Mumbai Diaries

Well, so here is my start of fascination for Mumbai I guess. I have finally started to like the place around. Very fast right? Ya, I have bipolar phases. Made a few tea friends at work. They invite me for lunch also. All senior to me with an experience of 4-8 years.  

Humans have encroached on humans

I live in Lower Parel. The place that was house to textile mills and mill workers decades ago. All the addresses around are in the name of these mills. But what happened to these mills? The urban jungle cropped up. The real estate prices went up. The mill owners sold the places to realty developers and shifted the mills to Bhiwandi which is in the outskirts, a completely another district and property prices are lower there. The mill workers were stripped of their living, they lost jobs, some lost their homes. There is a very good movie called Lalbaug Parel that depicts the plight of these mill workers. They still live here in chawls and have found alternate sources of income making their living as housekeeping staff, office boys, etc. 

Speaking of Lalbaug and the famous Lalbaugcha Raja, the story that I have heard is, there lived a fishermen community here that was about to loose their place these realty projects. They prayed to Lord Ganpati for saving the place and it was saved. And then was established the most revered Ganpati of all times in India Lalbaugcha Raja by that fishermen community.

Best of both the worlds

As I said Lower Parel houses these huge business parks and chawls as well. You get the best of both worlds around. There are really good street food joints and a city marketplace and there are elite pubs and restaurants and malls around. The office gives a view of the sea face and Mahalaxmi Race course. So there is no fight for food. Step out and there are numerous options to eat. And you get everything around.

So that’s my first in the Mumbai Diaries. Hope to make many interesting additions to this. My dearest Swati is gonna show me South Mumbai, supposedly a very beautiful and colonial place and the most expensive in Mumbai. Looking forward to the visit. With Swati its gonna be a memorable one. Cant believe how soon this is happening, just few days ago she called me to Mumbai in the vacation and always spoke of taking me to Colaba Causway, Candies and Poptates.. and I wouldn’t have been able to make it anytime soon if it would have been Chennai, but Mumbai it is. 

They say “LOVE LIFE AND LIFE WILL LOVE YOU BACK”.. And I have tremendous surge to do that right now. J