My friend and I decided to spend a full day going around town and celebrate 20 years of our friendship. This friend of mine, is the first 'friend' I had and is 'the best' friend I have. He is like my brother. We still enjoy doing the things we did 20 years ago. That is the best part of it.
Very excited, I wore my new T-shirt, grabbed my camera, cell phone, and wallet and I rushed to the train station where we planned to meet. I thought I should have some more bucks in my pocket because we wanted to purchase a lot of things and more importantly, eat a lot.
Our first stop after a surprisingly comfortable train journey – The McDonald's at Fort. This is the McDonald's outlet where we had eaten our first ever burger somewhere during the Y2K. A super tasty burger to fill us up with energy to walk a lot. Calories.... well it was a prohibited word on that day.
When I tried to click a snap, I realized that the battery of my camera is almost empty. For a moment, I was annoyed. But I did not want our day to get spoilt. I somehow managed to control the negative emotions. I told myself that the fun that I was going to have could never be captured
in a camera. It was better if I just had fun and kept the camera in my bag.
We walked towards fountain where we wanted to buy some books from the street-side book vendors. They should not be called vendors though; these are mega stores on streets. Although I am not so fond of reading; I get excited to see so many books. But that excitement lasts only until I realize how many pages they have.
We bought several books and moved forward. We got a cab to Colaba Causeway. This is the place where you get a lot of antiques, fancy jewelery, some cosmetics, purses, footwear and a lot of clothes. One can easily spend a whole day shopping at Colaba Causeway. There are some good restaurants and food joints like Delhi Darbar.
We had a little argument with the waiter at the Leopold Cafe, when he rudely refused to serve us one juice divided in two glasses and bragged about customers who generated revenue of thousands of rupees. We didn't want to listen to his bullshit anymore and got out of the cafe without ordering anything. Immediately, the neon sign that caught our attention was McDonald's once again.
We shopped a lot at Colaba. Binoculars, Sunglasses, and Leather items. Our next destination was Lamington Road. Lamington Road is a paradise for techies and geeks. What you get here is electronics, computers and spares, and related accessories; all at a very low price.
After getting in and out of several computer shops and getting an idea about the prices they offered; we finally decided on one shop from where we got all the stuff we wanted to get. We were extremely hungry because of so much of walking. We remembered a slogan that we had fixed for a group that two of us had formed. The group with only two members so far; me and my friend; is named 'The Foodoholics'. And the slogan - 'Eat till you are sleepy. Sleep till you are hungry.' With that thought, the name that came to our minds was Sardar Pavbhaji. Our hands raised in-sync to stop a cab and we were off to Haji Ali.
Sardar Pavbhaji is at a10 minutes walk from Haji Ali. Its a simple looking restaurant, which is more appropriately a snacks joint. The specialty of that place is its PavBhaji. This PavBhaji is served with a full 100 gm slice of butter that melts and overflows out of the plate. Amazing... I must say. It was one of the best PavBhajis I had ever eaten.
In the meanwhile, we spent another half an hour shopping at Central Mall next to Haji Ali. I did not get anything for myself though. I bought clothes for my wife and my sister.
After a proud burp, we really wished we had a car to go back. Thank god there are so many cabs in Mumbai. We got one, and went back to station. We were discussing in the train about how great was the day. Out of the few thousand bucks that we had in our pockets in the morning, I was left with 20 bucks, and my friend, 30. Just enough to reach our homes. We laughed aloud looking at each other. A Hi5 to say - 'Man, We are broke !'
Very excited, I wore my new T-shirt, grabbed my camera, cell phone, and wallet and I rushed to the train station where we planned to meet. I thought I should have some more bucks in my pocket because we wanted to purchase a lot of things and more importantly, eat a lot.
Our first stop after a surprisingly comfortable train journey – The McDonald's at Fort. This is the McDonald's outlet where we had eaten our first ever burger somewhere during the Y2K. A super tasty burger to fill us up with energy to walk a lot. Calories.... well it was a prohibited word on that day.
When I tried to click a snap, I realized that the battery of my camera is almost empty. For a moment, I was annoyed. But I did not want our day to get spoilt. I somehow managed to control the negative emotions. I told myself that the fun that I was going to have could never be captured
in a camera. It was better if I just had fun and kept the camera in my bag.We walked towards fountain where we wanted to buy some books from the street-side book vendors. They should not be called vendors though; these are mega stores on streets. Although I am not so fond of reading; I get excited to see so many books. But that excitement lasts only until I realize how many pages they have.
We bought several books and moved forward. We got a cab to Colaba Causeway. This is the place where you get a lot of antiques, fancy jewelery, some cosmetics, purses, footwear and a lot of clothes. One can easily spend a whole day shopping at Colaba Causeway. There are some good restaurants and food joints like Delhi Darbar.
We had a little argument with the waiter at the Leopold Cafe, when he rudely refused to serve us one juice divided in two glasses and bragged about customers who generated revenue of thousands of rupees. We didn't want to listen to his bullshit anymore and got out of the cafe without ordering anything. Immediately, the neon sign that caught our attention was McDonald's once again.
We shopped a lot at Colaba. Binoculars, Sunglasses, and Leather items. Our next destination was Lamington Road. Lamington Road is a paradise for techies and geeks. What you get here is electronics, computers and spares, and related accessories; all at a very low price.
After getting in and out of several computer shops and getting an idea about the prices they offered; we finally decided on one shop from where we got all the stuff we wanted to get. We were extremely hungry because of so much of walking. We remembered a slogan that we had fixed for a group that two of us had formed. The group with only two members so far; me and my friend; is named 'The Foodoholics'. And the slogan - 'Eat till you are sleepy. Sleep till you are hungry.' With that thought, the name that came to our minds was Sardar Pavbhaji. Our hands raised in-sync to stop a cab and we were off to Haji Ali.
Sardar Pavbhaji is at a10 minutes walk from Haji Ali. Its a simple looking restaurant, which is more appropriately a snacks joint. The specialty of that place is its PavBhaji. This PavBhaji is served with a full 100 gm slice of butter that melts and overflows out of the plate. Amazing... I must say. It was one of the best PavBhajis I had ever eaten.
In the meanwhile, we spent another half an hour shopping at Central Mall next to Haji Ali. I did not get anything for myself though. I bought clothes for my wife and my sister.
After a proud burp, we really wished we had a car to go back. Thank god there are so many cabs in Mumbai. We got one, and went back to station. We were discussing in the train about how great was the day. Out of the few thousand bucks that we had in our pockets in the morning, I was left with 20 bucks, and my friend, 30. Just enough to reach our homes. We laughed aloud looking at each other. A Hi5 to say - 'Man, We are broke !'
