Day 8 - The Nightlife Of Mumbai - Part 2

After Viraj dropped me at Hiranandani on 30th Morning, I was extremely tired. Sleep debt was there and I had a very long day ahead. Cousin had to go to Chembur to renew his flat's agreement with his landlord. So, when I reached home, no one was there. I decided to take a nap. It was a Saturday morning so I thought I would relax a bit and then go out and meet more people from Twitter. (Gawd, now it feels like, my whole Mumbai trip was about twitter and twitter people only! ).  The night was supposed to be spent with cousin and his flatmate on the streets of Mumbai. Yes, I wanted to experience what do people do on weekends.

Suddenly a phone call. 

Me : Who is this ?

Person : Sir, this is XYZ.

Me : Haan bol yaar.

Person : Sir, when are you coming back?

Me : Reaching on 1st July noon.

Person : Huge huge problem in office sir. We need you here.

Me : Give me an idea about it.

And the person went on and on and on about the mess people have created in the office. I was psyched out. I was like FUCK EVERYTHING, this is my last day in Mumbai and I don't know when I will be back here so I won't think about it and go with my plans. So, I took a peaceful nap after putting my phone on silent. Woke up, took a shower and again the phone rang.

She : Kahan Hai Dost ?

Me : Ghar Pe.

She : Mere Se Kab Milega ?

Me : Aap Batao. 

She : Aaj shaam ko milte hai. 

She : Shaam ko mushkil hai. I have plans with my cousin. He is taking me out for dinner and movie. I have hardly spent time with him. 

She : To usko bhi leke aa na saath mein. Hum masti maarenge. 

Me : Arre par woh bahot shareef aadmi hai, hamare jaisa luccha nahin hai. 

She : Mujhe nahin pata, abhi is hi waqt usko conference pe le. 

Me : Hain ?

She : Haan le na, mereko baat karni hai us se. 

Me : Okay. 

I tried to take my cousin on conference, but he was busy on another call.

Me : He is busy on another call.

She : Tu jhoot bol raha hai, dobara laga I am holding. 

I tried again. This time cousin picked up the phone. 

Me : Listen, a friend of mine wants to talk to you. 

Cousin : Kaun hai ?

Me : She is on conference, I am connecting you with her. Talk to her. 

And then there was a conference call. It was one mad call. The person on the other side i.e. "She" was Mishkka ( @RJMishkka ). Mishkka and I met her through twitter only and I first met her in Delhi when she was in town. WE ARE TWO CRAZY FREAKS. Paagal hai hum dono. So, Mishkka convinced my cousin to meet her at Juhu Beach in the evening at a place which has a story attached to it.

But before that, I had another tweetup planned. Sharad ( @ThatPungiDude ) , Aditya ( @Visa135 ) and Ajay ( @BloodyKamina ) had to come. Ajay couldn't be there as he had some work in office, so we decided to catch up later. Sharad and Adiya came for the tweetup. We had lunch at Aroma, a coffee shop in Hiranandani. Technically, it was Sharad's and Aditya's first tweetup. We three kicked off really well and again it was one of the tweetups, where we didn't twitter much. It was more about Mumbai and my experience with the city. Aditya and Sharad both have lived in Mumbai all their life so they know the city pretty well. They told me more facts about the city which definitely added up to my curiosity quotient about the city. Sharad told me about a few places where I would be visiting during my next visit. Aditya wanted to take us out to some of the places, but due to time constraint, we couldn't go. But next time for sure. The meetup started at 2:30 and I had to leave at 4:30 because I had to go to Bandra to meet one more person. So had to leave and I came back home. 

I came back home and met my cousin. 

Me : Haanji, whats the program for the evening ?

Cousin : We will go to meet Mishkka first,  uske baad dekhte hai.

Me : Aisa hai, lets meet Mishkka first and uske baad movie chalte hai.

Cousin : Perfect ! Let me sleep for a while. 

Me : Cool. 

Cousin slept and I collected my stuff which was lying all over his flat. Yes, I am a messy person that ways. I collected everything and put that aside and thought of taking a nap. I lied down on my bed at around 5 and thought would get up by 5:30 and leave for Juhu directly, as that meet up in Bandra got cancelled. 

That nap got stretched to a full one and an half hour sleep. I got up at 6:30 and DAMN!! Cousin was still sleeping. We were late. Mishkka would beat the shit outta me and then again the phone rang

She : Kahan Pahuncha ?

Me : Abhi soke utha, kal poori raat soya nahin tha, aankh lag gayi.

She : Kitna ganda hai na tu. 

Me : Sorry, but I will leave my place in 15 mins.

She : Theek hai, come fast. I am waiting for you at Hotel Classic, Juhu Beach pe. 

Me : Okay

I shook my cousin, and asked him to get ready ASAP. We both got ready and left the place in 10 mins. Took an auto to Juhu Beach and in half an hour, it dropped us at Juhu Beach. Mishkka was calling us again and again and I knew that she was upset. But, finally we were at Juhu Beach. I called her up.

Me : I am here at Juhu Beach. Where is Hotel Classic ?

She :   Its right next to the beach, ask anyone.

Me : Okay. 

I asked a lot of people around, even policemen, no one had any idea about Hotel Classic. My cousin spotted another hotel right next to the beach, which was Hotel Citizen. I called Mishkka again.

Me : There is no Hotel Classic.

She : Arre Baba! Its right next to the beach.

Vodafone was being a bitch and there were call drops again and again. That was bloody irritating. 

Me : All I can see is Hotel Citizen.

She : Wait, let me give you the directions over the phone and you follow it.

Me : Okay

She gave us the directions and it took us to HOTEL CITIZEN. What a BUMMER! 

I walked into its restaurant and saw Mishkka standing there. Even before saying Hi to her, I said "THIS IS HOTEL CITIZEN, NOT HOTEL CLASSIC". We laughed like anything and hugged each other. 

Cousin, me and her, we kicked off really well. Mishkka is full of life, not on radio but in real life as well. Me and her form a perfect bakar bakar gang! :D 

The location of the hotel was PERFECT. We sat in the balcony that opened up on the beach side. VIEW WAS SPECTACULAR. People were enjoying at the beach. The waves hitting the shore. That sound of waves, was offering calmness in its purest form. We were enjoying our conversations and each other's company. Sat there for 2 hours and then Mishkka had to leave. 

After Mishkka left, I asked my cousin to take a stroll on the Juhu Beach. It was EPIC. May be in Delhi we dont have that luxury here that's why I was awestruck, but honestly saying, the feeling was amazing. The wind, the sound and the peace the place offered was AMAZING! We took a long walk on the beach and then decided our next plan. 

Next, we took an auto for Powai. As soon as we sat in the auto, there was a group of call girls heading towards the beach. It was a sight to see them. On our way, we thought, we would to go Phoenix Mills Mall Malad and catch up with "The Amazing Spiderman" there. But then finally we settled down at Infinity Mall, Andheri and headed there. 

The mall was bustling with people. Everyone was up to something or the other. I spotted Landmark, a book store. In no time, I stepped inside and got the hard copies of the books that I was reading on my iPad - "50 shades of grey" trilogy. Without thinking twice, I picked up all the three books of the series. I WAS A HAPPY MAN! 

Post that, we caught up with the movie, which was in a way disappointing because of the slow and lousy storyline but 3-D effects were superb. Post movie, we decided to head towards home and in between we would take a walk at Powai lake. While on our way to Powai, we spotted people everywhere in the weekend mood. 

There were homos, transgenders, prostitutes everywhere, trying to hook up with people. Thats another side of the city that I got to see in the middle of the night and people were mingling with them. Cousin was kinda shocked to see all this, but then I told him, its normal and you can see it everywhere. After taking a stroll at the Powai Lake, we headed towards home. And yes, that was the end of it. My time for being in Mumbai was officially over. I was sad about the fact that I would be leaving his place but had no option. Packed my stuff and slept at 4:00 A.M.

Till The Next One.

-

Yatin