A Bombay Quickie!

Bombay was sandwiched between a train and a bus journey. In fact Bombay is also famous for its roadside sandwiches. The Bombay sandwich has tomato, cucumber, a slice of cheese, a wad of butter and the secret recipe green chutney. Not very secret because every sandwich guy knows the recipe!

The Bandra railway station. You can see the large number of rickshaws (or tuk tuks) waiting for passengers

Besides this, the other famous street food are keema pao and vada pao. The former is mutton mince with a bun. The latter is potato wrapped and deep fried in batter and placed in a bun. In fact in Bombay, whatever you order will find it's way onto your plate in a bun! They should probably change the name of the city to Bunbay instead of Bombay. I shall petition the government to change the name of the city and in the unlikely event that they listen to a fool like me, then you lucky reader are the first person to have heard the new name. But chances are that you are rather unlucky and thus having to read my blog!

Bombay is also famous for its bun maska, which is simply butter in a bun, served with steaming hot tea.

Bombay is big. Millions of people big. Bigger than most European countries big. And that was the reason I chose to visit only one locality in this mighty city. Bandra, where I hoped to meet Sandra, but not of the Bullock variety.

So there I was in shorts, a tee, trekking shoes and enjoying the incredible heat and humidity that Bombay is famous for. My humongous backpack ensured that I stuck out like a sore thumb in this stylish part of town. Getting inspired by some of the backpacking stories of my Steemit friends ( @mrprofessor and @steemmonkey) I thought I will go for a hitchhiking journey of 3 km to the seashore, where all the action happens. Bandstand is where the young cool hip and happening crowd go to see and be seen. Unfortunately I look like an old goat and no one was willing to take me along! So I walked...

...And within 5 minutes I melted, decided that hitchhiking is not my thing, nor an Indian thing and we should not deprive ourselves of comfort! So I went into a plush restaurant which advertised the patronage of cinema stars to enjoy the air conditioning and food. The AC was good, the food better and the prices made me feel as if I was sitting in a 5 star, which wasn't so good! The rather famous eatery goes by the name, Lucky, in case you ever happen to visit here.

I went in search for a coffee shop where I could chill for some time, without being kicked out. No such luck. I was literally going around in circles and still had a couple of hours to kill.

A decade back I lived in Bombay. Studied in a college here, had a boat load of friends. Unfortunately all my friends were like me, migrants, not one belonged to this city. And so here I was in a city I knew well, in a city I now know no one. Strangely familiar, yet completely alien.

As i sat at the bus stop typing away this blog, my bus rolled in, ending my reminiscent quickie with this city. Time to buspack away to gorgeous Goa. See you from the other side...

When I got out of the railway station, I had to walk on the busy flyover, with traffic zipping past me in the opposite direction. Welcome to Bombay!

Typical Bombay housing near the railway stations

The Bandra Talao. A pond in the area. This is where the lower income couples come to romance after dark, unlike bandstand which belongs to the cool kids

This is why I don't like cities. Look at the number of people in queue to enter a frigging paint shop. Cities are filled with bird brains!

The more intelligent bird brains!

Keema Pao. A Bombay delicacy. Light on the stomach. Heavy on the wallet

A half eaten Vada pao. Another Bombay delicacy. Excuse the photographer who was bloody hungry!

The bus to Goa

All the buses stop here for dinner. And all the guys go to check out the girls in the other buses. Because the grass is always greener!

These blogs are on the go, typed on my phone minutes after being experienced. The photos clicked on the same phone and the eSteem app being used to publish. So, please excuse the errors and imperfections. Thanks