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It is my cribbing time again. As my mom-in-law and her sister are around so we decided to roam around Bombay on a weekend which is incredibly difficult otherwise due to my hectic schedule not to forget Bombay’s despicable traffic. So the three of us headed to Gateway of India first. Though my mom-in-law and aunt had been there years ago, it was my first visit even after being in the city for almost two years as my hubby is averse to visiting crowded places be it a tourist spot or a movie theatre.

As I gather from wikipedia, this monument was built in 1924 to commemorate the visit of King George V and Queen Mary to Bombay. While Indo-saracenic in architectural style, elements are derived from the Muslim architectural styles of 16th century Gujrat. The architecture is indeed is incredible. But it is indeed pathetic to see the condition around. Apart from being difficult to walk around the monument – which I suppose is true with every tourist place – the maintenance of the monument is supposedly questionable. On the contrary India Gate in Delhi which I have also been to is very well maintained. Behind the Gateway, steps lead down to the waterfront, where boat trips can take one to locations such as Elephanta Island. A look at the sea was enough to put me off. The water was dirty with garbage floating around. Anyways after that we hurried of to our next destination which I thought would be exciting enough but alas everything doesn’t go as planned.

Since childhood the song ‘chowpatty jaaege bhelpuri khaaege’ from a Hindi movie had intruiged me, though I never wished to land up in this city. Anyways that day after roaming around gateway, the three of us landed up at Chowpatty. We reached near the shore but my aunt refused to go near the waves as she found it too dirty. But watching my enthusiasm, my mother-in-law relented and went a little ahead with me. My enthusiasm was short-lived. I could not remain standing in the waves for long as it seemed that the filth was coming up with the waves. The water was awfully dirty. Then we decided to sit on the shore for sometime as the breeze was indeed good. As soon as we sat down, two three vendors came right in front of us blocking our view clamouring for our attention. I politely asked them to move away from our view as that was the max I could do. They finally obliged to our relief. The setting sun was beautiful!

Then suddenly I saw a man carrying a large gunny bag over his head approaching the shore. To my surprise, he dumped the entire content – which was loads of garbage – into the sea. That was the last straw. I requested my mom-in-law and aunt to hurry and have bhelpuri and head off home. Thus our Bombay trip came to an end.