So anyways....now lets see...on thursday as I said I scrapped the plan for South Mumbai..instead we headed to Bandra on a shopping excursion...Hana, Annika and Hardo- all three shopped till they dropped-pretty much! Saima joined us for a while, but later it was just the 4 of us...I left them at 5.30 to go for french, but joined them again after class. We went for "Cold Mountain" at Globus - damn good movie. It was the first movie I've seen in a theatre in ages..the last time I saw a movie in a theatre was like Mumbai Matinee, just before I left for Germany...so I was truly glad that this movie was a good one. Came home by 10.30 but it was midnight by the time I slept...
The next day was incrediby tiring...I wanted to get out of the house by 8.30 so we could get an early start, but with Hana and Hardo (who is very un-German in his concept of punctuality) it was 9.30 by the time we left the house...putting us back quite a bit. Anyways we reached gateway of India and were on the ferry by 11.30 and headed towards Elephanta Island soon after...the trip opened my eyes to just how ludicrous people get around "gori chamdi" - the kind of offers they make, the kind of stupid statements they come up with left me rather appalled and embarassed. True they are from richer countries but just how "smooth" is it to try and seel an extremely kitschy souvenir by saying "sir you are a crorepati...buy sir buy buy"? God I could have slapped the idiots who mouthed those words all the way up to the caves...(you have to climb up the hill to get to the caves and the path is lined with souvenir shops etc)....once up we first cooled off at a restaurant, had lunch and then headed for the caves. embarassing again coz Indians are charged a mere Rs 10/- while foreigners fish out Rs.250/- My question for the day - don't we have Indian tourists, who should also be responsible for the 'maintainance' of the caves...or do we have to rely on foreigners for that as well?
The caves proved to be interesting - the last time I was there I was disappointed..but this time with Hardo's steady commentary (he's devoured several books on them and was most amusing in his explanations which I had to tone down at times), the whole experience was fun....we got back to mainland at 5.15...having spent a large part of the day at the caves. Unfortunately this meant that we had barely any time to do much else - so all we got the chance to do was make quick stops at the Fort Campus of the Mumbai University (built in Venetian Gothic style and a most impressive building, with its Raja Bai Clock Tower and Convocation Hall) and the buildings of the District and High Court, before we crossed the Oval Maidan over to Oxford. Hana picked up some books - I gifted her a cookbook with Indian recipes - kinda cliched gift, but she wanted one so I figured it was an apt gift. Was dying to pick up a book for myself as well, speically since I hadn't stepped into Oxford for months....but had to restrain myself to picking up just one collection of Indian folklores, purely for economic reasons!!! Sigh....anyways next stop was Gaylord for a quick bite and coffee to rejuvenate ourselves....
Hardo left us then to run some errands and Hana and I went to Khar to get some stuff exchanged from Pepe - caught a bus from there and got home at 9.30 pm. Got home and seperated for a shower...and were out again by 10.30...Kunal and Annika added to the group...we went to the Juhu Mocha. They were having a DJ night...so it was alot of LOUD remixed music..some good, mostly trash...but suited the 'party' mood that was the need for the hour, so I was happy with the music...we got back home at 2 am....too tired to even fall asleep instantly...and Schnapps didn't help by barking atleast twice in the night and waking me up in the morning at 8 am by pouncing on my cursed toe! And I couldn't even rail at him coz I looked at the time and immediately jumped into action...
We caught another movie in the morning - a chick-flick as Aditi would say - "Something's Gotta Give" - terribly cliched and way too long for its trivial theme. The first half was OK, but in the second half, both Hana and I caught ourselves napping...and Kunaal ( who I conned into accompanying us) all but strangled me for making him see such a movie!! More about it the movies in my next blog on movies! And the latest on what people NOW think of Kunal and me - they never cease to amuse me!!! :) After the movie Hana had to pick up some gifts for her grandparents and then we rushed home so she could pack and shower before leaving...
I left her at the airport at 5pm....she was sad to go, and I was sad to see her go. Though we ddin't know each other too well in Magdeburg I enjoyed spending this time with her and getting to know her better - she's a wonderful girl. Hope we stay in touch and meet in the future!
Phew--I thought that was it and sat down to pick up the threads of my studies in the evening. Started my morning routines of 5.30 am from Sunday without realising that it would be yet another long and tiring day. I ended up going for "Maqbool" with Annika and her friend -I don't regret going for the movie - it was fabulous and totally worth it. After the movie I'd promised to meet Kunaal for dinner. We went to Crepe Station - the crepes were good, but not the least bit "French" as they promise to be!!! Ah well...Indianised French food? after dinner Annika met us at Carter Road and we walked down the promenade and meandered through the narrow Bandra galis towards Mocha for coffee and dessert - The chocolate fudge was TOO sweet and my coffee had TOO much milk and felt like milk and not coffee...that was the only part I truly regretted in the whole day, specially coz I was dead on my feet by the time I got home past midnight.
I had to force myself outta bed this morning to study...and as a consequence I slept like a log in the afternoon...still I seem to have accomplished a decent amount in just 2 days of serious studying....hell I always knew I'd manage- I mean Geetanjali can't NOT manage right? Reputation ka kya hoga? what would people say? Poor people wouldn't recover from the shock...(Yeps if you don't get it, 2 things can happen to the next person who hints that I don't need to work for my marks - if he/she is lucky I just freeze the person outta my life, or else my talons seem to be quite sharp these days!LOL!)
More soon...
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