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Sunday, April 18, 2010

Was it 'Just Another Day'?

It was about 9.15 on a saturday morning and Bruno (My Labrador) woke me up and it was then I realized that I’m late! Freak I’d missed 2 alarms thanks to sleeping with the AC gushing on my face… Nevertheless I still made it a point to read the newspaper before getting ready to leave.. I had to be there at 10! After a longish Taxi journey I reached Air India Building (Nariman Point, Mumbai) by 10.15. For a second after paying the taxi I thought to myself “I’m late, but still I’m here and it’s only going to be a couple of minutes to the 10th Floor on the elevator”.
I went through the regular security checks only to realize that the elevator wouldn’t go above the 2nd floor for some stupid reason. As always ‘when you are late, the environment around you delays you further’. So I ran up the remaining 8 floors to finally, I mean finally, reach the 10th Floor conference room for my ‘Toastmasters Session’! :P
I hadn’t missed much as the session itself was delayed due to last minute logistic issues. The theme of this session had drawn inspiration from the ‘IPL’ and was called ‘Toastmasters Premier League’. It went on really well with excellent speeches. For the record I even learnt the origins of the word ‘Shanghaied’. But yeah, I was done with the session by 11:30 and after a bit of ‘Socializing’:P with the other toastmasters, we (four of us) found ourselves at the building’s exit wondering what to do on this insanely HOT Saturday afternoon?
Just then I remembered the last scene from the Hindi Flick ‘Wake Up Sid’ and decided that I wanted to go to that edge of Marine Drive. The other three were nice enough (actually nice would be an understatement, I should be more grateful) to accompany me in the blistering Sun. After a while, we all realized we were human and that it was too hot to stay there without getting something to drink! So we decided to go to a Barista at Colaba Causeway. But it was to be only three outta the four of us as one our dear friend (Prathaviraj) worked on weekends.
It was a feeling of being in heaven when we sipped our mango smoothies after sending off Prathaviraj and getting to Barista. Just then I randomly suggested about going for a movie. So, we walked down to Metro Big Cinemas and were left with no option but a new Hindi flick called ‘Paatshala’. We got tickets and then went ‘hotel hunting’ as it was time to treat our tummies! Somehow after a lot of calls and walking into juice bars (our hunger made the juice bar look like a hotel that served Aloo Parathas and Paneer Sabzi) we reached a small hotel, but more importantly it had an AC.. Something that was as important as food to us, at that moment!
After that it was just busy belting (a synonym to eating when we eat like we’ve been starved for a week and the conversations are just Umm’s Ahh’s and hmmm :D) Cheese Pav Bhaji! It was about 3ish when the three of us got a cab back to the multiplex and were on time for ‘Paatshala’. It was Sreejith’s (one of the 3 souls of occupy most of this article) first Hindi movie in a theatre. In fact the day already was different for him, as he had Vegetarian food for lunch which he considered an unforgivable sin being a Pure Non-vegetarian! The movie began and man the Jinx had not yet got over. The Jinx which meant that I get to watch such movies in a theatre which don’t even deserve to be screened on an iPod sized screen. Poor Sreejith was under shock and was on the verge of saying “Who needs enemies with friends like you’ll”! ;) We (Anushree, the third un-introduced character and me) were the reason he was here. To make things worse he even missed watching his favourite football club Manchester Utd’s match (I can’t believe that being a Chelsea fan, I actually gave 14 characters of space on my blog to my rival club).
Cafe Leopold & Cafe Mondegar

Finally at about 6’o’clock the movie was over, and we now had to do something to get over the traumatic experience of the worst directorial venture ever seen on the face of the earth. This time it was Anushree calling the shots and there are no prizes for the guessing what it was! It had to be shopping, and we headed back to Colaba Causeway (a street shoppers delight). The next two hours went by with sounds of bargaining, the smell of food & beer (as we crossed Leopolds & Mondegars) and a crowd that had an equal number of Foreigners as Indians. We reached the end of Colaba Causeway only for Anushree to feel bad and embarrassed that being a GIRL she hadn’t shopped enough to reach the benchmark (average amount of shopping that has to be done that is virtually set in the minds of every girl). But we realized it was already getting late and we headed to the ever famous Marine Drive. The Queens Necklace as it is called was as good as ever. We took at nice stroll down marine drive, with the cool sea breeze, a few people jogging, a handful of vendors trying to make a quick buck selling bottled water at a premium and a few couples snogging.

Marine Drive

But, as all good things come to an end, so was this day! But not before a nice, yummy, chill, thick chocolate shake and a signature Mango Fruit Cream from ‘Bachelors’ (a 70 yr old Juice Stall at Marine Drive). Wow! It wasn’t like we’d gone clubbing or had a night out or gone white water rafting but it still was an amazing day. It was a day that was nice not because of what we did, but more because of the people involved in it and the fact that it was a day full of impromptu decisions! :)

BachelorsSo, Cheerz to Anushree and Sreejith and looking forward to more such day’s with a difference! I’d like to end this post with a quote by Fydor Dostoevsky
We sometimes encounter people, even perfect strangers, who begin to interest us at first sight, somehow suddenly, all at once, before a word has been spoken