6 months back I started writing down my memories but just couldn’t finish it. Meanwhile a lot has happened. My inclination towards the topic of “Diversity and Inclusion” guided to the Prof who would play an important role in the visit to a renowned conference and have some beautiful memories at the city that shines. I started working on an interesting method called “Discourse Analysis” during summers and developed it into a full-length research article. The conference submission deadline was due by end of September and with other course-work submissions lined up during that time, I was bit doubtful on whether the article should be submitted as an entry into the conference. With the encouragement from my academic advisor , I did submit. One fine morning, during the mid of November, an email popped up informing the acceptance of the paper in the conference with an invitation to visit Mumbai. My next door neighbour, who is a senior also got her paper accepted and we both were excited to attend the conference in addition to sight-seeing the commercial capital of India. Frankly speaking, I am very less excited when it comes to visiting “metropolitan big cities”. And here was my senior, who was excited to visit the place since it was based along the coast of the Arabian Sea. And this would be her first beach-experience in her lifetime. Not very exciting for me since I had been to beaches multiple times during my childhood.
We figured out the suitable flights and hotel and booked within a few days. She had started exploring the nooks and corners of the city virtually through travel vlogs, speaking to colleagues who had visited Mumbai earlier and getting recommendations from them. Whenever we used to talk about the upcoming trip, she used to name all those places which were worth visiting. Her curiosity and shortlisting of places reminded me of my earlier travel partner with whom I had visited maximum places in my life. I am really grateful to God to position me with travel partners who are inquisitive and research so well about the place that I feel I am never going to miss out on anything worth visiting. The day came when we had to embark on the journey. We started from our hostels at 5 AM on 4th January’2023. Chilly winds were blowing outside and we all covered with 3 layers of woolen garments took the cab to airport. We didn’t face any traffic due to the early morning drive to airport and in just 20 minutes we covered around 25 kms. The airport was lively. Our luggage was checked-in and we went to security check-in. My bag was kept aside at the security check-in. They said I had liquid more than 250 ml and thus the shampoo and vaseline was kept aside. I asked them what can be an alternate way to take them with me. They asked me to get it with the checked in luggage. I went back to the check in counter and the attendant there said no additional baggage can be checked in since my luggage as per their records was 15 kgs. I was asked by them to request the CISF officials to keep it and then get it back on my return. With high hopes , I went again to ask them to keep my belongings which I could collect on my return 5 days later. They denied saying they can’t keep it and asked me to enquire at the DTM (Departure Terminal Manager) Office. I went there requesting the person to keep it. For 10 minutes I pleaded but in vain. He asked me to request the CISF officials for the same and said there is no such provision of keeping belongings at the airport. Irritated with the officials for making me roam around with no concrete results , I came for the security check in again and requested the official again with the hope of being allowed to take my belongings with me. However, it yielded no results. I went ahead to the gate to accompany my seniors and could not stop myself from crying my heart out for having faced denial without any accurate communication. Both the seniors were sweet to console me and then we boarded the flight. So the journey began on this low note but little had I anticipated that beautiful times lay ahead. We landed in Mumbai in 2 hours and were enroute to hotel. By 12 noon , we were at the hotel. It is the “Hotel Beach Garden”, a cozy hotel including sumptuous breakfast. Hunger pangs were in full swing. Quickly we ordered lunch, had it and then called one of our colleagues to plan the itinerary for the day. I would thank him later for providing us with the perfect itinerary for the day.
At 1:30 p.m, we took a cab to visit the abode of Lord Ganesha, the Siddhivinayak temple. We reached the location in 1.5 hours. I was feeling drowsy due to the early morning flight and the Mumbai traffic made me nap in the cab. As I woke up, we were on the sea-link and viewed the tall buildings ashore the sea thriving on the growing economy. “Mumbai is the New York of India”, these words instantly came out while entering the sea-link. We enjoyed the view and reached the temple by 3 p.m. As soon as we entered the temple premises, there were vendors asking us to keep our shoes at their places. We went to the first shop, kept our shoes, took the prasad and stood in the queue to view the Lord and realized later we took the queue which ensured to witness the deity from a distance. This little girl was surprised to see the small structure of the deity since she had imagined a giant like structure similar to Lord Jagannath at the Puri Temple. Thus, size doesn’t matter, its the devotion and dedication which determines the sanctity of a place. Moving ahead we went to Dadar market through a shared cab and then took the local train to Chatrapati Shivaji Maharaj Terminus. We took the tickets and to my surprise the stations and trains were optimally populated unlike the ones I had seen in documentaries. We took the tickets and as guided by the issuer went ahead to Platform 3 and took the train which came by. One station went by and before the train stopped at the next station , we asked the passengers nearby and they said we have taken the wrong train. All hopes were not lost. We alighted at the next station and went ahead to get the train which would take us to Chattrapati Shivaji Terminus. All the train station names were being displayed in abbreviations, so it was a bit difficult for us to locate the platform to take the right train. Another confusion popped up, when someone said you have to take the slow local since the fast one is gone. We kept on enquiring people, and finally a lady came to our rescue guiding us to the right platform. The train arrived in 10 minutes and we boarded an almost empty coach. Settled there and it took almost an hour to reach the terminus.
Since this blog is being written after almost a gap of 6 months, I have already visited London by this time. I can say with certainty that the look and feel of Chattrapati Shivaji Terminus resembles that of many a London stations. Maybe, the effect of British rule. Well, we went ahead to locate the shared Taxis to take us to the Gateway of India. We reached there in a while. Mumbai, has this very different concept of having only shared Taxis plying in this region. One cannot locate any autorickshaw here. The view of Taj, especially the shining top was a pleasure to watch.
We walked around the place for a while, got some pictures clicked and then again took a taxi to Nariman Point, the point of start of the Marine Drive. It was a lovely view. People from all age groups and different responsibilities-students, professionals all were enjoying the cool evening breeze. We walked for a while and then booked a Taxi to Malabar Hills for viewing the lighted Mumbai’s Queen’s necklace. There was a viewpoint specially designed for this purpose. We climbed the stairs to get hold of the view and behold, the glimmering lights actually formed the necklace adorning the Queen’s neck. I am glad I toured with the senior of mine. The credits to this goes entirely to her since she mentioned about it from the day1 of planning the trip.
Well, the tour for the day concluded with this view and we were really happy for getting the perfect itinerary to get a glimpse of Mumbai’s specials in half a day. The cab ride back to the hotel was soothing with no traffic and dazzling churches all around marking Christmas and New Year celebrations.
The next day I presented my paper and in the evening we went to the nearby Prithvi Theatre. Though we couldn’t attend any act since all were sold out, we enjoyed food at the cafe outside it and saw some of the finest actors visiting it. The day ended with us fully tired and we were back to the hotel to get a good night’s sleep. The next had some amazing presentations lined up matching my area of interest. Attended them, had the gala dinner at the Sun-n-Sand facing the Juhu beach.
The following day, both of us started off to meet a very close friend of mine from MBA days. It took us a while driving past the Mumbai traffic to reach at the designated place. Reached her place and what a warm welcome it was. I could not take my eyes off the lovely house décor. I had got a glimpse of her super-high aesthetic touch during MBA days, however she has designed her place so well- like a pro interior designer.
And the tour concluded with delicious food at her place. We bade goodbyes the next day to meet again soon…
Mumbai- You were really good.. The weather, surprisingly the traffic and the interesting company for the planning the tour.. Until next time….
Musings 