Like most of the other Arians I am also crazy about Birthdays. Even when I am in a a restaurant and they play a Birthday tune, I go and wish the Birthday girl, no matter I know her or not. So when its my own Birthday I definitely want the whole world to wish me to make my day. I was not sure how my birthday would be celebrated this year as I was hardly six months old in this city. I had not a huge number of friends but I definitely had the best of all.
I went out for dinner in the evening and came back around 11o’k. Neha and Ritu were there at home. Both of them are younger to me so I definitely had not expected anything from them. But these two proved themselves two big Chhuparustams when Ritu kept me engaged in the bed room till 12 in the midnight and Neha decorated the hall. Exactly at 12 both of them gave me two big hugs and dragged me to the hall. I was amazed – almost in tears for the first few seconds when I saw dark room decorated with candles, cake, balloons. God !! that was just amazing. There were Bde gifts around. I got back another Pink teddy which I had left in Bangalore. Later when I saw my pictures taken during that moment, I could only remember the picture of Susmita Sen when she won the Miss Universe contest. It was definitely not some contest but both these girls had touched my heart with these sweetest gestures which was far beyond my expectations. Abhishek joined the celebration then. Of course these people are the part of my life in Mumbai. All of us had a gala time till morning 3 o’k. We clicked lot of pictures till we looked sleepy and decided to take a nap for sometime so that we look fresh in the party. Obviously I dint get break from the calls the whole night so I didn’t have a chance to sleep. This time Prawin wished me late as he was traveling that night. My sweetest Sheila, Rila, Mona wished me first. Then I spoke to Mamma. Didi, Jiju, Rili, Rosy, Vikash, Meenu, Chhottu, Jyoti, Pallu, Prithwi, Aakanksha (she ditched me & went to Pune though she played a major role in planning the whole event), Aarti, Lucky , Anup occupied the rest of my night. To avoid the late wishing punishment Ram had called me before he boarded the flight from NY to Mumbai. All the calls from my cousins helped me staying awake the whole night. That’s one advantage when you have 20 cousins like I have; you get lots of wishes on your B’de :-) .The maasis and mamis' turn came during the day.
In tye morning I could manage to get some sleep. Got up around 10 am and the best part was the excitement on Ritu and Neha’s faces. They were more excited than me on my B’de. God till this year I had always seen Prawin who was more excited than myself on this day. This year for the first time Prawin was not around but Ritu & Neha ensured that I didn’t miss him and that was well shown in their gestures.
Not only this phase with my friends but at office also I have the best of the people around. Boss remembered my B’de and kept asking me about the B’de treat since 1st April. My Bde without Vir & KP- not possible; they were definitely invited to the party. In this fast city when people have hardly time for each other, it definitely feels great when someone travels all the way from Thane to Andheri to attend the Bde:-)
In the afternoon I had all my favorite people sitting around me. That made me feel like a Princess. A big thanks all these people- they really made my day :-) All of us went to Pop- Tates where we had the best of our time. We sat there till evening 6 when Vir remembered that he had some other work and Tejal called me to say that she would meet me in Red Box in the next an hr.
The first phase of party got over and we went to Red Box where we met Tejal & Dhara. Red Box is one of my most favorite hang-outs in Mumbai; they play very good music and lots of Page 3 people come there too. There I had another cake to cut and all these people to celebrate my B’de together. We sat there till 11, till Ram’s flight landed in Mumbai. Then started another round of celebration. Most of the other friends were back home by then except Abhishek. We met Ram and went to Leela. We went to Citrus; had nice food, played Truth & dare and lot of other games the whole night. It was morning 5 o’k when we decided to go for a long drive. I had never seen the crowded city so silent anytime. Mumbai was beautiful in the early mornings. We went to Iscon temple, then to Juhu beach and then to Ban stand. Finally we were hungry. The next best place to hit for an early morning breakfast was The Hyatt. The breakfast went on till 12 noon. And we remembered that Ram had to catch his flight to Bangalore. We went to the airport to send him off and after that there was no energy left in either Abhishek or me. The 36 hrs B’de celebration had finally come to an end.
I was under the impression that this year I might have had the simplest of my B’des as I didn’t have too many people around in Bombay. But believe me or not I had the best of my B’des in this city. Thanks to all these people who made my day so special and rememberable. Now I absolutely agree the fact that, “It’s not the number of people who make life good but it’s the quality of people who make it so special.”
Tuesday, June 24, 2008
Thursday, June 05, 2008
Mumbai ki pehli baarish!!!
Everything has a first time for me in this city… pehla friend group, pehla birthday and now pehli barish :-)
I am so fond of rain but somehow very scarred of the rain in Mumbai. I had watched on television before three yrs in 2005. Other than the Mumbaites, not everyone would remember the 25th July’s rain that continued for more than 24 hrs. But the new comers in Mumbai are definitely apprehensive about it. We have been complaining about the summers for the last there months. Now another session of complains begins- but this is not about the heat- this is about the rain.
Sometime I find this city really crazy. But the best part of the city is its crowd that keeps moving 24/7, 365 days a year- no matter its April’s summer, August’s rain or December’s winter. But one thing I must admit that Bombay grows over you. Once you area apart of Mumbai, you would not like any part of the country, for that matter any part of the world. I see lot of people in Patni, most of them prefer to live in Mumbai over Chicago and New York. I have come across many people from south as well as from the north part of India who would aspire to go to USA ansd settle down there. But I have never heard it from a Mumbaite. They love the city the way it is.
This year monsoon was supposed to hit Mumbai on 10th June but it started raining five days before it. 5th June ’08, in the morning when I started for office, I could feel the cold breeze. I was sure that it had drizzled in some part of the city last night. The day went on fine with a great weather. I remember talking to Anup in the early evening on the pleasant weather. In the next hour when I boarded the bus, it was cold outside. We have crossed most of the distance when it started pouring. For a moment I was so happy; after all saal ki pehli bearish aur uss main taazi mitti ki khushboo.
But in another few minutes looking at the speed of the rain, I was thinking why it started raining. Most of the folks in the bus were not carrying umbrellas. When we crossed Powai, I was actually waiting for the rain to stop as my house was another 15 minutes distance. There was water running on the new fly over but there is no difference in the no. of people traveling on it. Not everyone was in a bus, car or rickshaw but everyone was welcoming it. In fact the people on the bikes & bicycles were enjoying it in true sense. What impressed me was that Bindaas attuitiude – as if this heavy rain doesn’t make any difference to their lives.
Today morning it started again - guess the rain in Mumbai follows the official timings; it starts the moment we start going to work and again when we come back. But it hardly made any difference today. I had seen the bindaas attitude of Mumbai crowd yesterday and probably I had adapted it too. I got up in the morning and saw it was raining but I knew that it’s not gonna stop any of the activities in my whole day’s to-do list. I reached office and checked my emails and the first thing I did was writing this blog :-) another work got added to the to-do list of this Friday. So the morale of the stroy is that Mumbai is a Great City with Great People and Great Rains :-)
I am so fond of rain but somehow very scarred of the rain in Mumbai. I had watched on television before three yrs in 2005. Other than the Mumbaites, not everyone would remember the 25th July’s rain that continued for more than 24 hrs. But the new comers in Mumbai are definitely apprehensive about it. We have been complaining about the summers for the last there months. Now another session of complains begins- but this is not about the heat- this is about the rain.
Sometime I find this city really crazy. But the best part of the city is its crowd that keeps moving 24/7, 365 days a year- no matter its April’s summer, August’s rain or December’s winter. But one thing I must admit that Bombay grows over you. Once you area apart of Mumbai, you would not like any part of the country, for that matter any part of the world. I see lot of people in Patni, most of them prefer to live in Mumbai over Chicago and New York. I have come across many people from south as well as from the north part of India who would aspire to go to USA ansd settle down there. But I have never heard it from a Mumbaite. They love the city the way it is.
This year monsoon was supposed to hit Mumbai on 10th June but it started raining five days before it. 5th June ’08, in the morning when I started for office, I could feel the cold breeze. I was sure that it had drizzled in some part of the city last night. The day went on fine with a great weather. I remember talking to Anup in the early evening on the pleasant weather. In the next hour when I boarded the bus, it was cold outside. We have crossed most of the distance when it started pouring. For a moment I was so happy; after all saal ki pehli bearish aur uss main taazi mitti ki khushboo.
But in another few minutes looking at the speed of the rain, I was thinking why it started raining. Most of the folks in the bus were not carrying umbrellas. When we crossed Powai, I was actually waiting for the rain to stop as my house was another 15 minutes distance. There was water running on the new fly over but there is no difference in the no. of people traveling on it. Not everyone was in a bus, car or rickshaw but everyone was welcoming it. In fact the people on the bikes & bicycles were enjoying it in true sense. What impressed me was that Bindaas attuitiude – as if this heavy rain doesn’t make any difference to their lives.
Today morning it started again - guess the rain in Mumbai follows the official timings; it starts the moment we start going to work and again when we come back. But it hardly made any difference today. I had seen the bindaas attitude of Mumbai crowd yesterday and probably I had adapted it too. I got up in the morning and saw it was raining but I knew that it’s not gonna stop any of the activities in my whole day’s to-do list. I reached office and checked my emails and the first thing I did was writing this blog :-) another work got added to the to-do list of this Friday. So the morale of the stroy is that Mumbai is a Great City with Great People and Great Rains :-)
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