 0740 hrs, we decided to stop over at a Dhaba for a much needed breakfast! But for some unknown reason, the very un-fussy girls (JJ and I) just took a look at the place and weren’t hungry anymore!! :P But the boys ordered 4 aloo paranthas, and when they came, we weren’t able to resist the urge to dig in! J The food was good and after a much needed rest, decided to head out, but with me at the wheel..!

We pretty much stuck to NH 8 the entire while, except when we took a left to Ajmer at 275 kms at 1100 hrs. We headed straight to Akbar’s fort which was under maintenance and we weren’t allowed to go around the fort. We did manage to gain entry into a museum of sorts which is nothing short of ridiculous! The paintings put up are intricate and nice but the boards put under them to explain each painting are hilarious and steal the spotlight from them! Forgetable!

I learnt 2 things in Ajmer! Okay 3…

You will not find any toilets in public places! There is one central complex called . Apart from that you’d have to make do with walking into hotels and using their toilets without availing their services!
There is usually a huge 2-3 storied building in most parts of a city (in Rajasthan) that are used for giving water for people to drink! These buildings are called a “Peeyau” and that’s the only purpose of such a huge building!
If you don’t watch your back in the tiny roads of these cities, you will end up fracturing a leg!! The traffic is bad and the drivers inconsiderate! Or at least that’s how it seems to an outsider! But the local people looked immune to scooters bumping into them and people rubbing shoulders with everybody else!!

We then headed to the famous Dargah in the midst of Ajmer- The dargah of Khawaja Moin-ud-din-Chishti. This was for the experience of Ajmer! A narrow lane lined with shops on both sides for over half a km, selling things ranging from flowers to handkerchiefs to coconuts! But the rush of human traffic is overwhelming! People actually live there, so you have the rush of daily activity and the craziness of a regular day mixing with the madness of tourists!

Once we reached the mosque we had to go in 2’s since we weren’t allowed to take cameras inside (strangely, every other mosque we’d gone to allowed us to do so) so Kudu and I guarded the camera and shoes while JJ and Danish went in. After waiting for over 20 min, we went in. This mosque has 3 mosques inside it and one Dargah. One mosque was built by Shah Jahan, one by Aurangazeb and one by someone whose name none of us could understand!!

Famished, we headed in search of a place to eat. We were a bit tired after being awake since 0430 in the morning! This is when we got into a neat discussion about table manners! Turns out, all parents go to a school where they are taught about what they will teach their children!! And the parents pass out of that school with a book of phrases that are used to tame children around the world – these words of wisdom are used on the poor, unassuming children and are similar, word-to-word!!!! :D

After lunch, we got conned! It was like it was on the agenda : Step one – Eat food. Step two : Head to Dargah. Step three : Get conned!

We went to Targarh which has on a hill and has a dargah on top. We were stopped at the base of the hill by a group of men on bikes. We were wary but stopped anyway. They told us that they were from the department of tourism and they were designated there to guide tourists like us to the Dargah and show them around for no fee! We figured this was a good deal. Bad move!

They told us to go up and wait for one of them to follow us on his bike. We reached on top and this guy led us into a house where he made us take our shoes off and go inside the house and fold our hands in front of a picture we had no idea what it was! He went on to talk really fast and move with the speed of light without giving us a chance to question and ponder! Suddenly it seemed like he was telling us that we had to buy a white cloth – it was mandatory – as an offering to the Dargah! We were contemplating when he made it seem like he’d do us a favour and make the decision for us – he yelled out to his counterpart “jaa, inko 300 walla de de, aur 50 ke phool bhi”. Within seconds we had a basket with a white cloth and flowers thrust on top of Danish’s head and the “guide” was leading us into the Dargah!!

This is the funniest part – The priest inside tells us tales of how anyone who makes a contribution to the Dargah can ask for a wish and it will most definitely come true!! He made us put our heads under the white cloth that we’d bought and muttered something that sounded like he was invoking the spirits to bless us :P They had the audacity to ask us for more contributions! This time we’d had enough time under the cloth to figure this out and say NO! The cloth that we’d “bought”, got put into a basket (which most definitely will be sold to another gullible tourist)!

What a racket!

We then headed to a memorial built for Prithvi Raj Chauhan. This was at the foot of the hill on which the conning Durgah was, and the quiet serenity was a pleasant contrast to the fast-smooth talker of a guide we’d followed!

We headed to Pushkar where we stopped at the only Brahma temple in the world! Apparently, he was cursed that he would never have a temple due to some sin he had committed, and even this temple is not really his. This story needs to be verified!!

We left Pushkar at 1815 hrs and hit bad bad truck traffic! We eventually reached Jaipur after taking the maximum number of U-turns in one night as compared to the entire trip!
We were exhausted and all of us passed out!

The Westside Story – XV – Udaipur – Day 12

We woke up to a beautiful misty morning in the cantonment and treated ourselves to some hot and tasty aloo paranthas. After that we headed out to the city palace museum which seemed as though it was the central point around which the entire city of Udaipur has been built. Testimony to this fact is that all the places to see in and around Udaipur lie within a 5 to 6 km radius of the city palace museum. Udaipur, with its narrow, steep and curving lanes is by far the most colorful place I have been to on this trip. The multitude of colors and patterns makes one feel as though one is looking at the entire city through a kaleidoscope! J Even the people here are so colorful.Guess when Rajasthan was being created (or painted) god was a little too generous with the colors!! PS: We spotted the first packet of Uncle Chipps today!! :D Paid an entry fee of Rs. 50 per head and another 50 bucks for the car park and another 200 bucks for the camera. Bit on the higher side, but that’s the way it is here. Everything is so beautiful and all of it costs to see. All the palaces are maintained by HRH group of hotels and that’s why the steep prices for entry tickets and such. For example, a 10 minute boat ride to the Jagmandir lake palace /hotel cost each one of us Rs. 300 + Rs. 25 for entry… L The Rajputs have, from time immemorial, been known for their valor and bravery and the city palace museum narrates just that with its paintings, weaponry and not to forget, the palace itself. The view from the palace windows is like looking at a picture postcard. Most of the windows face the lake which has two more palaces build on islands, with beautiful hills for background. There is another museum called the crystal palace by the lakeside which again charges Rs. 325 as entry fee!! L Wiser from our experience at hard rock café in Mumbai, we decided to give this one a pass J Had lunch at the Jagmandir palace hotel, in the middle of the lake. J Prices are on the higher side but we were really hungry to bother about that and moreover the food was finger lickin good J J One quite interesting fact about the City Palace is that it has been owned by the Mewar dynasty since it was established! This dynasty is the longest serving dynasty in the world!! We headed back to the city palace museum and from there to the monsoon palace of Sajjangarh. Situated on a hill, this is probably the highest point in Udaipur, giving one a birds eye view of the entire city. Originally proposed to contain 13 floors, this one ended up having only five floors. As we had to head back to do some shopping and catch the “Sound and Lights” show at the city palace museum, we did not spend much time here. On the way back we stopped over at the vintage car museum that houses the car collection of the current Maha Rana. Here again there is an entry fee of Rs 100 that includes the privilege to see and touch around 18-20 of the Maharana’s vintage cars, jeeps, truck, schoolbus and some horse carriages J If you are too tired doing all of this there is a cold drink to be had at the end of it J We then set off to do some shopping. We had to breeze through the shops since this being the wedding season, most of the shops down their shutters by 8:00 PM. Danish and I left for the city palace museum to catch the Sound and light show, leaving Lee and JJ behind to shop all they want J J . The Sound and Light show is the star attraction for tourists in Udaipur. The entire history of Mewar, a bloody one at that is narrated with sound bytes and lights placed strategically on the palace front. Lee and JJ joined us 10 minutes into the show with a bag full of merchandise. J The one hour long show left us with a lot more understanding of Mewar and its gritty rulers. We stopped over at a trinket shop and bought some really cool stuff! We got a good deal as it was closing time and the shopkeeper wanted to get rid of us somehow J but make some money at the same time.. J Had dinner at a nearby hotel and then headed back to the cantt to get some much needed sleep if we were to head out to Jaipur at 0500 next day J

The Westside story – XIV

We were an excited lot when we bid our goodbye’s to the land of dhoklas. Even though JJ was feeling feverish, she too was looking forward to Udaipur like the rest of us. All of us had heard about the opulence of the Udaipuri palaces. Now, we would get to experience it first hand. We left around 1445 hrs, after allowing JJ and Sam to rest!

The directions were easy – just catch the NH 8 and head towards Himmatnagar!

Before crossing Himatnagar, we crossed the Tropic of Cancer (in line with Gandhinagar) at 1515 hrs and 2768.6 total km reading from Bangalore. :D Quite the historic moment – even though we can never be sure of the accuracy of our recording, considering the ToC is an imaginary line and all, but we have used as much logic and thought as anyone can, so safely assume that we are right!

We came across one toll gate before reaching Himatnagar at 1553 hrs at 71.7 km reading. We stopped over at a roadside pseudo Dhaba, where we had masala “dhosa” :D and other stuff to eat and drink, after which I took over driving!

Another toll plaza later, you enter Rajasthan at 122.4 kms, 1720 hrs.

The moment you crosss over to Rajasthan from the Gujarat border a welcome sign which is modeled on a fort almost immediately catches your eye. This was only to be the start of what lay ahead for us in Rajasthan.

The roads are so good and there’s hardly any traffic, although the roads do start winding up as you enter the Aravali Hills, there is not much of a challenge. Without good music and fun co-passengers, this road is bound to get boring! You literally drive with one foot pressed on the accelerator and…that’s all there is to it!! :D It’s fun to zip around but after a while you begin to wish you had some obstacles like in a video game ;D!!

We crossed Kherwada at 1800 hrs and 164.8 km reading. I stopped driving at 185 kms and 1825 hrs because according to Danish, “his back was beginning to ache sitting in the passenger seat” when the truth was I knew he had noticed that it was getting dark and there was some truck traffic beginning to show signs of life, and he didn’t want me to drive through those treacherous conditions ;D!!

By the time we reached the cantonment dusk had set in completely and we decided to call it a day after dinner since we needed to recharge ourselves with a good night’s sleep. Before hitting the sack however, we listed out the places to visit, come tomorrow.