Day 3 : Pune to Mumbai (27th Aug 2014)

Woke up at 6:30 am but gave my tired body another half an hour of bedtime for the extreme condition it had endured yesterday. Finally got out of bed at 7 am. The first thing I did after I got out of bed was walk to the window and check the weather. It was a lovely day to ride.

Pic : View from the hotel room

As the day was sunny, I thought of an idea to dry my leather jacket which was wet after getting soaked in yesterday’s rain. I tied it on top of my luggage. The heat of the sun coupled with the riding wind would surely expedite the drying process. 

 While I was packing to leave, the hotel owner arrived. He was a politician. Dressed in complete white everything about him hinted about his profession – his fancy SUV with a part flag on it, the way he spoke to his staff and a face that hardly flashed a smile. He saw me packing for quite some time and when I was done, he asked me about my trip. By now I had a well-scripted, crisp answer for all such queries. Once he heard me, he suddenly was no longer a politician with a serious look on his face and he started sharing his travelling stories with me.  I was taken aback when he said that he would pray for my trip. So, with that political shock, I started my ride at 10 am.

I saw black clouds looming on the horizon. By now I had grown paranoid of rain. One hour into riding and it started drizzling. This time I was more prepared. I quickly got into my double protection and called out war on the rains. The cheap plastic rain cover worked wonders.

The Pune-Mumbai highway took me through the longest tunnel ride so far which lasted good three minutes, and some scenic locations. The streams of Maharashtra were gushing with new lease of life.

I knew I was getting closer to Mumbai when the fresh monsoon air started being overpowered by the chocking industrial air. The sole reason why I had chosen to be in Mumbai was to be “Shantaramed". After reading Shantaram I had always wanted to go to Mumbai (Bombay then) and be Shantaramed. That being my objective, the only places I knew existed in Mumbai were Colaba and café Leopold. So once I reached Mumbai at around 3 pm, I used my phones GPS to take me to Colaba. The GPS showed me the way that even the locals didn’t know about. While on my way to Colaba two traffic constables stopped me. A Karnataka registered vehicle was easy prey for them, or so they thought. First, they asked me if I was from the army to which I said no. They said that I was carrying an excessive weight permissible for a two-wheeler and took my driving license. I knew where all this was going. They told me that the spot fine was Rs 2000 else I had to come to court on 10^th Sept to get my driving license back. It was time to pull some strings. I told them that I work in media and started calling some of my colleagues in Mumbai. When they realized that it was not a bluff call they gave me my license back and said, “ aap bahut dur jaa rahay ho, isselay chhod raha hoon” (Since you are travelling far, I am letting you go).  I took my license back without thanking them and continued riding. It was a daunting task to find a decent hotel in Colaba. While some hotels didn't take Indians, others had no vacant room. It took 2 hours of snaking Chitti (that’s what Linda calls my Royal Enfield classic 350 inspired from the movie of one of our favorite actors - RAJNIKANT !!!) into the lanes of Colaba hunting for a hotel. While I was riding on the lanes of Colaba I could vividly recall Linbaba describing his experience of riding his Enfield on the same lanes. After checking all the hotels in Colaba, I was forced to go back to Janata Lodge. It was the same lodge that I had checked earlier but walked out as a bargaining strategy which bombed. Seeing me back, the guy in charge now demanded Rs 300 extra saying that the earlier room which I had checked had been now occupied. The guy in charge was a shrewd businessman but after some negotiations, he agreed to give me the room at the rate that he had quoted earlier. Though the room tariff was way beyond my budget, I chose that place because Café Leopold was hardly five minutes walk from the hotel.

Pic : My first view of theGateway of India

There was an African guy in front of me who was checking in too. He was well beyond 35 and looked very rough. He was accompanied by another rough looking local character who was translating the conversation in some African language. When the guy in charge of the hotel asked the African guy about his reason to visit Mumbai, his local accomplice hurriedly said, “He is a student”. When I heard that, I was caught up in a messy situation. I almost burst out laughing but controlled myself because I knew I would be in deep trouble if the African guy or his accomplice would have seen me laughing or even smiling at that moment. I had to bite my tongue real hard to stop myself from laughing. Once I was done with the check-in procedures, I was led to my room. The passage smelt of freshly smoked Marijuana. I knew I had chosen the right place to be Shantarammed. Anytime soon, I was expecting Linbaba to walk out from one of the rooms.

I called my ex-colleague Ravi as he had expressed a desire to meet me while I was in Mumbai. I told him where I was staying and he said that he was on his way. Meanwhile, I took a shower and walked towards Gateway of India - context taken very seriously by late Ajmal Kasab and his gang of friends. 

Pic : The Kasab phobia

While on my way, I noticed that there was some high-profile party at hotel Taj. It seemed that half of Mumbai police were present there providing security to the party attendees. I kid you not, but one amongst them was one pretty lady who had forgotten to remove a price tag from her stilettos. I guess the busy lifestyle of the city comes at some price (tag).

While I was exploring The Gateway of India, Ravi reached. He had some old scores to settle. Two years back when I had met Ravi in Mumbai, he could not take me to many touristy places as it was raining heavily. This time as soon as we met, the first thing he said was, “ Chaal, Marine drive Chaltay hai” (let's go to Marine drive). I told him that I was not very interested in going to such places but then he said, “Mumbai may aaker Marine drive nahi dekha toh kuch nahi dekha” (If you have not seen marine drive in Mumbai then you have not seen anything). When a local guy tells you this and with so much conviction, there is very little you can do to avoid it. So, I gave in and started riding towards the Marine drive. I thought I was bad with directions but two minutes of riding with Ravi and I realized that he beats me at it, and he beats me by a very good margin. He would point towards left and ask me to go right. With great confusion, we reached the Marina drive and after a few clicks I told him that I wanted to go to café Leopold. 

Pic : Marine Drive

We started for café Leopold, but again, thanks to Ravi’s exceptional directions we were riding in circles and we reached the same place where we had started. Now unemployed, every drop of petrol was precious to me, so in order to save my petrol, I took charge of the situation and started following my instincts. After asking a few taxi drivers for the directions, we reached Café Leopold. The place was exactly as I had imagined it to be. I could see many gangs of Didier, Kavita & Karla. The bullet marks sprayed by Ajmal Kasab on the dreadful morning of 26^th Nov 2008 are still there on the walls of the café ironically adding to the legacy of the place.

Pic : Bullet marks sprayed by Kasab

I wanted to avoid drinking beer as I was getting wet in the rain for the past two days, but it seemed that the beer was the best seller there. To soak into the moment, we ordered for a pitcher of beer and a chicken starter recommended by the waiter. Soon the chilled sparkling beer and the special chicken arrived. As faith would have it, here too I found a hair in the chicken starter. I have always been the chosen one to find hair in my food. My colleagues can give a very detailed testimonial of this supernatural power of mine. 

Pic : Ravi manages to get a table right next to bullets marked wall

Once the order was replaced, “Cheers” followed and then started the chatting session. Many things had changed in Ravi’s life. He was now a married man and was soon to be a father. Ravi was more concerned about my career than I was. He insisted that I mail him my CV so that he could look for an alternate job for me. No amount of reasoning helped and eventually I agreed to mail him my CV once I reach home. By the time our drink was over it was 9:30 pm. I thanked him for coming over to meet me and asked him to leave as he was staying good two hours of travelling from Colaba.

Next, I called my ex-boss Neha to check if she was free. It had been a long time since I had caught up with her as she had relocated to Mumbai from Bangalore. She had been a great support during my initial trainee days. So, leaving Mumbai without meeting her or trying to meet her would have been a sin that no Ganga dip would wash away. Luckily, she was done with her work & she also stayed near Colaba area. She agreed to meet me at café Leopold. Meanwhile, I was waiting for her, and I got into a touristy mood and started clicking pictures of all that would remind me of Mumbai.

 

 

Neha reached and after all these years she had not changed a bit. The Bangalorian Neha and Neha the marathi manoos was exactly the same. Since I had already visited café Leopold, she took me to another equally renowned café Mondegar.

Without wasting much time, we got straight into the business and ordered for two bottles of beer. Conversation flowed and so did beer. Lost in the conversation, we were the last ones to leave the café. The waiter was very close to falling on our feet. After the bills were cleared, we walked along the Gateway of India for some time till Neha called for a taxi and she dropped me at my hotel.

  

This was not my first trip to Mumbai. The first trip in 2012 was a disastrous one and I hated the Mumbai chaos then. By 1 am of 28^th Aug 2014, I was in love with the Maximum city.                        

           

At the end of the third day, I had covered 205 kms

(Do read the other days chronicle listed in the same page)

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