I start with this write up on a very uncomfortable note as I have not yet been able to decide on a title for the same. Its like talking about a place whose name you do not know or talking about a person who is a stranger to you name wise. But Mumbai, the city of my dreams who I thought I knew very well and deeply, surprised me! And yes I am talking about a city that I know yet don’t know – Mumbai. This write up is about just 1 night spent roaming the so called famous area of Mumbai – “town side” as is popularly known as and going flamingo watching the next morning. The areas that you can identify with this so called town side are Colaba, Nariman Point, Marine Drive, Walkeshwar to name a few. It was a mere feel of the city’s pulse that never slows down or ceases to take a breath, infact it races on even faster leaving you gaping for breath.
Our gang of friends, the same people with whom I visited Dandeli and who are much better photographers than me, came up with an idea to photograph the ancient style constructions in Mumbai at night time. Interesting idea! We all enthusiastically agreed and fixed 30th April as the D Day as 1st May was a holiday for us all and we could carry on our photography experimentations till the wee hours of the morning. We started off late night around 9 pm, met up at a central location and stuffed 11 people into 2 cars! To hell with comfort, excitement and enthusiasm rules! As the grandmother’s (question not whose grandma) saying goes – you cannot work well on an empty stomach, we all headed off to the popular joint – Bade Miyan in Colaba with our stomachs rumbling and our mouths salivating to taste the yummy non veg delicacies. Located in a by lane of Colaba, this joint is very unlike its name i.e. it is not at all “bada”!
Just 6*6 feet stall serving a range of non veg delicacies right from chicken tikka to baida roti, bheja fry, boti kabab, tandoori kabab, and roomali rotis!
It had a limited selection for the veggies but luckily in a group of 11 there were just 2 veggies who were the accommodating types. Having placed our orders, we settled down to enjoy this meal on a small plastic table put up on the footpaths! No fancy air conditioned room, no table cloth lined dining table, no napkins, no cutlery but once you taste the food you are in another world. It was heavenly! I didn’t sample much as I made the mistake of having had my dinner and passing the chance to enjoy this yummy meal.
What surprised me was the popularity of this small food stall. People in all kinds of cars ranging from Maruti 800 to BMW had come to sample the yummy food served by Bade Miyan. The funniest scene to witness was how people came up with portable tables to hold their meals – they opened up the car bonnets halfway to rest the food on it! Must say it was a novel idea that must have kept the food hot as well throughout! Appetite sated, moods high, we headed off to start our work of photography at mid night.
Our gang of friends, the same people with whom I visited Dandeli and who are much better photographers than me, came up with an idea to photograph the ancient style constructions in Mumbai at night time. Interesting idea! We all enthusiastically agreed and fixed 30th April as the D Day as 1st May was a holiday for us all and we could carry on our photography experimentations till the wee hours of the morning. We started off late night around 9 pm, met up at a central location and stuffed 11 people into 2 cars! To hell with comfort, excitement and enthusiasm rules! As the grandmother’s (question not whose grandma) saying goes – you cannot work well on an empty stomach, we all headed off to the popular joint – Bade Miyan in Colaba with our stomachs rumbling and our mouths salivating to taste the yummy non veg delicacies. Located in a by lane of Colaba, this joint is very unlike its name i.e. it is not at all “bada”!
Just 6*6 feet stall serving a range of non veg delicacies right from chicken tikka to baida roti, bheja fry, boti kabab, tandoori kabab, and roomali rotis!
It had a limited selection for the veggies but luckily in a group of 11 there were just 2 veggies who were the accommodating types. Having placed our orders, we settled down to enjoy this meal on a small plastic table put up on the footpaths! No fancy air conditioned room, no table cloth lined dining table, no napkins, no cutlery but once you taste the food you are in another world. It was heavenly! I didn’t sample much as I made the mistake of having had my dinner and passing the chance to enjoy this yummy meal.
What surprised me was the popularity of this small food stall. People in all kinds of cars ranging from Maruti 800 to BMW had come to sample the yummy food served by Bade Miyan. The funniest scene to witness was how people came up with portable tables to hold their meals – they opened up the car bonnets halfway to rest the food on it! Must say it was a novel idea that must have kept the food hot as well throughout! Appetite sated, moods high, we headed off to start our work of photography at mid night.
We started of with the famous – Central Library built way back in 1804. It has been a famous setting in many famous Bollywood movies. Many of you must have seen Salman Khan skating by to impress Raveena Tandon in one his silly movies.
Thanks to the recent electricity conservation movement, there was very poor lighting on this beautiful monument. We did our best to capture it in the natural moonlight and tried to play around a bit with the flash lights of our cameras.
People were serious about photography and Komal, Veda, Chaitanya, Yuvi wasted no time and set up their tripods and got clicking. We got a glimpse of the famous Victorias of Mumbai.
They were so beautifully lit up and he also obliged us by pausing and posing for us. That’s the spirit of Mumbai! No one really says NO to you! Everyone is ready to oblige. During our entire halt at the Central Library we were treated to amazing fishy smells from the passing trucks. Sadly we had to wind up our antics when the policemen stopped by for a look and shooed us all away. Not to be daunted or give up, we proceeded to our next destination, Nariman Point. Being the early sleeper that I am, I was already yawning and stretching but the rest of the gang seemed even more charged up. Once again tripods were in place and the clicking began!
I tried to capture the Marine Drive, popularly known as the Queen’s necklace.
I was however fascinated by a hoarding of a seductive lady posing in the old age style on a light pole. Something about her was very synonymous with the spirit of Mumbai. I personally call her the Mumbai Temptress.
She beckons you to enjoy the spirit of Mumbai and drink in the ambience and get intoxicated so that you would never want to leave. Even at this time of night people of all kind – gangs of guys, families, taxi drivers and their families were out strolling and taking in the cool salty breeze. Sadly once again the police caught our scent and once again we had to pack up. Zipping past Marine Drive, we stopped next at the route to Walkeshwar. We had a great view of the entire Marine Drive from this point but sadly due to poor lighting we could not capture this precious necklace on film. Luckily this keeps her safe from theft. But the photography bug never rests in all of us and especially Komal. She announced loud and clear that it was group photo time and once again tripods were set by Veda and Komal and we started posing on auto mode.
Definitely we are never satisfied with just one and we went on and on for the next half hour. Once again the police were in our vicinity and we packed up before we could be shooed once again, saved our dignity this time!
We headed to Komal’s home to crash for the night. But curiosity got the better of us; we all unloaded our memory cards onto Yuvi’s brand new 7” tiny HCL laptop and started off with the oohs and aahs over the photographs. Sleep got the better of me and I half dozed listening to the chatter in the background. Komal’s mom the sweetheart that she was woke up to say a hi to all of us and make us eat grapes in the middle of the night! Good thing since my stomach was rumbling! Finally everyone dozed off at 4.30 in the morning. I hardly slept and all of a sudden all I could hear in the background was Yuvi’s voice saying “aare public utho, flamingo dekhne nahi jaana kya”! And everyone was up once again at 7.30! Had some tea and biscuits and we were out once again!
Personally, half in sleep I was wondering what, flamingoes in Mumbai? Must be kidding! And I said to myself; alright let’s go find out for myself.
We headed off to Mahul Village, ahead of Chembur. Once there we were greeted by banners announcing “Come see the flamingoes with our boat at Mahul Gaon”.
Huge red fishing nets were laid out on the way so that they could dry and not get entangled.
We got ourselves a 10 seater boat for Rs. 1200/- and headed off mid creek to go have a glimpse of the flamingoes. The irony was the huge refineries on one side, the creek with its flamingoes in the middle and the commercial area of Parel on the other side. Beauty smack in the midst of the concrete jungle!
Behind our big boat trailed a small 2 seater row boat, I kept wondering all the time why that tiny boat behind our big motor boat! Was it to save us if our big boat drowned? Kind of a life boat? Was someone else to join us? Questions questions!
We went off chugging down the creek and reached mid way where the fisherman put off the motor and anchored the boat. Then he took hold of that small boat (that had me wondering as to its purpose) and rowed it alongside our big boat with the help of a big bamboo. He beckoned 2 people to get into the small boat. Komal took the lead along with Yuvi. Komal seated herself at the back of the small boat. Next was Yuvi’s turn to get in. Somehow he lost his balance and was hanging midway with his legs in the small boat and his hands holding on the big boat! And guess what, sadly his brand new lens that were hanging on from his neck dipped into the salty creek water! It was a shattering moment as we all know how precious his camera is to him. He someone managed to crawl back into the big boat but by then his camera had decided to gulp in a little creek water. Chaitanya replaced Yuvi and headed off as the first pair with Komal to go have a look at the flamingoes up close. All the time that they were gone we kept fretting over Yuvi’s camera, dismantling it, draining the water, wiping it! It was the first time he was to use his new lens and before he could use it they went for an unholy dip into the creek. Once Komal and Chaitanya were back I went off with Georgina.
Both of us being non swimmers we were terrified of the small boat bobbing in the creek. However our boatman assured us we would be fine and the water was hardly 5-6 feet deep even though it was damn stinky. We went as close as possible and parked ourselves about 20 feet away from the flamingoes. What a sight to behold to see hundreds of these beautiful pink birds just waiting there for us.
We kept clicking pictures of them on full burst mode, click click click we went on till finally they decided to fly off and we could capture a few of them in flight mode.
The kids lagged behind and were yet to attain their pink colour. They looked a bit ugly compared to the older ones. We were back once again to our big boat and the next pair went off. Having been in the hot sun for too long and that too on the bobbing waters had me feeling dizzy! Finally I borrowed Yuvi’s cap and saved myself from having a sun stroke. The only way to pass time on the boat while we waited for others was to do what we now enjoy doing most – photography. This time the subjects changed from animals and birds to humans! And our first model was Komal, followed by Veda, Ashish, and Yuvi. Needless to say we got some amazing photos.
We returned back on shore, paid off our boatman and headed off to our homes with sleep in our heads, hunger in our tummies, and aches in our body but memory cards full of photos! In addition to all of the above I also came back with sunburn, my new found companion in the heat of Mumbai.
I am at the end of my write up and yet no title! Simply put, it was a great night out in Mumbai followed by a lovely morning watching the beautiful flamingoes.
Thanks to the recent electricity conservation movement, there was very poor lighting on this beautiful monument. We did our best to capture it in the natural moonlight and tried to play around a bit with the flash lights of our cameras.
People were serious about photography and Komal, Veda, Chaitanya, Yuvi wasted no time and set up their tripods and got clicking. We got a glimpse of the famous Victorias of Mumbai.
They were so beautifully lit up and he also obliged us by pausing and posing for us. That’s the spirit of Mumbai! No one really says NO to you! Everyone is ready to oblige. During our entire halt at the Central Library we were treated to amazing fishy smells from the passing trucks. Sadly we had to wind up our antics when the policemen stopped by for a look and shooed us all away. Not to be daunted or give up, we proceeded to our next destination, Nariman Point. Being the early sleeper that I am, I was already yawning and stretching but the rest of the gang seemed even more charged up. Once again tripods were in place and the clicking began!
I tried to capture the Marine Drive, popularly known as the Queen’s necklace.
I was however fascinated by a hoarding of a seductive lady posing in the old age style on a light pole. Something about her was very synonymous with the spirit of Mumbai. I personally call her the Mumbai Temptress.
She beckons you to enjoy the spirit of Mumbai and drink in the ambience and get intoxicated so that you would never want to leave. Even at this time of night people of all kind – gangs of guys, families, taxi drivers and their families were out strolling and taking in the cool salty breeze. Sadly once again the police caught our scent and once again we had to pack up. Zipping past Marine Drive, we stopped next at the route to Walkeshwar. We had a great view of the entire Marine Drive from this point but sadly due to poor lighting we could not capture this precious necklace on film. Luckily this keeps her safe from theft. But the photography bug never rests in all of us and especially Komal. She announced loud and clear that it was group photo time and once again tripods were set by Veda and Komal and we started posing on auto mode.
Definitely we are never satisfied with just one and we went on and on for the next half hour. Once again the police were in our vicinity and we packed up before we could be shooed once again, saved our dignity this time!
We headed to Komal’s home to crash for the night. But curiosity got the better of us; we all unloaded our memory cards onto Yuvi’s brand new 7” tiny HCL laptop and started off with the oohs and aahs over the photographs. Sleep got the better of me and I half dozed listening to the chatter in the background. Komal’s mom the sweetheart that she was woke up to say a hi to all of us and make us eat grapes in the middle of the night! Good thing since my stomach was rumbling! Finally everyone dozed off at 4.30 in the morning. I hardly slept and all of a sudden all I could hear in the background was Yuvi’s voice saying “aare public utho, flamingo dekhne nahi jaana kya”! And everyone was up once again at 7.30! Had some tea and biscuits and we were out once again!
Personally, half in sleep I was wondering what, flamingoes in Mumbai? Must be kidding! And I said to myself; alright let’s go find out for myself.
We headed off to Mahul Village, ahead of Chembur. Once there we were greeted by banners announcing “Come see the flamingoes with our boat at Mahul Gaon”.
Huge red fishing nets were laid out on the way so that they could dry and not get entangled.
We got ourselves a 10 seater boat for Rs. 1200/- and headed off mid creek to go have a glimpse of the flamingoes. The irony was the huge refineries on one side, the creek with its flamingoes in the middle and the commercial area of Parel on the other side. Beauty smack in the midst of the concrete jungle!
Behind our big boat trailed a small 2 seater row boat, I kept wondering all the time why that tiny boat behind our big motor boat! Was it to save us if our big boat drowned? Kind of a life boat? Was someone else to join us? Questions questions!
We went off chugging down the creek and reached mid way where the fisherman put off the motor and anchored the boat. Then he took hold of that small boat (that had me wondering as to its purpose) and rowed it alongside our big boat with the help of a big bamboo. He beckoned 2 people to get into the small boat. Komal took the lead along with Yuvi. Komal seated herself at the back of the small boat. Next was Yuvi’s turn to get in. Somehow he lost his balance and was hanging midway with his legs in the small boat and his hands holding on the big boat! And guess what, sadly his brand new lens that were hanging on from his neck dipped into the salty creek water! It was a shattering moment as we all know how precious his camera is to him. He someone managed to crawl back into the big boat but by then his camera had decided to gulp in a little creek water. Chaitanya replaced Yuvi and headed off as the first pair with Komal to go have a look at the flamingoes up close. All the time that they were gone we kept fretting over Yuvi’s camera, dismantling it, draining the water, wiping it! It was the first time he was to use his new lens and before he could use it they went for an unholy dip into the creek. Once Komal and Chaitanya were back I went off with Georgina.
Both of us being non swimmers we were terrified of the small boat bobbing in the creek. However our boatman assured us we would be fine and the water was hardly 5-6 feet deep even though it was damn stinky. We went as close as possible and parked ourselves about 20 feet away from the flamingoes. What a sight to behold to see hundreds of these beautiful pink birds just waiting there for us.
We kept clicking pictures of them on full burst mode, click click click we went on till finally they decided to fly off and we could capture a few of them in flight mode.
The kids lagged behind and were yet to attain their pink colour. They looked a bit ugly compared to the older ones. We were back once again to our big boat and the next pair went off. Having been in the hot sun for too long and that too on the bobbing waters had me feeling dizzy! Finally I borrowed Yuvi’s cap and saved myself from having a sun stroke. The only way to pass time on the boat while we waited for others was to do what we now enjoy doing most – photography. This time the subjects changed from animals and birds to humans! And our first model was Komal, followed by Veda, Ashish, and Yuvi. Needless to say we got some amazing photos.
We returned back on shore, paid off our boatman and headed off to our homes with sleep in our heads, hunger in our tummies, and aches in our body but memory cards full of photos! In addition to all of the above I also came back with sunburn, my new found companion in the heat of Mumbai.
I am at the end of my write up and yet no title! Simply put, it was a great night out in Mumbai followed by a lovely morning watching the beautiful flamingoes.
